This Is Worrisome

Those of you who may regularly read this blog likely know that I have always been a big supporter of mainstream media. Despite their limitations, they have always been, to me, a source of credible information due to the heavy fact-checking that journalistic ethics demand.

Now, however, we seem to be moving beyond fact-checking to self-censorship, and that should worry us all.

The first recent incident involved the online edition of Elle, which edited out a prominent and controversial Hamilton MPP.

A Canadian fashion magazine says it removed Hamilton politician Sarah Jama from a story on influential women after the publication’s editorial team received threats.

Jama, the Hamilton Centre MPP who has established herself as an advocate for marginalized groups, was featured in the September issue of ELLE Canada alongside seven other women “paving the way for those behind them,” the article reads.

ELLE publisher Sophie Banford said in an email that they opted to to remove Jama from the article, originally published Aug. 19, after members of its editorial team “were targeted with threats.”

“The decision was not made lightly,” she said. “The safety and well-being of our journalists are our top priorities, and it is within this context that we made the decision to remove the content in question.”

A Sept. 2 disclaimer at the top of the online version indicates the original story “represents the opinions of a political personality but does not reflect the opinions of the publishers” or the magazine’s parent company.”

“Following a number of concerning messages posted online and received by our magazine, the publisher chose to edit the original version of the article in order to protect everyone’s safety,” the disclaimer reads.

I don't think you need me to tell you why this is a very dangerous move.

Along the same lines comes a TVO disavowal of a documentary currently at TIFF about Russians fighting in Ukraine. Despite the fact that it is not propaganda in any way, it has invited scorn from the federal government: 

Speaking from the Liberals’ caucus retreat, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland told reporters Tuesday that both diplomats and the Ukrainian-Canadian community have expressed “grave concerns” about the film “Russians at War” — concerns which she shares.

“We as a country have to be very, very clear that there can be no moral equivalency in our understanding of this conflict,” she said. “It’s not right for Canadian public money to be supporting the screening and production of a film like this.”

The film's director begs to differ:

In response to the backlash, the film’s Russian-Canadian director, Anastasia Trofimova, asserted in a written statement that the film is not propaganda, and that it was filmed without the permission of the Russian government.

 “I want to be clear that this Canada-France co-production is an antiwar film made at great risk to all involved, myself especially,” she said.

“I unequivocally believe that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is unjustified, illegal and acknowledge the validity of the International Criminal Court investigation of war crimes in Ukraine.”

In a move at least as cowardly as the one by Elle, TVO acted quickly to comply with Freeland's 'directive.'

“TVO’s Board of Directors has decided to respect the feedback we have received, and TVO will no longer be supporting or airing “Russians at War,” according to a press release posted to the public broadcaster’s website on Tuesday.

“TVO will be reviewing the process by which this project was funded and our brand leveraged.” 

Pierre Trudeau famously said, "There's no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation. Equally, it has no place in the minds, judgement and sensibilities of Canada.

P.S. I didn't write about last night's debate, but allow me to say that I was very, very satisfied with Kamala Harris's performance and went to bed content for a change.

 

 

On Trudeau's Travails

The seeming public consensus is that the end times beckon for Justin Trudeau and his party. Althia Raj writes:

The Liberal party has the support of about just one in five Canadians, and more than eight out of 10 Canadians say it’s time for a change, according to Abacus Data. Polls suggest the Tories are headed for a massive majority government.

On doorsteps and in meetings across the country, Liberal MPs report a crescendo of dislike for the prime minister. “They disliked him in 2019, they hated him in 2021, and now they despise him,” one MP, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Star.

“I do not have a meeting or a conversation with a business, a constituent, a stakeholder, a non-profit where Justin Trudeau really supersedes the conversation,” said Wayne Long, the outgoing Liberal MP for Saint John—Rothesay. “When people are telling me consistently that, ‘You know, your party’s done some great work, Wayne, but the prime minister needs to move on.’ 

While I don't really understand the personal animus that so many express for Trudeau, I do understand their disaffection. It is one I have felt for some time, not because of the prime minister's style of leadership, but because he so quickly fell into perpetuating the party's tradition of arrogance. 

There was, as I have written before, his early betrayal of his promise of electoral reform. While the proposal itself was modest, a form of ranked ballot that was easy to understand and might have encouraged more voter participation, it became a step too far once the party had regained power under the FPTP system. Canada's 'natural governing party' had regained its rightful place, and all was once again well in the Liberal world.

Scandals ensued, too numerous to recount here, each chipping away at the "sunny ways" the earlier Trudeau had promised. Perhaps the biggest one was the SNC Lavalin debacle, which I wrote about in 2019. Here is an excerpt:

The latest allegation is that Trudeau tried to influence former justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould to help SNC-Lavalin avoid a criminal prosecution for bribery of Libyan officials in order to secure business contracts.

And so, an old pattern re-emerges. Coupled with Trudeau's stout defence and dismissal of allegations regarding his good friend and fundraiser Stephen Bronfman over what was revealed about offshore accounts in the Panama Papers, as well as the CRA foot-dragging in going after the big corporate cheats who operate such accounts, one can justifiably wonder whose interests the Prime Minister really is protecting.

But perhaps the biggest fault of this government I can cite is its absence of a coherent vision. I am aware that many may disagree with such an assessment, but saying that you want a more fair and equitable society is far easier than working steadily toward one. Some may counter with such nascent programs as dentalcare and pharmacare, but despite what Mr. Trudeau may assert, they were not Liberal initiatives as much as they were forced upon the party thanks to the leverage that Mr. Singh and the NDP exerted upon them. Parenthetically, that leverage has earned Mr. Singh no credit, the media narrative being it was a mistake to enter into the supply and confidence agreement, a view with which I heartily disagree.

The Liberals, were they who they claim to be, could have done much more, in a much more methodical fashion, had they possessed real vision as opposed to a propensity for expedience that achieved little.  One case in point would be the housing crisis that confronts us. Instead of empowering the Canada Housing and Mortgage Corporation to get back into the home-building business, as they did post-WW11, Trudeau was content to throw money at the provinces to give to private builders to achieve decidedly uneven results. However, as I have said before, Mr. Trudeau worships at the altar of private enterprise, the result being that many, many more people cannot ever hope to own a house.

I could go on, but allow me to end by noting that my dismay with the Liberals does not mean, as it does for so many others, a vote for that repository of bilious, belligerent rhetoric, PP. When voters go to the polls at the next election, they should ask themselves whether or not their perceived cure for their disaffection is worse than the disease itself.

 

Teflon Doug

He's loved of the distracted multitude,

Who like not in their judgment, but their eyes

- Hamlet, Act 4, Scene 3

It is deeply disappointing to discover that Ontario Premier Doug Ford is continuing to show ongoing strength in the polls. Indeed, those polls suggest the above quote from Hamlet is an appropriate explanation of public sentiment toward the retail salesman often called "Teflon Doug."

What explains the popularity of a man mired in scandal thanks to his intimate relationship with big developers? Robert Benzie offers this:

In new polling for the Star, Abacus Data found voters are so far willing to forgive — if not quite forget — transgressions that would have derailed the electoral careers of others.

...the Tories are confident about the two-term premier’s skills on the stump and his ability to connect with Ontarians in their everyday lives.

Pollster David Colletto says:

He’s polarizing in the sense that if you don’t like him, you don’t like him. And there’s a lot of Ontarians who don’t like Doug Ford,” said Coletto.

“But he has enough who do and they think he’s just a friendly, nice guy who isn’t perfect, but admits mistakes when he makes them and tries to fix them,” the pollster said.

“He’s forgiven because he asks for forgiveness.”

Revealingly, when asked how to describe Ford, 44 per cent of respondents felt he was “friendly,” while 20 per cent said he was “mean.”

Similarly, 39 per cent said he “gets things done” while 38 per cent insisted he “fails to deliver”; 38 per cent said he is “normal” while 28 per cent said he’s “weird”; and 37 per cent said he “admits mistakes and corrects them” while 38 per cent said he “refuses to admit mistakes.”

“That’s a winner — during the last campaign that became his new brand: the guy who gets things done,” said Coletto, hearkening to the Tories’ successful 2022 re-election slogan, Get It Done.

Apparently, Ford's mastery of retail politics makes him a winner:

“It’s service above self. He’s very easy to talk to,” said Borecky, a retired program analyst.

To Coletto, “that is at the core of Doug Ford’s brand,” the perception of a folksy populist that has developed since he came to office in 2018.

“He is the guy who will call you back. You run into him in the airport or on the street, he’s going to shake your hand, he wants to meet you — he’s that ultimate retail politician,” he said.

Unfortunately, from my perspective, there is also a darker reason for Ford's ongoing popularity: people's general ignorance of what is going on around them. Matt Gurney writes: 

The average voter and citizen doesn’t spend much time paying attention to the news. They might be able to name Olivia Chow as the mayor of Toronto, but there’s a good chance they don’t know who their local councillor is. They almost certainly know that Justin Trudeau is the prime minister, but it’s not a given that they know he’s a Liberal.

A Maru poll from last year pegged the number of Canadians who were hyper-engaged in the news at 16 per cent, and that felt about right to me.

The catastrophes in our long-term care homes during the pandemic may not have registered with them because they were busy managing the pandemic’s effects on their own lives. The Greenbelt scandal is probably something they’ve heard mentioned but haven’t looked into deeply. The closing of the Science Centre, if it registered at all, was probably forgotten in days. And so on.

So there you go. Unscrupulous politicians (is that a redundancy?) count on a superficial citizenry, one that is easily manipulated by smiling faces, catchy phrases and inflammatory rhetoric.

Truly, they are an autocrat's dream. 

 

 

Slouching Towards Bethlehem

In what I think was an underreported story, Russian has announced the following:

Russia will make changes to its doctrine on the use of nuclear weapons in response to what it regards as western escalation in the war in Ukraine, state media quoted deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying on Sunday.

The existing nuclear doctrine, set out in a decree by President Vladimir Putin in 2020, says Russia may use nuclear weapons in the event of a nuclear attack by an enemy or a conventional attack that threatens the existence of the state. Some hawks among Russia’s military analysts have urged Putin to lower the threshold for nuclear use in order to “sober up” Russia’s enemies in the west. Ryabkov’s comments on Sunday were the clearest statement yet that changes would indeed be made. “The work is at an advanced stage, and there is a clear intent to make corrections,” state news agency Tass cited Ryabkov as saying. The decision was “connected with the escalation course of our western adversaries” in connection with the Ukraine conflict.

The above should not come as any real suprsie, given the proxy war currently being fought in the Ukraine between the U.S. and Russia. Nonetheless, it is a sobering start to the post-Labour-Day week, isn't it?

In other news,  a war of another kind looks increasingly likely after the next U.S. election. Peter Stone reports that Trump and his cabal are busy laying the groundwork for civil war.

Donald Trump and election denialist allies at Turning Point USA, True the Vote and other Maga stalwarts are spreading conspiracy theories about election fraud in order to lay the groundwork for charging the election was rigged if Trump loses, warn election experts and some veteran Republicans.

 John Giles, the Republican mayor of Mesa Arizona who spoke at the Democratic national convention in August in support of Vice-President Kamala Harris’s campaign for the presidency, said that former president Trump and his allies “will throw everything at the wall and see what sticks”, if Trump loses.

He added: “They’ll claim everything went wrong if they lose. I’d be surprised if Trump doesn’t try to foment insurrection if he loses the election.”

The endgame is in sight: 

“A lot of false claims are masquerading as efforts to change policy to improve election integrity when in actuality they’re just designed to sow distrust in our system if Trump loses,” said David Becker who leads the Center for Election Innovation and Research. “This is all designed to manufacture claims that if Trump loses, the election was stolen and to sow discord, chaos and potential violence.”

Voter suppression also is part of the plan:

Although they lack the resources of Kirk’s well funded operations, Texas based True the Vote has long played a role in pushing election conspiracies about voting fraud at drop boxes and other bogus charges, and the group is once more working to sow doubt in Wisconsin.

Catherine Engelbrecht, who founded True the Vote in 2009, in an interview on 30 July with Christian nationalist and self-styled prophet Lance Wallnau, said her group was partnering with a few sheriffs in Wisconsin to monitor drop boxes for voting fraud using camera equipment that the group plans to provide.

Given the general low level of awareness and intelligence that exists in the U.S., expect anything but a smooth transition should Kamala Harris and her party succeed in November.   

 

 

More On The Arlington Debacle

In my previous entry, I posted a clip that the Trump campaign is now using of Don's visit to Arlington, disgracing the memory of the dead and egregiously flouting the prohibition against pictures and videos being taken there.

In this segment, we see The Cowardly One deny any responsibility for. what took place:

Republicans against Trump

Wow. This is a new low, even for Trump. 

“It Was a Setup,” “Could have been the parents” Trump tries to blame Gold Star families for the Arlington incident.

Like the 'good soldier' he is,  J D Vance issued this stout defence of Trump while denigrating Kamal Harris:

Ah, but the feckless Vance was no match for this former Marine and widow whose husband died for his country:

🇺🇸USMC Veteran and Gold Star Widow Katherine Wyatt has a question for 

@JDVance

 about Trump's Arlington stunt: 

"Instead of trying to appeal to the moral consciousness of Donald Trump because I don't believe he has any...Where is your integrity, Marine?

My good friend Dom, an astute observer and critical thinker to whom I sent the above clip, had this to say about Vance:

Vance is a pull-toy of Peter Thiel. He is beholden to him as Peter funded his company, and also advised Trump to select him as VP. He is whoever Peter tells him to be. Both men are his play toys devoid of any self respect. Vance is the perfect match for Donnie: the King of self loathing and insecurity. 

The Silicon Broligarchs, are no longer hiding their alt right views. Musk, Thiel, Anderson, Altman, Zuckerberg, et. al, believe they own the future and believe they also own America. They have made it clear who they want in office whose mandate will be to remove and punish anyone in their way.

God save America.

To all of this, I have nothing to add, but you might be interested in an article from The Guardian in which writer Kevin Carroll offers his evaluation of Trump. Hint: it is not flattering.

UPDATED:Exploiting The Dead

You have likely heard about the debacle at Arlington National Cemetery where Don Trump and his team took pictures and video of him laying a wreath honouring the war dead. Steve Benen writes:

As the week got underway, Donald Trump probably thought going to Arlington National Cemetery would be a good idea. The former president, despite his awful record related to respecting U.S. troops and veterans, appeared eager on Monday to exploit the third anniversary of a terrorist attack in Afghanistan that killed 13 U.S. service members and more than 150 Afghans.

The first problem is that such video incursions are forbidden in the military cemetery. The second problem is the fact that this cowardly, bone-spurred military refusenik has incorporated the video into his campaign, as you can see in the video below.

Jules Morgan 🧸

@glamelegance

There it is, his disgusting campaign video and the real reason he went to Arlington Cemetery. Like and repost the video so that everyone will see the truth.

Americans are said to revere their military. I can't help but wonder how the true patriots feel about this transparent and disgusting ploy by Trump to elevate himself at the expense of the dead.

UPDATE: This voice from the heartland sets the record straight about Trump:

But Only If You Agree With Me

Free speech is great. It is a principle that most people claim to support, but sometimes that support is contingent upon the subject under consideration. In a shameful episode yesterday, it became apparent how fragile the concept can be as McMaster University showed its true and cowardly colours.

The union representing academic workers at McMaster University says three students who are also connected to the labour group have been banned from campus activities after they participated in a pro-Palestinian protest earlier this year. 

The students are elected leaders with the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 3906. CUPE 3906 said on social media late last week they each received a notice from the Hamilton university that they have been declared "persona non grata."

Personal non grata is a term I have not heard in a long time. Often a diplomatic sanction, it means that a person, often a representative of another country, has said or done something that has offended the host constituency.

In diplomacy, a persona non grata (PNG) (Latin: "person not welcome", plural: personae non gratae) is a foreign diplomat who is asked by the host country to be recalled to their home country. If the person is not recalled as requested, the host state may refuse to recognize the person concerned as a member of the diplomatic mission (including the removal of diplomatic immunity). A host country may declare persona non grata status for any member of a diplomatic staff at any time without any explanation.

According to McMaster's Student Code of Rights and Responsibilities, that designation is given to someone who is "denied the privilege" of entering specific parts of the university. 

"If PNG individuals are found or seen in the area they are denied, then they will be subject to a charge by Security Services under the Trespass to Property Act," the policy states. 

Demonstrating on behalf of a people experiencing genocidal attacks by Israel has therefore become a crime at McMaster.

CUPE 3906 said the status effectively bans the students from participating in campus activities, ranging from extra curriculars to any protests, but they can attend classes. At least one of the students confirmed to CBC Hamilton by email he had received the notice from McMaster. 

In its online post, CUPE 3906 said the school is hoping to "use police violence to silence resistance to its complicity in the ongoing genocide in Palestine."

According to McMaster spokesperson Michelle donavan, who refused to speak about specifics, such a sanction can be applied if the code of conduct has been violated.

The code lists activities which constitute a violation, including engaging in threatening behaviours or communications, failing to comply with safety regulations, failing to cooperate with university officials, trespassing and causing disturbances.

"A PNG notice is given if there are concerns, based on the evidence of the case, that an individual poses a potential risk to campus or members of the campus community," she wrote. 

The offending behaviour apparently was the encampment set up at the university, one of several across North America, to protest the killing of over 40,000 Palestinians by the state of Israel. 

The protest grew within a week to have over 100 people and close to 70 tents, with daily activities and speakers. It ended in May after two-and-a-half weeks.

At the time, organizers said they'd come to an agreement with McMaster which included commitments around transparency about its investments and human rights considerations in international agreements that the university is involved in. 

One of the students who says he received the notice is Mason Fitzpatrick.

Fitzpatrick is the union's vice president. He said the other two include the co-chair of a tenant solidarity working group and the chair of a working group on funding for graduate students.

Fitzpatrick told CBC Hamilton he was involved in the encampment as a camper and a union representative. He and others with CUPE 3906 were planning to speak out about the decision Tuesday afternoon at a rally just off campus.

"We will not be intimidated. We will not back down. This move by the university only serves to clarify the need for workers to stand against imperialism," CUPE 3906 said on Instagram.

"We will use all means available to us to fight for the right to protest and look forward to seeing our members back on campus."

A sad day for people's Charter Rights, and a big black eye for McMaster University.