Roundup: Inviting the politician’s syllogism

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As the questions about what to do around the accosting of Chrystia Freeland continued yesterday, several reporters started asking about why the government hasn’t moved ahead with their promised online harms legislation, which is kind of funny because most of these very same reporters know exactly what happened to it—the draft legislation introduced before the election was so roundly criticised from all sides that the government decided to take a more serious effort at consultation and drafting a bill that won’t be deemed too censorious, and it’s a tough task because it’s a very tiny needle to thread. Exceedingly tiny. And these same journalists know this because they’ve either covered the story, or followed the coverage. I’m not even sure if online harms would be applicable in this particular situation because it wasn’t online, and when it comes to criminal threats being directed at journalists and politicians, again, most of that is already criminal and it simply requires police to do their jobs, which Parliament can’t exactly legislate them to do beyond the Criminal Code provisions that are already in statute. Either way, this whole line of questioning is suspect, and I’m not sure why they’re going down this road other than the politician’s syllogism, which is poor form for media in general, but in this case most especially.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 187:

The Ukrainian counter-attack around the strategic city of Kherson has begun, and claim to have broken through the Russian defences in several areas of the front-line around the city. Russians, meanwhile, have been shelling the southern city of Mykolaiv, as well as military and civilian infrastructure near the towns of Bakhmut, Shumy, Yakovlivka, Zaytsevo, and Kodema in the Donetsk region. Meanwhile, inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency are now on their way to the Zaporizhizhia nuclear plant, which Ukrainians say the Russians have been using as a military base.

https://twitter.com/KyivPost/status/1564190989966778368

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau was on Parliament Hill yesterday to raise a flag dedicated to residential school survivors.
  • Ministers on the government’s wait times task force reported their progress yesterday, with more work to go (look for my column on this later today).
  • At the same conference, Marco Mendicino called the harassment and intimidation of politicians “a threat to democracy” (and he’s right).
  • Mendicino also issued new directives around the use of “dry cells” in correctional facilities (for when inmates are suspected of smuggling contraband internally).
  • Ahmed Hussen says his department is now conducting an “extensive review” on how CMAC was given its anti-racism contract, to prevent future occurrences.
  • Mary Ng is launching a new challenge on US duties on softwood lumber under the New NAFTA dispute resolution system.
  • The federal government has invoked the 1977 energy treaty with the US a second time around Line 5, this time in Wisconsin around the plans to relocate the pipeline.
  • It looks like the 2020 cyber-attack on the CRA’s online portal was ten times worse than earlier believed, and that it was used for a large volume of CERB fraud.
  • A change of command ceremony at one of the country’s two main military air bases is on hold pending a review of an incident at a call-sign review board gathering.
  • A report commissioned by the Parliamentary Protective Service on the use of facial recognition as a security screening tool says it would be a legal and privacy threat.
  • Kevin Carmichael reflects on the Bank of Canada’s failure to predict the inflation surge, their ability to learn lessons, and the problem with fancy math.

Odds and ends:

My Loonie Politics Quick Take wonders if the premiers think that the federal government is blind and dumb as they plead poverty while sending out cheques.

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