Roundup: A cynical grift vs actual xenophobic bigotry

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Because apparently there isn’t enough stupidity right now in Canadian politics, Conservative MP Jamil Jivani has launched a petition about “protecting Christians from bigotry” in Canada. But it’s not a Parliamentary e-petition, given that the site leads to his own domain, so really, this is just yet another data-harvesting and fundraising exercise, and it’s the absolutely most cynical grift at that. Conservatives have long-ago learned that by appealing to the victimhood complex of self-professed Christians, that crowd will open up their wallets like there’s no tomorrow. And best of all, Jivani has roped in the support of his old Yale roommate, JD Vance, to shill for this as well (because that’ll get the MAGA crowd to open up their own wallets as well). I can’t tell you just how absolutely cynical this all is, and people are absolutely going to fall for it.

Meanwhile, François Legault is talking about new legislation, possibly invoking the Notwithstanding Clause, to ban prayer in public, but this is specifically meant to be targeting Muslims, and he’s not even being coy about it, or trying to couch it in some kind of universal secularist message. He’s literally saying he wants to send a “very clear message to Islamists,” which is absolutely outrageous. It’s also a fairly transparent play to xenophobia and scapegoating as he’s tanking in the polls and thinks that this will help him get ahead. This is the actual bigotry happening in this country, not whatever bullshit Jivani is trying to grift off of.

Ukraine Dispatch

Russian attacks on Zaporizhzhia and Kryvyi Riv have killed at least 12 and wounded over 40. Ukrainian officials have showcased a new locally-produced “rocket drone” that they say has twice the longest range attributed to the missiles supplied by western allies, while Ukraine’s bid to develop new missiles has been hampered by global supply chain issues.

Good reads:

  • Justin Trudeau was with other provincial and municipal leaders at the École Polytechnique memorial in Montreal in the wake of announcing new gun policies.
  • Trudeau named Bernadette McIntyre as the new lieutenant governor of Saskatchewan.
  • Mélanie Joly unveiled the new Arctic foreign policy, which involves closer collaboration with Indigenous communities and allies in the region.
  • More than half of the anti-tank missiles that DND purchased for the mission in Latvia have failed during testing, but they’re not ready to cancel the contract.
  • First Nations groups in Ontario are taking the federal government to court to demand their additional carbon rebates immediately, in case there’s an election.
  • Here’s a look at how Kenya has stopped processing refugee claims for LGBTQ+ people fleeing their home countries, making Canada unable to resettle them.
  • The Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the police were allowed the “exigent circumstances” defence for breaching privacy in luring a drug dealer by text.
  • Liberal MP Chandra Arya claims that fellow Liberal Sukh Dhaliwal threatened him after Arya blocked a motion on condemning 1984 anti-Sikh riots as “genocide.”
  • The Conservatives raised a new privilege issue to block the NDP’s Supply Day motion on extending the GST “holiday,” because of course they did.

Odds and ends:

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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