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Canadian Border Now Fully Open
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Pre-Entry COVID Test No Longer Required at Canadian Border
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US Land Border Opens to Canadians
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When Will USA Border Open to Canadians?
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Where Can Vaccinated Canadians Travel?
General
Canadian Border Now Fully Open
On October 1st 2022, the Government of Canada removed all COVID-19 border measures such as required proof of vaccination, random testing, and mandatory isolation for high-risk travelers. For the first time since early 2020, the Canadian border is operating under “normal” conditions. For example: Americans interested in visiting Canada no longer need to download the […]
General
Pre-Entry COVID Test No Longer Required at Canadian Border
As of April 1st 2022, the Canadian border will no longer require a pre-arrival negative COVID-19 test from fully vaccinated travellers entering or returning to the country. Previously, a rapid antigen test or a PCR test indicating a person does not have COVID was required by border authorities. This rule change should encourage Canadians to […]
General
US Land Border Opens to Canadians
After being closed for nearly 19 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, on November 8th 2021 the United States land border officially opened to all fully vaccinated Canadians. US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has announced they will be staffing their border at pre-pandemic levels, but warns that wait times may be longer than in […]
General
When Will USA Border Open to Canadians?
On August 9th 2021, Canada opened its border to all fully vaccinated Americans allowing tourists from the United States to visit the country once again. The US border remains closed to Canadians, however, and American authorities recently extended the border closure until September 21st citing COVID-19 transmission rates south of the border as well as […]
General
Where Can Vaccinated Canadians Travel?
Most Canadians are now fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Consequently, Canadians are starting to think about international travel again, and are beginning to research possible vacation destinations. This leads to the question, which countries can a fully vaccinated Canadian visit? As of July 2021, Canadian citizens who have received two doses of the Pfizer, Moderna, or […]
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Time to put up the tree!
Posted December 2, 2023 by Anonymous
First, Advent Calendars!
According to my chocolate advent calendar there’s only 4 days left until Christmas Day— Dr Helen Ingram (@drhingram) December 1, 2023
To celebrate the season I created a new List of many of the people posting daily Advent C…
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Today’s News: From Trudeau v. Poilievre, to “effective altruism”
Posted November 30, 2023 by Anonymous
Well, well, well — so Trudeau was right about India’s responsibility for the murder of Canadian Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
In his National Intelligence and Security Newsletter, Wesley Wark brings us up to date in tonight’s post Murder Inc. New revelations about Indian government-directed assassinations
…This sordid tale adds further weighty credibility to the Canadian government’s public claim that there was Indian official involvement in the murder of Mr. Nijjar, a claim that the Indian government has strenuously denied. The Indian government response had a ring of protesting (way) too much. New Delhi then reacted by creating a freeze in diplomatic relations with Canada, expelling a large number of Canadian diplomats from India, suspending visa applications for a time, and suggesting Canada had failed to provide the Indian government with any material evidence of a supposed plot involving Mr. Nijjar.In response to the unsealing of the US indictment, the Indian government has now pivoted to announce that it has created a “high level inquiry” into the matter. That is more of a concession than the Canadian government was able to obtain, but it also shifts the focus onto the higher plane of India-US relations….
Now I’m waiting for all the apologetic tweets from all the Canadian right-wingers who were so quick to take Trudeau to task for insulting poor Modi …guys? ….I’m waiting… (crickets)
We shouldn’t forget that PM Trudeau first sent Foreign Affairs minister to India weeks earlier to enlist their investigation cooperation & in quiet diplomatic way say unacceptable. India ignored the request (unsurprising in regard to current information) & abused PM & Canada. https://t.co/nZZ8xOn5BH
— Fiona Kenny (@fionakennyantiq) November 29, 2023
Worth remembering that prominent Canadian pundits echoed Modi’s talking point on this issue just a few weeks ago, motivated by their hatred of Trudeau and ignorance of India. https://t.co/lSckKFc3Xf pic.twitter.com/nA95MIxehE
— Jeet Heer (@HeerJeet) November 30, 2023
And Poilievre keep stepping on rakes…
Poilievre’s very bad week last week, continues to be bad this week. He owes @JustinTrudeau an apology for saying in a presser about the India story to “come clean” as though Trudeau was hiding something and not being honest about this ⤵️ https://t.co/CMVkTFT4ls pic.twitter.com/TYJHYAjB3r
— Kathryn Mathias (@KathrynMathias1) November 29, 2023
And well, well, well…Trudeau was right about the Online News Act, too:
Well that’s weird…so many people on here told me this was impossible and that c-18 was going to be dead on arrival. Will be interesting to see if Google sets the Canadian parameters as their benchmark for other soon to be regulated markets like the UKhttps://t.co/oeaDot9ku4
— Supriya Dwivedi (@supriyadwivedi) November 29, 2023
🚨UPDATE Google & the Canadian gov’t have struck a deal just weeks before the #OnlineNewsAct is set to go into effect.
Google will pay “in the range of $100 million” annually to news companies, adjusted for inflation.
Here’s our take… 1/4https://t.co/2kdhiRYmBY https://t.co/fejcEHaDpI
— Center for Journalism & Liberty (@CJL4News) November 29, 2023
In the National Observer, Max Fawcett writes Pierre Poilievre’s mouth just opened the door to a Liberal comeback
If Justin Trudeau finds himself celebrating a political comeback for the ages at some point in 2025, he’ll probably look back to this past week as the point where it began. It won’t show up yet in the polls, which still have Trudeau’s Liberals well behind Pierre Poilievre’s Conservative Party of Canada. But for the first time in a long time, Trudeau and his team have a fighting chance.That’s because, on two separate occasions, Poilievre exposed a weakness in his otherwise formidable political armour that they could — and should — exploit. On Tuesday, Poilievre and his caucus decided to vote against a free trade deal between Ukraine and Canada on second reading because, it seems, the deal includes a line indicating mutual support for carbon pricing and the need to avoid so-called “carbon leakage.” …
Ukraine already has a carbon tax, though, and it’s been in place since 2011. More to the point, it will almost certainly have to increase that price on carbon if it wants to join the European Union…This sort of allergic response to the very mention of carbon pricing might play well with Poilievre’s Prairie base, but it’s a much tougher sell for the more moderate central Canadian voters he needs to actually win an election. So, too, was his reflexive reaction to Wednesday’s fatal car crash at the U.S.-Canada border, and his subsequent refusal to back down after more facts came to light.
…Instead, he went on a meandering and mean-spirited tirade against a Canadian Press reporter who asked him about his comments, clearly channelling the same churlish energy he displayed in that now (in)famous video in the apple orchard. This was the Poilievre id on full display, stripped of the image makeover gurus and slick advertising campaigns. It was the Poilievre the Liberals ought to spend the next two years trying to draw out. And if Thursday’s press conference was any indication, it won’t be that difficult to do.Yes, this latest confrontation with a journalist will surely delight his online army of angry young men. But as Postmedia columnist John Ivison noted, “He could lose this thing if he keeps behaving like this.”…
In his newest post Silver Bullets And Sudden Changes On Poilievre And What Matters Evan Scrimshaw says Liberal polls are improving but so what – because we can’t know which issues might disappear and which might turn out to be critical two years from now. But he notes that regardless of the issues, the CPC still has a serious problem on its hands:
…Poilievre can’t make it through a fucking press conference without lashing out at the press for having the temerity to question him…
Scrimshaw continues:
…Poilievre is making his life harder than it needs to be by refusing to do very basic shit. Poilievre has made two tactical decisions to double down in the last week that probably won’t end up mattering too much, but might. It’s not a good thing to piss the media off as a pure matter of self preservation, and it’s not a good thing to let the Government paint you as insufficiently committed to Ukraine. These things might not matter now when people are feeling a lot of pain, but if the government goes into 2025 with a few rate cuts and better economic sentiment, then it’s probably not gonna help to have thrown a petulant temper tantrum against a trade deal Ukraine supports.We are all poisoned by social media at this point, but the rush to identify a silver bullet has to stop. Things can matter even if they don’t instantly reverse a Nanos poll, and Poilievre’s week was still a disaster. Anyone ignoring what Poilievre put on display last week ignores his greatest liability – and that liability will still exist even if you wish it away.
Moving on, here’s an interesting piece at Bug-Eyed and Shameless by Justin Ling The Cult Around the Corner Conspiracy movements are splitting off into smaller, local, more isolated units. Uh oh. where he observes this interesting phenomenon:
…some conspiracy theorists are hitting the road and heading for the country. Whether they’re converging on an empty field outside Ottawa, setting up a neo-Nazi training camp in Maine, taking over a city council in Washington, or seizing an empty school in Saskatchewan: These movements are looking to create their own communities. That might be bad news for the rest of us.It’s an old story. A movement rises, rises, rises: And sharply plateaus. Its adherents, once convinced of their own universal appeal, suddenly find that their particular brand of politics, spiritualism, moralism, or paranoia is of limited interest to the rest of the world. Many blame some combination of the media, government, deep state, and/or the public’s innate stupidity.
At Garbage Day, Ryan Broderick writes about Elon Musk’s Big Pivot and gives a succinct definition of those bizarre new belief systems now used by our multi-millionaire Internet Overlords to justify why they think they deserve to make so much money — they’re called effective altruism, modern rationalism, neoreactionarism, and effective accelerationism:
In 2009, a blogger, catgirl connoisseur, and Harry Potter fanfic writer named Eliezer Yudkowsky launched a site called LessWrong. It is ostensibly a place to argue about artificial intelligence, but through those arguments, several internet-native philosophies were born. The main one is modern rationalism, but other notable ones include the dark enlightenment, or neoreactionaryism, which is a type of anti-democractic techno-feudalism supported by folks like Steve Bannon. LessWrong also birthed the aforementioned effective altruism, the most famous supporter of which is crypto fail-king Sam Bankman-Fried. Elon Musk also now claims to be an effective altruist, but I don’t think he actually believes in anything. The main idea behind effective altruism is that long-term human happiness can be solved by maximizing capital.Over the last decade, more and more effective altruists have inserted themselves in positions of power in Silicon Valley and, recently, a very small protest movement against this group has begun to spread, mainly as a meme. Which is effective accelerationism. Contrary to what you will be no doubt reading in the press in the coming weeks, these groups are not opposites in any way. The accelerationists want the same thing as the altruists, and also agree with them that AI superintelligences are coming and that capitalism is fucking sick. The accelerationists just want them to arrive as fast as possible and to smash society to bits in the process.
Oh, great. Another overlord heard from.
There is a lot of truth to this:
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Well, here’s some upsetting news
Posted November 27, 2023 by Anonymous
Hamas apparently doesn’t know where at least 40 of the hostages are.In his nightly Ukraine post at Balloon Juice, Adam Silverman is also keeping up with the latest news about the Israel-Hamas War and the hostages being held in Gaza. And the news i…
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“Conservative’ means never having to say you’re sorry
Posted November 25, 2023 by Anonymous
The stupid, it burns! Yesterday following that awful crash at the Niagara Falls border crossing, somebody in Pierre Poilievre’s office was listening to Fox News when they jumped the gun by calling it a terrorist attack and saying it was all Biden’…
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Dogs, bruh!
Posted November 23, 2023 by Anonymous
Post by @dogsarethefunniest View on Threads
People who say animals don’t have feelings have never seen the look on my dog’s face when she realizes I dropped a slice of cucumber not meat.— Mary Ellen Davis (@RubyMcrae) November 22, 2023
…
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“As God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly”
Posted November 22, 2023 by Anonymous
Using the excuse of American Thanksgiving, I just need to post the funniest line ever said on television: and here’s the back-story:
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Today’s fascinating stuff: from Saskatchewan Batman to outstanding truckers
Posted November 21, 2023 by Anonymous
Historian Craig Baird is doing more interesting AI stuff — this one is from his series on The Provincial Batman:
3. Saskatchewan🧵3/13 pic.twitter.com/RP3mWdZwqv— Craig Baird – Canadian History Ehx (@CraigBaird) November 19, 2023
Apparently this isn’…
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Surveying the Substacks: from the Wingnut Grievance Bubble to the imminent end of the baby boomer generation
Posted November 20, 2023 by Anonymous
First, at Everyone Is Entitled To My Own Opinion, Jeff Tiedrich writes Sporky and the Space Nazi get screwed by the Wingnut Grievance Bubble with a guest appearance by the Ghost Bus GoofusI’ve written before about the Wingnut Grievance Bubble. it’s tha…
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Here’s a great Doonesbury cartoon
Posted November 19, 2023 by Anonymous
Isn’t this hilarious?
Post by @beingliberal View on Threads
Here is the link to the comic on Go Comics: https://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/2023/11/12
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Today’s News: My List about the Israel-Hamas War
Posted November 15, 2023 by Anonymous
Credit: WarMapperI have started a new Twitter List of people who have useful perspectives on this awful war — I call it just “Israel-Hamas War” and you can sign up to follow it here: https://twitter.com/i/lists/1724290102757916709?s=20 I wish Thr…
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Oddities and funny stuff: from the Valeriepieris circle to a bull riding a motorcycle
Posted November 13, 2023 by Anonymous
First up, the Valeriepieris circle, which is sorta fascinating. Out of a total world population of 8 billion, there are 4.2 billion living in this circle.And this is fascinating too:
This blew my mind pic.twitter.com/tPzssWkyrG— Time Capsule Tales (@ti…
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Today’s News: Ain’t it the Truth!
Posted November 8, 2023 by Anonymous
Just a whole bunch of comeuppance news tonight. First, from Canada:
Conservative MP’s are now complaining in the HoC that Liberals are calling out their disinformation on social media. Also, complaining the Speaker shuts off their microphone whe…
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Today’s News: Updates about the Israel-Hamas War
Posted November 5, 2023 by Anonymous
I think Israel is finally trying to inform the world about what it had gone through, and what it is trying to do – we’re seeing more stories about what happened to Israelies on Oct 7, and what the IDF is now achieving in Gaza. Unsurprisingly, Isra…
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Halloween part deux
Posted October 31, 2023 by Anonymous
My brother just sent this to me – it is amazing!In The Hall Of The Mountain King, by VoicePlay
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Happy Halloween!
Posted October 31, 2023 by Anonymous
Here’s some to laugh at today:
It’s ok to consider Reeses Pumpkin Peanut Butter Cups as a fruit during Halloween season.— TG ☕️ (@TG22110) October 22, 2023
Canadian politicians, past and present, trick or treating as kids. Generated by AI.Justin …
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Today’s News: using the Israel-Hamas War to promote antisemitism
Posted October 30, 2023 by Anonymous
I can appreciate the sincerity of those who support the Palestinians and oppose Netanyahu. But that sincerity is being weaponized now by those around the world who hate Jews. The Israel-Hamas War is providing an excuse for virulent and violent antisemi…
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Today’s News: What rough beast is coming in the Israel-Hamas War?
Posted October 27, 2023 by Anonymous
Until I read Tom Friedman’s column in the New York Times, I didn’t understand what was happening in the Israel-Hamas War – particularly why so many people around the world are demonstrating against Israel. Friedman writes Israel: From the Six-Day …
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Today’s heroes: Travis Dermott, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Yocheved Lifshitz
Posted October 24, 2023 by Anonymous
Here’s a post to look back on, whenever you feel the arc of the moral universe isn’t bending toward justice fast enough. First, the NHL’s despicable decision that hockey players were not going to be allowed to wear Pride symbols anymore has been d…
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Dueling videos — Trudeau vs Poilievre
Posted October 22, 2023 by Anonymous
These two clips are being set up as “dueling” videos.Last spring, Trudeau was talking to a right-wing teenager in Manitoba. This week, Poilievre was talking to a BC reporter while eating an apple.So here are both videos, to compare and contrast.Trudeau…
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Courageous people
Posted October 19, 2023 by Anonymous
I saw some courageous people in this week’s news. First of all, Heather Kuttai. She has been one of my personal heros for the last three decades.
Heather has been a Human Rights Commissioner for nine years and I’m sure it broke her heart to …
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Comments about the Israel-Hamas War
Posted October 15, 2023 by Anonymous
I’m reading lots of thoughtful items about the Israel-Hamas War so I wanted to share them. By the way, one thing I have noticed is that posters on Twitter who say “Israel-Hamas War” are generally supportive of Israel while those who say “Israel-Pa…
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I read the news today, oh boy!
Posted October 14, 2023 by Anonymous
…The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity…What an awful week it has been for news. First, the Israel-Ham…
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The Israel-Hamas War: stories of courage, stories of terror
Posted October 11, 2023 by Anonymous
We are finding out more now about the horror that Israelis experienced as Hamas was hunting and killing them – the stories are incredible, some courageous, others terrifying.The New York Times has a major article today about what Israeli soldiers are n…
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Opinion Roundup on the Israel-Hamas War
Posted October 9, 2023 by Anonymous
There is absolutely no excuse for the horrific war that Hamas has now started against Israel. Israel will defend itself, the Palestinians in Gaza are likely going to be slaughtered as a result. and it may well cause a wider war between the US and …
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Don’t worry, be happy
Posted October 5, 2023 by Anonymous
I have been feeling pretty gloomy latey about the state of politics, here and in the United States. Then yesterday David Moscrop gave us this piece on substack — Does Something Feel Off To You? — and it rang a bell for me: …In the last few mon…
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Canadian Border Now Fully Open
Posted November 24, 2022 by Ben
On October 1st 2022, the Government of Canada removed all COVID-19 border measures such as required proof of vaccination, random testing, and mandatory isolation for high-risk travelers. For the first time since early 2020, the Canadian border is operating under “normal” conditions. For example: Americans interested in visiting Canada no longer need to download the […]
General
Full Story »
Pre-Entry COVID Test No Longer Required at Canadian Border
Posted April 2, 2022 by Ben
As of April 1st 2022, the Canadian border will no longer require a pre-arrival negative COVID-19 test from fully vaccinated travellers entering or returning to the country. Previously, a rapid antigen test or a PCR test indicating a person does not have COVID was required by border authorities. This rule change should encourage Canadians to […]
General
Full Story »
US Land Border Opens to Canadians
Posted November 8, 2021 by Ben
After being closed for nearly 19 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, on November 8th 2021 the United States land border officially opened to all fully vaccinated Canadians. US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has announced they will be staffing their border at pre-pandemic levels, but warns that wait times may be longer than in […]
General
Full Story »
When Will USA Border Open to Canadians?
Posted August 25, 2021 by Ben
On August 9th 2021, Canada opened its border to all fully vaccinated Americans allowing tourists from the United States to visit the country once again. The US border remains closed to Canadians, however, and American authorities recently extended the border closure until September 21st citing COVID-19 transmission rates south of the border as well as […]
General
Full Story »
Where Can Vaccinated Canadians Travel?
Posted July 1, 2021 by Ben
Most Canadians are now fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Consequently, Canadians are starting to think about international travel again, and are beginning to research possible vacation destinations. This leads to the question, which countries can a fully vaccinated Canadian visit? As of July 2021, Canadian citizens who have received two doses of the Pfizer, Moderna, or […]
Interesting Fact of the Month
Did you know visiting Canada with a DUI is difficult? If a US citizen has a DUI or DWI they could be denied entry at the Canadian border! Even a misdemeanor for reckless driving, or a traffic ticket for impaired driving, can prevent an American from entering Canada. In order to enter Canada with DUI charges many people hire an immigration lawyer. Going to Canada from USA with other criminal convictions like theft or assault can also be challenging.
Did you know visiting Canada with a DUI is difficult? If a US citizen has a DUI or DWI they could be denied entry at the Canadian border! Even a misdemeanor for reckless driving, or a traffic ticket for impaired driving, can prevent an American from entering Canada. In order to enter Canada with DUI charges many people hire an immigration lawyer. Going to Canada from USA with other criminal convictions like theft or assault can also be challenging.
