HookShot posted:

A moment of silence for the victims of capitalism.

Arivia posted:

Bet that's a monument we'll never see erected.

Femtosecond posted:

When the Conservatives lose the White Rock byelection are Bernier and his allies gonna stab Scheer in the back like Ignatieff did with Dion?

Yellow Ant posted:

A moment of silence for the victims of Communism:

https://twitter.com/andrewscheer/status/928001753743798273

https://twitter.com/andrewscheer/status/928001798618697729

(This is kinda weird, right?)

CLAM DOWN posted:

There's apparently 1.2m Ukrainian Canadians, huh. I didn't know that number was so high.

Scaramouche posted:

His circumstances are bizarre but he also seems like kind of a jerk so I'm not sure where my knee is supposed to be jerking here.

vyelkin posted:

It's weird but if I had to guess I'd say it's zero-effort pandering to the Ukrainian-Canadian community which is renowned for fierce anti-communism dating back to the Cold War, fierce anti-Russian stances, and a continuing association of contemporary Russia with the Soviet Union. Harper used to do this kind of thing too and it was usually just as transparent.

namaste faggots posted:

So who's still against rural genocide

namaste faggots posted:

When are we going to get a party leader who isn't a loving moron

quote:

B.C. Speaker bars use of mock ministerial titles in legislature

Rob Shaw

VICTORIA — The Speaker of the B.C. legislature has barred the use of mock ministerial titles, and warned his former Liberal colleagues he will no longer allow challenges to his authority.

Speaker Darryl Plecas said the opposition cannot continue to make up titles for cabinet ministers — such as “minister of job loss” or “minister of intimidation” — ending a technique that had been used by all parties for years but had flared up as a particular point of dispute on Monday.

“I conclude that the unofficial and at times mocking or derogatory titles when directing a question to a minister of the Crown is indeed disrespectful to the minister and reflects poorly on this institution,” Plecas said Tuesday.

Plecas also addressed a bitter dispute between him and his former Liberal colleagues, who remain furious after he defected from the party to take the job and who have been openly hostile to his authority.

“Challenges to the authority of the speaker are unacceptable and will not be tolerated in the future,” Plecas warned.

The B.C. have called into question the professionalism of Plecas for his sudden change of the rules.

Liberal house leader Mike de Jong issued a rare public rebuke of the Speaker for the decision, saying he’s damaged his non-partisan office by unilaterally changing what has been considered parliamentary language in the house for decades, without properly consulting MLAs.

“Regrettably this Speaker believes he is going to assume the role of rewriting the parliamentary rules and parliamentary convention,” de Jong told Postmedia News on Monday. “Were he to call the house leaders and have a discussion, all of these things are possible. But to intervene in the way he did several weeks ago and again (Monday) when he is so clearly offside the rules and conventions, I think does a disservice to his office.”

After Plecas’s ruling Tuesday, de Jong went further, saying Plecas’s unilateral move to set limits on language “is a very dangerous precedent” he’s never seen in almost 25 years as an MLA and comes close to infringing on the principle of freedom of speech.

“I think you are seeing evidence of the frustration that members have with a Speaker who has chosen to be far more unilateral, far more dictatorial than any I have seen in the almost quarter century I’ve been here,” de Jong said, adding the move has diminished Plecas in the eyes of many Liberal MLAs. “But that has been his choice.”

In recent weeks, during question period, the Liberals have called Transportation Minister Claire Trevena the “minister of gridlock,” “minister of taxis” and the “minister of consultation paralysis” as criticism over her decisions on the Massey tunnel and ride-hailing services. As well, the Liberals have referred to Agriculture Minister Lana Popham as the “minister of intimidation” for her threats against fish farms.

Plecas has repeatedly tried to stop the references, telling Liberal critics it was his preference they use the correct ministerial titles. The Liberals continued anyway until Monday, when Plecas stopped question period and demanded an end to the language. That provoked the unusual spectacle of MLAs heckling the Speaker, who is supposed to be a non-partisan referee of legislature rules and respected by all sides of the house.

The criticism also exposes the persistent bad blood between Plecas and his former Liberal colleagues. Plecas left the Liberal caucus in September to take the Speaker’s job against his party’s wishes, in the process helping to prop up the NDP minority government. Interim Liberal leader Rich Coleman has said he respects the office of Speaker but not Plecas as the occupant.

De Jong acknowledged the tension Tuesday.

“I don’t think there’s any question that the manner in which the Speaker took the chair has left some members of the opposition feeling negatively towards the individual,” he said. “But the office, and the chair, are still deserving of respect and still require that respect. It does however, point to a tension that exists within the house.”

De Jong added that he’d served in the military and recognizes “you salute the office, not the individual.”

Creating fake titles for ministers as a form of verbal criticism in the legislature is not new, and MLAs of all parties have used the technique in the past without objection.

Green Leader Andrew Weaver called Liberal MLA Rich Coleman “minister of hot air” last month during a debate and again last year in the house. Before the last election, NDP leader (and now premier) John Horgan called Liberal Andrew Wilkinson “the minister of propaganda” several times. NDP MLA Shane Simpson (now social development minister) called de Jong “the minister of broken promises” and former NDP MLA Norm Macdonald called Liberal Shirley Bond “the minister of lost jobs.” At the time, Linda Reid, then the Speaker, did not object to the language.

De Jong said the principle at stake is not about name-calling, but whether the rules of the legislature — written and unwritten — can be changed by the whim of one Speaker over the objections of half the MLAs in the house.

“Really, the Speaker can’t simply intervene and tell any member of the house I’ve decided that this is how you’re going to speak,” said de Jong. “That is not for the Speaker to decide. When this issue last came up, the Speaker articulated his preference, fair enough. But the only thing we have in our disposal in this parliament is the use of language, the use of words — thank goodness for that. And if someone purports to limit the use of your language arbitrarily that’s a serious infringement on the rights of members.”

Plecas did not respond to a request for comment.

In the house Monday, Green MLA Sonia Furstenau said she supports cracking down on language and drew a comparison to slavery, saying that if rules failed to change with the times, then B.C. would still have slavery.

NDP government house leader Mike Farnworth admitted his side has used the technique in the past without objection, and that the freedom of the opposition of the day to use critical language is an important part of the legislature, as long as it does not impugn the integrity of the members.

quote:

Environment Minister Catherine McKenna said "clearly a mistake was made" Tuesday after a tweet from her official departmental account praised Syria for joining the Paris climate agreement.
"Canada Salutes Nicaragua and Syria for joining on to the Paris Agreement! Global #ClimateAction. #COP23," the tweet, since deleted, said.

namaste faggots posted:

Nice job climate change Barbie

Arabidopsis posted:

This is all so stupid. Obviously whoever wrote that was praising the specific action of joining the Paris Agreement. You have to be a special breed of moron to think they were endorsing the Syrian government as a whole.

Arabidopsis posted:

This is all so stupid. Obviously whoever wrote that was praising the specific action of joining the Paris Agreement. You have to be a special breed of moron to think they were endorsing the Syrian government as a whole.

Dr. Stab posted:

We salute italy for making the trains run on time.

Arabidopsis posted:

This is all so stupid. Obviously whoever wrote that was praising the specific action of joining the Paris Agreement. You have to be a special breed of moron to think they were endorsing the Syrian government as a whole.

vyelkin posted:

It's weird but if I had to guess I'd say it's zero-effort pandering to the Ukrainian-Canadian community which is renowned for fierce anti-communism dating back to the Cold War, fierce anti-Russian stances, and a continuing association of contemporary Russia with the Soviet Union. Harper used to do this kind of thing too and it was usually just as transparent.

namaste faggots posted:

true. maybe this civil war wouldn't have escalated to full scale genocide if we'd given bashar a little credit for the good things he's done for his people. so stupid u guys

Arivia posted:

Bet that's a monument we'll never see erected.

berenzen posted:

There was never a realistic goal that would completely avoid environmental impact. However, the current goals will minimize impact do gently caress all without doing poo poo like completely collapsing global economies having any negative impact whatsoever on the amassed wealth of the social elite, which is already at such an absurd level that it has basically become an abstract, or making it impossible to provide any sort of mass transport of goods or people keep our population trapped in the cycle of pointless consumption.

EvilJoven posted:

berenzen posted:

There was never a realistic goal that would completely avoid environmental impact. However, the current goals will minimize impact without doing poo poo like completely collapsing global economies, or making it impossible to provide any sort of mass transport of goods or people.

infernal machines posted:

IDGI, why not just make peace with catastrophic global climate shifts and hope that after the mass die-offs the remaining population organizes into agrarian communalism or whatever the gently caress it is you want?