Roundup: Threats only matter when it’s your family

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The chatter yesterday morning was that the Diagolon crew talked on their online show about raping Pierre Poilievre’s wife just to prove that they could, and lo, Poilievre got angry, referred this to the RCMP, and called the Diagolon crew dirt bags and insisted he had never heard of this group before, even though he very clearly had, and had been playing footsie with them like he has with a bunch of other far-right extremists. And yes, it’s horrifying that they would make these kinds of comments—which they insist were just “a joke” and that they meant no harm (far-right extremists are always “just joking” until they’re not), but Poilievre only seemed to care about rape threats when they were directed as his family, and not, say, the female journalists who reported on his connections with Diagolon, for whom Poilievre decried as a “smear” and sent his flying monkeys after them, who were again subjected to all manner of graphic rape and death threats, which he has never denounced. You see where this is going?

https://twitter.com/TedFriendlyGuy/status/1574412812574769152

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 215:

It is apparently the last day of Russia’s sham referendum in occupied regions of Ukraine, while their forces have conducted drone airstrikes on the port of Odessa.

Good reads:

  • While updating on the Hurricane Fiona response, Justin Trudeau also announced new sanctions on Iran’s “morality police” in the wake of the death of Mahsa Amini.
  • After weeks of leaks, the government confirmed they were lifting all remaining border restrictions and mandates, more out of pressure than good science.
  • Mélanie Joly talked about women’s rights and access to reproductive services and abortion as part of her speech at the close of the UN General Assembly.
  • The CFIA is alarmed about sightings of lanternflies as far north as Buffalo, NY, given that these pests can damage fruit trees and vineyards.
  • Here is a longread about how it is difficult to craft policy about disinformation, particularly because it is such a hard nut to crack.
  • Ian Shugart, former Clerk of the Privy Council, and Gigi Osler, former president of the Canadian Medical Association, have been appointed to the Senate.
  • The Commons’ Access to Information, Privacy, and Ethics committee is going to study the Access to Information system, and how broken it is. (Good luck to them).
  • The pandemic pushed some 385 family doctors out of practice in Ontario, which affects some 170,000 patients. (Nothing to see here, says the Ford government.)
  • Alberta’s justice minister says he plans to resist the federal government’s plans around the “assault-style” rifle ban, and the mandatory buy-back as part of it.
  • Heather Scoffield counsels Chrystia Freeland not to do with the $20 billion windfall the federal coffers are expecting what the UK has done, crashing the pound.

Odds and ends:

My latest Quick Take explains the federal role in disaster relief such as with Fiona.

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