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OTTAWA –
Israeli diplomats in Canada have joined a strike against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to overhaul the country’s judiciary.
Israeli Embassy spokesman Eli Lipshitz confirmed that mission in Ottawa is closed in accordance with a decision by Israel’s largest trade union, Histadrut.
The consulates in Toronto and Montreal are also closed and on strike.
“In accordance with the decision of the labour union (in) Israel, that civil servants are unionized under, all missions abroad are currently on strike and are closed,” Lipshitz said in a statement.
Histadrut spokesman Yaniv Levy says missions are providing only emergency services.
Workers from across a range of fields went on strike Monday in a bid to ramp up pressure on Netanyahu to scrap the overhaul plan.
The planned overhaul has plunged Israel into one of its worst domestic crises.
Departing flights from the country’s main international airport have been grounded, universities have shut their doors and the main doctors’ union says its members will also walk off the job.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 27, 2023.
— With files from The Associated Press.
See Senate Majority Leader Schumer speak about deal
Senate Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) spoke after the Senate passed the debt ceiling deal that narrowly averted a default. The bill will now go to President Biden’s desk to sign.
OTTAWA –
Meta is preparing to block news for some Canadians on Facebook and Instagram in a temporary test that is expected to last the majority of the month.
The company says it wants to work out the kinks before permanently blocking news on its platforms when the Liberal government’s online news act becomes law.
The bill, which is being studied in the Senate, will require tech giants to pay publishers for linking to or otherwise repurposing their content online.
The tech giant says the test will affect up to five per cent of its 24 million Canadian users.
The company says the randomly selected users won’t be able to see some content including news links as well as reels, which are short-form videos, and stories, which are photos and videos that disappear after 24 hours.
Meta says it is randomly choosing media organizations that will be notified that some users won’t be able to see or share their news content throughout the test.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 1, 2023.
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Meta funds a limited number of fellowships that support emerging journalists at The Canadian Press.
As the Conservative leader showed this week, what sells online is salacious fiction delivered with a side of snark. The new laws of digital politics are a disgrace, but they’re effective.
According to the old laws of politics, when an opponent is beating himself, you step out of the way and watch him go to town. Why, then, does Pierre Poilievre watch Justin Trudeau repeatedly self-harm, then choose to dump his own mess on the floor?
Exhibit A: In the House of Commons this week, Poilievre was asking Trudeau about the cost of living — the most-pressing issue for Canadians — when he made his oft-repeated jibe about Trudeau being a “drama teacher.” Trudeau jabbed back, saying he was a teacher before becoming a politician but couldn’t remember what Poilievre did before politics (answer: nothing). Then he enumerated the actions his government is taking to alleviate costs.
So far, so old-laws. Trudeau got dinged and zinged back. House banter at its usual bog standard. But then Poilievre, smart-aleck grin firmly affixed, shot back that Trudeau was indeed a teacher but then “left right in the middle of the semester and I’m having trouble remembering why.”
Welcome to the new, digital laws of politics, which says that boring questions about substantive issues don’t travel or draw engagement online. What sells online is salacious rumour delivered with a side of snark, or full-frontal attack delivered full-force. In the online world, traffic trumps truth.
At first, the Tory benches were slow to catch their leader’s reference. You can bet the ordinary Canadian was, too. But the “semester” comment wasn’t meant for the ordinary Canadian. It was meant for the online fringe, an entirely different beast. And they loved it. Twitter lit up with appreciative “semester” comments from right-wing outlets. The Tory benches eventually came to life too as they realized what their leader had done. Then their smart-aleck grins appeared and their applause began. All except Michael Chong, Mr. “Old Laws,” who remained frozen in shame.
For the uninitiated, Poilievre’s semester comment was a call-back to the 2019 election, when a website called the Buffalo Chronicle (spoiler alert: it isn’t a recognized media outlet in Buffalo, or anywhere) published a “report” citing unnamed “sources” claiming Trudeau had left his school in British Columbia because of some supposed sex scandal. The website claimed the Globe and Mail had spiked a story about it, and later claimed that Facebook had been pressured into censoring the Chronicle.
Except none of this was true. Not that it stopped the story from gaining traction; it was one hell of a salacious rumour. But it wasn’t factual, something outlets as far away as Britain’s BBC took pains to point out. Again, how “old laws.” In our new digital hell, even a civic duty such as fact-checking does little but amplify (and, in most cases, reinforce) the original claim. It’s a win for Team Tory.
Exhibit A on that front: Here I am, a columnist in a mainstream title, writing about the mechanics of Poilievre’s semester jibe and re-hashing a disproven salacious claim. I am obeying the old laws and fuelling the new. That I’m doing it with a purpose doesn’t matter. The internet won’t draw that distinction.
What makes this such a shame is that Poilievre has all of the legitimate material in the world with which to batter Trudeau — but chooses instead to traffic in nonsensical teacher tattle.
Take Chinese interference. The reason Michael Chong isn’t smiling much these days is that his family has — and is — being targeted by agents of the Chinese state. Former Tory leader Erin O’Toole rose in the House this week to give a brilliant speech about his experience with Chinese interference. O’Toole’s speech was dignified, impassioned, substantive and powered by CSIS briefings. It was everything you’d want from a parliamentarian; it soared as high as Poilievre went low. And yet, crickets.
Sadly, until we reformat the online information economy, we will continue to be “semestered” by politicians who play to the algorithm instead of the more analog rhythms of the offline world. The new laws of digital politics are a disgrace, but they’re a very effective disgrace.
Andrew MacDougall is a London-based communications consultant and ex-director of communications to former prime minister Stephen Harper.
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