Advanced, Atypical Testicular Torsion

Mr Henderson is a coward and would never make it on Henry Hudson’s crew. His wife deserves better.

Man, I wish.

I wonder what CSIS is doing right now.

I wonder if we can finally get a Canadian spy thriller out of this.

The bill is still being debated in the supreme court. A timeline with more details and updates can be found here: https://ccla.org/major-cases-and-reports/bill-21/

That said, the Quebec government has been pretty fucking hostile to people who wear religious symbols. The original article frames it as residual tensions from the French Catholic chuch but a big part of it is definitely xenophobia and racism. Montreal and Quebec City are progressive havens in a land of very small, very white, very religious towns.

Why oh why are we federated with the MAGA instance?

I’m happy, sure, but I was hoping for a thorium reactor.

They’re waiting for a supreme court decision at the moment and the fact this made it to the supreme Court says it’s not black and white.

Farms occasionally have leeway in how they manage avian flu, however, this may be a new strain that can cross over to people. Not that bird flu hasn’t been fucking terrible for bird populations over the last years, too. Toronto used to have crows.

According to the farm, only two dead ostriches were tested and the CFIA agents refused to test any live birds. Based on those tests, the farm is being ordered to destroy their entire live flock.

They tried to get an exemption because of the ostriches rare genomes and scientific merit, but since ostrich farming is new, all the applicable forms were for poultry and the CFIA wouldn’t make allowances. It looks more like a beurocratic mess than crazy farmers denying science.

If the cull were carried out, it would likely shut down the farm because their creditors will sieze any insurance money they get paid. And, this isn’t a meat farm, it’s a research farm. They’re probably trying to save the birds they can because it’s their only route to staying in business.

I can’t speak to why they’ve garnered support from convoy people, but apparently animal rights groups and locals have joined their cause as well. I would like to know how the Tyee knows the majority of their supporters are convoy people.

Finally an interesting headline in Canadian news.

I used to live in the interior and castanet is great for all things okanagan. Their article has bit more detail here:

https://www.castanet.net/news/Nelson/577116/Ostrich-farmers-say-standoff-is-no-culture-war-stunt-as-they-wait-on-Supreme-Court-of-Canada

I hitch-hiked thousands of kilometers in my younger years, Barrie was the only place the cops picked me up and drove me out of town limits. It was the only time I’ve ever been in the back of a police cruiser, too.

The courts were understaffed at the beginning of covid. Not enough money and not enough people. On top of that, a stressed population at the start of a pandemic.

The prisons couldn’t properly space people out and the cops, eager to justify their budget, they just kept arresting and ticketing people for minor offenses. They were asked to slow down and focus on major and violent crimes because the crown’s office saw this coming since way before covid.

So, prosecutors had to go through thousands of charges in order to decide what to keep and what to drop. More tax money and labour and hours they didn’t have to spare. Of course they’d miss things.

And this article points to a staff shortage and a filing system. It was too many emotionally challenged cops, a lack of social supports, and people who feel safer with more police, but not more lawyers to actually lay charges and prosecute offenders.