In The Line’s weekly Dispatch podcast, Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson discuss Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s bizarre decision to lift the carbon tax on heating oil — and only heating oil. Is this a defensible policy, or simply pork barrel politics, and a sign of serious fractures in his caucus?

(For clarity: in the podcast, we aren’t explicit that the carbon tax is coming off oil nationally, not just in Atlantic Canada — we stumble around that, but to be clear, the tax is being lifted nationally for the three-year period.)

Matt and Jen then discuss Ontario NDP MPP Sarah Jama, who has been formally censured and kicked from caucus for calling for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, as well as “an end to all occupation of Palestinian land.” Has the right gone too far, and demonstrated its value of free speech is disingenuous?

Your intrepid hosts also discuss the Buffy St. Marie, and CBC’s ironclad story raising questions about the folk icon’s claims of Indigenous heritage. Meanwhile, the CBC is losing a war it doesn’t know it’s waging against a Conservative Party hellbent on defunding the public broadcaster. And, trigger warning, Matt and Jen discuss whether or not claims of “baby beheading” in Israel were accurate.

In this week's The Line podcast, Jen Gerson and Matt Gurney discuss claims that Israel blew up a hospital in Gaza — including the part where, as it turns out, that did not happen. Rather, a Palestinian rocket misfired. They talk about the desire to create a moral equivalency between Hamas and Israel, a desire that makes Tweeters and news editors alike quick to forget beheaded babies, and even faster to accept Hamas' claims of Israeli atrocities. 

Then, The Line also talks about the CBC's decision not to use the word "terrorism" to describe Hamas; and why they think that decision is both defensible, but also not the one the Line would make. 

To round it out, the pair discuss dark clothing — namely, an RCMP campaign to encourage pedestrians not to wear dark clothing at night. This roused the usual condemnation from those who don't want police to blame the victim of vehicular accident. To which the Line says: 'yes, you're absolutely right. And nobody will care about how right you are when you're dead. Don't wear black at night."

The Line's Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson discuss the atrocities committed by Hamas in Israel; Israel's response in the Gaza Strip — and North America's progressives, who have left their asses hanging in the wind by applauding and condoning acts of violence that include the murder of children and sexual assault of Israeli women. Progressives are doing incredible damage to their own causes by justifying the violence of Hamas — a genocidal and theocratic terrorist organization — under leftist jargon like "decolonization." 

In other news, Canada's Supreme Court has ruled the federal government's environmental impact legislation — also known as C-69, or the "no more pipelines" bill — as unconstitutional. To the shock and surprise of everyone who expected this court to rule in Justin Trudeau's favour, the SCC agreed with the Alberta Court of Appeal: that C-69 oversteps provincial jurisdiction, and undermines the constitutional right of provinces to develop and manage their own natural resources. 

On why the podcast proposals aren't as benign as the government makes them sound (and might believe). On the pending Google disaster. And why Canadians aren't as smart as we think we are.

Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson on Canada humiliating itself by giving a Nazi a standing O, insulting our allies by promising to spend more on the military right before we announce we are going to spend less on the military, and, oh, God, I guess we’re debating the notwithstanding clause again. And more!

Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson bring you the first episode of The Line Podcast. And gosh, this week didn’t go the way we thought it would. Canada finds itself in a major dispute with a global superpower, again. Justin Trudeau and his comms obsession is causing us problems, again. Doug Ford has to make a full retreat, again, this time on the Greenbelt. And Alberta and Danielle Smith pick a dumb fight with Canada, again, this time over pensions. 

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Get ready for a new(ish) podcast from Matt Gurney and Jen Gerson.