Boneyards

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Like, once this is allowed to become law, it means any upcoming government can start messing around with definitions so as to clamp down on any content they don’t like by labelling it as “adult” material. I wouldn’t even trust the Liberals or the NDP to decide on what I’m allowed to see, read, listen to, online. I would trust Conservatives even less!

Why the NDP is supporting a bill that will absolutely be abused down the road is beyond me.

It was her promise to keep parents in control of their children's education that garnered the loudest cheers and rounds of applause for Alberta Premier Danielle Smith at her party's annual general meeting this weekend in Calgary. In a speech to her party delegates, she promised to fight the feds and build Alberta, but got the loudest applause when she promised to keep parents in control of their child's education. “I want every parent listening today to hear me loud and clear: parents are the primary caregivers and educators of their children,” Smith said in her speech Saturday to 3,800 delegates at the United Conservative Party meeting. [...] They overwhelmingly passed a motion requiring parental consent if a child under the age of 16 wishes to use a different name or pronoun at school, mirroring legislation recently passed in Saskatchewan that has drawn harsh criticism from LGBTQ2S+ advocates.

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A right vs entitlement is something very important to know. The term "right" gets thrown around a lot, but, legally, a right is something which you are entitled to regardless of circumstances and cannot be taken away from you! Think something like a right to a fair trial, something which cannot be denied to you no matter what, or the right to remain silent.

While an "entitlement" is something which you are permitted to have UP AND UNTIL YOU PROVE UNWORTHY OF IT.

An entitlement is basically like a driver's license or the deed of ownership to something like a car or a house. You have the right to claim that car or house in case they were stolen, let's say, but, once you prove that you cannot be trusted with that car or fall behind on payments for that house, it can and will be taken away from you.

Under Canadian law, parents can claim their children in things like a custody dispute or if their child is arrested and underage, etc., but, in a court of law, the child's right to safety will ALWAYS override a parent's entitlement, especially if a parent proves unworthy of that entitlement.

Putting aside all that it will take to actually put these laws into effect and KEEP them, I think understanding that distinction actually reveals A LOT about what these people are actually trying to do.

They want parents to have a right to their children the same way that someone has a right to a fair trial, i.e. they can do WHATEVER THEY WANT and that right can never be taken away from them.

THESE PEOPLE WANT TO BE ABLE TO DO WHATEVER THEY WANT TO THEIR CHILDREN AND FOR NO ONE TO BE ABLE TO TAKE THEM AWAY FROM THEM.

Oh, and the reason WHY Canada's laws are like this? Because Canada, along with 90% of the rest of the world, is a signator of the UNCRC, The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. The ONE country that DIDN'T sign the UNCRC?

On a Friday afternoon in Nashville last October, several hundred people gathered in a plaza near the state Capitol for an event billed as the "Rally to End Child Mutilation."

The rally was organized by a right-wing pundit who had been claiming the transgender care clinic at a Nashville hospital was drugging and mutilating children.

Local media outlets debunked the claims. But on the day of the rally, people showed up with signs accusing the clinic's doctors of being "groomers"; one sign called for them to be killed. 

The crowd, according to published reports, was a mix of religious conservatives, masked members of the Proud Boys and the leaders of the Republican state caucus.

By the end of the rally, the politicians had vowed to ban what's known as gender-affirming care for minors, which usually involves hormone treatments rather than surgery. [...]

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Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault says while Alberta is legally allowed to withdraw from the Canada Pension Plan, doing so would be a “one way ticket,” with no chance of return. Alberta’s UCP has been mulling the idea of leaving the CPP and forming its own pension plan since 2020, but Premier Danielle Smith recently took the next step by releasing a report about a plan to do so and saying public feedback would determine the need for a referendum. Boissonnault told CTV’s Question Period host Vassy Kapelos in an interview airing Sunday that once a province chooses to withdraw from the CPP, it kicks off a timeline laid out in the 1965 legislation and can’t be undone. “If Albertans decided a referendum to pull out of the CPP, they will be able to do that, but it's a one way ticket,” said Boissonnault, who is also an Alberta MP. “You don't get to come back, that's also very clear in this legislation,” he also said, adding he believes Alberta’s withdrawal would be “destabilizing.”

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Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe has announced his government’s intent to pass legislation invoking the notwithstanding clause aimed at his province’s high-school pronoun policy.

The notwithstanding clause is a constitutional tool that allows federal, provincial, and territorial legislatures to temporarily suspend certain Charter rights for a period of up to five years. If used, Saskatchewan joins a growing list of provinces that are resorting to the notwithstanding clause as a tool of first resort before courts have a chance to determine whether the action is constitutional or not. [...]

Saskatchewan’s use will not be the first time a minority population is targeted through the notwithstanding clause – Bill 21 in Quebec targets people in select public-service jobs who wear religious symbols. Saskatchewan’s approach is aimed at a minority youth population unable to vote. This application of the notwithstanding clause reveals more than ever a fundamental flaw in its design. By making elections the main accountability tool, the drafters abandoned the disenfranchised. People without the right to vote, whether new immigrants or youth, are left to the will of their fellow citizens, who are often apathetic or self-interested. [...]

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As more provinces mention parental rights when it comes to name and pronoun changes for kids in schools, nursing professor and author Martha Paynter says it’s “very discouraging.”

“We know that already LGBTQ youth are disproportionately likely to experience mental illness, homelessness, substance use disorders, and of course, most concerningly, suicidality,” Paytner, an assistant professor at the University of New Brunswick, says.

The premise of the arguments made by some provinces is the need to inform parents about changes to their child’s preferred names or pronouns.

On the surface, it makes sense for parents to have a high level of involvement in their child’s upbringing. But Paynter says we need to be cautious about those who don’t have a safe space.

“If a child is not telling their parents something, it’s because the child is afraid of the parent,” she says. “In this country, we do not have parental rights. You do not govern your child like you own a pet. Rather, we have children’s rights.” [...]

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https://apnews.com/article/university-stabbing-canada-waterloo-2b32c876596c576bb3093c147eb856a3

@politicsofcanada have you seen this shit.

For anyone who’s not aware, the 1989 École Polytechnique massacre was a mass shooting in a Montreal university, perpetrated by a man who was “fighting feminism” by murdering women engineering students. He killed 14 women and injured 14 more before killing himself.

It was organized by White Nationalist, sex offender, Harper fanboy, and all-around garbage human being Bubba Pollock.

Turns out he didn't show up at the protest he organized. But what he DID do, is track down a patient in palliative care who's the father of one of the activists who called him out and helped counter-protest Bubba at one of the Drag Story Time events he recently attempted to disrupt.

Bubba then proceeded to find his way to the patient's room, take a selfie, and send it to the LGTBQ+ rights activist, along with threatening messages.

CTV tried to portray this as "misguided good intentions", somehow.

But this morning, we hear that he's been arrested (sadly, released) and has been charged with criminal harassment.

That's just one more thing added to his list.

Good thing there's the Wayback Machine!

This is how they decided to two-side the whole situation even though only a handful of neo-nazis were saying Bubba was actually just paying the patient a nice visit:

The vote by the local town council was unanimous: A rainbow Pride crosswalk in the rural Alberta town of Westlock proposed by local youths would go ahead. The unanimous decision came in spite of a weeks long anti-Pride campaign led by a top Take Back Alberta organizer to stop it from going ahead. The escalating protest has now drawn safety concerns from the Westlock mayor and council. The campaign continues however, led by TBA organizer Benita Pedersen, who recently ran the right wing anti-mandate group’s efforts in Edmonton and the surrounding area during the provincial election. Protests are expected this Sunday as the sidewalk gets painted. Outside Pedersen assembled protesters after the vote to proceed with the project. [...]

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Members of New Brunswick’s transgender community say Premier Blaine Higgs’ comments on gender dysphoria are “insulting” and “harmful.” On Thursday, the Premier told the legislature: “We’re seeing a rapid onset of gender dysphoria. It’s expanded in the last several years and it’s becoming popular and trendy.” Gender dysphoria is a phenomenon some transgender people experience in which the difference between their gender and the one assigned to them at birth causes distress. It has been recognized by the medical community since 1980, first under the name “gender identity disorder,” before being changed to “gender dysphoria” in 2013. Nicki Lyons-MacFarlane, a trans non-binary person and queer and trans rights advocate in Fredericton, has experienced it. [...]

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The U.S. Department of Defence began sending real-time satellite and sensor data to Canadian authorities on Friday, technology it said would help more quickly identify new fires as Canada endures one of its most destructive early wildfire seasons. The U.S. has already dispatched more than 600 firefighters to Canada to help battle the flames. U.S. President Joe Biden, who has linked wildfires to climate change, said U.S. officials were monitoring air quality and aviation delays. "Starting today, DOD personnel will analyze and share real-time data derived from U.S. satellites and sensors and convey it via a co-operative agreement between the U.S. National Interagency Fire Center and the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre," U.S. National Security Council spokesperson Adam Hodge said in a statement. Hodge's statement said the move was made "in order to do everything possible to reduce the degradation of air quality in American communities caused by smoke from wildfires burning in Canada." [...]

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Note from poster @el-shab-hussein: So it's okay for the U.S. to be stalking our territory with satellite but it's bad when China sends a dumb-assed balloon? And turns out they have the ability to give us wildfire tracking data this whole time and just watched Canada as it burned until they choked too?

A controversial Conservative private member’s bill intended to make violence against pregnant women an aggravating factor during court sentencing was roundly defeated in the House of Commons, as other parties said they feared it would reopen the debate on abortion.

The bill was supported by nearly all members of the Conservative party, including Leader Pierre Poilievre who declared himself to be “pro-choice” during his leadership campaign.

The Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada had urged MPs to vote against the bill on the grounds that it promotes fetal rights, even though there is no mention of fetal rights in the text of the bill itself.

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Note from Samira ( @politicsofcanada ) :

We know that this was actually an attempt to restrict abortion rights because pregnancy is already considered an aggravating factor in the sentencing of assault cases.

The Green in London’s Wortley Village was jam-packed with people, Pride flags and a group of anti-drag storytime protestors on Saturday. The protest and a counter protest took place at the corner of Elmwood Avenue East and Wortley Road, just outside the Wortley Pride festival. [Tweet with image and video] The protesters had a sign that read, “Why do drag queens feel the need to perform in front of our children???” while counter-protesters were heard chanting, “trans rights are human rights.” Alex Ogilvie attended the event with a homemade sign that read, “LGBTQ+ = HUMAN.” He told 980 CFPL he was attending to counter protest. [...]

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Fucking guys from Druthers were trying to interview us, too. Like, ffs, LGBTQ+ folks, if you see Druthers “Journalists”, do NOT talk to them. If you spot them, make sure to mask, and hide all identifying marks on you. If your face and your name end up in a Druthers newspaper, you could easily be doxxed.

There was also a Diagolon guy who took pics of all of us to share with their buddies on Jeremy Mackenzie’s streams.

Too few defenders were masked or hiding their faces in some way. I dunno, it just made me realize a lot of people here haven’t faced-off with the far-right before.

——

Anyway, here’s the kind of chuds we were dealing with, real specimens of the superior race:

Big beard dude with the “Libtard” t-shirt was the worst of the bunch. He threatened to break people’s legs and told a person he suspected was trans to go add to the statistics (if you're the guy he threatened to break your legs and you wanna press charges, feel free to DM me, cuz I heard him too).

BUT ALSO:

The ONLY reason these fuckers stayed there and threatened queer people with violence for as long as they did, the only reason they were allowed to spout hate without losing their teeth, was because the police formed a cordon around them. Cops prevented us from chasing them away for two hours.

COPS PREVENT COMMUNITIES FROM DEFENDING OUR OWN.

I do not.

The Monarchy is an archaic and colonial institution that needs to be abolished.

These people can be rich and enjoy their lives or whatever, that's not harmed if the monarchy disappears.

That only about $1.60 per person, but it's OUR money, and we should have a say about where it goes.

Sixty million a year towards poverty, or to help Indigenous communities or for cancer research, or to invest in Canadian Industry or scholarships sounds MUCH better to me than giving it in tribute to an antiquated institution.