Canada

No comment other than the phrase in title is prominent on the hats intentionally shown behind the young man being interviewed here. I'll let everyone reading this decide for themselves whether this is a problem or not.

EDIT: For the record, perhaps my original commentary on this post was attempting to be too 'clever'. I was most definitely * not * trying to promote these chuckleheads. It was posted in order to ensure people know the enemy -- there are some scary forces working in Canada to instill the horrors we are seeing down south, right here, right now.

Queen Elizabeth died in 2022. I haven't seen any money with the new king on it. Do they think he's going to die too so just waiting to avoid having to redo the work?

Pete Hoekstra thumbs through an imaginary document, and pauses for effect: “This is a serious proposal — pile one.” Then he raises a second document. “I can’t believe this,” he guffaws. “This is a joke.” Straight to the discard pile.

That, says President Donald Trump’s ambassador to Canada, is how it will go — one way or another — when newly elected Prime Minister Mark Carney submits a proposal on a revamped economic and security agreement with the United States

The long story short is that in nine years, over the lifetime of the Trudeau government, federal subsidies to business more than doubled through the introduction of over 100 new programs. Every Canadian went from paying just over $310 to businesses large and small to over $800 per year in 2023/24.

A group representing major foreign streaming companies told a hearing held by Canada's broadcasting regulator on Friday that those companies shouldn't be expected to fulfil the same responsibilities as traditional broadcasters when it comes to Canadian content.

The Motion Picture Association-Canada, which represents large streamers like Netflix, Paramount, Disney and Amazon, said the regulator should be flexible in modernizing its definition of Canadian content.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) is holding a two-week public hearing on a new definition of Canadian content that began Wednesday. The proceeding is part of its work to implement the Online Streaming Act — and it is bringing tensions between traditional players and large foreign streamers out in the open.

The Canadian military insists it's getting a handle on its recruiting crisis, but a new leaked internal report obtained by CBC News suggests many of those who come through the door quickly leave in frustration over the inability to get trained and into the job they want.

In addition, the effort to retain experienced soldiers, sailors and aircrew was dealt an important blow recently when a Department of National Defence office — set up to find ways to keep people — was defunded.

The struggle to recruit new members to both the regular and the reserve force has been a major preoccupation as the Forces face a shortage of up to 14,000 qualified personnel.

But the flip side of the equation — that has gotten less attention — is the effort to hold on to people, especially in critical technical trades.

“Alberta is a place soaked in self-deception.” Those words began Alberta-based journalist Mark Lisac’s 2004 book aimed at shattering the myths that have unhelpfully animated too much of Alberta’s politics over the past few decades.

Current and former Alberta politicians are once again embracing and treating separatist grievances seriously. That means it’s time once again to highlight and challenge political misconceptions that have the potential to destroy Canada.

Oil is the root of one such myth. The misconception? That Ottawa perennially opposes the oil and gas sector and is determined to stop its continued growth. The National Energy Program (1980), the Northern Gateway pipeline project (2016), the Energy East pipeline (2017) and the proposed greenhouse gas pollution cap allegedly prove Ottawa’s hostility.

Notably missing from these grievances is the Keystone XL pipeline and the Trans Mountain expansion project. Ottawa supported these projects aimed at transporting Alberta oilsands crude to foreign markets. The federal government even purchased the Trans Mountain project from Kinder Morgan in 2018 — not to kill it, but to build it.

Grand Chief Greg Desjarlais of the Confederacy of Treaty Six First Nations says no referendum can overturn the treaty that encompasses most of central Alberta.

"We're tired of seeing the government pass these bills where you don't see two sentences of Indigenous inclusion, and that has to stop," Desjarlais told the media at an anti-separatist rally on the steps of the Alberta Legislature building in Edmonton, amiskwaciwaskahikan, on Thursday.

About 600 people were at the demonstration, many with flags and signs protesting Alberta's separation from Canada and the controversial Bill 54, proposed by Premier Danielle Smith's government.

"I think we're tired of being pushed around," Desjarlais said.

CBC Site Of course the Ottawa resident isn't going to leave Stornoway and move to his suburban McMansion. Unemployable as he is, finding a mover who'll take "I'm sure to win the next election!" as a guarantee of payment is, ummmm, sketchier than most movers will accept.

https://archive.is/https://www.thestar.com/business/hudson-s-bay-to-sell-name-stripes-brands-to-canadian-tire-for-30-million/article_f795840b-f5b0-5e32-a722-af171ead18c0.html

Neskantaga First Nation Chief Gary Quisess is only six weeks into his first term, and is facing simultaneous crises in his community and in Thunder Bay. But he left home and travelled to Queen’s Park today to call out what he describes as “genocide” buried in new provincial environmental legislation.

Ontario’s proposed Bill 5, the Protect Ontario By Unleashing Our Economy Act, would allow the province to designate “special economic zones” that would qualify to bypass environmental regulations and speed up development. It is expected to be in force as early as September, and Premier Doug Ford intends to name the proposed Ring of Fire mineral development as the first such site.

Critics say the law would gut protections for endangered species, remove environmental protections, and trample Indigenous rights. Environmental Defence calls the legislation “an attack on civil liberties and treaty rights.”

The benefit could add $200 a month for people struggling. But the UCP government will deduct it from its own support.

Prime Minister Mark Carney says Canadians "weren't impressed" when the U.K. decided to offer U.S. President Donald Trump an unprecedented second state visit while he was threatening Canada's sovereignty.

"To be frank, they weren't impressed by that gesture, quite simply, given the circumstance," Carney told British news channel Sky News in an interview posted online Wednesday.

American-owned Quest Diagnostics purchased LifeLabs in August 2024 from OMERS, a jointly owned pension fund company, for $1.35 billion. LifeLabs’ B.C. workers, who have been without a contract since last April, have been on strike since Feb. 16.

Ayendri Riddell, director of policy and campaigns with the BC Health Coalition, or BCHC, says the fact that such a large part of Canada’s health infrastructure is owned by a massive foreign company is cause for concern.

“As a company they’re not accountable to the Canadian workforce or to our health-care system and our patients,” she says. “It doesn’t seem like their striking conditions are having much of an impact on Quest.”

As always, the Fraser Institute is shitting on ideas that could help the 99%, and saying government should rEmOvE ReD tApE.

I really want this to work. But the announcements I've seen for the building plan only address the supply side and ignore the problems on the demand side: people who own houses are able to pump up the cost of new houses; tax law encourages Canadians to treat their primary residence as an investment; real estate is used for money laundering (at least in some jurisdictions); mortgage fraud is a thing (at least in some jurisdictions); renovictions are used to pump the cost of rentals; and rent caps aren't available in many jurisdictions.

Anyhow, here's hoping the investing in modular housing succeeds, rezoning somehow lowers prices, and the feds are able to push housing starts to the moon.

The University of Toronto Faculty Association (UTFA) has voted to divest from Israel, the association announced on Friday.

This decision stems from Israel’s “illegal occupation of the Occupied Palestinian Territory,” the UTFA said.

The motion, which passed by 52% of the vote, calls on the Ontario University Pension Plan (UPP) to produce a rapid timeline for complete divestment from all direct and indirect holdings in entities that support or sustain Israel’s “occupation and/or which manufacture” or distribute arms, ammunition, or munitions of war where “there are reasonable grounds to suspect they may have been used by Israel in Palestine.”