Tag Archives: Russia

Roundup: Mystified about our “clean” gas

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There has been a pervasive talking point of late, which asserts that Canadian oil and gas is “cleaner” than elsewhere—somehow—and that should be justification enough for us to increase production. There is also a pervasive myth that emission have come down in the oil sands, which is blatantly untrue—in some projects emissions intensity has decreased, meaning there are fewer emission per barrel produced, except that they increased the number of barrels produced, so emissions haven’t actually gone down. And yet Conservatives in particular pat themselves on the back about this, and keep repeating how “clean” our energy products are (when they aren’t making the risible “ethical oil” canard). So imagine my surprise when Toronto Star columnist Heather Scoffield uncritically repeated this assertion that Canadian natural gas is “cleaner” than other countries’ product, which is news to me. I grew up in Alberta—I have seen the literal mountains of sulphur that has been removed from the extracted hydrocarbons. Alberta is replete with sour gas wells, which are dangerous, and I’ve also seen the evacuation plans for areas if such a sour gas well blows. I’m not sure how this is “clean” gas. So, I reached out to an expert about the assertion. He’s mystified too. Perhaps our national columnists shouldn’t just take Conservative and industry talking points at face value.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 177:

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with UN secretary general Antonio Guterres and Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Lviv, and they discussed the fighting around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, and the deal around grain shipments. Meanwhile, Russians struck at Kharkiv again, while more explosions were reported at a Russian military airport in Russian-occupied Crimea, with reports that Russian air forces fired at targets near the city of Kerch in Crimea.

https://twitter.com/ChrisO_wiki/status/1560022545356791810

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Roundup: Giving Dean French undeserved credibility

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In an attempt to keep litigating the “revelation” from court documents that there was a “potential breakthrough” with the occupation in Ottawa in advance of the invocation of the Emergencies Act, the CBC credulously brought the “negotiator, Dean French, onto Power & Politics to give his side of the story. It was a complete gong show. French was self-aggrandizing while trying to appear faux-humble, and insisted he wasn’t taking sides when he clearly was, particularly in repeating the patent horseshit from former Newfoundland and Labrador premier Brian Peckford, who spent the occupation claiming he’s the last living signatory of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms (he’s not), and that the public health measures violated the Charter and that the government was operating illegally (they’re not, and the courts have pointed out that those measures are saved under Section 1 of the Charter, which is reasonable limits in a free and democratic society). Yet there was French, unchallenged by the host of the show, repeating these claims from Peckford in justifying his assertion that the government was in the wrong. It’s also patently absurd on its face that French’s negotiations would have done anything about the occupation—shifting a few trucks from residential streets and packing them even tighter onto Wellington was not any kind of solution, not that there was agreement among the occupiers on even doing this much. That was not a solution, because the occupation would still have been in place, and the occupiers would have continued to terrorize the residents and businesses in the area. There was no “breakthrough” to be had, and I cannot believe that CBC would go along with the fiction that there was. No, wait—I do believe it, because they uncritically both-sides everything, just like they did with this French interview, and even more to the point, gave French credibility in this. (French, for those of you who may not be aware, was Doug Ford’s initial chief of staff who was forced to resign because he was handing out government appointments to unqualified people with whom he had a lacrosse connection. And yes, I’m being completely serious). The complete lack of critical thinking on the part of P&P’s producers and host when it came to this interview, or the choice they made in pursuing this losing line of inquiry is particularly troubling. Credulously both-sidesing is not journalism—it’s stenography, and that is costing us our democracy.

 

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 176:

Ukrainian forces say they beat back a Russian attack in the southern region of Kherson, while Russian forces shelled the city of Kharkiv in the north, killing more civilians. This as the UN Secretary General is set to meet with president Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the western city of Lviv. Meanwhile, it sounds like Russia sacked the head of their Black Sea fleet after the recent explosions in Russian-occupied Crimea, and that they have relocated more of their planes and helicopters either deeper in the peninsula or into Russian territory.

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Roundup: Inflation starts to cool

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The CPI figures were released yesterday morning, and the headline number has cooled from its peak, and in July was running at an annualized rate of 7.6 percent, the decrease largely being driven by lower gasoline prices. Of course, there are still plenty of other drivers that are keeping it high, some of which are things like food (largely being driven by factors like climate change), hotel stays, and airline charges. But rather than exploring what these drivers are, most of the coverage of the day was focused on the usual wailing and gnashing of teeth that prices are high and demands for the government to do something about it, which, short of wage and price controls—which don’t really work—they can’t do much about. And no, “just give everyone money” is not a solution because that drives demand further. Same as tax cuts or breaks, and in fact, increasing taxes is generally a good way to dampen inflation. Regardless, there is a real incurious narrative to this in the media, which is not surprising, unfortunately.

Meanwhile, here is Kevin Carmichael’s hot take on the figures, while Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem took to the pages of the National Post to offer some reassurance that the Bank is on the case. Economist Stephen Gordon explains the data here on video. Heather Scoffield warns that even if inflation peaked there are too many factors keeping it high for some time to come. And here is a look at the StatsCan analysts who compile the inflation data.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 175:

There was another explosion at an ammunition depot at a military base in Russian-occupied Crimea, and the Ukrainian government will neither confirm nor deny involvement, though they are mockingly calling it “demilitarization,” as a play on Putin’s justification for invading Ukraine.

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Roundup: Ford proposing more pay cuts targeted at women

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In case you were wondering how seriously the Ford government is taking contract negotiations with education workers, the answer is somewhere between “not seriously at all,” and “outright contemptuous.” They are proposing a two percent wage increase for education workers making under $40,000 and 1.25 percent for everyone else, which is an effective pay cut. It’s a pay cut when inflation is running around two percent, but when inflation is at eight percent, it’s a big pay cut. And while there is economic merit to not patching pay increases directly to inflation in times when it’s running high, lest you risk a wage spiral that keeps inflation high for longer, 1.25 and two percent are not only unrealistic, it’s insulting. And when you factor in the fact that most education workers are women, it adds a particularly sexist dimension to this effective pay cut, just as it was when they capped nurses’ salaries at one percent increases (which, again, is an effective cut when inflation is running normally around two percent). Doug Ford and his merry band of incompetent murderclowns have repeatedly shown that they don’t value the labour of women, and this latest offer just drives that home.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 174:

Russians continue shelling both Kharkiv, as well as towns and villages in the Donetsk region, though Ukrainian forces say that they have repelled more than a dozen attacks in the east and north of the country, including within the Donbas region (which Donetsk is part of). Shelling did continue in the area of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, while the International Atomic Energy Agency tries to have the plant declared a demilitarized zone (but good luck getting Russia to live up to its agreements).

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Roundup: UCP contest finds new lows

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As the UCP leadership race in Alberta meanders through clown town, outgoing leader Jason Kenney took a slightly bold step, and called Danielle Smith’s “Sovereignty Act” proposal “nuts,” which is an interesting enough intrusion in the race. But, because this is Kenney, he then took it a step too far and spouted a bunch of nonsense about the lieutenant governor not signing it, and no, that’s not how this works. There is pretty much no ability for an LG to refuse to sign legislation post-Statute of Westminster, because they aren’t reporting to the foreign desk of the Imperial government in Britain. Federal powers of disallowance may still be on the books, but have for all intents and purposes gone extinct because we have courts that have the power to strike down laws, and yes, that does matter. So you can bet that if Smith were to win said contest, and did manage to somehow pass said bill without a full-on caucus revolt (because it’s sheer, unconstitutional lunacy), you can rest assured that said bill would be immediately challenged in the courts, if not outright referred to the Supreme Court of Canada by the federal government, where it would summarily be struck down, likely in a ruling from the bench because it is so blatantly unconstitutional on its very face. So we have both Smith and Kenney in the wrong here, and this contest just keeps finding new lows.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 173:

Russian troops spent the weekend shelling the cities of Nikopol and Kramatorsk, as well as claimed the village of Pisky on the outskirts of Donetsk province. This as Ukrainian forces were continuing their counter-offensive in the south, striking the last working bridge over the Dnieper River, cutting off Russian supply lines. Ukrainians also say that they are targeting Russians that are firing near or from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear facility, and are accusing Russians of using it as a shield. As well, here is a look at Ukrainian drone pilot training, where video game skills are a welcome addition.

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Roundup: Cozying up to separatists for the wrong reasons

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The state of the UCP leadership contest in Albert continues to plumb new depths as many of the candidates are attending an event put on by a separatist group and Rebel “News”, without any particular compunction about doing so. Indeed, they are cosying up to these separatists openly, because they suffer from this completely insane misapprehension that threats of separatism gave Quebec all kinds of things from the federal government when that’s not true at all. In fact, the first referendum in Quebec quickly hollowed out its business sector—Montreal used to be the financial capital of the country, but the threat of separation had all of those head offices depart for Toronto, and the province’s economy suffered for decades as a result. Alberta will be little different if they start using the threat of separation to try and extract concession from Ottawa. As for the fact that this kind of event is selling access, that’s fairly par for the course in Alberta. The old one-party state system was rife with this kind of corruption, where business leaders got their way by donating to the party, or meeting the minister at the Petroleum Club for drinks, and the like. Access was absolutely for sale, and these UCP candidates are carrying on that corrupt tradition.

Meanwhile, when it comes to reminders that Stephen Harper sang the praises of the World Economic Forum when he was prime minister, I’m suspect any cognitive dissonance among the likes of Brian Jean in Alberta or Pierre Poilievre federally will be shrugged off, though it was pointed out to me that there is little indication that the conspiracy wing of the Conservative Party cares what Stephen Harper thinks, and I suspect that is true.

https://twitter.com/davidakin/status/1558184731187056640

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 171:

The focus remains on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, and shelling in the area, which both sides blame each other for. While Russia controls the plant, Ukrainian engineers continue to operate it, and Ukrainian forces are moving to counterattack in the region, while in the Donetsk region, there was more shelling of the eastern town of Kramotorsk.

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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: Not calling out the obvious lies

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It seems that Pierre Poilievre and Leslyn Lewis have been hyping up a Substack post by a National Post columnist who has been falsely claiming that court documents say that vaccine mandates don’t work. It’s not surprising that they would amplify this garbage, or that said garbage completely misrepresents the studies in question, which provided proof that vaccine mandates do work. Of course, there has been little-to-no denunciation of said lies being propagated by these candidates, nor has the mainstream media done their own fact-checking on the claims (which was done by PressProgress, which is not actually a media organization but a partisan oppo-research outlet that masquerades as journalism). This is not a good thing. This is a sign that things are very broken, and that we are headed to a very dark place. Our media need to step up and start calling this stuff out for what it is, and to stop both-sidesing it out of an exaggerated sense of “fairness.” Lies are lies. There are not two sides. You don’t need to have their political opponents say that they’re lies because that simply provides fodder for the true believers to swallow the lies, because it’s their opponents denouncing them. This is corroding our democracy, but nobody seems to care enough to do something about it.

https://twitter.com/EmmMacfarlane/status/1557412067572858886

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 169:

In the aftermath of that massive explosion at a Russian base in occupied Crimea, nine Russian warplanes have allegedly been destroyed, and Kyiv continues to deny official responsibility (though it may have been the result of sabotage by Ukrainian partisans in the area). Meanwhile, Russians have been shelling the central region of Dnipropetrovsk, as well as continuing to shell the eastern city of Bakhmut in the Donetsk region, while Ukrainians have hit the city of Donetsk, which is controlled by Russian separatists.

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Roundup: Spyware or mass surveillance?

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As summer showboat season rolls along, the Commons’ access to information, privacy and ethics committee continued their hearings on the RCMP’s use of spyware. And it was…odd. A senior RCMP member said that the RCMP has been using said spyware to break encryption since 2002 (while advocating for legislation to allow them to evade encryption). The former privacy commissioner said he was surprised to learn that the RCMP had been using this “intrusive” technology for years, and didn’t seek authorisation from his office, while the RCMP denied that they were using the “Pegasus” spyware system. And a former CSIS officer testified that they have monitored politicians at all three levels of government because they had concerns they were being paid by foreign governments. But Liberal MPs kept going on to questions about mass surveillance, which is not what this is about, nor within the capabilities of this spyware, and it makes me wonder if they were trying to put a neat bow on this to say “See, there’s no mass surveillance” without really engaging with the topic. And they tried to pass the motion to say “All wrapped up,” but that didn’t happen either. So I’m not really sure what’s going on other than more showboating from all sides, which is the given at this time of year.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 168:

There was much speculation about an explosion at a military airfield in Russian-occupied Crimea, creating much buzz over social media about whether this was a long-range missile strike from Ukrainian forces. Ukrainian officials denied this, but it could mean that Russians may have to fortify their own positions behind the lines on that peninsula, further stretching their resources. Meanwhile, Russian forces shelled the town of Nikopol, near the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, as Russians continue to shell the power lines leading from the plant in order to disconnect it from the Ukrainian grid so that they can begin the process to link it to Russia’s grid instead.

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Roundup: Threats and compromises over dental care

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After spending the weekend talking tough on healthcare, Jagmeet Singh made some threats and shook his fist in the direction of Althia Raj yesterday, insisting that if the promised dental care programme doesn’t happen by the end of the year, that he was walking away from the supply-and-confidence agreement with the federal government. As this was hitting the wires, so was a leak that said the government was looking at a temporary cash transfer for eligible households in lieu of dental care this year, because it’s taking longer to implement (even though they insist they are on track). But the federal government hasn’t even decided on a delivery model yet, which is a problem, and premiers haven’t signalled any willingness to work with them on this either, and that’s a problem for all involved. Singh was naïve to believe this could happen in a few months, and the Liberals were stupid to promise that it could, knowing that this was going to be tricky because of the jurisdictional hurdles. And I suspect this is just going to drive cynicism on all sides, because new national social programmes can’t be done on the back of a napkin and rolled out in a few weeks, and everyone has set up expectations that will be nigh-impossible to meet. So good job, everyone. You’ve really helped.

Ukraine Dispatch, Day 167:

There are international concerns after Russians shelled the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station, in what is believed to be an attempt to cut power to Ukrainian-held cities in the southern part of the country. We also got word that a Ukrainian grain ship has reached Turkey, but it seems there has been a dispute with the cargo’s buyers in Lebanon, so they may be looking for a new buyer for the corn haul. Because of course. Over the weekend, Russians targeted the eastern cities of Bakhmut and Avdiivka, in the Donetsk region.

In case you missed it:

  • My column on Michael Chong’s latest round of reform ideas, and some of them are actually good, while others may not be practical given current limitations.
  • For National Magazine, I wrote about the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision around condom refusal and how that can lead to a sexual assault trial.
  • My Loonie Politics Quick Take on the (then-forthcoming) leadership debate and how you shouldn’t count anything out when there’s a ranked ballot in the mix.
  • My column on why we can’t keep ignoring the link between climate change and what it’s done to crops, and by extension, rising food inflation.
  • My Xtra column on this government’s poor record on HIV funding, while they were busy patting themselves on the back at the International AIDS Conference.
  • My column calling out Senator Dasko’s morally bankrupt poll trying to drum up support for the continuation of hybrid sittings, with no mention of the human toll.

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