Oh, woke is me
"Cancel culture" is older than Rex Murphy and it's a tried-and-true conservative ploy
This Week in AB
The conservative idea of “free speech” is an American concept that doesn’t apply in Canada but has woven its way into Canadian vernacular as if protections offered in another country can be applied here.
Make the argument all you want that these protections should exist for Canadians but the assumption they have any meaning here is a deliberate misrepresentation of our rights and freedoms in this country and an erosion of our once elevated standards over those of our American cousins.
The fact that conservative leaders and talking heads are the first in line to claim “cancel culture” when someone refuses to make space for another whose views they want to uphold often makes me snort.
It reminds me of this woman who thought I should have her as a guest on Women of ABpoli. She began her message pleasantly enough and then detailed everything we were doing wrong. After some back and forth she became increasingly demanding of an invitation. I blocked her after she responded “DEBATE ME YOU C*NT!”
Sure, that might be on the extreme side but it should underscore the point.
No one has a “right” to an audience just because they (or someone else) personally believe their ideas or complaints are worth hearing — think freedom convoy, the climate march led by Greta Thunberg, the Alberta “kudatah”, or that angry woman in my direct messages.
A private business does not have to grant a snake oil salesman access to their employees. A school does not have to make their students available in the auditorium for a musical act that uses profane language. A university does not have to provide a private space to someone whose academic career has produced flawed and embarrassingly biased analysis.
Freedom of association (an actual, protected, if potentially limited, freedom in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms that applies to Canadians, in Canada) goes both ways: we can self or publicly identify with whatever or whomever we choose but so can those around us choose not to associate with us.
Which is the opposite of “cancel culture”, by the way; it’s called “protecting your credibility” — something our conservative leaders seem to have disregarded completely.
Don’t snark on me
Weirdly related, Canada’s infamous “Rebel Commander” (Ezra Levant of Rebel Media and Entertainment) has pulled out the proverbial soap box (or flat deck) and launched a Charter challenge against politicians blocking people on social media.
Levant’s legal team will argue that being blocked on social media limits the respondent’s freedom of expression — because apparently they’re unfamiliar with the concept of a “subtweet” [a post that is directed at a person/place/thing without directly mentioning or “tagging” the person/place/thing the post is referencing; sometimes followed with IYKYK (if you know, you know)].
Even if we ignore the fact that rights and freedoms in the Canadian Charter can be limited within reason when an individual or group’s rights and freedoms begin to infringe upon those of another group or individual, this ploy for convoy cred is just plain dumb.
Your freedom of expression is not limited by an inability to let someone know you’re snarking about them. Your freedom of expression is not limited by the mere consequence of the person you’re snarking at not wanting to read your snark.
I repeat; no one owes you an audience just because you think they should hear what you have to say — that’s what podcasting is for (wink).
For the record, I agree with Kristin — block with abandon — but I also feel that public leaders should have a “public account” that automatically reposts all social media posts made by said leader and is run by a bot who never has to see the vitriol thrown in the named account holder’s direction. Easy fix.
Members of Alberta Law Society defeat motion to repeal mandatory education and training rule 3:1
Many professional organizations have mandatory education and training that is required to maintain active registration.
Social workers in Alberta must complete professional development credits each year from a list of approved training and education opportunities; so too must physicians and surgeons, teachers, nurses, psychologists, and, yes, even before Indigenous cultural competency training, all members of the Canadian Bar Association.
At the end of January 2022, 51 active lawyers in Alberta became signatories to a petition asking for a vote to repeal a section of the law society’s rules that allow the society to mandate specific training. The amended rule received 75 per cent support from around one-third of the approximately 11,000 members in 2020.
The petition to repeal the rule was started by Roger Song, a lawyer from Calgary. Song et al., were responding to mandated Indigenous cultural competency training, a free five-hour online course that the Law Society of Alberta deemed essential under its amended rule.
Another petition, made public on February 6, received 400 signatories saying the Indigenous cultural competency training should remain mandatory.
Song, who grew up in China but received his legal education in Alberta, said mandated training reminded him of China, where its citizens have restricted access to the internet and can be jailed for voicing disagreement with the government (and no, that isn’t what happens in Canada — every Postmedia columnist proves this).
Members in attendance at Monday’s special meeting voted against repealing the rule.
Promise made, pass the gravy (train)
When the current premier of Alberta was a paid corporate lobbyist, less than a year ago, she advocated for the R-STAR program (now the Liability Management Incentive Program). Then-Energy Minister Sonya Savage pooh-poohed the proposal saying it was not in line with Alberta’s oil royalty structure; which should put her demotion from energy to environment into a different perspective.
The program will offer oil and gas companies the opportunity to pay less royalties to the Alberta Treasury in exchange for meeting their environmental responsibilities.
Yes; you read that right.
Albertans will have to pay oil and gas companies to “incentivize” them to meet contractual obligations they already agreed upon.
For decades, Alberta’s oil and gas sector has treated remediation like a pyramid scheme. The larger producers shell out the initial capital and maintain production for years while they are maximizing output. Not all formations have a seemingly endless supply, though.
When production begins to slow, companies sell the lease, equipment, and remediation liabilities to a smaller producer who, with no start-up costs, can begin production and make some money. They, in turn, sell it off when the licence becomes less profitable and the last small business owner gets some production before they are left holding the bag of remediation costs with no ability to meet the obligation.
Unfortunately, that translates into the provincial (ie: Albertans) and federal (ie: Canadians) governments making up the difference to return the land to its pre-private profit state. As a general rule, not all of those people benefited from the billions made but they will be asked to help out with cleanup duty when the party ends anyway.
Case in point: Where did the money go?
Well, the feds sent Alberta more than $500 million in grants for orphan well remediation in 2020 as an initial payment on a $1 billion promise to help create jobs and get some of the current inventory off of the books. Quizzically, the federal government also approved a $200 million loan to the Orphan Well Association.
Why would federal grant money (ie: “free”) be given to “viable” oil and gas companies and a loan (ie: not fucking “free”) to the association that is actually stuck with orphaned wells?
Senator Paula Simons was more diplomatic.
"So now I'd like to ask, what exactly did we get for the $102.5 million we gave to CNRL, or the $18 million we gave to Cenovus, or the $16 million we gave to Husky, or the $12 million we gave to Imperial Oil under this federal cleanup plan? And what are we actually going to do to clean up the wells that are actually orphaned?"
Back in 2020, Kenney said the money would be handed out to “businesses hit the hardest by the economic downturn” rather than businesses that actually specialize in environmental cleanup or remediation processes.
The Alberta Advantage strikes again.
Final thoughts