Stefan Klietsch

@toog416 @cselley Section 33 is not the only solution to rogue judges. An alternative solution is simply making long-term changes to the way that judges are appointed and to specific appointment decisions.

@cselley Because the core of the anti s33 theory is that if a judge decides something it is ipso facto correct. Saying a judge might be wrong would create too much cognitive dissonance. (A few of the cleverer ones allow for the possibility of errors that can be corrected on appeal).

Just s33 it and get it over with. It's ludicrous and everybody knows it's ludicrous.

My latest piece

We’re calling it: The war in Ukraine has entered a new phase. @KatStepanenko and I have authored a new special report studying how Ukraine is actively challenging the positional character of the war that has dominated the battlefield since 2023. Data on Russia’s battlefield performance indicates that the character of the war is shifting in favor of Ukrainian forces – at least for now. Russian forces rates of advances are stagnating while Ukrainian forces are employing novel tactics and operational concepts in efforts to break out of positional warfare. Neither Russia nor Ukraine can conduct operational maneuvers yet, however. The bottom line is that the war in Ukraine is competitive and far from stalemated. Ukrainian forces are out-innovating Russian forces in both military technologies and in applying these new technologies in effective operational concepts that can help Ukrainian forces break out of positional warfare. Ukraine is employing mechanized equipment in tactical maneuvers in ways that were impossible 12 months ago. Russia’s ability to conduct infiltration missions will likely continue to degrade as Ukraine’s intermediate-range strike campaign pushes Russia’s logistics and forward operating bases further away from the frontlines, reducing resourcing to sustain infantry tasked with infiltration missions. Ukraine may be able to scale these effects if they resourced properly by international partners. Ukraine’s advantage in intermediate range strikes is notably not permanent, and Russia will very likely eventually develop countermeasures to mitigate Ukraine’s advantages. Ukraine’s international partners thus have a rare and temporary opportunity to help Ukraine exploit favorable battlefield dynamics while Ukraine has the upper hand. Key Points of the report: • Russia’s rate of advance is plummeting during the Russian Spring-Summer 2026 offensive. • Russia is losing more soldiers to make fewer gains, with monthly Russian casualty rates reportedly outpacing monthly recruitment since December 2025. • Ukraine is starting to regain more ground than it is losing for the first time since 2023. • Ukraine’ recent counterattacks feature unique characteristics and deviate from key trends that defined the positional character of the war since 2023. • Ukraine is conducting a pattern of more frequent mechanized counterattacks at the tactical level for the first time since 2023. • The Ukrainian command’s operational planning is maturing. • Ukraine’s early 2026 counterattacks in the south were successful likely due to better planning and preparation of the battlefield. • Ukraine has been conducting a coherent campaign to suppress and destroy Russian air defenses since late 2025, in order to shape the battlefield as part of more sophisticated campaign planning. • Ukraine significantly intensified its intermediate-range strike campaign against dynamic targets in Spring 2026 in order to degrade Russian logistics at operational depths ahead of planned Ukrainian maneuver. • Ukrainian forces started actively disrupting Russian railway logistics in occupied Ukraine and Russian western regions in Spring 2026. • Ukrainian intermediate-range strikes are already achieving notable operational effects, including degrading Russia's ability to use the key Russian highway connecting Russia to occupied Crimea and GLOCs around Donetsk City. • Ukrainian forces decisively seized the initiative in intermediate-range strikes by fielding new technologies such as the US-made Hornet strike UAV, among other systems. • Ukrainian forces are achieving temporary tactical drone overmatch in some frontline sectors, which is slowing Russian offensive operations by degrading the effectiveness of Russian shaping operations. • Ukrainian forces likely achieved tactical drone overmatch in certain frontline sectors after degrading Russia’s drone capabilities in late 2025 to early 2026 - primarily by suppressing drone launch positions and increasingly intercepting Russian tactical UAVs. • Ukraine’s degradation of Russian forces at operational depth combined with tactical-level drone overmatch likely is creating vulnerabilities in the Russian lines. • Ukraine’s intermediate-range strike campaign is likely far from its zenith, assuming continued support from Ukraine’s partners, and will likely intensify over 2026 as Ukraine fields new weapons capable of striking Russian’s operational rear. Link to full report: understandingwar.org/research/russi…

Gerson is on fire on this issue. The endless black hole of victimhood from Albertan separatists is really something to behold, especially when you dissect the grievances in question. Some stuff can be argued, but so much is fantasyland.

It is important now to continue conveying to all political leaders that air defense for Ukraine is the number one priority. It is important to continue working together on the resilience of Ukrainian communities – and therefore on the experience of resilience that will be useful to communities in your countries. It is enormously helpful for Ukraine to feel that we are not alone in our defense. People in your countries, as well as here in Ukraine, must continue to feel that evil will not prevail. And we will remain very grateful to you for every joint project, every strong decision, every step that helps our defense and the protection of our cities and villages from Russian strikes, and for your participation in Ukraine’s reconstruction. The fate of our freedom and yours is being decided here, in Ukraine, in this war – in which system prevails here: our shared European system, or Moscow’s. From the speech at the 4th International Summit of Cities and Regions. (3/3)

@ABC Support for Alberta separation is barely 30% and that support is soft. The Alberta Premier is ginning up a referendum crisis because her own political party is splitting into two factions, one of which is led by separatists. So she panders to this minority to stay in leadership.

🎯 The only kind of negotiation Putin understands is threats to his power. That means defeat in Ukraine and/or the collapse of the Russian economy. Neither of those things will happen over a table and everything else is a waste of time.

Which, by the way, will never succeed. A movement that is built on grievance and an identity of victimhood -- regardless of how legitimate that grievance is -- is never going to tolerate real criticism, no matter how gentle. It will never take the W. This cup has no bottom.

Duly noted.

@andrewaperez @OntLiberal I also frame these observations in light of the reality that neither Dylan Marando nor @EricDLombardi seem to have electoral experience, let alone provincially, so I would not suggest that it is a disadvantage wholly unique to Bain among the potential candidates.

@andrewaperez @OntLiberal Mind you, Nate when running in 2023 hardly had deep experience with the provincial party himself, and I voted for him! But he did at least seriously engage with the OLP with a constitutional amendment for the 2023 AGM.

I continue to be neutral in the @OntLiberal leadership race. And I continue to encourage more candidates to join what I hope will be a spirited and competitive race. But I have to call something out; call a spade a spade if you will. Today, several people on this platform have called former Liberal MP and senior federal cabinet minister Navdeep Bains, who declared his candidacy earlier today, “Jagmeet Singh 2.0.” I find this deeply offensive. It (seemingly) suggests that Bains’ political fate will be similar to that of former NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh because he too is a brown turbaned man. This is a racial slur, full stop. People would not compare a white politician to another white politician, suggesting they would have a similar political fate due to a shared physical characteristic like facial hair, eye colour or hair colour. This is gross discourse and it has got to stop now. Full stop. #cdnpoli #onpoli

@Cherniak @FilmGamerOne Thanks for the response. Tagging @JakeLandauTO in case he wishes to respond.

There are a few places where he gets facts wrong. For example, the 20 credentials forms are not all attributable to Chan. Also, he misunderstands that those rejected at credentials were not permanently ineligible, but unable to prove their identity when they first tried to vote. They reattended with proper ID and were admitted. That is an example of the system working, and not a failure.

Some key findings from the dismissal of Nate Erskine-Smith’s appeal. #onpoli [25] Importantly, representatives of the nomination contestants (including Mr. Erskine-Smith) were entitled to—and, according to the evidence, did—observe each step of this process. Scrutineers for the campaigns were positioned at the DRO stations and the credentials stations, as well as at the ballot box. According to the evidence, there were fewer than five voters all day who were issued ballot over a specific objection as to their proof of eligibility. Each campaign also had continuous access to the electronic voters list in real time, including in the voting room and during the tabulation process. …. [28] We are fortified in this conclusion by the returning officer’s evidence. Following the nomination meeting, the returning officer and other party officials made a careful study of the credentials forms that had been completed at the nomination meeting. By cross-referencing these forms with the voters list, the returning officer identified 20 voters who had been issued credentials forms that showed them as having been deemed eligible to vote, but whose names were not crossed off the voters list. [29] The clear inference to be drawn from this evidence is that these 20 voters were deemed eligible to vote and cast ballots, but due to a record-keeping error their names were not crossed off the voters list. Counsel for Mr. Erskine-Smith agreed that it was open to us to draw this inference. We do so. [30] Once the names of these 20 voters are added to the 1,489 names that were crossed off the voters list during the nomination meeting, the discrepancy is reduced from 34 to 14. Even if there were evidence that 14 individuals voted at the meeting who had not been deemed eligible to vote—and, for the reasons given above, the evidence does not support this—a 14-vote discrepancy would still be insufficient to overcome Mr. Hafiz’s 19-vote margin of victory. Recall Mr. Erskine-Smith’s submission that he must prove “in respect of 19 or more votes, that ‘irregularities’ occurred that ‘affected the result’”. …. [57] At the hearing, Mr. Erskine-Smith emphasized that he was not alleging that any other campaign had engaged in vote-buying. Nor does he argue that any of the behaviour inside the voting room constituted an irregularity that affected the result of the election. Rather, he submits that the evidence of this behaviour should cause us to lose confidence in the validity of the voting procedures as a whole. …. [64] We have decided that a limited exception to this confidentiality is warranted in the particular circumstances of this appeal: we direct that this decision may be distributed publicly, including to representatives of the press.

@MakaryoSakay88 @QPBriefing Leadership contest rules can generally be amended by the Executive Council wherever the rule amendments do not affect the OLP Constitution. But the OLP Constitution permits non-citizens to vote, so that can only be changed via a constitutional amendment at convention.

@QPBriefing Silliness. One does not need a Convention to amend Leadership Race rules. In conclusion, OLP doesn’t know how to run a party.

The Ontario Liberal Party has indicated constitutional amendments will not be considered until the party’s next annual general meeting, expected in 2027, after the current leadership race concludes #onpoli #olpldr qpbriefing.com/news/group-of-…

Interesting work done by Jake here. I wonder if anyone involved would have any counter-rebuttals to any of his claims? #olpldr

@JakeLandauTO FYI in case you were interested in knowing, Sean Torrie was the returning officer for the 2025 Ottawa-Centre OLP nomination contest, which was run cleanly. He was recently appointed as the OLP Constitution Committee Chair, prior to this contest, for what it's worth.

NEW COLUMN: The Ontario Liberal Kangaroo Court has handed out their ruling, and Nate Erskine-Smith’s appeal is summarily dismissed. Walk through the full reasoning of their 17-page decision with me, as we examine their suspect logic. jakelandau.ca/p/the-ontario-…

@FilmGamerOne @Cherniak It is possible in principle that this particular nomination contest was fair *and* that the OLP does not take foreign interference seriously enough. That being said, I do take interest in this response by Jake Landau towards the Committee ruling: jakelandau.ca/p/the-ontario-…

@Cherniak @stklietsch He's a CUSMA advisor for the Federal Liberals, so his goal is to help Ontario Liberals whether he means to or not. Ontario Liberals who are as blind as the UCP to foreign influence.

I remember the day we got the music from Yamamoto-san in Japan and we crowded around the sound designers desk/studio to listen. When Phendrana Drifts came up we all kind of stared at each other realizing we were hearing one of the most memborable songs of the era for gaming.

The problem I think Conservatives are going to run into here is that Mark Carney actually is speaking for the majority of Albertans on this issue. The polling shows that clearly. The Conservatives purporting to speak for "Albertan grievances" are really only speaking for their Albertans.