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Mad Hamish posted:I am moderately certain that in grade 7 or 8 I was required to read a book that actually was written by a Black man whose title was simply the N-word. I'm not going to try and figure out who the author of this was because I can't think of any way of putting that into Google that won't feel indescribably shameful and racist. Randall Kennedy, maybe?
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Jan 11, 2024 19:31
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Fried Watermelon posted:I would have liked her sci-fi stuff in my 9th grade english class Absolutely, that wasn't meant as an ironic post. The Parable books are probably too heavy, but there's a lot of cool poo poo in the Lilith's novels, and any short story from the Bloodchild collection.
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Jan 11, 2024 19:46
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"I developed a military fetish while living in Kingston" - many such cases.
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Jan 11, 2024 19:56
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Precambrian Video Games posted:"I developed a military fetish while living in Kingston" - many such cases. RMC is right there. It checks out. 
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Jan 11, 2024 20:27
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Mad Hamish posted:I am moderately certain that in grade 7 or 8 I was required to read a book that actually was written by a Black man whose title was simply the N-word. I'm not going to try and figure out who the author of this was because I can't think of any way of putting that into Google that won't feel indescribably shameful and racist. I tried “author of book that starts with n and rhymes with tigger” and only got some real hateful Winnie the Pooh content
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Jan 11, 2024 21:11
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Mad Hamish posted:I am moderately certain that in grade 7 or 8 I was required to read a book that actually was written by a Black man whose title was simply the N-word. I'm not going to try and figure out who the author of this was because I can't think of any way of putting that into Google that won't feel indescribably shameful and racist. Dick Gregory. Comedian and civil rights activist who wrote an autobiography with that title. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Gregory#Bibliography
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Jan 11, 2024 21:21
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goons are afraid of googling swears in 2024 N*****: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word by Randall Kennedy 2002 No asterisks obviously but I fear the ban hammer
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Jan 11, 2024 21:46
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Madkal posted:Dick Gregory. Comedian and civil rights activist who wrote an autobiography with that title. That's the one! Couldn't remember the dude's name, what with reading it almost thirty years ago and all.
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Jan 11, 2024 22:27
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Ed Broadbent has died. https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/former-ndp-leader-ed-broadbent-dead-at-87-1.6721821
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Jan 11, 2024 22:49
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a primate posted:goons are afraid of googling swears in 2024 I wouldn't probe you in this context, but given the sensitive nature I also can't guarantee that a mod wouldn't come in here and gently caress poo poo up on my turf.
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Jan 11, 2024 23:06
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Precambrian Video Games posted:"I developed a military fetish while living in Kingston" - many such cases. Canadian military officials are incapable passing on a chance for public embarrassment. The story, for those who missed it: https://ottawacitizen.com/news/nati...nadian-soldiers A Kingston area sex worker, who focuses her efforts on members of the Canadian military and provides them discounts, came to the attention of military police. The military police didn't like what she was doing. Unfortunately for them, a) she's a civilian and not subject to their authority and b) it's legal in Canada. But they couldn't let it go, so the military police decided the best course of action was to inform members of the military in Kingston that this woman exists and what she does - and that they had better stay away from her. This went exactly as anyone who is not a member the military police would have expected; now she's making bank. Again, back to the never missing an opportunity for embarrassment part, with plan a) having gone exactly as a reasonable person would have expected but exactly the opposite of what they wanted, the military police decided they should start threatening the sex worker. They told her she needed to stop or she could face prosecution under s. 419 of the Criminal code (wearing a uninform without lawful authority) and 286 (advertising her services - because she left a business card at the base). The sex worker took this to the press. Her story is now running worldwide. On top of the questionable use of government resources, prosecuting someone under section 419 would not necessarily go as the military police expect. Section 419 clearly infringes section 2(B) of the Charter (freedom of expression). And while there's undoubtable a rational connection between prohibiting wearing a military's uniform it and the important goal of noting having fake soldiers running around, that's not the end of the analysis. To the extent it is a violation of s. 419 to pose in a military uniform, in private, and take a picture, and upload that picture to the internet alongside text making clear the person is not a member of the military - well, what exactly is the reason that activity would be prohibited? What's the harm? And with no obvious answer, that means there's a problem with whether the law minimally impairs rights. Seems quite possible prosecuting someone under that provision would just result in the law being read down.
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Jan 11, 2024 23:09
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MikeC posted:Relax, I work in this space. A few pilot projects are being worked on. The closures affect independent "franchised" ServiceOntario offices that were already under private operation. AFAIK, no union jobs are at risk. Forgive me, but when someone who's politics I generally strongly disagree with tells me to relax it's going to be fine, I do not trust that your & my view of what is fine is actually the same. I am hopeful more details will show that this isn't an issue at all, but with the OPC's at the helm I'm not holding my breath.
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Jan 11, 2024 23:34
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Syfe posted:What the gently caress is this poo poo!? On a side note, I'm kind of annoyed I got a mail that i need to update my photo card, and that I can do it online or go to a service ontario location. When I do it online I just get a non descriptive error that tells me to go do it in person. Don't really understand why?? It's literally the first time I'm renewing the dang thing, nothing should have changed details wise. a primate posted:goons are afraid of googling swears in 2024 Feels ironic if not a self-callout. Oxyclean fucked around with this message at 00:17 on Jan 12, 2024 |
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Jan 12, 2024 00:02
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Oxyclean posted:Feels ironic if not a self-callout. I’m more worried about paying  than my google history
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Jan 12, 2024 00:28
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TrueChaos posted:Forgive me, but when someone who's politics I generally strongly disagree with tells me to relax it's going to be fine, I do not trust that your & my view of what is fine is actually the same. Great so you know absolutely nothing about the details but you will assume poo poo just because you don't like me. Actually, it sounds par for the course in this thread including people who nobly claim to have read a news article from a publication they don't like to score internet points..... but didn't ....but I digress ------------ Ok, now that this has blown up on Global Evening News, I'll share my thoughts and insights on this. Reference link (among many) https://toronto.citynews.ca/2024/01/11/11-serviceontario-locations-to-close/ When most people go to a "ServiceOntario" office, they are not visiting a government office. They are actually visiting an office run by a private contractor providing services on behalf of ServiceOntario (SO). The vast majority of these were converted Ministry of Transportation Offices licensed out to private contractors way back before I was in the workforce. When the Government of Ontario (GO) merged public-facing services under the umbrella of SO sometime in the early 2010s, they were swept up in the change and inherited Health Card services as well. Old Health Card offices that were still under the direction of operation of the GO staffed by OPSEU continued to exist with many of them taking and learning MTO-related tasks during the transitions just as privatized MTO staff had to learn MHLTC tasks. The distinction can still be seen in these private vs public SO offices if you go onto ontario.ca and search for "a ServiceOntario location that provides the full-suite of health card services". https://www.services.gov.on.ca/sf/#/oneServiceDetail/13400/ip/ls You know these are publicly run because privately run offices are not trusted with certain health card tasks (like assigning a time-limited health card for people on work permits that expire). They also run only M-F 8:30 to 5:00pm. If you visit any office with these hours it is a surefire sign those are OPSEU staffed offices. Privately run SO offices are obligated to run 46 hours including a "late day" on Thursdays and 4 hours on Saturdays though they may choose to operate longer if they wish. Privately run SO offices are compensated by a commission system per transaction they do. While COVID was happening, GO would compensate private SO offices with a top-up fund if lack of foot traffic meant the economic viability of these offices was in question. The majority of these private SOs are run by small-time contractors, often a family-run business or a sole proprietor, who have had the contract extended with the GO for decades. If you ever wonder why service at SOs are so lovely and "rules" often carry from office to office, this is the core reason why (well there are other reasons too but I'll get into that if you want to know more). Because these are private businesses that hire staff independent of GO, there is no formal training that many of these staffers get. A lot of it is ad hoc and the offices being privatized means the owners are incentivized to hire the cheapest possible labour and crank out as many transactions as they can (commission). Many operators at these counters do not, and never have had, extensive knowledge of the full and incredibly dense set of rules that govern public/GO interactions for services. As a result customer experience is terrible and inconsistent. There is an internal GO auditing staff run out of the MTO that should keep an eye on these private offices to ensure quality of service and adherence to policy is met but in my experience, most of these auditors are not very good and do not do a good job at enforcing the rules. Even if they did, staff turnover (low pay, no benefits, poor training) is so high that it is very difficult to keep staff that have the wherewithal to self-train to a higher standard on payroll. I guarantee you no OPSEU members are losing their jobs. If they were, you would have heard about this firestorm back in December when the offices received notice that their contract would not be renewed. Existing staff members at these private SOs were directed to apply to Staples and would be given preferential hiring treatment. It is almost a certainty that everyone who got moved over is getting a better deal even if it isn't necessarily a huge pay bump but they will get benefits coverage and also additional protection under ESA and common law when it comes to severance should they be let go (ESA states that business smaller than 25 people only need to give Termination Pay or working notice and can forgo Severence pay). On many levels, this makes sense for all parties involved. The GO was not raising commission rates for transactions at a pace commensurate with inflation and that along with rising labour costs and retail rental costs, was making these private SOs economically unfeasible for the contractors that were used to literally sit back and do nothing but hire staff at min wage or close to it and just print money while their staffers did a poo poo job with no training. With rising costs they felt they were getting squeezed. Enter Staples who already runs a retail business with all the overhead of needing a facility accounted for. All they need to do to harvest sweet sweet GO money is to hiring staff and they get the side benefit of foot traffic moving through their stores. It is unlikely that Staples is going to get a huge chunk of money out of GO, in fact, for the GO, this will almost certainly save long term fees as they can hold the line on transaction commissions paid out while stabilizing and can start phasing out the most problematic private operators who had to use the commission money not only to pay staff, but to make profit for themselves AND pay for rental space. I cannot confirm all 11 locations in the link I posted as accurate but I know some of them are accurate and you can gauge from that list which Staples stores are getting the pilot projects. I can also confirm that these guys are getting FORMAL TRAINING unlike the ad-hoc bullshit that used to occur. Now, IMO, the OPSEU front line customer service operators are also loving poo poo and don't know what they are doing or following policy (first hand experience here) but at least they get a loving training course to go through before they are sat in front of the public with tiers of operators in ascending competency before they let you handle the most sensitive stuff. Ex if you are a new OPSEU hire at an SO, you are doing the CSR 1 level stuff which is the most basic and least sensitive to mistakes. I am not privy to what process was used to select Staples. Knowing old Dougie, it was probably corrupt poo poo but I will refrain from making accusations because I know nothing about this process but sole source stinks. I can appreciate however the GO being very selective about who they partner up with. They need to have enough retail locations already in the right places for a transition period. Overall I believe this will be a win for everyone involved if the pilot projects succeed (and they have low bar to cross IMO). GO gets cost certainty, Staples gets foot traffic at minimal expense, the public rid themselves of greedy fucks who milk GO by hiring the worst of the worst staff and just rolling GO money while providing poo poo services. Long term, OPSEU should be concerned though. It won't be now but if this works and the level of service doesn't decrease or suffer in quality (from the already poo poo bag level it is now), I can easily see GO continuing these squeeze more publicly run SO offices out of existence. But for now they are safe.
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Jan 12, 2024 00:55
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Congrats, or I'm sorry that happened, I dunno, I ain't reading all that poo poo.
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Jan 12, 2024 01:11
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You live in Alberta, it really doesn't matter to you. We're moving already privatized Service Ontario locations into kiosks in Staples stores. There's a 11 location pilot, probably a lot more will be moved if there's no pushback on this, but it's a lateral move as far as privatization goes.
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Jan 12, 2024 01:14
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infernal machines posted:You live in Alberta, it really doesn't matter to you. No, I gathered that much, and I already gave my take on it. My general take on it is that privatizing those services is essentially bullshit but not in a way that I care about, since it's either I pay the service provider or pay the government directly. Our equivalent in Alberta is privatized, and it works well enough. But I do have an issue with associating these privatized service providers with a store, and even moreso, with a specific chain of stores.
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Jan 12, 2024 01:18
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Give it a month or two and probably enough noise will be made that the auditor general will investigate it and find a bunch of obvious bullshit in the process and the Government of Ontario will quietly shelve the thing for a while.
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Jan 12, 2024 01:22
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infernal machines posted:Give it a month or two and probably enough noise will be made that the auditor general will investigate it and find a bunch of obvious bullshit in the process and the Government of Ontario will quietly shelve the thing for a while. It can't get shelved, they are going live very very soon and the offices are closing the same day this goes live. There is no turning back. I can't give the date because that isn't public info yet.
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Jan 12, 2024 01:28
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So I refuse to read. will there be government employees staffing the kiosks or will it be the same people trying to sell you extended warranties?
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Jan 12, 2024 01:37
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MikeC posted:It can't get shelved, they are going live very very soon and the offices are closing the same day this goes live. There is no turning back. I can't give the date because that isn't public info yet. The pilot is going live or we're going hell for leather and moving every Service Ontario franchise into a Staples? I realize you probably don't want to answer that directly, but it's a pretty big difference. ZShakespeare posted:So I refuse to read. will there be government employees staffing the kiosks or will it be the same people trying to sell you extended warranties? There aren't government employees staffing the Service Ontario locations now, so, no, probably still minimum wage workers. They may or may not be Staples employees.
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Jan 12, 2024 01:40
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We should really just nationalize Canadian Tire and make them the one stop shop for everything.
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Jan 12, 2024 01:49
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I think we'd save a lot of time and effort if we just privatized Canada instead. Think of the value we'd create!
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Jan 12, 2024 01:50
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infernal machines posted:I think we'd save a lot of time and effort if we just privatized Canada instead. They tried that for like 200 years and a whole bunch of people died.
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Jan 12, 2024 01:54
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You're right, The Hudson Bay company is the natural choice, they have domain experience.
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Jan 12, 2024 01:57
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ZShakespeare posted:I watched titanic in 10th grade and they didn't even fast forward past the tiddy scene! Now I'm a degenerate pervert! hell yeah same
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Jan 12, 2024 02:03
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Anybody interested in starting up a shell corp to get a $200k grant for "mining exploration"?The Globe and Mail posted:The Ontario government recently provided funding to mining exploration companies called Griftco Corp. and Money Money Money.
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Jan 12, 2024 03:44
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_p_FHTV2RSA
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Jan 12, 2024 03:55
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MikeC posted:I am not privy to what process was used to select Staples. It's Doug Ford. Take a wild guess. https://vxtwitter.com/Eric_OTooleMP/status/1745522404107890719 
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Jan 12, 2024 04:03
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See the corrupt procurement process that favours a large multinational corporation whose profits are funnelled out of the province and the country instead of small businesses whose profits generally stay within the province/country is good because rather than enforcing service standards for providers we can just leverage a large corporation with training. What else is a very large corporation with training... hmmm... what could it be....
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Jan 12, 2024 04:03
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https://twitter.com/Eric_OTooleMP/status/1745522404107890719 Shocked Pikachu face. I mean, if enough people get obviously angry at the known criminal Doug Ford he'll backtrack, just like with his Greenbelt idiocy. Edit: dammit, beaten.
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Jan 12, 2024 04:06
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Muscle Tracer posted:Anybody interested in starting up a shell corp to get a $200k grant for "mining exploration"? I'm more interested in what "Butt minerals" was mining.
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Jan 12, 2024 04:07
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flakeloaf posted:It's Doug Ford. Take a wild guess. Ontario granted taxpayer funds to mining exploration companies called Griftco and Money Money Money edit: whoops, a search for "threadid:3969026 griftco" turned up completely empty prior to my posting this
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Jan 12, 2024 04:08
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I also came here searching for "butt minerals exploration".
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Jan 12, 2024 04:14
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flakeloaf posted:It's Doug Ford. Take a wild guess. Don't be an rear end and just quote the sentence immediately after as well. TIA.
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Jan 12, 2024 05:11
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Don't call me names because I threw the stone you were afraid to lift. HTH.
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Jan 12, 2024 05:14
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I would simply avoid accusations of impropriety by making the process as transparent as possible with a robust communications plan.
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Jan 12, 2024 05:39
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Consolidation of the already badly privatized services to a single provider is good. Signing what appears to be a sole sourced deal with your buddy is not.
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Jan 12, 2024 13:09
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Muscle Tracer posted:Anybody interested in starting up a shell corp to get a $200k grant for "mining exploration"? I don't know what it takes to get a mining permit or how much work is involved in this whole process but even if Money Money Money is a grift it doesn't seem very lucrative.
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Jan 12, 2024 15:01
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