Roundup: Conspicuous silences

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While responses from Canadian politicians and civil society was swift to the mass murder in New Zealand by an alleged white nationalist, Andrew Scheer’s initial tweets didn’t mention the fact that the victims were Muslims, or that they were killed in a mosque. He later put out an official statement that mentioned these things, but didn’t recant any of his winking to white nationalists with “globalist” conspiracy theories, giving succour to racists in order to “own the Libs,” or his wilful blindness of the racist and xenophobic elements of the “yellow vest” protesters that he recently addressed on the Hill (alongside other famous white nationalists, without denouncing them).

Ahmed Hussen said that people who are silent about hateful online comments feed into the narratives that lead to violence, which had Scheer’s office sniping that he was trying to score political points off of a tragedy, but it’s notable that Lisa Raitt and Michelle Rempel were calling out people posting racist responses to the news of the tragedy. (Notably, only Michael Chong called out the white nationalist problem in Canada). Here’s Carleton University professor Stephanie Carvin providing some national security and intelligence context, along with some analysis of how social media feeds this problem.

Andrew Coyne points out Scheer’s continued inability to do the right thing, not only with his poor first statement this time, but his inability to confront racists and for buying into populist conspiracy theories (and he even missed a few other examples).

Jody Wilson-Raybould

As the next Liberal caucus meeting draws closer, and a decision as to whether Jody Wilson-Raybould and Jane Philpott should be allowed to remain in caucus becomes more immediate, Wilson-Raybould published an open letter to her constituents to reiterate her commitment to being a Liberal, but it was more than that. Rather than just a simple statement about serving her constituents, or some feel-good language, she went on about being new to party politics and wanting to bring change to reject the culture of conflict, empty partisanship, and cynical games. Except this reads a lot like a cynical game in and of itself because it’s both a dare to the prime minister to keep her (and Jane Philpott) in caucus – Justin Trudeau saying he hasn’t spoken to either of them, and that he had no comment on this letter – and it sounds a lot like a challenge to Trudeau and his authority. You know, like she did with her refusal to turn over relevant information about recommendations for judicial appointments, and her refusal to be given a different Cabinet post. It remains to be seen what her endgame is, but this seems to be looking more like a future leadership bid, albeit in a way that hasn’t been done by those who have done so in the past. But that said, I think it’s pretty hard to ignore that Wilson-Raybould has an endgame in mind.

https://twitter.com/PhilippeLagasse/status/1106587109429641216

Meanwhile, the Conservatives have decided that they’re going to begin a new round of procedural warfare over the demands to get Wilson-Raybould to testify again at the Justice committee, and they’re going to demand all-night line-by-line votes on the Supplemental Estimates. But…we’ve seen this show already. It’s a poor procedural protest because these votes have zero to do with the Wilson-Raybould situation, and when they vote against line items, it opens them up to attack from the government – just like the last time they attempted this and voted against things like veteran benefits allocations. It’s not smart strategy, and it’s premature because the committee hasn’t decided if they’re going to hear from Wilson-Raybould again or not. And then they’ll cry foul, like “You’re making us inconvenience everyone!” when no, nobody is making you do anything. Try again.

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau is expected to shuffle the Cabinet again on Monday.
  • Bill Blair is working with American counterparts on trying to close the “loophole” in the Safe Third Country Agreement that allows irregular border crossing.
  • Per a request from Amarjeet Sohi, the NEB has determined that there isn’t excess pipeline capacity currently, and more need to be built to get product to market.
  • Fisheries and Oceans is being accused of violating their own regulations in not properly protecting cod stocks.
  • Briefing notes show that the government risked losing $7.5 billion in direct investment as a result of the spat with Saudi Arabia last summer.
  • Conservative MPs cancelled their planned appearance with Baroness Cox (who has made Islamophobic comments) in light of the New Zealand shooting.
  • NDP deputy leader Alexandre Boulerice is looking to hire unpaid interns, which the party is opposed to, and he says it’s the Liberals’ fault for not banning them. HOW?
  • Former House of Commons Sergeant-at-Arms Kevin Vickers formally announced his intention to run for New Brunswick Liberal leader.
  • The Quebec government is considering buying more SNC-Lavalin shares to prevent the company from being sold or broken up if convicted for bribery.
  • Alberta’s election commissioner has referred irregularities with the UCP leadership over to the RCMP – right before an election.
  • Chantal Hébert cautions Andrew Scheer that his hope to benefit from Trudeau’s recent difficulties in Quebec won’t come easy with his current platform.
  • Susan Delacourt enumerates the things that Trudeau needs to take care of in the coming days to move on from the ongoing Double-Hyphen Affair drama.
  • My weekend column notes that much of what happened in the Double-Hyphen Affair was inevitable, given the oligopolistic nature of companies in Canada.

Odds and ends:

I don’t often recommend radio piece, but this look into the moral vacuum around tech is a compelling long-form documentary.

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