"Before the Second World War, Fergus’ grandfather swapped identities with his older brother in order to join the Royal Air Force and leave the British protectorate of Montserrat, in the Caribbean." Probably an interesting story there; what did his grandfather do with the RAF?
@timbray It seems as if Canadians only become ever more dissatisfied with the health care system, despite the provinces spending more and more money on it. Let's hope that neighbourhood clinics and team-based care improve things for the people of Manitoba, then other provinces can do the same.
Americans are notoriously ignorant about the politics of other countries, even closely-allied ones like Canada, and I’m really not an exception to this rule.
However, I did just watch this video by a Canadian political pundit who provided a bit of insight, along with some bias.
Apparently, Canadian-Indians have somewhat disproportionate political power and tend to be Sikhs who support separatism from India, through the proposed creation of a splinter nation called Khalistan.
This isn’t just armchair support, but has included major acts of terrorism, including the Air India bombing in 1985, which killed all 329 people aboard. And this separatist terrorism is ongoing.
The guy who was allegedly (meaning: probably) assassinated by Indian operatives in Canada was one such Sikh separatist and had been accused of funneling money to terrorists.
At the same time, Modi is basically India’s version of Trump; a belligerent right-wing populist who’s killed before and way overstepped political boundaries with this assassination.
While Modi deserves to wear the black hat of the villain in this, it’s not clear that the victim is any less of a villain. There are no heroes to cheer for here.
And non-Indian Canadians aren’t cheering for anyone because they are generally ignorant and apathetic about the Sikh/India conflict.
The government just wants the issue to go away without souring Indian relations or losing the support of Sikh voters.
This is along a backdrop of the West courting India as a way to counter China…
If anyone has doubts about the Nazi links of the 14th Waffen SS I was directed to a very thorough academic article on the subject, written not too long ago.
It was founded by anti-semites who were proud of their previous donations of materiel, money, and workers for the Nazis and wished to provide more direct military support.
Recruits received weekly Nazi ideological training at Dachau. They swore oaths of obedience to Hitler. It is clear they participated in war crimes.
"There is no overt indication that the unit in any way was
dedicated to Ukrainian statehood, let alone independence. The volunteers
committed themselves to a German victory, the New European Order, and
to Adolf Hitler personally."
"The division faithfully served Adolf Hitler, the unit’s journal dispersed antiSemitic propaganda until the very last days of the war."
There is discussion of the limitations of the Canadian Deschênes Commission and the screening of members of the unit on immigration to Canada.
Elsewhere in the #NationalPost, I read "It was perhaps the ultimate example of the old adage that foreign policy in Canada is 100 per cent for domestic consumption."
A quick Fascism Watch mini-update, about the Canadian Tories and their hard turn towards anti-LGBTQ culture wars.
This post outlines what Poilievre is doing when he declares that a general condemnation of anti-LGBT hatred is an attack on "concerned parents," and where that's - quite intentionally - leading.
Catching up on Hardeep Singh Nijar's murder by India. Apparently he had received cryptic warnings from CSIS days before the murder that he was in danger. If true, this tells me that the evidence that a foreig actor must be solid enough. CSIS don't just show up in people's life for no reason. The other side of the coin is that CSIS must have been following this guy to see if he truly was a terrorist in India as accused by India. Alas, we won't know any details from this.
@jfmezei I read an article in which Mr. Nijjar's son claims that CSIS had been talking with him weekly, and on #CBCRadio someone said he had talked with the RCMP about whether he should wear a bullet-proof vest. Clearly there's been a longstanding risk to the man.
As for PM Trudeau, I think he wanted to take advantage of the G20 meeting to discuss the case with PM Modi before making any public statement, which seems reasonable to me.
So today was the big anti-trans protest across the country, which stole the name of a Black event (whatever, colonizer) to make their hate of trans kids known. They also called themselves Hands Off Our Kids, or HOOK, which was very funny to me, as he's the villain in that children's story.
We had, I believe, the edge in numbers on them. Tactically, we outmanoeuvred them - they'd planned to have people on the street honking in support, but we filled the space between the fountain and the street (and much of the fountain, to be honest). So passing motorists only saw a wall of queers, and the honks were for us.
The chalking team had been out last night and done an amazing job of chalking all over the plaza. Messages of trans love and joy were everywhere.
A lot of city councillors were there - I didn't see any MPs or MPPs, but doesn't mean they weren't there. Media people were there too, I saw Craig Norris and Joe Pavia from CBC, and reporters from CTV, CityTV, and the Record, that I was able to recognize.
All in all, it was a good counter-protest. No one got arrested from our side, so safety team did well.
#PierrePoilievre says he's going to "ax the #tax" on #gasoline, to lower the price at the pump. What he doesn't say is that his #oil-industry friends will raise the resulting price, pocketing even MORE #profit. Nice, huh?
@thetyee The article has lots of speculation about what Mr. Poilievre will do, but not much in promises he's made. E.g., can we really be confident that he will cut CPP?
I find it odd that Poilievre gets new hair do, ditches his geek glasses and a couple weeks later, the news media constantly harping on how he is now ahead of Trudeau.
If he decided to stop his hateful , made up crisis rethoric, stopped being anti-vaxxer and supporter of the Ottawa Convoy without even a "mea culpa, I was wrong" to explain the chainge, it means he can change again depending on the wind and I don't trust that.
on PBS Newshour tonight, a report on USA boarding schools for "indians" to get them to assimilate. Canada was not the only one. Which reminds me, any progress on the issue in Canada? Seems like politicians burried the story to get rid of it.
@jfmezei We should have a special prosecutor and dedicated investigators to bring to justice those guilty of physical and sexual abuse, and those who negligently permitted the abuse, while they're still alive.
@AnnaAnthro Are there any smokers in Canada who are unaware of the health effects of cigarettes? If not, then will this measure really make a difference?
The government of Canada is said to be ready to make announcemenst about the replacement of VIA Rail in Canada. The new company created by the government to help choose which lobbyist group gets the contract contains 0 members with any rail experience. https://hfr-tgf.ca/posts/board-members/
@jfmezei#HFR will be the biggest investment in Canadian passenger rail in decades, no? It seems likely that the feds will use a design-build approach for construction; it's possible they envision having a private partner for operations and maintenance, but I haven't heard anything about that.
The Trudeau ministry already funded replacement of the #VIARail fleet, so I think they're committed to passenger rail.
If some people say the #fediverse is a left-progressive project, it only shows how successful we collectively are to block the Nazis. Loads of far-right instances and users exist in the fediverse. Gab, anyone? But defederation and blocking makes that part invisible to most of us. They still exist and federate amongst themselves. ActivityPub, the protocol, is neutral. We decide what we want and not want. The fediverse is a herd of Venn diagrams, not a closed circle.
@aristeon89@jwildeboer
Yes, there are too many people on the Fediverse who are quick to call all non-leftists "fascists".
I personally was discussing #CanPol a few months ago with someone who claimed that all Canadians supporting the Conservatives were idiots or evil. I pointed out that a third of voters had supported the CPC in the previous general election; she must know some personally; she didn't really think that a third of Canadians were stupid or evil? But she didn't back down.
With the #CRTC starting its C11 consultations. CBC released this propaganda piece on the definition of "canadian content" dressed up as how Toronto and Vancouver host a lot of movies. But once hooked, the narrator dives into the no contrrol over content" etc that the legacy media have argued during C11 hearings about the need to keep that clause in definition of Canadian content.
The Problem With Hollywood North: Canada's Pseudo-American Cities https://youtu.be/sgkBFTHoZyg
@jfmezei The old argument was that if we didn't have Cancon requirements for broadcasters, their hours would be filled with US shows, with no prime time available for Canadian ones. But now that bandwidth for video is essentially unlimited, Canadian producers don't lack opportunities for Canadians to watch their stories. The old rules no longer make sense for video [0].
Republicans are mostly closing ranks behind Trump. Again. Are they choosing “partisanship over country”? This framing actually underestimates how deep the rift is that defines the political conflict: Rightwingers have decided that they are the country, everyone else is an enemy. 1/
I have to disagree, @mxhdroom . Donald Trump is sui generis. There isn't a single elected Canadian politician who'd say the sort of things he says regularly.
And you don't have to like the policies or leadership of Conservative Party of Canada, but they're no threat to Canadian democracy.
"Let me put a fine point on this: If our government is told of systemic and structural problems in our country, and effectively manages to both avoid fixing those problems and escape scrutiny over its inability to do so, we are truly boned as a nation." https://theline.substack.com/p/justin-ling-can-we-please-just-fix@justinling worth reading
@akurjata
"But these are questions that strike to the heart of our state. Can we trust the RCMP to stop a well-armed man on a murderous rampage? Can we trust the Canadian Armed Forces to keep women in their ranks safe from their fellow soldiers? Can our public-health system respond to another viral pandemic? Can our health system respond to anything at all? Can we stop a hostile foreign power from meddling in our domestic affairs?"
@akurjata@justinling
Many of these problems are longstanding, but I think a certain amount of blame has to go to #JustinTrudeau . It seems that the present Ministry insists that all major decisions must be made by the PMO, and attention there is limited. Enabling strong cabinet ministers and holding them accountable should be part of the solution.
@reay Since Canadian jurisdictions have moved towards fixed election dates, the de facto campaigning begins earlier and earlier, as political parties seek to get a head start. The system worked better when the PM or premier could call an election at any time: parties (including the government) would prepare themselves, but there was no point breaking into a sprint when you couldn't be sure how close was the finishing line.
Today in 1963, Lester B. Pearson is sworn in as prime minister.
In the next five years, his two minority governments will bring in Medicare, a new flag, the Canada Pension Plan, Canada Student Loans & the world's first points-based immigration system.