Roundup: Not just a golf game

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The top brass of the Canadian Forces shot themselves in the foot – metaphorically – yet again this weekend as both the outgoing vice-chief of defence staff and the head of the Royal Canadian Navy both went golfing with former CDS, General Jonathan Vance, while Vance is under active police investigation. To call it tone-deaf is an understatement – rather, it highlights the old boys’ club mentality that still pervades the upper ranks of the Forces, and sends the wrong message to the victims of sexual misconduct, who remain the subordinates of these officers. And to make the optics even more nightmarish, the vice-chief technically has the power to issue orders to the Provost Marshall, who controls the military police.

https://twitter.com/leahwest_nsl/status/1404114717405286401

https://twitter.com/JessMarinDavis/status/1404192298905264128

You can get that there was an outcry, including from numerous Cabinet ministers, and in short order, there were apologies from those involved, while the minister of defence, Harjit Sajjan, said that he would be evaluating “next steps” in this particular situation.

https://twitter.com/leahwest_nsl/status/1404262974504812545

To the point that West (who was drummed out of the military because of the double standard around sexual misconduct) is making in her tweet, there is very much a growing trend of professionally-crafted apologies going around given where things have gone over the past year or so, and I have to agree with this take that we need to take this into account as yet more of them are delivered over the coming days.

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau said that Canada will be donating 13 million surplus vaccine shots (out of the 100 million doses pledged, the rest as money to global programmes).
  • The final G7 agreement talked about action on the pandemic and climate, as well as developing a Western alternative to China’s belt-and-road infrastructure plans.
  • While in Brussels, Trudeau also expressed support for Ukraine, but wouldn’t comment on its desire to join NATO.
  • As Angela Merkel prepares to step down this autumn, Trudeau is poised to become the dean of the G7 as its longest-serving leader.
  • Newly released documents show that the government paid a premium to get some Pfizer doses early in December, when they weren’t supposed to show up until later.
  • Here’s a look at where we currently stand on issues relating to vaccine passports, vaccine certification (because they’re different), and what next steps are likely to be.
  • The Federal Court challenge of the Human Rights Tribunal on compensation for First Nations children goes ahead today, in spite of the overheated rhetoric.
  • The Canadian Press talks to Jagmeet Singh about the backstory for his speech in the Commons for the family murdered in the hate crime in London.
  • Mike Moffatt looks at Toronto’s growth plan, which underestimates population growth and is essentially a plan for more sprawl, paving over the Greenbelt.
  • Susan Delacourt gets the details of how the Liberals managed to lure Jenica Atwin to cross the floor after it became clear she was having issues with the Greens.
  • Chantal Hébert sees a weaker Green Party outside of BC as being a means to embolden the NDP, and possibly have them play spoiler in the next election.

Odds and ends:

https://twitter.com/moebius_strip/status/1403896800478601218

https://twitter.com/moebius_strip/status/1403898235861696512

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2 thoughts on “Roundup: Not just a golf game”

  1. Canadian Armed Forces, RCMP, Religions, Sports Groups, Boy Scouts, the list goes on of organizations who have histories of sexual and physical abuse. What binds them is a systematic old boys network that perpetrates the Canadian society with organized bad behavior. We need some good house cleaning right now.

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