A no messing around guide to the coolest things to eat, drink and do in Vancouver and beyond. Community. Not clickbait.

On Right Wing Populism & Old Albertans Thinking BC Is Totally Stoned

30874769893_350482f7c6_k

by Sean Orr | The Vancouver Sun asks: Should fentanyl dealers be charged with manslaughter when a customer dies? Maybe, or perhaps we should charge the CEO or the company that patented OxyContin, which started this whole mess:

This is the story of how Patent ‘738 sparked the opioid crisis in Canada, with OxyContin serving as the gateway to an epidemic of addiction that has since spread to other, more hazardous substances such as fentanyl. It has left many dead, and many more ravaged by the drug and its implications.

It is also a tale of how marketing – not necessarily sound medicine – helped turn Patent ‘738 into one of the most profitable drugs the industry has seen in recent memory, and how careful Purdue has been to protect that empire, even as the damage spread.

Meanwhile, hilariously out of touch Dad is hilariously out of touch: Cooper: British Columbia shows us what happens when we go to pot.

“With pot soon to be legal across the country, B.C. provides a glimpse of our future. Indeed, if you wander through B.C. today, as we did over the Christmas break, more or less normal Albertans might be forgiven for thinking that the whole province is stoned.

Our first evidence came at a steak joint in Abbotsford. The waiter looked puzzled when I asked for steak sauce. He first brought mustard to the table, then ketchup. Our daughter, more familiar with such behaviour than her parents, stated, matter-of-factly, “the guy is stoned.”

The steak, ordered rare, was grey. I pointed this out to the waiter, who got the manager. “This steak is cooked just right,” the manager announced. He was stoned, too.”

I think he accidentally submitted this to the Calgary Herald instead of Yelp.

From the Globe & Mail: A taste of real winter and Vancouver just can’t keep it together. While I agree that it wouldn’t “be in taxpayers’ best interests to have a massive battalion of snow plows and warehouses full of salt at the ready for circumstances that occur once in a blue moon” I take issue with the false equivalence in saying Vancouver should act more like a town with a population of 2000. Also, homeless people don’t seem to exist in Gary Mason’s world.

Related: Rich Shaughnessy homeowners guilty of not shoveling their snow.

Empty populist rhetoric coming to a town near you! Justin Trudeau embarks on campaign-style tour to reconnect with Canadians. Like the creepy ex-boyfriend who doesn’t understand why his trust fund and nice hair isn’t good enough for you. Sorry, Justin. It’s not you. It’s us.

But what is “us”? The Canada experiment: is this the world’s first ‘postnational’ country? If Harper tried to rewrite our founding myths, than this is just the Liberal’s turn. It comes across as self-congratulatory Ivory Tower affectation at best, and a rehashed version of neo-liberalism at worst.

It’s almost like 25% of our prison population isn’t aboriginal. It’s almost like the unemployment rate for aboriginals isn’t twice the national average. It’s almost like the Soldiers of Odin aren’t roaming the streets and attacking DIY spaces.

As much as we should strive towards it, post-nationalism as an ideology is still very much rooted in identity, one that the right will usurp with aplomb: Growing list of Liberal hypocrisies risks ushering in right-wing populism to Canada.

Because the only identity that truly matters is class: Safety Pins and Swastikas: The frameworks of liberal identity politics and “alt-right” white nationalism are proving curiously compatible. It’s not enough to identify and shame them, we must know who we are and what we stand for.

But if they were confronted by a unified “we” — a subject that refused to recognize the borders, divisions, and hierarchies that are regulated by the logic of identity — the alt-right would be left with nowhere to plant its flag. White nationalists would find themselves in the worst possible position for a nation at war: being unable to identify the enemy.

Indeed, as this Slate article on Rage Against the Machine articulates, “no matter how well-intentioned, a politics that aims to free the working class is doomed if it can only express itself in phrases that require a public-policy degree to decipher.”

Homeless Vernon, B.C., man living in heated, custom-built ‘coffin-like’ crate. He doesn’t suck blood, but he does suck electricity.

Bonus: Desire to Kill the Streetcar.

There is 1 comment

  1. Re Gary Mason
    Keep in mind, here’s a guy that he wrote sports “news” for years while at Vancouver Sun
    which obviously prepared him for his new position as a National Affairs Columnist.

On Ken Sim’s So-Called “Swagger” and ABC’S Class War

Sean Orr is back from his hiatus with a rundown of the local headlines that have been running on a ticker tape through his mind over the past six months...

On Post-Election Recuperation, Platform Paradoxes and Refund Communities

In his latest read of the local news headlines, Sean Orr finds irony in "safety, affordability, and sustainability", and shouts out a bunch of amazing local organizations working on the frontlines.

On Running for City Council, Playing Whack-a-Mole with Homelessness, and the Public Washroom Deficit

In his latest read of the local news headlines, Sean Orr finds a park ranger with a grudge, a gross misuse of air quotes and Tripadvisor slander.

On Living in a City Preoccupied with Street Cleaning, Chandeliers, and Campaigns Against the Homeless

In his latest read of the local news headlines, Sean Orr hones in on the recent Langley shootings, and the ongoing criminalizing and dehumanizing of the homeless population.