Roundup: Troll-bait taken

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Well, Pierre Poilievre’s troll-bait worked, and everyone was frothing at the mouth over the application of “government-funded media” to CBC’s main Twitter account (but not its news accounts, or any of their French accounts). And the Conservatives lapped it up; Andrew Scheer, pleased as punch and in full smirking doofus mode, even gave a trollish member’s statement ahead of Question Period which was quickly clipped for use as a shitpost. In protest, CBC declared they would “pause” their use of Twitter, which just cedes the field the flood of bullshit. And then later in the day, Elon Musk decided to adjust his tag to say “70% government-funded,” as if it makes a difference to the insinuation Poilievre was trying to impart, only for a short while later, change that to “69% government-funded,” because this is Musk and Poilievre we’re talking about, and they have the mentality of twelve-year-olds in their quest to become shitposting edgelords.

 

Justin Trudeau, somewhat cleverly, noted that Poilievre ran to the arms of American web-giant billionaires to support his attack on Canadians, which bolsters the Liberals’ narrative about their legislation to curb the power of web giants and forcing them to pay into the Canadian content ecosystem (which the Conservatives have been falsely decrying as government censorship). The NDP and the Bloc went with the tactic of calling this an attack on Quebec culture, which may do more damage to the Conservatives in the province where they are hoping to make inroads.

But this is all culture war bullshit, and yet, people fell for the troll bait. The Liberals immediately tried to fundraise off of this, and played right into the Conservatives’ hands.

I did note that three former CBC bureau chiefs did impart their experiences about editorial independence, and governments going after them for their reporting, which is not exactly the narrative that Poilievre has been trying to prompt.

Ukraine Dispatch:

The Ukrainian grain deal is threatened as Poland, Hungary and Slovakia have all banned Ukrainian grain as part of protectionist measures, and the EU is likely to mount some kind of response. The prisoner exchange on Sunday saw 130 Ukrainians returned, but it’s not clear how many Russians were turned over. A top Ukrainian official said that they will launch their counteroffensive when they’re good and ready, and not before.

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau and François-Philippe Champagne announced funding (but not how much) for Ericsson to do 5G and 6G network research here in Canada.
  • Trudeau reiterated that a foreign agent registry must ensure that it doesn’t target diaspora communities for harassment or intimidation.
  • An internal audit at Veterans Affairs found that more permanent funding is needed to maintain military grave sites and cemeteries.
  • The largest public sector union has given a deadline of 9 PM tonight for a deal, and if not, they strike at midnight.
  • Elections Canada says that all parties must publish fundraising venues, never mind the security concerns that have become prevalent (particularly for Trudeau).
  • Two Canadian women and three teenaged girls who were supposed to be repatriated from Syria have gone missing.
  • A number of political and military names (plus others like Beverley McLachlin) signed a letter to call on the government to keep up on defence spending.
  • The Federal Court has dismissed the Privacy Commissioner’s case against Facebook regarding the Cambridge Analytica affair.
  • Here is an interview with former Supreme Court of Canada justice Michael Moldaver, in which he admits to failing in trying to push criminal law reforms.
  • Parliamentarians returning from their trip to Taiwan say they have learned some things around dealing with foreign interference.
  • The Conservatives tried to have the Public Accounts Committee investigate the Trudeau Foundation, even though that’s beyond their remit (but were voted down).
  • At the foreign affairs committee, Marco Mendicino rejected the calls to make the Afghan aid exemptions to terror laws more sweeping.
  • Scott Moe continues to sound like a petulant child in order to pretend he’s tough about Trudeau.
  • Alberta’s energy regulator is now reconsidering its approval of an oil sands site after shortfalls were found in the plans around a particularly sensitive wetland.
  • Theo Argitis notes the warnings from some economists on the housing problem as immigration levels increase (without noting the minister has talked about this).
  • Susan Delacourt lists three times Trudeau “chickened out” from making bold political moves that would have helped him by now.

Odds and ends:

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