As this so-called convoy of “yellow vest” protesters moves eastward toward Ottawa, many of them demanding magic wands to expedite pipeline approvals that won’t actually happen (seriously, trying to fast track and cut corners is what got approvals thrown out in the courts before), I find it exceedingly curious – and a bit alarming – that Jason Kenney refuses to denounce some of the elements that have attached themselves to these “yellow vests,” most especially white nationalists and racists who are trying to use these rallies to agitate against immigration and asylum seekers. Kenney simply waves them off as a “handful” of people with “kooky ideas,” while he takes the intellectually dishonest route of blaming Justin Trudeau and Rachel Notley for Alberta’s oil sector woes, never mind the global supply glut, the shale revolution, and market inertia, or the fact that capacity only became an issue in recent months when production increased – or the fact that when he was in federal cabinet, pipeline projects weren’t making any faster progress either.

Trudeau and Notley didn’t create the problems of consultations on Northern Gateway. They didn’t create the market condition problems for Energy East. They didn’t create the American regulatory issues around Keystone XL. Trudeau bears some responsibility for the consultation issues around the Trans Mountain expansion, but that also has to do with institutional inertia and how bureaucratic Ottawa and the NEB in Calgary thought of Section 35 consultations in spite of successive Supreme Court of Canada rulings. These are broad and, in some cases, intractable problems for which easy solutions don’t exist, no matter what Kenney or Andrew Scheer say. Putting the bulk of the blame on Trudeau and Notley is completely and utterly dishonest, and Kenney knows it. But why does truth matter when you’re trying to stoke anger to win points?

Good reads:

• The two Canadians being detained in China are accused of having broken the country’s National Security Law.
• A Canadian citizen arrested in Moscow under suspicion of being a spy doesn’t fit the profile, according to the intelligence community.
• Some defence experts think that the Canadian Forces should get in on the “space force” game. Just ignore that we can’t procure anything to save our lives…
• The former director of CSIS doesn’t think the government is doing enough to prepare for foreign interference in our next election.
• This week the Bank of Canada will decide on whether or not to raise interest rates, and some suspect there will be a pause. (Reminder: Rates are still below neutral).
• An audit finds the Montreal office of the International Civil Aviation Office has been poorly managed by Transport Canada. They insist new management is inbound.
• Vending machines across the country need software upgrades to handle the new vertical $10 banknotes that feature Viola Desmond.
• Here’s another fact check on Andrew Scheer’s claims about carbon taxes, and lo, it turns out he’s lying. Again.
• Jagmeet Singh has been complaining that the Burnaby South by-election hasn’t been called yet, and assails the lack of representation.

Odds and ends:

Former Reform Party and later Conservative MP Myron Thompson passed away this weekend, as did former Alberta Speaker Gene Zwozdesky.

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