Thursday, June 23, 2022

Today's News: FreeDumb all the way!

Its hard to even think about how crazy the FreeDumb Convoy is getting, much less write about it.
Justin Ling has a major article today in Vice that describes a leaked intelligence report about the anti-vax nutjobs who intend to try to overthrow the Canadian government, or at least take over Ottawa this summer. 
Ling's article is about a report from the Integrated Terrorism Assessment Centre which describes "ideologically motivated violent extremism (IMVE)" and details some of their nutty beliefs - that Covid never actually existed, that "the elites" have been releasing “biological weapons”, that the culprits are “not just the government of Canada…which is controlled by a much higher element, be it the World Economic Forum, or if you want to go right up to the Pope".  Self-proclaimed Convoy leaders plan to deputise themselves and others as “constitutional sheriffs” to arrest “Justin Trudeau and all the premiers and all the health ministers.” 
These are the guys that Conservative politicians keep telling Trudeau to meet with. 
Yeah, sure.  Great plan, that...
And Conservative politicians actually did meet today with several of the Convoy yahoos. So these are the people that Conservative MPs invited into our Canadian Parliament and met with, just as though they were normal?
And checking Canadian media reaction, you would have had the impression these were ordinary concerned citizens, too -- CTV called them "freedom movement" figures while CBC dutifully reported the Conservative talking point describing them as "Freedom Convoy organizers" who are "just average citizens that have concerns". 
No editorials, no scolding columns, no blasts of outrage against the Conservatives for greeting these guys. 
At this rate, we're going to need that Emergencies Act again this summer:

Moving on, the serious problem of people spreading lies and misinformation like this stuff online is one of the issues that Bill C-11 the Online Streaming Act is trying to tackle -- it finally passed the Commons this week and is now at the Senate: Canadian actors, musicians, and film makers support C-11: I'm reading a lot of right-wing twitter hysteria about C11 -- the sky is falling, it's communism, it's censorship, Tyrant Trudeau, the World Economic Forum is behind it, it's the end of freedom and free speech and the internet, and so on and on. 
Hedy Fry points out that, in spite of the "rushed through in the middle of the night" Conservative narrative, the bill did actually get a lengthy debate: After some searching I did find some that raise actual, sensible, problematic issues with the bill: Here is an interesting comment about Canadian politics generally, and Liberals in particular: In the Conservative leadership race, here's some excellent analysis by Scrimshaw: Scrimshaw writes: 
The problem with the hand waving away of Poilievre calling the child care deals a bad thing because “why should your taxes pay for other people’s kids” or the Bitcoin stuff or him calling retirees in single family homes “gatekeepers” and all the rest of it is that you’re not just saying that the Conservative membership is too stupid to care, you’re saying that 2021 Liberal voters are stupid too! 
If “nobody will care that Pierre Poilievre pumped up an obvious scam, he’ll win anyways” is true, definitionally a lot of 2021 Liberal voters will have to vote for him. There’s no combination of seats that does not include the Tories having to make some suburban and urban gains to win in 2025. 

 In other news, the inept school police chief of Uvalde has been suspended. FINALLY!

More comments: Hey, George Takai has now noticed that Canada has a new queen: On a lighter note, here's a fascinating video: Can's resist this one:
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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

So Pete Arredondo's penalty for not doing his job is being paid to stay home and not do his job. I suppose that's an improvement. This way he won't be able to prevent others from doing their jobs.
Cap

8:25 am
Cathie from Canada said...

The "good ole boy" culture in the US continues, doesn't it. Arredondo is a classic example.

12:24 pm

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