Canadian Politics

And another Muslim women comments on Bill 62:
Farzana Hassan: Quebec’s niqab ban is a chance for women to embrace Western freedom
In fact, when concerns about religious divisions caused France to ban the hijab in schools years ago, many among the Muslim community expressed relief.

The women’s organization Ni Putes Ni Soumises surveyed niqab-wearing women after their 2011 ban. Its research revealed some high-profile acts of defiance, but other women anxiously waited for the law to free them of their husband’s pressures.

...

The niqab is a vestige of a tribal and pre-Islamic culture defined by men. It was instituted when women were considered chattel owned by men. The concept of sexual consent by women is of course a recent development even in the West, but in patriarchal cultures it is taking much longer.

The niqab is a primitive society’s primitive attempt to proclaim ownership rights. Naturally, it is aggressively marketed by those with a vested interest in prolonging such a dehumanizing value system.

...

But Canadians also expect him to support the rights of those forced by husbands, in-laws or even parents to cover up. What about the Charter rights of Aqsa Parvez and the Shafia girls?

Niqabi women believe the niqab protects them, and even gives them back their humanity. Seriously? By becoming anonymous and invisible? Their best chance to attain the respect they deserve as people lies not in rejecting the open garb of other women, but in emulating it.
FYI: Asqa Parvez was murdered by her Father and brother because she didn't want to wear a hijab (which isn't even "covered" by this law btw).
Aqsa's brother, Waqas, had strangled her to death when she chose to not wear a hijab covering.
It is not a free choice. It is coercion and something that signals an older and horrifically sexist dominance over women. That some have internalized it as "freedom" is all the more tragic.
 
It is not a free choice. It is coercion and something that signals an older and horrifically sexist dominance over women. That some have internalized it as "freedom" is all the more tragic.
Do you think this law is gonna empower any woman to break free of that dominance?

This law is, at best, a sideways attack at that coercion, hoping that the woman's fear of legal punishment will get her to resist the that coercion.

So lets make laws to target the coercion, rather than directing legal punishment against the victims.
 
Do you think this law is gonna empower any woman to break free of that dominance?

This law is, at best, a sideways attack at that coercion, hoping that the woman's fear of legal punishment will get her to resist the that coercion.

So lets make laws to target the coercion, rather than directing legal punishment against the victims.
It worked for Turkey... for a while at least (current events are something else entirely). And the article I linked shows how it DOES work for the victims. Not all, but it helps a lot.
 
It worked for Turkey... for a while at least (current events are something else entirely). And the article I linked shows how it DOES work for the victims. Not all, but it helps a lot.
Perhaps. But it still feels to me a damn unCanadian thing to be making laws that punish women for being forced to wear something in order to break them free from being dominated.

I'd far rather help these women by helping them, instead of making laws against them.
 
Fascinating: Jewish groups question census results showing dramatic population decline
The size of the country's Jewish community appears, on the surface, to have seen its most dramatic decline in decades, with newly released census data on the country's ethnic makeup suggesting a 56 per cent drop in numbers over a five-year period.

The decline to 143,665 in 2016 from about 329,500 in 2011 — a drop of almost 186,000 people — is the largest such drop for any ethnic group recorded in the census data released last week.
Other than ethnic cleansing (which last I heard wasn't a thing in Canada... I hope), this kind of decline just doesn't happen. I wonder what's gone wrong with the data and how it's collected, compared, etc.
 
Its probably that interfaith marriage is becoming more common. Someone can only be Jewish if their mother is Jewish or if they convert (which is a much bigger pain in the ass in Judaism than other religions). If I ended up marrying my ex, our hypothetical kids would've been Christian.

Not to mention Jews tend to be better educated which has a strong correlation with not being religious. I consider myself a Jewish atheist, but there are plenty who just abandon their Jewish identity entirely.
 
@blotsfan I appreciate your perspective, and the article mentions a slow steady decline that was previously there, but 50% in 5 years? There's something else going on with the statistical method there, don't you think?
 

GasBandit

Staff member
I would normally put this in the funny political pictures thread, but it seems apropos to recent topics...

 
Fascinating: Jewish groups question census results showing dramatic population decline

Other than ethnic cleansing (which last I heard wasn't a thing in Canada... I hope), this kind of decline just doesn't happen. I wonder what's gone wrong with the data and how it's collected, compared, etc.
The census wasn't mandatory, for one.[DOUBLEPOST=1509557418,1509557370][/DOUBLEPOST]
I would normally put this in the funny political pictures thread, but it seems apropos to recent topics...

Weird. I'd pick something quite different.
 
I'm sure they have nothing at all to hide, right? Alberta privacy commissioner investigates 800,000 deleted government emails
Alberta’s privacy commissioner has launched an investigation into 800,000 emails deleted by government and political staffers under the NDP, including in the premier’s office.

The numbers also showed Notley’s then chief of staff Brian Topp had just one email in his sent folder, 78 in his inbox and an empty deleted mail folder, despite being in the job since the NDP formed the government in May 2015.
From the rest of the article, it seems like they are already violating laws here, this isn't just "looks bad" but already illegal.

Edit: for reference, I've been in my job just about exactly 11 months, and I have 3400 CONVERSATIONS in gmail. Now a good proportion of those are automated emails from the bug tracking system, but even a conservative estimate would be at LEAST 5 emails per working day. So let's spitball and say 200 days (it's more, but still) and so that's at LEAST a 1000 emails to or from me in a year. And these clowns only have 78 in a staff-oriented job? The number deleted is staggering IMO.
 
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I'm sure they have nothing at all to hide, right? Alberta privacy commissioner investigates 800,000 deleted government emails

From the rest of the article, it seems like they are already violating laws here, this isn't just "looks bad" but already illegal.

Edit: for reference, I've been in my job just about exactly 11 months, and I have 3400 CONVERSATIONS in gmail. Now a good proportion of those are automated emails from the bug tracking system, but even a conservative estimate would be at LEAST 5 emails per working day. So let's spitball and say 200 days (it's more, but still) and so that's at LEAST a 1000 emails to or from me in a year. And these clowns only have 78 in a staff-oriented job? The number deleted is staggering IMO.
Everything worked out when they did that in Ontario, right?
 
Supreme Court approves B.C. ski resort development on Indigenous lands
OTTAWA—The constitutional guarantee of aboriginal rights does not give Indigenous groups the right of a veto over land development in the name of religious freedom, says the country’s top court.

In a landmark decision on how courts should protect not only Indigenous religious beliefs, but all religious beliefs, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled Thursday that a British Columbia First Nation, the Ktunaxa people, could not block the development of a ski resort in the Jumbo Valley.

The high court ruled that the constitution’s religious freedom guarantee protects Canadians’ freedom to hold religious beliefs and to act in accordance with them, but does not require the state or courts to protect the “object of beliefs or the spiritual focal point of worship, such as Grizzly Bear Spirit.”
Probably a good ruling. Ruling the other way would mean that any group (Natives have an advantage, but technically could probably be applied more widely) could say their "God/Goddess/whatever" lived in a particular spot, and you were destroying their religion by doing (or not doing) anything there, and thus impinging on their religious freedom, even if they had no ownership of the area.
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"Paradise Papers" and Canada: Paradise Papers: Jean Chrétien fires back, denies holding offshore accounts

The headline is about Chretien, but it has a small summary about everybody "big" implicated/connected.


I'm no Liberal fan, but the connection to Martin is particularly tenuous, given he DID give up his company holdings (to his children, but still outside of his direct control) when he was Finance Minister, which is over 20 years ago now, and the dates are AFTER that. I have no large reason to disbelieve Chretien's account in the story above except for he's had his hand caught in the cookie jar before (so-called Shawinigate) though that wasn't offshore, and if working for a law firm, it's all billed via the firm, so it doesn't pass the "OMG bad stuff!!" first-order test. So he may have known about "technically legal" shenanigans, but I have low expectations with him. The stuff with Mulroney is more of a case of "a scumbag associates with other scumbags" thing rather than any malicious connection thing IMO. Are you dealing with the Saudis, Russians, (anywhere outside of the G20, and sometimes inside), etc? Somebody there is dirty. So, "meh" on the Prime Minister connections.

Except... the current PM. The Bronfman connection could blow up in his face. I hope it does for (mostly) partisan reasons, but considering how long they've known one another, and reports about raising $250k in 2 hours (that was on the radio, sorry, no source on that), it just screams dirty in one way or another. Though I will call it now that anything "shady" Trudeau the Younger is linked to will be NOT illegal. Shady maybe, tax evasion through offshore possible, but not illegal explicitly.

I'll admit I'm doing a bit of a :popcorn: hoping for bad for our current PM (not a secret here I'm not fan), but I don't think it's likely. It will be more impactful if the opposition "spins" it right come next election cycle, but they need somebody who just exudes "credibility and competence" in the finance folder for that kind of thing to work. I'm betting that some combination of this combined with Morneau's "stuff" may have an impact with the "the cheats shouldn't be running the show" demographic, but unfortunately I don't have faith that's a very big demographic!
 
The real problem is that everyone looking to run the show is a cheat.
Ya, while that does once in a while bring up the whole idea of "Random" representation being an interesting concept (basically like Jury Duty, except you're an MP), it would probably make people MORE bribe-able/corruptible, as then they don't even need the appearance of lack of conflict in order to be elected. While you're in, it's Gravy Train time!

To paraphrase Churchill (or whomever), Democracy Sucks, but amazingly it's better than the other systems.
 
Decent summary article about how Pot will be sold in Canada next year, per-province: How the provinces are planning for pot legalization

Look up your home province to tell how you (could) buy it next year. Only PEI and NS haven't released ANYTHING about how it'll be sold there. Everybody else has either legislation on the table, or enough "leaks" to have a decent idea.
 
BTW, NL announced how they're doing pot: Available in stores to 19 and up: N.L. government unveils rules for legal pot

Short answer: Mostly private sales, online sales done by gov't, some gov't sales at liquor stores in communities that's too small for private. Online will serve that need some too. 19 will be the minimum age, just like alcohol.


Editorial about the National Housing Strategy that Trudeau announced: The national housing strategy ignores market-based issues

That article is OK, but I still haven't seen a good article that lays out in bullet points about what the hell was announced, other than they're spending a fuckton of our money again when we're already (heavily) in deficit. Oh and many of the commitments are either "only if the provinces chip in half the money" and/or some AFTER the next election. Beyond that, reporting is few and far between on details. If someone else can help with that, that'd be great.
 
The star's got some bullet points that may help. Down the page a bit.


It really just looks like:

1) Repair existing subsidized housing.
2) Build some more,

3) Extra details that all boil down to telling the bureaucracy how to manages it and decide who gets to move in or qualify.


Really, to me, it looks like more like a continuation of what has long existed and is just the government announcing "hey look we're doing this thing" (that was already being done)
 
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The star's got some bullet points that may help. Down the page a bit.


It really just looks like:

1) Repair existing subsidized housing.
2) Build some more,

3) Extra details that all boil down to telling the bureaucracy how to manages it and decide who gets to move in or qualify.


Really, to me, it looks like more like a continuation of what has long existed and is just the government announcing "hey look we're doing this thing" (that was already being done)
Thanks for the bullet points. They helped.

Beyond your summary, about $6B is "expected" to be matched by the provinces (we'll see what various provinces say), but the real "watch what happens" thing is that they want to make housing a human right in law in Canada, whatever the hell that means. Health care is "kind of" a right in Canada, which only means you have the right to be on a waiting list, not actually get treated. So we'll see where this new "right" goes.
 
Beyond your summary, about $6B is "expected" to be matched by the provinces (we'll see what various provinces say)
I sort of meant that funding to be lumped that right in with the whole of my summary.

I'm sure many provinces will be matching that money as a matter of course, since they're already funding their own housing programs.
 
Jeez, you know shit's fucked when even the Sun is calling out groups associated with the UCP's lies.

http://edmontonsun.com/news/politic...hike/wcm/73a29a7c-afe1-45cd-82e1-ab2d5525e253
A meme floating around social media claims Albertans’ home heating bills will increase by 75 per cent thanks to a carbon tax hike Jan. 1.

The meme is authored by Alberta Can’t Wait, a political action committee that backed conservative unity and, now, the United Conservative Party and its leader Jason Kenney.
Some PAC come up with it and you say "the UCP's lies."? From inference, they're repeating it in the legislature, so there's something to it, but it's also TRUE.

And according to the text of the article, the price will be 75% higher because of the tax. If there was no Carbon Tax, the bill would be just north of half of what it will be in January.

The math goes like this: If the typical bill would be $2 without the tax (from the article), and you add $1.52 (from the article), then the result is $3.52/GJ of gas. That's BARELY more than a 75% increase in the price.

So from my reading of this (I have no idea what this meme is, I haven't looked) the article backs up that it is factually true. So no, they're not lying at all. The article is minimizing in many ways, but the original statement seems true to me. Explain to me how that math is wrong, and please link the original meme if you can.


And as for the "Sun" thing, when you see "Sun" think "Post Media" ie: The National Post. It's not independent anymore. Hasn't been for years. They got bought.
 
I literally said associated with.

Some PAC come up with it and you say "the UCP's lies."? From inference, they're repeating it in the legislature, so there's something to it, but it's also TRUE.

And according to the text of the article, the price will be 75% higher because of the tax. If there was no Carbon Tax, the bill would be just north of half of what it will be in January.

The math goes like this: If the typical bill would be $2 without the tax (from the article), and you add $1.52 (from the article), then the result is $3.52/GJ of gas. That's BARELY more than a 75% increase in the price.

So from my reading of this (I have no idea what this meme is, I haven't looked) the article backs up that it is factually true. So no, they're not lying at all. The article is minimizing in many ways, but the original statement seems true to me. Explain to me how that math is wrong, and please link the original meme if you can.


And as for the "Sun" thing, when you see "Sun" think "Post Media" ie: The National Post. It's not independent anymore. Hasn't been for years. They got bought.
WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR MY BILL?

Your bill will increase (unless you can manage to use less natural gas — good luck managing that in an Alberta winter), but it will not go up by 75 per cent. Let’s examine typical monthly natural gas usage, which the Alberta government estimates at around 10.25 gigajoules. The price of natural gas is currently about $2 per gigajoule. Add to that the $1.01 carbon tax, and you’ll pay $3.01/GJ for natural gas, or $30.85 in a typical month. Come January, the price of gas goes up to $3.52/GJ, and you’ll pay an extra $5.23 for the natural gas part of your bill.

Can you read?

The current price is 3.01/GJ and is raising to 3.52.
 
My power bill iseasily double that, and I live in a well-insulated house in a temperate climate. Truly, energy prices on your continent are ridiculous when compared to the Old World.
 
The current price is 3.01/GJ and is raising to 3.52.
The bill would be $2.01 if the NDP had not gotten in (possibly cheaper, if there were more production), and because of them and their carbon tax, it is going to be $3.52/GJ.

It's 75% higher (at least) than if the NDP wasn't the government. Pure tax that they've put in.

Seems pretty simple to me.
 
It's not hard for the gas bill here to be US$300/mo in the wintertime. There have been months where it's been > $500.
I'm thinking people who are complaining about $30/mo need some perspective.

--Patrick
 

GasBandit

Staff member
It's not hard for the gas bill here to be US$300/mo in the wintertime. There have been months where it's been > $500.
I'm thinking people who are complaining about $30/mo need some perspective.

--Patrick
Meanwhile I look forward to winter so that my utility bills go under $100. The costs you describe are like my summer electricity bills :p
 
Meanwhile I look forward to winter so that my utility bills go under $100. The costs you describe are like my summer electricity bills :p
My summer electricity bills usually run $180-250/mo. We live upstairs in a house with lots of windows. Too bad they don't catch the same amount of sunlight in the wintertime, right?

--Patrick
 
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