#Trudeau is centre right

[auressea]

WELL said- thank you!

I only want to add that this is the mildest possible take on the situation. like- this is the 'encyclopedia entry' about a much larger, more complex and deeply horrifying problem.

White 'Liberalism' is so deeply ingrained here, that even well educated and otherwise well intentioned folks think we're The Best and the Brightest.

US-centric racial bullshit is even a problem in Canada. We LOVE pretending that we’re so much better than the United States and that our prejudices aren’t nearly as bad, but the way we’ve treated indigenous peoples has been abysmal for centuries, and most Canadians who aren’t Gen Z weren’t even aware of the worst of it until 2021. I’m not sure how many people outside of Canada know this but in 2021 they found a mass grave of 215 indigenous children outside an old residential school in Kamloops in BC, and everyone was scandalized for approximately two weeks. They’ve since searched like maybe five more schools out of over a hundred and found thousands of more bodies, and the initiative to even look has kind of fizzled out. This was my parents’ first exposure to the idea of residential schools, we’ve been sweeping this shit under the rug for decades, and we still get off to “not being the US”.

All this to say that Canadian history isn’t as flashy as the US but is still worth taking a look at. There’s a lot of harmful institutions still in place left over from like 1873 that symbolize incredibly tense political situations that continue to this day. And even our black history gets boiled down to “Underground Railroad”, oh aren’t we nice, when that’s really not all that happened.

Because I read international news and follow international politics, I am personally aware of the Canadian residential schools scandal, but it absolutely is something that fizzled out after a few weeks and was attempted to be covered up with a few boilerplate apologies and nothing in the way of real change or action. I would therefore gently question your phrasing of "US-centric racial bullshit," since the whole point of your ask is that while Canada pretends to be better than the US, it has its own specific racial and cultural blind spots relating to its own practice of racism. So would this not be more accurately called "Canada-centric racial bullshit?" After all, you're talking about something that happened in Canada, was perpetrated by Canadians, is directly related to the modern Canadian state, and as such as has been denied by white Canadians. After all, the big Trucker March of right-wingers that shut down Toronto took place in Canada, not the US. So yes, there's definitely a need to talk about Canadian racism in and of itself, and not just Canadian racism as a corollary of the US.

Canada is likewise a white settler-colonial state founded by Europeans (English and French, a split still prominent in modern Canada), and that therefore involved equally horrendous legacies of displacement and genocide against the First Nations people. Because Canada is so much smaller population-wise (300 million+ in the US vs just 38 million in Canada), it has thus to some degree been forced to expand its population by relying on immigrants and refugees. And to its credit, it has been more proactive about accepting refugees than the US. But there are still plenty of right-wingers who think that a geographically enormous and empty country like Canada, with only 38 million people, is getting too "crowded" with "foreigners." Likewise, Canada is still officially a part of the Commonwealth, aka the lightly rebranded British Empire, so its formal head of state is the UK monarch. And to the best of my knowledge, there haven't been any serious conversations about breaking that link and reorganizing as a republic, the way there have been in Caribbean Commonwealth countries like Jamaica and Barbados (which in fact just did it). That is because white first-world Canadians can see association with the British Empire as a "prestige," instead of the legacy of slavery and exploitation that was the British Empire against majority-black countries in the Caribbean.

Anyway: Canadians are always stereotyped as the nice people who apologize for everything and mind their business, and yes, the flaming dumpster fire of America would make anyone feel superior about not being that. But it doesn't mean there's no problems or that it's a perfect society free of its own flaws and failures, and Americans are also definitely guilty of treating it as some magical escape valve: witness the "I'm going to move to Canada" refrain when something political goes wrong here. In some ways, yes, that would be preferable, viz. free healthcare and strict gun laws. But yeah.

[girlactionfigure]

Eighty years ago, he disappeared.

Unable to find the truth regarding the disappearance of their son, his parents died by suicide, overdosing on pills two days apart in 1979.

To this day, his disappearance is still a mystery.

Raoul Wallenberg — whom the UN called “the greatest humanitarian of the 20th century” — risked his life to save the life of strangers he did not know, yet "he was not himself saved by so many who could have done so," according to Professor Irwin Cotler, the chair of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights.

Wallenberg, called the Hero of the Holocaust, disappeared on January 17, 1945.

The Peace Page has written about Wallenberg before, how he is believed to have issued more than 10,000 protective passports and saved as many as 100,000 Jews, but like many individuals, he has many stories. The Peace Page will continue to update readers with new or additional information, when relevant, to continue to share awareness so their stories are not forgotten.

"Born a Swede, Raul Wallenberg is remembered as a (honorary) citizen of the world. He is an honorary American, honorary Canadian, and honorary Israeli. He was the first individual to ever receive honorary Australian citizenship," according to the Library of Congress.

He also received a U.S. education as an architect from the University of Michigan. He became an honorary citizen of the United States due to the efforts of House Representative Tom Lantos who was saved by Wallenberg in Hungary in 1944, according to the Library of Congress.

Today, January 17, 2020, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said:

“Today, we honour Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat in Budapest in the 1940s who put himself in harm’s way to save tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews from persecution and death during the Holocaust."

“Mr. Wallenberg was a true humanitarian and hero, who led an important rescue effort that saved more Jews from the horrors of the Nazi regime than any other individual, organization, or government," Trudeau said. "A man of incredible bravery and courage, he went to great lengths to provide special protective passports – Schutz-Passes – to thousands of Jews, saving them from deportation to concentration camps. Mr. Wallenberg also created a network of safe havens operating under the protection of the Swedish flag, offering refuge to Jews fleeing persecution."

"Wallenberg, a non-Jewish Swedish diplomat, was a beacon of light during the darkest days of the Holocaust, and his inspiration remains so today. Prior to his arrival in the Swedish legation in Budapest in mid-July 1944, some 440,000 Hungarian Jews had been deported to Auschwitz in 10 weeks — the fastest, cruelest and most efficient mass murder of the Holocaust. Yet Wallenberg rescued some 100,000 Jews in Hungary in the last six months of 1944, demonstrating that one person with the compassion to care, and the courage to act, can confront evil, prevail and transform history," according to Cotler.

"He recruited 350 volunteers, rented 32 safe houses covered by diplomatic immunity, organised vital supplies of food and clothing, and issued thousands of “letters of protection”, official-looking documents that had no legal authority but were widely accepted by Hungarian and German officials, often with the aid of a bribe," according to the Guardian.

Despite the threats on his life, Wallenberg continued to try to help as many people as he could.

He even received a veiled threat from Nazi Adolf Eichmann. According to PBS' American Experience:

"In December 1944, the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg attended a small dinner party in Budapest; also at the table was the Nazi Adolf Eichmann. The two men were in Hungary on opposing missions: Wallenberg was there to rescue Jews; Eichmann was there to kill them. Their conversation was barbed. The war was almost over, Wallenberg pointed out. Why didn't Eichmann give up his task? Eichmann replied that he would do his job until the very end so that when he walked to the gallows he would know he had successfully carried out his assignment. The Nazi added that Wallenberg wasn't immune from danger, even a neutral diplomat, he warned, could meet with an accident."

Wallenberg did not know then that it wasn't just the Nazis, who were threatened by him.

In 1945, he was invited to the Soviet military HQ.

"He was last seen leaving Budapest by car to meet Soviet military officials in Eastern Hungary," according to American Experience.

That was January 17, 1945.

"He disappeared into the Gulag, with the Soviets first claiming that he died of a heart attack in July 1947, and then subsequently changing their story to claim that he was murdered — also in July 1947," according to Cotler.

"His family have never received an official explanation for his detention, although suspicions he was also spying for the Americans, and his connections with some senior German politicians – he negotiated his humanitarian mission with, among others, Adolf Eichmann – have been suggested," according to the Guardian.

Last year, Marie von Dardel-Dupuy, the niece of Wallenberg, said, “I want specific answers to specific questions . . . He was a great man who wasn’t afraid to do the impossible. He deserves for us to know what happened to him. His story is unfinished – the mystery must be resolved. There are still so many closed doors, and we must have help in opening them.”

"What happened to Wallenberg is not clear, but a Swedish-Russian working group in 2000 concluded that Russia had not proved that Wallenberg died of a heart attack (or through execution) in the Lubyanka Prison in 1947 as had been suggested by Soviet officials during the 1950s," according to the Library of Congress.

Trudeau said, "Tragically, Mr. Wallenberg disappeared after he was arrested by Soviet forces near the end of the war. While his fate remains unknown, his legacy lives on. In honour of his heroic efforts, countless awards, monuments, institutions, and anti-racism campaigns now bear his name."

"We must always stand up to hatred and racism," Trudeau said. "With compassion and courage, we each have the power to make a difference in the lives of those around us.”

[Photo from the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights]

The Jon S. Randal Peace Page 

[probablyasocialecologist]

What is unique, at least since the era of open colonialism and its genocides, is the unity this carnage has inspired among political elites in the Global North, and to some extent beyond it. After all, when fascism rose in Europe the 1930s, it had powerful supporters in our political classes, but it also had powerful opponents. That is far less true today. All across what passes for a political spectrum, from the rabid far right to the mealy-mouthed centre left, we have witnessed powerful actors putting their partisan differences aside to come together in active support of these crimes against humanity. Far from fracturing our political class, this iteration of fascism has united it: Donald Trump agrees with Joe Biden; Rishi Sunak with Keir Starmer, Emanuel Macron with Marine Le Pen; Justin Trudeau with Giorgia Meloni; Viktor Orbán with Narendra Modi. And so, we must ask: On what precisely do they all agree? What are they uniting behind? What are they all defending when they speak of Israel’s ‘right to defend itself’? It’s too simple, I’m afraid, to say they are united in defense of a single state. They are, of course, but they are also united in defense of a shared belief system. Amidst the reality of global economic apartheid and accelerating climate breakdown, they are united in a shared supremacist vision of safety and security for the few. This vision is the flip side of their steadfast refusal to in any way address the underlying drivers of these crises: capitalism, limitless growth, colonialism, militarism, white supremacy, patriarchy. As Sherene Seikaly puts it, we are ‘In the age of catastrophe’ and ‘Palestine is a paradigm’. 

[wavesoutbeingtossed]

waves, you’re the only Canadian I know. What the heck is going on with Justin Trudeau? I read a couple articles but still didn’t quite grasp why he resigned and what will happen next. What’re your thoughts on it?? I trust your social commentary

First of all, you should never trust me for anything 😂 I am far from a reliable source. I'm just some girl on the internet.

The TL;DR is that there has been a lot of internal strife within his political party and cabinet for the last couple of years, and the voices got louder and louder until they basically all made it clear they would no longer support him and/or resign if he didn't do it first.

Canada's parliamentary system is a constitutional monarchy, more similar to the UK system than the US' governing-wise. So the governing party is the one who has the most amount of seats in the House of Commons. In theory, constituents vote for the party, not the leader, in federal elections, although in practice it obviously comes down to the leader's popularity. In theory, Canada is a multi-party system, although in practice, it's almost entirely governed swapped back and forth between the Liberal Party* and the Conservative Party. There are a handful of other national parties that have debatable influence depending on the era, sometimes representing regional or special interests. Also, Canada doesn't have set election dates like in the US; in theory the Prime Minister can call elections at anytime within their mandate.

(*In Canada, Liberal does not mean the same thing as small-l liberal. It's not a social outlook, it's descended from the UK tradition. Same for how historically the Conservative Party did not mean the same thing as small-c conservative a la in the US, although now they are effectively the same thing due to the influence of the Tea Party and shit from the US. The Liberals are more centrist, the Conservatives are centre-right but quickly heading more right each passing year.)

When Trudeau was first elected in 2015, he won a majority, which means his party, the Liberal Party, held more than half the seats in the House, and could effectively enact their platform. In 2019, the Liberals won with a minority, which meant that they needed the help of other minority parties to pass legislation. In 2021, Trudeau tried to capitalize off some post-pandemic goodwill and called an early election in an effort to try to win back his majority, but it was an incredibly unpopular decision as people did not want to head into another election season AND I think he underestimated the discontent about pandemic mitigating measures and the state of the economy, and instead he kind of shot himself in the foot and he squeaked through with another minority. This forced his party to enter into a coalition with two other minority parties (the New Democrats, which is more left-of-centre, and the Bloc Quebecois, which represents the interests of Quebec) in order to keep a tentative majority and fend off the Conservative Party, who are the official opposition with the second-most number of seats. In theory, this meant that the minority parties could exert some sort of influence to get their policies moving. (For instance, the NDP pushed public dental care on their agenda, which did in fact eventually get passed in some fashion.) In practice, it was more like a holding pattern.

I'm not especially well-versed in what's happening in politics to that degree, but essentially, particularly since 2021, Trudeau has lost a lot of his former allies in his party. There could be many reasons, but the most often one cited is that his team has become more insular and less likely to listen to advisers and other Members of Parliament (MPs = the members who represent ridings, e.g. like US congresspeople/senators) and had become more out of touch than he'd been before. Meanwhile, the Conservative Party is beating the battle drum and want to push for a vote of non-confidence, which means they could bring a motion to the table in the House and if a majority of members vote in favour, would mean government would dissolve and trigger an election. This was just noise when the coalition was in place, but in recent months, the other parties indicated they would no longer support Trudeau's government if a vote were to come to pass.

So it was just a matter of time until an election was called, but then the internal infighting of the Liberal Party sealed the deal. Trudeau attempted a cabinet shuffle before the holidays, which was kind of a last-ditch effort to stop the bleeding by moving ministers around to different portfolios. But one of the people he tried to shuffle was Chrystia Freeland, who was one of his most ardent supporters from the start, is Deputy Prime Minister and was the Finance Minister, which is one of the plumb roles in his cabinet. So before he had a chance to do that, she publicly resigned, which was a death blow to his cabinet, and afterwards many other MPs publicly voiced their lack of confidence in the PM and called for his resignation. There's also been a lot of concern over his handling of Trump's re-election and posturing about making Canada the 51st state and enforcing tariffs and all the usual shit. Trudeau had no choice but to step down because if he hadn't, his party would have forced his hand; he was supposed to have a caucus meeting on Wednesday and all reports were saying it was going to be a knives-out scenario for him. He's leaving before he gets left, basically.

Now, Trudeau is resigning, which means the Liberal party will be heading into a leadership race for an interim leader. He also prorogued parliament, which effectively means the House won't sit until March. When they come back, it is also almost assuredly in name only, because the Conservatives will call for a vote of non confidence on their first item of business and it will pass and the House will fall, meaning Trudeau's elected government will dissolve and an election is called. There's some debate as to whether it was fair of him to ask the Governor General (the King's representative in Canada -- basically an honourary role that rubber stamps things) to prorogue parliament as it's basically like calling a time out so that the Liberals can get their shit together and find a new leader before the election. But cynically I know the Conservatives would have done the same thing so they can stop their yapping imo. So basically, our legislative body is on hiatus until March. The mechanisms of government (e.g. the actual services) aren't, it's still business as usual. And then we're heading to the polls.

My thoughts are, I am far more left-leaning than the Liberal Party, so I have long been disenchanted with Trudeau's performance and politics. At the same time, I think he vastly underestimated how worried Canadians are about the economy (even if what they're worried about doesn't always apply to their own lives), and how much people are struggling. (Canada in some ways is far more expensive to live in than, say, the US. Inflation and price gouging is a huge concern in some areas.) The Conservative Party terrifies me because they are going to cause real harm to Canadians, like the Republican Party does in the US, but they're the party that is going to win and win a majority handily. There's a whole faction of their party that's infiltrated by MAGA-like doctrine. But they're the only challengers to the House and they've been leading in the polls for the last year or whatever, so it's a guarantee that they're going to win, especially with the mess the Liberals now find themselves in. Our minority parties like the NDP don't stand a chance of forming government because they don't have enough grassroots support. Also, our system is first-past-the-post, which means the first party to win the most number of seats wins, which essentially means whoever can win the most amount of seats in Ontario (the most populous province) and to a lesser degree Quebec (second-most, although there are regional factors at play there too but that's another topic) wins the House. (One of Trudeau's 2015 promises was electoral reform, and then he abandoned it once he was elected.) So I am very, very worried for our country and I think we're about to enter into our own dark period.

I have probably very poorly explained this, so I encourage you to look at other legitimate sources of info! This is just my layperson's read on the situation. It's not completely dissimilar to what happened to Joe Biden this summer in the presidential race, if you're looking for something to compare it to, in very broad strokes.

[convertgrapeling]

If anyone ever calls you "privileged" for not wanting to vote for a centrist or centre-right candidate in any election anywhere, you can pretty much assume they have nothing useful or insisghtful to say about anything.

The least privileged people are those who consistently choose not to vote at all because nobody represents their interests, as well as those who cannot vote because they've been deprived of that right. Every election confirms that people living in poverty and people from marginalised groups are most likely to abstain from voting. The least privileged people are not voting Biden or Starmer or Macron or Trudeau, believe me. The ability to ignore the victims of their policies is a privilege in itself.

And frankly it says something about you if you believe that people who don't have "privilege" are less willing to stand by their principles than anyone else.

[eretzyisrael]

This evening, the House of Commons voted to pass a shameful motion on the Israel-Hamas war, brought forward by Jagmeet Singh’s NDP and supported in an amended version by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Government.

While the motion doesn’t change Canada’s formal foreign policy, elements of its text are disturbing and unacceptable. Some provisions ultimately reward Palestinian extremists and undermine the security of the people of Israel—a democratic Canadian ally—including:

A call for an arms embargo on Israel, precisely when Israelis are fighting a defensive war launched by a recognized terrorist group; and

Reaffirmation of Canadian funding for UNRWA, despite evidence that UNRWA staff participated in the October 7th atrocities.

Tonight’s vote needs to be condemned for what it was: a slap in the face not only to our allies in Israel, but also to Jewish Canadians—just five months after the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.

But our community can draw strength from our strong, united response in this moment of truth for Canada’s leaders.

In recent days, Jews and allies across Canada mobilized against the motion, including through the efforts of UJA, our advocacy agent the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), partner Federations, and other Jewish organizations. As just one example of our community’s strength, in a matter of days we collectively sent more than 900,000 emails to MPs through CIJA’s action alert system.

This strong, vocal stand was instrumental in ensuring a key clause—unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state—was cut from the motion in a last-minute amendment. This removed a critical demand of the anti-Israel movement, one that would have contradicted Canada’s longstanding policy that Palestinian statehood can only be reached through Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Importantly, the motion was also amended to call for the release of all hostages and demand that Hamas lay down its arms.

Despite these changes, tonight’s vote reflects something we’ve seen far too often since October 7th: the shameful accommodation of radical voices. But our community will never stop fighting for the truth, for our values as Jews, and for the principles that have been core to Canadian democracy. Because to be Jewish has always meant to fight for what’s right, even when the odds are against us.

We will do so with profound appreciation for those MPs who opposed tonight’s motion���particularly Pierre Poilievre's Official Opposition Conservatives, as well as several members of the Liberal caucus.

Adam Minsky President & CEO

Mar 19, 2024

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

Published: Dec 23, 2024

Something is rotten in Canada, not just the crumbling coalition government.

Some 400,000 Jews – the fourth-largest Jewish population center in the world after Israel, the US, and France – live in the beautiful, spacious country that takes pride in its heritage of tolerance and pluralism.

Now, this population is under attack. B’nai Brith Canada (BBC) saw a record high of 5,791 antisemitic incidents in 2023, a 109% increase from years prior.

Shimon Koffler Fogel, the outgoing CEO of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA), the leading Canadian Jewish community advocacy agency, recently gave testimony before the Canadian Senate’s Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights.

As Post columnist David Weinberg wrote on Friday, Fogel told the committee that since Hamas’s October 7 massacre and Israel’s retaliation in Gaza, there has been a 93% rise in hate crimes in Toronto, nearly half of them directed at the Jewish community. 

In Vancouver, reports of antisemitism increased by 62% in 2023 over 2022, marking a 70% rise after October 7. In Montreal, antisemitic incidents rose by 250%.

As for Toronto, shots have been fired on three different occasions at Bais Chaya, a Jewish girls’ school, with the most recent incident occurring on Friday night.

In Montreal, assailants last week firebombed Congregation Beth Tikvah, a modern Orthodox synagogue in the Montreal suburb of Dollard-des-Ormeaux, for the second time in just over a year.“This is a terrifying reminder that Montreal is increasingly unsafe for Jewish people,” the synagogue’s cantor, Henry Topas, said in a statement. 

An accountability failure 

“This is the result of the failure of leaders at all levels to hold accountable those responsible for the hate and violence that is infesting Canadian society,” Topas, who is also the BBC’s regional director for Québec and Atlantic Canada, added.

“In a matter of months, Canada has become a country in which masked thugs took over our streets to burn Canadian flags, salute Hitler, celebrate terrorists, and call for violence,” said Richard Marceau, the vice president of external affairs and general counsel at the CIJA.

The efforts to combat the rising tide of antisemitism in Canada weren’t helped at the weekend by the exchange of statements between Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Minister Amichai Chikli and Canadian Liberal Party MP Anthony Housefather, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Jewish community adviser. 

In a post on X/Twitter, Chikli claimed that Canada was no longer safe for Jews. Responding to Chikli, Housefather said that his comments were “false and exaggerated” and that Canada was one of the best places in the world for Jews to live in despite the rise in antisemitism.

What is the truth? 

The truth is probably somewhere in between. 

Trudeau said he was “sickened by reports of shots fired at a Jewish elementary school in North York.” He called it “a hateful, antisemitic attack.”

Trudeau issued a similar statement last week after the Montreal attack, but many Jews in Canada say that his government’s desire not to provoke the country’s large Muslim population has muted any concrete response.

Additionally, they say that Canada’s lukewarm support of Israel post-October 7 (Trudeau is one of the few Western leaders who did not pay a solidarity visit to Israel) has emboldened the anti-Jewish sense of empowerment.

On Friday, however, the Canadian government announced that it has created a National Forum on Combating Antisemitism, which will be held in Ottawa in February 2025.

“The Government of Canada recognizes the urgent need for national leadership to ensure Jewish Canadians feel safe in their synagogues, schools, and communities,” a statement read.

Deborah Lyons, Canada’s special envoy on preserving Holocaust remembrance and combating antisemitism, welcomed the forum, saying, “Jews are the number one target of reported hate crimes in Canada despite making up just over 1% of the population. Antisemitism shouldn’t be a partisan issue.”

How Canada responds and deals with the scourge of antisemitism will have far-reaching implications for Jews in the rest of the Diaspora. If Jews aren’t safe in Canada, they won’t be safe anywhere.

Let’s hope that the platitudes of protecting the Jewish community will translate into concrete action that demonstrates there will be zero tolerance for targeting anyone solely because they’re Jewish.

--

[feminist-pussycat]

When IWD is just lip service to women and most of it is about being ~inclusive~ to trans women and “trans menstruate-rs” it feels like it’s so... empty.

Remember ladies, we can’t just focus on females! We have to mention those who don’t identify as female, and men who do! It’s so boring to be a normal woman these days, let’s focus on the interesting ones and ignore the rest!

“This year’s theme, Every Woman Counts, is a reminder that all women, from all ages and walks of life, have a place in every aspect of Canadian society. With a disturbing recent rise in anti-transgender hate here in Canada, we reiterate today that trans women are women and we will always stand up to hate whenever and wherever it occurs.” - Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada

God forbid we talk about women without including transgender, right?

Hershey’s including a trans woman for IWD.

Right?

Funny quote: ““Trans women are women,” Reed said. “If you aren’t regarding trans women as women, you’re assuming some sort of universal women’s experience, some sort of unifying force that exists among all women, based on genitals and that’s a real problem.”

Yes. There is a universal women’s experience. It’s called being female. What’s not clicking for you? Any mere possibility of women’s class solidarity needs to be shut down?

“After consultation with two-spirit elders, White said the organization (Moontime Sisters) has started the process of changing its name to Moontime Connections."To honour two-spirit and trans menstruators in Canada and recognizing that we can still honour the sisterhood and the kinship when it comes to menstruators across the province. We never ever want to turn someone away with the use of language that's not inclusive."

Right?

"Allyship is important to the movement, especially to the trans folks," Bither said, noting in many such movements, Black trans voices led the fight. "They deserve safe spaces as much as we do. Trans people are not confused.… They are who they are and they need to be listened to."

Tasnim Jaisee agreed, saying trans women are women and that everyone needs "to protect our sisters." Rands's work focuses on education around gender based violence and allyship, and involves working with men and boys to make them realize their role in helping end oppression and violence."The only way forward is with compassion and empathy and love in our hearts," she said. "We can't expect men and boys to take up that mantle if they don't feel that love and compassion and acceptance just as much as we want women and everyone to feel."

Right, transgender women, boys, and men need to be prioritized to take up the mantle, just love them enough!

To coincide with International Women’s Day, the Canadian Centre for Gender & Sexual Diversity (CCGSD) has gathered signatures from hundreds of community organizations throughout the country to publicly affirm that gender equality can't be achieved without supporting, celebrating, and uplifting trans women. 

You heard it here first folks, in order to achieve gender equality we must prioritize, support, celebrate, and uplift trans women. Honestly this reads like a threat. 

The only good article:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/fifa-world-cup/spare-me-the-flowery-international-womens-day-posts-when-you-disrespect-us-rest-of-the-year/ar-AA18nDOL

[beardedmrbean]

More than 42 years after the deadly bombing of a Paris synagogue, a court in Paris has convicted a Lebanese-Canadian university professor of carrying out the attack.

The judges decided that Hassan Diab, 69, was the young man who planted the motorcycle bomb in the Rue Copernic on 3 October 1980.

Four people were killed and 38 others wounded in the bombing.

Diab refused to attend the trial, but the judges gave him a life sentence.

Prosecutors had argued it was "beyond possible doubt" that he was behind the bombing. His supporters have condemned the trial as "manifestly unfair".

The Rue Copernic attack was the first to target Jews in France since World War Two, and became a template for many other similar attacks linked to militants in the Middle East in the years that followed.

The decades-long investigation became a byword both for protracted judicial confusion, as well as for the dogged determination of a handful of magistrates not to let the case be forgotten.

Diab, 69, a Lebanese of Palestinian origin who obtained Canadian nationality in 1993 and teaches sociology in Ottawa, was first named as a suspect on the basis of new evidence in 1999, already nearly 20 years after the killings.

Eight years later the French issued an international arrest warrant, and it was not until 2014 that Canada agreed to extradite. But in 2018 French magistrates declared the case closed for lack of proof, allowing Diab to return to Canada.

Finally in 2021 an appeal against the closure of the case was upheld in the Supreme Court, the first time this had ever happened in a French terrorism case. It meant a trial could finally go ahead, and it began earlier this month.

From the start Diab has protested his innocence and he did not return to France for the trial, which was conducted in his absence. His conviction means that a second extradition request will have to follow, though with strong doubts over whether it will succeed.

Responding to the verdict, the Hassan Diab Support Committee in Canada called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to make it "absolutely clear" that no second extradition would be accepted.

They said 15 years of legal " nightmare... is now fully exposed in its overwhelming cruelty and injustice".

Over three weeks the court heard an account of the known facts of the case, plus arguments identifying Diab as the bomber and counter-evidence suggesting he was a victim of mistaken identity.

None of the original investigating team was alive to speak, and the surviving witnesses who saw the attacker in 1980 all admitted that after more than 40 years their memories were too hazy to be reliable.

The bomb was left in the saddle-bag of a Suzuki motorbike outside a synagogue in the wealthy 16th arrondissement of Paris. Had there not been a delay, the pavement would have been packed with people leaving the religious service inside.

In 1980 the investigation initially centred on neo-Nazis, and there were mass demonstrations by the political left. But a claim by an ultra-right group was found to be fake, and by the end of the year attention had switched to a Middle East connection.

The bomber was identified as having a fake Cypriot passport bearing the name Alexander Panadriyu.

He was believed to have entered France from another European country as part of a larger group, and to have bought the motorbike at a shop near the Arc de Triomphe.

He was thought to belong to a dissident Palestinian group called the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-Special Operations (PFLP-SO).

But the investigation hit a wall, and it was not till 1999 that Hassan Diab's name emerged from new information, believed to emanate from the former Soviet bloc.

Italian authorities then revealed that in 1981 the passport of a Hassan Diab had been found at Rome airport in the possession of a senior figure from the PFLP-SO. The passport bore stamps showing the holder entering and leaving Spain around the dates of the Rue Copernic attack.

The core of the prosecution case rested on the passport.

Under questioning while in custody, Diab explained that he had lost the passport just a month before the attack. But in Lebanon a French judge found an official declaration for the lost passport - a declaration made in 1983 and with a date of loss in April 1981.

The defence argued that all of this was circumstantial, and that there was still no hard evidence that Diab was in France in October 1980. They produced testimony from friends in Beirut who said Diab had been sitting university exams at the time of the attack.

Handwriting analysts who said the hotel registration form signed by the attacker was consistent with Diab's script were also dismissed as inconclusive.

"The only decision that is juridically possible - even if it's on a human level a difficult one - is acquittal," defence lawyer William Bourdon said in his summing-up Thursday. "I am here before you to prevent a judicial error."

But prosecutor Benjamin Chambre, while regretting that all the other members of the terrorist group had escaped without charge, said: "With Hassan Diab, we have the bomb-maker and the bomb-planter. That's already something."

[swldx]

BBC 0513 16 Jan 2024

7285Khz 0458 16 JAN 2024 - BBC (UNITED KINGDOM) in ENGLISH from ASCENSION ISLAND. SINPO = 35233. English, s/on @0458z with Bowbells int. fb ID, pips and Newsday preview. @0501z World News anchored by Chris Berrow. § Israel and Hamas have agreed a Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal following 15 months of war, mediators Qatar and the US say. Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani said the agreement would come into effect on Sunday so long as it was approved by the Israeli cabinet. US President Joe Biden said it would "halt the fighting in Gaza, surge much needed-humanitarian assistance to Palestinian civilians, and reunite the hostages with their families". Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the deal's final details were still being worked on, but he thanked Biden for "promoting" it. Hamas leader Khalil al-Hayya said it was the result of Palestinian "resilience". § Outgoing US President Joe Biden warned of a "dangerous" oligarchy taking shape in America, as he delivered his farewell address and brought a decades-long career in politics to an end. "Today, an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power and influence that really threatens our entire democracy, our basic rights and freedom," he said on Wednesday. Biden, 82, took aim at an ultra-wealthy "tech-industrial complex" which he said could wield unchecked power over Americans. He also used his final televised speech from the White House to issue warnings about climate change and social media disinformation. § Canada’s outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Wednesday that “nothing is off the table” when it comes to responding to proposed tariffs by President-elect Donald Trump, but that no single region of the country should bear the full brunt of that response. Trump has threatened to impose 25% tariffs on all Canadian imports. § Cuba on Wednesday began releasing prisoners jailed following anti-government protests in 2021, making good on a deal agreed with the Biden administration this week. Outgoing U.S. President Joe Biden on Tuesday removed Cuba from a blacklist of nations that sponsor terrorism and rolled back a raft of sanctions implemented by Donald Trump during his first presidency that have contributed to the communist-run island's worst economic crisis in decades. § Red Flag warnings advising of extreme wildfire danger expired across the Los Angeles area late on Wednesday, but forecasters warned that dry and windy conditions will persist on Thursday, and that the threat of blazes remained. The National Weather Service added that the respite for fire-ravaged Los Angeles will be short, with high chances for renewed Red Flag warnings - when ideal fire conditions of high winds and low humidity dominate - starting again on Sunday. § South Korea's arrested President Yoon Suk Yeol does not intend to take part in a second day of questioning on Thursday, his lawyer said, further stonewalling a criminal probe into whether he committed insurrection with his martial law bid. Yoon, the first sitting South Korean president to be arrested, was taken to the Seoul Detention Centre on Wednesday evening after refusing to cooperate, where he was expected to have spent the night in a solitary cell. § Popular Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan has been hospitalised for multiple stab injuries after an intruder reportedly barged into his house and attacked him. The attack took place early Thursday morning at an upscale neighbourhood of Mumbai city, where Khan lives with his family. @0506z “Newsday” begins. Backyard gutter antenna w/MFJ-1020C active antenna (used as a preamplifier/preselector), JRC NRD-535D, 250kW, beamAz 115°, bearing 103°. Received at Plymouth, MN, United States, 9763KM from transmitter at Ascension Island. Local time: 2258.

[itisnotthesea]

cool to see very centrist/right of centre with a occasional social issues pandering and performativity pm trudeau called leftist and far left over and over on the way out… brothers, are we cooked?

[trendingnews19]

The Tory leader, Pierre Poilievre, has done a reasonably good job at moderating his image from that of a hard right-winger – narrowing any chance Trudeau had of capturing enough of the centre he needed.My best guess is that, faced with this imminent defeat, Trudeau believes getting out now will insulate him and make it more likely that he can return to frontline Canadian politics further down the line, after a period of time in the wilderness.Is such a return likely?LoadingWhile in the US, figuratively dead presidents rarely come back to life – with Grover Cleveland and Trump the only ones to return after a re-election loss – in Canada, there is a bit more of a tradition of political resurrection.This stretches back to the country’s first prime minister, John A. MacDonald, who resigned in 1873 amid scandal only to be re-elected five years later. William Mackenzie King served three non-consecutive terms as prime minister in the first half of the 20th century. And Trudeau’s father, Pierre Trudeau, came back after losing the 1979 election to serve a fourth and final term in 1980.But I feel with Justin Trudeau, it is different. At this moment in time, his parliamentary career looks beyond rehabilitation. He is deeply unpopular and has enraged many of his loyal lieutenants – with the resignation of long-time ally and deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland in December adding to the pressure on Trudeau to resign.And while inflation – a scourge of left, right and centre incumbents the world over – no doubt played a role in Trudeau’s declining popularity, other factors are at play, too. Canadians generally feel that given the cards he was dealt, Trudeau still played a bad hand. Under Trudeau, immigration to Canada increased massively – and many blame this for a housing affordability crisis.More generally, it seems like Trudeau, despite being the relatively young political age of 53, is out of step with politics at this precise moment in time. Trudeau, much like his father before him, is very much associated with identity politics, focusing on the perceived needs of certain groups over others.And while the merits of identity politics can be argued, what is certainly true is that it isn’t particularly popular anywhere in the world right now. Indeed, right-of-centre populists such as Trump have been able to make great political capital in painting opponents as identity politicians.How did Trump’s election win affect Trudeau’s prospects?Former deputy prime minister Freeland resigned in part over discontent with the way Trudeau had responded to Trump’s proposed tariffs on Canadian goods. And that discontent with the way Trudeau was dealing with the incoming Trump administration extends to a lot of Canadians, regardless of their political stripes.Trudeau and then-president Donald Trump in 2017. Credit: APThe Canadian economy isn’t in good shape, and a 25 per cent tariff – as envisioned by Trump – would be disastrous. Canadians are looking for someone who can negotiate with Trump from a position of strength, and that doesn’t appear to be Trudeau.In fact, faced with being trolled and humiliated by Trump – for instance, being referred to as a “governor” rather than the leader of a nation – Trudeau has faced criticism for his weak response. He symbolises a growing sense in Canada that the country is seen by policymakers in Washington as weak.While Trudeau reportedly laughed off a suggestion at Mar-a-Lago that Canada become the “51st state”, back home the remark was seen as a test – would Trudeau stand up for Canada or not?In this sense, Trump’s election provided a challenge to Trudeau but also an opportunity to stand up to Washington – something that would have won him favour among anti-American Canadian nationalists. Instead, he is perceived to have cowered before Trump, further damaging his reputation at home.LoadingWhat will Trudeau’s legacy be in regard to US-Canada relations?I believe he got caught up in a dynamic that has seen a growing perception in the US – as espoused by the incoming president – that Canada is freeloading militarily off its southern neighbour. President Joe Biden is more aligned politically with Trudeau but certainly under Trump’s first term, the Canadian prime minister was seen by Washington as one of the NATO leaders not paying a fair share for the military alliance.Partly as a result, Canada under Trudeau has dropped down the list of trusted allies – especially among Republicans. If you asked Americans to name Washington’s most trusted ally, the United Kingdom or Israel would likely beat out Canada. Trump’s statements since being re-elected suggest that he sees Canada as less an ally and as more of an irrelevance. Comments regarding the buying of Greenland point at Trump’s desire to run roughshod over the desire of other nations in order to be more active in the Arctic – something that should have raised alarms in Canada.So, in short, you can characterise Trudeau’s relationship with the US as OK under Biden, bad under Trump’s first administration and – potentially – irrelevant under Trump II.What happens next in Canadian politics?I see one of two things happening.The most likely scenario is that the Conservatives will win an election that could take place any time between March and October. Current polling suggests they are on course to win over 50 per cent of the vote. If that happens, we can expect a Canadian government much more aligned with that of the incoming US administration – with a more centralist foreign policy and border reforms that will tighten immigration controls.And the timing may provide an opportunity for Trudeau’s successor to start afresh with Trump and forge a relationship that is either stronger or, alternatively, to reassert a degree of Canadian resistance to Trump.The second scenario is what I call “the French oddity”. Just like in France’s last election in which the two main anti-right parties entered a non-competition deal to thwart the far-right National Rally, we could see the Liberal Party and the socialist New Democratic Party try something similar in an attempt to blunt Tory gains. But that is a long shot and still won’t increase the chances of Trudeau returning.As for the Liberal Party post-Trudeau, it is difficult to see who will want to lead it into a near-certain election defeat. But I believe the most likely outcome will be the party will try to tack to a more centralist, economically conservative agenda. It would truly mark the end of the Trudeau era.Patrick James, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and SciencesThis article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons licence. Read the original article here.

[awebca]

I think the main question is whether the dems (and liberals/ndp in Canada) are able or willing to marshall grievance and hate against the conservative party.

In Canada, starting in Alberta but spreading country-wide now, the main thing the cons offer is blind hatred of the Trudeau name, Liberalsm and the always nebulous 'left'. The right legitimately haaaates the opposition. The libs (centre) and ndp (centre-left) are doing all the same ineffective responses to it. One or both needs to marshall the simmering hatred of the bigots and moronic policies and campaign on it. The cons basic campaign slogan for almost a decade now has literally been Fuck Trudeau. It's on fucking flags and fucking bumper stickers. Well, a lot of us want a leader to stand up and say "You know what, fuck those guys. Fuck 'em, they're adults who have been throwing a pathetic tantrum for 40 years. Fuck them, they are trying to kill you and your families".

And with backwards environmental policies, anti-science pandemic policies, pro-war policies, privatized health policies...that's not fucking wrong. Fuck those regressive assholes.

But the libs are doing the slow walk rightward, like a small change in policy will overcome the hatred. And the NDP...well, we're waiting. Get fucking angry.

I think it's important to understand that the vast majority of voters do not spend much time thinking through their political decisions because it's simply not something that occupies much space in their minds. You can't reason someone out of a position they didn't reason themselves into, and it's extremely difficult to fight feelings with facts.

Now that the Democratic party's inner core is highly-educated cosmopolitan urbanites, it seems to have lost the ability to deal with that reality.

Most people do not feel like trump is a fascist, or that he wants to be a dictator. Most people do not feel like any of Biden's massive legislative/executive accomplishments improved their lives at all. Most people do not feel like Harris's platform would've actually gotten done or helped them. Most people feel like Trump ran a better economy and that it's Democrats' fault that inflation got so bad.

In an individualistic, selfish nation with one of the worst education systems in the industrialized world, a political party cannot win by serving up a charcuterie board of various poll-tested policies that it then tries to explain to people who could not care less and don't understand anyway. It needs to create an overwhelming feeling, a feeling that changes the minds of people who don't give a fuck about anything but themselves and their wallets. Trump found that overwhelming feeling. Through bravado, cruelty, and levity, he created this zeitgeist of blunt, confident grievance that countless prideful people who feel left behind by the economy could grab onto. This feeling inspired people far beyond his cult of enthusiastic fascists and self-identified bigots.

The country chose trump because Trump's brand, vibe, and message inspired compelling emotions in more people, especially in people who have no interest in civic engagement, don't follow the news, and have been given little understanding of government/economics by our failing education system.

This problem wasn't fully apparent in 2022 during the midterms, when more low-propensity voters stayed home and highly-educated, highly-engaged people made up more of the electorate.

[spider-xan]

The thing about the average Canadian, especially the white ones, is that unlike Americans, they have zero loyalty to any political party and will just go back and forth between the Liberals (centrist) and Conservatives (previously centre-right, now far right) bc they are self-centered apathetic racists who will vote for the party in power if they are happy and vote for the other party if they are mad (we have a multi party system, but Canadians act like we have a two party system and even the wishy washy centre-left major party is considered too scary and communist for your average centrist Canadian, and Canadians pride themselves on being centrists) - so right now, everyone in the country across the entire political spectrum is angry at Trudeau and the Liberals, albeit for wildly different reasons, which means most Canadians will vote for the Conservatives by default next year, literally does not matter what the parties' platforms and policies bc (white) Canadians are largely stupid apathetic racist settlers full of H*tler particles.

[head-post]

Canada’s PM Trudeau weakened after his main ally abruptly withdrew support

A minor party helping to keep Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government in power has withdrawn its support, forcing him to seek new alliances.

Trudeau dismissed talk of an early election after New Democratic Party’s (NDP) leader Jagmeet Singh claimed he was “ripping up” a deal struck between them in 2022. The move left the prime minister dependent on the support of other opposition lawmakers to survive a confidence vote in the lower house of parliament.

An election will come in the coming year, hopefully not until next fall, because in the meantime, we’re going to deliver for Canadians. I really hope the NDP stays focused on how we can deliver for Canadians, as we have over the past years, rather than focusing on politics.

He first took office in November 2015, but struggled over the past two years to repel attacks from opposition centre-right Conservatives. They blamed him for high inflation and the housing crisis. The NDP’s Singh expressed growing frustration with Trudeau in recent months, particularly over what he said was the Liberals’ inability to deal with high grocery shop prices.

Justin Trudeau has proven again and again he will always cave to corporate greed. Liberals have led people down – they don’t deserve another chance.

Crisis of mistrust

However, polls show that the same voter fatigue that Trudeau suffers from has spread to the NDP. Despite successfully pushing the Liberals to introduce measures like a national dental programme, the party is lagging far behind and comes third.

Under the terms of the 2022 deal, the NDP agreed to keep Trudeau in power until mid-2025 in exchange for increased social spending.

The House of Commons will reconvene on 16 September. The Conservatives will then be able to offer a vote of confidence. Trudeau’s Liberals will reportedly retain power if the NDP abstains in the vote. Key to the Trudeau government will be a budget update later this year, which, if lawmakers vote against it, will lead to a new election.

Read more HERE

[anth489project]

Photo #3: Freedom Convoy

This is a picture of the Sudbury branch of the Freedom Convoy. Every Saturday afternoon, from 12:30 until about 5:00, they gather in their pickup trucks in the public parking lot across from Bell park, which is the biggest and most frequented park in the city, along Paris Street, one of the main thoroughfares throughout Sudbury. They park their pickup trucks along the street, set up their tent, and walk around waving their Canada flags and "Fuck Trudeau" flags and hoisting their signs for everyone driving by to see. I'm not even entirely sure what it is they're protesting anymore, since the Freedom Convoy was originally conceived to protest mask mandates and vaccine protocols during the COVID-19 pandemic, but they seem to have their fair share of causes. I've seen signs about protecting the children (I'm not sure from whom, probably transgender people), distrusting the government, and encouraging people to do their own research before labeling them as conspiracy theorists.

I decided to use the Freedom Convoy as an example of resistance because I feel like it goes against what we normally expect of resistance and guerrilla urbanism. A lot of the examples we discussed in class, whether from Cartographies of Youth Resistance (Magaña, 2020) or from the lectures, along with the rest of the photos on this blog, tend to focus on forms of resistance from more leftist or centre-left political perspectives. I would consider the Freedom Convoy to be a far-right organization, and I'm sure many of the individuals belonging to the Convoy would consider themselves to be conservative or right-leaning as well, but they are also participating in a form of guerrilla urbanism. In Sudbury, they are gathering in a parking lot and occupying public space in order to protest against the government, as well as gathering at Tom Davies Square (municipal government office) to disrupt an open house town hall meeting and protest government actions. During the COVID-19 lockdown, a much larger group of them from across the country drove to Ottawa and occupies the capitol in order to protest COVID-19 mandates. Although we generally tend to associate guerrilla urbanism and resistance with more left-leaning groups, it's not fair to discount right-leaning groups using the same tactics (eg. occupying public spaces for protests, leaving signs and stickers on public infrastructure to promote their cause without permission) to combat oppression (whether real or perceived).

The Freedom Convoy demonstrates resistance and refusal by protesting the government and its laws that they deem unjust and/or unfair, creating online and in-person counterspaces to organize grassroots campaigns and spread their message, and choosing not to follow laws that they believe violate their freedoms. Whether you agree with them or not - and it's definitely a polarizing issue for a lot of people in Canada (although I'm not entirely sure the Freedom Convoy still exists and regularly gathers anywhere else but Sudbury_ - they are a good example of a small group's guerrilla usage of urban space for resistance.

Word count: 497

Works cited: Clarke, T. (2024, March 21). Protesters disrupt open house at Tom Davies Square. Sudbury.com. https://www.sudbury.com/city-hall/protesters-disrupt-open-house-at-tom-davies-square-8490527

Magaña, M.R. (2020). Cartographies of Youth Resistance. University of California Press.

Parliamentary Committee Notes: Evolution of the Freedom 2022 Convoy. (2022, December 20). Public Safety Canada. Retrieved July 11, 2024, from https://www.sudbury.com/city-hall/protesters-disrupt-open-house-at-tom-davies-square-8490527.