Trudeau and Macron tangle without Trump
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François Legault got a call from the president of France, who expressed appreciation for the Quebec premier backing the right to to draw cartoons of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Emmanuel Macron’s stance garnered less support from Justin Trudeau, who hopes to clear things up with the leader he liked gossiping with before.
Telling tales from the tapes
The latest Ontario NDP attack directed at Canada Christian College’s potential chance to award arts and science degrees takes aim at the religious belief of Charles McVety, whose family was under recent scrutiny for taking loans from the school. The opposition also unearthed video of McVety’s birthday greetings from his friend Doug Ford.
The latest attack on Google is sarcastic. Congratulating the company for a projected $230 billion in pandemic profits is Unifor’s way of trying to compel legislation to make Google pay for linking to news. Meanwhile, the Friends of Canadian Broadcasting say the proposed amendments to the Broadcasting Act have fallen short.
We still playing media games
An opinion piece about the exoneration of Bill Morneau for taking We Charity trips was printed in the Toronto Star on the same day as the appearance of another full-page advertisement defending We. But the op-ed initially failed to note that its author had been paid by the same foundation that bought the ad. The edited error wasn’t regretted here:
“Joe Rogan’s podcast is a vehicle for intolerance.” A second 19-year-old student was given Globe and Mail space to rebut the first one: Guy Mizrahi notes how The Joe Rogan Experience is regularly praised by peers—a generation for whom podcasting is the only talk radio. If nothing else, debating Rogan generates plenty of comments.
Finally, inaugural balls tossed
Arcade Fire debuted “Generation A” on the second Stephen Colbert election special that couldn’t end with enthusiasm. The song is the kind of anthem for which Bill Clinton’s campaign had to reunite Fleetwood Mac. It’s too bad that the most American of Canadian rock bands probably won’t get a live inauguration celebration to play it at: