I am Groot

LOL. The poorest of the poor have been picking up stakes and moving to where there are better jobs or a better life for them or their kids for thousands of years! Why do you think there are so many people from Atlantic Canada in Alberta? Why do you think all those people are walking north from all the way down in South America to the US and sometimes even beyond to our border? Natives can't even take a bus up the highway?!

Are they or are they not choosing to live there?

We don't provide any services to people who decide they want to live in the boonies. No electricity, no running water, no telephone service, and precious little in the way of law and order. If you want to set up in the boonies you pay for everything yourself. The government won't fly you into a big city when you need a medical appointment. It won't put a big water filtration system in place, nor provide you with a generator, nor build you a house, nor roads. The exception, of course, is for natives. We'll do all that and more for native reserves.

It's not their territory. There is no reason they should have any more control over it than the municipal council of Timmons does over their city. These people are not independent, and every dollar they spend comes from the taxpayers. If you want to be independent pay your own way. And that goes for Quebec and Alberta, too.

I'm failing to see where you disagree. Get real. There is no such thing. Whoever is in power crushes whoever isn't in power. There is zero sense of compromise from the current government, nor from the natives, nor from any of the political activist groups, be they over native rights, the environment, trans rights or whatever. It's "I get 100% and f*ck you" or fury and rage.

Is my description of the current relationship between native leaders and the rest of us inaccurate?

Why?

Let me ask you this. Are natives human beings or are they not? Because so many people seem to get the idea they're not really humans but some kind of otherly ethereal beings. People can come here from every corner of the globe, from big cities and small towns, from deserts and farms and tropical jungles, from the most unsophisticated, backwater rural areas that have never seen a building more than three stories tall. They can all come here, adapt, learn the language, settle in, get a job, etc. etc. But not natives! Oh my God! Never! We can't ask THEM to join Canada and integrate and get jobs! We must instead keep spending tens of billions while they wallow in poverty in their shitty little reserves - forever. They're not humans like us. We can't expect them to live like humans do.

I'm not trying to be helpful. I'm asking an actual question.

I think he KNOWS there's more to it. Dong is the only Liberal MP identified but we know 9 were backed by China. Does anyone really think he was the only one to get elected? There could be half a dozen MPs in Trudeau's caucus whose loyalty is to China.

Learn what? How to whine for money and play the victim card?

The people here who shit on Canada are powerless cranks. Quite a different story from having the CBC do it on a continuing basis. Also different from the united contempt and scorn poured on Canada's values, traditions and heritage by the welfare artistic class paid and supported by tax dollars, or mediocre academics gripped by ideology who are likewise living on the taxpayer's teat. To make more money. You know there are tons of people who are living and working in Canada who have no intention whatsoever of staying here, right? They'll make enough to buy a nice house and have a very nice life when they move back to India or the Philipines or Lebanon. Their Canadian citizenship also makes their children more eligible when marriage negotiations are entered into with other children's parents. And it's a good place to have your kids educated at a low cost, and then have them apply to move to the US, which many do.

Little changes like changing the name of the province to something else in a foreign language only 1/10th of 1% of people understand? What do you regard as a big change? All the white people leaving so the natives can get back to being hunter gatherers again?

Is it 'as the population ages' or 'as more and more young people emerge from an educational system that teaches them that everything about Canada's history and heritage is something to be ashamed of? Is it that the population ages or that the Liberal party's effort to destroy our heritage and our connections with our past (otherwise known as cultural genocide) has more effect? Is it 'as the population ages' or the relentless barrage of contempt and scorn heaped upon everything about Canada's history, development, and western culture with virtually no contradiction has more effect? When you suggest it's one of our values that we come to the table and deal with each other... is that something that is also fading away (along with any sense of pride in Canada) as we bring in more people who have no such values and who are never taught it here? There's nothing in the Charter of Rights that prevents Canada from falling apart, and collapsing into various regional nations either. And with the way Trudeau and the rest of the progressive media and academia have worked so tirelessly to destroy all sense of nationhood, pride and shared cultural identity what is to hold Canada together? Nations don't stay together merely because it's more economically profitable to do so. Without a sense of shared identity they break up. What do I want to do about it? I've kind of already mentioned stopping all government subsidies at all levels for artists. Let them flounder. I'd also go through schools and universities with a chain saw, firing most of those in charge, eliminating two-thirds of non-teaching administrators. redesigning the curriculums, ending tenure, and firing anyone who inserts their own political ideology into that curriculum. Instead of getting rid of the CBC, I'd just fire most of the people in charge and repurpose the network to put out broadcasting that brings Canadians together and teaches them pride in their country along with giving them unbiased, unideologically slanted news everyone can trust.

This is along the lines of what I wrote earlier, though better expressed, I think (well, Jamie Sarkonak gets paid for that). National identity depends on having a shared set of values, often represented in our cultural products. These cultural products include the obvious: our songs, our statues and our broadcast media — and the less obvious: the way we name roads, bridges and city wards. The great thing about Canadian national identity is that it’s (traditionally) based on the liberal democratic tradition, where all citizens are equal before the law regardless of background. There is a growing movement to strip the liberal democratic — and necessarily colonial — aspect from our shared national identity. It’s called “decolonization.” It follows an easy formula. First, advocates stigmatize the symbols of our shared Canadian heritage, alienating the population from the many good things that the country has accomplished. Second, advocates rewrite and tear down the cultural products that we use to remember our shared heritage. Third, they are often replaced by something Indigenous. You saw this happen at the NBA All-Star Game in Salt Lake City on Sunday; anthem singer Jully Black changed the lyrics of “O Canada” from “Our home and native land,” to “Our home on native land.” The change implies that Canada is somehow illegitimate. Because decolonization is so trendy right now, you can bet that a certain number of people will sing it and push for a formal change in the name of reconciliation. While there is a shameful place in Canadian history where Indigenous children were separated from their families to force cultural conformity, the solution is not to “overcorrect” by renaming cultural products and rewriting history. The solution is to make sure Indigenous communities can sustain themselves economically and cultivate even more culture to add to Canadian identity — without tearing down the heritage we have already. The change to “O Canada” at the NBA All-Star game is the latest in a long line of decolonization events to hit Canadian culture. Perhaps the most obvious acts of decolonization is outright damage to art. A statue of Canada’s then sitting monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, was toppled in Winnipeg in July 2021 by activists. In the same protest, a statue of Queen Victoria was defaced, torn down, and beheaded. It would have cost $500,000 to repair the latter, so the Manitoba government shrugged its shoulders and decided not to replace it. No charges were laid, despite the video evidence of the event and the police presence. Activists are just as successful at effecting change by achieving a critical mass at museums and galleries, and changing curatorial policy to fit a radical decolonial agenda — something that is happening everywhere, from the National Gallery of Canada to the national museum association. Decolonization can also happen in municipal politics. Take Edmonton, for example. Prior to the fall of 2021, the city wards were numbered (there was a city councillor for Ward 3, Ward 2, and so on). In September 2021, race-neutral numbers were exchanged for Indigenous words and group names. Now, Edmonton’s city ridings include Ward Métis, Ward tastawiyiniwak (Cree for “LGBTQ2S+ community”), and Ward Ipiihkoohkanipiaohtsi (a Blackfoot term pertaining to bison harvest grounds). One city councillor asked for the old numbers to be kept in brackets at the end of the new ward names, but was voted down. Now, many Edmontonians live in wards they can’t yet pronounce — as if people weren’t alienated from municipal politics enough. British Columbia has similar disregard for legibility and official language use. An elementary school named after Sir Matthew Begbie — where students are just starting to learn English — was renamed to “wək̓ʷan̓əs tə syaqʷəm.” In April 2022, the government of Prince Edward Island asked the federal government to change the name of the Confederation Bridge to “Epekwitk Crossing.” “Confederation Bridge” got its name because it was built to fulfil the constitutional promise made by the Canadian government to build and maintain a connection to P.E.I. upon joining as a province. The bridge itself is one of Canada’s greatest engineering achievements — and a symbol of the Canadian Constitution. It literally unites an isolated province with the rest of Canada. Epekwitk is Mi’kmaq for “something lying on the water.” The change would pave over our constitutional history Other significant infrastructure is getting the decolonization treatment, too. The Sir John A. Macdonald Parkway will soon get an Indigenous name, likely to be announced in June. Sign changes are planned for fall this year. Finally, you see decolonization being worked into the polite society conventions of public institutions. Public servants often sign off with a land acknowledgement in email signatures, giving oxygen to the idea that Canada is an illegitimate state. Public meetings and job descriptions often start off with a land acknowledgement, too. They’re even featured on university syllabi. Canada’s strength came from having a strong sense of nationality surrounding our founding principles: liberal democracy and allegiance to the Crown. Anyone who buys into those positions, no matter how far removed from Britain, has a place in Canada. The decolonization movement asks us to reject this. Decolonization seeks to put ethnicity before national identity; on top of building new Indigenous cultural products (a good thing), it asks the nation to declare itself illegitimate by tearing down and re-labelling old cultural products (a bad thing). O Canada was just the latest example, but there will be more to come. https://nationalpost.com/opinion/the-counterproductive-decolonizing-of-the-national-anthem

The Globe broke the story. Of course they're covering it. And Global joined in with their own source last week. But who else is showing any interest other than a couple of Postmedia columnists?

Nobody cares. It's been a couple of days now and the mainstream media is like "Ho hum". Hardly a thing about this is appearing anywhere. A Liberal MP is, according to CSIS, a knowing agent of a hostile foreign power that puts Muslims in concentration camps. And the media doesn't care. But oh let a couple of Tory MPs do a picture with a European MEP whose party is against immigration and anti-Islam and it's headline news from coast to coast with breathless outrage being voiced on all the political panels.

Try working on logic first. No, what you did was launch a half page of sputtering outrage at my use of the word 'mass', saying it suggested I was opposed to immigration and that this was a terrible crime. You... do know that your post is still there, right? You honestly write like one of those frenzied woke types who got triggered because someone dared to question immigration. You ever hear that line that goes something like "If everywhere you go everyone is an assh0le it's probably YOU that's the assh0le?" Because I think you ought to take a gander in a mirror. Ayep. That's what I've done, with numerous cites you didn't read or couldn't understand And in return, you've presented your opinion and insults and nothing else. I'm deleting the rest of your spew. It's a lot of angry-Karen-type ranting. I'd say you've amply demonstrated your knowledge of immigration is basically zero, as is your ability to discuss things like an intelligent, mature adult. Maybe try working on your lack of social skills.

So we now know the value of a foreign agent registry, the kind Australia and the US put in place but which the Liberals have refused to implement. It's not illegal to be an undeclared agent of a foreign government in Canada. It's not illegal to operate on their behalf, even as an MP and political bagman for political parties here. It's no illegal to meet with them, get orders, try to influence others around you, including your political party, industry reps and private citizens on that foreign government's behalf. It's not illegal to pass information to that foreign government from inside caucus or parliament or government - as long as it's not information protected under the Official Secrets Act. And the Liberals want to keep it that way. Because to do otherwise would force party bagman like Chan to either register or be arrested. And that would put an end to the money he's funneling into the party. It would force people like Dong to declare or be arrested, which would force the Liberals to boot him, and probably others from their caucus. https://globalnews.ca/news/9504291/liberals-csis-warning-2019-election-candidate-chinese-interference/

Well, you're not very good at it. Nor are you very good at providing any evidence to support your full-throated support of... shall we call it 'extremely heavy' immigration so as to not trigger another diatribe on the word 'mass'. Did I say it's only mass based on language? I don't believe I did. I merely quoted part of a report from IMMIGRATION CANADA saying that fewer immigrants were learning the language, that ethnic enclaves were growing, and that Canada is reaching its absorptive capacity. But what do THEY know, eh? Maybe they're all just "xenophobes". You're just building straw men and shooting them down. This is not a debating tactic likely to impress anyone around here. At least, not doing it as obviously as you are anyway. I mean, first, I never said that, and second, what do you imagine the 'language I approve of' might be? Uhm, German? Swahili? Urdu? Hey, how about ENGLISH? The one I actually understand? How dare I prefer immigrants speak an official language! Why, I must be some kind of 'xeno-phobe' The ones in the cites I provided which you evidently didn't bother to read. But that's okay, because I didn't read any of your cites either! Of course, that could be because you haven't provided a bloody thing, aside from your opinion... Ah, I see. But here's the thing. Canada's aging is the only issue. We do not have a declining population. As I pointed out earlier, our population was projected to grow to 50 million BEFORE Trudeau's big increases in immigration. Remember, I'm not calling for an end to immigration. I'm saying the current rate is too high and is unsustainable. Oh well. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/technology/article-canada-facing-brain-drain-as-young-tech-talent-leaves-for-silicon/ You mean where you denied immigration was a strong factor in stagnant wages, housing shortages or much of anything else bad? And all of this is based on what evidence? Because in my experience what companies want is the cheapest worker who will do the job. And if that worker doesn't dare complain about extra, unpaid overtime that's a real plus. There are a lot of abuses taking place in our temporary foreign worker programs, and there seems to be employers eager to take advantage of it by offering substandard wages to deter Canadians from applying so they can hire foreign workers. That doesn't suggest what you wrote above is necessarily a reality. The law of supply and demand is a real thing. And nothing you wrote above about preferences for Canadians is born out by evidence. I never suggested we stop it except temporarily, to realign it with Canada's actual needs.

Global news has just identified the first of the candidates China helped get elected, and the story is not pretty. His name is Han Dong, and the Liberal Party establishment were informed that CSIS strongly suspected his loyalty was to the Chinese government before he was even nominated. They ignored the warning. According to the report from Global Chinese foreign students were ordered to volunteer on his campaign, and to join the Liberal party so they could vote for him in the nomination. They were told that if they didn't their student visas would be canceled. Bus loads of Chinese seniors were brought into the riding with the candidate's name written on pieces of paper they kept in their sleeves. The Liberal establishment was again warned by the person in charge of the GTA candidates. They ignored the warning. Dong is now a proud member of the Liberal Party caucus sitting in the House of Commons. https://globalnews.ca/video/9511108/global-national-feb-24-9/

You mean I actually read up on it, did research and made a decision? Yes, I did. That doesn't mean my mind is 'closed' to new evidence. You just have to present that evidence rather than an opinion with which I disagree. Hmm, perhaps when you walk around downtown and half the people don't speak English... Perhaps when your country is taking in people so fast it can no longer absorb them so that ethnic enclaves grow and spread and the new immigrants settle into them and have less interest in learning English (or French). This was reported by no less a source than Immigration Canada six years ago when the numbers were much lower than they are now. Do you believe there can never be too much immigration? You just said its meaning was 'too much'. To a certain extent. The problem is that economists have said immigration is going to do little about this, and that the best way to deal with it is to simply push back the retirement age by a couple of years - which is what Harper did but Trudeau reversed. I might also add that our population was most certainly NOT declining prior to Trudeau's drastic increase in immigration. It was projected to rise to 50 million by the turn of the century. Also, a significant number of immigrants coming in are... not young... at all. https://vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/douglas-todd-canada-has-abandoned-middle-class-says-b-c-s-former-top-civil-servant In fact, the Liberals have increased the number of elderly immigrants who can be sponsored three times since being elected (unsurprisingly this coincided with three elections). I understand two-thirds of the graduates in computer engineering leave Canada shortly after graduating due to low wages, replaced by a steady steam of immigrants and temporary foreign workers willing to work more cheaply. But you ignore the less impressive side effects, such as their impact on housing, on crowding, on wages, on social cohesion, etc. https://vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/douglas-todd-canada-has-abandoned-middle-class-says-b-c-s-former-top-civil-servant There's little evidence immigration, at least on this scale, would be positive then either. This bank explains it nicely, I think. https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/canadian-wage-growth-lagging-u-s-because-of-immigration-levels-cibc-1.1704641 The last informed opinion I read, some years back, said that 17% of immigrants come in under the points system. I tried to update that last year, going so far as to do an ATIP request from immigration Canada but they either didn't have the information or pretended they didn't. https://ottawacitizen.com/opinion/columnists/bissett-immigration-policy-is-out-of-control-and-needs-an-overhaul By the way, the standards for 'skilled' have been lowered in order to get higher numbers. They used to require 461 points. It's now uhm... 75. https://www.cdhowe.org/intelligence-memos/mahboubi-skuterud-–-economic-reality-check-canadian-immigration-part-ii