LoveCanada

Gotta say, Id never heard of the 2015 Jeep hack before. I wonder whether the changes after that point secured data any better.

Where did I say I disagreed with class size limits? My entire post was about how its not a simple thing to measure. You've jumped to a conclusion and then put a whole lot more assumptions on me and on "conservatives".

Because an EVs oft touted "feature" is over the air updates. Gas/diesel vehicles dont generally update anything significant over the air because you CAN'T update mechanical parts over the air but you certainly can for a car thats basically a computer on wheels with software that controls everything.

So despite your comment, no, most gas/diesel cars are not designed to be permanently connected to the internet and transmitting data at any time, without your knowledge like EVs are most definitely like Chinese EVs will be.

I wish I had your confidence in 'proper data protection laws' in Canada. The EU seems to have done a half decent job on that but Canada and the US are so far behind that by the time we update our privacy laws everything that can be collected already will be.

Thanks for the link. I will definitely do a deeper dive.

Class size is not a simple matter.

In elementary grades most kids are together for every class. So a Grade 1 class with 25 kids has 25 kids. But by senior high there are lots of options. You might have 30 kids in English class but only 15 in Biology and 10 in Band.

And complexity is even trickier. A class of 30 kids of at similar skill levels is far easier to teach than a class of 20 that has 10 kids who dont speak English as their first language and 5 who have individual planning programs and 2 who have severe behavior/mental health issues.

So saying class sizes must be capped at x number is not a simple measure at all.

Interesting idea. But not very realistic. I know a lot of teachers (5 in my immediate family and I used to lead over 40 of them at my school) and they all chose the profession because they love kids and they see this profession as noble and building something for the future of the province. I highly doubt a single one of them would consider leaving over this dispute. They're very loyal to their students.

No, we didnt get f'd by the government and we weren't exploited. We CHOSE not to join the ATA or become public schools because we didnt agree with the imposition of a curriculum that didnt align with our values. Therefore we were given no funding.

The gov has since realized that there are thousands (about 5% of the student population) that are in the same position and rather than not fund them they now give partial funding to the over 200 independent schools in AB.

Its definitely a compromise on both parts because now those same schools also have to conform to some of the very things that kept us from accepting the funding in the first place. The adage is accurate: "You take the governments shekels means you take the governments shackles" Its better for the teachers but it did involve compromises.

You went way too far. Reported.

I'm really torn on this one. I understand both sides of the fence on the dispute - I used to be a fully accredited AB teacher and at that time our school was not part of the Teacher's Union, so we worked for considerably lower salaries than the unionized teachers. Which was inherently unfair.

But we also had a very strong relationship with our board and we understood the reasons for our low pay so there was direct communication and a very strong agreement that we were all in this together and the money just wasn't there to do any better on our salaries.

Now teachers (including those at my old school) are unionized and much better paid and have considerably better benefits. That's fair.

But at the same time, I'm still not a huge fan of the unions. I do think the government did try to meet the teacher's demands as best they could given the current economic situation and staring down a 6 billion deficit. They have promised 90 new schools, 3000 new teachers, a 12% increase to every teacher and up to 17% for those who were in lower paid divisions. It's not chicken feed.

On the other hand using the NWC to end the strike AND impose massive fines for violators AND making any further strike action illegal for another four years feels like a union busting move. I'm not thrilled about that even if I'm not pro union. It seems like overkill and a taunt to other unions to go out on wildcat strikes. Very tense times ahead.

I feel for the teachers in the middle of all this tension. They are getting a raise but quite a few of them are going back disgruntled. There will be considerable tensions among staff as not all teachers are pro union and those who are just happy to be back at work aren't likely to speak up. It's still pretty messy all around.

Did you mean to leave teaching, or to leave the teacher's union?

There's a very large secondary reason that the gov should be blocking Chinese EVs beside the threat to our auto parts industry. Every new EV is a rolling data collector. Your phone captures a lot of data but its not covered in cameras that collect and transmit video/pics on everywhere you go and everything you pass and everywhere you park (like a Tesla does: https://www.reuters.com/technology/tesla-workers-shared-sensitive-images-recorded-by-customer-cars-2023-04-06/).

The Chinese are famous for copying everything they can and then producing it cheaper than the original and flooding the market with copies that are a fraction of the cost. Their goal is to dominate the world market in every area and they are well on the way. Look at home much stuff we now buy on Amazon/Aliexpress/Alibaba/Shein/Temu compared to just a few years ago.

With camera covered, GPS tracked, net connected EVs there is no way to keep the last vestige of our corporate and private lives from being collected and analyzed by the Chinese government and government linked corporations. And thats not just a threat to the auto industry thats a threat to every industry in Canada and I would dare to say, to our democracy.

We cannot and should not allow Chinese EVs into Canada. Ever.