Roundup: Displacing and dispersing Ukrainians into Russia?

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We are now on day thirty of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and while Kyiv remains safe, there are reports that as many as 400,000 Ukrainians have been forcibly relocated into Russia, where they are being dispersed to economically depressed regions in that country. The Russians are claiming that these relocations are voluntary, but Ukrainian officials worry they may be used as hostages. Meanwhile, president Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the NATO summit happening in Brussels and asked for aircraft and tanks, but was mostly only promised more of the same kinds of aid that they have been receiving to date.

Closer to home, there are now two more prospective entrants into the Conservative leadership race—former floor-crosser-turned-deputy leader Leona Alleslev, who has launched a website and who has volunteers getting the necessary signatures required to launch a bid; as well, a failed candidate named Joel Etienne from York Centre, who has also put up a website and is collecting signatures. One of the other leadership candidates, Marc Dalton, seems to have enough self-awareness that he knows he’s a long-shot candidate, but seems to be pinning his hopes on the vagaries of preferential ballots as his salvation. Oh, and he still hasn’t lined up his entrance fee yet, so that’s probably a sign about his chances.

As these entrants keep lining up, Candice Bergen is warning them not to call those in the race that they disagree with as “not Conservative” because that’s “identity politics,” and they don’t want to wedge, divide and polarize, because that’s what they accuse the Liberals of doing—which is kind of hilarious when you think about it. They’ve explicitly framed this contest as one for the “soul of the party,” and the contest is going to entirely be about whether they find a leader who can appeal to enough of the moderate Canadians in the suburbs who can deliver them an election victory, or whether they retrench into their “values” and electoral consequences be damned because they’re acting like Conservatives and not Liberals. And when you set up the contest as one about what constitutes those “values,” with a purity test or two thrown up around them, who is and is not a Conservative is going to be a bigger sticking point in this race the longer it goes on.

Good reads:

  • At the NATO summit in Brussels, Justin Trudeau announced even more sanctions, as well as promises to increase defence spending (but won’t say how).
  • Trudeau also said that Canada is looking for ways to get more weapons to Ukraine now that we have exhausted our own surplus supplies.
  • Jonathan Wilkinson told an International Energy Agency meeting that Canada could possibly increase production of 300,000 barrels per day to offset Russian exports.
  • The government has tabled a bill to protect the number of Quebec seats from redistribution by adjusting the previously establish grandfather clause.
  • An agreement has been reached with the US Department of Agriculture about resuming the export of PEI potatoes.
  • An Order Paper question has given a more detailed breakdown of the arrival of Afghan refugees since the fall of Kabul.
  • A number of new salacious details have been released about the kickbacks and fallout from Jerry Dias’ resignation from Unifor.
  • More charges have been laid against the organisers of the Ottawa occupation.
  • The legislated seven sitting days for the Emergencies Act review committee to table their report has passed, and they’re still debating the scope of their work.
  • The Commissioner of the OPP told the Commons’ public safety committee that they identified national security threats in the Ottawa occupation by its second week.
  • Conservative MP Michelle Ferreri is being called out for claiming she is a single mother of six children, which she is not.
  • Jason Kenney was caught on a recording claiming he doesn’t need the job but is staying on to prevent the “lunatics” from taking over the party. Yikes!
  • Two more members of Kenney’s caucus are calling on him to resign, while UCP riding presidents are up in arms about the leadership review rule changes.
  • Lindsay Tedds reads the Alberta budget for absolute filth.
  • Heather Scoffield has doubts that Canada can do much about displacing Russian oil and gas while still doing the hard work of transitioning to clean energy.

Odds and ends:

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