Canadian Politics

[d1stinct]

Yes, we know re: Indigenous-led protest and policing. But also: the Government of Canada is now normalizing the use of powers that it has never deployed before. Further to the above link, this expanded version breaks down how the Convoy fails to meet any thresholds for invoking the Emergencies Act. What we've seen before at the G20 Summit in Toronto leading to mass incarceration of protesters, the Wet'suwet'en land defenders' rights being trampled, the Fairy Creek Blockade crackdown, etc. etc. etc. — are all just a further escalation each time. This latest round is Canada's government fighting a fascist-leaning populist uprising with even more fascist authoritarianism.

When Trudeau's dad invoked an earlier form of emergency "War Measures" legal suspension of civil rights, he didn't quash The Spirit of 1970. He emboldened and pushed it into a 30+ year mainstream political movement for separatism based on identity politics. That has metastasized into something much uglier, now, and the genie isn't going back in the bottle because we rounded up the truck drivers and cut off their lines of credit. If they win this power democratically, they're going to use it too.



As usual the Beaverton nails it. https://www.thebeaverton.com/2022/02...unatic-fringe/

Maybe you should move to America? Oh wait, no... don't do that!

[thelastdisciple]

MUST WATCH!

[botley]

Goddamn it I hate thinking about this so much, but, here's another important and uncomfortable listen. This has me completely re-thinking my current level of political engagement.

[thelastdisciple]

It's truly sad how these people become so lost.

Plandemic? Bill Gates? Vaccines are poison?



EDIT: The last person they talked to was the least frustrating at least.

[elevenism]

Okay, but also, Trudeau is literally suspending civil liberties (with the assistance of the NDP) under flimsy pretense.

I know this isn't my country, but watching from down here, I have to agree: some of these actions aren't a good look for a free democratic society.

It reminds me of, say, the Patriot Act the US, passed amid terrorist panic after 9/11. It sounded good at the time, but long term, it created massive issues with regard to racial profiling, immigration, personal freedom, and perhaps most famously, privacy. The US government is using provisions of this "Patriot Act" to mine data from unsuspecting American citizens to this day.

You can cheer your government on when they use questionable means to foil people with whom you disagree, but one day, those same tactics may be used against YOU.

[botley]

In fairness, this legislation has an expiry date (by design) — unlike the Patriot Act, which is still wreaking havoc twenty years later. I really don't feel the situation with the USA is directly comparable, although of course the populist movement that elected Trump is on everyone's mind. He and the people still hoping he'll come back are encouraging and supporting this convoy nonsense 100%.

[M1ke]

You can cheer your government on when they use questionable means to foil people with whom you disagree, but one day, those same tactics may be used against YOU.

If we democratically elect a fascist at some point in the future, they're going to do fascist things regardless of whether or not the liberal party does something against them today.

The white supremacists started this, and organized this. But it's basically just become a boiling pot for anger and hatred now.

You've still got the white supremacists sticking around. You've got the anti-vaxx crowd. You've got the anti-mainstream-media crowd. You've got the anti-lgbtq+ crowd, and the anti-women crowd. The Nazi's, the Trump supporters, it's all there. The anti-mandate crowds exist, those who've lost their jobs for refusing to get vaccinated are there.

But when you talk to someone, they say "Oh, it's not about group-x that I disagree with, it's about my specific grievance". You can't negotiate with that. If you give one part of the group what they want, the others are still going to scream that it's not over and to keep fighting.

And they had infrastructure set up to turn it into a party zone, with hot tubs, and food trucks, and a supply network set up to sustain it indefinitely. And the funding for that supply network was being funneled through the white nationalists who organized the whole thing. So if you want to stop the supply lines (which you have to do, to get the city of Ottawa back), you have to strike a deal with the white supremacists. And if someone's angry about anything, they're going to send funding to the white supremacists while thinking that they're just donating to their own particular cause.

The police should have stopped this with existing laws before they got set up, but cutting the funding off was absolutely essential for ending this. Our existing policing laws should have stopped the convoy from getting a foothold, but I don't know if the existing laws would have allowed us to stop the funding of the white supremacist groups in the way that we've done here. And I think that really needed to happen.

[elevenism]

In fairness, this legislation has an expiry date (by design) — .

So did the Patriot Act.
It was meant to end in 2005.
The US government has repeatedly extended it, reauthorized it, and even passed it again under a different name: The Freedom Act.

I believe it's actually expired, currently, but that's only due to the last (2020) extension bills being tied to border wall funding- NOT because lawmakers finally saw the light.

It's still wreaking havoc to THIS day, i think, because, as history has shown, the NSA isn't particularly concerned about the legality of its actions.

[thelastdisciple]

Word is Trudeau is going to revoke the Emergencies Act any moment now?

[MrLobster]

[elevenism]

Word is Trudeau is going to revoke the Emergencies Act any moment now?

Thank GOD.

Between the influx of Trump Ideology, the rise of separatism, the batshit crazy honkpacalypse, and my fears of you guys winding up with a Patriot act situation, Canada and my Canadian e friends have been on my mind as of late.

"I know it makes no difference to what you're going through. But I see the tip of the iceberg, and I worry about you." -Rush: Distant Early Warning
@botley will get that reference at least.

[botley]

It may no longer be an emergency (arguably never was) — but shit is still pretty dire.

[mfte]

Emergencies act revoked?
What the hell? I was promised a Communist takeover and got nothing of the sort.

[mfte]

[MrLobster]

Kenney gets 51.4% approval in his internal party review as leader...

...
...

...and still steps down.

Not that this is any better for Alberta at the moment, the UCP are still in charge... but we'll see how well they last until the election on 2023.

[botley]

Kenney
...
steps down

Just let me savour the deliciousness for a minute!! Let the door hit your ass on the way out, Jason Fuckface.

[poinoup]

I am crushed about Premier Photo-Op. He'll probably take the party to the Sky Palace again drinking expensive whiskeys again.

It's a good old boys club in Alberta. Hell, we have an ex-cop as an MP here and he's fighting against pot legalization... still. He's also the type of "I hate 'Dem Liberalz' ideas down east, however I have no solution of my own. Don't you hate young people who think for themselves?"

Somehow, somehow, in his mind, this is Trudeau's fault, and the rednecks here are going nuts.

[MrLobster]

Doug Ford fucking won... ew. (yeah, not everything is counted as of this post but it looks like the Cons have conned again)

[mfte]

Boooerns.

Steven Del Duca was such a lame choice for party leader. He looked like a lizard that put on a human skin mask, his upper lip didn't move when he talked, and his voice sounded like Ben Shapiro on Xanax. He even lost in his own riding.

[botley]

Lowest turnout evar. Fewer people voted for Ford's party than in 2018 & they still gained seats. I hate this place

[thelastdisciple]

We need fucking term limits.

Why?

MY RIDING'S MPP AND MP HAVE BEEN VOTED IN SINCE 2000/2003! THIS IS BULLSHIT!

EDIT: Sad truth bomb right here.

[marodi]

The Whisky War is over!

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/poli...arctic-island/

[botley]

Very excited that we have both the longest AND shortest undefended land borders now.

[bobbie solo]

In Niagara Falls on the Canadian side for a few days with the in-laws. Was very disheartened to see a MAGA style truck & car caravan slowly drive down the main drag right on the falls today. While the cars weren't as obnoxiously adorned as the MAGA caravans we've all seen in the US, they negatively balanced that out w/the constant blaring of their car horns. And yes there was at least one 18 wheeler involved. It really sucks that these people are doing this only to intimidate & bum people out, and it def. has at least the latter affect on me.

[M1ke]

In Niagara Falls on the Canadian side for a few days with the in-laws. Was very disheartened to see a MAGA style truck & car caravan slowly drive down the main drag right on the falls today. While the cars weren't as obnoxiously adorned as the MAGA caravans we've all seen in the US, they negatively balanced that out w/the constant blaring of their car horns. And yes there was at least one 18 wheeler involved. It really sucks that these people are doing this only to intimidate & bum people out, and it def. has at least the latter affect on me.

I live about 20 minutes from there, and yeah, these assholes don't know when to quit.

They got everything they were after, but they're still out there being shitty.

[bobbie solo]

right, that's what's so frustrating about these far right nuts at least in terms of Covid. You all got practically everything you wanted! You won! So at least go away.

[MrLobster]

right, that's what's so frustrating about these far right nuts at least in terms of Covid.

Yeah, that's the thing, it was never really COVID-related. That was a... mask. Those assholes don't like being told what to do and especially by politicians they "don't like".

[botley]

It was never, ever about protesting mandates and alllllllll about embracing cryptofacism.

[mfte]

[mfte]

This is vague and ominous

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottaw...tawa-1.6523811