Roundup: Pronouncements that should be disqualifying

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We are now on or about day forty-one of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the word of the day is “war crimes.” In particular, American president Joe Biden declared that Putin needs to be tried for war crimes…which is odd, because the Americans don’t believe in the International Criminal Court and haven’t signed onto its treaties for fear that they will be hauled before it at some point. So, I’m not sure who Biden thinks will be trying Putin for said war crimes, unless he plans to bring American into the ICC system at long last (though I am dubious that will ever happen). In Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited Bucha and witnessed the atrocities there for himself, calling Russia’s actions a “genocide” (though there is some debate about the applicability of the term given that it is a crime of specific intent).

Closer to home, there has been some attention being paid to the fact that Pierre Poilievre is trying to promote crypto and Bitcoin, and it’s just so ridiculous how this isn’t automatically being seen as disqualifying. (And it’s not just Poilievre—Michelle Rempel Garner has a private members’ bill in the queue about promoting crypto and blockchain in Canada). Never mind that everything Poilievre is saying is bunk, and his pronouncements about the Central Bank are utterly bonkers. The truth of the matter is that Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is that they are nothing more than elaborate Ponzi schemes, and if he can’t see that, then we have a serious problem on our hands.

Meanwhile, here’s the former Governor of the Bank of Canada, Stephen Poloz, eviscerating Poilievre and his nonsense thinking:

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau named former PEI premier Wade MacLauchlan to head the search for the next Supreme Court of Canada justice, instead of Kim Campbell.
  • Mélanie Joly was in Finland yesterday, and announced further support for war crimes investigations in Ukraine following the gruesome events at Bucha.
  • Steven Guilbeault says the latest IPCC report on climate change is “sobering” and that the oils and gas sector “cannot do business as usual.”
  • Anita Anand says that she is expecting the Arbour Report by May 20th. She also reiterated her plans to increase spending to modernise NORAD.
  • The government announced easing of rules around temporary foreign workers, but also extended permits for some types to make it easier to get permanent residency.
  • The federal and Ontario governments announced more funding for another electric vehicle manufacturing plant, this time from GM in Oshawa.
  • The federal government is contemplating updating their definition of “fully vaccinated” for civil servants to mean three doses instead of two.
  • The federal government has appointed BC MLA Stephanie Cadieux as the new federal Chief Accessibility Officer, to ensure implementation of accessibility laws.
  • The Conservative Party president wants all media requests to go through him, and to ensure that national council members are muzzled despite being elected.
  • Leslyn Lewis is the first leadership candidate to meet all of the signature and fundraising criteria to be on the ballot.
  • Jean Charest issued an extremely handwavey promise about military preparedness and fixing what’s wrong, providing zero specifics or understanding of the issues.
  • Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit found the woman who claimed to have been trampled by a police horse was not seriously injured, merely straining a shoulder.
  • Kevin Carmichael recounts the Bank of Canada’s Business Outlook Survey, and the impressions the business community has of high inflation lasting a couple of years.
  • The Line looks at the horrors of Bucha, Ukraine, and sounds an alarm of caution around the apologists and useful idiots on both ends of the political spectrum.

Odds and ends:

For National Magazine, I look at four of the hearings at the Supreme Court of Canada last week, and their connecting issue of Harper-era sentencing laws.

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2 thoughts on “Roundup: Pronouncements that should be disqualifying”

  1. The Line article was interesting. Given that the Line Editor does not even know the contract/conscript proportional composition of the Russian Army I will take the rest with a grain of salt.

  2. The Globe omitted independent reporting which showed that PP’s favourite bitcoin podcaster has espoused antisemitic conspiracy theories (and for that matter, so has he, what with his Great Reset/WEF/Soros nonsense). Why is it so much to ask for MSM to name this party as the far-right GOP-Trumputin hive of scum and villainy they truly are? Is it partisanship on their end (or their corporate masters’)? Or are they just blindly committed to their “fair and balanced” suicide mission of “false equivalency” that continues to obfuscate the reality of the CPC being domestic terror enablers masquerading as a political party?

    For that matter, why has literally no one at any of the outlets bothered to inquire as to Harper’s sentiments about Viktor Orbán’s corrupt, crushing majority election? Only Trudeau is a “dictator” for pursuing a perfectly legitimate parliamentary avenue of cooperation with the NDP? How corrupt is MSM that they are still running interference for these Nazi-adjacent enablers by portraying them as a legitimate “government in waiting,” rather than dealing them the complete evisceration in the court of public opinion that they deserve?

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