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PaperclipPerfector  2mo ago (text post)   1371 thread views

Transnational Thursday for August 29, 2024

Transnational Thursday is a thread for people to discuss international news, foreign policy or international relations history. Feel free as well to drop in with coverage of countries you’re interested in, talk about ongoing dynamics like the wars in Israel or Ukraine, or even just whatever you’re reading.

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The MAIN (!) /r/Canada subreddit is filled, filled with nothing but messages about how the immigration is just too much and how the Liberals have ruined and destroyed the country.

Wow, you weren't kidding. 11/25 of those posts are directly about immigration.

Also, half the sidebar is in French, c'est trop mignon!

By my count of the current ones on the top page:

Directly related to immigration: 13

Indirectly or debatably related to immigration: 4

Unrelated to immigration: 8

I think it's fair to say the topic dominates the public discourse

  • Poilievre asks Singh to pull support for Liberal government to prompt fall election - Indirectly about immigration

  • More Ontario college students are protesting over their failing grades - Wasn't sure, checked the link. "While the plea for support was allegedly directed mostly at the local Punjabi community, hundreds of residents have jumped in to comment on the matter, many of them pointing fingers at "diploma mill" colleges and various levels of government for the state of the nation's international student program." Directly about immigration

  • Canada’s Conservatives are crushing Justin Trudeau - Pierre Poilievre is even winning over the young and the unionised - Indirectly about immigration

  • Canadian Immigration Policy Isn’t Helping Anyone: BMO - Directly about immigration

  • Poilievre says he would set immigration targets based on housing, jobs and health-care trends - Directly...

  • Canadians split on taking in more Gazan refugees, concerned about screening: Poll - Directly...

  • NDP support takes a dive in new national poll, as Conservatives maintain sizeable lead - Indirectly

  • Judge blocks failed refugee claimant’s deportation from Canada, scolds minister for misleading evidence - Directly

  • Premier Danielle Smith reveals plans to transfer some Alberta hospitals away from AHS | Globalnews.ca - Unrelated

  • Union alleges abuse of foreign workers, calls for program to be suspended - Directly

  • Toronto workers have longest commutes in Canada: StatsCan - Debatably indirectly (related to housing affordability)

  • Canada ends policy of allowing visitors to apply for work permits from within the country - Directly

  • Justin Trudeau’s legacy will be destroying the Canadian consensus on immigration - Directly

  • Canada Pension Plan investment board to spend estimated $300 million-plus on its lavish new office at CIBC Square - Unrelated

  • Trudeau's zombie TFW policy is sucking the life out of Canada's youth - Directly

  • Rules discourage Canadians from generating more solar power than they use - Unrelated

  • Spike in ‘open permits’ shows more temporary foreign workers are facing abuse, experts say - Directly

  • Ottawa needs to abolish the temporary foreign worker program - Directly

  • Kate O'Brien wins Canada's first medal of Paris Paralympics with track cycling bronze - Unrelated

  • Canada: Over $2.4 Billion in Legal Marijuana Sold in First Half of 2024 - Unrelated

  • Canada Post at ‘critical juncture’ due to unsustainable finances: board chair - Unrelated

  • Toronto terror suspect came to Canada in 2018 and became a citizen last spring - Directly

  • ‘People will die’: Doctors call on Alberta government to save heath care system with urgent action | rdnewsnow.com - Unrelated

  • As tax breaks drive art donations, Canada’s public galleries overflow with more works than they could ever show - Unrelated

  • GUNTER: China a threat to our democracy and Trudeau is ignoring it - Was unsure, checked, it's in large part about China exerting pressure on the Chinese diaspora in Canada, so directly related to immigration.

And many of those that aren't directly about immigration will be indirectly about immigration: talks of polls, elections, of the NDP (the left wing party) keeping the LPC in power, posts about housing (in)affordability are all indirectly about immigration.

I think something broke in Canadians mind recently and seeing so, so, so many brown faces around them they've stopped feeling guilty. Not hateful, mind you, but not guilty enough to just roll over and give sanction to unrestricted immigration. And especially since it's now within the Overton window to notice that there is a price to pay for immigration. I'm not sure how it happened, but I remember going to Toronto for work about 6-7 years ago and I noticed once that at a busy intersection in the downtown, financial center, I was literally the only white person I could see around me. It was an eerie feeling, maybe not as strong for me as for locals since being Québecois Toronto has never felt to me like "my people's clay". From what I hear, it got much worse since. I imagine a lot of Canadians, especially those in cities, have now had such experiences, of looking around and suddenly feeling like they've become the minority. Maybe that's what did it.

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