The difference between a democracy and an authoritarian nationalist state is the commitment to truth. The pretext that the descendants should be shielded is actually very very toxic. It is precisely what Germany has very honourably refused to do. People should know the truth about their ancestors. This applies to descendants of victims and to descendants of criminals equally.
If there is an actual reason to not do this right now, the government should give a different but short timeline. They could say that they will keep the records secret for 2 more years for example. We can then argue about the timeline, but the underlying principle holds: in a democracy the truth should come out.
That said, I am not convinced a shallow propaganda victory like this even matters. There is nothing new the putinist state would actually be able to say that it hasn’t already.
Edit: and in fact, by keeping the records secret, the putinist propaganda machine wins even more, because they can (a) say whatever they want about the content of the secret files (b) can say whatever they want about the extent of the files, and © can claim that the Canadian government is complicit in covering up for Nazis. Keeping the records secret gives control of the narrative to Putin hands down.
Increasing trade interdependency is a good way to avoid hot conflicts. It’s the principle behind the EU, it’s the principle behind the detente strategy during the Cold War, and it’s the narrative of globalization that has been pushed from the WTO down, ever since we started protesting neoliberal globalization in the 1990ies.
Nah man, we are Canada, that’s not us. Plus, you’re our cousins, we love you guys. We just need to make sure you comply with our language laws.
Without socialist economics, libertarianism is extremely regressive, as it just means turning the economic power of the ruling class into the only power that exists. North American libertarianism is far right as fuck.
(If you want to see what libertarianism plus socialism looks like, google Errico Malatesta.)
His former classmates described him as definitely conservative.
His father was libertarian, his mother a democrat (source).
The money could have been a bet or a dare, or he could have done it for his mom.
First of all, take your disrespectful and insulting little soundbites and shove them up your ass.
This response is a courtesy, and I’m going to focus solely on your policy suggestions. Further smarminess and disrespect are going to be left unanswered.
So:
Ban all foreign funding to religious institutions within the country
We already have a robust framework. See for example bill C51 of 2015. There is no evidence that people are being radicalized by imported preachers. In fact we have been exporters of Christian fundies and other crazies to the US for a while.
Deport any non citizen residing in the country immediately if they committed a serious crime
This is already explicitly the case, even for permanent residents.
Increase integration and assimilation programs for migrants
We don’t do assimilation in this country, this is Canada. Our multiculturalism is constitutionally a key national value and a distinguishing element of our national identity. Multiculturalism is who we are.
For integration there are multiple programs such as the the CIIP, and Canada’s sponsorship program allows refugees to be immediately integrated into a specific community. It has been wildly successful. The actual problem we have is with french lessons in Quebec that are a bit overwhelmed. So yea, increasing funding for programs for immigrants, sure, I’m with you there.
Change the national narrative about diversity from a mosaic to something more successful like a melting pot
Not gonna happen. And this is not some “narrative”. Multiculturalism like I told you is a foundational element of our identity. It’s so important it’s in our Charter of Freedoms (equivalent to the US Bill of Rights", see section 27: “This Charter shall be interpreted in a manner consistent with the preservation and enhancement of the multicultural heritage of Canadians.” In this country, multiculturalism is literally in our definition of what it means to be free. No party will touch this.
Make it policy for the local police department to explicitly stand in solidarity of the victims in publicly circulated cases like this
You can’t have a public policy that is about “publicly circulated cases”. The law is the law. And the duties of police to protect fall squarely within their existing legal framework. But the problem more often than not is that violations to people’s freedoms come from the police, not despite the police.
Require secularism and liberal values to be taught at all religious views
This is the closest you are getting to Canadian reality. Private religious schools need to follow the provincial curriculum as defined in each province. There has been in fact push back eg in Ontario about forcing them to teach sex ed. Quebec has similar requirements. The private schools don’t like it, but they have to do it regardless. Public funding for private religious schools is definitely something many Canadians would like to see chopped.
Ban gender segregation at all educational institutions
That’s not a thing around here.
Explicitly iterate that blasphemy and criticism of islam and other religions is NOT a hate crime, but a fundamental part of free speech
Our last blasphemy law was repealed a few years ago. I don’t know what public policy would red “explicitly iterate” our Charter freedoms.
Establish a system to make it easier for children and women to more easily report domestic violence and abuse at home and quickly receive help, and add support in languages where islam and other radical religions are more prominent
Multiple systems for helping victims of domestic abuse exist. Canadian multiculturalism here means exactly that multilingual and culturally sensitive approaches are prioritized. But more funding for victims of abuse? Sure!
Establish a quickly accessible and reliable system to tip authorities about extremism that may lead to violence
The cons pitched a “barbaric practices” hotline a few years back that was a right joke. They are still being ridiculed for it and are trying to distance themselves for it.
Other than that, Canada does have a robust security and intelligence establishment thank you very much.
Yea, not interested in a culture war.
I wrote multiple times that the perpetrators here should have the book thrown at them. Existing hate crime laws are sufficient for that. Saying that …Canadian cops are scared to act for fear of being called racist is HILARIOUS. This is Canada, buddy, land of kicked-in indian kids’ skulls.
And to cut to the chase, all your long tirade amounts to what exactly? Practically, in practice, in terms of actual policies that you want to see enacted, what are actually you advocating for, what do you want done?
Because we can argue about whether 1 billion Muslims, 2 million of them in Canada are bad people or not until next spring, but ultimately it comes down to good or bad policy. Say your piece.
Bro you did the thing right there.
If you condemn and criticize the individuals you would be right: these are vile people who acted out extremist hateful sexist violence. They suck, they should be arrested, tried and have the book thrown at them because their actions are disgusting.
If you want to make it about “cultures” and “religions”, well, you’re offside. You’re extrapolating from a bunch of criminals to entire culture and an even larger religion. That’s bigotry and “the left” would be correct to call you out on it.
Canadians as a whole are not violent islamophobes because some idiot shot up a mosque. Canadian culture is not vile and antisemitic because some other idiot shot up a Jewish school. The Christian religion as a whole is not antidemocratic just because some US evangelical trumpists did the January 6th thing. Same principle applies to Syrians or Muslims as a whole.
This is basic shit.
Ps. And no, the “aspects” caveat doesn’t work. We didn’t have a moral panic about antidemocratic aspects of Christianity because of Jan 6th. But it seems the far right loves to stir panic about “aspects” of Islam or brown people all the fucking time. You want to talk about “aspects” without being a useful idiot for the far right? Raise voices from within that community, who will know exactly how to walk that fine line.
The “Right” harps on the fact that they are Syrians to somehow paint all Syrians, all Muslims, all immigrants with the same brush, stoking fears of population replacement and other such bullshit.
The “Left” says that we have already laws for mob violence, apply them. Bad people who are Syrians exist just like bad people who are Italians exist and just like bad people who are Americans exist and bad people who are Canadians exist. There is zero reason to weaponize the bad behaviour of those bad people to enact discriminatory policies against an entire community. Just apply the existing law. Persecute these assholes for the homophobic hate crime they did. Why is that not enough? In fact, the only people who would say this would not be enough are people with a hate agenda of their own, i.e., the far right…
One major difference between Canada and the US is the Westminster parliamentary system and the fact that we don’t have a quasi religious commitment to a piece of paper and founding daddy issues. The two party system will probably never become as ironclad as in the US because we don’t have the Imperial Presidency where every election is an event of cosmic proportions. Instead our system has a lot more space for power sharing (minority governments, coalitions, supply and support, etc). Plus Québec, which is literally Canada’s saving grace, no matter what Canadians think. (New Canadian who loves QC here.)
I went with this page:
Canada’s provincial and territorial governments are responsible for education. They follow government standards to ensure high quality public education across the country. School is mandatory for children from about the age of six years old to 18 years old. Our study environments are safe and welcoming.
Reminds me of this article of Yanis Varoufakis : Who’s Afraid of Central Bank Digital Currencies?
I don’t want an EV, I want HSR, extensive local train networks, trams and LRTs, good buses and bikelanes.