Tag Archives: Official Languages

QP: Making CNN a national issue

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It being a lovely Tuesday in the nation’s capital, the prime minister was indeed present and in the Chamber for Question Period, with only one other Liberal – Mark Gerretsen, of course – with him. Erin O’Toole led off in person, with his scripts in front of him, and he raised that sensationalised CNN report saying Canada was desperate for vaccines. Trudeau reminded him that Canada was third in the OECD for vaccinations and people needed to keep up public health measures. O’Toole insisted that no, the government’s rollout was too slow and confused, to which Trudeau pointed to the UK where higher vaccinations did not mean they had to let up lockdowns, and that while Conservatives don’t like masks and social distancing, people needed to keep it up). O’Toole then raised the American travel advisory — that was months old and applied to every other country in the world — for which Trudeau called out the bullshit for what it was, that the advisory was from last March, and that the Conservatives were only interested in making things up. O’Toole then repeated his first question about the CNN report in French, got the same answer, then he pivoted to vaccine rollouts in Quebec, and claimed that Trudeau said everything was on track yesterday and then we just learned there would be a Moderna delay. Trudeau castigated him for making things up after their conversation yesterday, stated what he told O’Toole about shipments and yes, Moderna may have a day or two delayed here and there.

Yves-François Blanchet raised Quebec’s Bill 99 having been found to be justifiable by the Auebec Court of Appeal, to which Trudeau dissembled about working well with the Quebec government. Blanchet noted that the Quebec bill would clash with the Clarity Act, and one of them had to go, and Trudeau dismissed this as posturing, that the Bloc would rather talk about sovereignty than fighting the third wave.

Jagmeet Singh led for the NDP, and in French, lamented that Canada was losing the race against the variants, to which Trudeau praised the number of doses that have arrived in Canada. Singh switched to English to demand “real action” by improving paid sick leave, for which Trudeau reminded him that they put in the programme months and they were working with provinces to boost their measures. 

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QP: The 2015 or the 2021 Justin Trudeau?

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For Wednesday, proto-PMQ day, the prime minister was finally present for the first time in the week, and he was accompanied by three other Liberal MPs, all of them men. Erin O’Toole led off, script on mini-lectern, and he quoted Justin Trudeau in 2015 calling for then-chief of defence staff General Tom Lawson’s resignation after comments he made about sexual misconduct, and wondered why the same Trudeau did not demand the resignation of General Vance when allegations were raised in 2018? Trudeau merely read a prepared statement about them taking it seriously and ensuring that they are followed up on, and that the changes they are making in the Canadian Forces need to go further, which they are committed to. O’Toole was not mollified and tried again, and this time, Trudeau said that they allegations were directed to independent authorities and they didn’t get enough information to go on. A third time got the same answer, that his office was aware of the direction of the ombudsman to authorities, but no more. A fourth time, this time wondering why Vance’s term as chief of defence staff was extended, and Trudeau repeated his answer. For his final question, O’Toole switched to French to ask why the government was allowing second doses to go up to 40 days in spite of pushback from Pfizer, for which Trudeau reminded him that they listen to science and that the vaccine task force is independent from government. 

Yves-François Blanchet was up for the Bloc, wondering why the government wasn’t increasing supports for all seniors, to which Trudeau reminded him that they did increase the GIS across the board and they have supported seniors. Blanchet complained that seniors’ purchasing power has been diminishing, to which Trudeau listed supports they have given seniors during the pandemic.

For the NDP, Jagmeet Singh appeared by video, and in French, complained that certain documents were only tabled in English, which was treating French as a second-class language.  Trudeau rejected the characterisation, and reminded him that they have been producing millions of documents and are moving as fast as they can. Singh switched to English to demand that long-term care be made non-profit across the country, and Trudeau recited the actions they have taken to help seniors.

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QP: Working in the real world, within the constitution

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For Wednesday, proto-PMQ day, Justin Trudeau was in the Chamber, thankfully, with a mere two other Liberals along with him. Erin O’Toole led off, also in person with a script on his mini-lectern, and complained that only eight percent of Canadians would be vaccinated by April, for which Justin Trudeau gave the “good news” of vaccine deliveries that are arriving. O’Toole was not impressed, and quoted Dr. Theresa Tam saying that it was a fact that a lot of people won’t be vaccinated for months, for which Trudeau stated that they are getting doses as quickly as they can. O’Toole said demanded the plan to get 300,000 people vaccinated per day, and Trudeau said that they are supporting provinces to get ready for the “big lift” as deliveries ramp up. O’Toole switched to French to repeat the question, got the same answer, and then O’Toole whinged that we were so far behind other countries, and Trudeau said that he believes in the provinces and territories to administer the vaccines (which may be optimistic on his part, given that certain provinces are run by incompetent murderclowns).

For the Bloc, Yves-François Blanchet raised the government’s discussion paper on official languages and demanded that the government apply Quebec’s Bill 101 to federally-regulated sectors, and Trudeau gave a paean about French being under threat outside of Quebec and the government was working to protect it. Blanchet felt the government plan was too slow and demanded Bill 101 be applied immediately, but Trudeau said that while the Bloc was focused on Quebec, he needed to be focused on French all over the country.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and in French, demanded support for this party’s (unconstitutional) pharmaceutical bill, for which Trudeau stated that they support pharmacare, but they would not support the NDP’s plan to impose a top-down solution in favour of negotiating with provinces. Singh switched to English to claim that his bill was according to the Hoskins Report (it’s not), and Trudeau listed the actions his government took to lower drug prices, and stated that because they respect the constitution, they are negotiating with provinces.

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QP: More complaints about hotel quarantine

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While the prime minister normally makes an appearance on Tuesdays, he did not today in advance of his virtual meeting with Joe Biden. There were three Liberals in the Chamber, including a minister — Mona Fortier — for what it’s worth. Candice Bergen led off by video, demanding that the government impose sanctions on those responsible for the genocide against the Uyghurs. Rob Oliphant assured her that the government was working with its international allies on this issue. Bergen then pivoted to vaccines, and complained that other countries were planning their re-openings, to which Anita Anand reminded her of how many doses are arriving this week. Bergen carried on, insinuating that there was no plan for vaccinations, which Anand disputed and stated the procurement plan once again. Gérard Deltell took over in French to complain about the hotel quarantine phone hotline, to which Patty Hajdu recited the litany of border measures including hotel quarantine. Deltell then turned to the fact that there still wasn’t a legislative fix for the loophole around people who could claim sickness benefits during quarantine from voluntary travel, to which Pablo Rodriguez said that they have tried to move it by unanimous consent and the Conservatives refused.

Alain Therrien led for the Bloc, and he also complained about the hotel quarantine hotline, for which Rodriguez said that people were calling for information, which is now available from other sources. Therrien was outraged by the government’s slow action, and Rodriguez chided him for his theatrical outrage.

Jagmeet Singh rose for the NDP, and in French, he demanded a Canadian exemption for Buy American policies during Trudeau’s call with Joe Biden, for which Mary Ng reminded him that they have been engaging on this since the start. Singh repeated the demand in English, and got much the same reply.

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QP: Hotline blues

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Monday, and there were a mere two Liberals in the Chamber. Candice Bergen led off for the Conservatives by video, railing that vaccines were not being distributed fast enough, and demanded a plan from the government. Anita Anand reminded her that the plan is in place, and that over half a million doses are arriving this week. Bergen went two more rounds of the same, and got the same response both times. Gérard Deltell then took over in French, and demanded the government to declare how they would vote on the Uyghur genocide motion, for which Marc Garneau cited the government’s concern with the situation and their actions to try and get verification with international partners, but did not answer the question posed. Deltell cited that the Americans have made a declaration — which is meaningless because they don’t subscribe to the International Genocide Convention — for which Garneau repeated his response.

Alain Therrien rose for the Bloc, citing the hours-long wait times on the government’s hotline for hotel quarantines, for which Patty Hajdu praised their border measures and hotel quarantine making it more robust. Therrien then demanded stronger quarantine measures, for which he got the usual reassurances from Hajdu.

Rachel Blaney led for the NDP, and she complained that the UNDRIP bill had only received two hours of debate — ignoring the winter break and the shenanigans of the opposition in forcing debate on committee reports over bill debates. David Lametti reassured her that they felt the bill was important and hoped it would move along soon. Charlie Angus the railed about companies with poor track records getting contracts for First Nations water systems, for which Marc Miller pointed out that the First Nations choose the contractors, and the department works with them to get results.

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Roundup: Not calling out conspiracy theories

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Conservative MP Cheryl Gallant has been spreading conspiracy theories about the Liberals on her YouTube channel, and in conversations with campus conservative clubs, and how does The Canadian Press frame it? “Tory MP Cheryl Gallant accused of peddling ‘deranged conspiracy theories’ by Liberals.”

No.

Gallant outright peddled batshit lunacy, and CP went and both-sided the it rather than point out what Gallant was up to. “The Liberals say this. The Conservatives say this. Who’s right? You decide!” No, that’s not good enough. This is exactly the reason why political leaders realised that they could get away with outright lying to people – because they’re not being called out on it, since these outlets feel the need to be performatively “objective” and “fair,” and both-sides rather than be objective in pointing out that the kinds of things Gallant is saying are outrageous falsehoods in the headline and lead paragraphs. And speaking of leaders who lie, what was Erin O’Toole’s response when this was brought up? That this was just the Liberals trying to create a distraction. Seriously, that’s what he said. So, he’s tacitly endorsing that this is the kind of thing that’s okay in his party. Then again, he’s been fine with the outrageous lies being told by his MPs in Question Period and on social media, and has contributed more than a few of them himself, so I’m not sure why I’m surprised that he hasn’t drawn the line at behaviour like Gallant’s.

Another case in point of how media is doing active harm has been the way the COVAX Facility has been framed, as every single outlet calls it a way to give vaccines to poor countries as though it’s some kind of charity. It’s not, and that framing is wrong, and actually undermines the programme. (Case in point here). The whole gods damned point of COVAX is for wealthy countries like Canada to sign up and get doses from them so that it encourages them to invest and use their capital to leverage vaccine manufacturers to scale up production, and gives heft to the bulk purchases so that low-income countries can get equitable access. Yes, it has a separate arm that is solely about donations, but the main programme relies on countries like Canada to buy doses from there, not just donate money. And yet you wouldn’t know it ready or listening to any media outlet in this country. (And seriously – the reason other G7 countries have not taken their doses is because the only vaccine available through COVAX at this point is the AstraZeneca vaccine, which those countries are apparently producing for themselves so they don’t need that vaccine.) But hey, there is an established narrative that the media consensus has decided to feed into rather than taking ten minutes to read the gods damned GAVI website to understand how it works so that they can describe it properly, and we must service the narrative, right?

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QP: Selectively quoting reports to one another

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There were only three Liberals in the Chamber today, which remains a problem, but they keep telling themselves they’re setting a “good example.” They’re not. Pierre Poilievre led off, and he lamented a Canadian Federation of Independent Business report citing that up to twenty percent of small businesses may close because of the pandemic. Appearing by video, Chrystia Freeland quoted this week’s IMF report that praised the federal government’s quick action in providing supports. Poilievre then gave a mendacious comparison of unemployment figures, to which Freeland responded with comparisons of the participation rates in the labour force. Poilievre railed about people not getting jobs, but Freeland repeated her IMF quotes. Pierre Paul-Hus was up next, and he gave a fictitious version of the CanSino deal, to which Freeland read the talking points on the vaccine portfolio. Paul-Hus demanded a back-up plan for vaccinations, to which Freeland haltingly read talking points about the breadth of the portfolio as being Plans A, B, C, and D.

For the Bloc, Sébastien Lemire quoted that experts did not agree with the CanSino deal and falsely quoted the “putting all our eggs in one basket” notion, for which Freeland read assurances that the government always listens to expert advice, before repeating the assurances about diversifying the portfolio. Lemire then complained about the Laval candidate not getting funding, for which Freeland read that the researcher got a million dollar subsidy from the government.

Rising for the NDP, Jagmeet Singh complained in French about the federal sickness benefit, and demanded it being improved — though in 94 percent of workplaces, sick leave is a provincial responsibility. Freeland read that the sickness benefit was an important programme, and that provinces have put protections for employment in place. Singh repeated his demand in English, and Freeland agreed that paid sick leave is important, which is why they provided the benefits they could.

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QP: Random accusations and incoherence

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For the day’s proto-PMQs, prime minister Justin Trudeau was present, along with three other Liberals — still a pathetic turnout and contemptuous of Parliament. After a late start, Erin O’Toole led off, mini-lectern and script in front of him, and he accused the prime minister of being out of step with allies and his own caucus on China, and demanded that Canada remove itself from the Asia Infrastructure Bank — as though that would do anything. Trudeau stated that they continue to express their concern about China’s activities and human rights record, solidarity with the two Michaels, and that more discussions were happening in next week’s virtual G7 meeting. O’Toole tried to wedge Canadian job numbers with the Asia Infrastructure Bank, and Trudeau took the opportunity to pat himself on the back for the measures they rolled out to help those who lost their jobs because of the pandemic. O’Toole then worried about our vaccination rollout, and the lack of domestic production capacity, and Trudeau read about their investments in Canadian bio-manufacturing, and how the vaccine plan was on track. O’Toole switched to French to repeat the question and got the same answer, before he demanded to know how many Canadians would be vaccinated next week — as though he can answer for the provinces, but Trudeau listed what deliveries we were expecting this week,

Yves-François Blanchet led for the Bloc, and stated that the Quebec government was investing in that Laval vaccine candidate, to which Trudeau listed what investments that particular researcher was given by the federal government. Blanchet was not mollified, and he continued to rail that multinationals got contracts instead of Quebeckers, for which Trudeau chided that we can hear the frustration in the Bloc leader’s voice because Ottawa was delivering for Quebec.

For the NDP, Jagmeet Singh got up, and in French, demanded a promise from the government that they would not call an election in the pandemic, and Trudeau took the opportunity to call out the Conservatives for stalling the latest pandemic aid bill. Singh repeated his demand in English, and Trudeau noted that in a minority parliament, the government doesn’t have the sole determination of that, before praising their efforts today.

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Roundup: An oncoming vaccine delivery crunch

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It looks like the vaccine delays are at an end, with ramped up deliveries planned through to the end of March, and Pfizer’s Canadian president insisting that they fully plan to meet their contracted deadlines. Add to that, there is more talk of AstraZeneca vaccines on the way (which could be from India as well as the US), but as has been pointed out in this breakdown of vaccine delivery math, this is going to put more pressure on provinces to get those doses into arms.

Why is that concerning? Well, provincial government competence is a very live concern. Ontario, for example, still hasn’t set up a web portal or call centre to book appointments for vaccinations, when they’ve been caterwauling that they need more doses – only, whoops, it turns out that they can’t even bloody count the doses they’ve delivered and they only delivered half as many as they thought they had. That’s not exactly encouraging (particularly because the government is being run by a gang of incompetent murderclowns).

Add to that, Ontario’s ethical framework for vaccine priorities is far more confused than it should be. Would that this government could get its act together, but no. This is only making a bad situation worse, but remember, everyone has to keep praising Ford for how he really exceeded his (low) expectations, rather than holding him to account for the thousands of unnecessary deaths that have occurred on his watch.

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Roundup: The voices we privilege

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There was an exchange over Twitter yesterday between economist Stephen Gordon that made me stop and think about what it represented. (The original tweet has since been deleted).

Why this gave me pause is because of what this exchange signals about whose voices we are privileging in the media as a matter of course. It’s rare to find a story that involves any kind of spending that does not include the CTF as a source being quoted, because they are reliable to give one “side” to the issue, whether it’s appropriate or not. And this also goes back to my Unifying Theory of Canadian Punditry, where most of the pundits and editors in this country still believe it’s 1995 and will always be 1995 on any fiscal matter – that the county is facing a debt bomb that will threaten it forevermore. That’s not the case, but these voices from the mid-nineties remain central – and indeed, that is where several of our political leaders hailed from, including Jason Kenney and Stephen Harper – and they still have sway because the editors and pundits of this country are also beholden to this era and its beliefs. It’s also about the language employed around the time, where citizens became “taxpayers” in their conception of the country. The CTF fits the ideological niche that these editors and pundits built for themselves, so their voices are privileged, regardless of whether they actually give truthful assessments or not.

Part of the reason also has to do with the media’s general preference to both-sides issues, and when you have a group that reliable offers one “side” – especially because they will always pick up the phone and have a quote for you when you’re on a deadline – then they get amplified. And it’s not just the CTF – it’s also Democracy Watch, and certain professors who are guaranteed to give an outraged quote on no matter the subject, and because they are reliable, they keep getting quoted, and get standing that they would not otherwise be afforded if we subjected their views to actual scrutiny. But this is one of the trade-offs that comes with the twenty-four-hour news cycle and constant deadlines to publish to the web. Journalists start to rely on voices who they know will always answer the phone and give a quote to one of the both-sides, so half the job is done.

This is one of the tells that I look for with many stories I read now – which voices are being privileged? Is it the CTF? Is it Dr. Jack Mintz? Is it Democracy Watch? The inclusion of those voices will pretty much indicate to you how much value to place on the story, because that helps outline what the framing of the piece is – and media literacy goes hand-in-hand with civic literacy.

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