CANADALAND

Canadaland doesn't have a foreign bureau, so we can't bring you the latest on the ground conflict in Ukraine. What we can do is show you another side of the conflict that has deeply influenced this ground invasion: the information war.  This week, we take a deep-dive into the inner workings of Russia's information chaos machine and how its use in Ukraine laid the groundwork for what was to come in other countries, including - you guessed it: Canada. We also get a first-hand look at how the information war has led to the rise of cyber sleuths, like our friend James. (Not his real name.) 

Featured in this episode: Alya Shandra, editor-in-chief of Euromaidan Press, Douglas Selvage, a senior research fellow at the Institute for History, Humboldt University (Berlin); Aaron Erlich, assistant professor at McGill University.

Further reading:

• Top Russian news host takes aim at Ukrainian Canadians, CBC News
• False Claims of U.S. Biowarfare Labs in Ukraine Grip QAnon, Justin Ling, Foreign Policy
• The Kremlin's Shifting, Self-Contradicting Narratives on MH17, Bellingcat
• Operation InfeKtion: Russian disinformation from Cold War to Kanye, The New York Times
• Russian disinformation kicks into high gear as Ukraine crisis drags on, LA Times
• TikTok war: How Russia's invasion of Ukraine played to social media's youngest audience, Reuters

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Why do stories coming out of Ukraine feel different from other wartime coverage? And we look at the uneven media treatment of those who are impacted by war. Our French-language correspondent Emilie Nicolas and senior producer Sarah Lawrynuik co-host in Jesse's absence.

Links: 

• Sarah's recent piece in the Winnipeg Free Press
• Emilie's recent piece in Le Devoir
• Davide Mastracci writes in Passage about a glaring omission by the media

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Long before Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly stepped down amidst criticism that the force had failed to stop the convoy occupation, there was trouble brewing within the Ottawa Police Service.

Officer misconduct, sexual harassment, abuse, and violent behaviour, has been a pattern within the OPS for years. 

Dan Donovan, publisher of Ottawa Life magazine, knows these cases well, and he's currently being sued by Sloly himself, for publishing an article titled 'Rapes and lies—the cancerous misconduct at the Ottawa Police Service'.

Donovan sat down with reporter Cherise Seucharan to discuss the case, as well as recently a leaked video of Sloly being questioned about his conduct when he was a staff inspector with the Toronto Police Service.

Featured in this episode: Dan Donovan, Publisher & Managing Editor of Ottawa Life magazine

Further reading:

• Ottawa Life Magazine stands by its scathing portrait of Ottawa police: court filings, Gary Dimmock, Ottawa Citizen
• Ottawa police officer convicted of assault, then charged with sexual harassment, has resigned, Shaamini Yogaretnam, CBC News
• Ottawa man left destitute after faulty police investigation, Hilary Thomson, Ottawa Life
• Exposed: Culture of sexism entrenched in Ottawa Police Service, Judy Trinh and Nazim Baksh, CBC News
• Ontario police chiefs call for more power to fire or suspend officers without pay, Wendy Gillis, Toronto Star

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Overcorrecting an overstatement creates confusion; how nice were the police in Ottawa really? And the emergency is over! Though the media seemed to suggest there wasn't really one anyways. Managing Editor at Ottawa Lookout Robert Hiltz co-hosts.

Links:

• NYT's generalizations about Canada can be found here 
• Robert duly noted this piece in Passage 

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There's a lot of chaos and division in Canada right now. Beyond the people who got arrested in Ottawa over the past few days, there are thousands more Canadians who have financially supported the Freedom Convoy or been rooting for them from afar.

In this episode, the CANADALAND team reaches out to regular everyday people who support the Convoy to ask about who they are, how they ended up supporting the Convoy and what they think about the racist and dangerous aspects of the movement. 

This is not a scientific survey, we did not do a poll. These three people are not necessarily representative of everybody else who supports this movement, but we've got to start somewhere.

Further reading:

• Ottawa police arrest 170 amid push to clear convoy blockade, Global News(Feb. 19)
• Who is who? A guide to the major players in the trucker convoy protest, CTV News
• 'So many angry people': Experts say online conversation around trucker convoy veering into dangerous territory, CTV News
• Making sense of the flags and symbols at the Ottawa protest, The Jurist

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The kinder, gentler Emergencies Act should not be underestimated. And framing the convoy as foreign-funded and US-inspired does more harm than good. Writer Nora Loreto co-hosts.

UPDATE: An earlier version of this episode included a partial comment without proper context. The comment has been removed.

Links:

• Nora's piece in Passage that she took heat for
• Jimmy Thomson's tweets

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This week's episode is bursting your love bubble by digging into the dark side of love. You'll hear four personal stories that show, with increasing intensity, just how broken Canada's divorce system is. People who were held hostage for years by a slow-moving process that sent them hurdling into debt. 

And beyond that, we rarely talk about divorce as a life or death situation, but it certainly can be. 

Senior producer Sarah Lawrynuik brings you this one.

For people who are living with family violence, don't struggle alone. Here is a list of resources available to you in your area. Or the Assaulted Women's Helpline is 1-866-863-0511.

Further reading:

• What a 4-year-old's death says about Ontario's strained family courts, Toronto Star
• Divorce in the rich world is getting less nasty, The Economist
• Broken marriages becoming pandemic's other toll, CBC News
• Calls for a unified family court system and further changes to Canada's Divorce Act, CTV News
• The Family Law System in Canada is "Broken" says veteran Family Lawyer, News Wire

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Angry, bias-confirming echo chambers seem evident this week when it comes to the Freedom Convoy. And "a Toronto star at the Toronto Star" dies this week and Jesse dares to speak ill—or at least some truth—of the dead. Maclean's senior writer Paul Wells co-hosts. 
Links:

• Richard Martineau's piece in Le Journal de Montréal
• News editor Jonathan Goldsbie's tweet re: Faith Goldy's face during the land acknowledgement

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CANADALAND has spent a lot of time in Thunder Bay exploring the deep-rooted racism in the city and the stories of Indigenous people who live there, not to mention the stories of the Indigenous people who have died there. 

In 2018, the Office of the Independent Police Review Director released the Broken Trust report, concluding that Thunder Bay's police service was a home for systemic racism. The civilian oversight board and the police force executive leadership was cleared and new people were brought in. But the outcome of the staffing changes and all the reports - at least to this point - is not a success story. The cycle of denial has continued.

This story is reported by Thunder Bay-based journalist and producer on the Thunder Bay series, Jon Thompson.

Further reading:

• Thunder Bay police board member details Ontario human rights complaint, calls for new leadership, CBC News
• Thunder Bay Police Service on the ‘brink of collapse' says board member, APTN
• Thunder Bay deputy police chief suspended pending investigation, Globe and Mail
• Local police officer files human rights complaint against TBPS, Chief, TB News Watch

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The media may have missed the Freedom Convoy plot yet again. And as several Canadian artists pull their music from the platform, Spotify wades into publisher territory as they work towards content advisories for select podcasts. National Observer columnist Sandy Garossino co-hosts.

UPDATE: This episode says there's been a vacuum of information on Canadian truckers stuck at the Alberta-Montana border at Coutts, AB. Since recording this episode, journalists have reported that one lane has opened in each direction.

UPDATE 2 (Feb 9, 2022): In this episode, Jesse referenced a clip where a protester asked another attendee whether they were a white supremacist to which they responded yes. Jesse says that this was the moment the first protester was made aware that they were among extremists and he hoped they would up and leave. Since publishing, it has been brought to our attention that the person who said they were a white supremacist was likely a person of colour and they may have been joking. 

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