However, Katz later posted on X: “Israel cannot allow the Hezbollah terror organization to continue attacking its territory and citizens, and soon we will make the necessary decisions. The free world must unconditionally stand with Israel in its war against the axis of evil led by Iran and extremist Islam.”
It's been years and I'm still not over the weirdness of governments announcing major positions via Twitter.
As bad as it was to begin with, it should have stopped when Musk bought the platform.
Really though, there's simply no excuse for governments to announce things primarily (or even solely) via platforms that can control that information for their own interests. I doubt the interest of Elon Musk and the interests of Canada align on all subjects.
I don't have a problem with Elon Musk as a person or him owning it -- I wasn't on the Elon hype train back when the progressive crowd was glamorizing him, and I'm not on the Elon-bashing train now that he's making conservative statements and is unpopular with the progressive crowd. My problem is with the platform itself.
Message length
The thing doesn't have the degree of message length limitation that it used to, but it's still really short. Being concise is one thing, but this is at the level that it affects the format of the message.
Informality
Maybe it's just me, but Twitter seems just intrinsically informal. There is virtually no form of communication that has traditionally been more-formal than state communications.
Security
This is the big one.
It really boggles my mind that a state would grant Twitter the status of being the medium for their announcements.
How secure is Twitter? I mean, I'm sure that Twitter's engineers try to keep in secure, but I don't believe that they have the kind of emphasis on security that, say, the people who are on TLS (which would secure a state website) do. What happens if someone compromises a state Twitter account, sends out a bogus message, and then manages to cut access off to the account for a period of time? At just the right time, like coups or something, that could have an enormous impact.
Twitter is a private company. Their responsibilities are not the same as a national government's. Yes, they care about their reputation, and there are bounds on what they'll do. But they were willing to cut off Trump. I can very much believe that under the right circumstances, they'd be willing to cut off officials or governments abroad. And it wouldn't even be sanctions-level stuff, where it's an extraordinary act -- like, they can put together whatever ToS stuff they want, block people all the time. If I'm a government, I absolutely do not want Twitter to be able to cut off my communications. I don't want whatever governments might be able to exert pressure on Twitter -- and I guarantee that in a serious-enough situation, many would be willing to try -- to induce that the communications be cut off. There are Twitter offices around the world. What happens if there's a war on and some Twitter employees are taken hostage? Is the CEO going to say "let them die, keep the communications open"? Where are his obligations going to lie?
How vetted are the employees who have access to various levels of administrative access at Twitter? I would bet that there is a larger pool and that there is less vetting than the kind of people who have access to set operations at say, certificate authority operators or to cut international cable access at major ISPs, which collectively is comparable to the kind of control that an individual -- who may-or-may-not be acting in line with the company's aims as a whole -- might have.
I strongly suspect that there are ways to manipulate Twitter, given sufficient use of bot accounts, to make material from malicious accounts be ranked highly. I've seen disinfo campaigns in the past. This is a problem that search engines share, but Twitter does real-time indexing of all content and I strongly suspect is a lot easier to induce wild ranking changes on.
What a nothing burger of an article. I'm so ashamed to be Canadian amidst our government's abject failure (really, it's a refusal) to rescue Palestinians through the asylum program that was proposed months ago.
We are beholden to Israel, so I will be astonished if even 1/3 of the 45,000 actually end up here.
For anyone looking at which part National Post decided to omit:
Despite this unprecedented access, obstacles remained in accessing all relevant
information. Notwithstanding the four Cabinet documents, federal departments and
agencies withheld or refused the disclosure of over a thousand documents, in whole or
in part, on the basis that they were Cabinet confidences. Specifically, close to a quarter
of these documents were withheld in their entirety. The Committee is concerned that
some departments and agencies may be inappropriately using claims of Cabinet
confidences to avoid disclosing information to the Committee.
The Committee was pleased to note that, further to its comment on this issue in its
Annual Report 2022, the government has begun to identify which relevant documents
are being withheld and on what basis, including claims of Cabinet confidence. This
has allowed it to conclude that there are many such claims being exercised for each
review. The Committee reiterates the comments made in its Special Report on the
National Security and Intelligence Activities of Global Affairs Canada in asking the
government to address this issue. It continues to state that while a legislative change
to the definition of Cabinet confidence is desirable, in the near term, a clear statement
of policy that NSICOP should be barred from receiving only core Cabinet secrets
would go some way to addressing the issues being experienced. Specifically, such a
statement could outline that information withheld from the Committee under section
14(a) of the NSICOP Act would be limited to that which is provided directly to Cabinet
or ministers attending Cabinet committee meetings and which reveals options, Cabinet
deliberations or discussions of these meetings.
Notwithstanding the four Cabinet documents, federal departments and
agencies withheld or refused the disclosure of over a thousand documents, in whole or
in part, on the basis that they were Cabinet confidences.
Wait, is this even a Liberal thing then? It sounds like they requested information from federal departments and those departments said "We have these documents but cannot share them due to Cabinet confidence." That doesn't sound like it involves a single elected entity, nevermind a Liberal one.
Ultimately it is the current government saying no.
The rest the parties could easily pass a bill where NSICOP has full access to everything and if any of the members of found be using the information for political advantage they would be significantly prosecuted, but as usual I think this is more about theatrics then making things better.
Because it's literallt the government's media wing. Didn't trust it during the Chrétien, Martin or Harper years, don't trust it now, won't trust it when the CPC is back in.
I don't trust sources like Global or the Toronto Star either but at least they're an arm's length away from the government which makes them more credible than the CBC.
That comes out to abnout $87,000 per employee. I'm sure those lower pay scale employees who really appreciated that were happy to get...oh, wait. What's that? Of that amount, a total of $11,276,700 was handed out as bonuses to BDC’s top 10 executives. of course, give money to those that least need it. Yay capitalism.
Also, $11 million to the top 10 vampires. It's not like from that point on it was all shared equally. I wonder what was left after the rest of the worthless executives got their blood money. Nope, shit like that is always in favor of further wealth distribution from the lowers.
Trudeau and his government are moving us backwards in climate change action. Thing are already worse in terms of weather with extreme heat already hitting us in May and June.
Climate scientists everywhere are simply giving up any hope lately with how not a single government cares about climate change and how bad we're fucking up out planet.
moving us backwards in climate change action. Thing are already worse in terms of weather
The entire rest of the world is destroying the environment too. Carbon tax is a good step we can take in the right direction, but don't expect to see any change to the climate disasters affecting us just because our country enacts a good climate policy.
No, it's not. Any economist will tell you that the best way of making companies care about the environment is to make them have to pay for every bit of pollution they generate. It's called taxing an externality, and it's basically the best solution we have to the tragedy of the commons.
I think there's better options. Like creating strict laws to control pollution and revoking companies their right to run their business if they don't comply and have the people in charge face potential jail time if it has adverse health on local residents or destroys the local ecology.
Yeah but none of that is realistically possible. The cost of enforcing those rules and ensuring that companies aren't finding loopholes to skirt the law is untenable. A carbon tax is simple, easy to track, and if companies try to get around it, then it's tax evasion (and not the kind that can be mitigated by moving to Panama or Ireland), which the government usually takes pretty seriously.
Someone could reply to your comment saying they just follow their municipal guidelines and they could be doing more than someone with a long list of whatever because their government has implemented better climate action systems.
Grilling individuals on their personal contributions is unproductive because climate change is a systemic, societal issue that is beyond any individual.
There is no Government on the planet doing anywhere close to enough to make real impact. Feel free to name any Government you feel is an exception and I will get back to you with a long list of shit they are doing or not doing to accelerate the problem.
Systemic social issues only begin to change on individual levels. If you aren't willing to take responsibility for what you are doing to contribute, and simply want to "Blame the system" for everything, you are the one being unproductive and contributing heavily to the problem.
I contribute less than 1 kitchen catcher worth of waste every week to landfills. I support local business' who source local materials whenever possible to ensure the products I use make as little impact as possible. I walk everywhere I can, which is basically everywhere up to 50km a day when I need to. I clean up garbage in parks, help plant new trees and gardens, and maintain my own at home to help the bee populations. I use as little electricity as possible, and this is even living in a place that is basically 100% green generated.
I go out of my way to do everything I can as an individual in an attempt to demonstrate how easy it is to do these things. Every day I am learning and changing in order to be better than I was yesterday and make less impact as an individual. I also have my partner doing all of this with me, so all the effort is two fold. All without relying on Government initiatives, aid, or even permission.
There are plenty of things for individual things people can do, but the responsibility rests on corporations for this mess. And it can’t be individuals to clean it up.
And before someone starts saying that corporations only driven by individual consumerism, what other choice do we have? They literally make things to break more.
Can you please explain how your comment is a response to mine?
I can admit my faults, and I am actively changing what I do in order to be a better human. You seem to want to blame anyone but yourself so you can remain comfortable and do nothing at all to help.
I refuse to let individuals off the hook when they choose not to put in the effort to be a part of the solution. If you wish to continue this conversation please respond to what I said previously instead of using my comment to soap box your own points.
Yes I do. Can you explain how I was some how unclear? This will be to my benefit in the future because I really do not know how I could have been more explicit.
Corporation literally means "Group of people". Your citation is worthless to your argument because it ignores that fact, which also supports my point. Thank you for that and have a wonderful day.
Sure it would change something but it wouldn't be enough to actually change the outcome. Companies are polluting way more then those over 8 billion people are. But yet everything governments come up with is you have to do this you have to do that. I mean growing up recycling was pushed hard on us. And look at the scam that turned out to be cause companies where just sending it to third world countries or dumping it in the landfills. Not to mention the best one is reduce but that hurts corporate profits.
I'm living in a medium density condo building with 25% of it dedicated to social housing. In an area where I have everything I need within a 10-30 minute walk. Living right next to a subway line and several bus lines that can take me to all the key areas in my city, which I use everyday, in addition to biking. I recycle anything that's recyclable. Compost everything that's compostable. Buy my groceries from a local green grocer and buy everything I can buy in bulk using reusable containers. I repair my stuff as much as I can even if it costs more than a brand new one. Buy a lot of used products, such as electronics to minimize e-waste. Speaking of which, I bring any other waste to my borough's eco center.
I wouldn't say that no. That is minimizing impact, and in my opinion, the absolute bare minimum every single human should be doing with no excuses.
I would also say look in to recycling a little deeper and add that to the negative side of your impact because most "recycled" items end up in land fills. I would also ask why you do not walk more. I would also ask why you aren't adding green space and growing food on your balcony. I would ask why you aren't helping with community gardens instead of shopping essentially nullifying your food foot print with produce. I would ask why you don't go for a hike and forage the massive amount of foods found for free in a park.
I would ask why you need all the electronics you have in the first place, or if you know how much brought to an eco center winds up in a land fill.
I would not say you are even scratching the surface of "doing your part" because we have not even touched on everything and then we have to get to promoting the behavior to other humans.
The point is waiting around for others to do things is what will lead to extinction level events. Do it on your own and hope everyone starts following or doing better so you can do better.
Your expectations are unrealistic and completely ridiculous.
How my domestic recycling waste and e-waste ends up in landfills is not my responsibility. My municipality put in place a recyling program and my responsibilities stop at sorting my waste accordingly so it can be recycled. Even if I do my best to minimize waste, there is still going to be some. After that, its the responsibilities of the government and the companies they hire behind the programs to do their job.
You want me to walk more?? I'm already walking everywhere except to work, which I go to by subway. I barely ever even use the bus becaue I rarely ever have to leave my neighborhood. My job's office is 2 hours away by foot. You think I'm going to lose 2 hours of sleep to walk to work with my heavy backpack with my work laptop and shit? Get real.
We're already growing food on our 1.5m x 3m balcomy. But the sunlight is too strong and it burns our plants and barely grow anything. And we're not going to survive on 5 green bean pods, 2 eggplants, 4 tomates and 3 strawberries and a handful of herbs. The neighborhood community garden is already full and we couldn't get a spot this year. And that still wouldn't be enough to feed ourselves over the summer. And what are we supposed to do in the winter? Turn our living room into a garden while we're at it? Fuck it. Turn our whole condo unit into a greenhouse and sleep in the dirt?
You know, when you walk into any kind of store, even grocery stores, you look at all the shit they sell and how much of it is wrapped in plastic for no reason, that's the company's responsibility to stop using plastics to wrap everyting. It ain't my fucking fault if the only available lettuce where I live is wrapped in plastic. It ain't my fault if the company that made my clothes use sysnthetic fibers that add microplastics to the environment. It ain't my fault if the pair of scissors I bought from a local brand was actually made in some manufacture in South Asia and was shipped here by container cargo boat.
I do my best to avoid all this shit, but in the end, companies have a fucking responsibility. I'm doing my fucking part. Now it's up to them to do theirs. Especially when they're the ones responsible for the vast majority of the world pollution and greenhouse gasses.
How my domestic recycling waste and e-waste ends up in landfills is not my responsibility. My municipality put in place a recyling program and my responsibilities stop at sorting my waste accordingly so it can be recycled. Even if I do my best to minimize waste, there is still going to be some. After that, its the responsibilities of the government and the companies they hire behind the programs to do their job.
It is your responsibility. 100% your responsibility. Just like everyone else.
If you think "I am doing my part by using broken systems that literally makes the problem worse" is a solid argument maybe you need the perspective shift here.
You want me to walk more?? I’m already walking everywhere except to work, which I go to by subway. I barely ever even use the bus becaue I rarely ever have to leave my neighborhood. My job’s office is 2 hours away by foot. You think I’m going to lose 2 hours of sleep to walk to work with my heavy backpack with my work laptop and shit? Get real
You can justify laziness all you want. I walk to work 2 hours every day back and forth. I also lose no sleep because I schedule my time well. I still have 6 hours every work day for anything else I want as well.
I got real. Real damn good at scheduling my time.
We’re already growing food on our 1.5m x 3m balcomy. But the sunlight is too strong and it burns our plants and barely grow anything. And we’re not going to survive on 5 green bean pods, 2 eggplants, 4 tomates and 3 strawberries and a handful of herbs. The neighborhood community garden is already full and we couldn’t get a spot this year. And that still wouldn’t be enough to feed ourselves over the summer. And what are we supposed to do in the winter? Turn our living room into a garden while we’re at it? Fuck it. Turn our whole condo unit into a greenhouse and sleep in the dirt?
This kind of hyperbolic straw man building is helpful to no one. Honestly, what point are you trying to make here?
I assure you food will be a lot more scarce and life a whole lot harder if you and everyone else holding this attitude keeps doing so.
You know, when you walk into any kind of store, even grocery stores, you look at all the shit they sell and how much of it is wrapped in plastic for no reason, that’s the company’s responsibility to stop using plastics to wrap everyting. It ain’t my fucking fault if the only available lettuce where I live is wrapped in plastic. It ain’t my fault if the company that made my clothes use sysnthetic fibers that add microplastics to the environment. It ain’t my fault if the pair of scissors I bought from a local brand was actually made in some manufacture in South Asia and was shipped here by container cargo boat.
Your fault you bought it. You are the consumer and by the sounds of it you believe you are not responsible for what you choose to consume. Not sure how you manage to rationalize that one but I won't pretend like you aren't clearly a huge part of the problem based on what you have said to me so far.
I do my best to avoid all this shit, but in the end, companies have a fucking responsibility. I’m doing my fucking part. Now it’s up to them to do theirs. Especially when they’re the ones responsible for the vast majority of the world pollution and greenhouse gasses.
I am really tired of this narrative. The companies can only exist if you and others support them. They are not autonomous beings who can live independent of anything else. Even if legally speaking some countries consider corporations "people", they aren't actually people. It is interesting how that narrative informs your opinion though eh?
You need to change your perspective.
I have. Take any longer to play catch up and you are going to bore me into no longer responding.
What a bunch of bullshit it's our responsibility to what? We recycle stuff they throw it int the landfill what are we supposed to do about that. Ok what is your solution to recycling being a scam? What do you do with your electronics, plastics whatever? How do you get out of the broken system I'd like to know and so would others so we could better the planet.
The other thing is even though you do all this it isn't making one bit of difference in the world, and if everyone did this it still wouldn't make one bit of difference cause the companies doint 80+ percent of the pollution would still do it and nothing would change.
Sure put it on the consumer again like every other climate policy. You have to do this you have to do that well companies are polluting far more then the general public is but they get a free pass cause You can do something.
The problem with the carbon tax is the same problem with the US's Obamacare. It's the conservative solution that liberals picked because they thought it would be the easiest way to get the right on board with a plan of action.
In reality, the easiest way to get the right on board with a plan of action is if you either bribe them or threaten them with an overwhelming show of force. They can't be worked with, only steamrolled.
Nah I'm pretty sure there was plenty of Islamists, neonazis and other groups from all sorts of countries targeting Jews long before Netanyahu was around and there will be long after he's gone. This is just the latest chapter in the several thousand year old world history of antisemitism.
You're not wrong, but Netanyahu's actions made it worse.
There's a reason why it's in a country's best interests to obey international laws and standards, because not doing so increases the likelihood of your citizens and your diaspora facing
We saw this with Americans in the middle east during and after the second gulf war, we saw it with the Japanese expats during WWII, and we're seeing it with Jews outside of Israel now: in every case, jingoism in an origin country--and the abuses that inevitablt follow--resulted in soldiers, expats and travellers being abused abroad.
The parallels between Israel after 10/6 and America after 9/11 are depressing: both countries suffered an attack that, by all rights, should have garnered them moral, economic and judicial support world-wide, and both countries' leaders pissed away that advantage because their leaders were opportunists who used a crisis for personal gain, and the results trashed their reputation and put their citizens at even more risk.
It does sound like the student is witnessing calls for the elimination of Israel, which is (in my opinion) way too close to calls for genocide to be tolerated in a school. I'm not sure an art teacher can be faulted for not understanding the geography and history of the conflict well enough to recognize that the map is showing a Palestine displacing Israel, and the students that made the map probably don't understand that depicting Palestine displacing Israel is (I believe) reasonably understood as a call to genocide.
Being an art teacher isn't an excuse. Everyone should have a basic grasp of the issues and I would argue that being a teacher in any subject elevates that from "should" to "must."
I would hope that art is in our schools not merely to promote a leisure activity but to examine different ways of viewing the world. Doing that requires more than just drawing counterfactual maps.
Everyone should have a basic grasp of the issues and I would argue that being a teacher in any subject elevates that from "should" to "must."
But a basic understanding of the Israel/ Palestine conflict doesn't include being able to recognize the borders of Israel/Palestine from a child's art project.
But a basic understanding of the Israel/ Palestine conflict doesn't include being able to recognize the borders of Israel/Palestine from a child's art project.
Why not? I have only a high school education and some trade school, all before 1980, and have what it takes to not screw up like this. Surely a university educated person charged with the responsibility to guide our children through complex issues should be held to at least that standard.
No doubt, but this isn't about the general population, but someone who is supposed to be trained in the ways of making sure that they're not leading kids too far astray.
If only everyone stops believing in their bullshit humanized deities a looot of these conflicts would just vanish... But my Gods dick is bigger than your God's dick...
Nah people would find the next thing to hate each other over easily. Skin, language, clothing, it does not matter. We always find a way to separate them from us.
I mean both of their religions teach their followers to invade other regions, it's easy to predict Jews and Muslims actions, just read their scriptures it's their written agenda... Religion is cancer .. Next question
mind supplying concrete examples? isnt judaism literally supposed to be the religion of peace in theory? to be clear im not a fan of religion either but im also not a fan of ignoring the real issues and saying "just read their scriptures" on the assumption that what you consider to be obvious signs of this supposed agenda is the universal interpretation
If you think modern Zionism is about religion in anything but name, or that Palestinian nationalism is about Islam in anything but name, what you believe is even more questionable than what they believe.
If all religion vanished overnight, the same people would be fighting over the same land with many of the same arguments, but something else substituted for the religion.
what you believe is even more questionable than what they believe
this is not about me, and my beliefs are my own to judge
but something else substituted for the religion.
I agree, but when you live in country far away from that conflict zone, and you see this kind of hate towards people who have nothing to do with it... you know it's about ideology saying it's not about religion is the same thing as saying: it's Ok to let a harmful teachings keep spreading.. why not debunk the hell out of it ? and worry about the next issue later... you can't deny Religion's role ... It's one of the biggest factors ... Explain to me why Abu Abaida starts his speeches by doing Basmala, or why this guy doing a protest is screaming Allahu Akbar..
Ideology is the core of tribalism, I didn't say it's the only factor
"...students making antisemitic comments to her daughter and to her friends about her being a Jew."
OK, that is antisemitic and totally unacceptable.
"There were student walkouts about Gaza."
Yep, and that's NOT antisemitic!
"The school permitted students to wear T-shirts and jewelry depicting the eradication of Israel, mother and daughter said."
I'd love to see this clothing. I can't imagine a teacher allowing anyone wearing a 'destroy Israel' shirt. Was it really calling for the eradication of Israel, or for an end to the IDF's genocide?
Wow, look at this Karen being part of the problem and making her child’s life infinitely harder. Way to go.
I see she never interacts with any minorities either if she thinks that “Jews are the only minority marginalized group that gets to be told by other people what is and what isn’t offensive. No other group would be told to calm down and to relax.” Holy cow she’s delusional.
I wonder how many years of Cons in power it's going to take before people who switched to vote for them realize that the Cons won't do jack shit about the affordability crisis either.
It's not the parties that are the issue, it's the people.
If we want affordable housing, we need to absolutely tank home values, by as much as 80-90% in some markets.
Most people simply won't vote for a party or a policy that does that, because most people (and especially most voters) own their home and aren't willing to give away literally hundreds of thousands (or in some case millions) of dollars even if it helps other people.
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