Roundup: It’s Coronation Day

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It’s Coronation Day, and Justin Trudeau will have arrived in the wee hours, having taken a red-eye across the Atlantic to get there. Trudeau was absent from the meeting with other Commonwealth leaders, where he could have been doing something productive like organising to help advance LGBTQ+ rights within those countries (as I suggested in my Xtra column). Nevertheless, it was bad form for him not to be there, especially as he could have moved his party convention to another weekend once the coronation date was announced.

Most of the official delegation gathered for a photo, sans-Trudeau. Not in the delegation but part of the day’s festivities is Canadian Marion Portelance, who will be playing cello at the post-Coronation concert, and it’s believed the cello she’s using was once owned and played by the King.

And because it’s her big day as a royal correspondent, our friend Patricia Treble has stories out on pretty much every platform:

  • For the Globe and Mail, a visual guide of the event and the regalia used in it.
  • For The Line, she delves into the Kremlinology of who is and is not showing up for the big event.
  • For the Star, some coronation history and some of the fascinating events that have happened during them.
  • In The Walrus, traces the indifference Canadians feel for the King to the apathy to the Crown exhibited by governments.
  • On her Substack, showcases some of the coronation scenes in London.

Ukraine Dispatch:

The leader of Russia’s mercenary Wagner Group says they’re pulling out of Bakhmut in days because they lack ammunition, and are dying in vain. (Ukraine believes they are simply reinforcing their positions). There is still shelling happening in the Kherson region, while the Russian-installed “governor” of the Zaporizhzhia region is ordering an evacuation of villages close to the front line. Meanwhile, new analysis is showing that the drone that struck the Kremlin likely launched from within Russia.

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau calls his statement on Wednesday about the Chong briefing was the “best information at the time,” while Marco Mendicino is blaming CSIS.
  • Chrystia Freeland says that if the “grocery rebate” bill passes the Senate next week, the cheques should be out by July.
  • Jean-Yves Duclos says that we can’t forget COVID is still a threat, even as the WHO has declared it to no longer be a global health emergency.
  • The Canadian military portion of the evacuation mission in Sudan is winding down, and those planes will resume carrying supplies to Ukraine.
  • A UN initiative aimed at eliminating gender-based violence is looking to the Canadian government to help fund it.
  • Senator Yuen Pau Woo demands the RMCP to disclose evidence about the so-called Chinese “police stations” operating in Canada, and that this isn’t just profiling.
  • Hillary Clinton had her on-stage chat with Chrystia Freeland at the Liberal convention, talking about Putin, the US Supreme Court, and Liberal policies.
  • Jean Charest is looking for an additional $705,000 in damages from the Quebec government after leaks about anti-corruption probes.
  • Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board is revisiting its decision not to offer PTSD benefits to former Afghan interpreters and advisors.
  • There are evacuation orders in Alberta for 13,000 people because of wildfires.
  • Kevin Carmichael parses the April job numbers that were released yesterday, and what it means for the Bank of Canada’s calculus.
  • Lindsay Tedds and David Green point to their research that shows that Basic Income programmes aren’t the panacea that their proponents make them out to be.
  • Althia Raj wonders why there is such a slow response to calls to expel the Chinese diplomat named in the Chong revelations.
  • Chantal Hébert surveys the landscape of the Liberal Party as they hold their convention, and how the campaign is being shaped by Trudeau and Poilievre.
  • Paul Wells takes issue with one of the more boneheaded policy resolutions at the Liberal convention which amounts to government censorship of journalism.
  • My weekend column looks at the past week with the Chong revelations, and how it proves that our Parliament is incapable of being serious about serious issues.

Odds and ends:

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