Find me on Bluesky.
Prof. Canadian politics & constitutional law.
Author: Governing from the Bench; Constitutional Pariah; Legislating under the Charter
Here's my problem with the 'mandates are divisive' frame, and why I've grown increasingly frustrated by the sort of takes I see at places like The Hub or The Line. 1/n
A reminder, again: at Every. Single. Step. of the pandemic, those who have argued for doing more to mitigate spread have been right, and those who have argued against have been deadly, deadly wrong.
This should tell you who to listen to now.
I don't think we should ban private schools or anything. But if they're gonna be private, they damn well should be 100% out of pocket. Public funds should go to universal public education. We shouldn't even be funding Catholic schools, for that matter.
Just got told to 'check my privilege' for implying Canadian democracy is currently much healthier than US democracy. Let me state it explicitly: for all Canada's problems - and boy do we have some - the US is a fucking calamity.
I hate it when Canadian pundits say "we're a small country". Canada is the 10th largest economy in the world, 38th in population, 2nd in land mass. We're not small, except in how we think and sometimes act.
#cdnpoli
Erin O'Toole leaves with a warning that the country is divided. The country is not divided. It faces an insular, hateful, selfish minority, one that is trying to take over the political party he led until today.
We don't allow employees of private businesses to be forced to be exposed to 2nd-hand smoke. The idea we're letting businesses force them to be exposed to maskless people in the middle of a pandemic is outrageous.
"If Black Lives Matter protestors were carrying guns and showed up to where white people were voting, I think you'd understand my concerns." - Van Jones to Rick Santorum on CNN just now.
People cheering and removing masks while getting on a plane reminds me of that old Carlin joke, "Think about how stupid the average person is, and then realize half of them are stupider than that."
Reporter: Mr. Trudeau, what did you have for breakfast?
PM: "We agree that breakfast is fundamentally important to Canadians, and we'll be ensuring that in the coming days it is there to eat."
It's 1985. 5 year-old me is watching The A-Team.
My dad: "Son, in 2022, Mr. T will prove himself smarter and more compassionate than most of our political leaders."
Me: "Sure, dad."
I just received my 2nd Moderna booster vaccine, and I feel good! I am still going to wear my mask and keep my distance because the virus ain’t over, Fool! Grrr
Doug Ford is the reason there's a 3rd wave in Ontario, and is UNQUESTIONABLY the reason it is as bad as it is. And anyone who says otherwise is complicit in the biggest policy failure of our lifetimes.
Vaccine mandates are freedom-maximizing, rights-enhancing, veritably *libertarian* policies, and they should be communicated and explained as such. They prevent a small minority from limiting the freedom and violating the rights of the majority.
That's the tweet.
If we'd kept mask mandates "we could be looking at roughly 4.4 million fewer [infections],... 2,300 fewer Omicron deaths, 230,000 fewer long covid cases, and of course fewer child respiratory illnesses that are currently overwhelming children’s hospitals."
Governments are bailing out airlines and car makers and even rich telecoms scored tens of millions in COVID relief program money they didn't need, but the province can't be fucked to save a university vital to a region. It's mind-blowing.
He's not a racist, he just supported an illegal occupation peppered with the occasional swastika!
He's not anti-vax, he just declared he'll oppose all mandates in the middle of a once-in-a-century pandemic!
He's only "terrible adjacent", because he wants to win. Stop worrying.
CPC Interim Leader Candice Bergen now wants to the protests to end.
“I believe the time has come for you to take down the barricades, stop the disruptive action and come together. The economy you want to see re-opened, is hurting … I believe this is not what you want to do.”
BREAKING: the Ford government is trying to find close to half a billion dollars in savings from OHIP. It’s looking at reducing pain injections, some MRI’s, sedation for colonoscopies and more - determining which are overused or unnecessary. A
@CityNews
exclusive tonight.
If Doug Ford's appointment of Michael Ford isn't called out for the OBVIOUS and GLARING fucking nepotism it is by our leading journalists, then what is the point of having journalists?
As an avid watcher of Cdn politics, I remain amazed at how much we let provincial governments off the hook for how shitty things are. Hell, most of what Pierre Poilievre goes on about is more Doug Ford's fault than Justin Trudeau's. Yet talking about jurisdiction is 'pedantic'.
We can't find children's meds because idiots like you fought to eliminate all pandemic protocols, you misinformation-pushing, immoral walking drainpipe.
I wonder how long it will take regular voters to realize the governments of Ontario and Alberta are looking to destroy their first-rate university systems.
If they get the Ambassador Bridge blockade cleared, the task from here on out should be to swarm at the first sign of anyone trying to start it again. This bullshit needs to be crushed.
Take away the white supremacist racist symbols, the threats against democracy, the harassment of journalists, the attack on a shelter, the pissing on a war memorial.
"The good ones" are people spreading anti-science disinformation who want the right to kill you with COVID.
A disgraceful tweet from a clown politician. These sites all picked up the same Canadian Press story. That's not a conspiracy, it's using a wire service.
Right-wing trolls like Andrew Scheer continue to try to undermine the mainstream press. It's an active assault on democracy.
No wonder Trudeau wants to censor all but four or five Liberals news sources: they all coordinate in attacking Poilievre with the same false headline. Collusion?
My wife reached out to local school board trustees about why we're not allowed to donate HEPAs to our school. The answer was "it's not proper procedure".
We're a stupid species.
The Conservative Party is actively trying to get a reporter removed from the Parliamentary Press Gallery by *blatantly misrepresenting* his tweet.
THAT is the story here. It's a knee-jerk fascistic reaction. And I see some of Smith's colleagues are playing into their hands.
Even putting aside the anti-vaxxers and anti-restriction fools, it's disheartening to see so many other people think governments have generally 'done their best' during this thing. This pandemic has seen the biggest, deadliest governance failures of our lifetimes.
Andrew Scheer's the guy in your office that recognizes the dirty microwave is a collective action problem but is constantly heating up last night's pasta without a lid because he doesn't fucking care about anyone else.
Make this summer an Ontario-made summer!
Our new interactive map shows thousands of convenient options where you can still buy beer, wine, spirits and other drinks across the province. Check out a local brewery or winery for some fantastic Ontario-made products near you and
Look, I'm having fun. I'm not saying "Briane" isn't real. Could the government + a bank totally screw up and freeze an account improperly? Sure. But MPs tweeting about these alleged cases with zero evidence shouldn't be taken at face value AT ALL.
Among the most objectively effective, moral, science-based measures we have are mask and vaccine mandates. Let's be clear, the only arguments against these particular measures amount to 'freedom to expose others to harm' for one's personal convenience. 3/n
Omar Khadr is giving a talk at Dalhousie and I look forward to the pro-free speech right-wing defending his right to do so.
[checks Twitter]
Oh... yeah... I guess not.
This was, truly, the absolute worst performance by opposition parties in the history of democratic politics. Horwath AND Del Duca need to go. A criminally lackluster campaign, spending more energy sniping at each other than the murderclown they were supposed to want to replace.
It's been 10 days since Health Canada approved boosters for 5-11s. Ontario has still not moved to open access.
Where's the media coverage of this outrage?
Some people seem to prefer anecdote to data. I retweet a lot of covid data. Here's an anecdote: neither my wife nor I have been sick - with anything - since 2019. But our kiddo has been sick at least seven times since September during this school year. The Q is... 1/n
A key sinister talking point of the anti-vax movement is that "fully vaccinated are just as likely to spread the virus as the unvaccinated." This is more than misleading, it's a lie. The unvaccinated are 8 to 10 TIMES more likely to contract COVID-19.
Watching right wingers defend Ford's stomping on Charter rights of the least-paid education workers by drudging up the Emergencies Act invocation - a legal instrument which by its own terms must comply with the Charter, in a case which involved the endless occupation of a city.
A popular saying on Twitter is "elections have consequences." And Canada is experiencing a whole lot of consequences as we keep electing appalling morons to run provinces across the country.
Alberta is pausing all approvals for new wind and solar projects for six months to review where they can be built, how renewables affect the power grid, and rules about what happens to installations when they reach the end of their life
#ableg
#cdnpoli
An awful development: There's been a rise in GOP bills that would require schools to report to parents when students show certain signs of LGBTQ identification.
These "forced outing" bills are becoming more of a thing in GOP state legislatures. 1/
I'm no epidemiologist, but it seems super weird to open elementary schools while simultaneously telling people you should still avoid having small family dinners.
We've done a great job transforming the right of protest into a right of doing whatever the fuck you want without consequence. People have no right to block the mobility of anyone else, including access to a public building.
Again, stop calling it a "secularism law". Quebec is not promoting secularism, but a perversion of secularism; not state neutrality in religion but forced irreligion. It is nothing but an unconscionable violation of individual rights and liberty.
#cdnpoli
Curious if Sloly directed his people not to engage in active enforcement or if he wanted enforcement but had no control of the cops on the ground.
Either way, resignation appropriate.
This is some fucking balls from the organization that drove out the player most vocal about *precisely* the systemic injustice they claim to give a shit about. Fuck you, NFL.
I think some people are being a bit over-dramatic in their reaction to the 'unprecedented' invocation of the Emergencies Act. It is NOT the War Measures Act. Not even close. And the tools being used under it are hardly akin to martial law. Relax.
A Google News search suggests not a single story on Doug Ford's refusal to allow people to get their 5-11 year-olds boosted, following Health Canada's approval of the booster.
How is this not a massive government-threatening scandal? Where are you, journalists?
This rhetoric from Poilievre is the pinnacle of far-right authoritarian populism. This is the shit you see from wanna be dictators like Bolsonaro and Trump.
BREAKING: Premier Doug Ford says as a gesture of good faith the government is willing to rescind the legislation — if CUPE calls off the strike.
Ford says he’s willing to return to the negotiating table.
#onpoli
#onted
The schools in our school board are actively fundraising for HEPA air filters. This disgusting provincial government hasn't lifted a finger to improve school safety so public schools are coming to parents with hat in hand asking for money.
Philpott got booted from caucus because JWR recorded a phone call? No, wait. Philpott got booted from caucus because she stepped down from a powerful ministerial role in order to gain more power? No, wait. Philpott got booted from caucus because Scott Brison resigned?
I don't know how anyone could be awake for the last six years, of Trump, of Boris, of Doug Ford, and confidently declare that Pierre Poilievre will never be PM because he's too odious.
Yes, he's odious. Odious people can win elections.
Completely mystified why the province's pandemic response isn't being treated like the Walkerton water scandal but with the proportionate order of magnitude applied. The entire Ford cabinet should be wearing this, and in a sane world would have resigned in disgrace months ago.
Breaking: Ontario Premier Doug Ford's office has accepted the resignation of Ryan Amato, the chief of staff to Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Steve Clark who featured prominently in the auditor general's Greenbelt report.
#onpoli
For a lot of people $41K is a year's salary. For others it's a family trip you got covered for by a charity that your government keeps throwing cash at and that you just remembered you needed to reimburse.
🆕 📈
#Inflation
in
@OECD
countries is now up to 9.2% in April 2022 (vs 8.8% 3/22)
#Food
price inflation rose to 11.5% (vs 10%)
#Energy
prices decelerated to 32.5%.
Rates ranged from the highest double-digit inflation in 🇹🇷& 🇪🇪 to falls in 🇮🇹 🇪🇸 🇺🇸
👉