The morning after the David Johnston report and his recommendation not to hold a public inquiry, and the day was largely just more people demanding one anyway. Yves-François Blanchet decided to team up with Pierre Poilievre to declare that any ability to give them classified briefings was a “trap” to shut them up, which is a) patently ridiculous, b) a test of being adults that they both failed, and c) an admission that they would rather make hay than actually do the work of accountability that their job requires of them, which again, goes to the fact that ours is no longer a serious Parliament.

We have been able to neglect national security for decades at little cost because we have been a fairly safe country. If you think about it, it's been a pretty sweet deal: to act collectively (this is a bipartisan thing) as national security dilettantes, without paying a price.

— Thomas Juneau (@thomasjuneau) May 24, 2023

…such shock, but not the only one (think pandemic, Trump, etc). It is slow, too slow, but the trend is there – Canada is (slowly) catching up.

Last point, these events follow a pretty clear pattern I predicted back in 2020:https://t.co/meA0aJJlGF

— Thomas Juneau (@thomasjuneau) May 24, 2023

https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/1661329685546975232

https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/1661383973488975872

https://twitter.com/JessMarinDavis/status/1661372432676954118

As if to prove that Parliament is not serious, opposition members on the Procedure and House Affairs committee are now demanding that Johnston appear before them to explain his decision not to recommend a public inquiry. I mean, those reasons are all in his report if they bothered to read it, but that’s not what this is about. Rather, they want a dog and pony show, a chance to mug for the cameras while they hurl either invective or sanctimony toward him (depending which opposition party we’re discussing here) so that they can take those clips for their social media.

Meanwhile, two of the journalists reporting on the leaked documents were on Power & Politics last night, an as expected, there was zero self-reflection or acknowledgement that they might be getting played, particularly after Johnston debunked things they have written about. Instead, we got self-justification and rationalization, and trying to insist that Johnston wasn’t the expert while their leaker was—never mind that we can see that what was leaked was done in a way to craft a particular narrative that appears to have partisan ends. And lo, the same pair produced one of the laziest stories I’ve seen in weeks, where they got two former commission counsel to insist that a public inquiry would “restore confidence” without actually saying how.

There was virtually no self-reflection after they breathlessly reported on the lies about Maher Arar during his detention, and went to the wall to protect the sources that lied to them, even after the fact that they learned that they had been lied to and played.

— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) May 24, 2023

Ukraine Dispatch:

All the news appears to be about those Russian dissent groups crossing into Belgorod region in Russian, denying reports that they were “crushed” by Russian forces ad saying that they’ll keep up the incursions, which is likely to stretch Russia’s forces even more than they are already over-extended maintaining their invasion of Ukraine. Meanwhile, Norway will also help train Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighter jets (but I haven’t heard who will be donating the aircraft just yet).

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1661405030388310018

https://twitter.com/defencehq/status/1661249400281202688

I can't wait for folks in Canada to complain about being left out of this effort despite the fact that Canada never had any F-16s. The RCAF lacks the expertise to help in this effort. ¯_(ツ)_/¯ https://t.co/4GleTz75L1

— Steve Saideman (@smsaideman) May 24, 2023

Good reads:

• Justin Trudeau was in Winnipeg to announce that the new Canada Water Agency would be headquartered there, with some updated legislation on the way.
• Trudeau also announced that Canada is going to resume diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia (which is not a reward for good behaviour, so stop saying it is).
• CSE warned about Chinese-backed hackers targeting critical infrastructure in the US, as part of an alert to all Five-Eyes partners.
• Sixteen MPs have asked the government to condemn the arrest of Imran Khan in Pakistan; Mélanie Joly says she is “preoccupied” with the situation.
• The “street pastor” Danielle Smith was trying to manipulate the justice system for made a bunch of wild accusationsabout her, accidentally making her look palatable.
• Althia Raj notes that David Johnston seems to be existing in a more genteel era where he thinks political leaders can come together to solve problems.
• Paul Wells adds a whole lot of context to the chatter that Michael Sabia, deputy minister of finance, is headed for the CEO of Hydro Québec.

Odds and ends:

For National Magazine, I take an in-depth look at Friday’s decision at the Supreme Court of Canada around protecting counter-speech from defamation suits.

https://youtu.be/nNbZr-mG4QA 

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