They took money from Saudi Arabia post bankruptcy if I recall correctly.

This is serving so much Saudi Arabia energy.

I think it’s god’s will when men aren’t able to get erections. It’s not natural to use viagara or cialis. Surely the same people so in tune with god’s will would agree with that one, right?

Hah for now it is….

You also have Danielle Smith (Alberta Premier) cozying up to Tucker Carlson, Poilievre (National Conservative Party leader) and the convoy, India and Russia.

And GOP operatives who coincidentally, I’m sure, also supported the convoy.

Canadian right wing influencers caught up in the Russian payment scandal.

I don’t believe for a second that Pierre and elements of the federal conservative party wouldn’t want to get rid of our rights in Canada. It’s just unpopular to say that part out loud.

Je parle français my dude. J’ai étudié le français jusqu’au niveau universitaire comme mon mineur.

What 22% of Canada is bilingual? I’m one of them.

I made my effort. But as I said above you don’t win hearts and minds by angrily jumping down people’s throats on the issue.

I’m just saying I disagree with the language laws I have Anglo friends living in Quebec, born in Quebec and it is very difficult for them - like the commenter said, they do feel like second class citizens at times. She’s gotta get updates from her kid’s daycare in French only and run them through Google Translate. It’s a lot. It’s like if you were sending your kid to daycare and the caregiver and the parent both spoke Dutch. I really don’t give a flying f if the daycare caregiver chooses to give an update to that parent in Dutch. It doesn’t concern me. But in my understanding they’re not allowed to - it has to be French. Happy to be corrected on that.

I wouldn’t begrudge someone who serves Vietnamese clientele to have a menu and signage primarily in Vietnamese with English or French smaller on it (or even not at all). Things like this don’t seem to be allowed under the law but I’m happy to be corrected.

The Coalition Avenir Québec is a Quebec nationalist, autonomist, conservative provincial political party in Quebec.

I said nothing of the sort actually. Just facts about the history of the FLQ and October Crisis at the extremely basic and factual level. I’m quoting Wikipedia on the CAQ.

None of what you built out is what I actually said. And if I slipped on a word QN vs separatist I apologize. Obviously you’re a separatist (independentiste). Good! Separate if you guys want to. Wish you all the luck. I have no skin in the game.

However your reaction is why people are hesitant to engage with anything related to Quebec and learning about it. The rigidity and inflexibility does push people away.

In the 1970s there was a domestic terror group who wanted to separate from Canada so bad they started assassinating politicians and our current PM’s dad, who was also PM at the time, had to call in the army.

Their provincial politics are confusing because it’s not liberal/conservative spectrum - you also have to throw in the Quebec nationalists too. Like their ruling provincial party right now is conservative + Quebec Nationalist to the extreme that businesses must provide public advertising/public facing services in French only.

Canada’s about to elect our own right wing version of Trump. So if you’re looking to escape that by moving here… don’t be too optimistic.

BC almost went conservative provincially in the last election. Alberta and Saskatchewan are batshit insane conservative. Manitoba used to be but they’ve gone centre left. Ontario conservative corporate. Quebec… I’m not going to touch that one. And then the east which I don’t have a ton of feedback on personally.

They’re making it harder and harder to do so apparently and to download the books that you buy from their store.

I don’t trust that they won’t make a strong push to lock you into the Amazon ecosystem.

And, bluntly, I don’t trust Bezos, especially after all of this election bullshit he pulled with WaPo where he personally got involved. The chances are now non-zero that Kindle could censor books. If a tyrannical regime told Bezos to remove a list of books from Kindle devices I think he’d roll over and do it. And that’s not right. They’re the customer’s books - they bought them and they get to decide what they read without censorship. And to be clear, I don’t care which way the censorship goes. We shouldn’t be censoring books - full stop.

I used to be such a kindle Stan but I don’t think they will let me have full control over an expensive device that I buy and books that I buy on their platform.

I de-drm every book I buy and side load it onto my devices because no company in the future should be able to tell me what books I can read. I’m currently using a Kobo but if they start fucking around too (no signs of this yet…) I’ll find a device that will respect my freedom.

If you want to sideload your own books and continue to be able to do so, steer clear of any Amazon device.

Canadian commentary:

I know it’s difficult with corporate greed and price gouging right now, I’m not debating that.

I’m worried that the food that people gravitate toward is unhealthy, ultra processed and cheaper on purpose. You need to buy MORE of this kind of food to stay full.

The US has, in my understanding, a lot of food deserts where healthier options are not available and people are pushed to eat empty calories.

The late-stage capitalist system wears people so thin that the effort to find and cook cheap healthy meals can be overwhelming if you don’t usually do this.

Portions in North America are HUGE.

There are ways to eat for cheaper but I understand that takes effort. For example, I order a $23 CDN all in produce box to my door of oddly shaped/sized produce that feeds two adults for a week. The largest box at $49 easily feeds a family of 4. It takes effort to find and locate services like this. Only available in big cities too.

I guess what I’m trying to say is it seems like the structure of society and capitalism makes the impact of corporate greed RE: groceries SO much worse.

Not to mention the wars, gas, and housing prices.

I know a lot of people are low information but since this issue in my perspective is aggravated and accelerated by so many factors, it still baffles me that people accept the solution is more Republican trickle down economics and tariffs which seem like they’re just going to make the problem worse for everyone.

Not American but - Freedom From Religion Foundation? Love their commercials featuring Ronald Reagan’s son.

“I’m Ron Reagan, unabashed atheist, not afraid of burning in hell.”

And if they succeed in cementing the Christian theocracy they can control them through religion. They only want freedom for themselves to subjugate everyone else.

Not trying to fight you but I think people should be able to walk and chew gum at the same time.

Abortion isn’t a culture war it’s literally my life at risk as a woman.

The campaign was just not explicit enough and America is ill educated by design on the topic of reproduction.

And I’ve come to the realization that most people don’t want to grapple with horrific things until it happens to them and it’s too late. See the pandemic - all the people who were boasting on fb about not protecting themselves and not getting the vaccine until their families were posting about those same people being dead.

Dropping this here - no woman wants to tell that story.

Well and like… all women were just confirmed to be second class citizens.

If we accept the premise that God doesn’t condone abortion care even in instances where women miscarry or the baby dies then surely dick pills aren’t natural either.

It seems to be that the popular vote in America is saying that women are whores who can die and everything men do gets a pass including sexual assault and cheating on their wives.

Timothy Snyder - On Tyrrany

For my friends in America who did not want this or deserve this.

The ones who supported this can reap the karma that they gave sewn.

Bracing for impact in Canada.

Americans don’t realize we have our own lil JD primed and ready to take over here as well, funded and helped by Republican strategists and think tanks oh boy.

“Historians have a word for Germans who joined the Nazi party, not because they hated Jews, but out of a hope for restored patriotism, or a sense of economic anxiety, or a hope to preserve their religious values, or dislike of their opponents, or raw political opportunism, or convenience, or ignorance, or greed.

That word is “Nazi.” Nobody cares about their motives any more.

They joined what they joined. They lent their support and their moral approval. And, in so doing, they bound themselves to everything that came after. Who cares any more what particular knot they used in the binding?”

You know what mega corporations say: “If I owe the government $1M that’s my problem. If I owe the government $20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, that’s their problem.”

There are Israelis, people of Jewish descent (including Bernie Sanders) and practicing people of the Jewish faith who are vehemently against the genocide being perpetuated against innocent Palestinians.