Remember a week ago when Pierre Poilievre put out a tweet declaring that the Toronto Star was attacking him, and he tried to pre-spin a forthcoming story about he and his wife buying a $300 splash pool for their kids? Well, we finally saw that story on the weekend, and lo, it was nothing at all like Poilievre whiningly described. Instead, it was about how security upgrades have been made at Stornoway because of concerns that included those from the Sergeant-At-Arms of the House of Commons. Some “attack.”

This is, of course, how Poilievre likes to frame every media interaction, no matter what. The attacks he’s been making against The Canadian Press for the corrections they made to a story were not misquotes or certainly not a “hit piece” like he keeps saying—the corrections were because the journalist drew the links that Poilievre was hinting at in the remarks he made to a radio station. That was it. With the stories about Danielle Smith’s anti-trans policies and trying to get comment from Poilievre on them, he keeps accusing them of “disinformation,” when it’s nothing of the sort. We all know, of course, that this is him playing for clips that he’ll feed to his base on his socials, and that his friendly outlets like Rebel and True North will pick up on his behalf, but come on. At some point, you would think that people would see that the stories were not attacks and that he’s being a big crybaby over nothing. Of course, that would mean that their cognitive dissonance wouldn’t also kick in to avoid criticizing their leader, but come on. You’re not the victim here.

Ukraine Dispatch:

Russia launched 45 drones over Ukraine early Sunday, after they previous hit Kharkiv the day before, which killed seven. Russian forces are pushing into Avdiivka, and getting close to main supply lines, which creates a major challenge for the new commander-in-chief. Russians have been found using Starlink terminals in occupied territories in an organised manner, while Starlink insists that they haven’t sold terminals directly or indirectly to Russia.

Everyone who works to rescue people and provide aid after the strikes deserves immense gratitude. Those who devote their days and nights to ensuring that everyone is saved.

All of our regions and communities in need of protection receive it from Ukrainian State Emergency Service… pic.twitter.com/4ZhfZZpfy0

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) February 11, 2024

https://twitter.com/ukraine_world/status/1756210514835722290

Good reads:

• Justin Trudeau’s office says that King Abdullah II of Jordan will be visiting Ottawa on Wednesday to discuss the situation in the Middle East.
• Mark Holland is confident that pharmacare legislation can be tabled by the NDP’s March 1st deadline. (No word if it’ll be exactly what the NDP wants, mind you).
• Canada is risking irrelevance in Africa by not engaging enough, and being overtaken by Russia and China when it comes to development aid.
• Treaty 4 First Nations are taking the federal government to court over their $5 annual payments, which they argue should have increased in value over time.
• Digital policy experts are hoping for a fairly narrow online harms bill if it’s to be successful and not be praised as the saviour of the Internet.
• The Star fact-checked Pierre Poilievre’s claim that 40 people were arrested 6000 times in Vancouver in a single year, and unsurprisingly, it’s false.
• Kevin Carmichael delves further into the recent remarks about Canada’s lagging productivity from both Chrystia Freeland and Tiff Macklem.
• Emmett Macfarlane praises Friday’s Supreme Court of Canada decision on the ability to devolve Indigenous child and family services to individual communities.
• Jennifer Robson charts how disinflation (not deflation) has played out in Canada versus the US, and why the effects are not as evenly distributed here.
• Althia Raj calls out Poilievre’s evasiveness, falsehoods and desire to punch down when asked repeatedly about restrictions on trans healthcare.
• Susan Delacourt notes the increasing ability from both the Liberals and Conservatives to blame big business for what is ailing the country.
• My weekend column bids good riddance to that ridiculous “citizen’s assembly for electoral reform” motion that went down to defeat last week.

Odds and Ends:

For National Magazine, I get some analysis of Friday’s Supreme Court of Canada decision, and some thoughts as to what it means going forward.

Want more Routine Proceedings? Become a patron and get exclusive new content.