I am Groot

I don't understand this dispute. I clicked on the two links which brought me to the postings involved and both clearly state that the application process is only open to equity groups. It is not dishonest to then say it isn't open to white men. They're the only group not listed as an equity deserving group.

Because you're wrong. Which is a pointless exercise that is just ticking off the employees and will lead to less efficiency, not more. And you're wrong. Which is true but irrelevant. Agreed. The computers do verify and validate, then kick out those that aren't making sense for humans to look at. Not the ones with small numbers, but the larger ones which need to have a human look at them and perhaps send out a letter telling the taxpayer to send in their receipts. Or to call the taxpayer where tax fraud is suspected. Or to handle audits, and the myriad problems that creep up, like people inadvertently declaring themselves deceased. Or to argue with taxpayers - as in a whole branch of lawyers and accountants. Or to administer all the benefits CRA does - that's a whole branch too. As for my point, you don't get rid of offices, get rid of buildings, and then try to bring everyone back to work on confidential things in large, common rooms where no one even has a desk or a locker. Half an hour is wasted every day just setting up and disassembling stuff.

What does that matter? Do you think that means they don't require people behind the scenes to look at those applications, to handle all the queries, to take care of problems? To write and maintain the online functionality? Just because you can file your taxes online with online software doesn't mean CRA doesn't have to have people who look over all the things kicked out by various sorting and checking routines or to deal with the growing number of tax fraud cases, or to handle the queries, as well as the changes that can't be done online.

I use the same term as everyone else does. How would you define higher-skilled individuals? Dime a dozen coders? The point is that people have workloads and are required to complete them. If they don't, they'll have to explain why and rectify the situation.

Ivison's column today contains references to Trudeau's performance as PM by those who know it best - his cabinet. And just like those who once worked for Trump, few of them have much flattering to say. But this paragraph particularly caught my attention: Trudeau has no apparent interest in the banalities of government, including the management of his cabinet or caucus. Ministers — senior ministers — report that they rarely talk about their portfolios with their boss. In the 2018 book, Un selfie avec Justin Trudeau, Jocelyn Coulon, a former adviser to Stéphane Dion, said the relationship between prime minister and his then foreign affairs minister was “glacial” and the only private meeting the two men had was when Dion was fired. “The prime minister is a man incurious about the affairs of the world,” Coulon remarked. The word 'incurious' has often been used to describe Trump. So has his lack of interest in the 'banalities of government'. Both men are, of course, narcissists. Both lie quite frequently and both hold grudges. Both are are divisive and more interested in scoring political points than governing effectively, as ex-Finance Minister Morneau says. Both were born with silver spoons in their mouths, went to private schools, and seek the attention and approval of the wealthy while claiming to be a 'man of the people'. Trump pretends to be religious while Trudeau affects a desperate wokeness. I equate his taking the limo to a BLM demonstration (in the midst of a covid lockdown) to take a knee to Trump hugging the flag on stage. They were both performative and cringe-inducing. Another paragraph that so aptly describes this government is this one: The sage of Baltimore, Henry Louis Mencken, once satirized a government that sounds remarkably like Trudeau’s as a “a broker in pillage”: a collection of individuals whose only talent was getting and holding office and whose principal device was “to search out groups who pant and pine for something they can’t get and promise to give it to them. Nine times out of 10, that promise is worth nothing. The 10th time it is made good by looting A to satisfy B.”

You just got here. This is a rather more free wheeling forum than you're likely used to.

No offense, but firefighters are the most overpaid public sector workers in Canada. They spend much of their time sleeping, watching TV, hanging around chatting, and do so little work that they have the energy to do part-time jobs as contractors on their days off. Firefighters in Europe don't make anywhere near as much as ours. And I'd say the same for cops. Most of the jobs in the federal public service ARE higher skilled. Aside from the cal centers anyway, and some of the lower level clerical jobs.

I agree completely. We have too many public servants at all levels of government.

There's tons of people doing call centre work, so you can certainly track call volume. Then if you're at the clerical level your job is to handle the daily volume of 'stuff' that is your workload. It might be customer invoicing, bill paying, procurement, HR, or whatever, but whether you're in a cubicle or at home, it's your workload and you need to get through it. If you're a program officer/manager, then again, you have a certain program area you're responsible for. You need to take care of all the issues that pop up from day to day, and take part in a growing number of online meetings (the higher you get, the more meetings). I have a friend who's a senior director and he's in online meetings most of the day every day. Even when he has to go to work he sets up in his office and then does the same online meetings he does at home. Now let's talk about the office. In June he's losing his. The whole branch are moving to another building that has been 'processed', which means moved over to the new government open office system. Even as senior director he will not have a private office, or even a cubicle. It's all open air stuff and you don't get your own desk. You have to reserve a desk ahead of time on a web application. I know another person who is at the program manager level who has to do this, and then people shush her because she's always in online meetings talking. And so are other people. Tell me the sense in having people going to work to take part in online meetings. Especially with no offices and no overnight storage. They have to carry everything in with them including their laptops. There's none at the desks. They carry it all in and set up in the morning, then break it all down and take it home in the afternoon. So they can talk online just like they do at home. Especially since their team might not even be in the same building. Or if they are on the same floor. Or if on the same floor not in the same area of the floor. In the meantime, people who need to concentrate can't. And confidential information that shouldn't be talked about in front of others is being talked about in front of others because there's no other way to get through the meetings and workloads.

They had to hire more people to administer all the new programs dear Mr. Socks keeps implementing. You think you can announce a pricy, multi-billion dollar program without hiring reams of public servants to do all the necessary paperwork over applications, approvals, software, customer service, etc.?

As with much else you write, I can confidently say you're full of crap. I know several people who work for the federal government in Ottawa at different levels. They're carrying the same workload as always. The stats kept by the government confirm that productivity is actually up. They're just not wasting two hours on the journey to and from work every day. Where do you live? I want to know what area you say has traffic jams every day. There are none where I live. This is so much horseshit. Everyone has a workload assigned to them. They don't just do nothing. That's absurd. Sounds like envy to me.

Which came first, Germany and Japan surrendering and being occupied until the allies were convinced they wouldn't immediately revert to making war again, or them being given self-rule?

Every nation on Earth was created, held, and expanded due to force, including this one. No other reason. You ever see a map of Europe from the Middle Ages? Few of the countries of today even existed. No France. No Germany. No Russia. No Spain. No Britain. The same goes for almost everywhere else. The West Bank and Gaza were a part of Jordan and Egypt respectively, and lost when they made war on Israel and refused to sign peace treaties. Now neither wants them back. You want Israel to grant the occupants self-rule despite the occupants' stated desire to destroy Israel and murder all its people? What world do you live in where any nation would grant that?

Just pointing out that your sad tale of woe about someone angry because their land was stolen by UN order doesn't exist anymore.

How many Palestinians were alive in 1948? The UN estimate of the life expectancy in Palestine in 1950 was about 46 years.

I hope so too. We haven't heard much from Poilievre on the subject and I know he's big on balancing the budget.

Former army general and Liberal minister Andrew Leslie says Trudeau has no interest in the military and neither he nor much of his cabinet sees much purpose in having one. “The current prime minister of Canada is not serious about defence. Full stop. A large number of his cabinet members are not serious about defence. Full stop,” the former Liberal MP tells me. “Our NATO allies are despairing. Our American friends are frustrated. “But because NATO and Norad (North American Aerospace Defense Command) are both essentially voluntary organizations, in which other people cannot give Canada orders,” the retired general explains, “all the officers are extraordinarily polite in public. But in private, the conversations are quite brutal.” We are undefended:' Ex-general says Justin Trudeau failing on defence | National Post

Would this reconciliation include having the Muslims pull out of Turkey, Syria, Lebanon and Egypt, which they took from force from the Christian Roman empire?

And how do you imagine they could do that without a lot of Iranian civilians dying?

I think we move all the Palestinians out of Gaza to the West Bank, then move all the Jews out of the West Bank to Gaza. Then the Palestinians can have their country but ONLY if it's demilitarized and supervised by reliable outside powers.

Wasn't sure where to put this but figure this is good enough. The government has finished spending eight million dollars searching for graves at a residential school and come up with absolutely nothing. https://www.westernstandard.news/news/no-bodies-found-after-spending-8-million-searching-for-bodies-at-kamloops-residential-school/54429

That's about how I feel. Even at a time when the majority of Canadians - and certainly the vast majority of voters who are even considering voting Conservative want immigration strongly cut back not a single MP in any party has the balls to represent that view publicly. They're too terrified of being called 'racist' or 'anti-immigrant' since the majority of people in our largest cities are immigrants. And you're only allowed to publicly stand up for Canadian culture and values if you're French. Otherwise, you get dismissed as a bigot refusing to accommodate newcomers. All those demonstrations are led by Muslims, many of them newcomers, but not a single media outlet dares to talk about that. They're being funded and organized by foreign interests hostile to Canada, like Iran, Russia and China, but there's hardly a mention of that, either except an occasional piece in the NP. Our universities are turning into dens of antisemitism which the universities refuse to address because it would mean taking strict action against the protesting students for their blatantly illegal occupation of university territory. And they won't do it. Nor will the police. who are, in both Ontario and Quebec, doing their best to imitate the Ottawa police during the convoy occupation. It's ridiculous.