We Still Have a Government, Right?: Canadian Politics 2020

Singh gets kicked out of HoC: https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/singh-stands-by-calling-bloc-mp-a-racist-after-being-removed-from-house-1.4988470

Based on this report, the BQ position doesn't sound too unreasonable, tbh.

Nah. The head of the RCMP already admitted there is systemic racism in the RCMP. There's no need to take this stand.

That was a fair point btw.

Lol: https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/bolton-trump-trudeau-1.5619484

"[Vice President Mike] Pence, Pompeo and I all urged Canada to stand firm, stressing we would support them every way we could, including directly raising with China the mistreatment of Canadian citizens."

Must have missed that firm support Bolton promised

what in the shit https://www.macleans.ca/news/canada/the-nova-scotia-shooter-case-has-hallmarks-of-an-undercover-operation/

Hm, that's an odd wrinkle.

That's an understatement.

If I'm understanding, the Bloc are showing that they are not at all racist by refusing to sit in the House when Singh speaks until he apologizes for calling them racist?

*calling one of their members

https://toronto.citynews.ca/2020/06/21/man-62-who-died-in-police-involved-shooting-identified-muslim-council-of-peel-demands-public-inquiry/

This sounds deeply fucked

Ugh

I was out in the car today, so I heard some of Ford's daily briefing on the radio, first one in a while.

I don't know why any politician would ever choose to go to war with the press. When Ford was defending his brother and attacking the press, he got, surprise, nothing but bad press. Today, he called everyone who had a question by their first name, was very cordial, was treated cordially in return, and he's probably getting the best press he's ever had right now. I know the counter-argument would be that attacking the press helped get Trump elected. Maybe--but he would never have even been in that position to begin with if he hadn't spent 35 years nuzzling up to the press (and vice versa) to begin with. It just seems like such a pointless thing to do.

I've said way too much nice stuff about Ford during the pandemic, so I have to even that up a bit.

http://www.cp24.com/news/ontario-s-new-math-curriculum-to-introduce-coding-personal-finance-starting-in-grade-1-1.4995865

Putting aside how worthwhile these changes may or may not be, it seems like a terrible time for any big curriculum revisions. Teachers are going to be overwhelmed enough trying to navigate their way through whatever's waiting for them in September (which is guaranteed to be something other than a normal return to school).

Personal finance in Gr 1? Did they decide this based on Facebook memes?

Grade 2, portfolio diversification; Grade 3, hiding money in offshore accounts; Grade 4, derivatives...

(Broadly speaking, I think more emphasis on learning about money, and learning about it at an earlier age, is a good idea. This just isn't the time to do it--wait a year.)

Tbf, I don't have kids or teach elementary school classes. What kinds of things do you think kids would benefit from learning at that age?

Ford also nixed a long planned police reform/accountability bill. Fuck him.

I just think they need to get a better and earlier sense of money, and maybe, by the time they hit grade 5 or 6, the importance of managing it. I know I was clueless until I hit about 30, and have been making up for lost time ever since.

As to grade 1, that's tougher. I never had a class of my own below grade 3, so I'm actually not sure how much awareness of the topic they have at that age.

Yeah, I’m pretty concerned about how much is being dumped on the schools and parents to figure out come September. The “here’s three possible scenarios - just be prepared for all of them” approach isn’t really that helpful.

A teacher friend also pointed out to us yesterday, who do they think is even working on this stuff over the summer because, education staff are off?

Btw, clemenza, I guess it was the wording of "personal finance" that threw me. If they just mean e.g. knowing how to count change at the primary school level, which they probably do, that sounds reasonable, although I'm surprised that isn't being covered already.

Making change is already covered, starting in grade 4, I think. I'd always try to teach counting-up, which maybe half got; the other half were better with standard subtraction. My interpretation of "personal finance," if that's the term they're using, would be more about money management, investing, budgeting, etc. And I think a grade 5 or 6 kid could be taught that, at least in broad outline. "Here's what retirement looks like if you don't plan, and here's what it looks like if you do"--and then go from there. But I don't know what they have in mind.

Big jump in COVID cases today, first one in a while.

Border closure extended: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/travel-ban-extended-july-1.5632625

Let's hope it stays that way until they get their shit together.

there's been reports of Americans vacationing here in bc, getting through the borders by claiming they're traveling to Alaska.

burn them!

although tbh there def are still tourists around just in general here, which boggles the mind

The airbnbs on my street in Montreal have seen some traffic the past couple weeks. Honestly confused as to what in the hell there is to do. OTOH I am desperate for a some time away from my apt/the city so it's not entirely mysterious to me

I understand why it would be nice to be here - very little covid, bars and restaurants open, summer in bc is v nice etc. - but how are they getting here?

Cases were back down to where they've leveled off recently. Must have been some reporting blip yesterday.

Must have missed that firm support Bolton promised

Adrienne Arsenault really held his feet to the fire on this. Worth watching: https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1758622275621

I assume this is because of delayed Canada Day reporting, but according to Worldometer, only 67 cases reported nationally yesterday.

At a time when the problems with the long term care home system are evident, the Ford government is rushing through a bill to restructure the whole home and LTC care system and privatize home care, which is what keeps a lot of people out of the long term care homes. (The currently existing home care system, which is mostly very good, is one of the NDP government's undersung accomplishments from the 90s.) Might be voted on tomorrow:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/home-care-bill-debate-northeast-1.5624534

https://www.ontariohealthcoalition.ca/index.php/release-submission-submission-on-bill-175-connecting-people-to-home-and-community-care-act-2020/

Uh, what?

https://globalnews.ca/news/7142057/china-canada-travel-exercise-caution/

I’m happy to announce the appointment of @BobRae48 as our next Ambassador to the @UN. He has dedicated his life to serving Canadians and our country, and I know he’ll work hard to advance our interests around the world in this new role. https://t.co/rK2helVWe8

— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) July 6, 2020

I guess the Chinese 'travel advisory' is related to this??: https://globalnews.ca/news/6986293/meng-wanzhou-china-warning-canada/

Among the reasons it is wtf is that, as noted above, the border is already closed to non-citizens/residents until at least the end of the month.

Some seemingly clear stats and graphs for Ontario, January to now. The bit that shows decreasing severity in recent cases looks pretty reassuring. https://files.ontario.ca/moh-covid-19-report-en-2020-07-07.pdf

Whoa:

https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/police-chiefs-call-for-decriminalization-of-personal-drug-use-1.5017860

Very good.

this is p much the de facto situation here at the moment

would be good for the country writ-large of course

Wow

I strongly suspect this is a ploy to head off anti-police (or at least pro-budget-slashing) sentiment, at least based on the timing, but yes, it's an excellent development.

How tf does Trudeau manage to do something this dumb?: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/margaret-justin-trudeau-we-charity-1.5643586

This take seems OTM: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/justin-trudeau-we-charity-margaret-trudeau-alexandre-1.5645781

Dude had been growing on me too.

As scandals go, this is about as low-wattage as they come.

Just like our other scandals.

Hm, what makes this fundamentally different from something like the sponsorship scandal, aside from the fact that the deal got cancelled when they got called out?

“ For whatever reason, the prime minister and his office seem to have a recurring problem of failing to check themselves. As a result, they have now repeatedly wrecked themselves.”

lol