Roundup: Quieter protests, a few arrests made

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It’s day one-hundred-and-thirty-two of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Russia is claiming victory in the Luhansk region after pounding Lysychansk to the point where Ukrainian troops finally withdrew. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that Ukrainian forces will be back with more modern weapons and will reclaim the territory. It looks like Slovyansk in the Donbas Region will be Russia’s next target, while Ukrainians fighting in the region describe it in apocalyptic terms. Meanwhile, Russia has attacked two cities in the western part of Ukraine, as well as near the port city of Odessa, but Ukrainian forces are also reclaiming territory as well, in some cases using the very tanks that they captured from the Russians. Ukraine’s prime minister is spending his time drawing up a $750 billion “Marshall Plan” to help the country recover, once they force out the invaders.

https://twitter.com/Rob_Oliphant/status/1543983733488992256

Canada Day wound up being fairly uneventful, as the protests on the Hill didn’t amount to much, though there was a heavy police presence and they weren’t playing around this time. 121 vehicles were towed, and there were a few arrests made, though in one case, it was after someone attacked a police officer. While some voices are saying that this time around there wasn’t a “perfect storm,” the fact that police did their jobs rather than being complicit was the biggest difference. For his part, prime minister Justin Trudeau was essentially trying to reclaim the flag from the protesters and the occupation earlier in the year, talking about representing our accomplishments and desire to improve, and that it stands for compassion, hope, and justice.

Good reads:

  • The federal government has signed the final settlement agreement for the First Nations child and family services class-action lawsuits, but await more approvals.
  • Harjit Sajjan says the government is looking at adding flexibility to the terrorist financing prohibitions to make it easier to offer humanitarian aid in Afghanistan.
  • People from Africa, South America and Asia are having difficulty getting visas to attend the AIDS Conference being held in Montreal (which is a long-standing issue).
  • The bill to eliminate mandatory minimums for many drug crimes will also “sequester” criminal records within two years, thanks to an NDP amendment.
  • The federal government has left the federal victims of crime ombudsman’s job vacant for nine months (which is not nearly as long as some Senate seats).
  • CBC got a look at the allegations and counter-allegations swirling around the AFN around national chief RoseAnne Archibald and her staff.
  • The Star looks at the likely early contenders for the Green Party’s leadership.
  • The federal government has been relocating a few asylum seekers that crossed irregularly into Quebec, over to Ontario.
  • A briefing note from Alberta says that they considered asking the military to help clear the Coutts blockade, but the military said they didn’t have the equipment.
  • It turns out that former Saskatchewan premier Brad Wall was offering advice to one of the leaders of the occupation in Ottawa.
  • Stephen Saideman conducts a thought experiment on what the coming American autocracy (because let’s not kid ourselves) might look like.
  • Former Conservative MP Lee Richardson offers some perspective on the split between progressives and populists among Alberta in the UCP and CPC races.
  • Kevin Carmichael gives his hot take on the Bank of Canada’s business outlook survey and what that means for the next round of rate hikes.
  • Heather Scoffield reminds us that sanctions against Russia are a long game, and won’t have immediate effect but they do over the longer term.
  • Scoffield is also cautiously optimistic about the final settlement agreement around the First Nations child and family services class action lawsuits.
  • My weekend column looks at how Trudeau is allowing Senate vacancies to pile up in the way that Stephen Harper did, to the detriment of the institution.

Odds and ends:

My Loonie Politics Quick Take notes how Jason Kenney is trying to take credit for Alberta’s surplus, in spite of high oil prices and a dodgy Auditor General’s report.

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One thought on “Roundup: Quieter protests, a few arrests made”

  1. Most of the infrastructure damage in the Ukraine war is in areas which will no longer be controlled by Kiev. So there will little need for Canada to “build back better” unless Canada wants to cooperate with Russia.

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