Roundup: Inviting anti-vaxx organisers onto the Hill

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It’s day one-hundred-and-twenty of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and no news out of Severodonetsk is presumed to be good news. That said, Russian forces have captured three other villages in the region, near the city of Lysychansk, which is across the river from Severokonetsk, so there is still movement in the region. There is optimism in the country, however, that their bid to join the EU will pass to the next stage during a summit this week. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meanwhile, addressed University of Toronto students, and called on them to pressure governments to provide more aid to Ukraine.

Closer to home, a group of Conservative MPs, including leadership candidate Leslyn Lewis, hosted a trio of anti-vaxxer extremists and occupation organisers ahead of their planned Canada Day protests, and they did it within one of the Parliamentary office buildings just off of the Hill. Included in the group were a former Reservist being charged for a video promoting the occupation while in uniform, a former Trump advisor, and a former spokesperson for the occupation. And in case it’s not clear, they’re no longer talking about vaccine mandates, which have pretty much ended everywhere, but about regime change, and Conservatives are condoning it, if not outright encouraging it by saying “you have allies.” That’s not good. It’s especially not good when they’re talking about civil war in their discourse. Oh, and Candice Bergen’s office was aware this was going on, and did nothing to shut it down. It’s just unbelievable how clueless they are around this issue, when there is real potential for these violent online narratives to manifest into a real-world attack.

https://twitter.com/davidakin/status/1539718763465031680

https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/1539663123485179904

https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/1539693666830278660

https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/1539695139613945856

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau says the passport situation is “unacceptable” and says the government will step up.
  • Trudeau also promised a permanent embassy in Kigali, Rwanda, to help counter Russian influence on the continent.
  • Bill Blair says that the RCMP superintendent who is accusing them of political interference in the Nova Scotia investigation “came to his own conclusions.”
  • Pascale St-Onge says she’s suspending Hockey Canada’s federal funding as she is not satisfied with their answers at committee and wants change in the organization.
  • Marco Mendicino won’t say if the government will respect the Senate amendments to the bill that creates a standard for searches of devices at the border.
  • The extreme intoxication bill passed the House of Commons with barely any debate and hearing from no witnesses, and they’ll try the same in the Senate today.
  • The government’s first-time home buyer’s incentive has had very little uptake.
  • The CRTC renewed CBC’s mandate for another five years with a few tweaks.
  • Elections Canada says that nearly 100,000 special ballots (out of 1.1 million) were not counted as they came in late, or were incomplete.
  • CBC talks to the outgoing Commissioner of Elections about disinformation, foreign interference, and privacy concerns.
  • Poilievre wants to introduce “pay-as-you-go” budgeting—cutting for every new spending programme—and it’s so dumb I just can’t even.
  • Patrick Brown’s campaign manager left to follow Michelle Rempel Garner in her potential bid for the UCP leadership.
  • The statue of Queen Victoria toppled last year in Winnipeg is damaged beyond repair, and is too expensive to re-cast.
  • Susan Delacourt looks to the recent Abacus polling on trust in government (which I find a bit dubious), and how that plays into the occupiers and their discontent.

Odds and ends:

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