[Canada] Canadian Politics Redux

[Sheilbh]

Not a requirement but a tradition. 

Conservatives ignoring traditions?  My, my.  What is our world going to.

How does that work?

If you get kicked out, you've chosen to not withdraw or amend the offending statement. Is it a "sorry if anyone was offended" style apology? "Sorry for breaching the rules by calling the honourable member a wacko."

[viper37]

Not a requirement but a tradition. 

Conservatives ignoring traditions?  My, my.  What is our world going to.

How does that work?

If you get kicked out, you've chosen to not withdraw or amend the offending statement. Is it a "sorry if anyone was offended" style apology? "Sorry for breaching the rules by calling the honourable member a wacko."

"I am sorry I overstepped the bounds of decorum for this chamber and I offer a retraction of my words".


The way it works is they get the inflammatory statement in for the clip, the president ask them to retract, they do, the clip remains for the news.

It's theater but they love it.  I wish it was different, but no one wants to change the rules, even less the Constitution.  It's a very British thing to keep the same things for 1000 years and complain the system is broken, I suppose.

[Sheilbh]

Yeah I'm not sure the apology is a thing here. Of suspensions I'm aware of, they might apologise to the Speaker for causing them hassle basically (I think Ian Blackford, SNP leader in Westminster did this, for example) - but I can't think of any apologies precisely because they won't retract the offending words so they just take the punishment.

But the most inveterate suspended MP I can think of is Dennis Skinner who was a strong socialist MP. Also took the oath with his fingers crossed, heckled Black Rod for the state opening and would stay in his seat rather than attend the Queen's Speech or basically anything involving the royals. So with that and unparliamentary language - not really a fan of traditions but also apologising would undermine the point he'd made. He was voted out in 2019 and problematic in some ways (and, from what I've heard, not a very good constituency MP) but in other ways pretty admirable.

The other MP who springs to mind is Ian Paisley who had very different politics as a hard-core Northern Irish Unionist but similarly not going to apologise or, indeed, compromise in any way from the points he made

Edit: Having said that none of them are or ever were sitting or aspiring PMs who it feels should show respect for the rules of a place they want to be the leader of - they were more stone in the shoe type MPs.

[Barrister]

So here's another social media mini-firestorm.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/no-international-students-as-need-grows-brampton-food-bank-turning-some-away-1.7024375

Food bank in Brampton, ON puts up signs saying International Students are not allowed.

Now to be fair the word "racism" is never used.  But this does seem part and parcel with the huge increase in international students coming to Canada the last few years.  The move has attracted a fair bit of negative criticism - as well as support.

The point is supposed to be that International students are supposed to show that t hey are self-reliant when they apply to come to Canada - precisely so they don't start using social services.  Now food banks aren't government-run (an international student couldn't apply for welfare) but international students using food banks does seem contrary to that basic principle.

What say you Languish?

[HVC]

I was thinking " there was a similar story like a year ago", then I saw the date lol.

Around the same time there was a trend on YouTube for "hacks" for intentional students, and chief amongst them were using food banks. Sucks they don't have food, but part and parcel of getting a student visa is being able to be self sufficient. I *think* they're allowed 20 hours a week to work. A lot of Indian student were taking high interest loans to show in their bank accounts when applying, and then paying the amount back, essentially defrauding the system.


*edit* I mention Indian because Brampton is known for a large Indian immigrant community.

[Barrister]

I was thinking " there was a similar story like a year ago", then I saw the date lol.

D'oh!

[Jacob]

Looks like housing starts are on a good trajectory in BC right now:

B.C. housing starts picked up again in March. On a seasonally adjusted annualized basis, urban starts increased to 58,670 in March. This marks an increase of 32.3 per cent compared to the previous month and is well above the six-month average, which was around 47,800. Multi-family starts increased 38.5 per cent to a rate of 55,095, but this was balanced out by a 21.4-per-cent decline in single-family starts, which totalled 3,575. Nationally, housing starts declined 6.9 per cent with multi-family unit starts down 7.8 per cent, and single-family unit starts down 3.2 per cent.

Among B.C.'s seven large metro areas, five had higher starts in March. Vancouver still leads the way, with a 27.2-per-cent increase to a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 41,720 starts. This was above last year's monthly average of 33,200. Victoria had a 65.6-per-cent increase to 5,486 housing starts, which is above the 2023 average of around 5,000. Kelowna registered 4,775 starts, up 14.8 per cent from February. Kamloops and Nanaimo were the two regions that saw a decline in housing starts month to month.

https://www.biv.com/news/commentary/bryan-yu-bc-housing-starts-pick-up-pace-as-consumer-price-pressures-ease-8677489

[crazy canuck]

That is good news

[Jacob]

Looks like the three killers are gangsters:

The three men charged in the alleged conspiracy to murder Hardeep Singh Nijjar — Karan Brar, Kamalpreet Singh and Karanpreet Singh — are all believed to be connected to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, according to sources involved in the Nijjar investigation.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/nijjar-brar-singh-bishnoi-sikh-india-1.7197121

The article in the link is a pretty good read IMO.

[HVC]

Tying back to BBs post, one came in in a student visa for an 8 month program, but was still here after 3 years.

[Barrister]

Looks like the three killers are gangsters:

The three men charged in the alleged conspiracy to murder Hardeep Singh Nijjar — Karan Brar, Kamalpreet Singh and Karanpreet Singh — are all believed to be connected to the Lawrence Bishnoi gang, according to sources involved in the Nijjar investigation.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/nijjar-brar-singh-bishnoi-sikh-india-1.7197121

The article in the link is a pretty good read IMO.

CBC is of course very careful about how and what they say (and properly so).  It never directly connects the Indian government to the killing of Nijjar - but points out how Modi's government is expressly unconcerned about the arrests, and how other murders made by the same gang have been motivated by pro-Modi-government sympathies.

Fascinating.

[Sheilbh]

Yeah, very careful. It doesn't rule out the Indian state using organised criminal networks.

[viper37]

Researchers goes to commision, talks about stats, how someone who studies through college and university in English has 12x more chance of living the rest of his life in English.

Liberal MP (Francis Drouin) from a Franco-Ontarian riding calls him a plein de 
marde (a dirtbag) before immediatly retracting his comment, just so he can get his clip, and then proceeds to call his words "extremists".

Obviously, Justin Trudeau and the rest of the Libs don't protest much about it.

Just one more day in the service of Canadians for our MPs.

[viper37]

The Conservatives are on a war path against Tim Horton's new woke coffee lids.

This is serious debate.

[Barrister]

The Conservatives are on a war path against Tim Horton's new woke coffee lids.

This is serious debate.

It's not "the Conservatives" - it's one Conservative backbench MP.

And those non-plastic straws really do suck.

I get a Tim's coffee every morning because it's convenient, but honestly about 1 time in 10 the cup already starts just leaking in my hands after awhile.