Tag Archives: Ukraine

Roundup: More “Blame Ottawa” clown performance

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Sometimes, it gets very, very difficult to take the state of politics seriously in this country because so much of it is just clown performance. Two examples from yesterday:

1) Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner held a press conference to announce that she was going to table a Private Member’s Bill to stop courts from considering possible deportation in sentencing decisions—even though the sentencing rules were about asking judges to be aware of the potential for unintended consequences, so this bill is really about punching down—and along the way wound up talking about the wildfire situation. In her estimation, the federal government is to blame, and she blamed the federal government for the “forest bans” in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick…except those rules were from the provincial governments. And wildfires are provincial jurisdiction. Nevertheless, she thinks that the federal government needs to do more, but this gets back to the whole point I was making in my latest Quick Take—provinces have the responsibility but have been under-funding their emergency management systems because they know they can call on the Canadian Forces and get them to do it for free. That’s a problem. Rempel Garner is just feeding into this problem through this performance of hers.

2) Pierre Poilievre demanded that the federal government cancel the loan for the BC Ferries contract which will have those new ferries built in China, in retaliation for the latest round of Chinese tariffs on canola. Erm, except that’s a provincial Crown Corporation who contracted for those ships, and the federal government didn’t make the loan, the Infrastructure Bank did, which the federal government doesn’t exercise control over, and even more to the point, no Canadian shipyards bid on that contract. This is just more performance for social media, rage-bait to get his followers angry and opening up their wallets.

1) It is not a "Liberal" loan or a government loan. It's from the Infrastructure Bank, which is arm's-length from government. The loan was made before the procurement process was completed.2) NO CANADIAN SHIPYARDS BID ON THIS PROJECT!Is Poilievre going to force a Canadian yard to build them?

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-08-13T17:53:19.054Z

The absolute mendacity of all of this is just exhausting, which is part of the point. It’s a common authoritarian tactic to lie about everything so that people give up trying to inform themselves, and not a single legacy media outlet in this country will actually call them on it. It’s a problem, and we need to do something about it now, before we get any further down the path that the US is taking.

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2025-08-12T14:08:02.942Z

Ukraine Dispatch

President Zelenskyy says that he told Trump ahead of his meeting with Putin on Friday that Putin is “bluffing” about his desire to end the war—and he’s correct.

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Roundup: More proof the carbon levy didn’t raise food prices

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Pierre Poilievre is at it again, railing about food price inflation, but lo, he can no longer blame it on the carbon levy because that was never actually the problem or the cause of food price inflation, but he certainly vilified it, and Mark Carney capitulated and allowed Poilievre’s vilification to work. Poilievre is now blaming government spending on food price inflation, which is hilariously wrong, but Carney has also capitulated to that as well and is ushering in a new wave of austerity, because why actually explain things when you can just surrender to the bullshit?

Meanwhile, here’s Andrew Leach walking you through why it wasn’t the carbon levy and never was the carbon levy.

Ukraine Dispatch

Russians broke through the front lines near Dobropillia, but were quickly contained (but it’s a poor narrative for the upcoming Trump-Putin talks). Ukraine has also been regaining territory in Sumy region. President Zelenskyy says that Russia wants the remaining 30 percent of Donetsk region for a ceasefire, which they won’t give him.

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Roundup: Consulting on the housing crisis

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The federal government published a consultation document yesterday which seeks input on how the future Build Canada Homes entity is going to be structured, and how to can support the industry to accelerate the number of homes being built, particularly while using more Canadian materials to do so (given as well that there is an impetus to use more softwood lumber domestically as the Americans keep increasing countervailing duties). Getting the structure and the implementation right is important, and that could include how much autonomy it’s given (as in, if it’s a standalone agency, that tends to be more arm’s-length and free of ministerial direction than if it’s a unit within the infrastructure department). But this being said, the government needs to start acting fast because housing starts are cratering, particularly in the biggest cities, and a whole lot of those job losses reported in the July data last week were from the construction sector.

Meanwhile, Ontario’s housing start data is getting worse, even after they added a whole bunch of new things into their calculations to make the numbers look better, such as student dorms and long-term care beds (which yes, the Ontario government counts as “housing.”) But this is the Ford government, who won’t do the things that are necessary to get houses built in this province, and instead keep signalling that they want other levels of government to do something before they do anything, when they are the ones who have the primary levers and can exercise them, like enforcing gentle density rules, changing building codes to allow for European-style apartments and elevators, and other obstacles to building the kind of housing we need. Ford has plenty of power to do something about housing (besides arranging sweetheart deals for developer friends of his), but he simply refuses to.

The ON government has added student beds, LTC beds, and "additional units" to their BFF housing start figures, although it's unclear where these numbers originate.This causes the #s to go WAY up, in some communities. But 1 student bed does not replace a single-family home.

— Dr. Mike P. Moffatt (@mikepmoffatt.bsky.social) 2025-08-11T11:18:11.000Z

Ukraine Dispatch

We’re already into ridiculous territory ahead of Friday’s talks between Trump and Putin, as Trump says Russia will have to cede some land too. Which land exactly?

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Roundup: Details on military pay raises

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Prime minister Mark Carney was in Trenton yesterday to meet with members of the military, and then announced the specifics on the previously promised raises. They’re concentrated at the lower ranks, with a 20 percent boost to recruits, and the levels of increases decrease the higher in rank one gets, owing to the fact that they already have higher salaries. There are other bonuses being enriched, including for specific trades that they are most in need of, though as The Logic reported earlier this year, signing bonuses in those needed trades hasn’t really worked so far. Maybe with higher bonuses? Of course, the money doesn’t address some of the other problems, like the moving across the country every couple of years, which creates problems with retention, but we’ll see if those kinds of internal reforms are in the works.

The other stuff also makes sense: bonuses for being relocated again and again, more money for those who have had to deal with environmental stress–bad weather such as on ship during storms or arctic. My fave, other than more $ for everyone, is essentially combat pay for domestic ops.

— Steve Saideman (@smsaideman.bsky.social) 2025-08-08T18:32:47.488Z

Another notable aspect: extra pay for those becoming instructors at various training positions. I am pretty sure this is the first time this has been incentivized. Before, I am pretty sure the regiments were sending their worst just as they did with recruiting. Not great for recruitment but

— Steve Saideman (@smsaideman.bsky.social) 2025-08-08T18:43:53.849Z

that has changed as well.Some of these changes are wildly overdue. Others are possible in a friendlier fiscal environment, which it is now for defence and nothing else.and ….

— Steve Saideman (@smsaideman.bsky.social) 2025-08-08T18:44:59.312Z

And this point also should be made:

Someone asked in the briefing to experts this morning if this makes defense competitive with the rest of govt. I wanted to shout: defence is the only part of the Canadian govt that has jobs. Everything else is being cut to pay for this.

— Steve Saideman (@smsaideman.bsky.social) 2025-08-08T18:45:39.580Z

Ukraine Dispatch

Canada is joining with allies in lowering the price cap on Russian oil to further strangle their economy.

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Roundup: Creating a duplicative federal body?

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The Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs want the federal government to take action on creating a national forest-fire coordination agency, and look at American bodies like FEMA (well, as it used to exist rather than the hollow shell it is now). The problem? That disaster management, which includes wildfires, is squarely within provincial jurisdiction in this country, and if such a body were to be created (and it’s a big if), then provinces would have to agree to sign onto it, and good luck with that—unless maybe you’re willing to shell out a whole lot of money to “compensate” them for it.

The other problem? We already have such a body, called the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre, which is a not-for-profit owned and operated by existing firefighting bodies at all levels, which does the very work that these fire chiefs want it to do—coordinating to share resources, mutual aid, information sharing, and so on. If they don’t think this agency is doing enough, then they should say so. But if this is really just a backdoor way of saying the federal government should pay for everything, well, maybe they need to be honest about that.

We have a big problem in this country where provinces have learned that they can get away with short-changing their emergency management systems because they can call on the federal government to deploy the Canadian Armed Forces to do all kinds of said management, and even though the federal government has the option of cost-recovery from those provinces, they don’t, because it would be bad optics to be “nickel-and-diming” the provinces whom they give assistance to. Except of course, the provinces know that’s the case, so they cut their spending further, and the cycle continues because no federal government will stand up and say “We know you cut your funding to get free federal assistance, so we’re going to charge you for the services.” This is why I’m deeply suspicious of any move to create a federal civilian disaster emergency response agency, whether for wildfires, or other natural disasters, because it will give the provinces licence to cut further, and then beg for more federal assistance once they do.

Ukraine Dispatch

That gas interconnector that the Russians attacked in southern Ukraine appears to still be operating. Investigations have found that in spite of sanctions, Russians have been using Siemens technology in their factories, obtained by middlemen in China.

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Roundup: Preparing for another tariff climbdown

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Prime minister Mark Carney held a (virtual) Cabinet meeting yesterday, followed by a virtual meeting with the premiers, and so far, the signs aren’t terribly encouraging. It was ostensibly about an update on trade talks with the US, given that the deadline passed and we’re not only no closer to any kind of resolution, but Trump raised the tariffs they are charging on non-New NAFTA items (which does nevertheless effectively mean we’re still one of the lowest tariff-rate countries overall), if you ignore all of the other sectoral tariffs that are having the biggest impact. And the premiers have also started to drift in their positions, whether it’s Doug Ford demanding more retaliation (even though he immediately backed down on his electricity export retaliation), or Danielle Smith and Scott Moe preferring to lick fascist boots instead.

Nevertheless, the tone coming out of Carney and the Cabinet is increasingly one where they are openly laying the groundwork for reducing or removing retaliatory tariffs or other measures, because really, appeasing Trump is clearly the way to go. Look at what pulling back on the Digital Services Tax got us. The question then becomes what happens to the increasingly large fiscal hole that eliminating these counter-tariffs will do to the balance sheet, because they booked a bunch of revenues from them, while they’re already promising deep cuts to government spending.

Just keep making concessions. That'll clearly get us a favourable deal.

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-08-06T21:26:09.762Z

Meanwhile, the Conservatives have decided to go full-bore on the notion that Carney has broken his signature campaign promise because he has not only failed to reach a deal with Trump, but that tariffs have increased since then. Of course, this is premised on the completely false notion that Trump is a rational actor, but pretty much the entire Conservative caucus was tweeting variations of this very thing all day, because absolutely everything they do has to be about social media posts. Even more eye-rolling was Roman Baber lying about what the president of Mexico said about Anand and Champagne’s visit (her comments were that we don’t need a bilateral trade deal because the New NAFTA is still in effect, and even if it wasn’t, we’re both signatories to the CPTPP), because this is the state of the Conservative Party today.

Ukraine Dispatch

Russian strikes killed two people and wounded at least ten in Zaporizhzhia, while shelling killed three and injured at least four in Nikopol. Russians also hit a key gas interconnector, which Ukraine says was about trying to undermine their preparations for winter (when Russia always attacks power supplies).

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Roundup: A committee of handwringing over ferries

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On Friday, the Commons transport committee met to wring their hands and express their dismay at BC Ferries’ decision to buy new ships from a Chinese firm, and lo, there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth. Chrystia Freeland expressed her dismay. Gregor Robertson expressed his disappointment. The representative of the Canada Infrastructure Bank pointed out that they don’t make any decisions on procurement, and that their loan was secured before that decision was made. And the head of BC Ferries pointed out, once again, that no Canadian shipyard bid on these ships, if they did, it would take them a decade to deliver them (at least), and that the Chinese bid was $1.2 billion cheaper than any of the others.

That of course didn’t stop opposition MPs from doing the performative song and dance. Conservative Dan Albas demanded the government cancel the loan—which the government can’t do because the Infrastructure Bank is arm’s length. And now they want all documents and emails released, which is going to tell them yet again that no Canadian shipyards bid on this contract.

1) This procurement is entirely provincial jurisdiction2) The Infrastructure Bank operates at arm's length and ministers can't cancel any loans it gives3) NO CANADIAN SHIPYARDS BID ON THIS CONTRACT!Is the federal government going to dictate that one of them build these ferries? Seriously?

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-08-05T13:50:03.050Z

Perhaps most galling of all was Bloc MP Xavier Barsalou-Duval wanted an apology from the government and from the Canada Infrastructure Bank because it’s “unacceptable” that the government plans to invest in foreign infrastructure when our own steel industry is facing tariffs from Trump—but the federal government isn’t investing. BC Ferries, a provincial Crown Corporation is, and the loan from the Infrastructure Bank is a fully repayable loan. You would think the Bloc of all people would rather the federal government respect a decision by a provincial body, but apparently that only matters if it’s in Quebec.

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2025-08-04T13:08:04.388Z

In case you missed it:

  • My weekend column on the false choice between emissions caps and prosperity, as the costs of climate change are already being felt in significant ways.
  • My Loonie Politics Quick Take points out that Poilievre and the Conservatives had a chance to deal with the Longest Ballot nuisances, but chose stupid games instead.
  • My column which responds to what was in that weekend CBC story on the “radically overhauled” Senate and the problems with some of the arguments made.
  • My long weekend column looks at the current issue with contracts for freelance interpreters in Parliament, and why it’s exacerbating an existing crisis.
  • My column asks if it’s time to revive the Economic Council of Canada as we did with the Law Commission, given the uncertain times we live in.

Ukraine Dispatch

Russia claims to have captured another village in the Dniporpetrovsk region. On Monday, Ukraine destroyed one Russian military jet and damaged four others stationed in occupied Crimea. Ukrainian officials say that Indian components have been found in Russian drones. Two days after Ukraine’s parliament voted to restore anti-corruption agencies’ independence, they announced that they had uncovered a major graft scheme involving drone procurements.

https://twitter.com/Denys_Shmyhal/status/1952763302699729187

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Roundup: Reassuring Inuit leadership

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Mark Carney was in Inuvik to have his meeting with Inuit leaders regarding Bill C-5 and the major projects they are hoping to build, and seems to have convinced them that nothing is going to impact on their particular treaty rights, even though it’s still a lot of “just trust me,” because I cannot stress enough that he gave himself the power to override pretty much any legislation with that massive Henry VIII clause in C-5, meaning that he intends to use it. Said Inuit leaders didn’t seem quite as exercised about the colonial structures being built into the Major Projects Office and its proposed Indigenous advisory council (which reports to PMO and not to the Indigenous nations they are supposed to be representing), but again, we’ll see once things are a little more fleshed out.

During the meeting, Carney and Anita Anand announced that Iqaluit resident Virginia Mearns, who is Inuk, will be Canada’s new Arctic ambassador, a role that Mary Simon once held. As part of this office and Arctic strategy, there are plans to open new consulates in Alaska and Greenland.

Meanwhile, the demands for PONIs continue to dwell largely in fantasyland, with projects that have no proponents being demanded approval of, nor projects that have a particular economic case to be made for them. It’s just “more pipelines.” Like, come on, guys.

Programming Note: I’m off for the next week-and-a-bit. See you on the far side of the long weekend.

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2025-07-24T21:27:03.912Z

Ukraine Dispatch

Two people were killed in a Russian attack on Kostiantynivka in eastern Ukraine, while at least 33 were injured in a glide bomb attack on Kharkiv. President Zelenskyy has introduced a bill to restore the independence of the anti-corruption agencies, and says he welcomes input from friendly governments.

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Roundup: Past the gushing, the premiers are up to their old tricks

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If you only listened to the effusive praise from the premiers after their meeting over the past three days in Muskoka, you might miss the strong scent of absolute bullshit wafting from them. Yes, there was plenty more gushing about prime minister Mark Carney, and his meeting with them on Tuesday about the current trade negotiations with the Americans, and his engaging with China about the current trade spat with them (where apparently a number of premiers think we should capitulate to China as well), but my gods, the rest of their statements? More of the same from our premiers.

Take bail reform. Doug Ford insisted that they would be “holding him accountable” on his promise to institute more bail reforms in the fall, but problem with bail is not the Criminal Code. The problem with bail is that the provinces have been under-resourcing their justice systems for decades. There aren’t enough court houses or staff for them, the provincial remand facilities are overflowing, and they don’t hire enough provincial court judges or Crown attorneys, nor are some provinces properly training their justices of the peace, who usually make bail determinations. That is all the provinces’ faults, but they continue to falsely blame the federal government because it’s easier than the premiers doing their jobs.

Or healthcare. Ford whinged that the Trudeau government “shortchanged them” and they want more “flexibility.” The same Doug Ford that took $4 billion in pandemic supports from the federal government and just applied it to his bottom line to reduce the provincial deficit. And you can bet that the premiers are sore that Trudeau made the last round of transfers conditional on provinces submitting “action plans” so that they can be judged to see whether the funds are actually going to healthcare spending in those priority areas rather than just being spent elsewhere, as so many billions of past healthcare dollars have been. So of course, they want Carney to try and reverse that. They’re not happy that they have been subjected to strings on those transfers.

"Ford said the previous federal government shortchanged the provinces, and that Ontario needs more money to train and hire doctors and nurses."DOUG FORD PUT $4 BILLION OF PANDEMIC FUNDS ON THE PROVINCE'S BOTTOM LINE TO REDUCE THE DEFICIT.FOR FUCK SAKES!

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2025-07-24T03:27:14.634Z

Even more alarming is the fact that Ford, on the advice of Danielle Smith, wants to go around the federal government and issue their own work permits to asylum seekers in the province because the federal government takes too long. That’s a pretty significant overreach, which is a very bad sign. And you can bet that none of the premiers will be held to account for any of this, because that’s how we roll in this country.

— Effin' Birds (@effinbirds.com) 2025-07-23T13:25:09.670Z

Ukraine Dispatch

In spite of “peace talks” in Istanbul, there were more drone strikes traded from both sides—Russians hit residential and historic sites in Odesa, while Ukraine hit an oil storage depot near the Black Sea. More Ukrainian POWs were also returned yesterday. Facing protests for the changes to the anti-corruption agencies, president Zelenskyy now says he’ll introduce new legislation to safeguard their independence (but it remains to be seen what that legislation will actually say). European security reports show China covertly shipped drone parts to Russia using mislabelled containers to avoid sanctions.

https://twitter.com/ukraine_ua/status/1947597862574952514

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Roundup: Lowering expectations even further

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Prime minister Mark Carney spent the morning with the premiers in Muskoka as part of their meeting, and proceeded to lower expectations even further than they already are. The message of the day was that he’s only going to take the “best deal” in negotiations with the US, and that matters more than the August 1st deadline, which is already beyond the “deadline” that was agreed to in Kananaskis, and so long as talks are ongoing, retaliation measures continue to also be pushed back so that American bullying can continue unabated. But the kind of deal he wants isn’t going to be available, because this is Trump, and we’re just not going to get a deal that “preserves, reinforces and stabilises” the trade relationship, because Trump does not want that, nor do we want to keep tying ourselves to a failing autocratic regime whose economy is increasingly defined by the chaos of its leader.

We also learned that he stayed at Doug Ford’s cottage the night before, and that they stayed up talking past midnight, and Ford just gushed like a schoolgirl about Carney’s business background, and said that he would hand the keys of a business over to the prime minister (and said “business” about fifty more times), all of which was a little bit unseemly. We know that Ford continues to fancy himself a “businessman” because he inherited part of his father’s label business, but this constant fawning over anyone with a business background is a little bit unbecoming, particularly if you pay any bit of attention to what happens.

Meanwhile, Ford also signed an MOU with Danielle Smith and Scott Moe about building pipelines to Ontario and James Bay (which is never going to happen because it’s too shallow for tanker traffic), amidst the usual nonsense about federal environmental laws that they are trying to be rid of. There are no proponents for these pipelines, because there is no economic case for them. And if Carney is true to his word and says there’s no PONIs without Indigenous buy-in or consent, well, the pipeline Smith wants to the northwest coast of BC won’t happen because the First Nations in the area do not want one. Nevertheless, I think Andrew Leach is right in that they’re stacking up a wish list they’ll never meet in order to keep blaming the federal government, because that’s what they do best.

Ukraine Dispatch

Ukraine lost one of their French Mirage fighters due to equipment failure, but the pilot was able to safely eject. There were protests in Kyiv because president Zelenskyy signed a law that rolled back the independence of two anti-corruption bodies and placed them under executive control, which was seen largely as his first major unforced error, and give ammunition to Putin supporters.

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1947576960110014850

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