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

I went looking for a clip, couldn't find one. I positive I heard Trudeau say this yesterday.

"I'm"

Anyway, whether 50% or a majority--which probably means, I don't know, 55 or 60%; I doubt very much it means 75% and upwards--my original point still holds: I'm left wondering if I'm going to be on the right side of that. (If I weren't still supplying, I'm almost certain the answer would be no.)

Right, I was hoping "majority" meant 70%+ or whatever the threshold is for herd immunity.

50% isn’t half-bad (heh) when you consider that it very likely covers the vast majority of at-risk Canadians.

In terms of elementary schools--this is what I don't like, it gets me thinking "me, me, me"--I have to believe the thinking will be get the teachers vaccinated, and then the kids are near the end of the line.

Jason Kenney is absolutely blunt and gets to the point: https://www.vice.com/en/article/88ax7v/jason-kenney-targets-south-asians-for-covid-says-nothing-about-anti-maskers

Listening to the actual audio from the radio program really does not make Kenney look any better: https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=435088651218061&ref=watch_permalink

There's something slimy about the way he starts out patronizingly 'praising' the "beautiful, wonderful" family- and hospitality-oriented nature of South Asian communities (based on his friends in the community) before working up to announcing increased policing and fines for home gatherings, no doubt targeted towards this community that concerns him. He mostly handwaves away the host's seemingly valid point that the neighbourhood he's talking about contains a lot of frontline workers who are unable to work from home before eventually mentioning that school reopening will be delayed by a week to give kids time to recover from, uh, family gatherings over Christmas.

I didn't realize btw that i) Alberta is taking some weird anti-federalist stand by not letting people use the federal COVID app and ii) their case numbers have gotten so much worse than Ontario's and Quebec's.

I believe that young kids won’t be getting vaccinated at first, but it’s primarily because the vaccine for them needs to be in a slightly different format or dosage or something.

xp. can't help but feel that possibly conservative covid-denialists might be part of Alberta's problem

more of a pressing problem than any south asian cultural issue

Legault still on the fence about Xmas gatherings, says he’ll make a call on the 11th but right now forbidding them seems likeliest.

Also, fuck Jason Kenney.

fuck Jason Kenney

Feels weird to be doing this here, but:

If there are any other Albertans here, there’s a petition going round to allow the use of the federal app: https://www.change.org/p/tyler-shandro-minister-of-health-alberta-allow-use-of-federal-covid19-contact-tracing-app-in-alberta

And I guess another plug, if you’re on Facebook come join us at the PALbertans group for AB progressive memers.

Also, fuck Jason Kenney.

Legault just cancelled Xmas.

That genuinely surprises me.

at least the laicité is consistent

My thoughts exactly.

Pardon my cynicism, but the genuine surprise for me will be if we *don't* get a few stories about CAQ officials violating the ban come January.

I'm really only surprised that it was announced this early, it seemed inevitable.

I still don't understand what the decision process was to arrive at the announcement they made 2 weeks ago that groups of 10 could gather during the holidays when they clearly did not think things through. Were they really expecting the number of cases to go down during late November and December?

Christmas non-compliance with COVID restrictions is going to massive everywhere imo

think every province should be making similar announcements tbh

at least the laicité is consistent

This was part of what surprised me tbh.

London has set daily case-highs for two days running. Still very low comparatively, 40-50 range, but I suspect they're headed for the next level and that'll be it for movie theatres (which are so sparsely attended when I go--from 3 to 10 people per screening--it'd be more symbolic than anything else).

X-posting this from the Politics of Pornography thread:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/04/opinion/sunday/pornhub-rape-trafficking.html

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada calls himself a feminist and has been proud of his government’s efforts to empower women worldwide. So a question for Trudeau and all Canadians: Why does Canada host a company that inflicts rape videos on the world?

That’s quite horrifying. Hard to read. The shot at Trudeau seems a little sideways though - I didn’t really see the supporting evidence in there. Is Canada a primary host or something?

it was founded in Canada, not sure if it is still owned and operated in this country

Pornhub was launched in Montreal and is owned by MindGeek, a Canadian company whose headquarters are also in Montreal. They're legally registered in Luxembourg, however (for obvious reasons).

The CEOs are Canadian and Montreal-based.

https://nationalpost.com/news/how-a-canadian-founded-company-youve-never-heard-of-took-control-of-the-porn-industry

Ahh ok thanks. Ugh.

That said, I'm not sure what the actual mechanics would be for Trudeau to 'do something' in this case. What would be involved with regulating a site like that?

Pornhub’s retort:

https://www.ctvnews.ca/business/pornhub-pushes-back-against-accusations-that-it-allows-child-sexual-abuse-materials-1.5218091

Pornhub is like the main employer for former arts music scene anglos who decided to stick with it in montreal for the long term

montreal is actually apparently a huge porn city historically. one day having a smoke outside a big industrial loft bldg on st remi i used to live in and some guys were delivering a hot tub to a porn studio on the top floor, told me all about it, it was like quebecois boogie nights

Yeah, I have a friend who did cybersecurity or somesuch for Manwin/Mindgeek for a while.

Today: 2031 cases, 48 deaths in Quebec. Part of it is due to playing catch-up with data, but those are some horrible numbers nonetheless.

Short of closing schools and further encouraging WFH, I have no idea what can be done to stem the tide at this point.

*new cases, of course.

it's not schools particularly - HALF the cases are traced to workplaces
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-covid-19-workplace-outbreaks-1.5773180
over the holidays why not just do a commercial shutdown more similar to the first wave; no reason people should be at shopping malls right now (for their own sake and, more importantly, the staff's)

I'd be on board with that. This more recent opinion piece reinforces your point:

https://www.ledevoir.com/opinion/libre-opinion/589435/quebec-vise-les-mauvaises-cibles-pour-contrer-la-covid

Well, sort of. The 75% figure is for workplaces *and* schools – I'd like to seem broken down.

I'm not an epidemiologist, but I would guess they're hard to disentangle; with both sites open I assume we're seeing a sort of feedback loop where infection spreads between and among them.

*see them. I can't type for shit today, it seems.

This article, also from Nov 10, is consistent with the Oct 23 data to which the CBC refers:

https://www.lapresse.ca/covid-19/2020-11-10/les-ecoles-source-d-eclosions-et-d-inquietude.php

So: workplaces account for half of all cases, schools for a quarter.

Ah ok, sorry, I misunderstood what you were trying to figure out

No, I think you make an excellent point: there's bound to be a feedback loop at play here as well.

RIP victims of Marc Lépine

RIP

Word on the internet street is Quebec will be entering a second March/April-style lockdown on the 18th…