Every now and again, coverage of a story gets me so riled up that I absolutely cannot even, and this happened last night on Power & Politics where once again, former Conservative interim leader Rona Ambrose was trotted out to complain that her bill on training judges in sexual assault law hasn’t passed. This is the fourth or fifth time that the show has had her on to complain, and every single time, they mischaracterise the legislative process, and absolutely ignore that her original bill was blatantly unconstitutional and was completely unworkable in a real-world scenario, and it needed to be rewritten entirely.

Every. Single. Time.

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— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) March 4, 2021

Part of the framing last night was that the bill is “stalled” in the Senate – except that isn’t true at all. It was sent to the Senate at the beginning of December, at a time when they were preoccupied with the assisted dying bill (which is under a court deadline), and it just got sent to committee now that the Senate is back from the winter break (which was longer than the Commons’ because they have so few bills on their Order Paper). In no way is the bill “stalled,” but this is the narrative that the show chose to run with, and facts be damned, that was how they were going to play it. The CBC’s flagship politics show was actively misinforming its viewers as to what was going on with this bill, which makes me really question its ethics, and those of the producers.

In fact, we expedited it to committee; several Senators who intended to speak at second reading gave up their chances to do so, so we could get it to committee faster. (That committee had to deal with C-7 first anyway.)

— Paula Simons (@Paulatics) March 4, 2021

Aside from the misinformation about the process, over subsequent appearances, Ambrose has repeatedly maligned the Senate as holding up the bill because of the “old boys club,” which is patently absurd because the Senate is at essentially gender parity (unlike the Commons), she has also dismissed the concerns of judges as “arrogance.” But that’s in contrast to the concerns that judges themselves actually raised (and lo, I actually spoke to them in this piece I wrote about the original version of her bill). And yet there was zero pushback to these assertions, nor was there any mention of the first bill – or even mention that this version of the bill is basically just for show because it’s now useless (because that was the only way to actually make it constitutional).

There has been so much journalistic malpractice on this particular bill over the past several years, and it very much seems that there is a consensus Narrative about this bill that every media outlet has decided to service rather than actually challenge, and that’s a problem. The way this has been handled has been a complete disservice to Canadians, and I wish there was far more critical thinking among the media about this, rather than simply blindly servicing the Narrative.

Good reads:

• Justin Trudeau announced that several pandemic supports including wage and commercial rent subsidies are being extended until June.
• With the possibility of doses coming from the US after May, and new guidance that allows for four months between doses, could mean earlier vaccinations.
• In response to comments by the Chinese Ambassador, Trudeau called out China, noting they made up the charges against the two Michaels.
• Trudeau also said that solitary confinement is “unacceptable” and that the government is “moving forward” on ending it, when they haven’t been thus far.
• The government says they want the Mi’kmaq “moderate livelihood” fishery to operate during commercial fishing season, which the band leader objects to.
• The former military ombudsman told a committee that he alerted Harjit Sajjan to the allegations against Vance in March 2018; Sajjan says they weren’t actionable.
• The government could be legislating a new definition of hate speech as part of their online enforcement bill, raising fears that the old Section 13 could be revived.
• The details about Rideau Hall invader Corey Hurren have been made public, including what were his plans for a last stand against “communist dictatorship.”
• A redacted Novavax contract was released as part of a regulatory filing in the US.
• Conservative MP David Sweet has added his voice to those calling for an end to lockdowns (and he’s already given up his committee spot and isn’t running again).
• Jewish groups in Canada and the UK are concerned that NDP MP Niki Ashton is holding a public conversation with Jeremy Corbyn as part of a fundraiser.
• Kady O’Malley’s Process Nerd column takes two events from last week to illustrate the difference between points of order and points of privilege.
• Susan Delacourt sees a few parallels between the Conservatives under O’Toole and the Liberals under Ignatieff (though not as many “disaffected Conservatives” – yet).
• Colby Cosh reads through the judgment on the Toronto van attack perpetrator, and castigates those who fell for his fictional “incel” motivations.

Odds and ends:

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