Canada

General attitudes:

Almost 60% are going to look for another job if mandated to RTO:

The Canadian government is preparing to give away Canadians’ digital lives—to U.S. police, to the Donald Trump administration, and possibly to foreign spy agencies.

Bill C-2, the so-called Strong Borders Act, is a sprawling surveillance bill with multiple privacy-invasive provisions. But the thrust is clear: it’s a roadmap to aligning Canadian surveillance with U.S. demands…

A spectre is haunting Canadian roads: the real prospect of actually having to pay a fine for not respecting the speed limit. As speed cameras proliferate, particularly in Ontario, some drivers are showing their displeasure. Many of the cameras have been vandalized and one in Toronto cut down six times.

It’s time for a deep breath.

Speed cameras shouldn’t disappear, they should multiply. The cameras are effective and, because their penalty is so easily avoided, they are fair.

...

In fact, a recent poll for CAA showed majority support among Ontarians for the cameras. Politicians who pander to the minority of drivers who hate them are gambling with public safety.

Those politicians span the ideological spectrum, from Ontario’s Progressive Conservative Premier Doug Ford to former Ontario Liberal leader Steven Del Duca, now mayor of suburban Vaughan, and left-leaning Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow.

So busy trying to placate drivers, these politicians ignore that speed cameras work. The hit in the wallet is sufficiently unpleasant that it convinces people to slow down. For evidence, consider that the number of tickets issued by any given camera typically goes down over time.

That effect has been further demonstrated by research from a hospital and university in Toronto. According to their findings, referenced in a recent city staff report, the proportion of vehicles speeding went down 45 per cent after cameras were installed near schools and in high-collision areas.

...

A person hit by a vehicle travelling at 30 kilometres an hour has a 90-per-cent chance of surviving. Increase the speed to 40 kilometres an hour, though, and the survival rate drops to 60 per cent. A person hit at 50 kilometres an hour has only a 20-per-cent chance of living.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/editorials/article-sorry-speed-cameras-arent-the-problem/

The Canadian government is preparing to give away Canadians’ digital lives—to U.S. police, to the Donald Trump administration, and possibly to foreign spy agencies.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/33408045

Show begins 27th season covering Trump’s lawsuit against Paramount and cancellation of Stephen Colbert’s show, depicting Trump in bed with Satan

South Park has kicked off its 27th season with a blistering episode taking aim at Donald Trump and its newly minted parent company, Paramount, just one day after signing a $1.5bn deal with the network.

The premiere episode, “Sermon on the Mount,” sees Trump in bed with series regular Satan and covers topics including Trump’s lawsuit against Paramount, the cancellation of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, wokeness, Trump’s attacks on Canada and more.

Unlike other characters, Trump is depicted as an actual photo of the US president on an animated body. There is also an extended scene featuring a hyper-realistic, deepfake video of Trump, completely naked, walking in a desert. There are repeated suggestions that Trump’s genitalia are small.

So this was absolutely incredible. Anyone else seen it?

The CAF deployed 600 personnel, a warship, a maritime helicopter, and three warplanes to Australia on July 13 to participate in the Talisman Sabre war exercise, which will run until August 4. Talisman Sabre is a biennial, massive-scale joint military exercise seemingly designed to flex member countries’ military might against superpowers like the PRC as global tensions rise. Australia and the US have been running the Talisman Sabre exercise every other year since 2005, but this year’s is set to be the largest yet – representing a grand total of 19 countries and 35,000 personnel, running from July 13 to August 4.

Such large-scale military operations as those on display under Talisman Sabre would constitute a gross and wholly avoidable escalation of current tensions in the South China Sea, as former Australian Ambassador to the Philippines and to South Korea, Mack Williams, wrote in 2017. The US' FONOP program in the South China Sea has been systematically proven ineffective and even counter-productive, serving only to provoke Chinese hostility, precluding diplomatic engagement.

The US have a monopoly on credit card payments with Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Diners Club, etc.

Even with online payment systems like PayPal, GPay, Apple Pay.

The only Canadian option that I know of is the new Shop Pay, which is owned by Shopify. (And we all know the founder CEO, Tobias Lutke is a far-right fascist traitor who loves the idea of being a 51st state.)

Right now Visa and Mastercard are controlling what stores can sell, and what services can be provided. Censoring online content, like asking Steam and Itch.io to remove certain games.

What are examples of alternatives in other countries? I know that Japan, for example, has their own independent ones, I think?

Do you think they might be refused by American companies in order to keep their monopoly?

I'd like to know what you think.

"Officials in the Donald Trump administration discussed loaning the oil-rich province of Alberta hundreds of millions of dollars to help it become independent from Canada, a prominent separatist is claiming."

Big if true.