All Purpose Politics and News Thread

[Natalka]

(Love the headline...)

Mulcair and the NDP head into couple's therapy at convention

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/mulcair-chris-hall-leadership-ndp-1.3525911

So, do you think they will keep Mulcair on as leader; should they?


If the party adopts the Leap Manifesto, that means they are heading very hard left.
I heard him interviewed last night on As it Happens - he still sounds like the very scrappy fighter, sounded just the same as when he was electioneering.

[gryphon]

Oh Yes, Canada is really back....

Amnesty International blasts Trudeau for remarks about jailed Saudi blogger

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/amnesty-in...-sh&soc_trk=tw

[gryphon]

[Darth Penguin]

The Boss cancels North Carolina concert over anti-gay law

Bruce Springsteen has cancelled a concert in North Carolina, joining business groups in condemning a state law that rolls back protection for gay and transgender people.
The law invalidated several local anti-discrimination measures that protected gay and transgender people.
It also requires people to use public toilets that correspond to the sex listed on their birth certificates.
Major companies like Apple and Bank of America have criticised the law.
"Some things are more important than a rock show and this fight against prejudice and bigotry — which is happening as I write — is one of them," Springsteen said in a statement.
"It is the strongest means I have for raising my voice in opposition to those who continue to push us backwards instead of forwards."
Springsteen and his band were scheduled to perform in Greensboro on Sunday.

[lecale]

The Boss cancels North Carolina concert over anti-gay law

PayPal is cancelling an office in NC as well. Was going to be 400 jobs; now they say they will start from scratch somewhere else (their building in NC was just completed)

[Darth Penguin]

Students play "Jews vs Nazis" beer pong

“Perhaps it is a joke. But then I guess the punchline would be: genocide,” high school student Jamaica Ponder wrote on her blog, calling out her classmates for playing a drinking game she called racist, insensitive and indefensible.
The game was “Jews vs. Nazis beer pong” — shooting ping-pong balls into cups of beer that have been arranged into the shape of a swastika on one side and a Star of David on the other. The team of “Jews” gets an “Anne Frank” cup that they can hide anywhere in the room; the team of “Nazis” has the power to “Auschwitz” one of their opponents, forcing him to sit out, according to rules of the game posted online.
A photograph posted to Snapchat shows seven teens playing the game in a basement in Princeton, N.J., pouring Coors Light into a swastika made out of white cups and a Star of David made out of red cups. The photo came to light when Ponder, a Princeton High School student, posted it to her blog on Wednesday.
“I know I’m not the only one who saw this Snapchat story. Yet here I am, the only one saying anything about it. I am unsure as to what’s worse: the static silence from my peers, or the fact that this happened in the first place,” Ponder wrote. “Putting the picture on social media means that someone was proud enough of the game to want to show it off. Meaning that they must be trapped in the delusional mindset that making a drinking game based off of the Holocaust is cool. Or funny. Or anything besides insane. Because that’s what this is: insanity.”
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Local news site Planet Princeton followed Ponder’s blog post with a report the next day. The publicity helped spark a response from Princeton Public Schools Superintendent Steve Cochrane.
“I am deeply upset that some of our students chose to engage in a drinking game with clearly anti-Semitic overtones and to broadcast their behavior over social media,” Cochrane said in a statement, adding that schools officials are talking to the students involved, and their families.
Cochrane said that while neither underage drinking nor bigotry are new problems, “they do not have to be ongoing ones.”

[gryphon]

http://www.therebel.media/halifax_re...e_world_report

Halifax refugee students choke 9-year-old girls using chains while shouting "Muslims will rule the world"

Not anti muslim here but maybe the refugee screening hasnt exactly been done well

also it seems the people who posted the story originally deleted it and claimed it was "culturally insensitive"

[Natalka]

I really wasn't sure if this would happen or not...

NDP rejects Mulcair as leader, votes in support of holding leadership race


EDMONTON — Members of the NDP have soundly rejected Tom Mulcair’s bid to stay on as the party’s leader, voting 52 per cent in favour of choosing a replacement within the next 24 months.

Mulcair, who less than a year ago appeared to be well-positioned to become Canada’s first NDP prime minister, received just 48 per cent support from delegates at the NDP convention in Edmonton.

However, Mulcair — who addressed the convention shortly after the results were announced — said he would stay on as leader until a successor is chosen.

A bare-minimum 50 per cent plus one vote would have been necessary for Mulcair to stay on, let alone have anywhere near enough support for a confident mandate — a threshold some had pegged at closer to 70 per cent.

Prior to the vote, Mulcair made one last pitch to the New Democrat faithful to allow him to stay on as leader, urging rank-and-file members to stand with him.
He said he has accepted the blame for the mistakes of last year’s disappointing election campaign, but insisted he is re-energized, reinspired and re-engaged after six months of meeting grassroots supporters.


Much more on the story here

http://calgaryherald.com/news/politics/new-democrats-soul-search-ahead-of-mulcairs-critical-leadership-review

[gryphon]

[lecale]

The paper, which has been experiencing a newsroom strike since January, was bombarded with online condemnation from readers and other journalists.

"Appallingly, anti-Muslim groups with words like ‘crusade’ and ‘jihad’ in their names started sharing the article."

"I read it and the first thing I thought was 'Wow. The only thing this article will accomplish is breed ignorance, hatred and intolerance.' I couldn't believe it. What I really was shocked about was that it got through the editors."

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/04/11/chronicle-herald-refugee-kids-article_n_9661686.html

[gryphon]

The paper, which has been experiencing a newsroom strike since January, was bombarded with online condemnation from readers and other journalists.

"Appallingly, anti-Muslim groups with words like ‘crusade’ and ‘jihad’ in their names started sharing the article."

"I read it and the first thing I thought was 'Wow. The only thing this article will accomplish is breed ignorance, hatred and intolerance.' I couldn't believe it. What I really was shocked about was that it got through the editors."

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/04/11/chronicle-herald-refugee-kids-article_n_9661686.html

The thing is, the story was corroborated by multiple sources and is relevant. So it was killed solely because it went against a political narrative. Breeding ignorance and hatred? Well hiding the situation and pretending its not their wont solve it either. The fact is, many of the refugees are not assimilating into society and there are issues. But people dont want to acknowledge that. Justin rushed in the refugees to meet an arbitrary timeline which meant proper screening likely was not done. The whole situation was not handled well at all. We should not pretend it was

[lecale]

The thing is, the story was corroborated by multiple sources and is relevant. So it was killed solely because it went against a political narrative. Breeding ignorance and hatred? Well hiding the situation and pretending its not their wont solve it either. The fact is, many of the refugees are not assimilating into society and there are issues. But people dont want to acknowledge that. Justin rushed in the refugees to meet an arbitrary timeline which meant proper screening likely was not done. The whole situation was not handled well at all. We should not pretend it was

No, the sources were anonymous, as is the case in so many slurs. IMO it was right-wing hate literature, and only haters spread that kind of thing.

[seylz_gurl]

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/04...n_9604884.html

Syrian Refugees Canada: Influx Of Children Strains Halifax School.
This was a federal initiative and they haven't budgeted for the millions this is going to be cost or the strain on the school system.

[seylz_gurl]

http://www.thestar.com/business/2016...s-in-2016.html

Loblaw opening 50 new stores!

[Natalka]

Wow, wait - so Harper and the Conservatives were really right about this?

-----
Trudeau convinced that pipeline strategy must be top priority

Justin Trudeau has told his senior lieutenants to draw up plans to make the Energy East pipeline and the Trans Mountain expansion in British Columbia a reality.


The prime minister has been convinced by his finance minister, Bill Morneau, and other influential voices around the cabinet table that the pipelines have to be built to achieve the ambitious economic growth targets his government has set.

http://news.nationalpost.com/full-co...e-top-priority