Roundup: Asking the parochial questions

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On day fifteen of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, they bombed a children’s hospital in Mariupol, at a time that it was supposed to be under a ceasefire. And it’s not surprising that Volodymyr Zelenskyy is still insisting on “closing the skies,” but that wouldn’t stop the shelling from artillery and missile batteries on the ground, and yes, it would draw the rest of NATO into a shooting war with a nuclear power. So while he’s justified in asking for the assistance, it would not actually improve the situation and would most likely wind up making things a whole lot worse. To make matters worse, a power outage at Chernobyl means that it could start leaking radiation unless power lines are repaired, which requires a cease-fire in the area, so that’s alarming. And all of the chaos is making it hard for aid efforts, including those by Canadian non-profits to reach those in the country who need it.

Justin Trudeau, Chrystia Freeland, Mélanie Joly and Anita Anand were in Berlin yesterday for more meetings on the situation in Ukraine, and Trudeau vowed that Putin would face justice for his war crimes under the International Criminal Court. He also announced another $50 million worth of military aid being sent to Ukraine, and that he had invited Zelenskyy to address Canada’s Parliament, much as he did the UK’s earlier this week. On a related note, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg addressed the Ottawa Defence Conference yesterday and said that while Canada is playing a “leading role” in NATO’s response to the invasion, he is still calling for more military spending (which may not do any good given that our military doesn’t currently have the capacity or personnel to spend its current allotment).

And then, during a media availability with Freeland and Joly, a CBC reporter demanded to know why they were in Europe for “photo ops” rather than doing important work back home. And I can’t even—especially when he went on about the “taxpayer’s dime” when he tweeted about the exchange, trying to make himself sound put out by being smacked down about it. Aside from the “people are saying” framing, which is both ridiculous and telling, I’m not sure what pressing matters they should be attending to back home. The Commons is on March break this week and next. It’s just such parochial bullshit and the kind of cheap outrage/hairshirt parsimony that the CBC loves to engage in, and we wind up with poorer journalism as a result.

https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/1501612357784686593

https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/1501614041118265345

https://twitter.com/dgardner/status/1501694148642025476

https://twitter.com/EmmMacfarlane/status/1501658691715616768

Good reads:

  • Steven Guilbeault says that the government plans to issue $5 billion worth of green bonds to help fund green projects.
  • Guilbeault also says that Canada can’t realistically replace Europe’s need for Russian oil and gas, but can help to transition to renewable energy like hydrogen.
  • Marie-Claude Bibeau is headed to a meeting with G7 counterparts to discuss the impact of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on world food security.
  • Two Citizenship and Immigration offices, including their Montreal call centre, are being investigated for allegations of systemic racism.
  • In spite of an attempt to bolster domestic production, most pandemic-related PPE is still coming from abroad.
  • It sounds like as many as 550 Canadians have arrived in Ukraine to volunteer with their Territorial Defence force, which is enough for a full battalion.
  • Rogers thinks the government should ban RT and other state-owned channels from sanctioned regimes (rather than taking that initiative themselves).
  • An American think tank believes the Trans Mountain expansion will be unprofitable.
  • Police have allegedly seized the digital wallets of an occupation funder in a money laundering investigation; GiveSendGo is refunding donors in spite of a court order.
  • The CBC has an explainer about fossil fuel subsidies.
  • The parliamentary review committee mandated by the Emergencies Act won’t meet until Monday, meaning there’s no way they’ll meet their statutory deadline. Cripes.
  • In advance of his leadership run, Patrick Brown dropped his demands and reached a settlement in his lawsuit with CTV over his previous sexual assault allegations.
  • Ousted anti-vaxxer Ontario MPP Roman Baber has officially declared his federal Conservative leadership bid.
  • Some Conservatives are hoping the leadership race will mean a tougher stance on Quebec’s Law 21.
  • Independent officers like the Auditor General in New Brunswick want to be able to make their own rules rather than the government, as though this is a technocracy.
  • Althia Raj hears that Jean Charest and Patrick Brown will have some kind of non-aggression pact as part of their mutual Conservative leadership bids.
  • Paul Wells reviews Charest’s political career, and worries that the biggest danger of this particular leadership race is the unity of the party.
  • Matt Gurney contemplates the possibility of Russia losing its invasion of Ukraine.
  • Colin Horgan worries about the information black hole forming in Russia as their government cuts them off of Western news sources in favour of moar propaganda!

Odds and ends:

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4 thoughts on “Roundup: Asking the parochial questions”

  1. Thank you for your insightful analysis, as always!
    I think that the Harper years has left an ugly imprint on most of our young journalists.
    Canada is so much more than the small minded folks in this country would like it to be.

  2. The National Post , I think, started the “photo opportunity” smear — they saw how well Trudeau and Freeland were being received in Europe and they just couldn’t stand it — and then the CBC went trolling along behind them. Dhanraj was ratioed so badly on twitter that he produced a sort-of apology last night — too late.

  3. Decent journalists these days are an endangered species on par with the “purple RINO.” Gotta get in those outrage clicks with a hefty dose of misogyny for good measure. Wasn’t Travis an entertainment reporter before his “hard news” politics gig or does he just come across as a vapid VJ?

  4. I realize that we are all beholden to Ukraine’s narrative, but as even the
    NYT recently pointed out all sides in this war will lie when they can get away with it and the current fog of war means that every “fact” needs to be to be corroborated. In the case of the maternity hospital, Sky News said that Russia had told the WHO that the hospital had stopped functioning as such 3 days ago and was now being used by the Azov fascist batallion. This group has a history of putting military placements in civilian areas and have been shelling evacuation routes to prevent them functioning.

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