Provision of emergency powers on appeal: Earlier this week, Canada’s finance minister said the government will appeal a court ruling that the use of emergency powers to quell protests over COVID-19 by Canadian truckers was unreasonable in 2022.
“A federal judge on Tuesday said the Liberal government’s use of the Emergencies Act to cancel the ‘Freedom Convoy’ demonstrations that paralyzed the nation’s capital in 2022 was unconscionable and violated Charter rights,” he reports Reuters. The “Freedom Convoy” was a group of truck drivers who descended on the Canadian capital, Ottawa, to protest the cross-border vaccination mandate between Canada and the United States, which threatened their ability to work and infringed on their medical freedom.
It lasted a month, from late January 2022 to much of February, and led Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to use his emergency powers to arrest protesters and freeze their bank accounts (which they then counteracted by using bitcoin to purchase basic necessities) in an attempt to suppress their political speech.
“I conclude that there was no national emergency that justified invoking the Emergencies Act and the decision to do so was therefore unreasonable and ultra vires,” Federal Court Judge Richard Mosley wrote in a ruling issued late Tuesday.
“At the time I was convinced that it was the right thing to do, that it was the necessary thing to do. I remain and remain convinced of this,” the Canadian Finance Minister replied in response, announcing his intention to appeal.
For more on the Canadian trucker protests, check out this excellent documentary produced by my Just ask questions co-host Zach Weissmueller.
TED panelists lash out at ‘genocide apologists’: Who are these genocide apologists, you may ask? The defenders of the State of Israel and their response to the Hamas attack on October 7, during which innocent civilians were burned alive!
“Five participants in the TED Fellows program, which supports and promotes emerging voices in a variety of fields around the world, resigned Wednesday after the public speaking organization invited hedge fund manager Bill Ackman and journalist Bari Weiss to speak at its 2024 flagship conference in Vancouver,” he reports National review. A letter sent to TED leadership accused the organization of choosing “not only to align itself with supporters and supporters of genocide, but to amplify their racist propaganda.”
Ackman has allegedly “defended Israel’s genocide and ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people and has cynically weaponized anti-Semitism in his agenda to purge American universities of pro-Palestinian free speech” while Weiss, in his account, “has weaponized anti-Semitism to defend Israel’s genocide in Gaza and has a history of transphobic extremism.” No nuance contained within, about how the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is quite complicated. (And the details provided to substantiate the transphobic claim? A truly staggering list of all the misguided thinkers Weiss has presented over the years.)
It remains to be seen whether TED will bow to the haters. But it’s a very bad sign when people seemingly affiliated with the organization because of their intellectual rigor and nuance end up showing such a profound lack of curiosity and want to disassociate themselves from those with whom they disagree.
For more on the TED-related madness, check out this recent Nick Gillespie x Coleman Hughes interview, in which Hughes details how he was treated by the organization.
Scenes from New York: The city has a law in place, called the right to welcome, which obliges it to provide emergency shelter to those in need, often homeless people, but now also newly arrived migrants. The only problem, aside from the fact that New York taxpayers are shelling out for it, is that the city is beyond its capacity, and there’s no end in sight to the influx. The Legal Aid Society, which monitors the city’s compliance with its right-to-welcome mandate, said Monday that the city reported that between 800 and 1,000 migrants are left on the waiting list each night, and that the average wait for a bed is more than eight days,” he reports The New York Times.
QUICK SHOTS
- California lawmakers can’t seem to get basic quality-of-life issues under control, but sure, let’s regulate it:
A bill from state Sen. Scott Wiener would require new cars to be equipped with technology that prevents them from going more than 10 miles per hour over the speed limit. https://t.co/966CZEDccW
— The San Francisco Standard (@sfstandard) January 24, 2024
- Xi Jinping is in trouble, he reports Bloomberg: “Confidence in China’s economy is at its lowest level in decades.”
- Last Just ask questions just came out, in which Zach Weissmueller and I interview Marco Falcone and talk about Javier Milei’s speech in Davos, Argentina’s shock therapy and whether the new president’s criticism of social justice is correct. PLEASE contact us via DM or email if you like what you see, have suggestions on how to improve the show, or want to see a particular guest or topic covered.
- “Have you ever wondered why empty stores in big cities stay empty for so long?” asks Tyler Cowen at Marginal revolutionwhich links to a new document on “high rent degradation”.
- Strangest AI applications.
- “Almost everything that is considered a big deal in Hollywood is discussed and treated as if it were a big deal for America,” writes Jim Geraghty on National reviewcovering Margot Robbie.
- Incredible media negligence on the part of The New York Times:
I found something messed up. Is this how the New York Times describes Milei’s deregulatory actions?
“It would have consequences” is strangely (I might even say DELIBERATELY) vague.
The omnibus bill is *not* consolidating more power in Milei’s hands; is giving energy back to… pic.twitter.com/kV7ExhgIIi
— Liz Wolfe (@LizWolfeReason) January 25, 2024
Congressional staffers are increasingly challenging their bosses in an effort to shift the balance of power on Capitol Hill, representing a seismic shift in the relationship between lawmakers and the legions of workers who keep the House and Senate running. https://t.co/0Am5wA2t8V
— Bloomberg Government (@BGOV) January 24, 2024
- BRB renames my New York section Dispatches from Dumbopoli:
The ACLU’s recent agreement with the NYPD requires that when a protest “temporarily blocks vehicular or pedestrian traffic or otherwise obstructs public streets or sidewalks, the NYPD shall, when practicable, accommodate the demonstration.”
— Sanjana Friedman (@metaversehell) January 25, 2024