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

On Dog Whistling Snowflakes and Vancouver Surrendering Its Awesome

Here we go! Jagmeet Singh Is Already Earning The Weirdest Descriptions In Politics. I’m not going to tell you what I heard Joe Blow from Vancouver Island saying on the Ferry from Comox, but you can guess. This is going to be a long ride that will challenge us as a nation.

I think Jagmeet is up for it, but is our media? Canadian Media Aren’t Sure How to Handle a Non-White Party Leader Yet.

Yes, violent religious terrorism is bad; no one likes it. And yes, Parmar posters are definitely problematic. But why bring this up out of nowhere with minimal explanation? There is no recent event that would suggest this is an issue, and Vaisaikhi was six months ago. Obviously this has been a pressing pet cause for Terry Milewski but it’s very hard to shake the impression that the only thing prompting it is that he happened to be talking to a newbie Sikh politician and wanted to spring a ‘gotcha’ moment on him using his ethnic background as a trap.

Meanwhile, a local podcast called Vancouver Real, whose mission statement is “Dedicated To Conscious Evolution”, hosted members of the UBC Free Speech club (the same club that put a male symbol on the engineering cairn on the week of the anniversary of L’Ecole Poltyechnique massacre). It’s sad that “Free Speech” has become a dogwhistle used by the alt-right to criticize the left’s appropriate and swift response to the rise of hateful rhetoric. In Canada, hate speech is not free speech.

They are also hosting Jordan B. Peterson, who became famous for refusing to use gender neutral pronouns. And now this: University of Toronto Professor: Men Can’t Control ‘Crazy Women’ Because Men Can’t ‘Fight’ Them.

Related: The alt-right is drunk on bad readings of Nietzsche. The Nazis were too.

“When you are used to privilege, equality feels likes oppression”: Conservative activists rail against LGBT curriculum in Abbotsford. “We are in a war for our nation and our children”. Yes we are, and you are on the losing side again.

Speaking of being on the wrong side: Left/enviro four-way split will only benefit right-wing NPA in Vancouver byelection Saturday. He was wrong about the HST, wrong about STV, and wrong about this. This is the desperate bleating death knell of a stale status quo. Derrick O’Keefe:

Tieleman is concern trolling about “left unity” rather than exploring why people are fed up with the developer-funded establishment. If people are worried about the NPA winning the by-election council seat, which remember won’t change the balance of power, the best bet both to stop them and to send the strongest message against the status quo is Jean Swanson for Vancouver City Council. It’s not a protest vote, as some are trying to say to diminish the significance of Jean’s support; it’s a vote towards winning the political revolution we need in Vancouver.

Indeed, if this poll is any indication, we have our candidate: Three on the left vie for public’s support in upcoming Vancouver council by-election.

More info: Vancouver city council hopefuls talk housing, affordability and small business. Vision Vancouver didn’t even show up for this. An admission of defeat or just plain arrogance?

Meanwhile, guess who hasn’t released their campaign donation details? Jean Swanson releases campaign-donation details and challenges other council candidates to do the same.

Peak Vancouver: Port of Vancouver’s proposed ban would outlaw kayaking in city harbour. “‘This is extremely dangerous waters’ Vancouver resident Peter Armstrong told CTV Vancouver from the city’s seawall.” What they really mean by “Vancouver resident” is [former] NPA president and union busting rail baron.

What happens when a fluffy, supposedly political neutral Vancouver lifestyle blog sells out to corporate media? It runs one-sided pieces like this: Lowball bid proving to be costly for Site C project.

Fake news of the day: Donald Trump Calls Justin Trudeau “Canada’s Worst President Yet”.

Sports are political: Crosby, Penguins enjoy luxury of political indifference at White House.

Like any white person who shares Crosby’s “side of things” and whose government does not devalue his life on account of the colour of his skin, he has the luxury of regarding politics as a force too far away to complicate his day to day.

Exhibit B: History shows Sidney Crosby could have stood up to racial injustice.

Crisis phones installed on Alex Fraser Bridge: “How about we build a mental health system that actually cares for people, not just a series of crisis-management interventions?” – Nicole Joliet.

Bonus: Notes from underground: Vancouver man finds ‘home, sweet home’ in bunker.

There is 1 comment

  1. Sean, Peter Armstrong hasn’t been the president of the NPA for a few years but he is still the on the board of trustees of the VPD Foundation. He may co-opt that armored truck that he rode around in Pride once with his $20 charity aviators and use it to hunt you down man.

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...

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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.