[Canada] Canadian Politics Redux

[crazy canuck]

It is hard to manage/resource a delivery system when it has been disrupted so much - two plus years of demand condensed into a few months.  Viper, people could have renewed their passports in the normal way, by mail, during the pandemic.  People who didn't notice their passports had, or are about to expire are caught now that travel is a thing again.  I don't think it is fair to lay the blame entirely on any government.

[Tonitrus]

And the worst part: women with long hair may now be allowed to wear a ponytail (totally indecent lewd behaviour  )  instead of a hairnet while males will be allowed to grow a beard, except when they require specific facial equipment (facial masks that require a fit test comes to mind).

Basically, they are generalizing the cultural exceptions to most soldiers.  Not a bad move.

This would be in line with the mother country.  The Brits eased women's hair standards not long after we did...and the RAF allowed beards even before that (it seemed the Royal Navy always had...I'm not sure the Army has yet).

[viper37]

It is hard to manage/resource a delivery system when it has been disrupted so much - two plus years of demand condensed into a few months.  Viper, people could have renewed their passports in the normal way, by mail, during the pandemic.  People who didn't notice their passports had, or are about to expire are caught now that travel is a thing again.  I don't think it is fair to lay the blame entirely on any government.

Travel was complicated during the pandemic.  It's only logical that people start to travel once all the measures are lifted and it's relatively safe to do.

Also, people renew their passport when it is expired, not 2 years before.

And lastly, the volume of passport renewal is less than it was pre-pandemic and they have more people to address the situation than before.  There's an organizational problem somewhere.  And they are encouraging people to take their days off and their vacation asap...

[viper37]

And the worst part: women with long hair may now be allowed to wear a ponytail (totally indecent lewd behaviour  )  instead of a hairnet while males will be allowed to grow a beard, except when they require specific facial equipment (facial masks that require a fit test comes to mind).

Basically, they are generalizing the cultural exceptions to most soldiers.  Not a bad move.

This would be in line with the mother country.  The Brits eased women's hair standards not long after we did...and the RAF allowed beards even before that (it seemed the Royal Navy always had...I'm not sure the Army has yet).

The Canadian army dress code is long overdue for a change.  Other armies allows for a lot more variety of hairstyles and beards than what we had.

[Zoupa]

I thought you couldn't renew your passport at all during the pandemic to discourage travel. I might have understood that wrong.

[Sheilbh]

I've heard of similar happening in numerous countries at the moment I must say. Australia and Britain for instance.

Also Ireland, where they've rebranded "Passport Express" to "Passpost" because it's not express any more. I think Zoups is right that governments either stopped doing renewals or just no-one was getting them renewed because of the pandemic and now there's a massive backlog.

Should say in the UK there are no appointments for the one week renewals - it's like getting a same day GP appointment. And they say it can take up to 10 weeks.

Although my experience was pretty good - I recently renewed my passport and spent ages moaning about it because it took 2-3 weeks for them to say they'd received it (even though I had the thing from Royal Mail that someone had signed for it). But after that delay it was actually pretty quick. Got my new one in 4-5 weeks.

[Josephus]

It is hard to manage/resource a delivery system when it has been disrupted so much - two plus years of demand condensed into a few months.  Viper, people could have renewed their passports in the normal way, by mail, during the pandemic.  People who didn't notice their passports had, or are about to expire are caught now that travel is a thing again.  I don't think it is fair to lay the blame entirely on any government.

This.

Not to say I'm better than the rest of Canadians (I am, but that's another story). I renewed my passport a year ago.

It is hard to manage/resource a delivery system when it has been disrupted so much - two plus years of demand condensed into a few months.  Viper, people could have renewed their passports in the normal way, by mail, during the pandemic.  People who didn't notice their passports had, or are about to expire are caught now that travel is a thing again.  I don't think it is fair to lay the blame entirely on any government.

Travel was complicated during the pandemic.  It's only logical that people start to travel once all the measures are lifted and it's relatively safe to do.

Also, people renew their passport when it is expired, not 2 years before.

And lastly, the volume of passport renewal is less than it was pre-pandemic and they have more people to address the situation than before.  There's an organizational problem somewhere.  And they are encouraging people to take their days off and their vacation asap...

Yeah but passports were expiring in the last two years as well. The volume of renewals shouldn't be more NOW than it was in the last two years.

[viper37]

Yeah but passports were expiring in the last two years as well. The volume of renewals shouldn't be more NOW than it was in the last two years.

actually, given the pandemic, yes, it should be.

And again, they are processing less passport demands than in 2019 with more people.

We can't seem to have any clear answer on where the delay comes from.

[Jacob]

Bill 96 in Quebec is having an impact on its videogame industry: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/bill-96-quebec-video-game-industry-1.6498773

Basically, the article argues that the increased focus on French in the workplace and public life is driving out anglophones and making it hard to hire in an already highly competitive recruiting environment.

Anecdotally this seems right on. I've got one guy who's working remotely from Montreal and he's leaving the province as a direct result of Bill 96.

From a culture perspective I understand the position that French should be primary and that people should adapt to the language of the province. But on the flipside, businesses that draw from a global, English-language hiring market are going to struggle.

I guess from the perspective of the Nationalist project it's an acceptable price to pay.

I'm curious how unique this to the videogame industry, and to what degree it impacts other sectors in Quebec.

[HVC]

It's not a new thing. In the 70s with the increase in language laws (and separatism) financial institutions started leaving Quebec. A specialized field that works internationally in English.  Bank of Montreal is headquartered in Toronto, after all.

[HVC]

From the article:

" One part of the law stipulates that immigrants who have been in Quebec for six months or more will only be able to access most government services in French."


How does that fly? I get not having English services in the middle of nowhere with no Anglo presence, but in metropolitan areas? And can a native born person get English services, but not an immigrant. That seems worse.

[Grey Fox]

I understand Remy's problem. He was promise things & now these things are impossible to meet but he's over reacting. Take a couple french classes and when ask by a hospital worker if you're an immigrant say no.

Bill 96 has many dumb terms in it but I doubt that suddenly meetings will be held in french across many industries.

The video game industry has grown lazy and is being a cry baby. Adapt.

[Grey Fox]

How does that fly? I get not having English services in the middle of nowhere with no Anglo presence, but in metropolitan areas? And can a native born person get English services, but not an immigrant. That seems worse.

In theory, a native born person can get services in other language than french. I have no idea how they expect any of that to actually work. AFAIK, they haven't said anything on the how.

[Jacob]

From the article:

" One part of the law stipulates that immigrants who have been in Quebec for six months or more will only be able to access most government services in French."


How does that fly? I get not having English services in the middle of nowhere with no Anglo presence, but in metropolitan areas? And can a native born person get English services, but not an immigrant. That seems worse.

So yeah, it is a new thing.

[HVC]

So yeah, it is a new thing.

It's a new thing that escalating language laws may be causing a new wave of departures, but not a new thing in that there hasn't been similar scenarios in the past where previous language laws has creating roadblocks (or exoduses).