Why the Hockey Canada sex assault verdicts hinge on the legal meaning of one word

The first two lines of the Crown’s opening statement in April at the high-profile Hockey Canada sexual assault trial clearly articulated what would become the dominant issue in a trial that captivated the country’s attention.

“This is a case about consent,” Crown attorney Heather Donkers said. “And, equally as important, this is a case about what is not consent.”

It’s an issue that will be finely parsed by Superior Court Justice Maria Carroccia when she delivers her verdicts Thursday in the case of five professional hockey players accused of sexually assaulting a young woman in a London, Ont. hotel room in 2018. Whether the judge finds the woman consented is yet to be decided; both sides have argued over what happened that night, and what it means with respect to Canadian law.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in#MeToo

A Grateful Nation Thanks You President Trump!

Ellen DeGeneres: I moved to the UK because of Trump

US TV star Ellen DeGeneres has made her first public appearance since moving to the UK, saying she decided to settle in England the day after Donald Trump was re-elected US president.

The comedian and host told a crowd in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, that life “is just better” in the UK.

Ellen said she and wife Portia de Rossi were considering getting married again in England after some moves in the US to reverse the right to gay marriage, and that America can still be “scary for people to be who they are”.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCelebrity Idiots, Hollywood, Trump Derangement Syndrome

Has AI caused the jobs recession? Previous unemployment crises were temporary

Young people have always struggled to find work. During the Great Depression, they stood first in the breadlines. In the Seventies, youth unemployment hit 18% in many countries. After the 2008 financial crisis, it doubled in places such as Spain and Greece. But each time, the economy recovered and young workers eventually found jobs.

This time might be different. Britain’s unemployment rate, according to figures released this week by the Office for National Statistics, is at its highest in four years. We are in a jobs recession. And it appears that young people are being disproportionately affected. Since ChatGPT was released in November 2022, entry-level jobs have dropped by one third — a development for which large language models have been blamed. Companies are increasingly replacing junior workers with AI that can write code, analyse data, and handle customer service. The first rungs on the white-collar ladder — research assistant, junior analyst and so on — are disappearing.

Jobless young people with no future prospects, unable to afford rent or even dream of home ownership.

It’s a good thing we’re in demographic decline.

Silicon Valley and our Corporate Titans have begun to admit that a jobs Armageddon is at hand.

Is this why UBI has received attention these past few years?

But why import the 3rd World into a jobless 1st World? What is the game?

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"AI - Artificial Intelligence"

‘I don’t really use it’: Canadians split on value of Canada Post ahead of strike vote

Canada Post?

Fifty-five thousand Canada Post employees are set to vote this week on the latest offer for a new collective bargaining agreement.

The potential new deal would see wages jump more than 13 per cent while adding more part-time workers.

Negotiations between the Crown corporation and the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) have been ongoing for more than 18 months.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inCanada

The Doug Ford Doctrine: Don’t Be Conservative!

The Doug Ford Doctrine: ‘We really have to flex our muscles’

Ontario Premier Doug Ford is hosting Canada’s premiers in Muskoka starting Monday at a Council of the Federation summer gathering. Premiers of the 13 provinces and territories can look forward to enjoying Alberta-bred and Ontario-fed beef on the grill at the Ford family cottage. They will have a special guest: Prime Minister Mark Carney.

“For the first time ever that I can remember,” Ford says, “the prime minister is invited. That would have never happened with Trudeau, but it’s happening under Mark Carney. And he’s going to be welcomed with open arms.”

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inOntario, Ontario - Your Future Is Elsewhere, Ontario's Corrupt Liberal Government

Two Days Inside the Movement to ‘Reindustrialize,’ and Rearm, America

Handy vehicle to have come the civil war.

Investors from Silicon Valley and senior officials in the Trump administration descended on a convention hall in downtown Detroit last week for a conference committed to spurring a “techno-industrial renaissance” in the United States.

In some ways, it looked like a normal convention. The makers of everything from carbon brushes to boat propellers milled around a large hall, looking at a flying boat, a customizable electric truck, an air taxi and a humanoid robot. But at times, it turned into an urgent and literal call to arms as discussions moved from manufacturing to national security.

“You will help us forge a future where we can build and sustain an industrial base that can deliver the critical weapons we need, fast and at scale,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told the participants in a video message. “Time is short.”

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inUSA

Privy Council Office runs psychological unit to shape Canadians’ behaviour

Despite its growing influence across multiple policy areas, few Canadians are aware of the IIU’s reach — or the extent to which their behaviour is being subtly shaped by design.

Canada’s Privy Council Office (PCO) has a behavioural science unit established under former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that quietly shapes public policy and influences citizen compliance through psychological experiments and data modelling.

The Impact and Innovation Unit (IIU), which bases its framework on a UK government initiative and tools issued by the World Health Organization (WHO), has quietly pioneered its approach to behaviour change using psychology, economics and social sciences for years  — but its role became most visible in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Surveillance Society"

You’re a nobody in Western literary high society if you don’t wear a keffiyeh

American Katie Kitamura, Swedish Fredrik Backman, British Max Porter, Pulitzer Prize winners Jhumpa Lahiri and Hisham Matar have one thing in common: they are well known Western novelists who don’t want their books translated into Hebrew.

Before the current war, there were one or two cases a year of writers refusing Hebrew translation for political reasons. The first was Alice Walker, the author of “The Color Purple.” Today, there are countless. Like the 2024 Nobel Prize in Literature winner, South Korean Han Kang.

Since winning the Nobel, Kang has been contacted by several Israeli publishers. Her agent’s letter in response to the latest request from Yoav Reiss, the Israeli publisher of Persimmon, reads: “Kang does not wish her work to be presented in Israel.” As Chilean Isabel Allende has just decided.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Oct 7 2023"

How the rise of green tech is feeding another environmental crisis

Raquel Celina Rodriguez watches her step as she walks across the Vega de Tilopozo in Chile’s Atacama salt flats.

It’s a wetland, known for its groundwater springs, but the plain is now dry and cracked with holes she explains were once pools.

“Before, the Vega was all green,” she says. “You couldn’t see the animals through the grass. Now everything is dry.” She gestures to some grazing llamas.

For generations, her family raised sheep here. As the climate changed, and rain stopped falling, less grass made that much harder.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"EV's - Electric Vehicles", "Net-Zero Tyranny"

Chances of national projects going ahead without Indigenous participation is almost ‘zero’ says Gull Masty

The minister of Indigenous Services says major projects that arise under the federal government’s One Economy Act that don’t have the support of Indigenous communities will have almost a “zero” chance of being approved.

“The outcome of these projects is for Indigenous interest to be there, so it requires Indigenous participation,” said Mandy Gull Masty during a scrum with reporters after Prime Minister Mark Carney’s summit with First Nations leaders.

“The likelihood of these projects advancing or being completed without Indigenous people at the table, we heard the prime minister in this session, it is, oh, I want to say, almost, sounded to me, sounded like zero.”

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted inAboriginal Issues, Canada's Corrupt Liberal Government

‘Blaming The Jews’ – Again

The ways to avoid arrest in London these days, according to British author Douglas Murray, are: “[W]hen first being questioned by a police officer, he should promptly shout ‘Jihad, jihad, jihad’. Next he should whip out a sign saying ‘Slay the infidel’ before rounding it all off with a few cries of ‘Intifada’… Had [Montgomery Toms] followed my advice, the first officer would doubtless have said: ‘Very well, sir, please carry on and have a nice day.'”

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Oct 7 2023"

23 Quebec business owners launch $300 million lawsuit over temporary foreign worker permits

A group of Quebec business owners have launched a $300 million lawsuit against the federal government this month, arguing they’re facing bankruptcy if Ottawa goes ahead with its plan to reduce the number of foreign workers coming into Canada.

The heads of the 23 businesses, which make everything from steel products to winter jackets and airplane parts, say temporary foreign workers are essential to stay afloat.

With Ottawa is pushing to reduce the number of permits its issues, employers are upset.

Subsidized wages for “foreign workers” paid for by tax dollars? Cost savings from never having to train new employees? There has to be a reason these captains of Industry love their slaves.

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by Blazingcatfur••0•Posted in"Societally Destructive Immigration Policy", Canada's Corporate Welfare Class