Roundup: Pants-wetting about a marching song

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News stories yesterday that the Royal Canadian Navy was, of their own initiative, exploring changing their marching song from “Heart of Oak” caused an inordinate amount of absolute pants-wetting from not only the usual suspects, but even some other otherwise rational voices who insisted this was all Justin Trudeau’s fault. When pointed out that the government had nothing to do with this, that the military brass was doing this on their own, they replied with things like “A military leadership shaped by, and following the direction of, the government. This horseshit is absolutely on the prime minister.”

I find it borderline incomprehensible that people cannot accept that the military itself has recognised that they need to change their own culture. They are in a recruitment and retention crisis because they can no longer count on straight white men from economically-depressed regions to fill their ranks in perpetuity. The country has changed, and they need to change with it—to say nothing of the fact that the former culture was rife with racism, misogyny, homophobia, sexual violence, and abuse of power in the top ranks. That kind of toxic environment wasn’t good for anyone, but it is being mythologised as “warrior culture.”

Even more to the point, this is being dismissed as “DEI” or “woke,” even from people who should know better. Trudeau is not sitting there forcing them to adopt “quotas” or so-called “DEI” or he’ll take away their lolly. But this goes back to my column last week about how a lot of these voices are pretty unconsciously privileging anything from straight white men as the “norm” and as the default “neutral,” and everything else is “woke,” and if you point out that privilege, you’re “divisive.” People need to grow the hell up and realise it’s 2024, and that means recognizing that the world has moved on from treating straight white men as the only “normal” that matters, and that includes the military.

Ukraine Dispatch

A Russian drone attack on residential buildings in Sumy killed two and injured more than twelve. Russians also claim to have overtaken the village of Novodmytrivka in the Donetsk region. There are more details about the hypersonic missile attack on Dnipro earlier in the week, to which president Zelenskyy says that Ukraine is developing new types of air defence to counter “new risks.”

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau was in Brampton to announce that Ontario has signed onto the national school food programme, to the tune of $108.5 million.
  • Trudeau later attended the Taylor Swift concert with his daughter, and his office let it be known he paid for his own tickets.
  • The Supplementary Estimates contain a $411 million request to Parliament to cover the costs of refugee and asylum seeker healthcare.
  • Canada post is reporting a $315 million loss in the third quarter, before the current strike began, because of their dwindling share of the parcel market.
  • The Canadian Human Rights Tribunal is ordering the federal government to deal with a backlog of Jordan’s Principle requests.
  • Facebook/Meta is refusing to cooperate with the CRTC’s information requests as relate to possible obligations under the Online News Act.
  • Predictably, economists are panning the “GST Holiday”/$250 cheque proposal.
  • The Halifax Security Forum is taking place, so expect the usual flagellation about our defence spending, like this, from another American Senator.
  • So-called “Freedom Convoy” leader Pat King has been found guilty on five counts, with sentencing to take place in January.
  • The premiers of New Brunswick and PEI want federal compensation for losses of revenue incurred by the proposed GST “holiday.”
  • Shannon Gormley notes the theme of violence—past and future—with Trump’s cabinet picks, and that this violence extends to what they are doing to democracy.
  • Justin Ling points out the dangers of Poilievre’s nihilism as he leans into bug-eating conspiracy theories as his way of trying to get in on that particular grift.
  • Paul Wells ponders the things that universities need to do to regain their standing in the public eye.
  • My weekend column notes how creepy and cult-like the Conservative caucus is getting, as MPs are forbidden from interacting with MPs from other parties.

Odds and ends:

If mandatory reporting when tainted products hospitalizes people makes the multi-billion dollar “natural products” industry “unviable,” that’s kind of telling on themselves, isn’t it?

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2024-11-22T20:04:01.426Z

Need a copy of my book “The Unbroken Machine,” or “Royal Progress,” which I contributed to? Want to give a copy as a gift? Dundurn Press is having a 25% off site wide sale!

— Dale Smith (@journodale.bsky.social) 2024-11-18T23:53:05.945Z

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