| | | Good morning, Passengers.
Today, we have some follow-up reporting to my research on landlord MPs, a piece of post-election analysis from Quebec and the first-hand account of another journalist “cancelled” for crticizing Israel.
Enjoy!
P.S.: Welcome to all of you that became a member last month. I’m very thankful for your support, and I hope you enjoy this daily newsletter. | | | Jeremy Appel | Ricochet | October 4 | Jeremy Appel at Ricochet has done some good follow-up reporting to my research on how MPs are involved in real estate. He zooms in on some particular examples I documented in my research, speaks with housing advocates and even reached out to all of the MPs on my list to ask them “how they reconcile their commitment to addressing the affordability crisis with the fact they profit from it.” I was hoping my research would prompt this sort of reporting across the industry, so I’m glad to see it published. It’s worth a read.
Jeremy writes, “The number of landlords in Parliament is a symptom of the larger issue that running for political office is largely restricted to the upper echelons of the socioeconomic system.’ In elections, you don't get renters running because if you're renting property, you probably don't have enough income to stabilize your housing through property ownership. And if you can't do that, well, then you probably can't take time off work to run for office either,’ [York University political scientist Dennis Pilon] said. ‘We end up with a situation where our politicians don't reflect the broader population.’ [Geordie Dent of the Federation of Metro Tenants’ Associations] said the number of MPs who have investments in real estate demonstrates the ‘penetration of the real estate industry has in our government.’ As a result, he says, the government is simply not interested in the perspectives of renters. ‘Almost nobody understands the tenant world. Almost nobody cares about what they face. And the government hasn't been talking to any of those [advocacy] groups,’ Dent said.” (8 minute read) | | | Karl Nerenberg | Rabble | October 4 | Yesterday, I promised some post-election analysis from Quebec later in the week. Here’s a good piece from Rabble, where the writer goes into depth analyzing the results, what they mean and what the implications may be for the province as well as its relation with the federal government. It’s a good explainer to catch you up with the basics of what’s going on in the province.
Karl Nerenberg writes, “Re-elected premier Legault is now free to pursue whatever agenda he chooses. During the campaign he said he would seek increased powers currently held by the federal government over immigration. Quebec already has more control of immigration than any other province, thanks to an agreement originally signed between the Pierre Trudeau federal government and René Lévesque’s PQ government in the 1970s. That agreement has been updated and renewed several times since then. What Legault wants is total control over all regular migrants coming to the province, leaving the difficult and complex task of managing refugees to the feds. The Justin Trudeau government might be wary of handing over more power to one province, with other restive and frustrated provinces looking on (did anyone mention Alberta?), but, objectively, they are not likely to have principled objections to Legault’s demands.” (9 minute read) | | | Katie Halper | Daily Beast | October 4 | Another journalist has been fired for critcizing Israel. In this case, the victim was Katie Halper, who had been a co-host for The Hill TV’s political commentary show, Rising. She was fired after delivering a video op-ed, in which she focused “on the vicious attacks leveled against Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib for labeling Israeli’s policies as ‘apartheid,’ and for calling out the moral contradiction among people claiming to be progressive except when it comes to Palestine.” As she was leaving the office, she got a call from her producer telling her the op-ed wouldn’t be posted because “there was a new policy in place—of which the producer had not been informed—against opinion pieces on Israel, either written or filmed.” A few days later, she got an email telling her they wouldn’t need her anymore. This is a disturbing first-hand account written by Katie of what she experienced. Sadly, it’s not a unique case at all, as you’re probably well aware. And if you’re not, Katie’s piece lists a bunch of prominent examples. (7 minute read) | | | | Previous Digest Editions - October 4 | Losing money to the ultra rich, nuclear war, the CAQ - Read here
- October 3 | Interspecies solidarity, undermining daycare, social solidarity for exclusion, a coup in Brazil? - Read here
- September 29 | Deleting Palestine, taking Canada to court, xenophobia and horror - Read here
- September 28 | The curse of renters, city councils and police budgets, the Labour files - Read here
- September 27 | Vacancy control, hurricanes, the far right in Italy - Read here
- September 26 | Dental care, fossil fuel execs, gentrification, teachers under attack - Read here
- September 23 | Poilievre and the central bank, hobbits and the far right, The Wailing - Read here
- September 22 | Real estate and MPs, femicide, Russia and Ukraine - Read here
- September 21 | Shireen Abu Akleh, mess in the U.K., breaking with the monarchy - Read here
- September 20 | Landlord MPs - Read here
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