Canadian Politics

Oh yeah though, that can be somewhat, not followed through (I don't know many schools who give Hannakuh break for instance, unless it happens to fall on the same days as Christmas break). But I guess it's kind of part of multiculturalism.

I was thinking more "celebrate every holy day", not "give vacations every holiday". Holidays are not a reprieve, they're extra work/fun

I don't mind so much if the rhetoric isn't taken all the way in practice, so long as there's progress in that direction.

edited 7th Jan '18 2:46:37 AM by TheHandle

Ah, well we give vacations for the Christian ones. Is why I mentioned it.

edited 7th Jan '18 9:34:54 AM by phantom1

I need to point out that Schools fall 100% behind Provincial Jurisdictions. As such, Trudeau hasn't really done anything. He can't. The Federal Government has no control over the education system. It's up to the provinces to let schools decide which holidays they want schools to let the kids celebrate.

edited 8th Jan '18 8:06:34 AM by Ghilz

Yes, that's true.

Random story about how inclusiveness can be done badly: at a card shop I saw a Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanzaa/Ramadan card. Ramadan, FYI, currently happens in the summer [it moves around the year depending on, I think the lunar cycle]? (Also, it's a period of fasting, which makes giving cards for it seem funny, kind of like giving someone a Lent card; wouldn't Eid be more suitable for cards?). It's like they were trying to stick all the holidays together without knowing anything about them.

I agree that it's good to learn about and commemorate lots of cultures' and religions' major holidays in school.

What/when are the main Sikh holidays, by the way? One of the big flaws of my high school courses on religion was that they didn't cover Sikhism at all (they did Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) despite it being one of Canada's biggest religions. It wasn't until a few years ago that I even realized it was monotheistic; before that I figured it was related to Hinduism.

edited 8th Jan '18 7:10:59 PM by Galadriel

And yeah wrong time of year and poor card holiday, I guess that comes from wanting something around Christmas, which is it's own issue.

Them not covering Sikhism seems like a big oversight since there is probably kids in the class with that religion (there were kids in my Social Studies class who were Sikh) oh I can't think of them either though embarrassingly enough, even though there was that one festival that all the BC Premiers went to, because well it was a holiday during their campaign, and Global covered it just so many times (they repeat stories a lot) and yet I'm drawing a blank on it's name.

edited 8th Jan '18 8:06:30 PM by phantom1

Vaisakhi? That's Sikh New Year. April 13th or 14th.

Yeah that might be it. (I'm now slowly becoming aware I forgot when the election was).

Second or third week of May, I think?

Yeah, so April would be the beginning? That sounds about right.

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/politics/grenier-singh-seats-1.4477621

Singh has few options to secure a seat in the Commons before the general. He's willing to run in Brampton and downtown Toronto (dominated by Liberals who won handily and are mostly in their first term with no plans to leave), and Windsor (NDP fortress, but Singh says he won't ask a member of his caucus to step aside for him). Barring unforeseen circumstances, Singh will probably be without an opening until fall 2019. That's not good for a young and unknown leader.

I think he should swallow his pride/integrity and run if a viable riding outside of those cities or even Ontario opens up. He needs to get into the House, its worked for other leaders, and could possibly trigger an NDP comeback in areas where Trudeau shut them out.

edited 9th Jan '18 10:56:06 AM by Rationalinsanity

I don't think it's that critical. Mulcair being very celebrated for both his debating style and flawless attendance in Parliament didn't win him an election. And Trudeau prior to being Elected (and somewhat still after) has had one of the spottiest attendance record and look how little people cared.

Singh can just as well spend his time roaming Canada and being present and meeting people and building local bases. It's what Trudeau did a lot rather than attend Parliament, and again, look how it worked for him.

Truth of the matter is people don't really pay attention on what goes on in Parliament beyond what laws get passed (or not), and that's all gonna happen with or without Singh.

edited 10th Jan '18 5:30:01 AM by Ghilz

A seat in the House isn't useful as a tool, but it is a good status symbol in a field where popular perception is sadly key.

Honestly, I'd be willing to bet the popular perception is probably that he has one already. I'd bet money most people don't know he doesn't.

Anyway, Singh might get a shot in 2018, Mulcair is set to retire which will free the Outremont riding. But it'll be a tough fight as before Mulcair this was a very strong Liberal ridding.

In other news: Apparently the renovations of 24 Sussex have not only still not started, but there's not been even a plan approved for them yet.

A group of independent senators is pushing for an Ethic probe into Lynn Beyak's website comments that got her kicked out of the Conservative caucus.

edited 10th Jan '18 8:51:25 AM by Ghilz

The Transportation Safety Board released its report on the Death of Jean Lapierre, former Liberal Minister. For those who don't remember the Story, Lapierre died in a plane crash in Isles-De-La-Madeleine in Quebec. The plane also carried Lapierre's wife, his sister and his brother as well as two crewmember. No one survived. For extra tragedy point, they were flying to go attend the funeral of their father. Anyway, TSB confirms an unstable approach caused the crash, the pilot was overwhelmed with too many tasks to properly regain control. They also blame the pilot's lack of practice.

Also having a bit of a chuckle at the situation in Ontario with Tim Hortons, where a few franchisees have decided to compensate for the minimum wage hike by reducing employee advantages. Now there's talk of a boycott, and several Tim Hortons are being picketed, even stores who ARE NOT doing any such things.

edited 10th Jan '18 10:03:40 AM by Ghilz

The franchise set-up (technically a series of semi-independent stores that all share the same branding and all order from the same parent company) kind of goes over people's heads. And I don't blame them. There is no effort whatsoever to make that clear. It's how these fast food places make so much money. The individual stores shoulder all the risk and the head office gets all the reward.

But anyway, if the protesting gets big enough, the Tim Hortons head office might make a decision about it.

Tim Horton's owner, RBI, can't. It's a Franchise. they cannot dictate the working conditions the franchisees offer.

That's not technically true. The profits are split between the franchise owner and the parent company. While yes, the franchisee does take the risks, they are also the ones deciding to open a business, so that's true of any business owner. There's some franchise owners who are very rich thanks to owning a few Tim Hortons stores. (Full disclosure, I work for a company that makes business with Tim Hortons, so I know their structure fairly well)

Also worth mentioning, the owners cutting benefits include The son and daughter of the Founder of the Franchise no less.

EDIT: I suppose one thing RBI could do is cut down the take it gets from franchisees to "soften" the hit.

edited 10th Jan '18 10:22:48 AM by Ghilz

A Muslim schoolgirl in Toronto had her headscarf cut by an attacker while walking to school.

It appeared that it has been classified as hate crime. Why would people do this, let alone to a minor?

edited 12th Jan '18 7:16:39 PM by murazrai

They're liberating her whether she likes it or not, in their minds.

Bigots gonna bigot, sadly. Can't do much to stop them, only come down hard on them when they get caught and protect the victims afterwards.

edited 13th Jan '18 10:10:51 PM by Rationalinsanity

You can counter their memes and sway the moderates.

There's more that we can and need to do besides punishing the bigots after hate crimes occur. We need to change the political climate to one in which everyone knows these actions are atrocious and unacceptable.

Hate crimes, especially against Muslims, have gone up since the election of Trump specifically because it made bigots feel that their views were validated and supported. When Quebec passes laws saying Muslims can be barred from using public services or being employed by the government based on what they wear, it creates a climate where these kinds of attacks happen. When the Conservative leader says campuses should be required to let hate groups hold events, it creates a climate where these kinds of attacks happen.

We need to prevent these attacks, and that means fighting bigotry on every front and demanding that every politician make it clear through their words, actions and votes that bigotry is unacceptable. When hate groups march in the streets, police need to be protecting people from them, not attacking anti-fascist counter-protestors.

Hate crimes aren't random isolated incidents. Their prevalence is a product of the political culture.

edited 14th Jan '18 11:39:44 AM by Galadriel

And now it turns out that the attack never happened, which just makes it harder for victims to come forward and be believed.

http://www.cbc.ca/beta/news/canada/toronto/scarborough-hijab-attack-1.4487716

We sure this isn't a case of the cops pressuring a vulnerable girl into retracting a claim? It's not like that doesn't happen.