Roundup: The usual rote nonsense ahead of a royal tour

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It is now approximately day eighty-two of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and British intelligence is suggesting that Russia has lost up to a third of its forces in the Donbas region, and is significantly behind its schedule for the invasion of the region. There was also chatter over social media over the weekend that Ukrainian forces have pushed Russians far enough away from Kharkiv that the city is largely out of danger, so we’ll see if that holds. As well, Ukraine won Eurovision over the weekend, so that is also a bit of a nice morale boost for the country.

Meanwhile, Finland and Sweden are moving ever closer to officially applying for NATO membership, and Finland’s president has gone so far as to tell Vladimir Putin directly that they are apply, but that they would continue to engage on issues in a bilateral manner. There remains the complication of Turkey, who has become more clear in the demands they have before they would be willing to admit these new members, particularly around groups that these governments have supported which the Turkish government opposes.

Closer to home, it’s royal tour week, as Charles and Camilla arrive tomorrow, and once again, we get the usual rote nonsense from news outlets courting republicans to give the tired lines about “scepticism” of the monarchy, without noting that it’s going to be nigh impossible to remove them because a) it requires unanimous consent on the constitution from provinces, and b) there is zero consensus on what would replace them, and even if they did, that would be the conclusion of the colonial project around Indigenous peoples in this country, given that their treaties are with the Crown. And yes, that very much means something. There are of course a few special cases who think we should replace the current royal family with someone Canadian, but I am a bit dubious on that for the same reason as there being no consensus on who that might be, because for better or worse, the status quo has a thousand years of history behind them, which is pretty important in the grand scheme of things. Love or loathe the family themselves, the system works better than any of the alternatives, and we shouldn’t dismiss that out of hand.

Good reads:

  • At a G7 meeting in Germany, Mélanie Joly says Canada is ready to send ships to European ports to help transport Ukrainian crops to world markets.
  • There is scepticism about the proposals to decriminalise certain amounts of illicit drugs in cities like Toronto and Vancouver.
  • Google is warning (or threatening?) that if the government forces them to subsidise new outlets, they could also send money to outlets like Sputnik, or maybe the Rebel.
  • A number of Liberal MPs from Quebec are vocally opposing the province’s proposed new language laws, which will deny service to most people in English.
  • Kim Campbell despairs at the state of the Conservative leadership race.
  • Nunavut’s environmental assessment board recommends against expanding an iron ore mine on Baffin Island given the impact on local wildlife.
  • Chantal Hébert wonders if Conservative voters are waking up to the realistic probability the Pierre Poilievre will self-destruct and take the party down with him.
  • Colby Cosh offers a reasoned walkthrough Friday’s Supreme Court decision and the changing view of what we consider to be a state of automatism.

Odds and ends:

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