Roundup: Danielle Smith threatens to use a magical incantation

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Alberta premier Danielle Smith has launched a new ad campaign trying to agitate against the federal government over the clean electricity regulations, trying to get other provinces to similarly fight back against them, claiming that people will freeze in the dark, and there will be rolling blackouts, and so on. None of this is actually true, and the fact that energy prices in her province have shot up have little to do with the clean electricity transition than the choices that her government made around how those prices are regulated. She has also lied and said that because the federal regulations use the criminal law powers that energy CEOs will be jailed in 2035 if they still use natural gas—an absolute falsehood that is not only lurid for the sake of scoring points, but ignores that not every criminal penalty is jail, but can mean large fines (because fines over a certain size become the domain of criminal law instead of administrative monetary penalties.

https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/1707491205678858379

The most hilarious part, however, is that Smith is “threatening” to invoke her risible “Sovereignty Act” to fight these regulations, which will do absolutely nothing. She might as well threaten to use a magical incantation for all of the good it will do. Unfortunately, there are far too many credulous journalists and pundits who actually believe that this kind of magical incantation has any power, which is disappointing and allows Smith to continue with her nonsense.

Anyway, here’s Andrew Leach with some actual facts that Smith is missing.

Ukraine Dispatch:

Not a lot of news out of Ukraine yesterday, except for a visit from NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who says that Ukraine is gaining ground in their counter-offensive, while president Volodymyr Zelenskyy continues to call for more air defences, given how many drone attacks they have been under in recent nights.

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau and François-Philippe Champagne announced an investment in an EV battery plant by Swedish manufacturer Northvolt.
  • Trudeau also reiterated that there have been contacts with Ukrainian counterparts over Friday’s incident, but not Zelenskyy personally at this point.
  • Trudeau said that he is still committed to “closer ties” to India in spite of the allegations around the Nijjar murder, stressing the need for an investigation.
  • There are calls for the government to actively fight Russian propaganda in the wake of Friday’s incident, but so far there are no signs they are doing so.
  • The independent oversight body monitoring the adoption of Mass Casualty Commission recommendations has to rely on public pressure.
  • Police in Quebec shot a man while they were investigating threats he was making to Justin Trudeau and François Legault.
  • Indian hacker groups have been launching nuisance attacks against government and parliamentary websites after the public allegations around the Nijjar murder.
  • The trial of the alleged RCMP spy will finally get underway on Tuesday.
  • Conservatives are trying to keep attempting to blame Trudeau for Rota’s colossal blunder by way of a committee study that has no plans to call Rota. Of course.
  • The Canadian Press tries to decipher just what Poilievre’s Indigenous policies will be, given his past and the Conservative record (while they refused to answer).
  • The Post interviews interim Speaker Louis Plamondon.
  • When a court granted an injunction against Scott Moe’s pronoun policy in schools, Moe is threatening to recall the legislature to invoke the Notwithstanding Clause.
  • Northwest Territories premier Caroline Cochrane says she’s not going to run again.

Odds and ends:

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