Cops won't enforce the law. Courts can't or won't lock people up. Politicians sure as hell won't lead. But we've got some fresh legislation coming, apparently.
enjoyed the pod - gotta say tho on the dress code/puncutuality and language rules - to me this is akin to Van Halen having a "no yellow m&ms allowed" in their rider. (if you can't be bothered to pick out the yellow m&ms how does the band know you followed all the safety details for their staging and pyro etc....) I get it's an asshole thing but clearly this liberal government has gotten slovenly. if he's trying to enact standards of professionalism and taking care of the details then I'm all for it. honestly about fucking time and I'd rather Carney go down trying to enact his priorities and processes than roll over because some libs are getting pissy - esp because hardly any of them wouldn't be there unless he hadn't parachuted in.
“After demonstrating how he wants things done, he can reasonably trust that his employees will do things that way after his attention shifts away from the minutiae, or reasonably conclude that those who fail to do so are of no value and can be replaced, and I think his mandate letter is very clear that he eventually intends to let his cabinet ministers loose to fly or die on their own merits.”
Both your comment and the original post nail my thoughts on this as well. On the “masterclass” comment. Well I think that remains to be seen… he could just be a terrible micromanager. But I’m with you, how he’s approaching this is how you set expectations and change a culture.
Still willing to be optimistic based on what I’m seeing here.
The most important change will be Carney’s expectation that ministers know their files and are up to speed on issues. That’s a basic level of competence that was missing with a lot of Trudeau-era cabinet ministers, such as Harjeet Sajjan simply being unaware of things happening in his portfolio and not reading his e-Mail.
It’s shocking that it’s necessary to enforce something so basic and obvious, though. The fact that you even have to tell somebody to do that at a senior level suggests they never should’ve been in the position in the first place.
exactly how I feel. when I first saw the synopsis of the pod, it seemed like I was in for a much harder critique of Carney - instead it was just a reasonable take on the structural and human problems of government that Carney has to deal w. quite frankly I don't think he'll have any problems calling out intransigent cab members and hopefully he does. if anything, the PM should have higher standards for his cabinet than the oppo or public anyways - esp if he intends to actually change things.
Clarke, I love your term: "Bag skated" = refers to a type of intense practice in hockey where players skate without pucks, often as a punishment for poor performance or lack of effort. It typically involves exhausting drills designed to push players to their limits and improve their endurance and teamwork.
It’s fair to wonder that if a new Conservative administration waltzed in out of nowhere and enforced dress codes, punctuality and properly written messaging, would the civil service put up with it?
As someone who has worked in the government contracting space for 20+ years now and owns a business in Canada, I have thoughts on efficiencies for the public service.
Your biggest bang for buck change would be that no one is entitled to a job. That mentality needs to filter down into the law and culture, especially elite and union culture.
The quickest and most impactful way to give both Canada's economy a productivity boost, grow business and wealth in Canada and increase the efficiency and quality of the public service is to institute across the board "at-will" work laws. Right to work would help, but "at-will" work laws, like seen in East Asia and the US would be huge.
Canadian organizations need a way to remove the dead weight without punishment, within human rights limitations. Severance shouldn't exist nor should settlements. It should be easy to hire and easy to fire. The "master/servant" laws need to be left in the 19th Century. Employers, including the civil service are not social service agencies. The Nonwithstanding clause should be used to if needed and even a removal of the Charter if it gets to that. It is that existential of a threat to Canada's economy and now culture. Our civil service and economic failures I believe are at the heart of Canada's unity troubles. Nothing solves social issues like good jobs and money.
So yes, a culture of accountability and hustlr is needed and those who don't abide should be let go to flounder on their own time.
As any employer will tell you, a rotten apple spoils the whole bunch.
For me, accountability does not exist in Canada's political system. When Prime Ministers refuse to fire MPs who crapped the bed and are up to their ears in scandal, the ethics train left the station a long time ago. On efficiency, I think the federal public service employs well over 200K people and is Canada's largest employer. In the US it is Walmart with 2 million employees. (Once upon a time if was the Big 3 automakers but that ship has sailed.) What is the right number? Where are we repeating our efforts, etc.
The "right" number should be dynamic. Sometimes there is more work to be done, sometimes less. The important thing is to instill a culture of lack of entitlement to a good job.
There are two parts to governing - process and substance. I love what I am seeing from him process-wise. The details in the Post story were terrific. Wear a suit and show up on time, dammit! (As an aside, I think the "British spelling" demand relates more to, for example, spelling words like "honour" correctly rather than implementing British terms like petrol - and assuming I am correct about that, I am all for that, too). And I love that The King is coming.
But at the end of the day, I am going to judge him on substance. What does his government actually do? One interesting observation is that if he is a total disaster policy-wise we may rue that he is strong on the process-side since that may enable him to "better" implement a host of terrible policies. But time will tell. Something that has me somewhat more optimistic than I originally was are the recent reports that he dropped many of the tariffs against the USA during the campaign. I don't condone the campaign-deception obviously but he at least got the policy right and I will take that every time. Man, the bar is low haha.
Matt, point taken: Canada Post has a continually weakening bargaining position. Times they are a'changing.
It's kind of like the argument for the CBC continuing to see itself as a cultural creative force where it imagines its role is to express what Canadian culture ought to be, rather than just be good, reliable news for all Canadians.
When I went to get my passport renewed today, the Service Canada employee put me at ease saying, "We don't use Canada Post to deliver our passports anymore. We're using Purolator."
Mark Carney's dress code & time keeping requirements sounds a lot like a Bank CEO. What was absent in the announcement was consequences. Maybe the time outs or detentions are assumed but is this what Carney is spending his very limited Party capital on? He's an outsider, as he claimed often during the election, claimed it as a benefit of electing him. But was he assured by the Party execs that they have his back? His 2nd Cabinet is heavily Trudeau retreads. Nate Erskine-Smith complained loudly about being dropped from Cab 2.0. Guilbault as his QUEBEC lieutenant? That's a Party control posting if nothing else. I suspect we'll see more instances in the future of the LPC assimilating Carney, not vice versa.
New fed laws to protect Canada's Jewish population when the existing ones are being enforced? We see this in municipalities constantly. Some local group gets their Counsellor to get a bylaw passed and signs put up. But the number of tickets issued hovers around zero. We see laws as performance of governing rather than laws as effectively managing society. The contrast of non-enforcement of laws against pro-Hamas protestors is the 10 year term sought by the Federal Justice department for the 2 Freedom Convoy leaders for their conviction for MISCHIEF. Clearly disrupting Parliament Hill and its neighbours is WAY more important to Canadian society than the treatment of our jews.
Excellent podcast. Antisemitism is always there but now it has been amplified thanks to protest marches where people cover their faces (do we have a law about that? Who cares? ) Cops won't enforce it. Protestors harassing jews in the street, there's a law against that. Cops won't enforce it. It is well past time for our leaders to grow a pair and not just speak out on this issue, but effing lead on it. One way is being absolutely specific: Jews in the GTA or anywhere in Canada are experiencing events that one only has to look back 85 years and watch how the same thing led to Kristallnacht.
It's not enough to say you "stand with". How do you stand with? What does that mean? Isn't that word just meaningless baffle gab? Canadian citizens are living in fear of leaving their homes because they are jews and something awful might happen to them. Our fellow citizens. This country absolutely refuses to take a stand on anything and then throws words at the problem to give the appearance of doing something.
And something must be @%#*+$@ done about in right now.
On the Carney front,, I don't think he's in trouble because Trudeau lowered the bar for acceptability so much you need an excavator to extract it. I did snort coffee out my nose when I heard "We are in a position now where we cooperate when necessarily but not necessarily cooperate." Maybe he was channeling WMK. On the plus side, though, no more colorful socks.
Three excellent sections. I particularly appreciated Jen's clear callout regarding the difference between protesting the war in Gaza and intimidating Canadian Jews. I'd like to believe that most protesters are motivated by the humanitarian situation in Gaza, but in Toronto it's increasingly hard to make that case.
"Globalize the intifada" is a mainstay chant at all demonstrations: It means, and has always meant, exactly what it says. The other crowd favourite, "Free Palestine, from the river to the sea" means the exact same thing as "Jews will not replace us." What person of good faith marches and chants with the signal Charlottesville talking point?
Further, Toronto City Council, to its credit, has just passed a bylaw creating a 50-metre protest-free bubble zone around Jewish synagogues, schools and day cares. Nine, high-profile, mainstream "progressive" councillors voted against it, even though they (rightly) support such zones for mosques and abortion clinics. It is hard not to question the motivation of protesters whose civic leaders publicly vote to permit the ongoing harassment intimidation of Canadian Jews at synagogue and even their kids at day care.
Because the intifada has always included suicide bombings against civilian targets along with other attacks on civilian targets, the phrase “globalize the intifada” has always meant “bring on worldwide terrorism”.
I’m sure some don’t realize what they’re saying, but at the same time, we are all responsible for what we say.
The chant itself goes far beyond free speech because it is an explicit call for global terrorism. Bring on the incitement to violence criminal charges.
Jen and Matt’s discussion of the recent New York assassination of two young Israelis was quite moving. Now we’ll see if the relevant authorities proceed with federal terrorism charges or New York murder charges. The difference for the shooter if convicted is either a needle in a federal facility or a lifetime of steak and sex in a NY state prison. Hopefully the former.
I believe only one of the victims was an Israeli citizen, the Christian one, ironically. His soon-to-be fiancée was American, grew up in Kansas. Both worked for the Israeli embassy in Washington. I would think the prosecutors will seek the death penalty.
As the young Canadian Green Party sympathizer said, peaceful protest doesn't work against those in power. Time to use violence. Careful what you wish for. Cuts both ways when the state acts to defend itself. With violence.
Matt's not wrong when he says that police fear of being "handsy" is part of the reason for this lawless tolerance of "protests" that are long term intimidation campaigns against Canadian Jews.
But it's more than that. It is also racism.
I'm going to repeat what I said yesterday in another thread, but we to acknowledge and uncomfortable truth.
I said it was the LPC yesterday, and YES it is the LPC, but it's also the NDP and even the CPC from time to time. And because the LPC is "right thinking Canada", this is also true of right thinking Canada
The LPC's view of Gaza, (and others), is informed primarily by a racist lens. IT IS racist.
A non-racist lens would lead us to the same conclusions even if different racial groups were involved... and that's not what we have. They're not hood wearing maniacs... but their view of the issue is race based... which is to say racist.
Proof:
Let's keep ALL of the facts about Gaza the same, including the loss of land by the Palestinians, the British mandate, the wars, who attacked who, the post WW2 swell of immigration that increased the domestic Jewish population, the allegedly sketchy land purchases... ALL of that. Keep it ALL. Change only the races of the two groups. Replace the Jews with a group black people from the heart of Africa with a non-abrahamic African spirituality. Let's swap the Palestinians for white people.
Remember EVERYTHING else is the same, so this white group is non-democratic. It is totalitarian. It has many armed theocratic groups with ties to white theocracies. It has no freedom of religion obviously. Most recently the most powerful armed white group within this white population attacked, raped, kidnapped and murdered many of the black people. Before and after this event, the OVERWHELMING MAJORITY of the white civilians insist that black people are the descendants of apes and pigs, that the recent attack was a good thing and all the black people should be driven from the land at best. In fact they loudly celebrate the murders. One of their symbols are the blood stained hands of a white man who murdered two black people who had taken a wrong turn. The civilians have also been teaching their children in school for decades that the black people should be driven out and/or killed.
Is there a world in which the LPC would insist on funding these white supremacists?
Do we think the LPC would make sure our government didn't even miss a single payment after the mass rape, kidnap and slaughter of black men, women and children?
We all know there's no chance of this. The LPC would NEVER fund such a group, nor would ANY Canadian government, no matter who won an election. It's unthinkable. We don't support murderous racists even if they are badly done by. But that's what we do when everything is the same except the races are Jews and brown skinned people.
This is racism. It permeates our view of the issue.
And I think we all know that if the protests in Canada were all the same.. except it was white supremacist Christian nationalists protesting indigenous neighbourhoods, indigenous houses of worship and holding up a fig leaf that they were protesting against the policies of the Assembly of First Nations... we would RIGHTLY act VERY differently than we do with Jews and shut such "protests" down and punish the "protesters" to the fullest extent of the law.
As a former police officer of over forty years’ service I am deeply concerned and disappointed by the utter dereliction of duty by police forces across the country over the past couple of years, with regard to the protests and other similar activities since 7th October 2023. You are correct, Matt, in asserting that we currently have adequate laws in place with which to address public disorder, hate speech, etc; there has been an abject failure of law enforcement.
1) while I love the pod and look forward to what you both have to say and write, I am terribly disappointed in your grasp of geography, especially Alberta (or other areas outside Southern Ontario) geography. G7 in Kananaskis has been planned for years, done before and for someone in Calgary to not know it's an hour west, or that Battle River-Crowfoot is in south eastern Alberta, highlights how those from "the centre of the universe" often piss Albertans and other Canadians off?
2) While I agree that Carney's mandate letters are very good, that avoidance of excess verbiage and Trudeau style obfuscation, and having rules and expectations are huge, the bigger step required to improve government is for him to understand that for the past 3 decades governments, federal and provincial have curried and rewarded policy and political prowess rather than rewarding and listening to those who actually know what the subject matter is all about from learned knowledge and lived experience.
The people who can answer the technical and historical questions, plan for program execution and intelligently make decisions are subservient in most cases to those who have no practical or working understanding of the topic, who couldn't run a bake sale on a bet (and likely have little experience outside govt and academia), and whose only qualifications are an unrelated degree and ability to kiss the right ass at the appropriate time.
For the last 30 years governments have degraded the importance of staffers with technical competence and, after deciding that technical and practical knowledge is not required to manage, lead or run any program as long as you have a poli-sci degree; senior officials (DMs, ADMs, Directors General and Exective Directors) have chosen to promote their cloned "policy wonks" to all management levels (with few exceptions), and anyone with technical understanding and practical experience is Ted-circled and denied promotion to any managerial position.
The managers therefore not only "don't know" they also myopically have no idea what they don't know and don't trust their technical staffers who do know, have worked on the ground and know the people and programs impacted.
Carney needs to encourage ground truth alongside policy analysis to be successful.
Their are many other challenges within the public service (F/P/T/M) but making sure the people making decisions are at least talking to the people who understand the subject and not just the comms and politics is critical to Carney, and Canada, being successful!
Canadian Jews have been badly served by Canada on all levels of government and the justice system. In the 50's I learned about the Holocaust and the circumstances that allowed it to happen. I am watching many of these same actions on the streets of our cities, in our universities and in the halls of government 7 decades later here in Canada. In the 50's I was so proud to be a Canadian because I knew this horror could never happen here. I was wrong.
lots of good stuff in this episode. The "Hey, we [local,provincial,federal society] have a problem, lets add more rules, processes, studies, royal commission etc instead of addressing the problems" is one I find particularly acute these days. Locally for me, my fellow villagers are up in arms about fireworks being set off +-3 weeks around every holiday at every hour of the evening. But instead of doing the obvious, *ENFORCE THE EXISTING BYLAWS" our city wants to add just more bylaws that ultimately will be under enforced. This seems to play out at every level of government sadly.
enjoyed the pod - gotta say tho on the dress code/puncutuality and language rules - to me this is akin to Van Halen having a "no yellow m&ms allowed" in their rider. (if you can't be bothered to pick out the yellow m&ms how does the band know you followed all the safety details for their staging and pyro etc....) I get it's an asshole thing but clearly this liberal government has gotten slovenly. if he's trying to enact standards of professionalism and taking care of the details then I'm all for it. honestly about fucking time and I'd rather Carney go down trying to enact his priorities and processes than roll over because some libs are getting pissy - esp because hardly any of them wouldn't be there unless he hadn't parachuted in.
Good one, thumbs up 10x.
“After demonstrating how he wants things done, he can reasonably trust that his employees will do things that way after his attention shifts away from the minutiae, or reasonably conclude that those who fail to do so are of no value and can be replaced, and I think his mandate letter is very clear that he eventually intends to let his cabinet ministers loose to fly or die on their own merits.”
Both your comment and the original post nail my thoughts on this as well. On the “masterclass” comment. Well I think that remains to be seen… he could just be a terrible micromanager. But I’m with you, how he’s approaching this is how you set expectations and change a culture.
Still willing to be optimistic based on what I’m seeing here.
The most important change will be Carney’s expectation that ministers know their files and are up to speed on issues. That’s a basic level of competence that was missing with a lot of Trudeau-era cabinet ministers, such as Harjeet Sajjan simply being unaware of things happening in his portfolio and not reading his e-Mail.
It’s shocking that it’s necessary to enforce something so basic and obvious, though. The fact that you even have to tell somebody to do that at a senior level suggests they never should’ve been in the position in the first place.
exactly how I feel. when I first saw the synopsis of the pod, it seemed like I was in for a much harder critique of Carney - instead it was just a reasonable take on the structural and human problems of government that Carney has to deal w. quite frankly I don't think he'll have any problems calling out intransigent cab members and hopefully he does. if anything, the PM should have higher standards for his cabinet than the oppo or public anyways - esp if he intends to actually change things.
Clarke, I love your term: "Bag skated" = refers to a type of intense practice in hockey where players skate without pucks, often as a punishment for poor performance or lack of effort. It typically involves exhausting drills designed to push players to their limits and improve their endurance and teamwork.
Good comments.
It’s fair to wonder that if a new Conservative administration waltzed in out of nowhere and enforced dress codes, punctuality and properly written messaging, would the civil service put up with it?
Thank you Jen for refusing to be mealy mouthed about the Israeli shootings. It’s far past time to be blunt.
As someone who has worked in the government contracting space for 20+ years now and owns a business in Canada, I have thoughts on efficiencies for the public service.
Your biggest bang for buck change would be that no one is entitled to a job. That mentality needs to filter down into the law and culture, especially elite and union culture.
The quickest and most impactful way to give both Canada's economy a productivity boost, grow business and wealth in Canada and increase the efficiency and quality of the public service is to institute across the board "at-will" work laws. Right to work would help, but "at-will" work laws, like seen in East Asia and the US would be huge.
Canadian organizations need a way to remove the dead weight without punishment, within human rights limitations. Severance shouldn't exist nor should settlements. It should be easy to hire and easy to fire. The "master/servant" laws need to be left in the 19th Century. Employers, including the civil service are not social service agencies. The Nonwithstanding clause should be used to if needed and even a removal of the Charter if it gets to that. It is that existential of a threat to Canada's economy and now culture. Our civil service and economic failures I believe are at the heart of Canada's unity troubles. Nothing solves social issues like good jobs and money.
So yes, a culture of accountability and hustlr is needed and those who don't abide should be let go to flounder on their own time.
As any employer will tell you, a rotten apple spoils the whole bunch.
For me, accountability does not exist in Canada's political system. When Prime Ministers refuse to fire MPs who crapped the bed and are up to their ears in scandal, the ethics train left the station a long time ago. On efficiency, I think the federal public service employs well over 200K people and is Canada's largest employer. In the US it is Walmart with 2 million employees. (Once upon a time if was the Big 3 automakers but that ship has sailed.) What is the right number? Where are we repeating our efforts, etc.
The "right" number should be dynamic. Sometimes there is more work to be done, sometimes less. The important thing is to instill a culture of lack of entitlement to a good job.
There are two parts to governing - process and substance. I love what I am seeing from him process-wise. The details in the Post story were terrific. Wear a suit and show up on time, dammit! (As an aside, I think the "British spelling" demand relates more to, for example, spelling words like "honour" correctly rather than implementing British terms like petrol - and assuming I am correct about that, I am all for that, too). And I love that The King is coming.
But at the end of the day, I am going to judge him on substance. What does his government actually do? One interesting observation is that if he is a total disaster policy-wise we may rue that he is strong on the process-side since that may enable him to "better" implement a host of terrible policies. But time will tell. Something that has me somewhat more optimistic than I originally was are the recent reports that he dropped many of the tariffs against the USA during the campaign. I don't condone the campaign-deception obviously but he at least got the policy right and I will take that every time. Man, the bar is low haha.
Does this mean the Justice Minister is not being allowed to work from home? Does this mean Sean Fraser will retire again?
Matt, point taken: Canada Post has a continually weakening bargaining position. Times they are a'changing.
It's kind of like the argument for the CBC continuing to see itself as a cultural creative force where it imagines its role is to express what Canadian culture ought to be, rather than just be good, reliable news for all Canadians.
When I went to get my passport renewed today, the Service Canada employee put me at ease saying, "We don't use Canada Post to deliver our passports anymore. We're using Purolator."
I just learned that Purolator is 91% owned by Canada Post - my mind now is melting...
Yeah they have been the majority owner since the early 90s.
Mark Carney's dress code & time keeping requirements sounds a lot like a Bank CEO. What was absent in the announcement was consequences. Maybe the time outs or detentions are assumed but is this what Carney is spending his very limited Party capital on? He's an outsider, as he claimed often during the election, claimed it as a benefit of electing him. But was he assured by the Party execs that they have his back? His 2nd Cabinet is heavily Trudeau retreads. Nate Erskine-Smith complained loudly about being dropped from Cab 2.0. Guilbault as his QUEBEC lieutenant? That's a Party control posting if nothing else. I suspect we'll see more instances in the future of the LPC assimilating Carney, not vice versa.
New fed laws to protect Canada's Jewish population when the existing ones are being enforced? We see this in municipalities constantly. Some local group gets their Counsellor to get a bylaw passed and signs put up. But the number of tickets issued hovers around zero. We see laws as performance of governing rather than laws as effectively managing society. The contrast of non-enforcement of laws against pro-Hamas protestors is the 10 year term sought by the Federal Justice department for the 2 Freedom Convoy leaders for their conviction for MISCHIEF. Clearly disrupting Parliament Hill and its neighbours is WAY more important to Canadian society than the treatment of our jews.
Excellent podcast. Antisemitism is always there but now it has been amplified thanks to protest marches where people cover their faces (do we have a law about that? Who cares? ) Cops won't enforce it. Protestors harassing jews in the street, there's a law against that. Cops won't enforce it. It is well past time for our leaders to grow a pair and not just speak out on this issue, but effing lead on it. One way is being absolutely specific: Jews in the GTA or anywhere in Canada are experiencing events that one only has to look back 85 years and watch how the same thing led to Kristallnacht.
It's not enough to say you "stand with". How do you stand with? What does that mean? Isn't that word just meaningless baffle gab? Canadian citizens are living in fear of leaving their homes because they are jews and something awful might happen to them. Our fellow citizens. This country absolutely refuses to take a stand on anything and then throws words at the problem to give the appearance of doing something.
And something must be @%#*+$@ done about in right now.
On the Carney front,, I don't think he's in trouble because Trudeau lowered the bar for acceptability so much you need an excavator to extract it. I did snort coffee out my nose when I heard "We are in a position now where we cooperate when necessarily but not necessarily cooperate." Maybe he was channeling WMK. On the plus side, though, no more colorful socks.
Three excellent sections. I particularly appreciated Jen's clear callout regarding the difference between protesting the war in Gaza and intimidating Canadian Jews. I'd like to believe that most protesters are motivated by the humanitarian situation in Gaza, but in Toronto it's increasingly hard to make that case.
"Globalize the intifada" is a mainstay chant at all demonstrations: It means, and has always meant, exactly what it says. The other crowd favourite, "Free Palestine, from the river to the sea" means the exact same thing as "Jews will not replace us." What person of good faith marches and chants with the signal Charlottesville talking point?
Further, Toronto City Council, to its credit, has just passed a bylaw creating a 50-metre protest-free bubble zone around Jewish synagogues, schools and day cares. Nine, high-profile, mainstream "progressive" councillors voted against it, even though they (rightly) support such zones for mosques and abortion clinics. It is hard not to question the motivation of protesters whose civic leaders publicly vote to permit the ongoing harassment intimidation of Canadian Jews at synagogue and even their kids at day care.
Because the intifada has always included suicide bombings against civilian targets along with other attacks on civilian targets, the phrase “globalize the intifada” has always meant “bring on worldwide terrorism”.
I’m sure some don’t realize what they’re saying, but at the same time, we are all responsible for what we say.
The chant itself goes far beyond free speech because it is an explicit call for global terrorism. Bring on the incitement to violence criminal charges.
Jen and Matt’s discussion of the recent New York assassination of two young Israelis was quite moving. Now we’ll see if the relevant authorities proceed with federal terrorism charges or New York murder charges. The difference for the shooter if convicted is either a needle in a federal facility or a lifetime of steak and sex in a NY state prison. Hopefully the former.
I believe only one of the victims was an Israeli citizen, the Christian one, ironically. His soon-to-be fiancée was American, grew up in Kansas. Both worked for the Israeli embassy in Washington. I would think the prosecutors will seek the death penalty.
As the young Canadian Green Party sympathizer said, peaceful protest doesn't work against those in power. Time to use violence. Careful what you wish for. Cuts both ways when the state acts to defend itself. With violence.
Matt's not wrong when he says that police fear of being "handsy" is part of the reason for this lawless tolerance of "protests" that are long term intimidation campaigns against Canadian Jews.
But it's more than that. It is also racism.
I'm going to repeat what I said yesterday in another thread, but we to acknowledge and uncomfortable truth.
I said it was the LPC yesterday, and YES it is the LPC, but it's also the NDP and even the CPC from time to time. And because the LPC is "right thinking Canada", this is also true of right thinking Canada
The LPC's view of Gaza, (and others), is informed primarily by a racist lens. IT IS racist.
A non-racist lens would lead us to the same conclusions even if different racial groups were involved... and that's not what we have. They're not hood wearing maniacs... but their view of the issue is race based... which is to say racist.
Proof:
Let's keep ALL of the facts about Gaza the same, including the loss of land by the Palestinians, the British mandate, the wars, who attacked who, the post WW2 swell of immigration that increased the domestic Jewish population, the allegedly sketchy land purchases... ALL of that. Keep it ALL. Change only the races of the two groups. Replace the Jews with a group black people from the heart of Africa with a non-abrahamic African spirituality. Let's swap the Palestinians for white people.
Remember EVERYTHING else is the same, so this white group is non-democratic. It is totalitarian. It has many armed theocratic groups with ties to white theocracies. It has no freedom of religion obviously. Most recently the most powerful armed white group within this white population attacked, raped, kidnapped and murdered many of the black people. Before and after this event, the OVERWHELMING MAJORITY of the white civilians insist that black people are the descendants of apes and pigs, that the recent attack was a good thing and all the black people should be driven from the land at best. In fact they loudly celebrate the murders. One of their symbols are the blood stained hands of a white man who murdered two black people who had taken a wrong turn. The civilians have also been teaching their children in school for decades that the black people should be driven out and/or killed.
Is there a world in which the LPC would insist on funding these white supremacists?
Do we think the LPC would make sure our government didn't even miss a single payment after the mass rape, kidnap and slaughter of black men, women and children?
We all know there's no chance of this. The LPC would NEVER fund such a group, nor would ANY Canadian government, no matter who won an election. It's unthinkable. We don't support murderous racists even if they are badly done by. But that's what we do when everything is the same except the races are Jews and brown skinned people.
This is racism. It permeates our view of the issue.
And I think we all know that if the protests in Canada were all the same.. except it was white supremacist Christian nationalists protesting indigenous neighbourhoods, indigenous houses of worship and holding up a fig leaf that they were protesting against the policies of the Assembly of First Nations... we would RIGHTLY act VERY differently than we do with Jews and shut such "protests" down and punish the "protesters" to the fullest extent of the law.
Which minister said he's going to work from home in Nova Scotia? Did Carney bring him back into line?
As a former police officer of over forty years’ service I am deeply concerned and disappointed by the utter dereliction of duty by police forces across the country over the past couple of years, with regard to the protests and other similar activities since 7th October 2023. You are correct, Matt, in asserting that we currently have adequate laws in place with which to address public disorder, hate speech, etc; there has been an abject failure of law enforcement.
1) while I love the pod and look forward to what you both have to say and write, I am terribly disappointed in your grasp of geography, especially Alberta (or other areas outside Southern Ontario) geography. G7 in Kananaskis has been planned for years, done before and for someone in Calgary to not know it's an hour west, or that Battle River-Crowfoot is in south eastern Alberta, highlights how those from "the centre of the universe" often piss Albertans and other Canadians off?
2) While I agree that Carney's mandate letters are very good, that avoidance of excess verbiage and Trudeau style obfuscation, and having rules and expectations are huge, the bigger step required to improve government is for him to understand that for the past 3 decades governments, federal and provincial have curried and rewarded policy and political prowess rather than rewarding and listening to those who actually know what the subject matter is all about from learned knowledge and lived experience.
The people who can answer the technical and historical questions, plan for program execution and intelligently make decisions are subservient in most cases to those who have no practical or working understanding of the topic, who couldn't run a bake sale on a bet (and likely have little experience outside govt and academia), and whose only qualifications are an unrelated degree and ability to kiss the right ass at the appropriate time.
For the last 30 years governments have degraded the importance of staffers with technical competence and, after deciding that technical and practical knowledge is not required to manage, lead or run any program as long as you have a poli-sci degree; senior officials (DMs, ADMs, Directors General and Exective Directors) have chosen to promote their cloned "policy wonks" to all management levels (with few exceptions), and anyone with technical understanding and practical experience is Ted-circled and denied promotion to any managerial position.
The managers therefore not only "don't know" they also myopically have no idea what they don't know and don't trust their technical staffers who do know, have worked on the ground and know the people and programs impacted.
Carney needs to encourage ground truth alongside policy analysis to be successful.
Their are many other challenges within the public service (F/P/T/M) but making sure the people making decisions are at least talking to the people who understand the subject and not just the comms and politics is critical to Carney, and Canada, being successful!
Canadian Jews have been badly served by Canada on all levels of government and the justice system. In the 50's I learned about the Holocaust and the circumstances that allowed it to happen. I am watching many of these same actions on the streets of our cities, in our universities and in the halls of government 7 decades later here in Canada. In the 50's I was so proud to be a Canadian because I knew this horror could never happen here. I was wrong.
lots of good stuff in this episode. The "Hey, we [local,provincial,federal society] have a problem, lets add more rules, processes, studies, royal commission etc instead of addressing the problems" is one I find particularly acute these days. Locally for me, my fellow villagers are up in arms about fireworks being set off +-3 weeks around every holiday at every hour of the evening. But instead of doing the obvious, *ENFORCE THE EXISTING BYLAWS" our city wants to add just more bylaws that ultimately will be under enforced. This seems to play out at every level of government sadly.