Le Devoir Éditorial | La vraie nature de Zuckerberg

2025/01/14 Leave a comment

Well stated:

Pendant que le comté de Los Angeles compte les morts causés par d’effroyables incendies, le président des États-Unis désigné, Donald Trump, répand ses faussetés à la même vitesse que les flammes. Sur son réseau Truth Social, le 8 janvier, il a accusé le gouverneur de la Californie, le démocrate Gavin Newsom, d’être responsable des difficultés d’approvisionnement en eau en raison de son refus « de signer la déclaration de restauration de l’eau qui lui a été présentée et qui aurait permis l’accès à des millions de litres d’eau, provenant des pluies excédentaires et de la fonte des neiges du Nord ».

Une simple mais rigoureuse vérification des faits menée par l’équipe du Poynter Institute, PolitiFact, a montré que la « déclaration de restauration de l’eau » n’existe tout simplement pas. Et que ce sont les structures de stockage des eaux, et non ses méthodes de collecte à la source, qui ont entraîné des problèmes d’approvisionnement. Pour le président désigné, proférer des mensonges de manière consciente et calculée dans le but de discréditer l’adversaire est devenu aussi naturel que respirer. Il est donc profondément troublant d’apprendre que le p.-d.g. de Meta Platforms inc. (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, Threads), Mark Zuckerberg, s’incline devant le règne de la désinformation et proscrit l’ère de la vérification des faits.

Dans une vidéo diffusée le 7 janvier dernier sur son réseau, l’ex-étudiant de Harvard âgé de 40 ans, et dont la fortune est évaluée à plus de 200 milliards de dollars américains, a affirmé qu’il souhaitait « revenir à la source » de Facebook, créé en 2004, et redonner la voix au peuple. Concrètement, il annonce la fin de la vérification des faits par une équipe de vérificateurs au profit des notes de la communauté, à la manière du réseau X, où les citoyens réagissent au gré de leurs connaissances,a priori et intentions partisanes. Ironiquement, le programme de vérification des faits lancé par Facebook en 2016, et salué dans le monde entier, visait à contrer le flot de fake news né de la campagne du candidat républicain Donald Trump. Zuckerberg n’en est pas à son premier revirement, mais celui-ci pourrait être dévastateur.

Dans une longue entrevue-confession accordée vendredi au polémiste et partisan de Trump Joe Rogan (l’un des animateurs de podcast les plus écoutés dans le monde), Zuckerberg explique qu’il a erré en confiant à des vérificateurs « idéologiquement partiaux » le mandat de valider la véracité des idées publiées par les utilisateurs de Facebook — il y en aurait 3,2 milliards chaque mois dans le monde, une quantité non négligeable. « On va se débarrasser d’une série de restrictions portant sur l’immigration et les questions de genre », dit-il, ne cachant pas son exaspération pour des courants wokes, qui lui semblent occuper trop d’espace.

Le p.-d.g poursuit son délire : fortement mal à l’aise avec le fait d’être « un de ceux qui décident de ce qui est vrai ou faux dans le monde », il préfère mettre fin à la « censure » et milite pour une saine autorégulation. Or, la désastreuse expérience du réseau X, sous la houlette d’un autre despote de la désinformation, Elon Musk, a montré les errements vers lesquels menait un réseau gangrené par les trolls et les manipulateurs. Avec les notes de la communauté, la vérité n’est pas vainqueure.

Zuckerberg parle de censure, mais ce que les vérificateurs de faits faisaient n’avait rien à voir avec une exclusion complète de propos s’éloignant de la vérité, mais relevait plutôt d’une diminution de leur portée. Facebook est une bête qui se nourrit à l’engagement, source de ses profits mirobolants. La décision a choqué partout dans le monde, et un groupe comme l’IFCN (Réseau international de vérification des faits) a immédiatement dénoncé la prémisse de Zuckerberg, selon laquelle les vérificateurs sont idéologiquement partiaux, ce qui en fait des censeurs.

La nouvelle ne concerne pour l’heure que les États-Unis, mais Mark Zuckerberg a promis d’étendre cette mesure ailleurs. L’heure est grave : a-t-on oublié un faux pas tragique comme celui survenu en 2017 au Myanmar ? Un rapport dévastateur publié en 2022 par Amnesty International a démontré que « les systèmes d’algorithmes de Facebook amplifiaient la propagation de contenus nocifs anti-Rohingyas au Myanmar ». Des milliers de Rohingyas ont ainsi été « tués, torturés, violés et déplacés ». Avec Facebook comme caisse de résonance, la violence virtuelle s’est transposée sur le terrain.

Les nouvelles règles sur la conduite haineuse édictées par Facebook interdisent de cibler des caractéristiques mentales pour insulter des personnes, mais, de manière tout à fait outrancière, elles passeront outre auxdites allégations de maladie mentale ou d’anormalité si elles sont fondées sur le genre ou l’orientation sexuelle, et cela, « compte tenu du discours politique et religieux sur le transgenrisme et l’homosexualité ». La communauté LGBTQ+ fulmine et s’inquiète, avec raison. Voilà donc la vraie nature de Zuckerberg, qui, sous le couvert fourre-tout de la libre expression, pourrait stimuler des vagues de haine et d’intolérance sur ses réseaux sociaux.

Source: Éditorial | La vraie nature de Zuckerberg

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Girard: La succession de Justin Trudeau et la neutralité religieuse

2025/01/14 Leave a comment

Signal of past and debates to come:

L’actualité politique et judiciaire de 2025 forcera la personne qui succédera à Justin Trudeau, à titre de chef du Parti libéral du Canada, à se prononcer sur la neutralité religieuse de l’État, et aussi sur la laïcité telle que préconisée par le Québec comme modèle du vivre-ensemble.

Cette personne devra notamment se prononcer sur la décision de la Cour suprême d’accepter ou non de revoir la décision de la Cour d’appel du Québec quant à la validité de la Loi sur la laïcité de l’État. Peu importe cette décision, il en résultera un grand remous, puisque deux visions s’affrontent : le Québec privilégie une approche citoyenne pour favoriser le vivre-ensemble, tandis que le reste du Canada mise sur le multiculturalisme.

En cette période de recrudescence de crimes haineux au Canada, la succession de Trudeau sera aussi appelée à prendre position sur la demande du Bloc québécois (à travers les projets de loi C-367 et C-373), du gouvernement Legault, de même que de nombreuses organisations de la société civile, dont le Rassemblement de la laïcité et le Centre consultatif des relations juives et israéliennes (CIJA), d’abroger l’exception religieuse du Code criminel canadien lorsqu’il est question de propagande haineuse.
Elle devra également réagir à la réponse du gouvernement Legault au rapport du Comité consultatif sur les enjeux constitutionnels du Québec au sein de la fédération canadienne, qui recommande notamment de doter le Québec d’une constitution codifiée qui inclurait les lois fondamentales actuellement en vigueur, dont la Loi sur la laïcité de l’État.

De plus, elle devra être prête à réagir dans l’éventualité où le gouvernement Legault déposerait un projet de loi afin d’interdire la prière dans l’espace public ou encore pour modifier la Loi sur l’instruction publique afin de contrer le phénomène d’« entrisme religieux » observé dans certaines écoles publiques. Ces questions ne font pas l’unanimité et risquent de créer de vives réactions tant au Québec que dans le reste du Canada.

Par ailleurs, si la succession de Justin Trudeau cherche à rééquilibrer le budget, la question des privilèges fiscaux accordés aux organismes de bienfaisance enregistrés qui n’offrent aucun bénéfice social autre que de « promouvoir la religion » pourrait refaire surface. En effet, contrairement à d’autres pays du Commonwealth, le Canada a jusqu’à maintenant refusé de revoir la description des activités de bienfaisance qui donnent accès à des bénéfices fiscaux appréciables. Il préfère maintenir le flou actuel, en se basant sur une jurisprudence qui, elle, s’appuie sur une vieille loi anglaise adoptée en 1601. Ainsi, « l’avancement des religions » est toujours reconnu comme une activité de bienfaisance, ce qui comprend le financement des prêches, les services offerts conformément aux dogmes et aux doctrines religieuses, les lieux de culte, ainsi que les missions de propagation de la foi.

Enfin, tout de suite après les prochaines élections fédérales, cette personne devra aussi se prononcer sur plusieurs sujets liés à la neutralité religieuse de l’État qui sont d’importance pour les Québécois, tels que la pertinence du serment d’allégeance à Sa Majesté et gouverneur suprême de l’Église d’Angleterre, le roi Charles III, requis pour siéger au Parlement, et déjà contesté par les députés du Bloc québécois, du NPD et certains élus libéraux et conservateurs.

Ou encore la pertinence de maintenir la lecture, en début de séance, d’une prière à la Chambre des communes, et ce, bien que la Cour suprême se soit prononcée, en 2015, contre la récitation de la prière par des représentants de l’État dans le cadre de leurs fonctions. Bien que les assemblées législatives et le Parlement fédéral ne soient pas tenus de se soumettre aux décisions de la Cour suprême, ce point est régulièrement soulevé par le Bloc québécois, qui défend une plus grande neutralité religieuse de l’État.

Bien évidemment, la personne qui remplacera Justin Trudeau à titre de chef du Parti libéral du Canada devra aussi se prononcer sur d’autres sujets d’importance, comme l’immigration, l’économie et la santé. Il n’en demeure pas moins que le dossier de la neutralité de l’État doit faire partie intégrante de ses priorités.

Source: La succession de Justin Trudeau et la neutralité religieuse

 

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Klein: ‘Now Is the Time of Monsters’

2025/01/13 Leave a comment

Good summary of four macro issues that will affect our lives for years to come. Makes for depressing reading but cannot be ignored.

Donald Trump is returning, artificial intelligence is maturing, the planet is warming, and the global fertility rate is collapsing.

To look at any of these stories in isolation is to miss what they collectively represent: the unsteady, unpredictable emergence of a different world. Much that we took for granted over the last 50 years — from the climate to birthrates to political institutions — is breaking down; movements and technologies that seek to upend the next 50 years are breaking through….

Source: ‘Now Is the Time of Monsters’

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Sears | How the federal Liberals have opened their leadership race to foreign interference

2025/01/13 Leave a comment

Good reminder that more work needs to be done beyond reversing the most egregious rule. Implementation and vetting:

…But there is a much larger question here. National party executives and directors are not running the Oakville Seniors’ Lawn Bowling Club. They are the governors of organizations who control who gets to compete to be prime minister. The comparison to any other civil society organization is laughable given that power. They determine who leads our government, and have this time heavily tilted the scales.

The Liberals would have risen in public esteem if they were to have set membership as restricted to 18 year old citizens, who can prove they gave their own money to become a member. And if they had taken the admitted risk of setting a fairer campaign period — I suspect that the NDP could have encouraged not to defeat the government in return for the appropriate policy concession, for example.

Finally, they could have helped erase the memory of their unbelievably lax approach to foreign interference by creating a vetting process advised by a group knowledgeable about national security warning flags.

They chose to do none of these things.

So this race remains wide open to foreign interference and closed to any candidate who is not already a front-runner. This is a blow to Canadian democracy. It will be the most rushed and nontransparent process in the choice of leaders in recent Canadian history.

Source: Opinion | How the federal Liberals have opened their leadership race to foreign interference

Conservative MP Rempel Garner made similar critiques: https://michellerempelgarner.substack.com/p/integrity-questions-loom-over-pm

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Why right-wing influencers are blaming the California wildfires on diversity efforts

2025/01/13 Leave a comment

Sigh…:

Within a day of wildfires igniting in Los Angeles, right-wing media and influencers began blaming the scale of the destruction on efforts to reduce systemic social inequality, notably diversity, equity and inclusion policies.

Billionaire Elon Musk helped circulate screenshots of the Los Angeles Fire Department’s four-year-old ‘racial equity action plan,’ writing “They prioritized DEI over saving lives and homes.”

he first woman and openly gay person in that role. The chief, her fire department and the city government quickly became targets in right-wing media.

“When you focus your government on diversity, equity, inclusion, LGBTQ pet projects, and you are captured by environmentalists, we have been warning for years that you are worried about abstractions, but you can’t do the basic stuff,” Charlie Kirk, founder of the Trump-aligned nonprofit Turning Point USA, said on his podcast this week. He’s one of many critics amplifying what’s become a common refrain on the right when all kinds of disasters and tragic events hit, including the Baltimore bridge collapse last March and the Secret Service’s performance during the attempted assassination of now President-elect Donald Trump over the summer.

After a plane panel detached mid-flight on a Boeing aircraft last year, Fox News host Laura Ingram said, “We can’t link the diversity efforts to what happened — that would take an exhaustive investigation, but it’s worth asking at this point, is excellence what we need in airline operations or is diversity the goal here?”

Commentary on leading, national news stories is a tried and true way for partisan media figures to drive engagement online. But stoking anger about diversity efforts in particular is also shorthand for a much larger story, said Ian Haney López, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley and the author “Dog Whistle Politics.”

“The story is something like this: We as a society used to hire on the basis of competence and meritocracy. But that system has been hijacked by powerful minorities,” he told NPR.

“Again and again, we see these efforts to trigger people’s latent resentments against groups that historically have been socially marginalized, socially reviled in terms that do not embrace a blatant direct bigotry, but that instead seek to clothe themselves in some form of neutrality or even a commitment to fairness or excellence.”

It’s the definition of a dog whistle, said Haney López, and it’s been happening in various forms since at least the end of the Civil War.

Source: Why right-wing influencers are blaming the California wildfires on diversity efforts

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Sweden to Implement Stricter Checks on Citizenship Applicants

2025/01/13 Leave a comment

Of note:

KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • Sweden will tighten controls on those applying for citizenship.
  • The decision comes in a bid to enhance national security and prevent people who pose a security risk from obtaining citizenship in Sweden.
  • The Swedish Migration Board will take forceful measures to ensure that requirements in citizenship cases are maintained.

In a bid to prevent people who pose a security risk from becoming Swedish citizens, authorities in this country will further tighten controls on those who apply for citizenship.

The decision has been confirmed through a press release from the government of Sweden, Schengen.News reports.

Upon the government’s request, the Swedish Migration Board will take further and forceful measures to ensure that requirements in citizenship cases are maintained.

It is currently practically impossible to regain citizenship. This underlines the importance of never granting Swedish citizenship to people who may pose a threat to Swedish security.

Migration Minister Johan Forssell (M)

Tightened Measures to Enhance National Security

The Swedish Migration Agency announced stricter measures in October of last year for those wishing to obtain citizenship in this country.

Among the measures are the detection of potential security threats, as well as the control and implementation of a system for the revocation of residence permits and tightened ID controls.

As part of measures to enhance national security, Sweden notified the European Commission for further extension of controls at all air, sea, and land borders, which were scheduled to end on November 12, 2024, until May 11, 2025.

Serious threats to public policy and internal security posed by recent terrorism-related events and serious crime associated with an ongoing armed conflict in the organized and gang-related crime environment; all internal borders (land, air, and sea).

Sweden’s notification to the EU

Notable Increase in Rejection Rates

The Security Service of Sweden years ago said that the rejection rate of citizenship applications was approximately 100-180 cases per year for security reasons, while in 2023, the number was 756, and in 2024, 543.

Migration Minister Johan Forssell (M) said that Sweden is seeing a very sharp increase. He indicated that the new measures could require an applicant to appear in person for identification and that oral investigations can be conducted more often.

It happens very rarely these days. If you do that, you get a lot more information. If you have a person in front of you, you can ask counter-questions and check a story.

Migration Minister Johan Forssell (M)

More Than 33,000 Granted Citizenships in 2024

Last year, 33,633 people acquired citizenship in Sweden, based on the figures provided by the Swedish Migration Agency.

The same source revealed that the top nationalities that obtained citizenship in 2024 were nationals of Syria (4,192) and Eritrea(3,466), followed by those from Afghanistan (2,519).

Source: Sweden to Implement Stricter Checks on Citizenship Applicants

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Liberals set tighter rules for coming leadership race amid foreign interference concerns

2025/01/11 Leave a comment

Finally reading the room! One can argue about the age but the party has done the necessary in limiting participation to citizens and Permanent Residents:

The Liberals will pick a new leader to replace Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on March 9 under tighter new rules meant to address concerns about potential foreign interference.

Trudeau’s successor will take the reigns of the party just weeks before parliament is set to resume on Mar. 24. The government is almost certain to face a non-confidence vote which would trigger a spring election.

The Liberal Party board decided it will restrict voting rights in the leadership race to permanent residents and Canadian citizens in contrast to its wide-open approach which previously allowed non-Canadians to vote.

“Protecting the integrity of our democratic process, while still engaging as many people as possible, is one of the Liberal Party of Canada’s top priorities,” the party said in a release. 

The party retained rules that allow minors as young as 14 to become registered Liberals and to cast a vote.

To be a registered Liberal, an individual must simply “support the purposes of the party,” not be a member of any other federal party and not have declared to be a candidate for any other federal party.

Source: Liberals set tighter rules for coming leadership race amid foreign interference concerns

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Qian: Canada halts new parent immigration sponsorships, keeping families apart

2025/01/11 Leave a comment

A useful reminder. Also check out the detailed analysis in the 2012 Canadian Ethnic Studies paper that provides a more nuanced portrait of P&Gs than in the media (time for updating but unlikely to have changed significantly):

…A frequent argument against parent and grandparent immigration is that they will prove to be a burden on Canada’s welfare and health-care system. 

But research has demonstrated that older immigrants are not burdens on Canadian society as commonly assumed. Rather, according to an article in Canadian Ethnic Studies, “sponsored parents and/or grandparents make significant economic contributions to Canadian society as well as other non-economic ones that are often overlooked.”

For example, given the shortage of affordable child care in Canada, many immigrant families rely on grandparents to care for young children, so that their parents, especially women, can continue to work outside the home. Many elderly immigrantsalso contribute to Canada’s economy by working paid jobs and enrich Canada’s communities through their diverse volunteer services.

Canada is competing against other countries for talented workers. Allowing immigrants to reunite with their parents (and grandparents) is not only the right humanitarian choice; it is also one that will help Canadian families in their day to day lives, not to mention boost Canada’s efforts to retain much-needed talent.

Source: Canada halts new parent immigration sponsorships, keeping families apart

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Sullivan: The Price Of Orthodoxies

2025/01/11 Leave a comment

While I often find his commentaries somewhat unbalanced to my ears, nevertheless worth reading as he is frank about his previous orthodoxies but perhaps less so with his current ones. Nevertheless, a good column:

…I think it’s the accumulated frustration at these things that has led to the new outburst of attention. Musk’s rescue of Twitter from woke control and censorship has allowed the story to gain new oxygen. Trump’s re-election and the collapse of woke credibility (if not power) has disinhibited many. The “racist” accusations have lost their power to silence dissenters, as the consequences of that silence have played out. 

And this is a good thing for two reasons.

The first is that we haven’t had real accountability at the top for any of these atrocities. No one in the police or local government has faced legal consequences for their enabling of the gang-rapes. Many have gone on to have new careers in government. Just as the entire Catholic hierarchy escaped any legal punishment for their crimes of negligence and complicity in child abuse, so too did Dick Cheney and George W Bush bust open the Geneva Conventions only to be protected by Obama. One of the key architects of the torture regime, Gina Haspel, even became CIA director.

The second is that in all these cases, the victims were among the least powerful in the world: dark-skinned prisoners accused of terrorism, young boys whose word was usually dismissed in favor of the priest’s, and white, uncouth girls of the British underclass. I also cannot stop thinking of the countless gay and lesbian children with gender dysphoria who have been recklessly experimented on these past several years, fed lies by their doctors, and abandoned by gay and lesbian adults: all to sustain the orthodoxy of critical queer and gender theory. And you know full well that none of these cowards and quislings will ever be held to account. 

So let it rip. Expose it all. After all, 76 percent of the British public want the new, more focused inquiry that Starmer just denied them: 91 percent of Reform voters, 84 percent of Tories, 71 percent of Liberal Democrats, and 65 percent of Labour voters. And don’t balk at legal prosecution of the enablers. It takes time to absorb horror, and hold it properly to account. 

Orthodoxies are not without their legitimate uses. We need them to make sense of the world at times. But they need to be held loosely, and be capable of adjusting to new facts. When they become ways to deny reality, to exculpate criminals, to censor dissent, and to take the souls and bodies of the least of our fellow humans, we need to re-examine them too. Before they consume more victims.

Source: The Price Of Orthodoxies

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Housefather and Baker: What Liberals must do to regain Canadians’ support [Immigration]

2025/01/10 Leave a comment

Reasonable approach:

…• Restoring integrity to our immigration system: Our immigration and visitor levels and mix must be regularly adjusted by taking into account not only economic benefits and costs, but Canada’s capacity to welcome newcomers by considering our housing supply and our ability to deliver critical services like health care. We must also work closely with the U.S. to share information and use the most modern technology to better screen applicants to protect our continent from bad actors and those with links to terrorist organizations, detect fraud and strengthen the system’s integrity. Finally, we need to strengthen our ability to ensure anyone moving to Canada will respect the values we hold as Canadians and will not import hatred to this country….

Source: Opinion: What Liberals must do to regain Canadians’ support

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