#Canada

[acrowseye]

part 2 of my experiment: what english-speaking country are you from, what region and what do you call the following images? if you don't know what the first image is please try to guess i'd love to see it

[applesauce42069]

so if people didn't hear what happened in calgary, essentially:

yes, that is a nazi salute. yes, that is the leader of Iran.

what is not visible in this photo is the pro-palestine protestors he was standing with. in the videos that circulated, you can see a blonde woman in a keffiyeh walk up to him, say something, and then walk away. there are people with keffiyehs and pro-palestine signs all around him.

they are the people who concern me the most. they claim to be pro palestine, pro justice and peace and equality. a man, standing in their protest, did a nazi salute, and none of them stopped him.

i'm a jew and the descendant of holocaust survivors and victims. if someone did a nazi salute in my vicinity and it was safe to do so, i would go bat shit on them.

so why did no one stop him?

i feel like is is emblematic of how antisemitism spreads among pro-palestine leftists. they don't set out to be antisemitic. they don't want to be antisemitic because its wrong to be prejudiced. but the antisemitism begins to slip through the cracks. they usually don't know enough about jewish people, jewish history, or antisemitism in general to counter it. the effect is slow, but damning. eventually these antisemitic symbols lose their meaning, become less important. so even in the face of something this overt, people don't stop it.

all i can say is that its truly disgusting that people turned the very real, longstanding oppression of palestinians by the israeli state into an excuse to spread violent, hateful, and harmful rhetoric at the expense of jewish people around the world.

and i would also like to say: my grandmother grew up in communist poland, raised by a holocaust survivor mother who had lost her own mother and sisters, likely to the nazi death squads east of Poland, the Einsatzgruppen, as they were trying to flee. Her father may have never met her, having died in the polish people's army around the same time she was born. all her life she wanted to come to canada, because it was safe and bountiful. she brought her family here, and i've always felt lucky for it. now we have people throwing up nazi salutes in our streets to celebrate the attempted bombing of our family members.

antisemitism is a plague.

[intersectionalpraxis]

This IS BEYOND unacceptable -FU to Doug Ford and ANY politician/public figure in the Ontario Legislature who agrees with this. A keffiyeh is a traditional scarf worn by many Arab people, and people in West Asian communities. It does represent/symbolize Palestinian resistance and solidarity (among many aspects, of course), but that's not a crime -and trying to censure someone's right to wear traditional garments because you'd rather pander to zionists (as this article notes, many wear religious wear every day in office), is the real issue here -this is discrimination. This is legislated discrimination and is hateful.

[ravensvalley]

#EuropeanStarling

So this morning I captured on camera (thru my bay window) some European Starlings at their best … just for the fun of it. Here they are Terri

@BenAdrienProulx April 19th, 2024.

[wheniamamonster]

In an email on Wednesday, Speaker Ted Arnott said the legislature has previously restricted the wearing of clothing that is intended to make an "overt political statement" because it upholds a "standard practice of decorum." "The Speaker cannot be aware of the meaning of every symbol or pattern but when items are drawn to my attention, there is a responsibility to respond. After extensive research, I concluded that the wearing of keffiyehs at the present time in our Assembly is intended to be a political statement. So, as Speaker, I cannot authorize the wearing of keffiyehs based on our longstanding conventions," Arnott said in an email.

tagging @allthecanadianpolitics

[sitting-on-me-bum]

An Arctic fox gives a huge yawn before curling up to keep warm from a strong northerly wind in Churchill, Man. About the size of small house cats, Arctic foxes remain active all through the long northern winter, often following polar bears to the sea ice to scavenge their leavings. 

Photo: Dave Sandford

2023 Canadian Wildlife Photography of the Year

[vintagecamping]

A lonesome cowboy cools his horse down in the glacial waters of Kinney Lake

British Columbia, Canada

1966

[cosmonautroger]

Newfoundland, Canada

[haveyouheardthisband]

[joeiannandrea]

[thetragicallynerdy]

So the Canada Disability Benefit (CDB) (which the gov't passed last year, Bill C-22), which was passed with the intent of "lifting people with disabilities out of poverty," finally got funded in the budget that was released today - and it's such fucking bullshit.

It's a maximum amount of $200/month ($2400/year)

You have to be approved for the Disability Tax Credit (DTC) to be eligible - something that advocates were specifically saying should not happen because it's so fucking difficult to get on. The CDB should be barrier-free.

Doesn't start until July 2025

It's such fucking bullshit. $200 a month? And not for another fucking year? Not to mention the DTC requirement? Are you fucking kidding me?? I'm so mad.

This CBC article about it can contains this quote - "Khedr estimates that roughly 1.6 million Canadians with disabilities are living below the poverty line. But Tuesday's budget says only 600,000 would be eligible for the new national benefit." This is because of the DTC requirement. Jesus Christ.

Anyway, Canadian folks, please for the love of god contact your MPs and tell them how awful this is. It needs to be more money, it needs to be enough to actually have an impact, and it needs to not require DTC eligibility.

I'm so mad.

[nyxx01]

Well done, I’m proud of them and quite impressed 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽

[girlthatgotawayblog]

HES SO…

[elinerlina2]

Moraine Lake, Banff 🌍

[dandyads]

Blockbuster Video (Canada), 2001

[sommerlanding]