My first week back from a Toronto visit was a productive one.
CERB was about more than just money
Much ink has been spilled since the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), which provided monthly $2,000 deposits to Canadians who lost work due to the pandemic (including this author), was rolled out in April 2020. National Post columnist John Ivison warned us COVID payments
4 Fatal Errors That Cost the Alberta NDP the Election
Why did the Alberta NDP lose the 2023 provincial election? The major flaw at the core of their strategy was deciding to make an explicit pitch to historically conservative vo…
New Monthly Feature: Ask Me Anything!
Since Substack introduced its video feature, or since I noticed its existence, I’ve wanted to find a novel way to use it. At first, I considered reading my articles like a hostage video. While that would be mildly entertaining, it seemed too similar to the audio versions of my articles that I occasionally produce.
Lab Testing, Brought to You By Loblaw
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith admits that DynaLIFE’s private lab services haven’t been working out so well, but her solution — in accordance with her deep-seated libertarian views — is more privatization. DynaLIFE Medical Labs, the private lab service provider the government contracted testing out to in late-2022, has been
I also wrote about the Alberta NDP’s abject lesson in how NOT to run a campaign against the populist right in Jacobin, and Canada’s neocolonial extractive industries in Ricochet.
What I’ve been reading
Alberta
Will Danielle Smith veer back to the right and towards Alberta separatism? Robert L. Ascah, The Conversation (June 15)
Lobbyists run today’s NDP—and they’re warping the party’s politics, Martin Lukacs, The Breach (June 15)
Anti-racism protester Taylor McNallie arrested in courtroom moments after assault conviction, Meghan Grant, CBC News (June 15)
Crown withdraws hate-crime allegation against Calgary Black Lives Matter president, Kevin Martin, Calgary Herald (June 16)
Canada
Canada’s bid for UN Human Rights Council marred by allegations of inaction on corporate abuse, José Luis Abarca and Viviana Herrera, Canada’s National Observer (June 12)
Far-Right Website ‘True North’ is Spreading Deceptive Information About Canadian Wildfires, Luke LeBrun, PressProgress (June 12)
Former Israeli PM Naftali Bennett coming to speak in Canada this week despite a pending court case accusing him of being a war criminal, Ellin Bessner, Canadian Jewish News (June 12)
N.B. child and youth advocate calls for reversal of 'shoddy' changes to LGBTQ policy for schools, Hadeel Ibrahim, CBC News (June 12)
Defence Department Harming Credibility Of Canada’s Transparency System: Commissioner, Alex Cosh, The Maple (June 13)
EXCLUSIVE: Quebec housing minister lobbied by real-estate business partner, Zachary Kamel, Ricochet (June 15)
World
George Soros Hands Control to His 37-Year-Old Son: ‘I’m More Political’, Gregory Zuckerman, Wall Street Journal (June 11)
Fossil fuel company net zero plans 'largely meaningless,' report says, Gloria Dickie and Simon Jessop, Reuters (June 12)
Scoop: Fox sends Tucker Carlson cease-and-desist letter, Mike Allen, Axios (June 12)
How Striking Writers Are Disrupting Hollywood Shoots, Robbie Whelan and James T. Areddy, Wall Street Journal (June 12)
U.S. Warned Ukraine Not to Attack Nord Stream, Bojan Pancevski, Drew Hinshaw, Joe Parkinson and Warren P. Strobal, Wall Street Journal (June 13)
The Western Media Is Whitewashing the Azov Battalion, Lev Golinkin, The Nation (June 13)
Trump’s Kryptonite: How Progressives Can Win Back the Working Class, Jacobin (June 13)
The GOP’s new Muslim outreach, David Weigel, Semafor (June 13)
Beware: we ignore Robert F Kennedy Jr’s candidacy at our peril, Naomi Klein, The Guardian (June 14)
Israel masked its arms deals to repressive regimes for decades. Here’s how, Eitay Mack, +972 (June 15)
The FBI Groomed a 16-Year-Old with “Brain Development Issues” to Become a Terrorist, Murtaza Hussein, The Intercept (June 15)
Syria: What is the US endgame? Sean Mathews, Middle East Eye (May 15)
Pop Culture
The Last Page Of The Internet, Alex Pareene, Defector (June 11)
It’s Not a Good Sign When People Who Don’t Pay for News Have So Little to Choose From, Lydia Polgreen, New York Times (June 13)
The Comic-Book Aesthetic Comes of Age in “Across the Spider-Verse”, Stephanie Burt, New Yorker (June 14)