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

Fake wolf pack warnings?

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/national/defence-watch/canadian-military-to-establish-new-organization-to-use-propaganda-other-techniques-to-influence-canadians

Apologies for linking to post media, but it’s a weird story

Wow, did many people see this coming? This article implies it’s all GM reinvesting, but I also read that they expect some tax dollars will be involved. Many people in the ‘shwa must be having a slightly better morning today.

https://www.cp24.com/news/1-3b-deal-will-return-vehicle-production-to-oshawa-plant-gm-and-unifor-say-1.5175832

meanwhile in Canada: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/whole-foods-bans-poppies-1.5791551

It's the perfect story for every Canadian politician to act outraged about

to make people extra mad they should have made white poppies mandatory instead

hahahaha

conservative are going to get mad that this is woke culture and forget that the CEO of WF is a union-busting randian from texas who doesn't believe in anthropogenic climate change

and is only doing this because whole foods banned employees from wearing BLM masks in the US

Horgan's so angry, he's *this* close to calling Whole Foods "dude" https://t.co/IpvokfKm7Q

— Justin McElroy (@j_mcelroy) November 6, 2020

I’m also learning that Whole Foods exists in Canada.

ban already reversed lol

we did it

If only we could get that kind of unified decisive action for things that actually matter.

The fact that Canadians are more upset about a company with 14 stores in the entire country forbidding their employees from wearing poppies than we are 190,000 Loblaws employees losing danger pay during a pandemic is not a good look.

— Aaron Hoyland (@aaronhoyland) November 6, 2020

our fucked up priorities in a nutshell right there

McElroy and Horgan suggests this is a BC story though, which has no Loblaws and there are like 5 Whole foods in Vancouver.

The CBC article symsymsym shared about it is totally focused on Ontario, with interviews from Ottawa Whole Foods employees, a citation of Ontario's Human Rights Code, and this:

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said Friday he'll make it illegal for businesses in the province to prohibit employees from wearing poppies.

The three largest federal parties all have Central Canadian leaders who spoke out against this.

This site lists 9 Loblaws stores in BC btw: https://www.shopping-canada.com/stores-brands/loblaws/british-columbia

low hanging fruit for politicians obv
with horgan though it’s easy to imagine him being genuinely angry about it which speaks to how well his public image is working

Loblaws sucks nuts

Had London radio on this afternoon, people calling in about the election. Not quite the unanimity I would have preferred--at least two pro-Trump calls, with one guy blathering on about the radical left.

Putting particulars like Keystone aside--not looking to get into that right now--this seems obviously great for us. The idea of Biden picking fights with Canada is inconceivable.

It's great for the whole world, really, barring Russia, China, Brazil, North Korea, the Philippines, etc.

Well they don’t know it yet perhaps but it’s good for the people of these countries too.

Biden's been around long enough that he may have even had some interaction with PET.

Indeed:

https://globalnews.ca/video/3116301/joe-biden-recounts-meeting-pierre-elliott-trudeau-says-trudeau-reach

Nice! I just took a guess.

Here in Newfoundland the Loblaws workers have been on strike almost two months. They're unionized with no current collective agreement so the clawback of the $2 pandemic top-up didn't sit well at all. The last offer before the strike was a $1 raise over 3 years. They haven't budged from that.

I don't think it's getting much attention nationally. There's 11 stores and they're called "Dominion".

It's great for the whole world, really, barring Russia, China, Brazil, North Korea, the Philippines, etc.

― pomenitul, Saturday, November 7, 2020 12:44 PM (forty-two minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

It's actually good for china

Biden isn't going to be trying to trade war with Beijing

Yes, but its main antagonist will also be committing fewer acts of nihilistic self-sabotage.

Ha, wow, I haven't seen a "Dominion" store in almost 20 years, I think.

They all became Metro stores in Ontario.

It's great for the whole world, really, barring Russia, China, Brazil, North Korea, the Philippines, etc.

― pomenitul, Saturday, November 7, 2020 3:44 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

when you say the names of these countries, does that refer to the people who live in them or their authoritarian leaders?

im not sure how much Trump being broskis with Duterte benefitted the average person in the Philippines

Their leaders, obv.

We seem to be plateauing around 1100 new cases per day in Quebec. Hotspot has moved away from Montreal and is now wreaking havoc in the Saguenay – Lac-Saint-Jean region. Still, with 1162 new cases and 38 deaths today – i.e. 3.27% – despite the ongoing semi-lockdown, I can't help but feel like we could and should be doing better.

still climbing in ON too

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/covid-19-coronavirus-ontario-november-10-update-1.5796429

As long as schools are open, these Quebec numbers won’t decrease.

Yep, exactly.

I've got a supply day Wednesday, and possibly Friday too. After that, because of students migrating online, class sizes are scheduled to go up (from 12 to 21 in one of them). I hate doing this, but I may shut it down at that point.

BC is forbidding all social gatherings and non-essential travel for two weeks...but I also don't see how we flatten the curve if schools and workplaces stay open

Short of a spring-like lockdown--which I just can't see happening--I think, until this vaccine gets distributed (next spring?), everyone is basically on their own (wear a mask, be careful of what situations you place yourself in; tricky when your that overlaps with your job). I don't see government tinkering slowing anything down.

That's basically what we did in Quebec and while it helped flatten the curve, it's not going to plummet as long as schools remain open. Nor is Legault going to make such a call any time soon – lockdown fatigue is already taking its toll on the population and murmurs of discontent are reportedly sweeping across the province.

xp

I absolutely detest that an university teacher from Tunisia was called to the bar to protest against the islamic veil in schools. First, it’s a complete tokenisation of the arab women, she only represents herself in the debate, not all arab women. Second, her testimony invites comparisons between the religious situation in Tunisia and Quebec and it’s so different it can’t be useful. The woman means well, she argues for some feminist values I agree with, but she offers no solutions or clear path for muslims women who have the veil to enter society while a ban is active. The problem is that in some muslims state, when the govt ban the veil, it signals to men that imposing the veil will facd consequences because men in these countries are already seen as deciders. In Quebec, the dynamic is so different (muslims are a minority, women already have more choices) it just going to isolate muslim women more.

I know 99.9% of the board agree on this but I had to vent.

her testimony invites comparisons between the religious situation in Tunisia and Quebec and it’s so different it can’t be useful

This argument is lost on the hardcore universalists. They fail to grasp that the veil can mean completely different things depending on where you happen to be in the world.

That said, I do sympathize with openly feminist ex-muslim women who emigrated to Quebec or France to escape persecution, and their voices deserve to be heard as well, even though I think the veil 'ban' will do more harm than good in the long run.

Ensaf Haidar testified as well and her stance is perfectly understandable, given the circumstances, regardless of whether you agree with it or not.

Is there a court case taking place about Bill 21?