Yesterday an insider to the system, who participated in rigging elections, estimated that 90% of municipal political cash and 80% of provincial political cash comes from explicitly criminal deals between politicians and specific interests. Earlier rough estimates put it at 70%.
I looked up Freedom House's ranking of Canada. It says Canada is one of the most free countries in the world, with perfect scores for civil liberties and political freedom. This despite the fact that elections are rigged in a straightforward illegal way and that protests had essentially been criminalized (which they note but do not penalize Canada for). That's holding aside the obvious ways that capital shapes the culture through control of the media, the schools, etc.
Now, obligatory sloganeering:
Smash the machine! The front line is everywhere! End the dictatorship of capital!
getfiscal posted:Quebec is undergoing this anti-corruption commission where all the people involved in the Montreal construction contracts (politicians, engineers, party types, contractors, etc) are testifying about a system of bid-rigging. Basically every day the testimony is described by the media as a "bombshell" because someone will reveal something more terrifying about the system. In short, at the municipal and provincial level, political races in Quebec have been dominated by stolen public funds. The politicians elected (mostly right-leaning liberals) are basically empty suits that are selected by experts and then elected using phoney donations.
Yesterday an insider to the system, who participated in rigging elections, estimated that 90% of municipal political cash and 80% of provincial political cash comes from explicitly criminal deals between politicians and specific interests. Earlier rough estimates put it at 70%.
I looked up Freedom House's ranking of Canada. It says Canada is one of the most free countries in the world, with perfect scores for civil liberties and political freedom. This despite the fact that elections are rigged in a straightforward illegal way and that protests had essentially been criminalized (which they note but do not penalize Canada for). That's holding aside the obvious ways that capital shapes the culture through control of the media, the schools, etc.
Now, obligatory sloganeering:
Smash the machine! The front line is everywhere! End the dictatorship of capital!
all good points, smash the canadian bourgeois!
littlegreenpills posted:suspending democracy is the only way francophone culture can be preserved @ this point sorry
what is so great about preserving any culture? the whole "uniqueness" thing seems like a bourgeois concern. i don't value cultural diversity per se
littlegreenpills posted:what's so great about democracy tho hmmmMMMMMmmmmMMMMMmmmm
well... doesn't all this news serve to confirm Jodie Dean's thesis in Communist Horizon?
CATS WILL LISTEN TO YOUR CONCERNS
CATS WILL HELP THE POOR & UNEMPLOYED
CATS CARE!
IF CATS ARE ELECTED THINGS WILL BE BETTER FOR EVERYONE
thirdplace posted:hey fringus me and my girlfriend are going to montreal in a month or two what's a cool thing to do there?
divert public funds into political machines
thirdplace posted:hey fringus me and my girlfriend are going to montreal in a month or two what's a cool thing to do there?
- the montreal museum of fine art has some neat stuff and the permanent collection is free. if you're into contemporary art then you might like the contemporary art museum too, which sometimes has neat quebecois art.
- old montreal / the old port waterfront is nice to walk around in spring
- i would walk around a neighbourhood on the periphery of downtown, like the plateau mont-royal, or notre-dame-de-grace, or something like that, since downtown proper isn't all that interesting for long from a visitor perspective (other than museums and such).
- patio culture is big, hang out at a restaurant/bar at night outside or something.
- if you like political bookstores then check out the anarchist one or the maoist one. the anarchist one actually has a lot of books in that general vein and a fair number of general books as well. the maoist one mostly has french ones but it's a fun experience because they've got mao stuff everywhere and like magazines from like nepal or whatever.
- this is just a random idea but i would consider looking into going to a quebecois musical act. like any concert would probably be cool but i think it'd be fun to go to a show in a style you aren't used to, like (random examples because i don't know much quebecois music really lol) neo-trad or quebecois rap or whatever the colocs are
stegosaurus posted:Same.
Oh come on, the Front must be beautiful this time of year: the snowmelt swells the creeks and rivers tumbling off the mountains, the smog recedes, all the young clean cut boys and girls are out and about eating ice cream while from the south swarms of Mexicans come up to pollinate the fields and serve that icecream.
thirdplace posted:hey fringus me and my girlfriend are going to montreal in a month or two what's a cool thing to do there?
its quebec, theres probably a protest or strike that you can take part in. solidarity!
libelous_slander posted:In australia is a fag more likely a cigarette or a homosexual?
Neither, “Fag” over here generally means a male (of any sexuality) who is doing something to raise the ire of another male or appear disagreeable to him in some way.
Cigarettes are called darts, durries, cigs, duzzas, ciggies, smokes or cancer sticks, bones, loosies, prison-sticks, prison-cash, dirt-bangers, lung-bangers, dirt-sticks, filth-rods, tuberculosis, taylors, health-sticks
Edited by Ironicwarcriminal ()
tentativelurkeraccount posted:CATS WILL KEEP ELECTION PROMISES
CATS WILL LISTEN TO YOUR CONCERNS
CATS WILL HELP THE POOR & UNEMPLOYED
CATS CARE!
IF CATS ARE ELECTED THINGS WILL BE BETTER FOR EVERYONE
dont blame me, i voted dog
Ironicwarcriminal posted:where do you live mustang19, how is the Spring therE?
iwc make an oceania gang tag
tentativelurkeraccount posted:CATS WILL KEEP ELECTION PROMISES
CATS WILL LISTEN TO YOUR CONCERNS
CATS WILL HELP THE POOR & UNEMPLOYED
CATS CARE!
IF CATS ARE ELECTED THINGS WILL BE BETTER FOR EVERYONE
discipline posted:wow quebec sounds nice
the premier said that the commission should be "prudent" and her minister said: "It bothers me when one is not careful," Gendron said."I went into politics to fight that kind of thing. I think I'm a guy with integrity, yet there they go, all out, painting everyone with the same brush."
quebec solidaire had the best response:
"I think there will be a lot of pressure increasing on the PQ government because they pretend they want to clean up the mess," Khadir said. "If they are sincere, they just have to show by accepting to pay back all the dirty money that the Liberals and PQ have obtained from the business sector to win their elections."
stegosaurus posted:In addition to the nicknames enumerated above I personally witnessed iwc call cigarettes ciggie-wiggies, lil some sumtins, oochie coochie coos, bippies, flat backas, cadillacas, and bippies.
blinkandwheeze posted:Ironicwarcriminal posted:
where do you live mustang19, how is the Spring therE?
iwc make an oceania gang tag
a capital idea; 'Oceania' has always struck me as a useful if slightly ad-hoc construct so we really have to work to the things that unite us.