Yakabuski – It’s official: The Supreme Court’s ruling on Bill 21 will be one for the ages

2025/08/15 Leave a comment

Indeed:

…Nevertheless, the fact that two provincial appeal courts have now come to contradictory decisions touching on the judicial review of laws shielded by the notwithstanding clause means the Supreme Court must inevitably settle the issue. 

Its ruling on Bill 21 will hence carry widespread implications for governments across Canada, either freeing them to employ the notwithstanding clause with impunity, or subjecting them to potential rebuke – in the form of judicial declarations – if they invoke Section 33.

It remains unclear whether the Supreme Court will render its decision before Quebeckers go to the polls next year. Even so, with the Parti Québécois seeking to build on its momentum after another decisive by-election win this week, the Supreme Court case on Bill 21 will figure prominently in the sovereigntist party’s campaign pitch to francophone voters. PQ Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon said the Supreme Court’s move to grant leave to appeal to Bill 21’s opponents “confirms to us that the federal regime is determined to combat Quebeckers’ democratic choices.” 

How much will the top court take into consideration a potential political backlash in Quebec in determining whether to overturn the Quebec Court of Appeal’s ruling on Bill 21? With the PQ on track for a stunning comeback in the 2026 vote, increasing the likelihood of another sovereignty referendum by 2030, the question has to be on the judges’ minds. 

Source: It’s official: The Supreme Court’s ruling on Bill 21 will be one for the ages

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French: Why a ‘Paleo-Confederate’ Pastor Is on the Rise

2025/08/15 Leave a comment

Depressing:

…This should tell us that white evangelical support for Republicans is far more cultural and tribal than it is ideological or (certainly) theological. As Ryan Burge, one of the nation’s foremost statisticians of American religions, has said, white evangelicals “vote for Trump because white evangelicals are Republicans, and Donald Trump is the standard-bearer of the G.O.P.”

As a practical matter, this reality puts the Republican nominee at the center of white evangelical politics. And if he wins, he instantly becomes the most influential political thinker in evangelical America, and his political ideology and temperament become the political ideology and temperament of millions of American evangelicals.

When you live in evangelical America (especially in the South), you experience the sheer power of its culture up close. It’s theologically tolerant and politically intolerant. You can believe many different things about matters as important as baptism, salvation and the role of women in your denomination.

But if you leave the Republican Party, much less publicly criticize Trump? Well, you’ll quickly find that political orthodoxy matters more than you could possibly imagine.

Do you want to know the cultural and political future of American evangelicalism, including the cultural and political future of men like Wilson? When the white smoke rises from Super Tuesday, the Republican Party won’t just choose a new political leader, evangelicals will choose their next political pope, the single-most-influential person in the church.

We should pray fervently that he or she is a better person than Donald Trump.

Source: Why a ‘Paleo-Confederate’ Pastor Is on the Rise

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Trump Administration Scraps Research Into Health Disparities

2025/08/15 Leave a comment

Another example of wilful ignorance:

The federal government has for decades invested vigorously in research aimed at narrowing the health gaps between racial and socioeconomic groups, pouring billions of dollars into understanding why minority and low-income Americans have shorter lives and suffer higher rates of illnesses like cancer and heart disease.

Spending on so-called health disparities rose even during the Trump administration’s first term. But in its second, much of the funding has come to a sudden halt.

Following a series of executive orders prohibiting diversity, equity and inclusion policies at every level of the federal government, the National Institutes of Health this year began terminating initiatives that officials said smacked of identity politics and offered dubious benefits.

“Spending billions on divisive, politically driven D.E.I. initiatives that don’t deliver results is not just bad health policy — it’s bad government,” said a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services.

The N.I.H will invest in projects that support “all vulnerable populations,” and expand participation “based on clinical need — not identity,” she added. She declined to be identified.

In letters from the N.I.H., scientists were told that their projects were canceled because they “harm the health of Americans,” “provide a low return on investment,” or “do not enhance health, lengthen life, or reduce illness.”

“The communication is very clear: We do not value health equity, we do not value a focus on underserved and under-treated populations, we do not consider these to be a priority,” said Dr. Kemi Doll, a cancer specialist at the University of Washington School of Medicine, who coaches younger researchers from minority backgrounds.

In interviews, many scientists whose work depends on N.I.H. grants described the terminations as harrowing and bewildering. Many felt their research was not evaluated on its merits, but nixed because words like “race” or “gender” were in the project’s title or description.

According to an analysis of federal data by The New York Times, as of mid-June the N.I.H. had terminated at least 616 projects focused on closing the health divide between Black and white, and rich and poor, Americans….

Source: Trump Administration Scraps Research Into Health Disparities

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Clark: Carney’s can-do government is way behind on foreign registry

2025/08/12 Leave a comment

Valid points. Shouldn’t take too long to demonstrate some progress:

…And if Mr. Carney can’t make progress on things like the foreign registry, it doesn’t bode well for his ability to deliver on his agenda. His pledge to get the economy rolling with national projects is supposed to be fulfilled by a major projects office that doesn’t yet exist. His housing plan is supposed to be delivered by a not-yet-created housing agency.

The Prime Minister has promised to build big, complicated, new machinery of government, and yet his government hasn’t been able to deliver a registry. 

In a world where U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs dominate Canadians’ concerns, Mr. Carney probably won’t pay a political price for that. 

But for Canada, the problem of foreign interference hasn’t gone away.

Source: Carney’s can-do government is way behind on foreign registry

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The A.O.C. Deepfake Was Terrible. The Proposed Solution Is Delusional.

2025/08/12 Leave a comment

Brave New World and 1984 combined:

…The other crucial thing that the abundance of such easily generated information makes scarce is credibility. And that is nowhere more stark than in the case of photos, audio and video, because they are among the key mechanisms with which we judge claims about reality. Lose that, lose reality.

It would be nice if, like members of Congress or large media organizations, we all had a large staff who could be dispatched to disprove false claims and protect our reputations and in that small way buttress the sanctity of facts. Since we don’t, we need to find other models that we can all access. Scientists and parts of the tech industry have come up with a few very promising frameworks — known as zero-knowledge proofs, secure enclaves, hardware authentication tokens using public key cryptography, distributed ledgers, for example — about which there is much more to say at another moment. Many other tools may yet arise. But unless we start taking the need seriously now before we lose what’s left of proof of authenticity and verification, governments will step right into the void. If the governments are not run by authoritarians already, it probably won’t take long till they are.

Source: The A.O.C. Deepfake Was Terrible. The Proposed Solution Is Delusional.

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    Yakabuski: Le déluge [Supreme Court hearings on Quebec Laïcité Bill] 

    2025/08/12 Leave a comment

    Of note:

    …En permettant à un si grand nombre d’opposants à la Loi sur la laïcité de l’État québécois d’intervenir devant le plus haut tribunal du pays, le juge en chef de la Cour suprême, Richard Wagner, souhaite aller au fond des choses afin de dissiper tout doute sur l’utilisation préventive de la disposition de dérogation. Les Canadiens ne méritent rien de moins. Mais le processus risque d’être houleux.

    Source: Le déluge

    … By allowing so many opponents of the Quebec State Secularism Act to intervene before the highest court in the country, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Richard Wagner, wishes to get to the bottom of things in order to dispel any doubt about the preventive use of the waiver provision. Canadians deserve nothing less. But the process is likely to be stormy.

    Filed under Interculturalisme, Multiculturalism Tagged with , ,

    RCMP union advocates for ease of foreign applicant requirements to attract talent

    2025/08/11 Leave a comment

    The unsaid part is which police forces would not be considered as equivalent, rather than just citing the easy ones. Presumably, not advocating for “foreign credential recognition” of police from Russia, China, Iran etc:

    The union representing front-line RCMP members wants the force to ease requirements for foreign applicants to help attract experienced police officers from agencies like the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation and counterparts in the United Kingdom and Australia.

    The RCMP currently requires that applicants be Canadian citizens or have permanent resident status in Canada. Applicants with permanent resident status must have lived in Canada as a permanent resident for three of the last five years.

    The National Police Federation says the RCMP should follow the lead of the Canadian Armed Forces, which in 2022 opened applications to permanent residents without any requirement on time spent in Canada.

    Federation president Brian Sauvé said he’s “pretty sure we can attract some good talent” through a similar move by the RCMP.

    Sauvé compares the idea to federal immigration programs that seek to entice skilled workers to come to Canada.

    “If this government has identified public safety, border security and all that stuff as an imperative, we can do the same thing, right?” Sauvé said in a recent interview.

    “We have equivalency training. You can come from Manchester, you can come from New South Wales, you can come from, I don’t know, the FBI. And we’ll train you to be equivalent, to give you a job and put you in a role.”…

    Source: RCMP union advocates for ease of foreign applicant requirements to attract talent

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    Thiyagalingam: Recognizing the Tamil Canadian experience in public life

    2025/08/11 2 Comments

    Crafting a diaspora policy that would be acceptable to all groups and Canadians as a whole would be challenging to say the least. The Harper government inserted language in the citizenship study guide regarding “imported conflicts,” given integration concerns but of course was selective in who it was aimed at (not Ukrainian Canadians for example). The Israel/Hamas war and related demonstrations and incidents, and the inability for the various envoys to help manage the tensions highlight the difficulties.

    While I always favour more and better data, ethnic ancestry data provides a wealth of data on specific communities. And it is virtually impossible to include all conflicts and community stories in curriculum beyond broad brush strokes.

    …Policy failure #1: No history or specific policy

    Canada does not currently have an explicit “diaspora policy” nor does it mandate the kind of historical literacy that should inform national security assessments, integration efforts and reconciliation strategies — particularly in relation to Tamil Canadians and other diasporas shaped by conflict. This vacuum leaves these communities vulnerable to being stereotyped and to one-size-fits-all treatment under anti-terrorism laws.

    A robust policy response should include:

    • Context-sensitive involvement: Government agencies, including Public Safety Canada and Global Affairs Canada, must develop more sophisticated approaches to engaging with communities from conflict-affected regions. This includes educating staff on the history, diversity and trauma that are part of these communities.
    • A stand-alone office: Canada should establish a permanent federal office for diaspora affairs. It could serve as a bridge between communities and government, offer advice on culturally appropriate policymaking and support responsible civic engagement by diaspora groups — without defaulting to surveillance or criminal suspicion when these groups advocate for justice abroad.
    • Access to information: Many Tamil Canadians suspect they were surveilled during the height of the war. Canada should review and declassify outdated intelligence assessments that may have shaped discriminatory policies. This would be similar to how national security files have been disclosed in other jurisdictions to promote trust and accountability.

    Policy failure #2: Invisibility 

    Despite being one of the largest racialized communities, Tamil Canadians are rarely separated out in national statistics. Without data, there can be no tailored policy. Health outcomes, employment access and experiences of discrimination in the Tamil community remain under-researched, which makes it harder to address specific needs.

    Additionally, there are no formal federal or provincial initiatives acknowledging Tamil history in Canada. Ottawa, Ontario and British Columbia have declared January Tamil Heritage Month, but this symbolic recognition has not translated into concrete support for Tamil civic life, education or mental-health services.

    Key reforms could include:

    • Distinct Data: Federal and provincial governments should commit to collecting data specific to Tamil Canadians — especially in health, employment and justice sectors. Health statistics could highlight the prevalence of untreated post-traumatic stress disorder among war-affected individuals and lead to targeted mental-health services. Employment information could reveal systemic barriers in credential recognition or workplace inclusion, while justice data could inform culturally responsive legal aid or diversion programs.
    • Education reform: School curriculums should include content on the Sri Lankan conflict and refugee experiences. Younger Tamil Canadian generations and their peers from other backgrounds could then better understand the history that shaped Tamil communities in our country.
    • Mental-health investment: Targeted funding for trauma-informed services in Tamil-majority neighbourhoods is essential. Post-conflict communities often carry intergenerational trauma, and culturally competent services remain scarce.

    Public representation and democratic inclusion

    That Anandasangaree — a human rights lawyer and former UN delegate — is now Canada’s public safety minister is symbolically powerful. But the backlash to his appointment in May reveals a double standard often applied to racialized politicians. While mainstream leaders are allowed complex affiliations and evolving views, racialized leaders must constantly distance themselves from their roots — lest their identity be read as bias.

    This isn’t an isolated phenomenon. Muslim Canadians, for example, facesimilar scrutiny. Mass surveillance of their communities in the aftermath of 9/11 has fuelled Islamophobia and racialized narratives that Muslim leaders and activists must continually fight to overcome.

    Canada must move beyond this double standard. We need to recognize that post-conflict communities have a right to civic and political participation — not despite their histories, but because of them.

    Toward a more inclusive future

    The attacks on Anandasangaree may fade from headlines, but they reveal a lingering discomfort with diasporic communities shaped by complex conflicts. Canada’s public policy must catch up with the country’s demographic realities. Inclusion must be more than symbolic.

    The federal government has rightly prioritized equity and anti-racism in recent years. But unless these priorities extend to how we interact with post-conflict communities — in security, education and public service — they will remain incomplete.

    We must ensure that younger Tamil Canadians do not inherit the suspicion that shadowed their parents. That means building public institutions capable of viewing communities not just as security risks, but as survivors, contributors and storytellers.

    Justice isn’t just about courts and laws. It’s about who feels at home in our democracy.

    Source: Recognizing the Tamil Canadian experience in public life

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    Anti-Palestinian racism report calls for Canada to recognize May 15 as Nakba Day

    2025/08/09 Leave a comment

    Well, this will provoke some interesting discussions within the government.

    Reading through the report, there appears little recognition that some of the actions, symbols and language in various pro-Palestinian protests have contributed to the rise in anti-Palestinian incidents. The description of the Hamas attack of October 7 is antiseptic and is silent on the rapes and other atrocities, also suggesting an element of denial at play “Hamas launched an attack on Israel on this date, actions which included taking 250 people hostage, some of whom remain in captivity in July 2025:”

    There also appears little recognition that public and private bodies can make decisions based on public activity and statements, if these create controversy and impact communities. After all, “actions have consequences.”

    Perhaps my experience in government where the line between being publicly silent despite any misgivings informs this view (post-government, of course, many public servants share their personal views fairly widely with considerable diversity of opinions.)

    The existing definitions of ethnicity (Arab) and religion (Muslim and Christian) are the preferred way to assess discrimination and hate crimes against Palestinians as they bring the issues into the broader context that affect all groups. In other words, focus more on the universal rather than a plethora of individual definitions based upon individual groups (e.g. anti-Tibet, anti-Khalistan, anti-Tamil etc).

    Hate crimes against Muslims increased by 8.5 percent compared to last year, against West Asian/Arab by 18.3 percent, higher than most other groups:

    A new report from the Islamophobia Research Hub at York University calls on governments across Canada to increase oversight on how universities, schools, police forces and Parliament deal with the recent spike in instances of anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian racism.

    The report also calls on all levels of government in Canada to officially recognize May 15 as Nakba Day. Palestinians mark the day after Israel declared independence in 1948 as the beginning of the destruction of their homeland.

    “Provincial governments should develop curriculum, train staff and educate students on Palestinian culture, identity and history, including the history of the Nakba,” the report published Wednesday said.

    It also wants all levels of government to “recognize and adopt” a definition of anti-Palestinian racism (APR) “as a distinct and detrimental form of racism that operates at multiple levels of state and society.”

    The director of the research hub, Nadia Hasan, an assistant professor in the School of Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies at York University, said recognizing both Nakba Day and an official definition for APR would set Canada apart from other countries.

    “These are important things for Canada to take very seriously,” Hasan said. “I think it would be a first and an important step for Canada to lead on.”

    The report examines the increase in Islamophobic verbal and physical attacks directed at Arab and Palestinian Canadians since the beginning of the conflict between Hamas and Israel.

    The war was triggered when Hamas-led militants attacked Israeli communities and military bases near Gaza on Oct. 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, including more than 700 civilians, and taking 251 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.

    Israel’s military response has devastated the tiny, crowded enclave, killing more than 61,000 people — mostly civilians — according to Palestinian health authorities.

    The report says its findings are based on interviews conducted virtually with 16 Canadian community-based organizations that focus on addressing Islamophobia, APR and anti-Arab racism. Media reports were also used. The report does not include any first-hand accounts from victims or injured parties.

    Recommendations and calling out the CBC

    The report calls for greater oversight of post-secondary institutions by striking “advisory tables” made up of students and faculty to develop strategies for colleges and universities to use in combatting discrimination on campus.

    The authors of the report also call for those institutions to undergo third-party reviews of how they responded to incidents of Islamophobia and campus protests against the war in Gaza.

    They say school boards across Canada should also face province-wide reviews to determine how schools have dealt with incidents of anti-Palestinian racism and examine “cases that were insufficiently or never investigated.”

    Aside from the increased scrutiny on universities, colleges and school boards across the county, the report wants to establish provincial and territorial “hate crime accountability units.”

    The units would allow people alleging they have been the victims of discrimination to “report directly about law enforcement agencies’ mishandling of hate-motivated crime cases.”

    The report also calls for Canada’s public broadcaster to be “reviewed to ensure fair and balanced coverage of Palestinian perspectives.”

    This external review, the report says, should probe the possibility that CBC is disproportionately “rejecting Palestinian guest commentators” leading to biased media coverage.

    The report provides two reasons for its focus on CBC.

    The first is a report by a former employee who alleged she faced backlash for pitching “stories that would bring a balanced perspective” to the war in Gaza.

    The second reason is a letter sent to CBC signed by more than 500 members of the Racial Equity Media Collective asking the public broadcaster to “address an apparent pattern of anti-Palestinian bias, Islamophobia and anti-Palestinian racism within the corporation’s news and documentary culture.”

    CBC’s head of public affairs, Chuck Thompson, said an external review is not necessary because CBC is already accountable to the independent CBC Ombudsman, Maxime Bertrand, who regularly reviews complaints about the corporation’s journalism.

    “CBC News has amplified countless Palestinian voices in our ongoing coverage of the conflict in Gaza,” he said. “There are now thousands of stories we’ve published and broadcast about Israel and Gaza since 2023, all archived here … we think the work speaks for itself.”

    The York University report references CBC News journalism covering dozens of instances of anti-Arab and anti-Palestinian racism.

    A policy for MPs

    The report is also calling on Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Konrad von Finckenstein, who administers the Conflict of Interest Act and the code of conduct for MPs, to be given increased responsibilities.

    The commissioner, the report says, “should develop a clear and enforceable policy on how parliamentarians are to be held accountable when they disseminate disinformation, especially … when such acts target marginalized communities.”

    It provides only one example of an MP allegedly spreading disinformation, a post on X by Conservative deputy leader Melissa Lantsman.

    The post includes the line: “Stickers with ❤️s glorifying terror on campus popped up today at UBC.”

    The report notes the stickers were falsely associated with the UBC Social Justice Centre.

    CBC News has reached out to the Official Opposition for reaction to the allegation but has yet to receive a response.

    The 15 recommendations contained in the report also call on the federal government to address issues with the temporary resident visa program for refugees fleeing Gaza and probe alleged Israeli foreign interference in Canada.

    A Senate report released November 2023 found Islamophobia remains a persistent problem in Canada and concrete action is required to reverse the growing tide of hate across the country.

    The report, the first of its kind in Canada, took a year and involved 21 public meetings and 138 witnesses. It said incidents of Islamophobia are a daily reality for many Muslims and that one in four Canadians do not trust Muslims.

    Police and advocacy organizations have also reported increases in antisemitic incidents. In the spring, B’nai Brith Canada reported that in 2024 the total number of reported cases of acts of hatred targeting Jews had reached a record high of 6,219 incidents.

    Source: Anti-Palestinian racism report calls for Canada to recognize May 15 as Nakba Day

    Report link: Documenting the ‘Palestine Exception’: An Overview of Trends in Islamophobia, Anti-Palestinian, and Anti-Arab Racism in Canada in the Aftermath of October 7, 2023

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    Nicolas: Morale et Caisse de dépôt

    2025/08/09 Leave a comment

    Uncomfortable comparison with sanctions against South Africa in the 1980s:

    …La vérité — et on le voit depuis l’annonce faite par la France, le Royaume-Uni, le Canada et maintenant d’autres nations d’une reconnaissance prochaine de l’État palestinien —, c’est que les mesures même « symboliques », prises dans des pays clés, accroissent une pression diplomatique plus qu’urgente, encore plus dans un contexte de famine.

    C’est la Coalition du Québec Urgence Palestine qui organise principalement la mobilisation pour mettre de la pression sur La Caisse et qui a publié la lettre ouverte qui a forcé la réponse — rhétoriquement très faible — de son p.-d.g. La Coalition inclut des syndicats, dont la CSN, Québec solidaire, le Parti vert du Québec, la Ligue des droits et libertés, plusieurs organismes de coopération internationale, des regroupements de femmes, des groupes communautaires.

    Plusieurs de ces groupes ont une longue histoire. Plusieurs se faisaient déjà traiter de noms d’oiseaux pour leur engagement contre l’apartheid, dans les années 1980. C’est que la moralité des institutions canadiennes, lorsqu’elle existe, se construit sur la persistance de gens tenaces, qui ne lâchent rien. Je vous laisse faire les parallèles qui s’imposent.

    Source: Chronique | Morale et Caisse de dépôt

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