Roundup: Conservative MP is trying to get journalists killed

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Conservative MP Rachael Thomas is doubling down on her accusation that CBC is somehow “complicit in the blood bath of Hamas” because they don’t use the word “terrorist,” and I just can’t. It’s a not that this is just deeply unethical, and grossly immoral, and it’s unconscionable that she has been making a career out of not just outright lying to the public, but engaging in this weird and dystopian world-building where she talks straight-faced about the prime minister being a “dictator,” and that the kinds of garden-variety CanCon regulations that have dominated the Canadian media space since the 1960s at least is some kind of evil censorship regime. This particular sociopathic accusation goes beyond all of that, and has entered into the ghoulish territory of looking to get someone killed, while she does her damnedest to undermine their independence and the freedom of the press in this country.

The Conservatives have been expending a great deal of energy in recent years into de-legitimising legacy media, primarily the CBC, but really anyone else who might challenge them on any of the mendacity that pervades everything they do now. Part of this is because they are trying to replicate the kinds of divergent media ecosystems that now pervade the US, where you have wholly separate realities between what’s on Fox News, and what’s on CNN or MSNBC. This is what they’re after. It’s dangerous, it’s anti-democratic, and it’s already causing serious damage to our country.

And the worst part? That legacy media doesn’t know how to deal with this threat, so they just both-sides harder. We’re already so far down this path and we keep ignoring the exit signs because we think that it be as bad as it is in the US. We need to wake up. This isn’t going away, and the Conservatives aren’t going to suddenly get reasonable during or after the election.

Ukraine Dispatch:

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says that the Russians have lost at least a brigade’s worth of troops trying to advance on Avdiivka (which could be anywhere between 1500 to 8000 troops, depending), and it’s believed that losses of this magnitude could undermine Russian offensive capabilities elsewhere. Meanwhile, US defence contractors are starting to ramp up production—and revenues—as a result of Ukraine, and now Israel.

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1717894154233974970

Good reads:

  • Two years later, Chrystia Freeland says her department is working to get the clean energy investment tax credits past the finish line so they can be used.
  • The Fiscal Monitor shows that between April and August the government has run a $4.3 billion deficit (which is miniscule in the size of our economy).
  • The federal government is matching donations to the Humanitarian Coalition’s relief work in Gaza and the West Bank.
  • Mark Miller says the federal government will introduce new rules to crack down on bad actors preying on international students if provinces can’t get their act together.
  • Security costs for the prime minister have increased dramatically over the past couple of years (not unsurprisingly given the “friendly sausage maker” incident).
  • It’s the usual wailing and gnashing of teeth because military chaplains are being asked to be more inclusive and to remember that religion traumatised some people.
  • The CEO of the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation is leaving and taking a job at the IMF.
  • At the Cameron Ortis trial, more holes were poked in the defence’s supposition that he could have been doing undercover work when he was arrested.
  • Former NDP MP Roméo Saganash is entering into a restorative justice programme after an allegation of sexual assault.
  • After his whole song and dance that he was “blindsided” by the school pronoun policy, it turns out Blaine Higgs had been briefed on it four years ago.
  • CUPE wants the federal government to use disallowance on Saskatchewan’s use of the Notwithstanding Clause, which would only cause a constitutional crisis.
  • Justin Ling looks to the lessons of America’s failure in Iraq to preview what is likely to happen with Israel and Gaza.

Odds and ends:

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One thought on “Roundup: Conservative MP is trying to get journalists killed”

  1. Thank you for calling out M.P. Rachel Thomas. You hit the nail on the head about our own media. At least in U.S. I hear Journalists discussing the dangers around the far right. Jay Rosen is one that I listen to. And you are often a voice in the wilderness. Keep up your good work.

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