Tag Archives: Federalism

Roundup: A failure to condemn Carlson

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The increasing unseriousness of our Parliament continues apace. After Question Period yesterday, NDP MP Matthew Green stood up to move a unanimous consent motion to condemn Fox “News” personality Tucker Carlson for his comments calling for an armed invasion of Canada in order to depose Justin Trudeau, apparently before we “become Cuba.” (Carlson also called for a “Bay of Pigs” invasion, apparently not understanding how badly that went for the Americans). And when the Speaker asked if there was consent to move the motion, a few Conservatives said nay (and no, I couldn’t tell which ones did).

A couple of points. Number one is that Green shouldn’t have bothered because this just gives Carlson the attention he craves, but we know what this is for—social media clips, so that he could plaster it over Twitter and whatever other socials he’s on that he got Parliament to condemn Carlson, and isn’t he a hero for doing so. It’s performative bullshit, and that’s what our Parliament runs on these days to our detriment. Point number two is that the Conservatives could have shut up and not shown support for foreign regime change, but they did not, meaning they a) agree with Carlson, b) want to appease the Carlson fans in their base, or c) didn’t want to give Green the clip he was fishing for. None of those three are good looks, and just shows the continued decline in the state of debate. Everyone should rethink some of their life choices here.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 343:

The villages of Klishchiivka and Kurdyumivka, which are on the southern approach to Bakhmut, came under renewed Russian fire. As well, a new assault against Vuhledar is unlikely to make gains. Meanwhile, a new US aid package to be announced later this week is said to include longer-range rockets, which Ukraine has been asking for.

https://twitter.com/zelenskyyua/status/1620441189710450690

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Roundup: Backseat driving healthcare talks

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I occasionally find myself amused by some of the backseat driving/armchair quarterbacking that happens in Canadian politics, and there was no more perfect example that Jagmeet Singh putting out a press release yesterday declaring that if he were prime minister, he would have sat down with the provinces and not left until he was satisfied that they have all the resources they need. On the one hand it’s kind of hilarious because most of the time, Singh can barely recognise that provincial jurisdiction actually exists, or he seems to think that a Green Lantern Ring and sufficient political will would actually solve federalism. On the other, I can’t decide if that means that he thinks he’s got amazing powers of negotiation, or if he’s declaring himself a chump who will fall for the provinces’ strong-arm tactics.

Imagine for just a moment what Singh means when he says he won’t leave the table until he gives the provinces what they need. It sounds an awful lot like he’s going to give them a blank cheque and then pat himself on the back for having fixed healthcare. Meanwhile, the provinces take that money, put a paltry amount back into the system, continue on with privatizing as much as they possibly can (look at what Danielle Smith is up to in Alberta now that she’s fired the entire board of Alberta Health Services), reduce their own share of the funding because of the increased federal dollars, and then give tax breaks in the hopes of getting re-elected. And we know this because all of this has happened before, and all of it will happen again if this funding doesn’t come with some pretty strict conditions and strings. And the sooner more people start calling the premiers on their bullshit, the faster we can get to a deal where they accept strings that will actually do something meaningful with those increased federal dollars.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 269:

Ukraine’s electricity grid operator is warning people that blackouts can last for several hours as Russians continue to pound the country’s electrical systems. Russians are also continuing their push toward Bakhmut with renewed intensity. Meanwhile, president Volodymyr Zelenskyy appeared at the Halifax Security Forum by video to ask NATO countries to assist with a ten-part peace plan, and that he hoped Canada would show leadership on one of those items.

https://twitter.com/kiraincongress/status/1593694607459717124

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QP: Getting shouty to build their narratives

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It being Wednesday, the benches were largely full, and the prime minister was present for his designated day to answer everything. Pierre Poilievre led off partly in French, and worried about the shortage of children’s Tylenol, and switched to English halfway through to reiterate. Justin Trudeau started talking about Health Canada taking action and there were challenges to supply chains around the world, but was shouted down and needed to reiterate his answer when it quieted down. Poilievre then moved onto his bog standard inflationary nonsense and “triple, triple, triple” ear worm, and demanded that tomorrow’s fiscal update have a spending freeze. Trudeau noted that they have supports for Canadians as the GST rebate comes out on days, and other supports are on the way. Poilievre repeated his question in French, and Trudeau noted that the Conservatives only want austerity and cuts. Poilievre returned to English to claim only he was protecting pensions from inflation, and repeated his demand to cap spending and taxes. Trudeau called Conservatives cold-hearted if they considered dental care for children to be pouring fuel on the inflationary fire. Poilievre tried to turn over the “cold-hearted” accusation with his tripling nonsense, to which Trudeau reiterated that in spite of Conservative misinformation and disinformation, the climate rebates give more back to most Canadians than they pay.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and he accused the federal government of starving the healthcare system (which is utter bunkum), and wanted more funding without conditions. Trudeau reminded him that Quebeckers and Canadians expect results from the system, but if systems don’t work as expected, they want to work with provinces to ensure that more money gets better results. Blanchet accused the federal government of micromanaging, and Trudeau reiterate that the systems are not working, which is why they are trying to get provinces onside to improve things for that money.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and he attacked Doug Ford’s preemptive use of the Notwithstanding Clause, and demanded the prime minster do something about it. Trudeau denounced Ford’s actions, and called out Poilievre for not denouncing it. Singh repeated the question in French, and got the same answer.

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Roundup: Lost faith in the Ottawa Police Service

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Once again, a lot of threads to disentangle as the OPP Commissioner, Thomas Carrique, was on the stand at the Emergencies Act public inquiry, and what a lot of the day seemed to focus on (at least, from what I could tell from afar) were the texts he was exchanging with RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki. So, what did we learn? That the federal government had pretty much lost all confidence in the Ottawa Police and were discussing taking over the response to the occupation, even though Lucki was particularly reluctant to do so (and worried that the Emergencies Act would be used to make that happen). There was discussion about the OPP in particular taking over, and the Commissioner was ready to have that call before the Ottawa chief resigned. Once Peter Sloly was out of the way, an integrated command was set up. Also interesting was the comment that the Act was used to compensate tow truck drivers more than it was to compel their services (which could be a signal to the provinces about how they may need to update their own emergency legistlation).

https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/1585629449038577664

Carrique defended his comments that the occupation was a threat to national security, and the way that the blockade of the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor was handled differently than the Ottawa occupation. Documents provided to the inquiry showed that the FBI provided some support to the Ottawa Police during the occupation, likely around US-based support for it, so that lends some credence to the national security threat analysis.

https://twitter.com/acoyne/status/1585720241979629569

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 246:

Ukrainian forces attacked Russian forces occupying the southern city of Kherson, while fighting also intensified in the country’s east as Russians bombarded the city of Bakhmut. While Putin is denying he plans to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine (isn’t that a sign he will?), another mass grave was discovered in the village of Kopanky.

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QP: Framing food bank stats for their own ends

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Neither the prime minister nor his deputy were present today, nor were most other leaders, save Pierre Poilievre, who is nearly always present. Poilievre led off in French, worrying that 1.5 million visits to food banks and that this was Canada, but he blamed taxes for this. Randy Boissonnault noted that people are having a tough time, but this government had supports available while the Conservatives would rather see them on their own. Poilievre repeated the statistic in English, adding in a “triple, triple, triple” talking point to that, and this time Karina Gould delivered the same response. Poilievre called the $6000 hotel room in London as a (tortured) analogy about this government and that the party was over, but Gould got back up to point out that the Conservatives would have abandoned Canadians in their darkest hour in the pandemic. Poilievre tried to bring in WE and ArriveCan as examples of waste, and Boissonnault repeated Gould’s point more excitedly. Poilievre raised a media story of a family who over-leveraged themselves on their mortgage and their payments have gone up $2000 and wonders what the hell they do now. (The Speaker cautioned him against this). Ahmed Hussen rose to accuse Poilievre of “gatekeeping” rental supports for those who need it and dental care.

Alain Therrien rose for the Bloc, railed that the dental support was not adequate for Quebec families and wondered why the government just didn’t approach the Quebec government (because federal-provincial agreements are that easy). Pablo Rodriguez chided the Bloc for not caring enough about children. Therrien got even more exercise about this, to which Adam van Koeverden read a statement about the benefit being available to those who need it.

Alexandre Boulerice rose for the NDP, and he too raised the food bank usage figure, but blamed the government for not tackling corporate greed. Gould reminded him that this government has raised more children out of poverty than ever before. Alastair MacGregor repeated the same question in English (Champagne: I called on grocery CEOs to task them with taking action, and I demanded the Competition Bureau investigate the sector).

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Roundup: Rage-farming for rural Alberta paranoia

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In Alberta, Danielle Smith has finally unveiled more details for her proposed “Sovereignty Act,” and as you might expect, they’re a lot of bullshit, and most of it predicated on situations that will never, ever actually come to pass, like the federal government invoking the Emergencies Act to impose mask mandates. Of course, that’s not how the Emergencies Actworks, and she’s just rage-farming, ensuring that the rural Alberta party membership that she’s targeting, who are twitchy to begin with and who are consuming vast amounts of American media and conspiracy theories, are just being fed more materials to make them even more paranoid. It’s not surprising, but it’s also alarming that this has somehow become acceptable political discourse. Smith also insists she’s just doing “nation within a nation” assertion, like Quebec, which is not true, and I’m genuinely not sure if she is simply that clueless about how federalism and the constitution works, or if this is pure disinformation for the purposes of rage-farming and motiving the party base through anger and paranoia. Either way, it’s not good, and is a very real problem for the province and the country, because this kind of bullshit is also contagious.

 

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 196:

The Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant went off the grid yesterday after more Russian shelling in the region, until a fire could be put out. That means that they were relying on backup power to keep cooling systems operational, which gets us closer to a more dangerous place in terms of a potential meltdown that could have catastrophic consequences for that part of the world. The International Atomic Energy Agency continues to call for a demilitarized zone around the plant, but good luck getting Russia to play by the rules. As for the Ukrainian counterattack in the southern part of the country, officials have now confirmed that they have retaken at least two villages, though information remains largely locked down. Apparently, the counterattack is happening slowly in order to save on ammunition and casualties.

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QP: The trauma of vaccine mandates

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It was unusual but happened nevertheless—that Justin Trudeau was present for a third QP in a row. It’s been a long time since we’ve seen this, and one is forced to wonder if this is to put down the notion that he has been absent or in hiding because of the grifter occupation outside. Candice Bergen led off with her script in front of her, lamenting that the occupation has been there for two weeks, and requested a meeting with Trudeau to “end the impasse.” Trudeau called her out for encouraging the blockades and their fundraising, and said that they will see an end to the blockades, and called on the Conservatives to get on side. Bergen blamed the prime minister for the situation, and demanded their support for their Supply Day motion to capitulate to the occupiers and end all vaccine mandates, to which Trudeau expounded on the virtues of vaccines. Bergen gave some wounded faux confusion, and wondered if the prime minster wouldn’t lift mandates until there was 100 percent vaccination. Trudeau reminded her that vaccines are the way out of the pandemic. Luc Berthold took over in French to ask again if the prime minister wanted 100 percent vaccination rates, and Trudeau repeated his lines about the Conservatives going to bat for the occupiers. Berthold demanded a re-opening plan by all levels of government, and Trudeau said he was happy to hear the Conservatives calling for the occupiers to go home, and he hoped that the Conservatives would stop encouraging the other blockades.

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and he too demanded a meeting with the prime minster and all party leaders, for which Trudeau reminded him that he is in contact with all levels of government but he could arrange a briefing if Blanchet wanted. Blanchet said he wanted to hear from all of the leaders, before raising the other tactics the occupiers were engaged in, and Trudeau said they were working with other governments to minimise the impact of the illegal blockades. 

Jagmeet Singh appeared by video, and whinged that the prime minister was “hiding behind jurisdiction” and demanded he fix the mess—for which the Conservatives applauded. Trudeau noted that they have been furnishing resources to the municipalities affected, which is why they called on the Conservatives to call for the blockades to end instead of cheering them on. Singh repeated his question in French, and got the same answer.

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Roundup: The many leaks from the Cumming Report

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The Cumming report on the Conservatives’ election failure was released to caucus behind closed doors yesterday, and lo, leaks appeared in every news outlet in the country, so let’s go through some of them:

  • From Global: O’Toole’s performance got mixed reviews, with a strong finish but was “over-managed” by the end of the campaign. It was determined he needed to spend more time on the road and not in his studio, and they need to completely rebuild their voter-identification database.
  • From The Toronto Star: Party memberships should be free (which is a terrible gods damned idea), and that the party’s reputation is still suffering from the “barbaric cultural practices tip line” promise in 2015.
  • From the National Post: They were hobbled by party infighting, a lack of ethnic outreach, and the soft response to Quebec’s Law 21. As well, it concluded that O’Toole is still the “right person to lead the party.”
  • From CTV: The party needs more diverse candidates.
  • From CBC: The party failed to craft policy on some important issues, and apparently O’Toole didn’t respond well to criticism in the question-and-answer session following Cumming’s presentation. And they went nuts when Global’s leaks hit the wires while Cumming was still speaking.

I did note that while O’Toole told a press conference afterward that he takes responsibility and promises changes, it was remarked upon that O’Toole seemed to change his tune on the use of the studio, which they crowed about through the campaign and insisted it was better than in-person events because they could reach more people through their teleconferences, but changing his tune about something is nothing new (as we all saw during the election, over and over again).

Meanwhile, O’Toole told said press conference that he was going to meet with truckers, but also denounced extremists among them, which is an extremely hard circle to square considering that it’s the extremists who organised the whole bloody grifter convoy, and any legitimate truckers frustrated by vaccine mandates are going to be hapless nitwits in the bunch. The fact that O’Toole remained silent about the fact that the organisers of said grifter convoy are demanding that democracy be overturned in favour of some delusional Jacobin committee comprised of said convoy organisers and senators is also a problem, as is the fact that he wouldn’t address the fact that these same organizers are doxing MPs, and the Sergeant-at-Arms is warning that their Ottawa residences are being targeted. It does show that O’Toole has basically left objective reality behind, as his latest shitpost video essentially demonstrates.

https://twitter.com/mattgurney/status/1486849795515953156

https://twitter.com/mattgurney/status/1486850305757167622

https://twitter.com/StephanieCarvin/status/1486755945292124167

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Roundup: Mandatory vaccination is Canadian

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There’s been some nonsense going around the pundit-sphere over the weekend about mandatory vaccinations being “against what Canada stands for.” Erm, except we’ve had mandatory vaccinations since around 1885, because public health concerns are public health. Seriously. This is not that difficult, people.

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Roundup: Recalling a committee for a dog and pony show

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The House of Commons’ access to information, privacy and ethics committee will be recalled for emergency meetings after the Conservatives were “alarmed” to hear that the Public Health Agency used anonymised mobile data to see how Canadians were responding to public health measures. The point of the data collection is to get a sense of travel patterns during these kinds of measures, and to see whether people stay at home, or how far they go, and because its anonymised, nobody can see who is doing what individually—they’re looking at patterns.

But this kind of wailing and gnashing of teeth over anonymised data is nothing new for Conservatives, who have sounded this particular alarm before when Statistics Canada was hoping to use anonymised bank data to track Canadians’ purchasing habits in a more robust and accurate way than shopping diary surveys can, and lo, that project got iced. Of course, because irony is dead, the Conservatives’ election platform had their “carbon points” plan, which would require so much itemised consumer data that it puts this kind of anonymised data to shame, but why worry about consistency or logic?

Because this is a House of Commons committee, we are guaranteed that this is going to be nothing more than a dog and pony show. If they agree to hold a study on this—which it’s not yet guaranteed—it’s going to be hauling public health officials before committee and subjecting them to ridiculous questions that have little to do with this particular issue, in the hopes of catching them out on something, and attempts to build some kind of conspiracy theory that the government was trying to play Big Brother during the pandemic, and it will balloon from there until the point where the government has had enough and starts filibustering the increasingly unreasonable demands by opposition members, and the committee will grind to a halt. Because that’s how this kind of thing happens every time, because our MPs are more concerned with being partisan dicks on committees than actually doing their jobs of accountability. But maybe I’m just getting cynical about the current state of affairs in federal politics.

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