Roundup: Trudeau visits Kyiv

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It is now on or about day seventy-five of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and it looks like all of the civilians have been evacuated from under the steel plant in Mariupol. Up next to be evacuated are the wounded and medics, presuming that the agreement continues to hold, while the remaining Ukrainian forces under that plant make a final stand. As well, Ukraine’s counter-offensive near Kharkiv continues, as it remains the target of Russian shelling. The heavy weapons arriving from the West could be the key to turning the tide of this particular front. Russians also targeted a school being used as a shelter in Zaporizhzhia, where sixty people are feared to be dead. Also this weekend, US First Lady Jill Biden was in the region to hear from mothers who had evacuated to Romania, and later went into Ukraine and met with Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s wife, Olena Zelenska, as a show of support.

The big news for us, however, was the arrival of Justin Trudeau, Chrystia Freeland, and Mélanie Joly in Ukraine, first to visit the Kyiv suburb of Irpin, where they witnessed the devastation at Russian hands for themselves, before heading into Kyiv to raise the flag and reopen the Canadian embassy, and then to meet with Zelenskyy. Trudeau announced a new round of supports and sanctions, and was soon after followed by a declaration from G7 leaders to pledge solidarity with Ukraine, with the added symbolism that it was Victory in Europe Day, which marked the end of the Second World War.

https://twitter.com/PaulCTV/status/1523303970571452416

Good reads:

  • It sounds like the government has had delays in rolling out the funding to their promised sexual and reproductive health fund, even with signed agreements.
  • Following her visit to Canada, the US Trade Representative remarks that dairy access and softwood lumber remain two files with fundamental differences.
  • The Chief Electoral Officer told MPs at committee last week that there has been a rise in violence against poll workers in the last election, fuelled by disinformation.
  • The Commissioner of Competition is set to deny the proposed Rogers-Shaw merger.
  • Former Bank of Canada governor David Dodge slammed Pierre Poilievre’s attack on the Bank, and called out his Bitcoin nonsense—which will only embolden Poilievre.
  • Former Mulroney-era defence minister Perrin Beatty reflects on the inclusion of the mandatory inquiry into the Emergencies Act.
  • Greg Fergus is stepping back from chairing the Liberal Black Caucus and co-chairing the Parliamentary Black Caucus as he is the PM’s parliamentary secretary.
  • Heather Scoffield delves into the jobs data to look at the situation of working mothers, who have not had the same recovery as others from the pandemic.
  • Chantal Hébert sees the potential US abortion rights loss as making it even harder for Conservatives in Canada as they get pinned down on the issue.
  • Supriya Dwivedi makes the case that it is not “gotcha” politics or chicanery to point out Conservative anti-choice positions, or have them admit those policies.
  • Colby Cosh recounts some of the dubious detective work when it comes to finding the leaker form the US Supreme Court.
  • My weekend column takes on the changes to the Senate that are coming in the budget bill, and why this will reinforce the current broken state of the Chamber.

Odds and ends:

https://twitter.com/BrandonTozzo/status/1523390915448295424

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2 thoughts on “Roundup: Trudeau visits Kyiv”

  1. In her interview with Rosie Barton, the US ambassador was very slick as is usual for ambassadors. On the softwood file, of course she made no mention of the numerous rulings by the WTO which upheld Canada’s position that the US tariffs were illegal. Second to this she made no reference to the politically obdurate position of the American softwood lobby which the US Federal government has no stomach to confront. On the dairy question. The US ambassador, as did her predecessors, make no mention of the fact that the US federal government subsidizes American dairy farmers by billions of dollars in order to keep their dairy farms up and running in the face of US domestic dairy production of milk and cheese far outstripping US demand. On top of that she didn’t divulge that millions of gallons of raw milk are spilled everyday. Unsold cheese is provided for little cost through food poverty measures in the US. It is a fact that like many commentators in Canada’s news media, like Rosie Barton, do not have the knowledge, the facts or the intelligence to call out patent obfuscation by spokespeople. Just once I would like to see someone perform a straight up confrontation callout of these propagandists.

  2. First the cons and their friendly pundits were slamming PMJT for not going to Kyiv. Then he goes to Kyiv and, as predicted, they slam him for a photo-op and using a plane when “this meeting could have been an email” (or a Zoom call). At the same time, they don’t want virtual parliament, but virtual diplomacy is preferred, until it isn’t, because “Trudeau bad” no matter what.

    Meanwhile, in the seedy online underbelly, he was being slammed for paying a visit on Mothers’ Day and “ignoring Canadian mothers,” as those same RWNJ trolls made up nasty and fact-devoid conspiracy theories about the status of his marriage and even his own paternity. The worst takes involved “just asking questions” about the ministerial line of succession if Trudeau and his “VP” died in a plane crash — and I’m not convinced all of these idiots are posting from a GRU cybercafe in Moscow. There’s plenty of ign’ant mouthbreathers with violent fantasies and tendencies at home in Canada; no need to let the Russkies claim all the credit for Jeff Ballzinger and co.

    Initially I had thought he wasn’t going to go to Ukraine (let alone bring Freeland in tow), but oddly enough, he’s probably safer in an honest-to-gods war zone, than he is among Pierre Putin and his Zed army of trucker troglodytes supporting the CPC.

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