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#91

Off the Record / Re: [Canada] Canadian Politics...

Last post by Grey Fox - February 13, 2026, 06:47:40 PM

Clearly this was a mistake.

Sorry, I've been riling him up this week. 😆

#92

Off the Record / Re: Grand unified books thread

Last post by Sheilbh - February 13, 2026, 06:44:34 PM

Got slightly side-tracked for reasons but down to the last three Booker long list and last year's list was very, very good. Most of the way through Kiran Desai's The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny and it's fantastic. I've never read Kiran Desai before but will definitely be picking up The Inheritance of Loss some time this year.

She didn't win this time but think she's possibly one of the doors opened for me from this year's list, a bit like last year's list sent me working my way through Tan Twan Eng's catalogue.

On the non-fiction front, I'm about halfway through Sudhir Hazareesingh's Black Spartacus and it's a revelation. I've already stacked up How the French Think to pick up again later this year. Black Spartacus is a new lif of Toussaint Louverture. It is fantastic.

I think CLR James' The Black Jacobins is possibly the greatest history book I've ever read so I possibly had quite a high bar to clear for someone writing about the Haitian revolution, but it's an extraordinary re-telling (I understand there's been a lot of new research and discoveries on Louverture) on the fashioning of a new, not just derivative republicanism. (Though I still perhaps sympathise more with James' take emphasising the masses )

I'll also pick up Hazareesingh's Daring To Be Free which I think came out last year which sounds very interesting - and I recently read Marcus Rediker's The Slave Ship so possiby a complement to that.

#93

Off the Record / Re: [Canada] Canadian Politics...

Last post by Josephus - February 13, 2026, 06:16:23 PM

I'm glad you're back BB

Not sure what caused you to leave but hope you stick around

#94

Off the Record / Re: [Canada] Canadian Politics...

Last post by Barrister - February 13, 2026, 05:57:43 PM

Clearly this was a mistake.

#95

Off the Record / Re: [Canada] Canadian Politics...

Last post by Sophie Scholl - February 13, 2026, 05:53:44 PM

Nothing we post here is in a vacuum. After over 20 years of posting and knowing one another online and sometimes in person, I think (hope?) we can all agree on that much at least. Prior incidents and issues exist, for better or worse. I found it frustrating, hence the use of the frustrated emoji, that within five posts of coming back, Beeb had decided to reply to me in a way that I felt was dismissive and more than a little passive aggressive. That might not have been his intent. I don't know. It is how I read the post given our history. If he feels that level of pushback from me warrants making veiled statements that he'll leave again, that is his prerogative. Neither of us is likely to change overly much at this point moving forward and we cannot change at all what has happened in the past.

[But to be clear - I have no idea if that's what actually happened.]

#96

Off the Record / Re: [Canada] Canadian Politics...

Last post by crazy canuck - February 13, 2026, 05:27:54 PM

Garbon, Sophie's post was not about guns.

BB, there is actually quite a lot of information kniwn about the shooter now. If you go to the link, I posted from the glove and Mail you will see a lengthy article describing her history in great detail. Sophie posted it right after reading that post and that is what she based her observation on.

I'm not sure why you think it is improper to discuss what has been widely reported in a national newspaper. Perhaps you could explain that. Particularly since there will not be a trial, which was example you gave.

So here's the latest I information I can find:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/shooter-tumbler-ridge-what-we-know-teenage-suspect-9.7085858

It's last updated 3 minutes ago - at this time.  And it's a CBC link - hardly some right-wing source.

The shooter killed her mother and half-brother before going to the school and killing more people (and herself).

The narrative (that Sophie suggested) that this was a story of a trans-girl who was bullied at school - seems unlikely to me, or incomplete at best. In particular since she hadn't attended that school in the last 4 years.

But the thing is - I don't know what her motive was.  We may never know.

Which is why my only suggestion was 'lets see what information will come out'.

I did give an example of a trial - but given that it was a YCJA trial it wasn't really ever publicized.  Since this is the biggest worst shooting in Canada in 30+ years I strongly suspect that a lot of information is going to come out even without a trial.  Marc Lepine never had a trial either.


So I don't like to be too cute.  After all CC just said (as I was typing this response):

Well you did say you could come up with a completely different theory.  I  not sure how without making stuff up.

Here's my educated guess.  Jesse Strang (formerly Jesse van Rootselaar)  had serious MH issues.  But MH issues are really hard to treat.  So 6 years ago when Jesse presented with MH issues, and said she was trans, practitioners felt like it was easier to treat the trans issue with hormones, which is what happened, rather than the other MH issues.  But to be clear - I have no idea if that's what actually happened.  But it fits with every fact listed in the CBC article I quoted above.

To be clear, there's another alternative explanation out there online - trans people are just mentally disturbed and are all a potential threat.  Every mass shooting for the last few years I see people online suggesting the shooter must be trans, with or without any justification.  And sadly it would also fit with the facts of the CBC story.  I do not think this is true.

I went to a "wrongful conviction" training together with "M" Division RCMP a bunch of years ago.  The huge takeaway was - follow the facts, not your assumptions.  I know I've been guilty of that in the past - someone was 'obviously' guilty because of who they were, only for the facts to show otherwise.

I suggest you read the Globe article I linked upthread.  It has significantly more detail than what you have read.  And importantly it is the information Sophie read before she made her post.  You will find that the article goes into detail about the difficulties the shooter had obtaining HRT in that small community, her mental health problems at that time, including her wanting to commit suicide because of the pain she was experiencing caused by her inability to obtain HRT, dropping out of school and the numerous police wellness checks during that period of time and after.

In relation to the inference about bullying at school - that is an inference that is can easily be made based on the background facts contained in the Globe article.

Thank you for suggestion your alternative view.  And it is as I suggested, based on facts that are simply not accurate based on what we know. I will highlight the stuff you have simply made up to support an alternative theory.

Here's my educated guess.  Jesse Strang (formerly Jesse van Rootselaar)  had serious MH issues.  But MH issues are really hard to treat.  So 6 years ago when Jesse presented with MH issues, and said she was trans, practitioners felt like it was easier to treat the trans issue with hormones, which is what happened, rather than the other MH issues.

The highlighted part is exactly what did not happen and what did cause much of the mental anguish she was going through.  She was not able to access HRT!

#97

Off the Record / Re: [Canada] Canadian Politics...

Last post by viper37 - February 13, 2026, 04:52:52 PM

When BB shows up here it's like a bunch of old married couples rehashing old grievances. 

Well there's one simple way to avoid this.

We all missed you. 

#98

Off the Record / Re: [Canada] Canadian Politics...

Last post by viper37 - February 13, 2026, 04:51:06 PM

In regards to the shooter, I'm betting her dropping out four years prior was probably at least in part connected to coming out as trans/bullying. Presumably she then sought out a new source of community and social contacts online and found... the worst possible influences which exacerbated her existing mental health issues and led to the awful outcome of yesterday. 

You know, I could come up with an alternate theory of the case that would run very counter to this.

Why don't we wait until the facts come out?

The shooter was playing video games.  Roblox.  Makes people go crazy.

That is a good example of how it is possible to come up with an alternative theory.  But that does not change the fact that Sophie's post was based on the facts the RCMP have told the public.

We don't yet exactly which guns were used, how they were procured other than they were illegal.
We do not know her exact motivations, we do not know if there was a manifest, a letter, other communications.
The RCMP asked for time at least about the guns.

Sophie's post is  I'm betting and Presumably.
If a judge hears this from a Crown Prosecutor, is this evidence or conjecture?

All we know for certain is that she currently had mental health issues.

Edit:
There's this for example.
Lots of misinfo spreading for now.

[Olympia]

#99

Off the Record / Re: The Miscellaneous Sports T...

Last post by mongers - February 13, 2026, 03:57:05 PM

By the way, the IOC holds the rights for Riefenstahl's Olympia.

Can't get a stand alone version on disc though, you'll have to cough up for the whole olympic box set by Criterion.

Thanks Duque, so that's why it's not widely available; I think the only clips I've seen have been 'fare use' for documentaries.

#100

Off the Record / Re: [Canada] Canadian Politics...

Last post by HVC - February 13, 2026, 03:51:54 PM

I missed you BB, and I enjoy when you post, but you really should keep Einstein's definition of insanity in mind