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

Ban on single use plastics

That one was a long time coming.

Expanded intl development as well

OK, I realize this isn't actual legislation but that was kind of incredible.

(speech as a whole)

Fuck this headline:

https://www.lapresse.ca/actualites/politique/2020-09-23/un-discours-du-trone-qui-laisse-presager-d-importantes-depenses.php

That's your sole takeaway? And La Presse isn't even especially right-leaning.

Even the Natl Post is better tbh.

https://nationalpost.com/news/payette-to-detail-liberals-response-to-surge-in-covid-19-cases-and-plans-to-support-canadians-businesses-in-throne-speech

Heh, that's quite the unexpected contrast. No openly snarky paragraphs such as this one:

Mis à part le « 19 » de COVID-19, on retrouve dans ce discours peu de chiffres susceptibles de donner une idée de l’ampleur des dépenses du gouvernement fédéral, dont le déficit pour 2020-2021 a été évalué à 343 milliards de dollars en juillet dernier par l’ancien ministre des Finances, Bill Morneau. Le prochain rendez-vous est fixé à l’automne, alors que sa successeure, Chrystia Freeland, fera le point sur les finances publiques.

Sorry to post re: Breonna Taylor upthread-- meant to post elsewhere. Still concerned.

gentlemen you can't apologize in here, this is the Canadian politics thread

Ontario finally came to its senses and closed strip clubs. Also a ban on liquor sales after 11 pm, which must have been a painful decision for Ford.

I missed this in the throne speech. May be interesting. https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2020/09/23/throne-speech-promise-to-force-big-tech-to-pay-for-canadian-content-could-make-a-huge-difference-to-struggling-media-companies-advocate-says.html

Agree that it's interesting.

Singh and Trudeau reach a deal on sick leave. I feel like Singh might have been able to aim higher but this is still a good step: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/ndp-liberals-deal-sick-leave-1.5739658

Although there wasn't much in the way of specific solutions, Trudeau actually strongly called out major superpowers (in all but name) on pretty specific things and laid out a pretty stark view of how things are in his UN address. He also acknowledged Canada's, and other middle or lesser powers', inability to change much on our own and called for broader intl co-operation, while pledging increased funds towards intl development. (But why the recent need to phrase any call-out of racism as being about "anti-black and anti-indigenous racism"? Are we all OK with anti-Asian and anti-Arab racism now?)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/trudeau-un-general-assembly-1.5739530

^The article is good but the video annoyingly overdubs an English translation over the French passages without muting the French so that it is unlistenable. This is all English, with the French parts dubbed and muted: https://youtu.be/13ImxYuB4d4 . Unfortunately, I couldn't find a bilingual clip that just left things the way he said them.

All very reasonable stuff, though I do agree with your quibble, re: racism. I guess he's stating where the priorities lie, but even that is kind of debatable tbh. In Quebec, at least (much like in France, for that matter), I get the sense that anti-Arab racism is an even bigger concern at the moment than anti-black racism. But I digress.

Yeah, the mass mosque shooting isn't exactly a distant memory, nor are attempts at both the federal and provincial level, to regulate traditional Muslim garb. Hate crimes against Asians have risen significantly this year.

The Quebec City mosque shooting happened here for a reason and I have (East) Asian friends who've experienced overt covid-related racism since the start of the pandemic, so I'm not sure what focusing exclusively on BIPOC (as they now say across the border) people achieves in a Canadian context.

xp yep, precisely.

I assume JT’s wording is yet another slightly garbled translation of terminology that makes a bit more sense in specific academic contexts (i.e., anticolonialism within a settler colony).

BIPOC is by no means a US only term ime

There’s a ton of missing the racism forest for the semantic trees right now, it is getting frustrating.

You know, on further reflection it might make sense to focus on anti-Black and anti-indigenous racism in the specific context of police violence and incarceration, but I’d have to check Canada’s stats

I don't think he was talking about that specific context, which would make more sense. Serena Ryder definitely wasn't when she called out "anti-black and anti-indigenous racism" in the virtual Canada Day celebrations!

Sure, but specifying that might help. Otherwise you risk making other visible minorities feel like the discrimination they experience on a regular basis can be hand-waved as 'second-tier' racism. Honestly, I think 'racism' pure and simple remains the most useful term of all because it pre-empts potentially divisive, internecine responses.

xp

Xp
if you wanted to be generous you could say it’s the implied context, but it strikes me as more likely to be somewhat thoughtless trend hopping / being petrified of saying the wrong thing

To be clear I agree with both of you! Just thinking through how this language circulates and why

I certainly agree that racism manifests itself in different ways and it's important not only to acknowledge that but also to come up with tailor-made measures to fight back against these different 'sub-categories' of racism. From a rhetorical perspective, however, I think Trudeau would do better to resort to more neutral, unifying language while simultaneously targeting the issues specific communities face via policy. So I totally agree with you that, as far as police violence and incarceration rates are concerned, the Native and Black populations of Canada do not require the same kinds of solutions as, say, the Muslim community (especially in Quebec).

I mean, different groups of women may face different kinds of sexism but he didn't insert qualifiers when he said women's rights are human rights.

FWIW that stuff is the kind of thing I meant upthread when I said the organic parts of our politics are being poisoned.

https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2020/09/22/erin-otoole-thought-hed-be-taking-on-justin-trudeau-in-parliament-this-week-instead-hes-stuck-in-his-basement-listening-to-grimes.html

^quality headline

Indeed.

In other news, we've got 896 new cases in Quebec today. Edging dangerously close to 1,000.

The school board I'm supplying in, Peel, now has 34 different schools with COVID cases. (Almost all with exactly one.) A week or so ago, there were around 10. I've got four days scheduled this week at my old school, which still hasn't registered a case. Unsettling, though.

Because I spend 97% of my time in St. Marys, I forget what larger cities are like. I was in Waterloo for a movie last night, and the two blocks around the theatre (a rep; only a dozen people to see the film) were teeming--King St., if you know Waterloo. People were masked up to a point, but groups of 5-10 walking the streets together (virtually all in the 20-30 demographic, likely university students) weren't. I was thinking if one or two people in that circumscribed area were asymptomatic carriers, then within a week there'd be another 10-30 people with it.

Short of returning to an April-like lockdown (and unless you're in a small town like me, and that could change), I don't see how this doesn't just become an ever-present part of life until a vaccine comes along.

Yikes. (Ontario.)

http://phildellio.tripod.com/spike.jpg

You're not quite at Quebec levels per capita, but slowly getting there, it seems.

Legault is scheduled to flag Montreal and Quebec City as red zones later this afternoon. 'Difficult decisions' will be made, he says, and while I have no idea what the specifics will entail, it's safe to assume that bars and restaurant dining rooms will be closed. Beyond that, I have no idea what can be realistically done about house parties (especially amongst teens and twenty-somethings), as these seem to be the main cause of transmission at the moment. And schools pose an even bigger dilemma, of course.

I would really like to get tested (no symptoms, but due to volunteering I get around a lot more than most) but I do not like the idea of lining up with a bunch of symptomatic people. I also apparently do not qualify for the asymptomatic testing you can now get at some pharmacies. Harrumph!

I needed a doctor's appointment about three weeks ago for something non-COVID related, so I got a test with relative ease. Booked for the next day in Waterloo--a clinic, not a drive-through--and only had to wait 15 minutes. The line-up hysteria hadn't begun yet. (By the way, if you haven't had the swab, it wasn't nearly as bad as I'd feared, and I'm a total coward--I know it varies from person to person. The nurse who tested me was fantastic.)

What qualifications do you need as an asymptomatic person? I thought that was the whole point of the pharmacies, that anyone who wanted a test could get one.

No, there are specific eligibility requirements. I called my local Shoppers and they listed off the eligible groups on their voicemail.

https://barrie.ctvnews.ca/select-pharmacies-offer-covid-19-tests-including-one-in-huntsville-with-limitations-1.5120835

Maybe they'd take your volunteer work into consideration?

maaaaybe. can't hurt to ask, anyway.

update: I was turned down lol. I should have lied, tbh.

I even went in at 8am when the place was deserted just in case. No dice.

Symptomatic patients will be given temporary precedence, sayeth Legault. I assume it's the same in Ontario.

crazy how those free Vice magazines I used to pick up contained the seeds of the destruction of American democracy

simon saving the trudeau dirt for some trump thread smh

srsly

I need a few drinks in me to tell that one properly.

Was he.... wearing one of his costumes?

That would be telling.

you used to work at a video store in Montreal in the 90s and JT would come in to rent pornos often?

if this is the story and you haven't posted it here I guess we have mutuals lol

What kind, what kind?

don't remember if there were any particulars to this anecdote