#Toronto Freedom Rally.

[babakca]

Trudeau took an Waffen ss officer from ww2 to the Canadian Parliament and awarded him :)

[mostlysignssomeportents]

It’s been twenty years since my Microsoft DRM talk

On THURSDAY (June 20) I'm live onstage in LOS ANGELES for a recording of the GO FACT YOURSELF podcast. On FRIDAY (June 21) I'm doing an ONLINE READING for the LOCUS AWARDS at 16hPT. On SATURDAY (June 22) I'll be in OAKLAND, CA for a panel and a keynote at the LOCUS AWARDS.

This week on my podcast,This week on my podcast, I read my June 17, 2004 Microsoft Research speech about DRM, a talk that went viral two decades ago, and reassess its legacy:

https://craphound.com/msftdrm.txt

It's been 20 years (and one day) since I gave that talk. It wasn't my first talk like that, but at the time, it was the most successful talk I'd ever given. I was still learning how to deliver a talk at the time, tinkering with different prose and delivery styles (to my eye, there's a lot of Bruce Sterling in that one, something that's still true today).

I learned to give talks by attending sf conventions and watching keynotes and panel presentations and taking mental notes. I was especially impressed with the oratory style of Harlan Ellison, whom I heard speak on numerous occasions, and by Judith Merril, who was a wonderful mentor to me and many other writers:

https://locusmag.com/2021/09/cory-doctorow-breaking-in/

I was also influenced by the speakers I'd heard at the many political rallies I'd attended and helped organize; from the speakers at the annual Labour Day parade to the anti-nuclear proliferation and pro-abortion rights marches I was very involved with. I also have vivid memories of the speeches that Helen Caldicott gave in Toronto when I was growing up, where I volunteered as an usher:

https://www.helencaldicott.com/

When I helped found a dotcom startup in the late 1990s, my partners and I decided that I'd do the onstage talking; we paid for a couple hours of speaker training from an expensive consultant in San Francisco. The only thing I remember from that session was the advice to look into the audience as much as possible, rather than reading from notes with my head down. Good advice, but kinda obvious.

The impetus for that training was my onstage presentation at the first O'Reilly P2P conference in 2001. I don't quite remember what I said there, but I remember that it made an impression on Tim O'Reilly, which meant a lot to me then (and now):

https://www.oreilly.com/pub/pr/844

I don't remember who invited me to give the talk at Microsoft Research that day, but I think it was probably Marc Smith, who was researching social media at the time by data-mining Usenet archives to understand social graphs. I think I timed the gig so that I could kill three birds with one stone: in addition to that talk, I attended (and maybe spoke at?) that year's Computers, Freedom and Privacy conference, and attended an early preview of the soon-to-launch Sci Fi Museum (now the Museum of Pop Culture). I got to meet Nichelle Nichols (and promptly embarrassed myself by getting tongue-tied and telling her how much I loved the vocals she did on her recording of the Star Wars theme, something I'm still hot around the ears over, though she was a pro and gently corrected me, "I think you mean Star *Trek"):

https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=4IiJUQSsxNw&list=OLAK5uy_lHUn58fbpceC3PrK2Xu9smBNBjR_-mAHQ

But the start of that trip was the talk at Microsoft Research; I'd been on the Microsoft campus before. That startup I did? Microsoft tried to buy us, which prompted our asshole VCs to cram the founders and steal our equity, which created so much acrimony that the Microsoft deal fell through. I was pretty bitter at the time, but in retrospect, I really dodged a bullet – for one thing, the deal involved my going to work for Microsoft as a DRM evangelist. I mean, talk about the road not taken!

This was my first time back at Microsoft as an EFF employee. There was some pre-show meet-and-greet-type stuff, and then I was shown into a packed conference room where I gave my talk and had a lively (and generally friendly) Q&A. MSR was – and is – the woolier side of Microsoft, where all kinds of interesting people did all kinds of great research.

Indeed, almost every Microsoft employee I've ever met was a good and talented person doing the best work they could. The fact that Microsoft produces such a consistent stream of garbage products and crooked business practices is an important testament to the way that a rotten organization can be so much less than the sum of its parts.

I'm a fully paid up subscriber to Ronald Coase's "Theory of the Firm" (not so much his other views):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_the_firm

Coase says the reason institutions exist is to enable people to work together with lowered "coordination costs." In other words, if you and I are going to knit a sweater together, we're going to need to figure out how to make sure that we're not both making the left sleeve. Creating an institution – the Mafia, the Catholic Church, Microsoft, a company, a co-op, a committee that puts on a regional science fiction con – is all about minimizing those costs.

As Yochai Benkler pointed out in 2002, the coolest and most transformative thing about the internet is that it let us do more complex collective work with smaller and less structured institutions:

https://www.benkler.org/CoasesPenguin.PDF

That was the initial prompt for my novel Walkaway, which asked, "What if we could build luxury hotels and even space programs with the kind of (relatively) lightweight institutional overheads associated with Wikipedia and the Linux kernel?"

https://crookedtimber.org/2017/05/10/coases-spectre/

So the structure of institutions is really important. At the same time, I'm skeptical of the idea that there are "good companies" and "bad companies." Small businesses, family businesses, and other firms that aren't exposed to the finance sector can reflect their leaders' personalities, but it's a huge mistake to ascribe personalities to the companies themselves.

That's how you get foolish ideas like "Apple is a good company because they embrace paid service and Google is a bad company because they make money from surveillance." Apple will spy on you, too, if they can:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/14/luxury-surveillance/#liar-liar

Disney and Fox weren't Romeo and Juliet, star-crossed lovers making goo-goo eyes at each other across the table at MPA meetings. They were two giant public companies, and any differences between them were irrelevancies and marketing myths:

https://locusmag.com/2021/07/cory-doctorow-tech-monopolies-and-the-insufficient-necessity-of-interoperability/

I think senior management's personalities do matter (see, for example, the destruction of Boeing after it was colonized by sociopaths from McDonnell Douglas), but the influence of those personalities is much less important than the constraints that competition and regulation impose on companies. In other words, an asshole can run a company that delivers good products at fair prices under ethical conditions – provided that failing to do so will cost more in lost business and fines than they stand to make by cheating:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/24/record-scratch/#autoenshittification

Microsoft is a company founded and run by colossal assholes. Bill Gates is a monster and he surrounded himself with monsters, and they hired monsters to fill out the courts of their corporate palaces:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/14/patch-tuesday/#fool-me-twice-we-dont-get-fooled-again

To the extent that good things come out of Microsoft – some of its games products, the odd piece of hardware, important papers from MSR – it's in spite of the leadership; it's the result of constraints imposed by competition and regulation – and that's why Microsoft pursued such an aggressive program of extinguishing its competitors and capturing its regulators.

In retrospect, I think one of my goals in that talk was to convince those people doing good work for a rotten institution to go elsewhere and do other things. Certainly, that's one of the goals I pursue in the talks I give today. At the time, some of Microsoft's highest-profile technologists were publicly resigning over the company's war on free/open source software, so it wasn't an unrealistic goal:

https://web.archive.org/web/20030214215639/http://synthesist.net/writing/onleavingms.html

What I did not expect what that publishing the talk on my site and blogging it on Boing Boing would spark a wave of public interest that would get its message in front of several orders of magnitude more people than I spoke to at Microsoft that day. Partly, that was because I released the talk into the public domain, using the brand-new Creative Commons Public Domain Declaration (which was later replaced with the CC0 mark, due to legal issues withBu its drafting):

https://web.archive.org/web/20100223035835/http://creativecommons.org/licenses/publicdomain/

Some mix of the content of the speech, the spirit of the moment, and the novelty of that wide open license sparked a ton of interest. Jason Kottke recorded an audio version that Andy Baio hosted:

https://kottke.org/04/06/cory-drm-talk

My brutalist ASCII transcript was quickly converted to beautiful HTML by Matt Haughey and Anil Dash:

https://web.archive.org/web/20040622235333/http://www.dashes.com/anil/stuff/doctorow-drm-ms.html

For people who needed a hardcopy, there was Patrick Berry's printer-friendly stylesheet:

https://patandkat.com/pat/weblog/mirror/cory-drm/doctorow-drm-ms.html

Multiple people recorded (and sold!) audio versions, and then there were all the fan translations, into Danish, French, Finnish, German, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (both EU and Brazilian), Spanish and Swedish. I stayed in touch with some of those translators, and they helped me translate the position papers I wrote for UN WIPO meetings. Those papers were so effective that ratfuckers from the copyright lobby started to steal them and hide them in the UN toilets (!):

https://web.archive.org/web/20041119132831/https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/002117.php

Re-reading the speech for my podcast on Sunday, I expected to be struck by the anachronisms in it, and there were a few of those to be sure. But far more clear was the common thread running from this talk to other talks I gave that took on a significant life of their own, like my 2011 "War On General Purpose Computing" talk for CCC:

https://memex.craphound.com/2012/01/10/lockdown-the-coming-war-on-general-purpose-computing/

And my work on Adversarial Interoperability:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/10/adversarial-interoperability

And my most recent work, on enshittification:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/27/an-audacious-plan-to-halt-the-internets-enshittification-and-throw-it-into-reverse/

In other words, I've been saying the same thing – in different ways – for more than 20 years. That could be depressing, but I actually found it uplifting. Two decades ago, I was radicalized by a fear that the internet would be seized by corporations and governments and transformed into a system of surveillance and control. I found my way into a job at EFF, where I worked with colleagues across multiple disciplines – coders, lawyers and activists – to fight this force.

At the time, this was a fringe cause. Most of the traditional activists I'd come up with in the feminist, antiwar, antiracist, environmental and labour movement viewed digital rights as a distraction and dismissed its partisans as sad, self-obsessed nerds who mistook fights over the management of Star Trek message boards for civil rights struggles:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/10/04/small-change-malcolm-gladwell

I thought I was right then, and I think history has borne me out. The point of waging these fights – both in the wide public sphere and within political movements – is to get people activated before it's too late. Every day that goes by is a day when the internet becomes more inhospitable to political organizing for a better world – more surveillant, more controlling. I believed then – and believe today – that the internet isn't more important that the other fights I waged as a young activist, but I think that the internet is fundamental to those fights.

Saving the planet, smashing patriarchy, overthrowing tyranny and freeing labor are all fights that will be coordinated – Coase style – on the internet. Without a free, fair and open internet, those fights are infinitely harder to win.

The project of getting people to understand, care about, and fight for digital rights is a marathon, not a sprint. When I joined EFF, it was already 12 years old. There were six people in the org then (I was the seventh). Today, there's more than a hundred of us, and we're stretched so thin! The 30+ year old idea that internet policy will intersect with every part of every fight has been utterly vindicated.

Back in 2004, I asked Microsoft why they were willing to fight the US government to the death over antitrust enforcement, but were such wimps when confronted with the entertainment industry's demands for DRM. 20 years later, I think I know the answer: Microsoft understood that DRM would let them usurp the relationship between creative workers, entertainment industry companies, and audiences. Their perfect instincts for seeking out and capitalizing on opportunities to seize monopoly power drove them to make deliberately defective products, in the belief that their market power would let them cram those products down our throats:

https://memex.craphound.com/2004/01/27/protect-your-investment-buy-open/

Here's a link to the podcast episode:

https://craphound.com/news/2024/06/16/my-2004-microsoft-drm-talk/

And here's direct link to the MP3 (hosting courtesy of the Internet Archive; they'll host your stuff for free forever):

https://archive.org/download/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_470/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_470_-_My_2004_Microsoft_DRM_Talk.mp3

And here's the RSS feed for my podcast:

https://feeds.feedburner.com/doctorow_podcast

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/18/greetings-fellow-pirates/#arrrrrrrrrr

[womanlifefreedom]

A music video by Music for Sea Monsters featuring voices and protest sounds recorded at a rally in Toronto, Canada on November 5, 2022. Chants include: Woman, Life, Freedom in English and Persian/Farsi (زن، زندگی، آزادی - Zan, Zindagi, Azadi); One Solution - Revolution; Say Her Name - Mahsa Amini. Features traditional Iranian instruments: qanun (strings), ney (flute), tombak (drum), as well as other instruments from the region

[spider-xan]

Canada has a huge problem with N*zism in general, and even in allegedly 'liberal' cities like Toronto, Neo-N*zis and their ilk can hold rallies and march freely down the street in their N*zi paraphernalia with zero consequences and will be protected by the police, like, they literally showed up as a crowd at my then-workplace downtown in 2016 to chant 'White power!' while fist pumping in a rally to celebrate the US election, and you can't say shit about it with getting some wishy washy response about freedom of speech (which is not actually a thing in Canada, we have freedom of expression) or how they're actually secretly American infiltrators pretending to be Canadian bc fascism would never exist in nice multicultural democratic Canada (lol) or being accused of being a Russian agent working for P*tin smh

[uglyandtraveling]

FREE PALESTINE Protesters Take Over Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto Canada

Experience the powerful scene of solidarity at Nathan Phillips Square in Toronto, where thousands gathered for a peaceful rally in support of Palestine.

This vlog captures the voices, signs, and unity of "Free Palestine" supporters standing up for the innocent citizens of Gaza and Palestine. With flags waving and chants filling the air, supporters came together to shed light on the struggles faced by Palestinians and to demand justice and peace.

Watch as Toronto’s downtown square becomes a space of compassion and resilience, echoing the voices calling for freedom and an end to the hardships endured by Palestinian families.

Join this journey to witness the spirit of unity and humanity in action. Please like, comment, and share to help spread awareness of this peaceful gathering for a vital cause.

[impaulhi]

Reclaiming the Canadian Flag

The Canadian flag hasn’t changed since 1965. But for many, its meaning has. 

Since the emergence of the “Freedom Convoy” in late January, the symbolism behind the maple leaf has shifted from patriotism to an emblem of violence.

The convoy was initially formed to protest mandated vaccines for truck drivers crossing the Canada-U.S. border; it has since shifted to encompass all COVID-19-related mandates. Although the “Freedom Convoy” can be seen as a fringe movement, its presence has been felt across the country. The initial protest was held in Ottawa, but the demonstrations spanned across Canada to cities such as Toronto, Winnipeg, Fredericton and Edmonton. 

The Canadian Association for Securities and Intelligence Studies released a briefing on January 29 discussing potential risks related to the convoy. The paper notes that the convoy “arguably evolved into a national security threat as violent, extremist rhetoric is normalized which threatens the cohesion of Canadian society.” 

During the many rallies across Canada, the Canadian flag was used by convoy supporters to symbolize the movement. But Martin De Groot, commercial truck driver and founder of the Facebook page “Take Back the Canadian Flag,” says the flag is meant for everyone. 

“Canada was built on inclusivity. Canada was founded on so many things,” De Groot said. 

“The flag, which represents all of that, was never for one single group who claim to be patriots, who claim to be pretty much more Canadian than the rest of us. That's never what our flag was meant for. It's for all of us.” 

De Groot recalls a video he saw with convoy organizer Tamara Lynch urging supporters to wave Canadian flags in solidarity. 

“That turned me off because, I mean, the Canadian flag is not meant to identify any particular group of people,” De Groot said. 

De Groot is not the only one who holds this opinion. Other Canadians and fellow “Take Back the Canadian Flag” group members have been working hard to reclaim the flag’s meaning.

One issue that has been heavily documented in mainstream media are protestors’ use of symbols in the “Freedom Convoy” demonstrations. Alongside the traditional Canadian flag, protesters have been waving symbols connected with hate groups such as swastikas, Confederate flags, flags from Donald Trump’s campaign and a variety of altered Canadian flags, such as the flags turned upside down and flags with hateful messages. 

De Groot said he’s seen hateful Canadian flags on his trucking route in Boyle, Alta., between Evans and Port Pirie. He describes one of the flags he’s seen as being a Nazi flag with a maple leaf in place of a swastika. 

“I get really disgusted when I see the Canadian flag modified to look like a Nazi flag,” De Groot said. 

De Groot isn’t the only one upset by the use of flags during the convoy protests. Emma O'Toole, a Carleton University journalism student, attended the convoy’s initial occupation of the downtown Ottawa area to counterprotest. She and her friend Fiona Nicholson, Carleton University law student, carried a sign that read “vaccines save lives.” O’Toole said she saw protesters waving Canadian flags with swastikas drawn on them. She also saw a swastika spray painted in Sandy Hill. 

“It’s just vile,” O’Toole said. “There is no place for that in our city, or any city. It’s so hateful.” 

De Groot said the convoy has put a bad image on the trucking industry. As a commercial truck driver opposing the movement, his experience with the convoy has been different than the average Canadian.

De Groot notes convoy members often assemble at his local truck stop on the west side of Edmonton. He recalls a time in February when he ran into them. 

“They [were] there waving at me and I'm just like, what do I do? Ignore them? Because, you know, I can't tell them what I think for fear that they might wreck my truck. They might do something if I really tell them how I feel,” said De Groot. 

Nicholson, who attended the protest with O’Toole, said she was physically and verbally harassed at the convoy, and one person pushed her out of the crowd. 

“He was screaming at me and was getting pretty abusive with me,” she said. “It was pretty scary. That was the only point where I actually felt scared for my safety. … I thought he would hurt me,” Nicholson said.

Nicholson notes her perception of the Canadian flag has changed since January. When she walks by a house with a flag flying, she says her mind immediately goes to the convoy and what they stand for. This is something many Canadians, especially those in areas affected by the convoy’s occupation, have had to deal with.

Despite the changing symbolism of the flag, De Groot said he is hopeful Canadians can reclaim its meaning. 

“Everybody who’s got a flag, wave it. If everybody puts out a flag, that diminishes it from that group,” he said. 

De Groot cited this as the reason he began the Facebook page. He said if Canadians return to proudly flying their flag, people won’t be able to distinguish between those flown by protestors and the general population. Then, he said, the hateful meaning is erased. 

“I see a group of vehicles coming up with the Canadian flags, and it's like, ‘Oh, it's those people.’ Whereas if I go through a town and everybody’s got their Canadian flag, it’s more, ‘Oh, well, they can’t all be those people,’” De Groot said. 

“It starts to bring the meaning back to us.” 

-30-

[officialjanetweiss]

“In 2011, A Canadian police officer suggested to students at Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto that ‘women should avoid dressing like sluts in order to not to be victimized’. These comments instigated the first ‘SlutWalk’ march, which took place in Toronto on 3 April 2011. The marches spread around the world to places such as Las Vegas, Melbourne, Bhopal, and Sao Paulo. ‘SlutWalk’ was heralded as the third wave incarnation of Take Back the Night.

A Blogger for Ms. Magazine wrote about the march that took place in Los Angeles in 2012: ‘It’s that third wave-y feel - that individualistic empowerment - that has made “SlutWalk” popular among young women’, adding that the marches were ‘less emotionally intense than anti-rape rallies such as Take Back the Night, “SlutWalk” is more for spectacle’. This is a pretty accurate assesment, but ‘popularity’ and a lighter message do not necessarily translate into ‘better’, when it comes to radical movements.”

‘I do what I want, fuck yeah!’: moving beyond ‘a woman’s choice” by Meghan Murphy for Freedom Fallacy: The Limits of Liberal Feminism

[philanthropicfeline]

Too much, even for me...

A continuation, or rather an update on what it looks like in my head and my home. Originally I wanted to include images of Toronto to help convey my thoughts and to highlight the severity of where hate stands in this city, but I'd rather not.

This post is not meant to hurt anyone. I condemn "governments" and "organizations" that threaten humanity. I also recognize that I come from a country and position of privilege and freedoms that may make my opinions sound slightly dystopian. But i am always willing to admit any ignorance i hold and i'm always open to learning more. I understand there's always more to conflicts than what the media will portray.

My thoughts of today:

I attend a pentecostal church in a Jewish community. Since October 7th, there's been an increase in security. But let's be honest, the things happening today, go far back and beyond just October 7th.

Today is Sunday, November 12th. There's an even bigger police presence. On the way home from church, I sat beside a young woman on the bus. Across from me was an elderly man. As the bus made its route, a car with Israel's flag drove past us. The elderly man than starts yelling on the bus saying antisemitic things. Then I noticed the young woman crying beside me, silently. She then quietly asked the man to stop the hate. I asked her if she was okay and all she did was nod. The man kept yelling hateful things on the bus and to my astonishment the driver agreed with him. Maybe he agreed with the man to de-escalate the situation, but the woman got off the bus and that's when I noticed her blue ribbon in her hair that had Hebrew on it. I wish I did more for her, but what could I possibly do?

A few hours later, I make it home. I reside in the heart of Toronto, downtown. It looks much different compared to a few days ago. Graffiti is everywhere. Graffiti of hate and things that I never imagined would be carved on Toronto's body. Then I witness Islamophobia. People yelling Islamophobic things left and right. The pictures of dead and missing Palestinians, ripped or damaged. Young children exposed to racism and Islamophobia; yet there's still nothing i can do about it. It became so overwhelming I had to find a park to simply breathe. But even as I sit in the park, echoes from the rallies surround me. I hear the pained voices of people wanting justice and liberation and all I am capable of doing is sitting in a park, gathering my thoughts. I'll admit, I cried.

But where are my thoughts exactly? What good do my crocodile tears bring? Why am I flipping through various moments in history, searching for an answer? Why am I searching for an exact moment in time where peace was the chosen resolution? That has never existed. Exactly where do I find solace? if I even deserve solace at a time like this. Maybe it's time I accept that I'm starting to grow an irrational fear. Why is this situation affecting me more than the other conflicts of war? Maybe it's because the children we made Christmas presents for, were wiped out. I don't know, maybe it's because we're reverting to hurtful assimilation and stereotypes. Maybe it's because Toronto is giving the hateful extreme right winged parties a reason to laugh at our diversity. I know there are good things about humanity and even Toronto, but give me one moment to despise and despair. Just like mourning, I need a moment to be angry and frustrated. I can't just skip over those emotions.

"But this too shall pass" just like many other moments in history, but clearly humans have learned nothing but to give in to our destructive nature...

While governments and bodies of authority rarely, if ever, but most likely have never "chosen" peace or the people, i wont ignore the individuals that have.

My mind travels back to 1992, the LA riots. Reverend Benny Newton. He stood over a severely beaten truck driver who was driving in the wrong place, at the wrong time (which doesn't make sense if you really think about it). As Fidel Lopez lay almost lifeless, Reverend Benny Newton stood over him and yelled at the angry rioters "No more, this is enough. You're going to have to kill me too!" The Reverend chose peace and saved that man's life. He saved a life from warranted anguish. Rev. Newton was just as angry as the rioters but he chose the path of life and love. The rioters had every right to be angry, but violence and destruction will not bring anyone justice.

God forbid Toronto reaches a point that we are so blinded by hate, we begin to kill. Education of history and kindness are vital for the youth in Toronto. I'm not condoning senseless death and eradication of a people nor am I invalidating peoples pain. History has repeated itself over and over again, shouldn't our goals be for life and shouldn't we stand for humanity?

There's hope out there for a peaceful future. I just hope Toronto doesn't lose sight of that.

[tommychook]

World Wide Rally For Freedom Toronto Saturday September 23, 2023

[mwplanet]

Ontario CUPE Strike Simplified: A Guide for Students

Ontario students are aware of the CUPE strike, but do they understand it?

By Alexandrea Abungin

Photo via CBC News

Education workers rallying in CUPE strike

Just as schools were settling back into in-person learning, CUPE announced that they could potentially go back on strike starting November 21st. With school closures this past month, Ontario students have had to navigate a sea of headlines involving “notwithstanding clauses” and “back to work legislation.” But in simpler terms, the CUPE strike does not represent teachers; it represents education workers. This includes custodians, educational assistants, office workers and many more understated figures in a school community. As a collective, their labour union is demanding Ontario’s government for a wage increase of $3.25 per hour. On October 30th, CUPE announced that their workers would be going on strike starting November 4th. One day later, the provincial government passed Bill 28 which made it illegal for education workers to participate in the CUPE walkout. In an instant, CUPE’s walkout had escalated from a workers’ strike to a political protest.

According to Bill 28, education workers that do not show up to work can be fined up to $4000 and their union could be fined up to $500 000. Nevertheless, CUPE did not put an end to their political protest. With education workers participating in the protest, school buildings would be an unsafe environment for students, causing all school boards in Ontario to close on November 4th. On a school day without education workers, bathrooms would be unsanitary, special needs students would not receive their necessary support, and students who arrive late would not be able to check in at the office. The in-school routine of staff and students would be disrupted when education workers are not present. 

Photo via The Toronto Star

CUPE representative speaking on repealing Bill 28

Although Bill 28 was established in direct response to education workers, it still jeopardizes the labour rights of all Ontario workers. Many citizens are concerned with Doug Ford’s impulsive use of the “notwithstanding clause.” This is when a provincial government establishes a law that conflicts with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In this case, Bill 28 conflicts with Section 2(d) of the charter which recognizes workers’ rights to strike and bargain. Nevertheless, invoking the notwithstanding clause is only meant to be used in exceptional circumstances and should be considered as a last possible resort. Using this clause in a non-emergency situation with the intent of silencing education workers can be perceived as an abuse of power. If Ontario is able to disregard the fundamental rights of workers without consequence, this could become a national practice. Matthew Green, an NDP MP, told reporters that "this particular case could present a precedent for provincial governments across the country that might seek to use this to further undermine the collective agreement rights of workers."

Ontario took this case up to the labour board and they proceeded to be in court for the entire weekend. Concurrently, the political protest continued into monday which pushed schools to pivot to online learning. On Monday, November 7th, Doug Ford offered to rescind Bill 28 if CUPE decided to call off the strike. Shortly after, Doug Ford released the following statement: “I’m glad CUPE has agreed to withdraw its strike action so kids can return to class. We’ll be back at the table to negotiate a fair deal — for students, parents, workers and taxpayers.” As of November 7th, Bill 28 has been repealed and CUPE returned to negotiating with the provincial government until further notice. As a result, Ontario school boards returned to in-person learning on Tuesday, November 8th. 

On Wednesday, November 16th, CUPE filed a five day notice that they would be going back on strike. This means that schools could have been closed as early as Monday, November 21st. Many parents were still hopeful that schools would stay open since filing a strike notice is a common bargaining tactic to put pressure on the provincial government. CUPE has said the two sides recently agreed on a 3.59 per cent wage increase, but the union is still fighting for higher staffing levels. As of Sunday, November 20th, the Ontario government and CUPE have reached a tentative agreement. CUPE has not yet released the details of this deal, but they have publicly stated they will not be going on strike on Monday, November 21st. 

Although it has been repealed, it is important to note that the provincial government named Bill 28 the “Keeping Students in Class Act.” Even though this bill goes against education workers, its title does hold some truth. Education workers play an essential role in keeping children in the classroom. For the first time in years, Ontario students have the opportunity to experience a regular school year. However, without the presence of education workers, even a single day of school would not be possible.

[babakca]

Down Town Toronto - June 8 2024. #streetPhotography. Film Mission

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

IT'S THE LAST DAY for the Kickstarter for the audiobook of The Bezzle, the sequel to Red Team Blues, narrated by @wilwheaton! You can pre-order the audiobook and ebook, DRM free, as well as the hardcover, signed or unsigned. There's also bundles with Red Team Blues in ebook, audio or paperback.

#20yrsago Understanding slush, a primer on rejection http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/004641.html#004641

#15yrsago Dumpster diving: the world’s most recession-proof job https://www.forbes.com/2008/12/06/computers-recycling-trash-lead-corprespons08-cx_cd_1208doctorow.html?sh=10b944034453

#15yrsago US Airways bumps Flight 1549 survivors up to super-elite status for a year https://nypost.com/2009/01/30/survivors-gilt/

#15yrsago France to give free newspaper subs to 18 year olds https://archive.nytimes.com/economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/23/le-newspaper-bailout/

#15yrsago Principles of the American Cargo Cult — the beliefs that make bad argument https://web.archive.org/web/20090211214344/http://klausler.com/cargo.html

#15yrsago Mummified Soviet-era East German flat unearthed http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7857256.stm

#15yrsago Judges jailed for taking bribes from private juvie prisons to send kids to jail https://www.inquirer.com/philly/opinion/inquirer/20090128_Editorial__Judges_Sentenced.html

#10yrsago Army won’t answer Freedom of Information Request on its SGT STAR AI chatbot https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/01/free-sgt-star-army-ignores-foia-request-artificial-intelligence-records

#10yrsago Rob Ford Valentines https://web.archive.org/web/20140203045203/http://www.scotty2naughty.com/new-products/toronto-valentines-mayor-ford

#5yrsago More FBI follies: civil rights groups are “terrorists” and their victims are the KKK https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/feb/01/sacramento-rally-fbi-kkk-domestic-terrorism-california

#5yrsago RIP, Jeremy Hardy, one of the UK’s funniest lefty comedians https://memex.craphound.com/2019/02/01/rip-jeremy-hardy-one-of-the-uks-funniest-lefty-comedians/

#5yrsago Blackwater founder to site mercenary training camps conveniently close to China’s Uighur concentration camps https://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-xinjiang/erik-prince-company-to-build-training-center-in-chinas-xinjiang-idUSKCN1PP169/

#5yrsago Millionaire dilettantes’ “education reform” have failed, but teacher-driven, evidence-supported education works miracles https://www.ineteconomics.org/perspectives/blog/millionaire-driven-education-reform-has-failed-heres-what-works

#5yrsago Local council seeks additional funds for Thatcher statue to pay for a tall anti-vandal plinth https://www.itv.com/news/2019-01-31/iron-lady-needs-10ft-plinth-to-keep-out-of-vandals-reach-police-say

#5yrsago Stock art for a new Gilded Age https://spitalfieldslife.com/2019/02/01/fat-cats-in-the-city-1824/

#1yrago Johnson and Johnson's bankruptcy gambit fails https://pluralistic.net/2023/02/01/j-and-j-jk/#risible-gambit

Back the Kickstarter for the audiobook of The Bezzle here!

[veganpropaganda]

actions happening this weekend across so-called Canada (from the CJPME newsletter):

Calgary, AB, “All Out for Palestine,” Sunday Nov 19

Duncan, BC, “March with Freedom from War Coalition,” Saturday Nov 18

Edmonton, AB, “Protest and Day of Action for Palestine,” Saturday Nov 18

Halifax, NS, “Stand up for Peace and Justice Rally,” Sunday Nov 19

Kitchener, ON, “10K Rally for Gaza,” Sunday Nov 19

London, ON, “Vigil for Palestine,” Friday Nov 17

London, ON, “Student March for Gaza,” Sunday Nov 19

Montreal, QC, “All Out for Gaza,” Saturday Nov 18

Ottawa, ON, “Ottawa for Palestine,” Saturday Nov 18

Saint John, “Stand Against Genocide,” Saturday Nov 18

Saskatoon, SK, “March for Gaza,” Saturday Nov 18

Saskatoon, SK, “Human Chain Rally,” Sunday Nov 19

St. John’s, NL, “Call for Immediate Support,” Friday Nov 17

St. John’s, NL, “All Out for Palestine,” Saturday Nov 18

Toronto, ON, “All Out for Gaza,” Saturday Nov 18

Toronto, ON, “United for Palestine,” Sunday Nov 19

Vancouver, BC, “Gaza: Prayer and Protest,” Friday Nov 17

Vancouver, BC, “All Out for Gaza,” Saturday Nov 18

i've seen many posts on how people from the United States can take action regarding Palestine but few if any on what Canadians can do even though Canada is an ally and supplier of weapons to Israel [1] [2]

i'd also add attending any actions hosted in your city.

[doc wasn't made by me. i found it on instagram via @/veganveins]

[immaculatasknight]

Time they faced the music

[thecannalinks]

What the mainstream media won't cover

What the mainstream media won’t cover

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMLRfg3p7/

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Do any other Canadian POC feel stunned and betrayed when they find out that other POC around them support fascists and white supremacists, and feel like there may be an increase of that lately? I'm Chinese, and I was shocked yesterday when a big local food blogger in Toronto who's East Asian posted an IG story of himself and other East Asians wining and dining with Pierre Poilievre, and boasting about how he would be the next prime minister, so he was openly campaigning for him; in retrospect, I shouldn't have been surprised bc he would post videos of anti-mask/vax rallies and the attempted Freedom Convoy, but I had assumed he was just documenting downtown events.

Likewise, I live in a predominantly non-white, immigrant, working to lower middle class, etc. area of Toronto, and I've definitely noticed an increase in PC election signs on lawns here; in the last federal election, my staunchly Liberal Black neighbours who had always voted Liberal at the federal and provincial levels jumped to being PPC voters (not sure if they're voting New Blue in the provincial election this time), and my other neighbours who are POC also vote Conservative.

In a similar vein, seeing all these unions supporting Doug Ford and really believing the PCs support workers rights has been really upsetting to see.

~~~~