Leo Robert

Final CBC thoughts for now: 1. The US attention, especially from the FBI and the Ambassador, spooked the hell out of officials here. CSIS, Public Safety and Marc Miller weighing in publicly like this, plus a very quick and public CBC reversal, is serious business. We can all stick our elbows up to the moon. We depend heavily on US intel and law enforcement for our national security and if you don't understand or appreciate that, grow the fuck up. You don't have to like Trump. 2. Nuance - CBC did use the terrorism descriptor for 9/11 without attribution somewhat regularly in the past, but this appears to have mostly stopped in recent years (someone else can verify this). This is the more important part to me because it coincides with the manner in which the CBC almost completely dropped its coverage of radical Islamist extremism in recent years. Just spend a few minutes searching the CBC website for "far right' or "white supremacist" extremism and see how much volume there is compared to radical Islamism. If you want to see any deeper dives on this topic beyond straight reports of arrests, you have to go back years ago. I wish other people would think about this more. I kvetch about it constantly. It should matter. 3. CBC as proxy for trade war trash talk and also broader security concerns - US officials see how the Carney government is characterizing the collapse in trade negotiations. "This was an attack." "It's war." US officials called our bluff, hard, and we blinked, hard. They know how Carney is pivoting to China and yes the Trump administration is blowing it with the constant threats and tariffs because they're mostly idiots, but none of that changes the bilateral security relationship and reality, and Canadians who shit on that, and Carney in particular who has now effectively been warned to mind his rhetoric, better take themselves down a notch. We don't have the capacity of the FBI, CIA or NSA and we have serious national security threats outside the orange menace. Also, today's news of the shooter of the US Consulate being let out on bail will be noticed. The US knows who our Public Safety Minister is and our record deporting IRGC officials. It is noticed that the US is intercepting Hezbollah fundraising schemes. It is noticed that we had a guy wanted by France for allegedly blowing up a Synagogue in Paris teaching at Carleton. It is noticed that our government, like the CBC, will not acknowledge the issue of radical Islamist terror by name. We better get our shit together and start being a serious country. The elbows and bullshit bluster aren't going to cut it. You can talk all the trash you want to the FBI and Ambassador on twitter. CSIS knows things you don't, and you better know what you don't know.