Roundup: A nightclub shooting and sportwashing

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There was another shooting at an LGBTQ+ nightclub over the weekend, this time in Colorado Springs. It comes after a marked increase of far-right groups targeting drag queens and trans people, and make no mistake that such rhetoric is very much leaking into Canada, and was present in the election through the People’s Party, and featured in some of the discourse coming out of the occupation in Ottawa back in February. It is having an impact here—I’ve spoken to out gay MPs who say they haven’t faced these kinds of threats in years, but now they’ve made a comeback, and this is going to mean a concerted effort to take this seriously in our politics. Unfortunately, I’m not sure how much I trust that it’ll happen, given that our current government talks a better game than they do in following through, and the Conservatives are hoovering up the far-right tactics and propaganda as a way of trying to use the far right to win votes rather than playing to the centre, and Poilievre has insulated himself from criticism on this by putting his two out MPs in his leadership team, including making Melissa Lantsman one of his deputy leaders.

https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/1594362156547547145

https://twitter.com/carl_s_charles/status/1594358215226990598

With this in mind, and Trudeau’s words especially, I am curious why he and his government then chose to send a delegation, led by Harjit Sajjan, to the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, a country that criminalises LGBTQ+ people, and which is essentially a modern slave state where hundreds of migrant workers died in order to build the facilities for these games. By choosing to send the delegation (as opposed to letting Team Canada participate), they are actively participating in the sportswashing happening. Not to say that Canada hasn’t done its share of sportswashing (thinking especially of the Vancouver winter Olympics), but this is egregious, and incredibly disappointing that they made this choice.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 271:

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant was shelled again over the weekend, with each side blaming the other. There was more Russian shelling in the same region, destroying more civilian infrastructure including 30 homes, while more shelling in Luhansk and Donetsk killed at least one person as Russians targeted power lines. Elsewhere, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister said they will look into videos circulating that purport to show Ukrainian troops shooting Russian soldiers trying to surrender, but the clips are truncated and don’t show context. In Kherson, the city is coming back to life following their liberation, while in Kyiv, the mayor discusses the challenges facing as their critical infrastructure, most especially electricity, is being targeted.

Good reads:

  • Following the APEC summit, Trudeau went to Tunisia for the Francophonie summit, where he pledged to raise concerns about democratic backsliding there.
  • Trudeau spoke about a possible role Canada could play in Haiti if there is internal consensus in the country.
  • Trudeau said that contrary to media reports, he wasn’t briefed on the alleged Chinese interference in the 2019 election but has called for an investigation.
  • The CRA says that tens of thousands of Canadians have outstanding debts based on pandemic supports obtained improperly, totalling to about $1.2 billion.
  • COP27 ended with agreement on providing funds to poorer countries, but no agreement on tougher emissions reductions targets.
  • Iranian Canadians who had been conscripted into the IRGC as young men want the Canadian government to contest their inadmissibility into the US. (Good luck).
  • Former Bank of Canada governor Stephen Poloz defends his record and the notion that inflation is transitory (the meaning of which has become distorted).
  • Jagmeet Singh went to Berlin to bolster his international profile and get tips from the NDP’s “sister party,” the SPD, on how to win elections.
  • Elizabeth May is once again leader of the Green Party, and now seeks approval to formally move to a co-leader model with Jonathan Pedneault. (I profiled him here).
  • CUPE and the Ontario government have reached a tentative deal around education workers, averting another strike.
  • Métis delegates in Saskatchewan are calling for the provincial government to withdraw their risible “Saskatchewan First Act” bill.
  • Carissima Mathen points out the unanswered questions that remain around provinces closing their borders during the height of the pandemic.
  • My weekend column looks at the various political actors who have taken to misquoting Tiff Macklem for their own ends, and nobody bothers to correct them.

Odds and ends:

My Loonie Politics Quick Take looks at the accusation that the federal government is holding Canadians “hostage” over healthcare transfers, when it’s the provinces.

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