eh, just the usual suspects in the top 10.
Lights are going off all over Saskatchewan!
Regina, Moose Jaw, Estevan, Weyburn, oxbow, Rosthern, Humboldt, Rosetown!
Send power!
Barbecuing burgers in the blizzard for lunch.
Is there a storm in Saskatchewan?
No. But for the past week there’s been thick fog resulting in heavy hoarfrost. This is causing some issues with power lines here and there, but the major outage today (entire southeast of the province, including most of Regina) resulted when three major power plants went offline. There are still large numbers of people with no power, and at -10ish it’s gotta be getting uncomfortable for anyone without backup heating solutions.
Aye, 'twas the foggy, foggy dew.
I saw all about that on the news. Hope you managed okay, Northern Piper and Gorsnak!
Winter storm survival practice: share body heat. 
There was no power outage in Saskatoon, so I had no excuse to go cuddling up to anyone. Plus I have a bit of backup heating capability, probably at least a day in -10C conditions. Deep-cycle automotive battery and an inverter to power the pump & thermostat for my hot water rad system, actual heat comes from natural gas of course, so a little electricity goes a long ways.
Both. I’m more than a little tired of this bullshit every few years. Working conditions could not have deteriorated that much since the last time. And didn’t these employees know about mandatory OT certain times of the year?
I’ll be happy if I never hear from Canada Post again.
It’s gotten to the point my wife and I have decided not to send out any Christmas cards this year. What’s the point if they’re sitting in a sorting location for a couple of weeks. And we’ll probably save a hundred bucks or more in cards and stamps.
Which reminds me, it seems our friends are taking the same approach. Haven’t seen a card yet.
The Frontier Centre took a great deal of criticism for a radio advert it ran a few months ago, arguing that the residential schools were a good thing and the negative effects overblown.
I think anyone who has reviewed the facts as found by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission would simply not accept that.
There’s several articles on it available on-line through Google News (search “frontier centre residential schools”) but this is the one I found the most powerful:
‘I do not want to fight about this anymore’: Residential school denial is poisonous
Yup. Nothing good to say about them at all. Remarkably ignorant of historic and ongoing indigenous issues. Naively simplistic in their right wing position.
Quite apart from their incomprehension of indigenous issues, they’re so far out in right field that they are nonsensical. For example, they promote schoolchildren working for four hours per day during school days and there not being any minimum wage for such work, trying to move child labour back a couple of hundred years.
Not what I would consider to be deep thinkers. They can’t see the forest for the trees.
I’d heard of the Frontier Centre because of that atrocious residential school ad. Out of curiosity, I looked at their website just now. Eww.
Ontario Civilian Police Commission appoints administrator to run Thunder Bay police board. Ontario Civilian Police Commission appoints administrator to run Thunder Bay police board | CBC News
I was just reading about this today! It sounds like (hopefully) a good thing?
It is a necessary change, but only time will tell to what degree it becomes successful.
As a generalization, in Thunder Bay many indigenous people fear the police, many police are frustrated in their interactions with indigenous people, and the policing system despite producing good performance figures does not adequately serve and protect indigenous people. Although there is racism running in both directions, the problem is greater than that, for the system simply does not adequately address its failure to do its job when it comes to the indigenous community. It comes down to systemic indifference toward a very significant portion of the public that also happens to be the potion of the public most in need.
We must do better than this, but TBay’s Police Services Board simply has not been up to the task. As to why it has failed, read Sinclair’s report.
Of course it would be very difficult for someone come from afar (in this matter, a lawyer from Mississauga) to begin to have the slightest comprehension of the complexities and nuances of the situation in TBay, but by the same token, an administrator coming at the matter with fresh eyes will make it possible for the authority to now be one that recognizes that the emperor (institutional racism) has no clothes. By going into administration, this will clear the house so that the Chair can return to a clean shop following administration.
One of the recently appointed board members is expected to be reappointed once the administration has been completed. She is a highly respected indigenous elder who is a skilled lawyer with decades of experience representing indigenous persons and indigenous organizations. If the Administrator acts on this person’s advice, and if this person has a say in who the province places on its seats on the Board once the Board is reconstituted, then perhaps the institutional racism can be reduced.
That being said, the underlying issues of residential school survivors, missing and murdered women, lack of education and severe poverty will continue push open the gap between the police and a substantial portion of the population whom they serve. Hopefully the structural changes put in place by the administrator and later on by the appointee who will be coming back can improve relations between the police and the indigenous people.
Hey kids, who’s up for being the Canadope Café Baby New Year to ring in 2019? We need someone to start the Canadope Café 2019 thread. The task is not onerous, and the cash remuneration from the SDMB powers that be is generous. Well, perhaps that’s false news, but what is true is that the Canadope Café threads have carved out a warm and welcoming community in the SDMB, so let’s keep it going.
That job falls to Northern Piper right? The largest contributor of this year creates the thread for next year.
Correct. Traditionally, that’s who the job falls to.