vaccinationviablowdart

Queen Elizabeth died in 2022. I haven't seen any money with the new king on it. Do they think he's going to die too so just waiting to avoid having to redo the work?

With more than 23,000 civil servants represented by the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees primed to strike, the ball is now in the United Conservative Party Government’s court.

With more than 23,000 civil servants represented by the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees primed to strike, the ball is now in the United Conservative Party Government’s court. Alberta Finance Minister Nate Horner (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr).

At a noon-hour press conference yesterday, AUPE President Guy Smith announced the union’s strike mandate, which can only be described as resounding – 90.1 per cent approving strike action if necessary with 80 per cent of the unionized direct employees of the provincial government casting a ballot.

So, over the next four months, unionized government employees can walk out any time after 72-hours’ notice. Meanwhile, earlier this month the government applied for and received permission to lock out AUPE’s members in the event of a breakdown in negotiations. So the government theoretically could also pull the trigger after 72 hours’ notice.

At the union’s short news conference yesterday, Mr. Smith said AUPE had no intention of rushing into a strike. “We are determined to get a deal at the table.” Meanwhile, back at the Legislature, Finance Minister Nate Horner, responding to an Opposition question, stood up and said, “if they’re serious about coming back to the table, we’ll be there.”

But here’s the thing, at this point if the government is serious about actually getting a negotiated deal with AUPE, they’re going to have to stop taunting the union with offers symbolically lower than those in settlements with other unions, notably the public-sector deal with United Nurses of Alberta.

So the question at this point is whether the government of Premier Danielle Smith (who is no relation to either AUPE President Smith or UNA President Heather Smith) can act like grownups long enough to get a deal that won’t make it look as if they’ve fumbled another important file. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith – would probably rather be complaining about the federal government (Photo: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr).

On the other hand, there are certainly players in the UCP Caucus who wouldn’t mind a fight with as union because they think they can simultaneously look tough and deflect attention from that dodgy contracts scandal, a measles epidemic, and the UCP’s march toward privatization in health care, all of which must be generating unease among voters.

However, as long as there are Liberals in power in Ottawa, this government would always prefer to focus on a fight with the feds, a factor that might incline the UCP toward trying to reach a deal with AUPE. Indeed, the government published yet another public statement yesterday complaining pointlessly about Prime Minister Mark Carney’s cabinet picks.

The union noted in a bargaining update for members yesterday that “we are currently dealing with an employer that has proven to be particularly uncooperative throughout this process. Recently, the Government of Alberta’s spokesperson dismissed our position as ‘rhetoric,’ despite the fact that we are advocating for wages that reflect the real inflation affecting our province.”

“We remain steadfast in our commitment to good faith negotiations and will continue to push for an equitable agreement,” the AUPE update said. “We call on the government to move beyond dismissive rhetoric and engage constructively with us to secure a fair and sustainable outcome.”

Another factor in these negotiations is that this is the first time Alberta civil servants have had a legal right to strike, thanks to the repeal in 2017 of unconstitutional legislation that had banned all public-sector strikes in Alberta.

So what’s likely going to be required to reach a deal?

Well, to move things forward, the government is going to have to up its offer at least to annual pay increases of 3 per cent a year over four years – which is what the government emphasizes in UNA’s agreement that was overwhelmingly ratified by the nurse union’s members in voting that took place on April 2.

In a statement on April 3, UNA explained that when the dust had settled, the new nurses’ agreement would result in “pay increases of approximately 20 per cent over the life of the four-year Provincial Collective Agreement, plus significant increases in premium pay and other benefits.”

But at least an offer of four years of 3 per cent annual pay increases could get things moving in the right direction, although some sweeteners for civil servants would still be required to reach a deal.

So far, though, the government has offered increases of 3 per cent, 3 per cent, 2.75 per cent and 2.75 per cent, which AUPE clearly views as insulting.

So stand by for developments.

Ric McIver, former Calgary city councillor and longtime MLA, named Speaker of the Alberta Legislature

With former Speaker Nathan Cooper off to serve as Alberta’s trade representative in Washington, veteran Progressive Conservative and UCP minister Ric McIver was elected Speaker of the Alberta Legislature yesterday. The Legislature’s new Speaker, Calgary-Hayes MLA Ric McIver (Photo: David J. Climenhaga).

Earlier in the day, Mr. McIver resigned as municipal affairs minister before defeating the Opposition NDP’s candidate, Edmonton-Manning MLA Heather Sweet, for the right to occupy the Speaker’s chair.

A Calgary city councillor from 1998 to 2010, when he left to unsuccessfully run for mayor, Mr. McIver has represented Calgary-Hays since 2012. He is an old time Tory – which is to say that while it’s often not obvious he may actually have a progressive bone or two in his body. As a result, it may come as something of a relief to him to no longer have to stand up in the Legislature and defend the Smith Government’s MAGA policies.

As Mount Royal University political scientist Duane Bratt observed on Twitter/X yesterday, “This is a big blow to the UCP government. McIver was a major fixer of problems.” And heaven knows, the UCP has created lots of problems that need fixing!

At 66, Mr. McIver will be in a position to retire after the next election if he feels like going out on a high note. In addition to the Canada Pension Plan, he’ll even qualify for an official portrait painted by an artist of his choice to be displayed in the Rotunda of the Legislative Building.

Loblaws takes the heat over a tone-deaf price freeze.

And the unprecedented, unjustified, and perhaps unnecessary federal government power grab that nobody cares about.

Background reading:

• Canadians must give thanks to our Loblaw overlords for their generous new marketing campaign
• Supermarkets are hiking prices faster than necessary — and profiting from inflation, Star investigation suggests
• Controversial political fixer re-emerges in Toronto election campaign
• Commons: Papa Pump and the Small Town Shakedown
• Use of Emergencies Act OK by me, whatever the hearings find
• Justin Trudeau accused Doug Ford of ‘hiding’ during convoy protest, documents show

near the entrance of my local loblaws-type grocery store, someone wrote on a wall

they fixed the price of bread

every time I go there it catches my eye. it is the context in which I do my shopping and when things costs too much i am reminded of the general thievery going on.

This was a comment on Vancouver librarians caught in the middle of the culture war by @zephyreks but I ended up writing so much I thought I'd make it a new post. Hope that is OK.

The term "culture war" is excessively very dismissive. The subjects that people take issue to here are matters of material well being.

People in the article and comments are using the word "ban" alot. I don't think there is any request to "ban" anything. It is just the one library. When something is "banned" it is prohibited from all sources. After actually taking a look at the list of books I don't think any of them should be removed from the collection on the basis of the complaints. I do think some of them could be re-shelved. But getting all worked up about a few random complaints that literally anyone can make because they are in a bad mood, and obliquely referring to nazis/holocaust is going way overboard.

I also don't see that anyone is "caught in the middle" of anything. Some people made complaints. People are always complaining about any large organization. They dismissed the complaints and as far as I can tell, that was the end of it? I got very bored reading off topic commentary so maybe I missed something.

about the books

I was curious so I did some looking at the actual titles since the person who wrote this article didn't have time I guess because they did so much interviewing ideologues instead. There are 3 themes in the target books.

theme 1: lgbt and sex positive books for young people

Looks like about 1/3 of the target works are pro-LGBT/sexpositive and seeking to explain this to some young audiences. I wasn't familiar with Cory Silverberg so I looked up the amazon page for You Know, Sex:

In a bright graphic format featuring four dynamic middle schoolers, You Know, Sex grounds sex education in social justice, covering not only the big three of puberty—hormones, reproduction, and development—but also power, pleasure, and how to be a decent human being.

I added emphasis because.... what a thing to complain about.

To me this book sounds perfectly nice. But whoever requests for it to be removed likely thinks it'll cause kids to come to harm. Who knows what kinds of delusional thinking motivated the specific complaint. But it isn't "culture war" because they are under the impression that this book will be dangerous physically and socially and spiritually.

theme 2: racist caricatures and other hate imagery in children's books

Another 1/3 of the complaints are about children's books depicting racist or hateful imagery. I think these complaints are legitimate. Books like this should be available for adults but not circulated to little kids! They are of historical interest, not entertainment.

I borrowed Asterix the Gladiator from the Internet Archive Library and flipped through it. Here is one of panels which is probably at issue. (I am not sure about the etiquette/politics of sharing this. I would consider feedback in the direction of not sharing racist material.) I have blurred out the actual caricature but described what is depicted in text. I put it in the spoiler. Summary: it's exactly what you think it'll be.

spoiler

This panel depicts a person with dark brown skin, a very small skull, eyes so close together that they touch and are crossed, a huge open mouth with giant red lips (larger than skull) and one tooth sticking out, wide nose, big ears, goofy body language.

---

I don't care to actually read this so I don't know what the plot is about. But I can say that flipping through it, the people with brown skin only come into view a few times in dozens of pages. They are not characters in the story, just devices the author occasionally employs. They are present 1-3 panels at a time.

They look to be in positions of servitude. They do not perform their jobs properly and are therefor deserving subjects of violence by the characters with pink skin. Many pages earlier, a masseurs with brown skin gives too deep a massage to a solider with pink skin. So the soldier beats him. The masseur's boss complains: "You have no right to beat up my masseurs! They're horribly expensive this season!" The most superficial joke being that the only reason not to beat the person with brown skin is the economic impact on some other person with pink skin. The person with brown skin has no lines and is depicted in a racist, caricatured way similar to the spoiler above. Except instead of being goofy he is big and strong. So strong he casually (and presumably accidentally) hurts the person with pink skin. Once he is punched so hard he flies across the room, he disappears from the story.

I remember when I was a kid, seeing this kind of thing. This series looks vaguely framiliar but there is a whole cannon of this shit. My parents did their best to raise me explicitly anti racist and I recognized the messaging as vile. I understood that it was communicating a generalized degradation and inhumanity related to perceived race. In both the presence (as objects) and their absence (as full characters). I remember being confused why people I thought of as "good" would have stuff like this lying around. But I am sure that it got into my head anyway. Sometimes really horrid stereotype illustrations I saw as a kid pop into my mind's eye. I wish I didn't have those in my brain because they are despicable. If an adult intentionally wishes to study hate lit it is different.

This is the kind of thing that teaches from a young age "black lives don't matter". Black people only involved as props, punchlines, animalistic, deserving subjects of violence etc.

There are a bazillion kids books that aren't trash like this. I vote to move these to whatever the dewey decimal is for historical hate literature, in the adult section. Possibly in the Reference library to convey the seriousness. I didn't investigate the other children's books but it seems that they are all on a similar theme and not appropriate for kids.

theme 3: right wing nutjobs

The remaining 1/3 of the books are more recent publications which appear to be regressive shitty books full of lies. I know the Shrier book has been thoroughly widely debunked criticized rebuked. It is full of medical falsehoods and her own weird fantasies misrepresented as scientific. It primarily advocates for denial of health care to trans people. This is not "culture war". She literally wants to seize control and manipulate the balance of chemicals in the bodies of other people. It is as material as you can get.

The other books by the likes of Beck, Ngo are certainly full of bullshit. Judging by the title and my understanding of the authors, they will probably be encouraging violence. I had never heard of Forbes before. The book is highly rated on amazon and the top rated review begins:

Fantastic book. As a supporter of those bands I found that the information in it is invaluable.

Emphasis added. Reviewer is a fan of white supremacist music and ideas. All the positive reviews are from people who are straight up white power jackasses.

I found this review on goodreads that I think is probably accurate:

This thing is f***ng nightmare. Read it for research on a project. It ended up being really valuable as a primary source, but if you're not literally writing a book about white nationalist skinheads, I can't imagine wanting to read the biased blathering of a bunch of racist boneheads reminiscing about their glory days.

This person also describes who there is value in the book even though the topic really sucks.

It seems like this book gives really shitty people good feelings about themselves. That sucks. When this kind of people feel good about themselves, they like to go around kicking the shit out of people who are just minding their own business. They form militias and murder. The reason someone was bothered by this book is likely because they know it can help stir the pot and encourage street violence. I know people who've been targeted by these douche bags. It's serious.

This book costs about $200-300 to purchase. It should be in the reference library with all the other expensive books, not in circulation.