Roundup: Add another boycott to the list

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The Conservatives have decided that they don’t accept CTV’s apology for reconstructing a Poilievre quote for a piece, and have decided to boycott them, which basically adds to the list, on the flimsiest of excuses, while Poilievre goes about trashing the company CEO and claiming that he somehow directed the journalists in the piece to mangle the quote for some unknown end (it certainly wasn’t “malicious” as they are whinging), because if there’s one thing the Conservatives love to do, it’s to drum up some elaborate but stupid conspiracy theory.

Some people have asked why exactly he’s doing this, and it’s not just rage-farming. It’s a very careful and systematic war against media outlets because one thing that authoritarians and wannabe authoritarians do is delegitimise media sources so that they can undermine the shared reality we live in. The Americans have long-since done this with Fox News being a separate and alternate reality to our own, with a whole set of separate facts and narratives that don’t correspond to objective reality. And as the joke goes, the Fox News of Canada is Fox News—people simply consume it over the border. Poilievre is taking this page out of the authoritarian playbook and is running with it to its fullest. This is deliberate, just as it’s deliberate that they want you to believe that Justin Trudeau is a censorious jackbooted dictator who has turned Canada into a communist hellhole, and they don’t want media to dispute that depiction through things like facts. Legacy media is hurting these days, but it remains important for these very reasons.

(Meanwhile, can I just point out that of course JP Tasker, who wrote the CBC piece, went to Peter Menzies for comment. Menzies recently wrote an op-ed in The Line that we need to validate the feelings of white supremacists if we want to avoid race riots like we saw happen in the UK. There were so many more qualified people to speak to the situation of journalism and politicial parties going to war with outlets, and Tasker chose him. Honest to Hermes…)

Ukraine Dispatch

Russian guided bombs hit an apartment block in Kharkiv, and Russian attacks on two other towns in the eastern part of the country, filling three more. Ukrainian forces say they dislodged Russians from a processing plant in Vovchansk after hand-to-hand combat. At the UN, president Zelenskyy called for support for their actions with their “peace plan” rather than just talks with Moscow.

Good reads:

  • While at the UN, Justin Trudeau was given the Order of Freedom by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
  • If you missed it, here’s a recap of Trudeau’s appearance with Stephen Colbert, and you can find it on YouTube (Parts one, two and three).
  • François-Philippe Champagne launched Health Emergency Readiness Canada to help prepare for future pandemics (never mind we are still in one).
  • Mark Miller says there may be a need for stronger visa measures from certain countries including India given unfounded asylum claims and US border crossings.
  • Steven Guilbeault thinks the complexity is why the carbon levy and rebate hasn’t resonated with Canadians (but media saying “It’s complicated!” hasn’t helped).
  • Guilbeault also called out Poilievre for fundraisers with oil and gas executives last year, citing it as a reason for Poilievre looking to dismantle climate action.
  • The Chief Electoral Officer says Elections Canada doesn’t want to run nominations (good!) but says parties need clear, published rules and safeguards in place.
  • Elections Canada also says they have limited ability and capacity to check if every donation is coming from a citizen or permanent resident.
  • Pierre Poilievre kicked off his non-confidence motion with a speech about his vision of Canada, that he will clip for his socials and political ads.
  • Danielle Smith outlined her plans to amend the Alberta Bill of Rights to include gun rights and to cater to anti-vaxxers.
  • Susan Delacourt sees the Colbert appearance as Trudeau trying to project his image as being a player on the world stage.
  • My column looks at the sheer volume of dishonest narratives being proffered when it comes to crime (and the presumption of innocence) in this country.

Odds and ends:

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3 thoughts on “Roundup: Add another boycott to the list”

  1. François-Philippe Champagne launched Health Emergency Readiness Canada to help prepare for future pandemics (never mind we are still in one).

    I am seeing more people is masks recently, especially retail workers.

    Is there a reason, other than a media announcement, that this agency is not in the Public Health Agency of Canada or am I misinterpreting what the PHAC does?

    BTW, watching the H5N1 bird flu in the USA suggests we may have another epidemic/pandemic arriving soon in Canada.

  3. I particularly like your link to “The Authoritarian Playbook” webpage. We tend to think our loss of freedoms and the rise of movements to get rid of them are “shock and awe” events as outlined in Naomi Kleins book “The Wrecking Crew”. Instead, it’s a steady drip, drip, drip that starts with movements at the local level – political nominations being a case in point where people don’t want to get involved with their local riding association.

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