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Feb 3 2024

Nazi politics. Calling Nenshi. Financing CBC: The Roundup

Feb 3, 2024
David Akin's Roundup
Clippings of #cdnpoli, #media, and #tech content aimed at those with an interest in Canadian politics and policy. And sometimes Canadian postage stamps.
Apologies for the messed-up subject line of yesterday's newsletter. As you probably guessed, the text of yesterday's "Calendar" ended up in the title field in the tool that produces this thing and I missed that in my final check before hitting send. Have a great weekend and thanks for reading.
Canada
Politics trumped legal advice in decision not to revoke citizenship of Nazi in 1960s
Newly declassified pages from a 40-year-old report on Canada's handling of Nazi war criminals suggest both the author and Canadian bureaucrats felt politics, and not legal arguments, were driving decisions around a man convicted of Nazi war crimes in the Soviet Union. [CP]
Roxham Road, an unofficial border crossing, might be closed but asylum seekers have found another way to enter Canada in record numbers: Montreal's Trudeau Airport. [Global]
Next month, Trade Minister Mary Ng is leading a trade mission to Malaysia and Vietnam, with another planned later this year for Indonesia and the Philippines. [Global]

The data saw emigration peak between three to seven years, with the rate of those leaving Canada varying especially among certain age groups and countries of origin. [Global]
From the provinces
Former mayor Naheed Nenshi considering bid for Alberta NDP leadership
Three-term Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi is mulling over a run for the NDP leadership, a contest that begins Monday. [Calgary Herald]
Blaine Higgs lost one cabinet minister Friday and another said he won't run in the upcoming general election, but the New Brunswick premier painted the departures as an opportunity for his Progressive Conservatives. [CP]
B.C. Premier David Eby says Post-Secondary Education Minister Selina Robinson needs to "repair the damage" caused by her comments that Israel was founded on a "crappy piece of land," angering pro-Palestinian groups and triggering calls for her resignation. [Global]
Patron, who founded the far-right political group Canadian Nationalist Party, continues to identify as the leader of the group, according to his statement Friday in court.  Having represented himself during the trial, he was alone at the defence table. Patron said he had “lawful authority to do what I did.” [Saskatoon Star Phoenix]
The Manitoba government and the head of Manitoba Hydro, the province's Crown energy corporation, are at odds over ways to meet growing electricity demand, and the minister responsible is not saying whether he has full confidence in the corporation’s president and chief executive officer, Jay Grewal. [CP]
Premier Doug Ford's cabinet secrets are safe for now after the Supreme Court of Canada ruled his ministers' mandate letters do not have to be made public. [TorStar]
Elsewhere
U.S. launches strikes in Iraq, Syria, nearly 40 reported killed
The strikes, which included the use of long-range B-1 bombers flown from the United States, were the first in a U.S. response to an attack in Jordan last weekend by Iran-backed militants that killed three U.S. troops. [Reuters]
The US wants cloud service providers such as Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp. to identify and actively investigate foreign clients developing artificial intelligence applications on their platforms, part of a widening tech conflict between Washington and Beijing. [Yahoo Finance]

Tesla Biohealing, which has no connection to the car company, is part of a growth industry marketing unproven cures and treatments to conspiracy theorists and others who have grown distrustful of science and medicine. Experts who study such claims say they’re on the increase, thanks to the internet, social media and skepticism about traditional health care. [CBS]
[The author discusses] What's the best way to determine what most voters want when multiple candidates are running? What's the fairest way to allocate legislative seats to different constituencies? What's the least distorted way to draw voting districts? Not the way [the U.S. does] things now. Democracy is mathematical to its very foundations. Yet most of the methods in use are a historical grab bag of the shortsighted, the cynical, the innumerate, and the outright discriminatory. If you ever had the urge to buy a gift for Andrew Coyne, I suspect this book would be perfect!  [New Books Network]
Media
As Canada's public broadcaster projects a budget shortfall, and with Conservatives threatening to defund it if they win the next election, its top executive says the way it's funded needs to dramatically change. [CP]

Hal Buell, who led The Associated Press’ photo operations from the darkroom era into the age of digital photography over a four-decade career that included 12 Pulitzer Prizes, has died. [AP]
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Sci/Tech

Fitbit owners are getting frustrated with Charge 5 fitness trackers quickly losing their charge and, in some cases, exhibiting additional problems. Google has denied that the problems are tied to firmware updates. But users remain skeptical, and some are fed up with Google's limited response to a recurring problem. [Ars Technica]
Issued this day ...
… in 1965: Scott# 420 plate-block: Floral Emblems adn Coats of Arms of the Provinces and Territories: Nova Scotia. Design; Harvey Thomas Prosser.

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