Roundup: Independent thought alarm, Iran edition

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I hear the independent thought alarm sounding as Liberal MP Ali Ehsassi, who is Iranian-Canadian, is being critical of the government’s response when it comes to sanctions on the Iranian regime, and he wants them to do more. This being said, he has stressed that the minister, Mélanie Joly, has been very receptive to talking to him about the situation, and hearing his ideas, but that wasn’t of any interest to the CBC. No, they were interested in the narrative that even Liberal MPs aren’t happy with the government’s moves to date on sanctioning the Iranian regime, and lo, they put on an “expert” who says the government should do more, in spite of the fact that the don’t have the actual capacity to enforce more sanctions, let alone monitor the entire Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.

I don’t expect the party to come down on Ehsassi for this, and the Liberals have demonstrated that they are willing to put up with a certain degree of independence from their MPs (more so than pretty much any other party right now), but I always find the reaction of the media interesting in situations like this, because as much as they claim they want more independence for MPs, when it gets demonstrated, they immediately start acting like this is either an attack on the government/prime minister, and they try to wedge it as much as possible to make it sound exciting. But all this really does is crack the whip without the party Whip ever needing to do a thing, because the media is enforcing discipline more than he ever could. Some members of the media should probably reflect on that fact

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 222:

Ukrainian forces have made a major breakthrough in the south, advancing along the Dnipro River and threatening Russian supply lines in the region. In the northeast, the liberation of Lyman is providing a staging ground to press into the Donbas region.

Good reads:

  • The prime minister will testify at the public inquiry on the invocation of the Emergencies Act, among 60 or so other witnesses.
  • It is apparently newsworthy that Justin Trudeau went bungee-jumping over the weekend.
  • The government has managed to fast-track their bill to double the GST rebate.
  • Ahmed Hussen is looking for an organisation to administer the Black-Led Philanthropic Fund, which aims to support Black-led charities and non-profits.
  • A report co-authored by Dr. Theresa Tam says that if we didn’t take any public health precautions, COVID would have killed 800,000 more people in Canada.
  • The wait-list for military housing is around 4,500 service members long, which is not helping with the recruitment crisis one big.
  • Questions are being raised about changes Statistics Canada made to the census around what languages are spoken at home, but they say they tested it beforehand.
  • Oh, look—Hockey Canada had a second secret fund to pay off sexual assault settlements, because clearly the culture in the sport isn’t a problem.
  • A new challenge to the country’s sex-work laws is going to court in Toronto.
  • Tim Houston is complaining that the federal government hasn’t sent as many troops to clean up hurricane damage as he wants (as though they have nothing else to do).
  • François Legault and the CAQ won another majority legislature in Quebec.
  • Danielle Smith says that if she wins the leadership, she won’t call a snap election because she might lose to the NDP, though she will try for a seat in a by-election.

Odds and ends:

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One thought on “Roundup: Independent thought alarm, Iran edition”

  1. Dale ,I listened to the Power and Politics Hostess interview the Iranian, Liberal M.P., and she made strange faces, trying to get him to say “bad” things about ‘Your” gov’t. My pet peeve is the reference to “your Gov’t.”, instead of “our” Gov’t. She obviously did not vote for this ,present Gov’t.! but, he tried to make his points diplomatically, and she bullied him.

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