Roundup: The disinfo is coming from inside the house

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Happy New Year!

I’m going to ease us back in with a reminder that yes, the far-right extremists, grifters, conspiracy theorists and grievance tourists who occupied Ottawa last winter were not an imported phenomenon, but have firm roots in Canada and the discourse here. Yes, some of it does get imported, where it finds fertile soil, but we do export our share of it too, which is one of those fundamental things that our policy-makers are going to have to grapple with in the coming year.

https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/1609902285156646913

https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/1609902289443229698

https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/1609906080389423110

https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/1609908494853103623

In case you missed it:

  • My column on the problems with the federal ethics regime and why the Liberals have such a problem with it.
  • My column on the government being very slow to pass bills over the past session, as their ambitious agenda stalls.
  • My column on why decades of austerity is one of the reasons for why people are complaining that Canada is supposedly “broken.”
  • My Loonie Politics Quick Take on why Bill C-22 is one to watch over the New Year.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 314:

Russian forces did not slow their attacks on Ukraine over the Christmas and New Year period, and president Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that Russia is planning a protracted drone strike campaign to “exhaust” Ukraine. Ukrainian forces struck Russian positions in Donetsk, which Russians claim killed 63 soldiers, one of the deadliest attacks since the invasion began, as ammunition stored at the area of the strike exploded.

Good reads:

  • Here’s the transcript of Justin Trudeau’s year-ender with CTV, and boy howdy are there some absolutely terrible, utterly misinformed questions in there. Cripes.
  • Here’s a look at Steven Guilbeault’s first year as an activist in the post of environment minister.
  • Marco Mendicino says the government continues to look at the options for the upcoming gun buyback programme.
  • What? The testing requirements for travellers from China, Hong Kong and Macau are political and not driven by science? You don’t say!
  • The Federal Court has granted an emergency stay on the Competition Tribunal’s decision to allow the Rogers-Shaw merger while the Competition Bureau appeals.
  • The Star has a longread about the state of the RCMP as it enters into its 150th year.
  • Here is yet another reminder that it’s not just money that healthcare systems need, but transformative change particularly in how doctors work and nurses are treated.
  • Pierre Poilievre continues to spout utter nonsense about inflation, and claims he doesn’t like the “rage” around the “Fuck Trudeau” flags (except he feeds on rage).
  • Kevin Carmichael had a year-ender with Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem.
  • Susan Delacourt talks to Mélanie Joly about what she heard from her foreign counterparts about the Ottawa occupation and the role of disinformation.

Odds and ends:

Adam Scotti shares his year in photos, with some really interesting behind-the-scenes images of the PM over the past year.

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