Open for Business: Canadian Politics 2019

Anyone know anything about the legal grounds for this?

Heading to this soon: https://north-shore.info/events/fighting-for-our-lives-contingent-for-june-7-anti-ford-actions/

The whole Bob Rae saga is somehow proof to me that leftists are harder on leftist politicians than right wingers are on right wing politicians. Or at least, they are more demanding.

This is something else: 95yo LBP/PET-era Cabinet Minister Paul Hellyer discusses his apparently sincerely held views on UFOs, extraterrestrial life, and the deep state.

https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/by7ipl/i_am_a_95_yo_former_canadian_minister_of_defense/

Valiants Thor, the Benevolent Venusian with an IQ of 1200 lived in the pentagon for three or four years, offered us Earthlings a richer, healthier life in exchange for giving up our nuclear weapons. His offer was not accepted. (More on Thor, including his picture, in my latest book Hope Restored.)

Bill 21 is alive. Fuck this province.

Democracy at its finest. What a fucking disgrace.

fuuuuuuuuuuuck quebec

I just read through the bill and the adopted amendments and, yep, it's bad. And this, from yesterday, actually sounds even worse: https://globalnews.ca/news/5396431/quebec-government-passes-bill-immigration-bill-9/

Well, this says it's 'only' 16k applications that are potentially scrapped now: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/closure-bill-21-bill-9-national-assembly-1.5177520

Disappointed that Gatineau mayor Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin seems to support Bill 21.

Support for Bill 21 is overwhelming in Quebec at the moment, primarily outside of Montreal where chances of meeting a muslim immigrant are slim to none. In any case, this is what 'we' voted for – 'we' only have 'ourselves' to blame. It's a lesson in populism, if you will.

As for the decrease in immigration quotas, it's doubly telling when you consider that Quebec's unemployment rate is at its lowest since 1976 and hiring is an uphill struggle in certain sectors right now.

And while Quebec is currently at the forefront of fascism-lite in Canada, keep in mind that the average pure laine's take on immigration and religious minorities is gaining ground in the ROC as well. We're headed towards even more hateful rhetoric while gently patting ourselves on the back, as usual.

I've said it before, but I'm consistently amazed that anyone might look to the French assimilationist model and say 'Yes, this has worked quite nicely so far, we should emulate it back home'. It's even more absurd in a province where the last violent incident involving the muslim community was a neonazi terrorist attack.

I'm also pissed at some of my acquaintances who were shocked when Marine Le Pen applauded Legault's election last year – totally not in the same ballpark, right?

There has been some significant opposition in Gatineau/Outaouais, although I guess largely from English school boards: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/western-quebec-anglophones-bill-21-opposition-1.5091203

luv to declare a climate emergency and approve a pipeline expansion within 24 hours

sigh

I didn't fact-check everything she said but Elizabeth May is pretty compelling here imo: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/tasker-trans-mountain-trudeau-cabinet-decision-1.5180269

Speaking of lessons in populism, the majority of British Columbians still support the expansion:

https://www.ipsos.com/en-ca/news-polls/majority-support-trans-mountain-pipeline-expansion-project

Canadian values ftw.

A new Ipsos poll conducted on behalf of Resource Works [1] : Resource Works communicates with British Columbians about the importance of the province's resource sectors to their personal well-being. It demonstrates how responsible development of British Columbia's resources creates jobs and incomes throughout the province, both directly and indirectly, while maintaining a clean and healthy environment. And Resource Works explores the long-term economic future of British Columbia as a place that depends on the responsible development, extraction and transportation of the province's resources.

well they seem unbiased!

Good catch.

I would believe that they majority of BCers do support the pipeline, but I really doubt it's 60-30. Past polls I've seen had pretty different responses. And the way a poll asks these questions could really skew the results.

there were some STEMy students on my bus this morning, doing co-op terms so on their way to their workplaces downtown, talking about their plans for the future, all from asia - one guy mentioned going home to jordan, another mentioned being indian.

one had planned to move to montreal after he graduated and said that with the government that had been elected he was changing his plans and was going to move to toronto instead. the other two assented.

Pipeline should be given to FNIM people as part of reparations imo.

im all for reparations but since a bunch of the nations whose land it's going over don't want it that would be flawed (of course a bunch of nations are for it too, first nations aren't a monolith etc.)

Canada 1st in the world in resettlement of refugees in 2018 with 30%.

I suppose that yes, sometimes, Canadians values ftw.

that's heartening

Agreed it would be a complex thing to work out but any form of reparations for the FNIM will be complex, just like any legitimate solution to a complex problem is. I'm just throwing the idea without knowing some of the important details, I'm just working from a basic assumption: it it is to cross those First Nations lands without their consent, at least it should be theirs to profit from the monetary gains.

that's basically the status quo. the government of canada has - a very sui generis - "fiduciary responsibility" for first nations' lands, which the government of canada technically owns. they will consult with the first nations about what they want done in a particular case, because they legally have to, but then they decide what they wish to do. so in this case they will allow the pipeline to be built, and the first nations whose lands it is built on will receive money from it

ok from a what I understood they are not the proprietors of the pipeline itself, they would need to buy stakes.

Full text of the CCLA's court challenge to Quebec's Bill 21. Supporting this might be the most effective way to oppose the bill: https://ccla.org/ccla-nccms-application-regarding-bill-21/

Easier to read in Firefox than Safari ime

I was just thinking about how this thread sees little to no action, whereas plenty of us consistently contribute to discussions on foreign politics. My excuse is that I happen to be abroad at the moment, but even if I wasn't, I'd still have almost nothing to say about the way things are currently going in Canada, save once or twice a month on average. Yet I am deeply worried about the current situation in Quebec (not to mention Ontario) and the prospect of a yet another Conservative government at the federal level is upsetting, to say the least.

Anyhow, I tend to think that keeping abreast of political developments beyond our borders gives us a better sense of what we should or shouldn't do in Canada (although I'd love it if we could grant less attention to our immediate neighbours), but every now and then I can't help but wonder whether these claims of open-mindedness aren't also a convenient escape from the sheer lack of enthusiasm federal and provincial politics tend to elicit from the majority of Canadians, even when the inexcusable is taking place. See for instance: Legault tweeting praise of Mathieu Bock-Côté, an extremely dangerous pro-Le Pen demagogue who is dead set on becoming Quebec's very own Eric Zemmour, a highly successful French 'intellectual' who gives Jordan Peterson a run for his hatreon; or the string of islamophobic attacks that have been occurring of late in a province where 'there is no islamophobia', to quote the statement Legault used to mark the mosque shooting's one-year anniversary.

I suppose I'm just sad that it should be so difficult (and like I said, I myself am guilty of this, probably more so than most) to get excited over our politics, although you could also make a case for it being a good thing. More broadly, it's almost as though a vicarious existence were part and parcel of the Canadian existence…

*Canadian experience

Tbf, our neighbours seem to have figured out a way to have some kind of national-level election campaign going on at any given time, which does keep their political scene dramatic. Also an escape of sorts from having to think about the next thing Ford or Legault is going to ruin.

Oh yeah, our neighbours are an inexhaustible well of catharsis on par with the tragicomedies of old, it's just that we're so used to the passive role of the spectator that it occasionally feels like our entire shtick is reactivity rather than initiative – for better or for worse, once again. I'm very much of two minds about this.

But yes, I do agree with you, of course, and will look into the issues you list.

I heard this story on Radio-Canada yesterday, about the difficulties of attending post-secondary education for undocumented immigrants in Quebec; apparently York (in Toronto) is beginning a pilot project to allow undocumented students to attend as Canadians.

xp

Ugh, that's ridiculous and awful. In France (here I go again, but in this instance it's an example worth emulating), if you're undocumented but have been living with your family on French soil and attending school for at least two years, you're allowed to become a resident upon turning 18.

Btw, these are some of the incidents I was referring to:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-city-man-decries-racist-violence-after-being-stabbed-leaving-a-store-1.5222628

https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/justice-et-faits-divers/201907/25/01-5235017-un-homme-attaque-verbalement-une-femme-dorigine-algerienne-et-sa-fille.php

Tbf this shit regularly happens outside of Quebec as well, but when the provincial government's policies are in line with hate speech, it's a double whammy of dangerous idiocy.

Wow @ that video

and these attacks get so little national coverage too

Wow @ that video

I had meant the video posted by the man that came with the CBC article but this actually applies to both videos.

fuuuuuck

BIG shakeup at Postmedia as its new CEO takes Canada's largest newspaper chain on a sharp turn to the right. Ezra Levant's old editor is now in charge of ALL political coverage. Jordan Peterson given a permanent office. FOX News North? @sdbcraig has it: https://t.co/lOjXpxCSbO

— Jesse Brown (@JesseBrown) August 12, 2019

Ugh.

Many employees fear current plans to double down on what management calls “reliable conservative voices” will eradicate the local perspectives and political independence of some of Canada’s oldest and most important newspapers. These include the Citizen, Journal, Montreal Gazette, Vancouver Sun, Windsor Star, Saskatoon StarPhoenix, and Calgary Herald. In some large Canadian cities, Postmedia runs the only local daily newspaper (or in the case of Montreal, the only English-language daily).

Justification for such concerns has already emerged, according to several sources.

Since Libin’s appointment was announced, one editor-in-chief was removed from his newspaper and reassigned to a newly created corporate role, after he raised objections that the company was not respecting the editorial independence of his newsroom and after he published an editorial board endorsement of carbon pricing, which upset management.

Responsibility for the National Post’s political bureau in Ottawa was taken away from the paper’s head of news, who also had to be informed by one of his own writers that he was no longer in charge of them.

Meanwhile, reporters and editors across the chain are perplexed by the seemingly opaque nature of Libin’s powers, which has left them uncertain about what kinds of stories they will or won’t control going forward.

And in a separate development stemming from Postmedia’s interest in shoring up a conservative audience base, Jordan Peterson — the prominent psychologist and University of Toronto professor who has become a global celebrity for his critiques of left-wing politics — has been working on a secret project out of the fifth floor of Postmedia’s offices.

Not good.

Actually kind of terrifying tbh.

If this is true, it is indeed creepy and terrible, although the grip of Postmedia on English-language Canadian news was always somewhat oppressive. I guess we'd still have the Toronto Star and French news? (I have no idea what one is meant to do with CBC these days.)

how much of a reach do you think any of these papers have? I don't get the sense that the Sun and the Province set the agenda in Vancouver or BC nearly as much as they did in the 90s. Nobody reads them anymore!

National Post always mixed some interesting heterodox opinion columnists with virulent unadulterated Islamophobia

the free Star Metro paper here strikes me as left of centre if anything

how much of a reach do you think any of these papers have?

my extremely gut-feeling answer is "more than you might think, especially among the over-55s"