Roundup: Toronto Pride at a necessary time

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It was Pride in Toronto over the weekend, and one that is more necessary than ever given the rising levels of anti-LGBTQ+ hatred that is being directed toward queer and trans communities, as old libellous tropes about sexual predators resurface and are being used by politicians, including those in Canada, to demonise queer and trans people. Look at some of the things Blaine Higgs has been saying in New Brunswick—this is not a “parental rights” issue, it’s one where he is making it quite clear that he doesn’t want LGBTQ+ people to take up space in public. It has also been pointed out that even though conversion therapy has been banned in Canada, the ideology that underpins it continues to be strong, and the Conservative candidate in Portage—Lisgar was advocating for it during the by-election, so these fights are not over by any stretch of the imagination.

As for the parade, Justin Trudeau was absent as he was off to Iceland for a summit, but his deputy, Chrystia Freeland, did lead the Liberal contingent. Jagmeet Singh was present, but Pierre Poilievre was not, which shouldn’t surprise anyone at this point. (Also, Singh didn’t tweet about Toronto Pride, nor did Poilievre even acknowledge it).

Ukraine Dispatch:

In spite of the ongoing attacks against Ukraine over the weekend, Ukrainians were enjoying the prospect of the attempted mutiny/coup that was taking place in Russia.

https://twitter.com/zelenskyyua/status/1673028522971987974

As for Russia and the Wagner mutiny/coup that wasn’t, it fizzled out as they reached the outskirts of Moscow, with rumours that Bularussian dictator Alexander Lukashenko had to broker the deal to end it, and that the Wagner leader will head to Belarus now, but we’re missing a lot of independent reporting on what may have happened, so we’ll see in the days ahead.

https://twitter.com/thestudyofwar/status/1673116584674754561

Good reads:

  • As mentioned above, Justin Trudeau is in Iceland for a summit of Nordic leaders at a time when the situation in Russia appears very volatile.
  • Over the weekend, the government’s Incident Response Group met to discuss the situation in Russia and what we knew about it.
  • Mélanie Joly says that Canada needs to bolster its influence on the world stage (but can we muster the capacity to increase our defence spending to meet that?)
  • The federal government spent $3.7 million on outside legal counsel around the use of the Emergencies Act, which seems fine? Honestly, not seeing a scandal here.
  • There are questions as to whether armoured vehicles Canada purchased for use by our diplomats around the world were in breach of UN sanctions.
  • Outgoing Clerk of the Privy Council Janice Charette talks about the need for the civil service to modernise, and defends the ongoing use of outside contractors.
  • Heather Scoffield worries that not enough is being spent on dealing with climate right now as the government spends millions on Net-Zero commitments.
  • Susan Delacourt sees a certain level of humbling imposed upon our party leaders heading into the summer break.
  • Chantal Hébert reads the room and finds that Poilievre is becoming more of a liability than a boon to the Conservatives’ electoral chances.
  • Colby Cosh notes that the Ukrainian Orthodox Church has voted to abandon the Julian calendar in order to further distance itself from Russia and its church.

Odds and ends:

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