Canadian Politics

Over the past several years I’ve been more involved in Canadian politics because we are facing challenges we can no longer afford to ignore— from the existential threat of climate change to Canada’s human rights violations at home and abroad, festering social justice issues of colonization, systemic racism and the need to defund the police, our entrenched inequities, Victorian attitudes toward work, economic inequities and presumed “worthiness” for survival, the rape culture spotlighted by the #metoo movement, the ever expanding incursions into our cultural freedom being made by the voracious “intellectual property” regime (which prompted my creation of this blog), and our government’s abject failure to put aside partisanship and deal with the Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent failure to even try to “build back better”— all of these things highlight our desperate need for real real change (not the phony real change Mr Trudeau promised in 2015) more than ever before.

The thing that sucked me into politics was my belief in democracy, and my realization that the reason everything has been getting worse throughout my entire adulthood because we don’t actually have the representative democracy they tell us we have.

When a lifetime of voting in every election without ever electing a representative almost made me give up hope of things ever getting better, I discovered it didn’t have to be this way. There is a means to transform this country into an actual Representative Democracy.

The way to upend the status quo so we can actually start fixing the things that are so badly wrong so we can work toward the future we need is by changing the way we elect our gover ments. Much to my surprise I discovered there have been Canadians trying to make this happen pretty much for all of Canadian History.

Andrew Ross McMaster, 1923 Liberal MP, Brome

Now is the time to stop trying. As Yoda would tell us, we must do.

And what we must do is implement Proportional Representation.

At this point I understand that I am only one person, and it’s time to realize I only have the time to write one blog. And this is it.

And right now my focus has to be on Proportional Representation.

“The present situation [First Past the Post Plurality voting] appears to me to be one which does not appeal to logical or righteous minds, it does not give us proper representation of the thought and the political sympathies of the people; therefore, we should strive to find out something that will.”
— Andrew Ross McMaster

https://www.lipad.ca/full/permalink/643321/

Climate Consultation: Deadline Midnight

The Government of Canada is holding another Climate Consultation. Despite the fact they completely ignored the public input from the 2016 in-person Climate Consultation, it is important for every Canadian concerned about the Climate Crisis to participate. This time, they don’t have a majority government, so they have to at least pretend to listen to us.

You don’t have to be a climate expert to partcipate… climate change is already affecting all of our lives. The policies our governments make will either help or make it worse. So far, Canadian policies have only made it worse.

The deadline for submissions is tonight at midnight, so to make it easier, I’ve reproduced the questions so you can think about what you will say before you go online. It’s important to note that the “tell us more” essay questions each have a 5,000 character limit.

Privacy
They’ve made this an anonymous survey, and we are repeatedly advised not to use any identifying information in our answers. And yet the largest part of the survey is asking for our demographic information, even though they provide a “prefer not to say” answer to each of the demographic questions. Although privacy is an important issue to me, very often we have to make tradeoffs, particularly if we want our voice heard. And the government is more likely to accept our answers as legitimate if we indicate we are Canadians.

(I would also like to point out that if you would be liable to negative repercussions from the government, it would be better to use your own anonymizing method (using a public access machine and going through TOR. If this is impossible, you would do better not to make a submission at all).

THE SURVEY
You’ll find the survey here:
https://eccc.sondage-survey.ca/f/s.aspx?s=4132165a-69ff-455b-9208-24be193aa656&lang=EN&r=94a20c2e-88fb-4585-989c-82da43aff18c

Q1. What opportunities do you think the Government of Canada should pursue to reduce emissions by 40-45% below 2005 levels by 2030 and position Canada to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, including in any or all of the following economic sectors? Please elaborate on your answers where appropriate, including any specific insights on policy opportunities or initiatives.
• Buildings
• Electricity
• Heavy industry, including oil and gas
• Transportation
• Agriculture and waste
• Nature-based climate solutions
• Economy-wide (e.g., carbon pricing, climate-risk disclosure, sustainable finance, etc.)
• Other, please specify
Please tell us more:

Q2. What do you see as the barriers or challenges to reducing emissions in these sectors? Do you have suggestions on how to overcome these barriers?

Q3. What broader economic, technological, or social challenges and opportunities do you foresee resulting from efforts to reduce emissions in these sectors? For example, opportunities associated with economic diversification across sectors. Do you have suggestions on how to address these challenges and opportunities?

Q4. Looking beyond 2030, what enabling measures, strategies or technological pathways do you think the Government of Canada should put in place now to ensure that Canada is on track to net-zero emissions by 2050?

Q5. What broader economic, technological, or social issues to you foresee as a result of the transition to a net-zero economy in Canada? Do you have suggestions on how to address these issues?

Q6. How would you like to be engaged on Canada’s climate plans moving forward? How often should this engagement occur, and what method or format would be preferable?

Demographic questions

D1. In what capacity are you completing this engagement process? As an:
• Individual
• Representative of a business/business association
• Representative of an Indigenous organization
• Representative of a not for profit organization such as a charity or academic organization
• Representative of a government organization
• Prefer not to say
https://eccc.sondage-survey.ca/f/s.aspx?s=4132165a-69ff-455b-9208-24be193aa656&lang=EN&r=94a20c2e-88fb-4585-989c-82da43aff18c

D2. What is your province or territory?
• Alberta
• British Columbia
• Manitoba
• New Brunswick
• Newfoundland and Labrador
• Nova Scotia
• Ontario
• Prince Edward Island
• Quebec
• Saskatchewan
• Northwest Territories
• Nunavut
• Yukon
• Outside of Canada
• Prefer not to say

D3. Please select the option that best relates to your sector (business).
• Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing and Hunting
• Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction
• Utilities
• Construction
• Manufacturing
• Wholesale Trade
• Retail Trade
• Transportation and Warehousing
• Information and Cultural Industries
• Finance and Insurance
• Real Estate and Rental and Leasing
• Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services
• Management of Companies and Enterprises
• Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services
• Educational Services
• Health Care and Social Assistance
• Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation
• Accommodation and Food Services
• Public Administration
• Other, please specify
• Prefer not to say

D4. Which of the following age groups do you fall into? (individual)
• Under 24
• 25 to 39
• 40 to 64
• 65+
• Prefer not to say

D5. How do you identify yourself? (individual)
• Woman
• Man
• Non-binary
• Other
• Prefer not to say

D6. Do you identify as any of the following? Select all that apply (individual)
• First Nations
• Inuit
• Métis
• Racialized Canadian
• LGBTQ2S+ person
• Person with a disability
• Official language minority
• New immigrant to Canada
• None of them
• Prefer not to say

CONCLUSION

When you’ve reach the end of the survey you can go vack and review or change your answers. When you’re happy about it, press the [SUBMIT] button.

Points You might want to bring up:

Canada must adopt a 2030 emissions reduction target of at least 50%, but 60% would be better.

In 2015 we were promised an end to fossil fuel subsidies. Now we’re told that will finally happen in 2023. That isn’t good enough: it needs to happen now,

Since climate change is an existential threat, the government must spend whatever it will take.

Stop ssearching for new fossil fuel projects.
Stop building new fossil fuel infrastructure, like pipelines and LNG facilities.

If you’re looking for more suggestions, the Green Party’s Mission Possible plan is a great place to start.

  1. Declare a Climate Emergency
    Accept, at every level of government, that climate is not an environmental issue. It is the gravest security threat the world has ever seen.
  2. Establish an inner cabinet of all parties
    Modelled on the war cabinets of Mackenzie King and Winston Churchill, parties will work together to ensure that climate is no longer treated like a political football. It requires all hands on deck.
  3. Set stringent new targets
    Establish our new target and file it as Canada’s Nationally Determined Contribution with the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change: 60 per cent GHG reductions against 2005 levels by 2030; zero emissions by 2050.
  4. Assume leadership
    Attend the next climate negotiation in Chile this year and press other countries to also double their efforts.
  5. Respect evidence
    Restore funding of climate research within the Government of Canada and in the network of universities that received financial support before 2011.
  6. Maintain carbon pricing
    Revenue neutrality will be achieved through carbon fee and dividend and we will eliminate all subsidies to fossil fuels.
  7. Ban fracking
    No exceptions. It destroys ecosystems, contaminates ground and surface water, endangers our health and it’s a major source of GHGs.
  8. Green the grid
    By 2030, remove all fossil fuel generation from our national east-west electricity grid.
  9. And modernize the grid
    By 2030, rebuild and revamp the east-west electricity grid to ensure that renewable energy can be transmitted from one province to another.
  10. Plug in to EVs
    By 2030 ensure all new cars are electric. By 2040, replace all internal combustion engine vehicles with electric vehicles, working with car makers to develop EVs that can replace working vehicles for Canadians in rural areas. Build a cross-country electric vehicle charging system so that drivers can cruise from St. John’s, NL to Prince Rupert, B.C. – with seamless ease.
  11. Get Canada back on track
    Modernize VIA Rail, expand service and ensure trans-modal connections across Canada to light rail and electric buses, so that no one in rural and remote areas of Canada lacks efficient, affordable and safe public transit.
  12. Complete a national building retrofit
    Create millions of new, well-paying jobs in the trades by retrofitting every building in Canada – residential, commercial, and institutional – to be carbon neutral by 2030.
  13. Turn off the tap to oil imports
    End all imports of foreign oil. As fossil fuel use declines, use only Canadian fossil fuels and allow investment in upgraders to turn Canadian solid bitumen into gas, diesel, propane and other products for the Canadian market, providing jobs in Alberta. By 2050, shift all Canadian bitumen from fuel to feedstock for the petrochemical industry.
  14. Switch to bio-diesel
    Promote the development of local, small scale bio-diesel production, primarily relying on used vegetable fat from restaurants. Mandate the switch to bio-diesel for agricultural, fishing and forestry equipment.
  15. Create new partnerships for renewables
    Form partnerships with Indigenous peoples, providing economic opportunities by ramping up renewables on their lands. Harness abandoned deep oil wells, wherever feasible, for geothermal energy, using workers who drilled the wells to manage the renewable energy generation.
  16. Call for all hands on deck
    Engage every municipality and community organization, as well as every school and university to step up and plant trees, install solar panels, heat pumps, assist in retrofitting buildings to maximize energy efficiency.
  17. Prioritize adaptation
    Invest significant resources in adaptation measures to protect Canadian resource sectors such as agriculture, fishing and forestry from the ravages of climate change. Review all infrastructure investments for adaptation to climate change. Map flood plains, tornado corridors and other areas of natural vulnerability and adjust land use plans accordingly.
  18. Change planes
    Cancel the purchase of F35s and buy more water bombers to protect communities from forest fires. Cut standing dead timber to establish fire breaks and save lives.
  19. Curtail the “other” GHG sources
    Address the fossil fuel use that falls outside the Paris Agreement – emissions from international shipping, aviation and the military.
  20. Restore carbon sinks
    Launch a global effort to restore carbon sinks, focusing on replanting forests and restoring the planet’s mangrove forests as quickly as possible.
    https://www.greenparty.ca/en/mission-possible

If you prefer, LEADNOW has put together an identifiable letter form response. https://leadnow.ca/climate-consultation/ I think it better to submit your resonse in the manner the government has asked for, but the most important thing is to submit something.

Who Will Lead the #GPC?

The Green Party Leadership race, like any major party leadership, is important for all of Canada. TVO recognized this from the get go, but even so there has been very little serious MSM coverage.

In the Internet era, we’re no longer entirely at the mercy of MSM gatekeepers, so there’s been plenty to see online. Tonight CBC, Youtube and Facebook will present live election night coverage.


As most of the GPC Leadership campaign has coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic, although a few of the Candidates had begun cross Canada tours when the shut downs hit, there has been very little opportunity for Green Party members to actually engage with leadership candidates face to face.

But that hasn’t stopped the Canadian Greens from putting on an excellent engaging leadership campaign. Interim Leader Jo-Ann Robert’s People, Politics and Planet podcast hosted interviews with all the candidates. We began with 10 candidates, and end with 8 going into tonight’s election.

July 20-30: Regional Townhalls with the GPC Leadership Contestants.

There have been a wide variety of Interviews and Zoom meetups with Electoral District Associations across the country.

Fair Vote Canada kicked off the Green Party 2020 Leadership Debate season:

Fair Vote Canada Leadership Debate on Democracy
The Agenda with Steve Paikin: GPC Leadership Debate 2020
Canada’s place in the world: Green Party of Canada Leadership Debate

Finally, after months of hard work campaigning, CBC will be hosting the Green Party Leadership 2020 Election Night coverage!

WATCH LIVE: Green Party of Canada 2020 Leadership Election Night


[republished from Whoa!Canada]

Mexico’s copyright vs self-determination and national sovereignty

mostlysignssomeportents:

I’ve written extensively about Mexico’s new copyright law, which was copypasted straight out of the US’s lawbooks without debate or consultation and is a catastrophic blow to human rights.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/07/mexicos-new-copyright-law-puts-human-rights-jeopardy

The law does senseless violence to the free expression rights of Mexican people, enabling both automated and deliberate censorship, as well as making it trivial to dox anyone by claiming copyright violations:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/07/how-mexicos-new-copyright-law-crushes-free-expression

And its DRM rules are a nightmare for cybersecurity, fencing off devices that Mexicans entrust with their data and personal safety from independent security audits:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/07/mexicos-new-copyright-law-cybersecurity-and-human-rights

Today, I published two more articles analyzing the threats the new law poses to human rights in Mexico. The first is “Disability, Education, Repair and Health: How Mexico’s Copyright Law Hurts Self-Determination in the Internet Age.”

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/07/disability-education-repair-and-health-how-mexicos-copyright-law-hurts-self

It explains how Mexico’s new law will prevent people with disabilities from adapting their technology without permission from a distant manufacturer who may not care to have their products altered:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/07/disability-education-repair-and-health-how-mexicos-copyright-law-hurts-self#adaptation

And how it undermines the Right to Repair, by allowing foreign firms to monopolize repairs and unilaterally decide when a product is “beyond repair” and must be replaced, which has major implications for agriculture and public health:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/07/disability-education-repair-and-health-how-mexicos-copyright-law-hurts-self#r2r

And finally, how the rules on takedown, filters and DRM interfere with education, allowing for the arbitrary removal of curricular materials from the net and prohibiting educators from bypassing digital locks to integrate works into their teaching.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/07/disability-education-repair-and-health-how-mexicos-copyright-law-hurts-self#education

Nominally, the new Mexican law protects these activities, but as I explain, these protections are a fiction - in 22 years, no one in the USA has been able to invoke them, because of all the conditions they impose.

In a second article, “Mexico’s New Copyright Law Undermines Mexico’s National Sovereignty, Continuing Generations of Unfair ‘Fair Trade Deals’ Between the USA and Latin America,” I connect the new law to generations of economic colonialism.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/07/mexicos-new-copyright-law-undermines-mexicos-national-sovereignty-continuing

Mexico’s new copyright law didn’t get rushed through Congress in a vacuum: it was passed as part of the USMCA, Donald Trump’s replacement for NAFTA.

Like so many trade deal-based laws, this new system doesn’t create an even footing between trade partners, but rather imposes a permanent, structural disadvantage on Mexican businesses and the Mexican people.

Under this law, Mexican firms will be bound by terms far more onerous than those of their Canadian and US counterparts, such as automated copyright filters, which cost millions to install and subject Mexicans’ communications to censorship from black-box algorithms.

Mexico’s new DRM laws do not contain even the minimal (wholly inadequate) safeguards in the US or Canadian systems, nor to do they have the 22 years’ worth of exemptions US films can rely on.

Meanwhile, the USA is likely to abandon this law, as we are suing the US government to overturn it:

https://www.eff.org/cases/green-v-us-department-justice

Along with the DRM rules, Mexico has brought in a harsh and unremitting “notice and takedown” system tailor-made for abuse, which will allow companies to remove warnings about product defects and dox their critics.

Mexico’s Congress didn’t rush this law through without public debate because they knew we’d love it and didn’t want to spoil the surprise.

Like every dirty trade deal, this was heavily lobbied and passed without scrutiny because its backers knew it couldn’t withstand scrutiny.

Mexico’s National Commission for Human Rights has until TOMORROW to open an investigation into this law. If they do, they can overturn it. If you are in Mexico or are Mexican, here is a petition you can fill in:

https://participa.nicensuranicandados.org/

#10yrsago Major record labels gang up and screw over indie record store

mostlysignssomeportents:


A small indie record store owner in Ottawa, Canada, has plead guilty to a charge of copyright infringement for importing rare CDs from abroad. Apparently, these discs (which are themselves licensed, as far as I can tell) aren’t licensed for sale in Canada, and Canadian law (apparently) bans this kind of parallel importation.

But none of these CDs are actually available in Canada. And no one orders rare, expensive imports unless he’s already got the artist’s entire catalog. And, of course, the record labels that went after this record store owner (whose whole purpose in life is to sell their CDs) are presently being sued for $60 billion in copyright damages for ripping off artists, and have admitted to $50 million in liability already.

https://boingboing.net/2009/12/16/major-record-labels-1.html

Craaaaazy.

We don’t know how much Village Roadshow paid to buy Australia’s new censoring copyright law

mostlysignssomeportents:


Australia just passed into law one of the world’s most censoring copyright law, which allows the country’s media giants like Village Roadshow to use one-sided administrative process to get court orders to censor any website whose “primary effect” is infringement, then use those orders to force search engines to delist any site so blocked, and then recycle those orders to block for any site or service that “provides access” to a blocked site or service.

In other words, Village Roadshow can now censor any site it doesn’t like, without the site’s operators being present to argue their side, and then block search engines from displaying that site’s contents, making it virtually impossible for everyday Australians to learn that the site has been blocked – and they get to block tools like VPNs that might allow people to get outside this censoring national firewall that they get to run.

The pricetag for this is a secret: thought Village Roadshow gave AUD1.2 million to pass the precursor to this bill, Village Roadshow refuses to say how much it spent in this cycle, and Australia’s backwards election-spending transparency rules mean we won’t find out for months, after this has faded from the news cycle (prior to this bill, Village Roadshow’s all-time lobbying spend topped AUD6.7 million).

https://boingboing.net/2018/12/02/mps-for-sale.html

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Video of 10 hours of white noise has 5 copyright claims

mostlysignssomeportents:

Sebastian Tomczak, who blogs his fascination with sound and technology at little-scale.blogspot.com, reports that “My ten hour white noise video now has five copyright claims!”

The culprit appears to be YouTube’s hapless and hostile contentID system, which automatically matches portions of different videos, makes stupid conclusions about intellectual property, then invites corporate customers to “claim” and monetize other people’s work as their own.

https://boingboing.net/2018/01/05/video-of-10-hours-of-white-noi.html

Crazy as it is, YouTube is obligated to take down copyright claims or lose its safe harbor status under the dreadful DMCA, so cultural suppression through copyright takedown is not a surprise…. well, unless you’r Ajit Pai.  He and his friends at The Daily Caller were very surprised indeed

#NetNeutrality is not optional

The Internet is not a luxury.

In 2017 it is a necessity of life.

We find jobs on the Internet.

We do business on the Internet.

We get our news, connect with our families and friends, and we learn things on the Internet.

Net Neutrality isn’t just about companies.

It’s about people.

Today anyone can make a website.
Write a blog.  Or many.
Share their photographs.
Or books.
Or artwork.
Or videos.

Or music.

And even sell it.

Anyone can hang out his shingle as a journalist.

Or be politically active.

Anyone can talk to anyone.

Read books.

Learn computer animation.

Watch movies.

We all need a free and open Internet.

#NetNeutrality is not optional.

#NetNeutrality is not optional.
One of the many things I use the Internet for is to share videos I make. This was from a video I was recording of Cory Doctorow’s talk at the University of Waterloo on December 4th, 2017.

Canadians (and folk anywhere in the world) can sign this petition.

Americans need to call their congress people, which is REALLY easy to do here