Roundup: Coronation details at last

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At long last, the federal government finally announced the delegation that is heading to the coronation in London, and much of it is unsurprising given that, for example, Indigenous leaders are already there along with Mary May Simon. News is that astronaut Jeremy Hanson will be Canada’s flag-bearer at the ceremony, and that there will be coronation medals created, which they didn’t do for the sesquicentennial or the Platinum Jubilee.

Meanwhile, the Globe and Mail has another particularly problematic story headline, wherein they cite the Governor General saying that King Charles “has work to do to cultivate ties with Canada.” The problem is that the story doesn’t actually say that—in the story, Mary May Simon says that because Charles isn’t as beloved as his mother, he “needs to develop his relationship further with Canada.” Which is true, but therein lies a couple of challenges. For one, he has plenty of ties to Canada that the headline incorrectly cites, and through his charity work over decades, he’s had exposure to a wide swath of the country that will be less accessible to him now that he’s King. In fact, not that he’s the King and not just a working member of the royal family, future trips to Canada will be much more circumscribed by what the government allows, because these kinds of visits are all at the behest and stage-managed by the government of the day. Charles has wanted to do more trips to Canada, trying to do one every two years, but the current government has been less interested in that, so he hasn’t been here as much as he would have liked. And that reluctance is going to play out in the future.

In other coronation-related stories:

  • Following midnight rehearsals, RCMP participating in the coronation say they’re good to go on the big day.
  • Here’s some of the history of the items being used during the ceremony.
  • There’s still no word about what our government is planning to do about the King on banknotes and coins, while other Realms go in different directions.
  • Australian constitutional scholar Anne Twomey offers some history and context on the coronation as it applies to realms like Australia and Canada.

Ukraine Dispatch:

Russian forces shelled Kherson, killing twenty-one civilians, and injuring over forty-eight. Russians claim they “foiled” an “assassination attempt” on Putin with an alleged drone attack on the Kremlin, which Ukraine denies launching. Experts also conclude that the Russian claim doesn’t make any sense.

https://twitter.com/zelenskyyua/status/1653824270626070540?s=61&t=4Hh5vgfw5YMHmDbMU3ctNg

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1653709872771260419?s=61&t=4Hh5vgfw5YMHmDbMU3ctNg

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau clarified that CSIS didn’t inform him of the threats around Michael Chong’s family two years ago, and has issued new directives to them about threats.
  • Trudeau also announced the appointment of two new senators—one for PEI, the other for Newfoundland and Labrador.
  • Anita Anand says she’s concerned about reports that anti-corruption laws may have been broken around a sole-source contract for armoured vehicles for Ukraine.
  • Harjit Sajjan pledged $71 million in aid for Sudan, South Sudan, and the Central African Republic given the ongoing humanitarian crisis.
  • The government has clauses in the budget implementation bill to allow political parties to simply follow their own privacy guidelines, with no federal standards.
  • Canada has levied more sanctions on Iranians connected to the “morality police” and drone manufacturers.
  • The parliamentary internship programme is in trouble as the organisers struggle to adapt to changing labour and tax rules that it falls under.
  • 24 Sussex is being gutted and decommissioned, with no plans to replace any of it so nobody will be moving back in at any point.
  • At a Senate committee, Google and Facebook executives continue to insist that they’re willing to end sharing news on their platforms rather than pay publishers.
  • A Senate public bill intended to end use of child and forced labour in supply chains passed, but critics say the bill is essentially toothless.
  • Alexandre Trudeau was at the Ethics Committee to insist the donation to the Trudeau Foundation was not foreign interference (but probably didn’t help things).
  • Here’s a preview of some policy resolutions at the Liberal convention this weekend (which are useless because the party centralised that power in the leader’s office).
  • Independent MP Kevin Vuong claims he’s been the victim of foreign interference, and seems to be saying the sexual assault allegation was a Chinese honey trap.
  • Justin Ling lists the things that governments across Canada have an underlying problem with—fixing things once we identify where and how they’re broken.

Odds and ends:

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