Because we are in an era of bad faith and lowest-common-denominator shitposting, Pierre Poilievre called a press conference yesterday to assert that Justin Trudeau was working in China’s interests against Canada—no doubt catnip to the conspiracy theorists whom he has been trying to attract to his banner, who carry signs about “treason” and who carry nooses to rallies. Even one-time sensible moderate Michael Chong has gone on television to be “just asking questions” about Trudeau’s loyalty to Canada, which is frankly beyond the pale. (Poilievre also said some absolute nonsense about LNG in Canada and his steadfast belief that there would have been a market for it if not for red tape—never mind that proponents could find buyers and couldn’t make a business case to proceed with projects that were fully permitted).
This rhetoric from Poilievre is the pinnacle of far-right authoritarian populism. This is the shit you see from wanna be dictators like Bolsonaro and Trump. https://t.co/7T6Xo81qMj
— Emmett Macfarlane 🇺🇦 🇨🇦 (@EmmMacfarlane) March 7, 2023
Poilievre’s hyperbole has nothing to do with protecting Canada’s democracy. It is self serving partisan grandstanding that further undermines trust in democratic institutions. #cdnpoli
— Artur Wilczynski (@Arturmaks) March 8, 2023
Trudeau later responded that Poilievre’s was eroding faith in democracy with this kind of rhetoric, but that’s kind of the point with this brand of populists. They are trying to erode faith in institutions so that they can insert themselves as the solution to the problems of democracy, without needing to worry about things like minority rights. Not that Trudeau has helped, with his back-patting and platitudes, which doesn’t push back against this kind of threat. (Some good analysis here).
In the meantime, we wait for the announcement of the special rapporteur, but if the goal is to have opposition sign-off, that could be difficult. The NDP say they are cautiously optimistic, but the Bloc want someone who has pre-determined that there needs to be an inquiry, while the Conservatives are likely to engage in bad faith regardless of what happens, so the ability for there to be consensus on a name is not a hope I am holding out for. But seriously—everybody howling for a public inquiry doesn’t seem to realise that NSICOP is likely more independent, because a public inquiry would be appointed by Cabinet, with terms of reference set by Cabinet, and would report to Cabinet. The government is trying to create some distance from themselves with this rapporteur, but nobody wants to hear the actual process or procedure around the demands they’re making.
https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/1633129536358346755
There seems to be some confusion about what exactly NSICOP and NSIRA are mandated to do with respect to foreign interference in Canada's elections. A good place to start is the written text of the PM's announcement. https://t.co/LuHMD22Xlf
— JMDavis (@JessMarinDavis) March 7, 2023
NSIRA will set their own scope, but they have been asked to look at the flow of information from national security agencies to decision makers. This implies that perhaps the messaging wasn't as clear as it could have been. (Or there's room for improvement).
— JMDavis (@JessMarinDavis) March 7, 2023
What's missing? ENFORCEMENT $$. It's all well and good to create new laws like a foreign agent registry, but you need to actually enforce that, as well as existing laws. I'd like to have seen $$ for enhanced RCMP investigative capabilities, and perhaps others as well.
— JMDavis (@JessMarinDavis) March 7, 2023
Ukraine Dispatch:
Kyiv is disavowing a group that has been making raids over the border in Russia, while other small groups within Russia are also conducting sabotage operations in opposition to Putin. Ukrainian officials have identified the soldier in a video that was executed by Russians, in violation of the Geneva Conventions.
https://twitter.com/zelenskyyua/status/1633042812605280256
As a result of another prisoner exchange, 130 of our defenders are back home.
They are service members of the #UAarmy @ng_ukraine @DPSU_ua and State Special Service of Transport. Among them are 87 Mariupol defenders. Also, we returned our heroes captured near Bakhmut and Soledar pic.twitter.com/PGegyQdfnF— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) March 7, 2023
Just before meeting with them, I announced that we’re extending our engineering training as part of Operation UNIFIER until at least October, and we’re deploying @CanadianForces medical trainers to help Ukrainian forces with combat medical skills.
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) March 7, 2023