David Webster

6. Luckily, the #notwithstanding clause cannot over-ride Indigenous or minority-langauge rights. But the clause is only a "last resort" as intended when politicians use it responsibly, when all other options are exhausted. Our politicians today have gone trigger-happy. #cdnhist #cdnpoli

Chart shows uses of notwithstanding clause by year and province as described in text of post.

5. In the last decade, provinces are pressing the #notwothstanding "nuclear option" button like they are playing an arcade game. Sask in 2017 (over Catholic schools). Ontario in 2018 (over the size of a city council!). Quebec in 2019. Ontario in 2020. Both Ontario AND Quebec in 2022. Now Alberta.

4. Alberta's attempt to use the clause to stop equal marriage in 2000 was equally controversial. When courts overturned it, the Klein government agreed to be bound by court rulings.

The point? The "nuclear option" of the #notwithstanding clause was seen as last-resort stuff until a decade ago.

3. So Quebec's use of the #notwithstanding clause in 1988 to ensure French predominated on signs was the first major use of the clause, and seen as a MAJOR step. (It was not renewed after the 5-year period allowed.)

In the first 35 years of the clause, it was used as intended: sparingly.

2. Quebec invoked the #notwithstanding clause as a protest over exclusion from the constitution agreement in the early years, but not to over-ride basic rights. Yukon invoked the clause in 1982 but it failed in the legislature. Saskatchewan invoked it for a temporary back-to-work order in 1988.

The word "notwithstanding" as an image.

The "notwithstanding" clause in Canada's 1982 constitution was meant as a "nuclear option."

Section 33: “Parliament or the legislature of a province may expressly declare ... that the Act or a provision thereof shall operate notwithstanding" the Charter of Rights. #cdnhist #notwithstanding /2

Jayme Bee impersonator

The joy that comes from learning. Victoria BC, Lək̓ʷəŋən territory.

Ooh I want to visit Halirax!

Hey @aircanada.bsky.social, have been flying AC in preference to others on Asia trips and got a credit card on the promise of benefits. The first time I try to use a benefit, lounge access to work, I am refused. I knew you hated your workers, sorry to learn you hate your non Business passengers too.

"Chairman AND executive chair"

Toronto recognized a priest for her book on a church encampment. Then, it tore it down | CBC News Dozens of people gathered outside a church in Toronto's Kensington Market neighbourhood on Thursday as city staff began clearing another homeless encampment, deemed to be a fire hazard.

Toronto recognized a priest fo...
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

surprised that journalists don't seem to remember the Mulroney years at all ... they were pretty important in Canada-US relations.

Looking for a tenured teaching job? I’ve got one piece of advice: get lucky By reinforcing the myth of meritocracy, we perpetuate a system grounded in cruelty and false promises. It needs to stop, says David Webster

www.timeshighereducation.com/campus/looki...

Yes
It is luck.

Spoke French with a man from Lexembourh this year in Timor-Leste. He spotted the QC accent right away.

Thanks for this lovely column!

RESISTING INDONESIA’S CULTURE OF IMPUNITY: Aceh’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission | Edited by Jess Melvin, Sri Lestari Wahyuningroem, and Annie Pohlman book review of RESISTING INDONESIA’S CULTURE OF IMPUNITY: Aceh’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission | Edited by Jess Melvin, Sri Lestari Wahyuningroem, and Annie Pohlman

Don't "dig a hole and bury the past." My review of the excellent RESISTING INDONESIA’S CULTURE OF IMPUNITY: Aceh’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission | Edited by Jess Melvin, Sri Lestari Wahyuningroem, and Annie Pohlman pacificaffairs.ubc.ca/book-reviews...

The call to tax billionaires more is a moral case more than a fiscal case, I thought?

The Monroe doctrine, as put formwork by JQ Adams, simply barred further colonization and stood in solidarity with Latin American revolutionares. The US imperialsiism part came later. today's US forgets it once stood for Venezuelan sovereignty.

Memikwaldamnana, we remember. Vigil for the Rogers Raid on the Abenaki village Odanak, October 4, 1759 and the 34 massacred that day.

Yes. I am not defending Trump.

Part of his political genius there. He claims victory no matter what, and his millions of cronies set out to show what a winner he is. Meanwhile the left wins victories (like governments recognizing Palestine) and insists they are meaningless defeats.

One first step people should do to respond to this is start using the “report a speed trap” function in Apple Maps to report where ICE is operating. Make Apple party to the attempt to protect people.

This is objectively true. Biden chose to let genocide happen, when he could have stopped it. US liberals' contortions just show that they can't see, can't resist the fascism taking over their country.

Not surprisingly, apologists for Israel's genocide have a soft spot for war criminal Prabowo Subianto, president of Indonesia.

I just signed KAIROS Canada’s urgent call to the Prime Minister: Stop the famine. End the siege on Gaza. Canada must press for an immediate ceasefire, unrestricted humanitarian aid & total arms embargo on Israel. Add your name: kairoscanada.org/gaza-letter-...
#Gaza #CeasefireNow #StopArmingIsrael

So many buzzwords separated by commas, it burns the eye

Thank you! Excellent indeed.

Because Americans sure don't know how

How China Is Weaponizing Education to Erase Tibetan Identity For China, Sinicizing Tibet’s next generation through boarding schools is the ultimate strategy for solidifying its control over the region.

The insidious lessons of Canada's "residential schools" are being applied to assimilationist education in Tibet today, featuring residential preschools where Chinese language is enforced on Tibetan children aged 4 to 6.

Human rights violators learn from each other.

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