Roundup: Fears over a fire at a nuclear plant

Posted on by

At the start of day nine of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, there was a lot of tension and drama as Russian forces shelled the nuclear power station at Zaporizhzhia, leading to concerns that a fire could lead to some kind of Fukushima-style meltdown, particularly after firefighters were also fired upon. In the end, it turns out that the fire was a separate building and that the reactor was fine, with no changes to radiation levels, but it was nevertheless a huge concern for a few hours, and which president Volodymyr Zelenskyy to proclaim that Russia has targeted their nuclear reactors as a form of blackmail. It’s really, really a bad situation.

In terms of Canadian contributions, new shipments of lethal aid were announced yesterday morning, along with new punitive measures against Russia and Belarus, removing their “most favoured nation” status (they now join North Korea as the only countries without it), and slapped tariffs of 35 percent on all of their products (though as was pointed out, this is still less than tariffs that our dairy cartel forces upon imports from out allies and trading partners). Canada is leading calls to have Russia’s membership in INTERPOL suspended. On top of this, new streamlined immigration and refugee processes were announced that will take two weeks to fully implement, during which time those wishing to come to Canada can get their biometric data sorted at consulates in countries surrounding Ukraine, as they had beefed up their capabilities ahead of time. Of course, this also raises questions as to why this kind of expedited process hasn’t been made for other refugee groups (though the obvious reply is that Ukrainian refugees are making it to European countries with more resources).

The Toronto Star’s editorial board caught up with Mélanie Joly between her visit to Poland and meetings in Brussels, where she reiterates once again that no, a no-fly zone is not going to happen, particularly because Putin is an irrational actor. Elsewhere, Chrystia Freeland warned that there could be severe consequences if any Canadian heads over to Ukraine to join the fight as it may not be legal to do so (and this is a fight over the international rules-based order), and Anita Anand added that if they want to sign up, they should enlist with the Canadian Forces (which has a 10,000 person shortfall at present).

Good reads:

  • Canadian financial institutions are taking a hit from the sanctions on Russia, given their levels of exposure to the Russian markets.
  • François-Philippe Champagne says the government will block attempts by Rogers to acquire Shaw’s wireless business.
  • GiveSendGo officials appeared at committee yesterday, and tried to blame the government for not warning them about the illegal occupation it was propping up.
  • Twitter says they’re working to fight disinformation, particularly given the Ukrainian situation, but haven’t launched those tools in Canada yet.
  • Lawyers for accused RCMP spy Cameron Ortis say they will apply for a stay of proceedings, citing the inability to have a fair trial.
  • Former Governor General Adrienne Clarkson has returned her Russian Order of Friendship medal to protest the invasion of Ukraine.
  • Jean Charest hasn’t declared yet, and Pierre Poilievre is already attacking him (and Patrick Brown, who is also undeclared).
  • Conservative MP Scott Aitchison is putting together a team for a leadership bid, while Leslyn Lewis is holding off until more of the fine print of the rules are out.
  • Stephanie Carvin looks at how the convoys and occupations demonstrated widespread use of cyber ops that have rarely been seen in this country before.
  • Kevin Carmichael parses Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem’s justifications for raising interest rates, and looks at what it heralds for future rate hikes.
  • Matt Gurney puts some context around just how significance the realignment in Europe over the past week really has been, ending the post-Cold War world.
  • Paul Wells has questions about the government’s newly-announced digital adoption programme for small business, most especially why they think it’s needed.

Odds and ends:

Want more Routine Proceedings? Become a patron and get exclusive new content.

2 thoughts on “Roundup: Fears over a fire at a nuclear plant”

  1. This was a shot across the bow from Putin. Next time he’ll mean it. We may end up having nuclear chaos *anyway* even if we don’t go to (per se) “nuclear war.”

    We’re going to look back on a *pandemic* as the halcyon days.

  2. I have come to realize that anyone younger than 45 simply has no idea how significant the nuclear threat from Russia really is — I see so many tweets where they think a No Fly Zone would just be another Mission Impossible movie.
    You know, I had thought of the days before March 2020 as the “Before Times” — when we could enjoy going out and about, without worrying about being killed by an awful disease. But now I realize it was the days before February 2022 that were actually the “Before Times” — the days when we could keep ourselves safe just by getting vaccinated and wearing masks, without worrying about a Russian madman threatening to start a nuclear World War Three.

Comments are closed.