Down With the Sickness: Canadian Politics 2022

pff. she even got any power now with the queen dead?

So lonely on a limb

what's the scene in Ottawa?

A lot quieter and clearer; we still need to go through police checkpoints when we re-enter the red zone (in which we live) but it's more possible to go in and out than it was on Friday.

And it looks like people were taking the 'Memorandum of Understanding' seriously and jamming the GG's phone line for a couple of weeks now! This was from Feb 4: https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/governor-generals-office-inundated-by-protest-supporters-demanding-the-pm-be-fired

little do they know that william lyon mackenzie king gave FDR a secret code that supercedes both the two-line-pass rule and the trapezoid

I would like more context on that one!

So the Pat King reference was to him supposedly winning a court case "proving" that COVID doesn't exist. (Not actually what happened, of course: https://www.reuters.com/article/factcheck-alberta-case/fact-check-alberta-court-case-not-linked-to-lifting-of-covid-19-restrictions-idUSL1N2PE0EX)

This was in yet another public forum at a public meeting full of anti-maskers. Another one of them ended her remarks about the local mask mandate by yelling "Justin Trudeau is a nazi! Go truckers!"

On the plus side, she probably couldn't have named a Canadian prime minister — or a Canadian — six months ago.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-our-shared-reality-and-the-knowledge-that-undergirds-it-is-being/

The blockades that paralyzed Ottawa and various border points have been removed, at least for now. But the blockades are merely the symptom. The disease is disinformation.

We are discovering for ourselves what until now we had observed at secondhand: large numbers of our fellow citizens can be made to believe almost anything...

It was possible for a reasonable person to worry, circa December, 2020, whether the vaccines developed in such relative haste against the coronavirus might pose some risk to human health. Fourteen months and 10 billion safely delivered doses later, it is not. Valid health exceptions are well known and accommodated; unanticipated adverse events are vanishingly rare.

And yet thousands of people were persuaded that vaccines, and vaccine mandates, pose such a monstrous threat to their health or freedom as to justify occupying the national capital and menacing its citizens, in defiance of the law, for weeks on end. Hundreds were willing to risk arrest rather than obey a police order to disperse. This is not normal.

Opposition to vaccine mandates was not by any means the only idea behind the occupation, or the strangest. Protest leaders appear to sincerely believe, inter alia, that vaccines contain RFID chips, that the governor-general can rule by decree, and that Canada has a First Amendment. This is a movement in opposition not merely to vaccines, but to science, authority, expertise of all kinds: in a word, knowledge.

It is really striking to me how different it feels talking about this online now compared to events from 10-15 years ago. When I look at a forum I used to read in the Harper era, I recall that, while I would disagree strongly with people there, the norm was that they would back up their statements with widely recognized credible sources and we could usually agree on a baseline of facts. Now it's overrun with people insisting that a choppy, clearly manipulative video proves a woman was trampled by a horse and the MSM are lying when they say otherwise, that little girls in BC are having their bank accounts frozen by Trudeau's tyranny, that the protests were completely peaceful (even though four people were arrested on conspiracy to murder and 13 on weapons-related charges), never with citations. Or from friends of friends or distant family I keep hearing things about how video evidence proves that Trudeau has openly admitted he pays the media for favourable coverage, that he personally paid Ford $1M and thus all lockdowns and mandates that appear to be under provincial jurisdiction come directly from him (the head of a minority government!), that the protesters did nothing illegal and were just here for hockey and bouncy castles, that a short first-person clip from a pseudonymous Youtuber showing a police officer arresting him is proof that freedom of the press has been repressed. It sometimes feels impossible to even talk to people when their baseline conception of reality seems that distant.

Yeah, and the immediate, out-of-hand dismissal of information from any credible source — the mainstream media, scientific experts, universities, etc. Like, they won't even engage with the information because anything from those sources is automatically suspect. And when you've ruled those out, all you're left with is random YouTubers and disinformation campaigns.

Two days after passing the Commons, Trudeau revokes the Emergencies Act: https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/immediate-emergency-situation-is-over-pm-trudeau-revokes-emergencies-act-1.5793047

Tipsy: yep

Classic power move

When Pearl Harbour happened the meetings stopped. C’mon people, stop pretending. War has started.

— Bob Rae (@BobRae48) February 24, 2022

kinda feels nice to have the US media paying attention to something else now (absolutely nothing else feels nice about this situation)

Those seem like strong words, coming from Bob Rae, of all people. Pearl Harbour is not a light comparison. Wonder what this means for us.

i like Rae, but can't say I agree with him there. also surprised to hear that coming from him.

PAT KING DENIED BAIL

Kerry Komixxxxx must be devastated that she can't throw 50k down a well and then replenish it with givesendgo funds

Hm, I actually appreciate that they're protesting in an appropriate and comparatively respectful way now: https://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/anti-mandate-demonstration-marches-to-parliament-hill-one-week-after-removal-of-convoy-protesters-1.5797402

Otoh, DC's getting their own convoy, although it sounds like they've prepared:

Preparations are being made in Washington for the expected arrival of the convoy and other similar protests in the coming days. The Pentagon said it had approved 400 National Guard troops from the District of Columbia, who would not carry weapons, to help at traffic posts from Saturday through March 7.

About 50 tactical vehicles were also approved to be placed at traffic posts. In addition, up to 300 National Guard troops from outside of Washington will assist at traffic posts if needed.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-truckers-plan-pandemic-protest-inspired-by-canadian-counterparts-2022-02-23/

downtown vancouver this afternoon will apparently be hosting a rally for ukraine and an antivaxx rally a couple blocks from each other. should be interesting!

hopefully one wildly outnumbers the other.
there was just a bunch of the anti-vax/anti-maskers having their usual weekend stroll down young street shouting "freedom" with zero idea of how especially stupid they sound right now under the current circumstances.
if they really want to fight for freedom, someone should airdrop them into Kyiv.

The U.S. convoy is supposedly stopping through here later this week for a three-hour rally at a truck stop. I guess I'll go just to have a look.

Randy Hillier has been tweeting up a storm of anti-Ukraine material.

I generally take a large shaker of salt with any communique from @georgesoros if this fellow is supporting the Ukraine govt, you know it is totally corrupt https://t.co/kV8Wize8Ix

— Randy Hillier (@randyhillier) February 26, 2022

He also thinks more people will die from the vaccine than in this war.

I fell down a Twitter rabbit hole. I have to say that I did not envision living to see right-wingers in the English-speaking world come around to hating the West and idealizing Russia and Hungary.

Edgelord contrarianism taken to its logical extreme.

Rearguard action against The Enlightenment they've been fighting for 300 years.

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2022/02/28/province-to-propose-new-gig-worker-laws-that-mandate-minimum-wage.html

Although this is a good step, it sounds like a more timid version of what Wynne's Liberals were trying to do when the Tories defeated them in the first place.

Breaking: Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly says the federal government is preparing to send a third shipment of lethal weapons to Ukraine as its military continues to fend off better-armed Russian forces. #cdnpoli

— Ashley Burke (@AshleyBurkeCBC) February 28, 2022

Seems like two shipments already went from Trenton in February - remarkably low key reporting on it really. I only knew because it was reported in the local paper out there (that I follow on fb).

Thought Rae's speech at the UNGA last night was p good:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOIF2IhofIU

1. This is a good & balanced report on Chrystia Freeland's twitter account posting a photo of her with a scarf that was an emblem of the UPA, a Ukrainian fascist paramilitary group once aligned with the Nazis. https://t.co/zYoZ9PH6sh

— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) March 3, 2022

the same colours have for centuries been linked to Ukrainian history and culture, explains Jars Balan, director of the Kule Ukrainian Canadian Studies Centre at the University of Alberta. The UPA did fly a red and black flag, he said, but the same colour scheme appears in literature and art from the 12th century on.

“Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko, the most important poet to rise from Ukraine in the 19th century, incorporated those colours in a number of his works. They are the colours that are used in the embroidery of the Poltava region of Ukraine, which is the wellspring … of the Ukrainian literary language,” he said. “The colours were adopted in 1941, and during the Second World War by the UPA, because they were drawing on this tradition and Ukraine’s struggle for independence.”

Per Anders Rudling, an associate professor in the history department at Lund University who specializes in nationalism, has a different interpretation,

“Red and black are the colours of the Bandera Wing of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. The flag symbolizes blood and soil, and was adopted by that organization in 1941, along with an explicitly totalitarian program. The black-and-red banner is a symbol intimately connected with the most radical Ukrainian right-wing tradition.”

Without having any independent knowledge, Balan's counterexamples seem pretty weak. Heer is probably right that Freeland should just acknowledge the mistake and apologize. I don't think anyone seriously believes that she is a fascist.

I mean, maybe Bernier does but he would do so regardless.

It’s gross that our cons only talk sense quietly when they think the unreasonable parts of their party aren’t paying attention. She should be screaming this from the rooftops.

Rob, tweet was the final straw in the decision to publish this. https://t.co/9A6CkfBbPP

— Michelle Rempel Garner (@MichelleRempel) February 24, 2022

I've read a million insane tweets about WEF without knowing it was referring to Davos

I had to dig into the whole Great Reset thing when I was sending a friend info to debunk some idiotic Russell Brand video. This Naomi Klein article is a really good response imo: https://theintercept.com/2020/12/08/great-reset-conspiracy/

It’s absolutely absurd but I find I can no longer dismiss it. A horrifying number of previously normal people that I know personally or observe in the community have somehow accepted it as the truth. It was a big motivator in the convoys and they are so proud of themselves because they are fighting some great evil. Makes me want to jump off a cliff.

In other news, Hillier has thrown in the towel. Must be legal issues catching up to him - he had to “protect” his tweets a few days ago.

That Michelle Rempel piece is well-argued, credit where it's due. Thanks for linking that

though yeah she probably could do more than make a substack

When the "Great Reset" talk started circulating, I went and looked at the official website and all I could think was, have these people never been to an industry conference? They always have big vague dumb names like that, it's all this lofty speak and then a long list of corporate sponsors. And she's right that the ideas in it are just reheated center-left talking points, there's virtually nothing new in any of it.

though yeah she probably could do more than make a substack

Considering that her party spent two weeks backing the convoy protests and even replaced a leader who didn't support them enough, yes. But yeah, it did clarify where all this random stuff I've been hearing is coming from.

it'll be a hard pass for me on Michelle Rempel for Jen Gerson

ffs

Yeah, you’re right. I was very angry when I first encountered it, but after thinking a bit, her saying it anywhere at all must take a lot of nerve. She must know measured reason won’t change many of their minds. It’s good to see there’s integrity in her. On the other hand, proves to me that there is full awareness of the consequences of feeding this beast, so we’ll see if it shows up in her future actions.

I recently had a local storeowner - a guy I'd chatted with before - ask me out of the blue if I'd heard of the Great Reset and Klaus Schwab. (He brought it up because he was having internet trouble and implied that it might be because of pro-Reset hackers trying to shut down his tweets.) The big thing he brought up that the Reset was trying to do was.... replace meat with lab-grown meat. I'm not exactly clear on why lab-grown meat, if it's viable, is supposed to be worse than killing animals.

There was a bunch of that talk at the Ottawa protest too.

Haha I sometimes have that block with conspiracy theories. The first time I heard about the Illuminati plan to establish a global atheist socialist New World Order, I wondered "this would be bad because...?"

Sometimes I think the worst part is that opposing the tin foil hat stuff positions a person who wants balance, to uphold things that actually are not that perfect. I think there are lots of legitimate conversations to be had about the official response in the past few years, but they are next to impossible to have.

(That first time was when a couple of guys gave their final presentation in my OAC World Issues class, where they explained every one of the global problems we had covered that year with the NWO conspiracy, seemingly completely sincerely. By the end of the presentation, most of the class seemed convinced; even the teacher defended the merits of their argument, although he may have just been trying to be supportive. I suppose it shouldn't really be a surprise that these ideas become more widespread when Facebook is easier to access than the Globe and Mail.)

I know, Kim. It's frustrating to end up having to defend the mainstream media, government, and even big business sometimes.

Ontario provincial voting intentions from Léger / Postmedia:

🔵PCPO 39%
🔴OLP 27%
🟠ONDP 27%
🟢GPO 3%

-> https://t.co/cIuGNkaxNo

[Léger, Feb. 25-27, 2022, n=1,001]#onpoli pic.twitter.com/5OAcRo5mK5

— Philippe J. Fournier (@338Canada) March 4, 2022

Btw my point was actually that Rempel-Garner has an extra-strong responsibility to proclaim this more publicly, even if it means having to leave a party that she herself acknowledges is encouraging this damaging conspiracy theory.

any chance ontario moves to proportional representation in the next couple months?