Defenestrate Them All: Canadian Politics 2021

i feel like i'm the only one not rushing and waiting until 10 weeks is up before getting shot #2 (AZ was my first jab)

I really was fine with waiting (until late August), but it felt like there was a very vocal push to get you to reschedule, so between that and this Delta variant--of which I've now heard one end of the should-I-be-worried? spectrum to the other--I got it moved up to mid-July.

I realize that's not the most sensitive thing for a Premier to say but, in practical terms, what sorts of things could the provincial government have done about a heat wave?

funding cooling centres, communicating the possible dangers earlier...the deaths seem to be a result of underfunded and overexerted emergency reporting services, which is a failing of government. not something that could have been fixed in a week of course.

I think calling for an inquiry into what went wrong would be appropriate right now. Not downplaying a death count that is in the still being tallied.

I rushed to get my second AZ shot, bcz why not

That makes sense, sym.

I got my second shot (the Dolly one) at a pop-up clinic on Friday. No real rush on my part—my in-person job doesn’t start until the fall—but I’m kind of over worrying about all this.

I got my second shot moved up from mid-August to this Friday.

Three minutes later I rebooked an appointment on behalf of my brother, and so many time slots had been taken in that short time, that his appointment is 15 days later than mine.

182 unmarked graves found at location of former residential school in Cranbrook, BC. Lower Kootenay Band says graves detected using ground penetrating radar at former St. Eugene's Mission School, which closed in 1970. (24-hour crisis line for anyone who needs it: 1-866-925-4419)

— CBC News Alerts (@CBCAlerts) June 30, 2021

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/sudden-deaths-heat-wave-b-c-1.6086770

https://www.citynews1130.com/2021/06/30/b-c-paramedic-dispatcher-heatwave-emergency/

“I didn’t see any managers at any of the hospitals, I mean it was truly an emergency situation. So I don’t know whether they prepared,” Alex said. “The ambulance services is running pretty much at capacity, I mean, on a regular day we’re stretched… So when you add an emergency on top of regular operations, the system isn’t capable of handling it… It was a complete collapse.”

Many other first responder agencies activated their Emergency Operations Centres, according to Luca, but BCEHS refused to do so, despite pleas from several frontline managers and medical officers. He says doing so would have opened additional resources for setting up things like cooling stations and coordinating with partner agencies and hospitals, but the centre wasn’t activated until well into the next morning.

To make matters worse, Luca says the air conditioning in the Vancouver dispatch centre apparently cut out.

“They had to end up trying to find fans and stuff like that just to keep the centre cool. Yeah, no. No preparation of scenes whatsoever.”

Everyone remember when Joe Oliver said climate change would be good for Canada?: https://www.google.com/amp/s/financialpost.com/opinion/joe-oliver-heres-a-truth-few-dare-to-utter-canada-will-benefit-from-climate-change/wcm/190315ec-083d-489e-928f-ff742a7179b4/amp/

The story about emergency services is grim.

joe oliver is a fucking moron

Oh god, I remember that column. The absolute cynicism.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/02/queen-victoria-statue-toppled-in-canada-amid-anger-at-deaths-of-indigenous-children

The ongoing campaign on the right to somehow tar Pierre Trudeau, and by extension his son, because he was PM while residential schools never ceases to amaze; it's like if the GOP kept trying to argue that statues of FDR should be taken down because segregationist laws were in place while he was President. In this instalment, the National Post's Kelly McParland opines that PET should be condemned just as much as John A. McDonald because his government ... published a paper that was withdrawn a year later.

https://nationalpost.com/opinion/kelly-mcparland-turning-a-blind-eye-to-pierre-trudeaus-unseemly-indigenous-assimilation-plan

republicans never tire of saying things like "dEmOcRaTs sTaRtEd the KKK" while loudly protesting the removal of confederate statues, so I wouldn't look to the GOP for a model of coherence here

Haha, true enough. "Liberals interned the Japanese" or "PET sent troops to Quebec" would at least make sense. Not saying PET was a hero on this issue but not only did he not begin the programme, his government took it out of the hands of the Catholic Church and began phasing out the schools. The Kamloops school was closed in 78 when he was PM, for instance. It's p obvious that he's only being singled out vs every other pre-1996 PM because he was the father of the current PM.

yeah that headline should be about chretien

has anyone talked abt the bottlemen podcast itt? it's kind of the canadian politics podcast that ive been craving

https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/mary-simon-named-as-canada-s-first-indigenous-governor-general-1.5498146

https://www.vice.com/en/article/3aqvkw/qanons-are-harassing-people-at-the-whim-of-a-woman-they-say-is-canadas-queen-romana-didulo

Many of Didulo’s followers seem to believe she’s holding tribunals behind the scenes, which are resulting in the executions they’re thirsting for. These followers use extremely tenuous scraps of evidence to prove Didulo is actually in power—including the fact that Romana Didulo is an anagram for “I Am Our Donald.”

Sounds legit.

And the kicker: 'Didulo has said that if the people who received the cease and desist orders from her followers break them, they will be executed.'

Happening in Montreal now too:
https://old.reddit.com/r/montreal/comments/oj2ooa/maskless_karens_appear_to_be_dropping_off_bizarre/

Heh, that's precisely where I got wind of it.

grammar isn't Qanon's strong point

Jmm (anyone else in Ottawa Centre?), have you been keeping up with the federal NDP nomination race in this riding? The virtual meeting is Saturday and votes are being taken in electronically for 24h. We have two candidates to choose from. I just started looking into them today. Right now, I'm strongly leaning towards Lyra Evans (http://www.lyraevans.ca), for whom I previously voted for school board, over Angella MacEwan (https://www.angellaforottawa.ca). I'm not sure I agree with all of her stances (she would definitely be on the left of the party) but some are good and she seems to at least have clear stances and priorities.

I mean, she might just be better at making a website, so I'll keep reading.

I haven't been following it at all! Thanks for the links.

Evans impressed us a lot more at the nomination meeting too, although it looks like my own membership had lapsed. Anyway, MacEwan won; I might actually vote for the federal Liberals for the first time.

Acc to two anonymous sources, the Greens are cancelling the confidence vote on Annamie Paul's leadership: https://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/2021/07/18/green-party-to-cancel-vote-to-oust-leader-annamie-paul-sources.html

yeah that vote didn't make any sense, what would they do if she lost right before an election was called

the two remaining Green MPs have been pretty quiet while about the party collapsing huh? not that Annamie Paul stuck up for Manly or Atwin either

Annamie Paul asked whether @ElizabethMay is involved in what she called a "one-sided campaign" to depose her as Green Leader.
Paul responds that it's a "reasonable question" but that she would never talk about stuff like that in public.

— Alex Ballingall (@aballinga) July 19, 2021

A friend of mine is trying be the federal green for that Fredricton seat. They could do a lot worse.

Glad I’m no longer in Alberta but deeply concerned about my family and friends still there, this is demonic and insane, I fucking hate the people who run things there with every inch of my being

Starting Aug. 16, isolation won’t be universally req’d if you test + except in some high-risk settings. Testing will continue to be important but we will no longer recommend testing for mild symptoms. (10/14)

— Dr. Deena Hinshaw (@CMOH_Alberta) July 28, 2021

Deranged

I first thought the "+" meant "and", as in something like "isolation won't be required as a general rule if you have been tested (and are negative) but distancing will still be required in high-risk settings", which seemed somewhat reasonable. But I was filling in a lot there. I think, based on the comments, the "+" actually means "positive", which seems so inexplicable that I can see why I misread it.

I made that same mistake, but it's definitely positive: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-covid-requirements-1.6121002

I feel so terrified and helpless, which I guess is the default state of things in 2021

Is any other province doing this? Why must Alberta aspire to be so much like the GOP?

Really disturbing to see a public health leader making "with vaccines, Covid = the flu" official policy

that would make more sense if Alberta didn't have the lowest vaccination rate in the country

For sure, though long Covid + no vaccines for children makes it p bad messaging even if the 12+ rate was ~95%. I get that we will probably need to adapt to a reality where covid is comparable to influenza, but surely we should consider waiting until after children can be vaccinated? (tbc: these points aren't directed at you Murgatroid)

And yeah, I'm seeing a lot of worried UCalgary people on my twitter talking about how effed this will be as there's no campus vaccine mandate

This province is hell of messed up. They scooped out the CMOH’s brains and replaced them with a build-a-bear voice box programmed by Tyler Shandro. Zero emphasis on second doses, all celebrating the return of freedumb, R value 1.5, fun fuckin times.

vaccinate rates must be rock bottom in many areas of alberta also i guess