[Canada] Canadian Politics Redux

[viper37]

Also there was a good Globe article doubting the minister had actually read his own proposed leglislation.

That would not surprise me at all.  It's his normal behaviour to spout absolute shit on stuff he has fucking clue of.  He's an ideologue, but unlike someone like Stéphane Dion, he's a total dimwit.

My own take, I am worried this is political posturing over good public policy and I do worry the political leadership on this does not have a good understanding of the bill or the communications it is attempting to regulate.

Not having a good understanding of the bill is possible, especially if both language versions don't say the same thing.
But the Conservatives and other who oppose the bill do understand what it is attempting to regulate.  Guilbault has no understanding of technology though.  He was only recruited to give the LPC a "green touch" for the election, since his past as hardcore greenie ideologue in chief.

The problem is, if you don't push for every commas and dots now, it'll be left to the courts in the following decades to interpret what it is the legislators meant at the time.  Personally, I'm all in favour of clarifying things now.  The Libs say they do not intend to regulate user-generated content, but they refuse to amend the bill to explicitely say so.  Actually, they deleted that reference after the first draft of the bill and we still do not know why except "for it can't be there".  Which is silly, since it's there in French.

This whole thing is totally weird.

[crazy canuck]

Yeah, and the real problem is the people left to litigate the ambiguities are the people least able to fund that kind of litigation - the individual content producers.  No chance the average person with a twitch or youtube following of (pick a number) is going to be able to fight this in the courts.

[Barrister]

Justin Trudeau caught using a fake Macbook!

https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7bng8/busted-justin-trudeau-caught-using-a-fake-apple-macbook



Obviously not the story of the century - but it has a little bit of traction as it feeds into an existing narrative about Trudeau - that's he's just a big phony (with a side of "he really likes to play pretend").

[Grey Fox]

He's the guy that fake falls thru stairs, so yeah.

[Jacob]

Looks like Canada will soon have more people with at least one vaccination than the US, according to the G&M. This is mainly due to what appears a lower rate of uptake in the US.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/article-thanks-to-the-good-sense-of-canadians-were-about-to-out-vaccinate-the/

[Grey Fox]

Québec is about to hit 75% of adults with 1 dose. The number of appointments is already done.

[viper37]

Québec is about to hit 75% of adults with 1 dose. The number of appointments is already done.

that was nice to hear.  Patio reopening in May 28th too!

[Barrister]

Looks like Canada will soon have more people with at least one vaccination than the US, according to the G&M. This is mainly due to what appears a lower rate of uptake in the US.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/article-thanks-to-the-good-sense-of-canadians-were-about-to-out-vaccinate-the/

Now we'll see if our "one dose summer" is good enough - the US is still obviously miles ahead of us in people with 2 doses.

They released stats for the province breaking down % of people in discrete neighbourhoods who are vaccinated - and my chunk of the city was the highest in the entire province -56.7% of all people (not just adults).

Of course that probably says more about the area of the city I live in (white collar workers, highly educated, lots of government employees) than anything else, but it makes me feel much more comfortable to go out in the neighbourhood and have even the minimal interactions we have with friends and neighbours.

Lowest in the province is in the upper north-west - High Level.  I used to practice there so I know the area.  It's a combination of oilworkers (not so educated, highly transient) and a very large mennonite community that isn't exactly like the amish but have very little trust for the government. They're at a whopping 9%.

[crazy canuck]

The daily number of people in this province who are getting vaccinated is apparently setting records each day - as the vaccine comes in we seem to have the processes in place to get it into arms.  Same seems to be true across the country.  Son 1 is getting his first jab on June 6th here in BC and son 2 is getting his Jab in Ontario On May 28.  Looks like the promises of getting everyone the opportunity to have their first jab by Canada will be well exceeded.

[Jacob]

It feels like we're on the way, which is nice.

Whenever I look at the National Post (they have it at my local coffee shop) it's full of "Ford's done a great job, why isn't he opening now" and "why are people so irrationally concerned about Covid-19" type articles.

Personally my preference is to be conservative about this, and err a little bit on the side of caution.

[viper37]

Lots of talks about a vaccine passport.
Lots of politicians and lawyers saying it's unethical, even if it's for entry into Canada by foreigners.
No one can give a clear fucking answer to this simple question: WHY?

The only answers usually given are that:
a) not everyone is vaccinated yet, so it's unfair
b) not everyone can get vaccinated

I don't see a) as a problem, time will solve it.
I can see why b) might be a problem internally if we start requesting it everywhere, but, as much as foreigners willing to enter the country are concerned, I don't see the problem.  Proof of vaccination or 14 days quarantine in a hotel should be mandatory.

And I don't think non vaccinated children, for any disease we usually have a vaccine for, including covid-19, should be allowed in school, eventually.

[garbon]

So William Amos is just a freak?

[Grey Fox]

So William Amos is just a freak?

Apparently.

[Barrister]

So on social media I keep seeing all these posts from people who are absolutely outraged about the discovery of the remains of 215 children buried at the Kamloops Residential School.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/tk-eml%C3%BAps-te-secw%C3%A9pemc-215-children-former-kamloops-indian-residential-school-1.6043778

It's fine to be outraged by this - but what gets me is how many people are surprised by it.  I knew that thousands of kids died at residential schools 20 years ago.  And now through the Truth and Reconciliation Committee we know even more details.

https://ehprnh2mwo3.exactdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/Executive_Summary_English_Web.pdf

(read starting at page 97 of the PDF)  This is the summary of the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Committee.

What's even worse though is the number of people I see calling for restitution to be paid to residential school survivors.  Umm... what about the over $3 billion that have been paid as part of the residential school settlement agreement that was reached in 2006?

[crazy canuck]

Your first mistake is reading social media.  Your second mistake is reacting to social media.

There are significant issues here beyond what is being discussed on social media though.

One is the delay it took the local indigenous community to get the necessary approvals to do the work to identify where the bodies were located - 20 years.  Another issue is all the work to identify and remains that were not officially recorded as deaths at the time, return the remains to their home territories, assist and compensate the families for those deaths (they were not part of the class action you referred to)  and I am sure a number of other issues I have not thought of in the short time I gave your post some thought.