I believe we are now in day thirty-seven of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Russian forces are believed to be leaving the area of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant after their soldiers soaked up “significant doses” of radiation while digging trenches in the area. (You think?) There were also plans for another humanitarian corridor to evacuate people from Mariupol, but it doesn’t appear to have been honoured.

Meanwhile, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that he had sacked two high-ranking members of the security services, citing that they were traitors. As for the Russians, the head of CGHQ in the UK says that they have intelligence showing that some Russian soldiers in Ukraine have refused to carry out orders, sabotaged their equipment, and in one case, accidentally shot down one of their own aircraft. There are also reports that Russian troops have resorted to eating abandoned pet dogs because they have run out of rations in Ukraine, which is pretty awful all around.

Closer to home, the Senate was debating their orders to extend hybrid sittings yesterday, as the sixth wave has been picking up steam, and one point of contention are the resources available to senators to hold sittings and committee meetings. In particular, they have a Memorandum of Understanding with the House of Commons about sharing common resources, and that MOU gives the Commons priority when it comes to resources available. This has hobbled the Senate, but even if they did try to come up with some way to add resources, the biggest and most constrained resource of them all is the finite number of simultaneous interpreters available, and we are already in a problem where as a nation, we’re not graduating enough of them to replace the attrition of those retiring, or choosing not to renew their contracts because of the worries that those same hybrid sittings are giving them permanent hearing loss because of the problems associated with the platform and the inconsistent audio equipment used by the Commons. These hybrid sittings exacerbated an already brewing problem of not enough new interpreters coming into the field, and Parliament is going to have a very big problem if they can’t find a way to incentivise more people to go into the field. We rely on simultaneous interpretation to make the place function, and if the number of interpreters falls precipitously low—because MPs and senators insisted on carrying on hybrid sittings in spite of their human cost—then we’re going to be in very big trouble indeed.

The Senate is debating extending hybrid sittings, and raising the issue of adding more resources going forward.
The problem: The most delicate resource to manage is the human resource of interpretation staff. You can’t just hire more, and not enough are graduating. #SenCA

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) March 31, 2022

I’m not sure what the solution is when it comes to incentivizing more people to choose it as an education/career, but the human toll that hybrid sittings took on them has not made it attractive considering that permanent hearing loss is a real danger, which MPs didn’t care about.

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) March 31, 2022

Good reads:

• Justin Trudeau says that the G20 should reconsider Russia’s role within the G20.
• Anita Anand announced that we are extending our mission in Iraq for another 12 months, which has largely been a training mission of late.
• Anand is also promising robust modernization of NORAD’s northern radar stations, given that they are considered outdated and of limited utility now.
• Pablo Rodriguez is asking arts bodies around the country to suspend any programming with Russians connected to Putin’s regime.
• Here is a look back at the history of the incoming bill to make web giants pay for news, and what it means to use the Australian model.
• David Lametti says he is concerned by reports of a secret trial held in Quebec that involved police informants.
• Once again, for those of you in the back—measuring defence spending as a percentage of GDP is a poor system because our GDP has been growing rapidly.
• NACI is expected to unveil guidance on fourth vaccine doses for the elderly and immunocompromised in early April.
• A First Nations delegation met with the Pope at the Vatican yesterday, and said that they believe he will apologise for residential schools.
• The Supreme Court of Canada upheld a nearly $10 million fine in what is the epilogue of the Great Maple Syrup Heist.
• The National Post recounts a speech that Chief Justice Richard Wagner gave to a school in Montreal, about access to justice and American-style politicisation.
• Here is a look at the kinds of conspiracy theory calls and emails flooding the inboxes of senators, largely predicated on the disinformation around the basic income bill.
• The Conservatives say that their membership lists weren’t stolen, and want to refer the matter of faked donation pledges to the authorities—but not sure which one.
• Catherine McKenna will chair a UN expert group that will examine corporate climate pledges in an effort to crack down on greenwashing.
• Heather Scoffield laments that Justin Trudeau took “cheap shots” at Big Oil Lobbyists during his speech on the environmental plan, as he’ll need them.

Odds and ends:

Canadian songwriters earned an average of $67.14 last year from streaming service revenues, which is why those services are evil and screw over artists.

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