Not going to even try

Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird says
we’re probably not going to try to get another UN Security Council seat so long
as his government is in power. He claims that we didn’t make any friends by
standing up for gay rights in Africa or against human rights abuses in Sri
Lanka and Iran. Also, his government totally doesn’t play diaspora politics in
order to win the favour of ethno-cultural voting blocs back in Canada.
Seriously.

Peter Van Loan defends time allocation and
bulldozing bills through without amendments, and repeats all of his various talking

points, including his defence of political dirt-baggery in his end-of-year interview with the Huffington Post.

With NDP poll numbers apparently slipping,
Nycole Turmel admits that being interim leader is harder than she expected.

Apparently there are 65 outstanding harassment complaints at the RCMP, as the new commissioner undertakes a cleanup of the Force.

And in a bit of shameless self-promotion,
here’s the story I wrote about Senator Hugh Segal’s role in writing the
Commonwealth’s Eminent Persons Report. A couple of days after I wrote this,
Segal was named as Canada’s representative with the Commonwealth renewal
process.

Keep Reading

We can do better than lazy Trump/Musk gay memes

OPINION: There are plenty of ways to troll the president and his right-hand man without resorting to casual homophobia

How Trump’s gender executive order hints at reproductive rights fight

ANALYSIS: The focus on a person “at conception” forecasts more federal attacks on reproductive rights to come

Trans issues didn’t doom the Democrats

OPINION: The Republicans won ending on a giant anti-trans note, but Democrats ultimately failed to communicate on class

Xtra Explains: Trans girls and sports

Debunking some of the biggest myths around trans girls and fairness in sports