Tag Archives: Cyber-security

Roundup: A better than anticipated fiscal picture

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The Department of Finance’s fiscal monitor was released yesterday, showing that for the first quarter of the 2022-23 fiscal year, the government ran a $10.2 billion surplus, which is not a big surprise considering that the economy is overheated, and that’s generating a lot of revenues, particularly with high oil prices. Of course, this comes with the caveat that Q4 tends to book a lot of the expenses and liabilities that drag the figure down at the end of the fiscal year, but it’s a promising sign, and it’s certainly showing that all of the wailing and gnashing of teeth about the government’s spending and deficit has been largely for naught, and that maybe Chrystia Freeland is a better fiscal steward than they think she is.

https://twitter.com/kevinmilligan/status/1563202103186968576

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Ukraine Dispatch, Day 184:

As overnight shelling continued near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, people in the vicinity have been issued iodine tablets in the event that there is a catastrophic failure and containment is breached, releasing radiation. So that’s cheery.

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Roundup: A supposed “breakthrough” that amounted to nothing

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Federal documents, albeit heavily redacted, are starting to be made public as part of the court challenge around the invocation of the Emergencies Act, and thus far we can see that the Ford government in Ontario offered to meet with those blockading the Ambassador bridge (and were rejected), that the federal government had briefly considered negotiating with the occupiers in front of Parliament Hill, but did not go ahead with it (which is just as well considering their demands were the overthrow of democracy in favour of a ruling junta of occupiers, senators, and the Governor General). The night before the Act was invoked, the government was informed of a “potential breakthrough” with the negotiations happening with the city, which again, were unsuccessful, and the Act was invoked.

This has of course proven to be fodder for certain Conservative leadership candidates who insist that this is some kind of smoking gun that invoking the Act was unnecessary, but that’s not what it indicates, and frankly, you shouldn’t negotiate with a group of right-wing extremists, grifters, conspiracy theorists and grievance tourists who think nothing of overturning democracy because their feelings got hurt. But this seems to be where we’re at, which is utterly boggling.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 170:

Analysis of that explosion on the Russian airbase in occupied Crimea shows that as many as twenty Russian warplanes may have been destroyed, which would be the largest single-day loss since World War II. (Kyiv still has not claimed responsibility for the explosion). The head of the International Atomic Agency is calling on Russia and Ukraine to halt shelling near the Zaporizechzhia nuclear plant, and to allow experts to evaluate the safety of the facility. Ukrainian forces have begun their counter-attack in the Kherson region, having recaptured 54 settlements (while 92 percent of the region remains under occupation). In Bucha, civilians murdered by Russians are being buried as numbers because they have not been identified by name. Meanwhile, in Denmark, Western countries pledged more support for Ukraine.

https://twitter.com/DefenceU/status/1557621932429819907

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Roundup: CSE posts a threat bulletin about Russia

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We’re on day one-hundred-and-forty-two of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Russians fired missiles at the central city of Vinnytsia, hitting civilian locations including a medical clinic. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy reiterated his statement that the Russian regime is a terrorist threat. Meanwhile, the leadership at the International Criminal Court in the Hauge is calling for an “overarching strategy” to bring perpetrators of war crimes in Ukraine to justice, so that other countries contributing to the investigations can cooperate with their efforts.

Closer to home, CSE released a threat bulletin on Russia’s cyber-activities in Ukraine, and it was a doozy, saying that the scope and severity has almost certainly been more sophisticated and widespread than has been previously reported, and yes, that has repercussions for Canada as well. Stephanie Carvin has more in this thread:

https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/1547663710700728320

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Roundup: The non-retracted story and the myths around it

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It’s day one-hundred-and-fourteen of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Severodonetsk has not fallen yet. French president Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian Premier Mario Draghi all visited Kyiv together, while Romania’s president, Klaus Iohannis, arrived on a separate train. They were there to show European unity, in spite of the fact that there have been many criticisms levelled at them in recent weeks for being slow to deliver promised aid, or trying to appease Putin. The fact that they could see some of the atrocities in Irpin, outside of Kyiv, may have given them some perspective on the conflict as well. They did also come with a message about trying to facilitate Ukraine’s entry into the European Union, which would have a great deal of symbolic weight in the conflict.

Meanwhile, NATO defence ministers met in Brussels to discuss ways to continue bolstering their Eastern flank, which will mean more forward-deployed combat formations.

Closer to home, there has been a pervasive bit of disinformation circulating, spread by certain media outlets, that CBC had retracted some of its reporting on the occupation, and in particular about its funding. That’s false—there was on radio correction, but the stories themselves stood, and are still there. Nevertheless, this notion that there was this retraction has been the basis of part of the Conservative attacks on Marco Mendicino in the justification for the invocation of the Emergencies Act, and in particular the financial tools that were used to freeze bank accounts of participants. While the Conservatives, citing these certain outlets, claim that the allegations of “dark money” fuelling the occupation was false, there was indeed foreign money coming in, though not as much as some people assumed. Of course, the Conservatives are also lying about just who this occupation was made up of, so any of their assertions what is true or false around the entire situation are suspect because they have a vested interest in protecting the occupiers, believing they can harness them to their own ends. (Spoiler: They really won’t in the end).

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Roundup: An apology for Zoom—but not for why you think

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It’s now on or about day one-hundred-and-thirteen of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and it looks like Severodonetsk has not fallen, and lo, the promised humanitarian corridor did not happen. (This is my surprised face). Russians did shell a weapons depot near Lviv in the western part of the country, where Western munitions were allegedly stored. Meanwhile, civilians in areas where Russian forces were repelled are being faced with mines, which are killing and maiming people. Canada will be sending $9 million worth of barrel replacements for the howitzers we shipped to Ukraine earlier in the year, while Anita Anand is calling on the defence industry to be more responsive.

Closer to home, there was an interesting apology in the Senate on Tuesday, which was when Senator Rosa Galvez apologised for having attended a committee meeting over Zoom from out of the country. You see, the Senate adopted rules around their hybrid sittings where they must be at a designated office or residence, and that’s it. There is a sad history in the Senate of abuse going back decades were certain senators basically lived in Mexico and showed up for one day a year, and collected their base salary, and it was a scandal. Since then attendance records are made public and they essentially couldn’t get away with it any longer. (I remember after an earthquake, I went to the Hill just after it happened, and while senators were gathered on the lawn, they were keen to ensure that the person who recorded their attendance saw that yes indeed, they were present even though they were out of the Chamber at the moment it happened and the building was evacuated, because they take it seriously). Regardless, this senator says she was caught up in wanting to do her committee work while she was at the Summit of the Americas, which is commendable in a way, but also shows some of the dangers of this reliance on hybrid sittings in that it creates a new obligation of presenteeism.

Meanwhile, over in the West Block, voting was suspended for a few minutes yesterday afternoon because there was a problem with the voting app that MPs use, and once again, this is a problem with how hybrid sittings are operating. I’ve already written about how this creates a new standard of perfect attendance which is a problem for all involved, but we’re already seeing a greater move for MPs and ministers who are in town not sticking around in the Chamber, but taking off and voting by app, and this is going to have profound consequences the longer it goes on. Votes were one of the few times when ministers could reliably be found in the Chamber, and backbenchers and opposition members could buttonhole them about pressing issues. If they take off as soon as votes are about to start because they think it’s easier to press a button (and have their faces recognised), then we’re straying dangerously far from one of the core symbolic elements of our parliamentary democracy. This should be killed with fire, along with the hybrid sittings, as soon as possible.

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Roundup: Feel-good busywork

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We are on day one-hundred-and-twelve of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and it’s estimated that Russians now control some 80 percent of Severodonetsk, as civilians are being pushed to the industrial outskirts of the city because the Russians are taking a scorched-earth approach to their artillery. A Russian general says they will open a humanitarian corridor today, but we know how trustworthy their word has been to date. If Ukraine can get enough heavy military equipment from its allies in time, they may be able to push back and go on a counter-offensive, but we’ll see if that can happen. Elsewhere, here are how Ukrainians are turning to humour to cope with their situation.

https://twitter.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1536778589089193988

Closer to home, we saw the fiftieth Senate public bill of this session tabled yesterday, and that’s a sign that things are going off the rails in Justin Trudeau’s “new, independent” Senate. To refresh your memories, Senate public bills are roughly equivalent to private members’ bills for senators, and like any Senate bill, cannot spend money. This kind of proliferation is getting to be an issue, because it’s a sign that these new senators are behaving a lot like MPs (and I don’t just mean the sudden desire for everyone to put their feelings on the record at Second Reading of any bill for no reason at all), and that’s not a good thing. The Order Paper in the Commons is replete with literally hundreds of private members’ bills that are going nowhere because they have a lottery system, and a handful of MPs will get one shot at a bill or motion for the duration of this Parliament, but that doesn’t stop them from tabling all kinds of bills to make a statement, or set a marker, or pretend that the government will be so enamoured with their work that they’ll adopt it for themselves, and that they can reflect in that glory for all time. In the Senate, however, they don’t have one shot, and the work isn’t time allocated from start-to-finish, so they can introduce and debate as many as they like, provided they can get debate time, particularly with committees.

Normally, these bills don’t go very far because they get busy with government bills and the odd PMB from the Commons, which get priority time, but the government has had a very light legislative agenda this session, which has meant that senators have a lot of time on their hands, and these kinds of bills tend to come up. Some of them are feel-good busywork, like declaring special national days. Some of them are just mischief (looking at you, Senator Carignan). Some of these are the policy hobbyhorses of senators who have an inflated view of their positions, combined with a type-A personality, so they’re going to push their personal agenda whether anyone else likes it or not. And even though the government has finally started introducing more bills in the Senate, many of which are housekeeping bills by nature, it’s obviously not enough to keep them busy, or from picking up MPs’ bad habits.

https://twitter.com/journo_dale/status/1536898175210078209

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Roundup: A lack of precognition

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We’re now on day one-hundred-and-seven of Russia’s invasion of Ukriane, and I couldn’t find any stories to link to on Canadian sites, as everything was about the January 6th committee in the US, because priorities. Meanwhile, Ukraine’s agriculture minister told the Canadian House of Commons agriculture committee that Russia has been raiding Ukraine’s grain stores, and then selling it on the world market using falsified documentation. As well, the RCMP say that they have cracked down on $400 million in Russian assets and transactions from sanctioned individuals.

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Closer to home, the Bank of Canada released their Financial Systems Review yesterday, and made remarks about some of the vulnerabilities in the economy, such as high consumer debt levels and variable rate mortgages rising precipitously in the next few months as interest rates continue to rise in order to get inflation under control. They are confident the economy and households can handle the higher rates because the economy needs them.

This being said, I have to take some exception to the commentary happening on Power & Politics last night, and from the host in particular, who was expounding upon how central bankers got it “wrong” about inflation. Apparently they are supposed to have the power of precognitition and could accurately predict the fact that global supply chains would take longer to untangle than previously thought because China went into some serious lockdowns under a COVID-zero policy, that fuel shortages would drive up world oil prices before the Russia invaded Ukraine, and they were supposed to have properly foreseen said invasion and could adjust their inflation expectations accordingly. There have been an increasing number of unlikely scenarios that all pretty much happened across the world over the past two or three years, and you’re ragging on central bankers for not having properly tried to head it off? You can argue that they were too late to ease off on stimulative measures, even though their actions were largely in line with the advice and the data they had at the time, but going after them because they didn’t accurately predict a pandemic and a war? Sit down.

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Roundup: Enjoy your Victoria Day

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It’s now approximately day eighty-seven of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and Russia says that they now have full control of the steel plant in Mariupol, and by extension the whole city. That means Russians are starting to pull back forces from the area to redeploy elsewhere in the Donbas region, and it looks like fighting is intensifying in the Luhansk region.

Closer to home, it is Victoria Day this weekend, which is the official birthday of the Queen of Canada. So be sure to raise a toast to the current Queen, and Canada’s first Queen (and maybe while you’re at it, the Queen of the North).

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Roundup: No, the Supreme Court did not allow an extreme intoxication defence

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We are now on or about day eighty of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and it looks like Russian forces took heavy losses to the tune of as many as 73 tanks in a two-day battle that saw them destroyed in a failed river crossing. So that’s something. Meanwhile, a twenty-one-year-old Russian soldier is now on trial for war crimes for killing civilians. It also looks like some six million Ukrainians are now displaced out of the country by this point, most of them in neighbouring countries, and that situation is starting to take its toll.

As for the potential expansion of NATO with Finland and Sweden about to make their applications, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan says he is not favourable to those countries joining—and applications must be approved unanimously by member countries. This may be a ploy to extract concessions by Sweden in particular, as it relates to Turkey’s domestic political interests.

Closer to home, you will have no doubt seen a bunch of headlines saying that the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that “extreme intoxication is a valid defence in murders and sexual assaults.” That is not true, and is extremely misleading. The court in fact stated that extreme intoxication is not a defence that can be relied upon. What they did state was that the section in the Criminal Code that said that a state of automatism brought about by intoxication was not a defence was in fact unconstitutional, because it removed the principle around needing criminal intent. (There was a second, related decision that ruled on a few other related issues). There is a difference between extreme intoxication and a state of automatism, and it should behove news outlets to make a proper differentiation so that they’re not spreading misinformation—which they essentially are with these headlines designed to induce a moral panic. So please disregard them, because it is explicitly not what the court ruled. (I will have a piece delving deeper into its issues out in a day or two).

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Roundup: How to remove a central bank governor

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It is now approximately day seventy-nine of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and war crimes trials are beginning in the country, hearing from one youth who whose father was murdered in front of him, and who was shot by Russian soldiers but who survived. Shooting at civilians—and children especially—is a war crime, and Russians will be hard-pressed to come up with justifications for them. As well, the UN is declaring a “child rights crisis” in the country, given how many children have been killed in the invasion. Meanwhile, here is a look at the “partisans” fighting on Ukraine’s behalf from behind Russian lines, which may or may not be the cause of all of those fires and explosions.

Elsewhere in Europe, Finland’s president and prime minister are urging the country’s parliament to vote in favour of making their application to join NATO, while Sweden is expected to follow suit days later. If Putin’s fig-leaf excuse for invading Ukraine was to stop NATO’s expansion, well, he’s just done the opposite, so good job there. There will be some sensitivity in managing the time between Finland applying for membership and when they are granted it, as they could be particularly vulnerable to Russian aggression during that period.

Closer to home, Pierre Poilievre’s attack on the Bank of Canada is not going unnoticed, but it helps for the rest of us to know just what he’s trying to suggest. To that end, Kevin Carmichael provides needed context to what exactly Poilievre is threatening to do to the Bank of Canada governor, and why he’s wrong on inflation. As well, this thread is a good take on the mechanism for the how governor is appointed and what it would take to remove him.

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