Expect council under Chow to focus on pet issues, not day to day life | Toronto Sun - "We’re talking about banning leaf blowers and weed whackers at City Hall, can the demands to ban gas stoves and wood fired pizza ovens be far behind? Welcome to the new City Hall, where thanks to Olivia Chow’s election win last week, progressive councillors and the even more progressive staffers will feel emboldened... Look for New York’s recently announced ban on wood fired pizza ovens to take hold, along with the push to end the use of gas stoves. Thankfully, being a city government, they won’t be able to act on policies like Ireland’s drive to cull the island’s cattle herd to fight climate change. There are, though, the promises that Chow was elected on, such as making Toronto the biggest property developer in the country. She wants the city to build and own 25,000 additional affordable housing units. Given the city’s track record managing the more than 40,000 housing units through Toronto Community Housing, that doesn’t seem like a good plan. Still, Chow and her team will persist in pushing this plan forward. There are also the promises and demands of those who got Chow into office that will need to be met. Chow was elected with the full backing of activist group Progress Toronto, a group firmly on the radical left. Their executive director Michal Hay took a leave of absence from the group to run Chow’s campaign for mayor and last week, Chow rewarded Hay by appointing her as chief of staff in the mayor’s office. Among the top 30 demands of Progress Toronto is a call for the city to start buying apartment buildings from private landlords to deal with the housing crisis. Again, if the city can’t properly manage its existing housing stock and could easily be declared the city’s worst landlord, then this proposal would likely see any new housing stock purchased deteriorate to the same horrible conditions at TCHC. There are plenty of other housing-related calls from the city pushing for rent control to an increase in vacant home property taxes and a new tax for homeowners. Progress Toronto wants the city to adopt the practice of charging a stormwater management fee for services currently covered by your property taxes. They want to end city services delivered by private contractors, such as garbage collection, and return that work to the city’s unions. They also call for the city to start its own high speed internet company to make internet prices lower, while it would be nice to see lower bills, it’s unlikely the city could achieve this goal. There are the calls to reduce speed on the city’s roads, to make more room for bike lanes and less room for cars as new roads are built. And of course, calls to push for the decriminalization of all drugs like heroin and fentanyl, something that is bringing about horrific results in British Columbia right now."
Chow's a regressive politician who will oversee Toronto's downfall - "Doom loops — a phenomenon where one problem worsens others, which in turn worsen the first, spurring a perpetual cycle of decline — are taking hold of urban centres across the United States. With its multitude of interconnected crises — from housing affordability to crime, a wholly insufficient transit system, brain drain and a downtown core that hasn’t recovered from the pandemic — Toronto risks joining them. Notably, cities in doom loops have something in common: a history of rigidly “progressive” mayors whose ideological puritanism rendered them incapable of responding to key issues... Both San Francisco and Seattle suffered from years of local rule by mayors and councillors determined to stick out archaic progressive attitudes and policies that clearly weren’t working. Drug use and crime were allowed to proliferate. Preventing homelessness took a back seat to efforts to make unhoused people’s lives marginally better — even as they often got demonstrably worse — at greater and greater cost to taxpayers, and homeless populations exploded. When it came to housing, these cities all but abandoned the middle class to focus solely on government-sponsored affordable homes and shelters rather than broad housing affordability. As a result, young professionals and middle-class families fled to greener pastures, leaving behind gaping wealth gaps. Offices were vacated, businesses big and small shuttered, transit deteriorated and essential workers like nurses, teachers and police were nowhere to be found. This led to even larger exoduses, which once again made things worse. Olivia Chow has made it clear that she will follow in the same footsteps as the doomed mayors of San Francisco and Seattle. She, too, fails to understand that affordable housing, while important, will never be enough without housing affordability. She, too, fails to understand the danger posed by downwardly mobile Torontonians falling out of the middle class. She, too, fails to acknowledge that law enforcement must play a role in tackling increasingly open drug use and random acts of crime. Polls have her gliding to victory based mostly on name recognition and a decades-old personal brand with strong leftist vibes. However, these vibes obfuscate a politician whose views are steeped in old-school ideology rather than modern reality."
Toronto declares gender-based, intimate partner violence an epidemic - "Toronto city council declared gender-based and intimate partner violence an epidemic Thursday — the same day a man was arrested for allegedly drugging and sexually assaulting an "underhoused" woman. The declaration was part of a motion from Mayor Olivia Chow that passed with no opposition, and calls on the provincial and federal governments to make the same move, just weeks after Ontario declined to do so... The Toronto declaration made Thursday also advocates for the term femicide to be added to the Criminal Code, which mirrors one of the inquest recommendations to the federal government. Femicide is defined as "the killing of one or more females, primarily by males, because they are female," according to the Canadian Femicide Observatory for Justice."
The usual liberal playbook. Focus on a "minority" and talk a lot (while ignoring bigger, real problems) - but nothing practical will be done
Luckily all the men need to do is identify as women to nullify the charge of femicide
Dem Maryland official says Muslim children aligned with 'White supremacists' for opposing LGBTQ curriculum - "A Democratic member of a Maryland city council blasted Muslim children as on the side of "White supremacists" after they spoke out against sexuality discussions and materials in classrooms during a heated school board meeting Tuesday evening. "This issue has unfortunately does put… some Muslim families on the same side of an issue as White supremacists and outright bigots," said Democrat Kristin Mink of Montgomery County Council for District 5... Mink made the remark after Muslim children from the district spoke out against their parents' inability to opt them out of lessons they deemed violated their faith. She argued Muslim families do not have the religious right to opt their children out of LGBTQ books, similar to parents' inability to opt their children out of studying evolution. "And that is equity," the Democrat continued. "That's not an infringement on, you know, particular religious freedoms, just as we cannot allow folks to opt out of teachings about evolution."... Another speaker, who read a statement on behalf of a Muslim student, said, "Never should a student be marginalized or excluded because of their opinions. Giving kids the option to skip these sessions enables us to exercise our right to practice our religion freely while preventing us from experiencing harassment at school.""
Teaching science is somehow the same as sexualising children. This is a mischevous conflation of scientific and moral "truths" (even if we grant that the LGBTQ agenda is "true")
Interfaith parents demand Maryland schools allow students to opt out of LGBTQ curriculum - "He said the school is trying to change his children’s values to something that is considered "sinful" in his religion. "We are just not being treated properly because these are a small group of liberals in the Board of Education [who] just want to do what they want to do against all of us, which is not right," he told host Brian Kilmeade."
Muslim parents deal #WokeArmy a lethal blow - "This week, a sea of about 500 mostly brown and black immigrant Muslim parents and children rallied on the sidewalk outside the headquarters of Montgomery County Public Schools... I received a poison pen letter from Ann Bonitatibus, the principal at my son’s high school, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, as she scolded our mostly immigrant, mostly Asian parents to check our “privileges.” Hers was the first salvo in a long war on merit that branded our immigrant parents with smears such as “white supremacists,” “white adjacent” and “resource hoarders.” Our battle — inspiring our mostly Asian immigrant parents in Fairfax County, Va., to organize the Coalition for TJ and march against the tyranny of our 12-0 Democratic school board — became a precursor for the national war on merit, education and kids, with “equitable grading,” “privilege walks,” “woke kindergarten” and “Gender Unicorn” in K-12 schools from California to Massachusetts... As a Muslim feminist and cofounder of the Muslim Reform Movement, I do not align with many conservative interpretations of my faith, but I firmly believe in the integral right of parents to parent. The refusal to allow parents to opt out of certain topics concerning sexuality and gender has ignited a war to protect America's children, and the voices of Muslim parents cannot be silenced... Now, indeed, the hard-left has come after the most fiercely protected interest of all: our children. This battle is far from over, and the brave parents on the frontlines are prepared to fight for their children's future... I met Kareem Monib, 45, an American Muslim engineer and a devoted father born in Oklahoma to parents from Egyptian. In April, he cofounded the Coalition of Virtue, a new parents' group that organized the rally for parental rights along with other organizations, including the Religious Freedom Institute. Virtue is a value that resonates deeply with Kareem and the other immigrant parents of color who joined the rally. Notably, two Ethiopian Christian Orthodox women also stood alongside their Muslim counterparts, demonstrating that this fight transcends religious boundaries. I learned of the rally from a Jewish American partner of the coalition... Throughout the rally, Kareem exhibited kindness, engagement and hospitality towards everyone present, including the opposition. Surprisingly, the opposition, mostly comprised of privileged white woke women whom I refer to as #Auntyfa, demonstrated hostility and an unwillingness to engage. This stark contrast was striking to me as a Muslim feminist, as religiously conservative men extended their hands in a gesture of respect while two of these woke women refused to shake my hand... Armenian immigrant parents in Glendale, Ca., clashed literally with Antifa activists, as the immigrant parents tried to challenge the gender and sexual indoctrination in their school district targeting children as young as four years old... Elon Musk responded to the video, noting the irony of the #AuntyFa crowd appropriating the chant of the parents, “Protect our children.” He wrote about the woke counterprotestors: “They keep chanting ‘protect our children’, but the children in question are not theirs.”... At the rally in Montgomery County, outnumbering the woke activists about five to one, Munib led the parents in a chant, “Are you going to vote next year? Say, ‘Yes.’” The diversity of parents, from Ethiopian Orthodox to Egyptian Muslim, responded: “YES!”"
Watch | Facebook - "Muslim parent: Calling us racist will only galvanize us"
"One of the students... said: "Isn't that why people came to this country? For religious freedom and now that's been taken away from us. And he mentioned also, "what's the meaning of freedom? Freedom is the ability to do what you want uninhibited, and that is clearly not the case""
Kristin Mink: "The scientific and medical community has come to a clear consensus that LGBTQIA+ people exist. When we have children's books that represent you know a child who has, you know that is transgender, that is the reality. And so MCPS has the responsibility to include and reflect that reality in our curriculum"
The usual liberal leap of logic. Since swingers exist, I guess it's our responsibility to promote swinging in schools to primary school children
Muslims opposed to LGBTQ curricula for their kids aren’t bigots - "It is understandable for parents to be concerned. In Maryland, for example, a school district has approved books that discuss homosexuality and transgenderism as normal realities for children as young as three years old. This is state-sponsored ideological indoctrination of toddlers who can barely form complete sentences, much less think critically... supposedly secular institutions like public schools are now dictating that students must accept and affirm LGBTQ ideology, at times with the threat that if they refuse to do so, they “do not belong” in their country, as one teacher in Edmonton, Canada, recently said to a Muslim student... A recent statement I helped draft, titled “Navigating Differences: Clarifying Sexual and Gender Ethics in Islam”, has been signed and endorsed by more than 300 Islamic scholars and preachers across North America. In this document, we explicitly and clearly lay out the non-negotiable, normative Islamic position on sexuality and gender ethics."
PM says Muslim parents objecting to gender identity education misled | Toronto Sun - "Muslim parents in Calgary and other Canadian cities have been demonstrating against what they perceive as gender ideology being taught to their children in schools as well as having to attend school events held in support of Pride month in June. They were also angered by a teacher in an Edmonton school who was recorded lecturing a Muslim student who skipped a Pride event, saying, “We believe in freedom, we believe that people can marry whomever they want, that is in the law, and if you don’t think that should be the law, you can’t be Canadian. You don’t belong here, and I mean it.”... What’s revealing in my view is that the video shows another example of how Trudeau routinely categorizes views different from his own as the result of right-wing disinformation, as opposed to the genuine views of Canadians who disagree with him."
Muslims have no agency and are naive and gullible, which is why the far right manipulate them so easily
Colby Cosh: A lesson in liberalism for a teacher who should know better - "“When we did Ramadan,” the teacher complains, the class showed respect for the Muslim faith, without any sign of protest or defection. (I understand Ramadan to be a month-long period of daytime fasting, so “doing Ramadan” presumably involved a short explanation of it for the non-Muslim kids — i.e., educational instruction.) When Pride-tember (the month formerly known as June) comes along, the Muslim kids have to do their part to qualify for Canadianness by showing up, whether or not their conscience or their parents approve. “That’s how it works. It’s an exchange.” This seems like a manifestation of a universal phenomenon: liberalism has lost the understanding that at its heart it involves leaving people the hell alone to the highest practical degree. You know, kids who were serious Muslims wouldn’t have shoved off to the mall to avoid a public school’s LGBTQ+ genuflection; they’d have picketed the school, or interrupted the proceedings by reciting choice verses from the Koran, or simply rioted... The kids didn’t want to be there that particular day, so they excused themselves. And I’m tempted to ask: “What, in fact, could be more Canadian than skipping class to go to the mall?” (They didn’t even go hang out at a mosque!)"
Sikander Hashmi: 'Anti-racist' hypocrisy targets Muslim schoolchildren for their religious beliefs - "In a diverse society like Canada, it is not unusual for students and parents belonging to minority faith groups to request exemptions from participating in lessons and activities that contradict their religious beliefs. Normally, the school hears parental concerns and comes up with a plan to fulfill its duty to accommodate. In most cases, students are provided an alternative lesson that meets curriculum objectives or, if no accommodation can be made, parents are informed before the material is taught so that they can pull their children out of class. This approach, along with recognition of religious and cultural holidays as well as other needs, has helped create a welcoming and inclusive environment in many public schools in our increasingly diverse society. These efforts are greatly appreciated. Sadly, this June has proven to be an unfortunate exception for many Canadian Muslim families. Alarmed by efforts to not just educate, but to instead promote practices and beliefs that they believe are contrary to their faith, they have requested accommodation and exemptions, which have been promptly rejected based on “no opt-out” directives. As a result, some families decided to keep their children home on the first day of June, the beginning of Pride Month... In a school in the Ottawa area, a teacher distributed a booklet to students in her Grade 5/6 class that was specifically targeted at Muslim youth and which promoted the very practices and beliefs that Muslim families find objectionable. The booklet went as far as discussing sex — even though the Ontario health curriculum only introduces the subject in Grade 7. This “resource,” titled “I’m Muslim and I might not be straight,” is also available on the school board’s website and is the only one on the topic addressed to any faith group. Students at an Ottawa secondary school reported staff guarded doors during a Pride Month assembly to ensure that no one left, while others patrolled hallways and one even checked the parking lot to find students who refused to attend. A parent reported that their child in Grade 3 at another school was told he could not go to recess unless he drew a rainbow. Parents have told me that other students have been threatened with expulsion if they do not participate in Pride Month activities. Sadly, these attacks on Muslim children, with reckless disregard for their mental health and well-being, came the day after the second anniversary of the murders of four members of the Afzaal family in London in a hate-motivated attack . The irony is that many who champion anti-racism and anti-oppression practices appear to have forgotten those practices today. Any faith-based disagreements with LGBTQ+ beliefs and practices by Muslim families are immediately dismissed as being hateful. It is difficult to ignore that this gaslighting of the religious rights of a visible minority group is being perpetuated by individuals and institutions who benefit from white privilege, in support of a group that also benefits from white privilege. The image of mainly white teachers and staff targeting minority children, making them feel less than others due to their traditional beliefs, is reminiscent of past colonial attitudes that are now recognized to have caused great harm... To be clear, the religious objections by Muslim families are not regarding LGBTQ+ people themselves but rather LGBTQ+ beliefs and practices. For example, cross-dressing and changing one’s birth gender is expressly forbidden under mainstream Islamic teachings — not unlike other religions — unless there is physiological evidence to justify such a change. Active participation in activities and celebrations deemed to be morally objectionable, whether it be a celebration of same-sex relationships, pre-marital relationships or a celebration involving pork or alcohol, is prohibited. Muslim families that find such beliefs and practices to be inconsistent with their faith don’t expect others to agree with them, nor do they expect to impose their beliefs on others in a secular society. For instance, a child who has a religious objection to colouring a Ramadan lantern or making Eid cards should be exempted. Their absence would not make Muslim students feel marginalized because the choice to not participate is not an act of discrimination or hate. Similarly, schools should not cancel pizza days for non-Muslim students during Ramadan. Those who are fasting should simply have the option to not eat. Pride has been celebrated in Canada for decades, and there have been no recorded protests against it by Canadian Muslims until now. Many thought that staying quiet out of respect for the choices of others, despite disagreement, would help foster harmony and respect. This approach now appears to have been mistaken because while Muslims stayed quiet, LGBTQ beliefs and practices were promoted to the point of imposition upon others. This experience tells minorities in Canada that they must remain in a perpetual struggle to promote their beliefs and practices because not doing so will lead to the erosion of their rights. It doesn’t have to be this way. I have spent most of my life building bridges and furthering understanding, and the current state of tolerance and acceptance in Canada saddens me. As the world becomes increasingly polarized, extremism finds oxygen to flourish"
Minority voices are only important when they push a liberal agenda
Liberals will continue to claim that participation in Pride Month events is not mandatory
Too liberals, those who don't celebrate the liberal agenda are the extremists
Adults have ceded absolute power to the faux-righteous, doctrinaire young - "Questions of employment practice, social policy, investment strategy, and the rights of consumers to access a service are being enforced – not just in the public sector but in private corporate life – by inexperienced staff who have seized an unprecedented monopoly of moral authority. In one case after another, when outrageously gratuitous judgments about what may or may not be said (or even believed) within the industry’s purview come to light, the institutions involved offer the same pathetic explanation. These decisions to deny access to certain consumers, or to make pronouncements that some sorts of customers are unwelcome, or to institute policies that prohibit forms of speech, are being put into effect by young staff members who insist on implementing the practical side of the business in the way they see fit. Which is to say, they are licensed enforcers of the doctrines they have been taught to believe are beyond question. Any challenge from their superiors is simply repudiated and condemned as ethically unacceptable. The discovery which came to light last week that most of the country’s commercial banks have officially adopted Stonewall guidance on corporate practice was a revelation which should have initiated a major controversy. Instead, it seems to have been met with resignation: this is just the way things are, so – as the lobbyists themselves like to say – get over it... There is nothing new or novel about this phenomenon. History offers many examples of a militant younger generation being persuaded by a political movement that they are the bearers of a great Truth which obliges them to subvert and destroy the old order. Communism used this youth mobilisation strategy with particularly ruthless effectiveness. The Soviet Union had its Young Pioneers, membership of which was effectively compulsory, and the Maoist cultural revolution recruited children to inform on their parents for any suspected ideological deviation. Every successful totalitarian state has understood that, if you seize the imagination and loyalty of youth, you will own the future. But we are not – yet – living under an authoritarian regime... So complete and crushing has this victory been that it has virtually eliminated the resistance which confident adults used to exercise in the workplace, in cultural life and in education – and even, extraordinarily enough, the financial institutions which hold the nation’s economic future in their grip. We now know, for example, that the Bank of England has adopted Stonewall’s doctrine even though it is notoriously controversial even within the ranks of progressive campaigners."
Italy erases names of gay mothers from their children's birth certificates in crackdown - "Michela and her 35-year-old wife Viola are among the first targets of the Right-wing Italian government's attempt to crack down on same-sex parenting and surrogacy, imposing its 'conservative moral values' in the country... surrogacy has been illegal for two decades – unlike in Britain or the US. This forces same-sex couples to go abroad if they want children... 'There are only two ways to become a parent – either biologically or through adoption,' said Eugenia Roccella, Rome's minister of family affairs. 'All children have a mother and father. Saying they have two mothers or two fathers is not telling the truth.'"
When the left supports commodification of the female body and opposes science
Richard Hanania on Twitter - "In 2016, the black murder rate was 20 per 100K. If black Americans were their own country, they'd rank in the top 20, along with some of the most violent third world nations. The media and liberal activists have other priorities, like calling national parks racist."
Jesse Kline: Lisa LaFlamme is not necessarily the martyr you may think she is - "Having witnessed wave after wave of cost-cutting measures and layoffs in Canadian media, I was not at all surprised to hear that “CTV National News” anchor Lisa LaFlamme had been let go. But unlike the other 13,800 employees who lost their jobs in radio and television broadcasting between 2010 and 2021, the reaction to LaFlamme’s departure was swift, and filled with the type of over-the-top righteous indignation that has now become a staple of Canada’s chattering classes. To be sure, LaFlamme’s departure, after a 35-year career with CTV and a decade in the anchor chair, was messy... LaFlamme was given the opportunity to have a “proper on-air sendoff,” but “opted not to say goodbye to the public.”... The letter alleges that LaFlamme was fired over the “colour of her hair,” which had gone grey during the pandemic. When male anchors get grey hair, they are seen as wise and trustworthy; when it happens to females, they are seen as too old for TV. It’s another case of systemic sexism! Someone’s head must roll! Or so the narrative goes. Only there’s no actual evidence that this theory has any basis in reality... As much as some segments of our society would like to pretend that virtually every corporate decision, and every newsworthy event, is motivated by sexism or racism, this is simply not the case. Not everything is a teachable moment. And it’s not inherently sexist to fire a woman. If we are truly all equal, then we should all face the same risks of losing our jobs."
Meme - Jesse Singal @jessesingal: "Only Whiteness and white people have true agency. Everyone else is their pawn, and if they don't have the right views, it's likely because Whiteness infected them. Asians might think they know what they want but they need NPR to help free them of their false consciousness."
"The promise of proximity to whiteness and power has radicalized some Asian Americans on the right
That myth posits that Asian Americans are a "good" minority group - assimilating and bootstrapping themselves into the American dream. "It's been used historically to undermine other non-white groups pressing for justice," says Janelle Wong, director of Asian American studies at the University of Maryland."
Liberals are crabs in a bucket, since they hate success
Genuine question: What's with drag and kids? - "if you're not doing it for the money, and there's maybe not as compelling reason for your profession to exist anymore, you ennoble yourself--we do it to keep information free! to fight censorship! We are the bulwark against racism, the great equalizer of society, all are welcome here! Meanwhile it's 2014, RuPaul and Drag Brunches have become a thing, and you hear that DQST is getting big turnouts, and the only complainers are wild-eyed right-wing Christians from the next town over who don't use the library anyway, so who cares? You get to look like the reasonable, inclusive kind people, love-is-love supporters, the naysayers look like the prudish scolds. (I'm speaking not for myself, I never hosted a DQST, but to give you an idea of the thought process behind those who did and do.)"
"I think it's a problem (in the US at least) that public spaces like parks and libraries are being forced to turn into social services for the homeless. No one wants to talk (on the left at least) about how problematic it is to have mentally ill, unbathed, intoxicated people using public services as a campground. I don't know what the solution to this is, but it's sad to see spaces intended for children and families having to serve this kind of dual purpose."
"It's been like this forever. There are libraries in the US with full-time social workers on staff, it's a thing. Where is the tipping point between being a library and a community recreation center with a small book collection? I'd be flamed for saying any of this on library forums. Torched."
"This attitude kills me. Letting public spaces turn into open-air homeless shelters and drug markets does nothing to help people who are suffering from mental illness and addiction. Of course, if you say that normies should get to go to the library with their kids without feeling threatened, you're a FaScIsT!1!!1"
"Sadly, I've heard horror stories from librarians who have had to deal with the belligerent homeless population. If they take ANY measures to protect themselves and prevent addicts from leaving syringes in the library bathrooms, they're painted as stuck-up b!tches who want "unhoused people" to die"
"So depressing. I love libraries. I've enjoyed them a lot less since more homeless/loud people started using them to just sit around and talk loudly, and play audible music. I've been approached by a couple homeless people and felt creeped out/unsafe-- and had other experiences where people had really bad body odor, to the point that you can't sit around them. But that said, the library is one of the few true community gathering places left in society. I love the fact that people can hold events and clubs in the bookable rooms. I love that some of those events are social in nature, and others are more informative. Not that mine gets a lot of use-- but if the library to close or be reduced to a book drop, the possibility would be gone completely to have a place to just go, get out of the house, sit in relative quiet/comfort away from the elements. And to be around other people-- which is REALLY important for people who live alone and otherwise would be very isolated. I hate what's becoming of our libraries. That the most events held there, aside from seniors or baby days, are all about LGBTBBQ+, and especially trans."
