#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.

[zvaigzdelasas]

[CBC is Canadian State Funded Media]

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Wednesday senior bureaucrats are reviewing the Deschenes Commission report — a 1980s-era independent inquiry that looked at alleged Nazi war criminals in Canada — with an eye to making more of it public. Governor General Mary Simon also said today Rideau Hall is sorry for honouring Peter Savaryn — a former chancellor of the University of Alberta who served in the same Nazi unit as Yaroslav Hunka — with the Order of Canada [in 1987].[...]

The vice-regal office is also examining the Golden and Diamond Jubilee medals previously awarded to Savaryn, who also served as president of the Ukrainian World Congress, a group that represents the Ukrainian diaspora.[...] The first [part of the report], which included recommendations to make it easier to extradite war criminals, was released publicly. The second was marked secret and the names of alleged Nazis in Canada were never released. Jewish groups, including B'nai Brith and the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Centre (FSWC), have said the second part should be unredacted and disclosed publicly so that Canadians can learn more about the country's shameful history of admitting an untold number of Nazi collaborators after the Second World War.[...]

"There are top public servants looking very carefully into the issue, including digging into the archives," Trudeau told reporters. "We're going to make recommendations."

Reports suggest as many as 2,000 Ukrainian members of Hitler's Waffen-SS were admitted to Canada after the war — after some British prodding. The commission said the number is likely lower than that.[...]

Quebec Liberal MP Anthony Housefather said it's a delicate issue because the government doesn't want to "bring pain to a lot of Eastern European communities." Hunka, for example, has framed his war service as a fight for Ukrainian independence. The unit he fought for, the 1st Galician division, is also memorialized by Ukrainian expatriate groups at different sites across the country.[...]

The Deschenes report has also concluded that allegations of war crimes committed by this division have "never been substantiated."

That finding conflicts with what the post-war, Allies-led Nuremberg trials concluded about SS units like that one.[...]

"We have to recognize we have a horrible past with Nazi war criminals. We opened our country to people after the war in a way that made it easier to come if you were a Nazi than if you were a Jew," Housefather said.[...]

Conservative MP Melissa Lantsman, the party's deputy leader, said Canadians need to know more about the country's "dark history" of "letting Nazis through the door to live here in peace and security." Lantsman represents the Toronto-area riding of Thornhill, a riding with one of the country's largest Jewish communities. In an interview with CBC News, Lantsman said the party supports revisiting the Deschenes report and its findings in some way.[...]

Asked if it might be too painful for some communities to revisit alleged Second World War-era crimes, Lantsman said "history is painful but that doesn't mean we don't need to reckon with it."[...]

Quebec Conservative MP Gérard Deltell, Poilievre's environment critic, said Wednesday he's not open to revisiting the issue right now.[...]

NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said he supports releasing the commission's report.

4 Oct 23

[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’. 

[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

[allthecanadianpolitics]

The Quebec government is calling on the federal government to withdraw its support of Amira Elghawaby, the new representative to combat Islamophobia, only four days after she was first appointed.

This comes a day after her attendance at the sixth commemoration of the deadly mosque attack in Quebec City, honouring the six men who were killed in 2017 when a gunman opened fire just before 8 p.m. in the Islamic Cultural Centre in the Sainte-Foy neighbourhood.

Since her appointment on Thursday, the journalist and human rights activist has been pressured to clarify her position on Quebec's secularism law.

In 2019 she wrote a column for the Ottawa Citizen where she denounced the "anti-muslim sentiment" that surrounded the adoption of Bill 21 — which bans public servants from wearing religious symbols such as hijabs.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau reiterated his support for Elghawaby on Monday.

Trudeau said that over the years, she has had the opportunity to consider the impacts of various pieces of legislation on the community — part of what makes her role important. He said Elghawaby was appointed because she knows the Muslim community well and can share their concerns.

"She is there to speak for the community with the community and build bridges," said Trudeau.

"Her job now is to make sure that she is helping the government and helping everyone move forward in the fight against Islamophobia." [...]

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[girlactionfigure]

Seventy-six 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

[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."

[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.

[thxnews]

Canada Mourns Iconic Filmmaker Jewison

Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today issued the following statement on the passing of Norman Jewison: “Norman Jewison was an iconic filmmaker, writer, and director. He made some of the most memorable films of the 20th century – films that told stories of diversity and of our relentless humanity, like Fiddler on the Roof, In the Heat of the Night, and Moonstruck. They were his own creative works, but they echoed values that are held by all Canadians. He was a proud Canadian and leaves behind a body of work that is still deeply relevant to Canadians, and all people. “A veteran of the Second World War, Mr. Jewison served overseas with the Royal Canadian Navy. After his service, he attended Victoria College at the University of Toronto before starting a career in television and the movies that spanned over 50 years. “A staunch believer in social justice, Mr. Jewison was committed to working for the greater good. He marched in civil rights protests in the 1960s and never shied away from thought-provoking, and often difficult, topics in his work. The Hurricane and the critically acclaimed In the Heat of the Night became seminal films on the topic of racial inequality. “Mr. Jewison’s films were wide ranging – from dramas, to comedies, to musicals – and they were best in class. His movies earned a total of 45 Academy Award nominations and won 12. Mr. Jewison himself received three Academy Award nominations for Best Director and an Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award. He was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1988 and was inducted into Canada’s Walk of Fame a decade later. “Despite international acclaim, Mr. Jewison never forgot his Canadian roots. He mentored many aspiring Canadian filmmakers. In 1998, he founded the Canadian Film Centre, which continues to encourage and support Canadian talent. “The world of movies has lost one of its greats, and Canada has lost one of its most talented storytellers. On behalf of the Government of Canada and all Canadians, I offer my deepest condolences to Mr. Jewison’s family and friends. I know his legacy will remain an inspiration for generations.”   Sources: THX News & The Canadian Government. Read the full article

[okgooglenews]

US provided Canada with intelligence on killing of KTF chief Hardeep Singh Nijjar: Report - The Tribune India

* US provided Canada with intelligence on killing of KTF chief Hardeep Singh Nijjar: Report  The Tribune India * "Trudeau Took Several Risks In Going Public With India Allegations": Expert | Left Right And Centre  NDTV * Western intelligence led to Canada accusing India of Sikh activist’s assassination, US Ambassador says  CNN * Trudeau’s anti-India stance despicable as pro-Khalistan ally targets Modi, SFJ threatens Hindu-Canadians  Firstpost * Yeh Jo India Hai Na: Defy Canada via Diplomacy, Targeted Killings Not an Option  The Quint * View Full Coverage on Google News http://dlvr.it/SwYfKh

[awkward-teabag]

How I've long framed it is that BC's party's are a step to the right of where people think they would be. Liberals (now BC United) are right, NDP is centrist, and Greens are centre-left—though with them it depends on who's leader and what sort of candidates they're running.

Which, I guess, means the Conservatives are PPC and, given their candidates, they wouldn't be out of place there.

But BC has had the issue since I can remember where people here play up how "liberal" they are but they're actually centre or centre-right and simply don't want to be called conservative or Conservative. Even the NDP is pretty centre with some left-ish policies and Eby decided to move further to the centre to appeal to Liberal United voters. It's a status quo party that's between Trudeau and Singh and much closer to the former than the latter.

At least Eby is more left than Horgan was.

But like Anon, I'm hoping if the current seat predictions stay, the NDP and Greens will force each other to shift to the left. Even Weaver tended to lean more left when the Greens held balance between the NDP and Liberals, and he's the personification of "Tories on bikes", has endorsed Rustad and the Conservatives, defended them when people pointed out how they don't think climate change is a concern/real, and said the current Green party has "lost its way" (likely because it ceased being the "socially progressive, fiscally conservative" party and has actually taken steps to move to the left in general post-Weaver).

I was born here and BC has always been a province that was centrist at best (under the Liberals and SoCreds it was actually right-wing) with a rainbow sticker and a "I <3 trees" sticker to give the illusion of being left. Being above the US and beside Alberta just made it seem more progressive than it actually was/is.

Hi! Wanted to reply to the anon from Alberta, and also folks in general anxious about the BC election, with a (mostly) hopeful message.

I'm a queer POC immigrant from BC and I've never really seen it as a left stronghold. The "BC Liberals" were always actually a conservative party, and the BC NDP are in many ways more centrist than the already centrist-in-many-ways federal NDP. This might sound dire, but I like to frame it as: this election isn't revealing a loss in empathy. We've already been working at this level, and we can continue to make gains from here.

Furthermore, if the pre-recount results hold and the Greens end up holding the balance of power with their 2 seats, the coalition between the two non-conservative parties could encourage them both to lean into their more popular and progressive ideas, like the harm reduction that became a wedge issue this election. This was the sort of power dynamic I had hoped for when proportional representation was floated in BC, and it may be interesting seeing how that plays out.

Further-furthermore, no matter the electoral situation, grassroots movements continue to fight, and their wins are often underreported by the news. Even though times may toughen, people are always finding ways to look out for each other.

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