In the wake of the attempted assassination of Donald Trump in the United States, there has been no shortage of reaction in this country, including Justin Trudeau actually calling Trump to send his regards, but the reaction that should raise the most eyebrows was from Pierre Poilievre, who says that he’s happy that the alleged shooter was killed. No call for justice, nothing about the rule of law or due process, just summary execution without a trial. That shouldn’t be a surprise considering he says that he wants to use the Notwithstanding Clause to take away the civil rights of the accused before they have even had a trial, but this is where this kind of rhetoric goes, and we need to be aware of that.
Readout of Trudeau’s call with Donald Trump. #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/ULmihYj1CP
— Dale Smith (@journo_dale) July 14, 2024
https://twitter.com/acoyne/status/1812525573954064727
While we’re being reassured in Canada that our security services are on the case, the debate over the rhetoric of political violence is ramping up even further in the US, given that they are a country where assassinations and attempted assassinations are far more common, as is gun culture (and a whole pop culture mythology that you solve your problems with guns). Of course, you have the far-right in that country insisting that this is Biden and the Democrats’ fault by pointing out (correctly!) that Trump is a threat to democracy (which he has himself stated that he’s going to be a “dictator on day one”), and so this is his fault. Never mind the normalized rhetoric on their side, where your candidates pose with automatic rifles and post ads of them firing at targets that they label with things like “socialism”—no, it’s only the Democrats’ rhetoric that is at stake, and there are going to be media outlets who will credulously play along with this, and treat normalized violent rhetoric from the right as a non-issue.
This all having been said, we don’t have enough conversations in this country about how much that violent rhetoric is seeping into this country unchallenged, where you have the so-called “convoy crowd” walking around with signs and t-shirts about Trudeau and a hangman’s noose, under the false (and frankly stupid) notion that he’s somehow a “traitor” to this country (or worse, that he’s some kind of communist dictator, as though he has nationalised the means of production in this country and abolished private property), but do we see the Conservatives condemn that rhetoric when they embrace that crowd? Nope. Harassment and attacks against MPs have increased dramatically over the past four years, but nobody wants to talk about it or draw attention to it, and that’s as much of a problem. We’re not as far removed from the violent strain on democracy as we’d like to think we are in this country, which is why we need to remain vigilant, and not pretend like we’re immune.
— Effin' Birds (@EffinBirds) July 14, 2024
Ukraine Dispatch
Russian forces claim to have taken control of the village of Urozhaine in the Donetsk region, while Ukraine says they are still fighting in the area. Two people are dead in a “double-tap” attack in the Kharkiv region, where the second missile hit after emergency crews responded to the first hit, which is a tactic Russia is increasingly employing.
Since the beginning of this week alone, Russia has used more than 700 guided aerial bombs, over 170 combat drones of various types, and nearly 80 missiles against Ukraine.
The scale of this evil must be matched by the scale of decisions to protect lives. Each partner can make a… pic.twitter.com/t2VPJDo3s2
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) July 14, 2024
⚡️Battlefield situation 'tense' near Toretsk, Pokrovsk, General Staff reports.
The General Staff reported that the "hottest" situation currently lies in Pokrovsk, where Russian forces attacked Ukrainian positions 35 times.https://t.co/KGErsJsXiY
— The Kyiv Independent (@KyivIndependent) July 14, 2024