#trudeau government

[intersectionalpraxis]

Where do I even begin? I'm appalled. The Canadian government living up to its roots in colonial-settler violence... this is beyond criminal. Contact your MP's. This erasure and anti-Palestinian racism is unacceptable.

For anyone reading this on or after February 26th, 2024 -here is more information/updates:

#feminist #social justice #free palestine #palestine #free gaza #current events #settler violence #settler colonialism #canada politics #canada #canadian #canadian government #signal boost #member of parliament #house of commons #justin trudeau #trudeau news #gaza strip #gaza genocide #cultural genocide

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Canada's privatised shadow civil service

PJ O’Rourke once quipped that “The Republicans are the party that says government doesn’t work and then they get elected and prove it.” But conservative parties have unlikely allies in the project to discredit public service: neoliberal “centrist” parties, like Canada’s Liberal Party.

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/31/mckinsey-and-canada/#comment-dit-beltway-bandits-en-canadien

The Liberals have become embroiled in a series of scandals over the explosion of lucrative, secretive private contracts awarded to high-flying consultancy firms who charge hundreds of times more than public sector employees to do laughably bad work.

Front and centre in the scandal, is, of course, McKinsey, consligieri to opioid barons, murdering Saudi princes, and other unsavoury types. McKinsey was brought in to “consult” on strategy for the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), a Crown corporation that gives loans to Canadian businesses.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/business-development-bank-canada-hudon-mckinsey-1.6720914

While there, McKinsey performed as per usual, veering from the farcical to the grotesquely wasteful. Most visible was the decision to spend $320,000 on a livecast fireside chat between BDC president Isabelle Hudon and a former Muchmusic VJ that was transmitted to all BDC employees, which featured Hudon and the host discussing a shopping trip they’d taken together in Paris.

Meanwhile, BDC has been hemorrhaging top people, which leaving the organisation with many holes in its leadership — the kind of thing that would pose an impediment to its lofty goals of substantially increasing the support it gives to businesses run by women, First Nations people and people of color.

Hudon — a Trudeau appointee — vowed to “start from scratch” when she took over the organisation, but then went ahead and did what her predecessors had done: hired outside consultants who billed outrageous sums to repurpose anodyne slide-decks full of useless, generic advice, or unrealistic advice that no one could turn into actual policy. They also sucked up BDC employees’ time with endless interviews.

The BDC has (reluctantly) disclosed $4.9m in contracts to McKinsey. The CBC also learned that Hudon parachuted several cronies from her previous job at Sun Life into top roles in the organisation, and that BDC had reneged on promised promotions for many long-term staffers. Hudon also repeatedly flew a chauffeur across the country from Montreal to BC to drive her around.

In Quebec, premier François Legault hired an army of McKinsey consultants at $35,000 per day to advise him on covid strategy, for a total bill of $8.6m. McKinsey’s contract with the province stipulated that they wouldn’t have to disclose their other clients, even in the event that they had conflicts of interest:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/caq-legault-mckinsey-pandemic-consulting-1.6602374

The contract was kept secret, as was the long-running, $38m contract between McKinsey and the Hydro Quebec power authority:

https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1927738/mckinsey-hydro-quebec-consultants-barrages-affaires

Most of the bad press McKinsey gets revolves around the evil advice it gives — like when it advised opioid companies to pay cash bonuses to pharma distributors for every death-by-overdose in their territory (no, I’m not making this up):

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/30/mckinsey-mafia/#everybody-must-get-stoned

But these rare moments of competence should be understood in the broader context in which McKinsey isn’t evil, they are merely utterly, totally fucking useless. The 2022 French Senate report on McKinsey really digs into this:

http://www.senat.fr/commission/enquete/2021_influence_des_cabinets_de_conseil_prives.html

They find that a quarter of the work McKinsey turned in was “unacceptable or barely acceptable in quality.” This is in line with the overall tenor of work performed by consultants. For example, when it came to giant Capgemini, the French Senate found that the work it provided was “of near-zero added value, indeed sometimes counterproductive.”

And yet, despite the expense and “near-zero added value,” hiring outside consultants is a reflex for neoliberal centrist leaders. Trudeau has presided over a massive expansion of the Canadian government’s reliance on outside consultants:

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-liberals-spend-billions-more-on-outsourced-contracts-since-taking/

After campaigning on a promise to reduce outside consultancy, the Trudeau administration increased consultant spending by 40%, to $11.8 billion. This shadow civil service is not just more expensive and less competent that the real civil service — it is also far more opaque, able to fend off open records requests with vague gestures towards “trade secrecy.”

Since 2015, McKinsey has raked in $101.4m in federal contracts, even as the civil service has been starved of pay. Meanwhile, federal departments insist that they need to “protect Canada’s economic interests” by not disclosing outside contracts, and list their total spend at $0.00.

https://nationalpost.com/news/outsourcing-contracts-mckinsey-billions

The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada estimates that between 2011–21, the Canadian government squandered $18b on outside IT contracting that could have been performed by public servants. In 2022, the Government of Canada spent $2.3b on outsource IT contracts, while the wage bill for its own IT staff came in at $1.85b.

It’s not like these outside IT contractors are good at their jobs, either. The most notorious example is the ArriveCAN covid-tracking app for travellers, the contract for which was awarded to GCstrategies, a two-person shop in Ottawa, who promptly turned around and outsourced it to KPMG and other contractors, whom they billed to the government at $1,000–1,500/day, raking off 15–30% in commissions.

For months, the origins of the ArriveCAN app were a mystery, with the government insisting that the details of the contractors involved were “confidential.” But ArriveCAN was such a steaming pile of shit, and so many travellers (a population more likely to be well-off and politically connected than the median Canadian) had to deal with it, that eventually the truth came out.

The ArriveCAN scandal is ongoing — just last year, it cost the Canadian public $54m:

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-arrivecan-subcontractors-multinationals/

Trudeau’s Liberals didn’t invent outsourcing high-stakes IT projects to incompetent grifters. Under Conservative PM Stephen Harper, Canada paid IBM to build Phoenix, an utterly defective payroll system for federal employees that stole millions from civil servants, bringing government to a virtual standstill. Thus far, the Government of Canada — which paid IBM $309m to develop Phoenix, as a “cost savings measure” — has paid $506m in damages to make good on Phoenix’s errors:

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-ottawa-paid-out-400-million-in-phoenix-pay-compensation-to-federal/

The Liberals didn’t invent Phoenix — but they did deploy it, after campaigning on the wastefulness and incompetence of the Tories’ outsourcing bonanza. And after Phoenix crashed and burned, the Liberals increased outsourcing spending.

All of this is well-crystallized in last week’s Canadaland discussion between Jesse Brown and Nora Loreto:

https://www.canadaland.com/podcast/853-the-indulgent-consultant/

And on his Substack, Paul Wells proposes that the Senate — a largely ornamental institution in Canadian politics — is the unlikely check of last resort on the Liberals’ fetish for outsourcing:

There are former deputy ministers at the federal and provincial levels, secretaries to cabinet, a former Clerk of the Privy Council, a former chief of staff to a prime minister. A lot of them can remember the days when big decisions weren’t farmed out to firms that make their founders rich and are spared the rigours of accountability for their counsel. Surely some of them would like to shine a light?

https://paulwells.substack.com/p/shine-a-brighter-light-on-contract?

Image: Sam (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Canadian_House_of_Commons.jpg

Presidencia de la República Mexicana (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Justin_Trudeau_June_2016.jpg

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

[Image ID: The legislative chamber of Canada's House of Commons; behind the speaker's chair, the back wall has been replaced by an enormous $100 bill. The portrait on the $100 bill has been replaced with an unflattering, braying picture of Justin Trudeau. The Bank of Canada legend across the top of the note has been replaced by the McKinsey and Company wordmark.]

#pluralistic #canada #cdnpoli #neoliberalism #consultancy #opacity #impunity #hollow government #mckinsey #justin trudeau #liberal party #covid #quebec #profiteers

[zee-man-chatter]

#justin trudeau #incompetent government

[kashmirichaiwithmehr]

why is it worse for me to say something that COULD POTENTIALLY BE INTERPRETED AS (BUT IS NOT !!!) antisemitic, but people can be attacked for being visibly muslim and thats somehow not a problem worth being spoken about or supported in our government but yes lets only speak out on antisemitism.........where is the equality

#i am not antisemitic for those of yall who r too dense to understand the point of this post #canadian government #canadian politics #justin trudeau #trudeau #jagmeet singh #(mans disappointed me fr) #mehrtalks #palestine #gaza #free palestine #islamophobia #antisemitism #i am anti-zionist #zionism ≠ judaism

[magic-pincushion]

Mansour is one of the journalists staying in Gaza and has been captured by the IDF. He’s a Canadian Palestinian who has been doing so much during this genocide to document and help his people.

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8n775PP/ this tiktok has more information as well as information about Lama, another person stuck in Gaza who is documenting what is happening and who is only 9 years old. She is trying to get out of Gaza to be with her family. Her father works for Al Jazeera and so people are trying to get Al Jazeera’s attention.

#free palestine #free gaza #i stand with palestine #sorry that I’m not very eloquent tbh I don’t really know what to say #other than what the tiktoker was saying #you should really watch his video for the details #it’s not very long and his profile has a linktree to a letter you can send to Trudeau to pressure him and the Canadian government to try #and get mansour home #helplama

[awkward-teabag]

Can't even mention that a store near me is clearly using abusing the TFW program because they refuse to pay little more than minimum wage in a high cost of living area (also you won't get benefits and you'll only be part-time) because the fascists and right-wingers will jump in to say it's about immigration and white replacement.

No, it's because rich white people want to hoard even more money and found an intentional loophole to both make more money (via paying employees less) and also have more power over employees, employees who may or may not know Canadian employment laws (or safety laws) and even if they do, don't have the ability or support to try to hold the company accountable.

You can absolutely criticize the federal government for keeping the loophole open but it predates Trudeau by decades and it was Harper who both expanded the program and added a way for companies to fast-track TFWs. It was also under Harper that companies started firing Canadians (or not hiring them) and then requesting permission to mass-hire TFWs instead.

But the way the right wing talks, you would think Trudeau started this whole thing and the poor multi-million and multi-billion dollar companies are being taken advantage of. Also that housing prices, lack of new developments, and zoning issues started with Trudeau and are the fault of mass-immigration he has a boner for instead of being an issue for decades and experts warning this would happen if governments didn't act ASAP.

Instead the neolibs and cons kept cutting back and kicking that can down the road, a can that started being kicked by Mulroney and the Conservative Party.

#as a 90s kid i grew up with warnings about healthcare and housing and how we needed mass immigration or a massive baby boom #because of the utter lack of federal support and an aging workforce #the systems were already being strained to their limits and there literally weren't enough millennials to replace retiring workers #*or* bring in enough taxes to fund said systems when the system needed it the most #not even increase funding just keeping the same funding that was already not enough #also the right conveniently ignores (or doesn't know about) the extremely predatory recruitment industry #that targets people overseas while lying and charging large amounts of money to bring tfws to canada #you could even blame chretien for expanding it to include 'low-skilled' workers which is what companies are abusing it for #hell even trudeau sr for creating it in the first place even though it was originally made for high-skilled or niche jobs #but no the blame is always trudeau jr with a ton of racism and brownnosing capitalists #because all these problems sprang up suddenly under him #and in no way did harper start/expand/not end/be complicit in any of this /s #though i guess for some of the fascists it seems that way 'cause they weren't personally affected by it until now #and companies have stopped trying to pretend they aren't grabbing as much money as possible because fuck anyone else #even though it's been like that for decades and capitalism itself encourages companies to skim money off the top #while not having the checks and balances to limit just how much #for that you need governments to regulate things and that doesn't work when you have leaders who are anti-regulation #and who believe in trickle down economics #just... the whole thing is not happening in a bubble and involves multiple people and both the neolibs and cons #because it's been building for decades #but you can't bloody say that because the moment you mention housing/jobs/healthcare and/or tfws #you get inundated by fascists who think you're one of them and hit you with some of the most unhinged shit #or who don't even care about you and just want someone to rant at about how it's the evil left's fault for everything #hell you can't even say you don't like trudeau because same thing: fascists think you're one of them or someone to bring into the cult

[sideshow-bob]

Okay so I’ve just taken an edible and I’m grumpy so it’s time for a rant about drug use and Canadian politics.

So I’ve started seeing this terrible not-good very bad advertisement a lot lately, which means I’m likely not the only one:

I cropped part of his face out because I felt like it. Every time I see this stupid fucking ad I hate Pierre Poilievre and his stupid face even more. Unfortunately now it looks like he’s spying on me like a nosy neighbour from behind his fence (honestly, though, that feels kinda tonally appropriate.)

But wait! If you click on the ad, it gets worse!

It’s horrible, fear-mongering misinformation.

“woke policies” lmao fuck you, Pierre Poilievre.

Literally any political entity that uses “woke” in a derogatory manner is giving off Major Red Flags and should not be taken seriously.

Before we start, let’s get some things straight. People use drugs. It happens. Learn to be normal about it if you aren’t already. People are sometimes addicted to drugs. This can happen for a variety of reasons. Usually it’s some variety of “I am struggling with something in my life and have found that using this substance helps with that.” It can be related to mental health, like so many of my family members who turned to alcohol or cigarettes or cocaine and amphetamines to manage their depression, anxiety, adhd, ptsd, or sensory issues. A lot of the time it’s to deal with chronic pain. It can also be a way to cope with shitty life circumstances. Chronic issues like these don’t just go away, so expecting people to just magically become drug-free without addressing and solving the root causes is not feasible as a one-size-fits-all solution. And, realistically, some people will never be drug-free. Some people will always need prescription amphetamines and prescription opioids and there’s nothing wrong with that (I have ADHD! I take prescription amphetamines every day! In fact, I take multiple medications that are technically controlled substances for various chronic issues!) People who use drugs are still human and deserve compassion. People who are addicted to drugs are still human and deserve compassion. You are not superior to people who use drugs.

So in case you weren’t aware, British Columbia (like a lot of places) is having an overdose crisis. People are dying from toxic drugs; it’s now the leading cause of death in the province for people aged 10-59. That’s a McFucking problem that we’ve gotta do something about! And we’re trying, but Pierre Poilievre doesn’t like that.

So let’s get to this garbage fire of a political ad. Sigh.

Justin Trudeau did not personally decriminalize crack, heroin, and cocaine. Justin Trudeau allowed the provincial government of British Columbia to decriminalize the possession of small amounts (<2.5g) of drugs for personal use, so that addicts just trying to exist would not have their drugs seized or face criminal charges or jail time. Justin Trudeau allowed the provincial government of British Columbia to treat drug addiction and the toxic drug crisis as the public health problem that it very clearly is. This is an evidence-based policy currently only meant to be valid from January 31 2023 to January 31 2026 as a temporary harm reduction measure during a time of crisis. It remains illegal to possess or use in school zones, playgrounds, pools, skate parks, airports, certain private properties (like shopping malls) and in every other province in Canada. Selling drugs is still illegal. These “woke policies,” AKA “trying to save goddamn lives while treating addicts like people and not punishing people who are already struggling” is really not that fucking radical when it comes down to it. It’s merely a step in the right direction but more needs to be done. What we need even more is a safe supply of drugs. And universal basic income.

Anyway.

“blah blah blah crime” so like drug-related crimes rates actually aren’t going up? And when it comes to crimes associated with substance abuse, the one with the highest statistical rate of violent crime is actually alcohol.

These are all things easily fact checked in mere moments, but Conservatives don’t want you to do that. But “Common Sense Conservatives,” huh? The facts don’t actually matter as long as people feel afraid of drug crime, and people afraid of crime and wokeness will vote against their own best interests. Never take political ads at face value. Always fact check.

Also reminder that if you are going to use drugs, don’t use alone if you can, get your drugs tested for safety (the edible is hitting since I first wrote get them tested then get them tasted) and I highly suggest everyone consider getting a naloxone kit or learning how to use one because you might be able to help save someone’s life.

Treat addicts like people. Don’t vote Conservative. Like, for fuck’s sake just let the drugs win the war on drugs already. I’m joining the war on drugs on the side of the drugs.

I’m tired of being the voice of reason. It’s exhausting. I’m gonna take an angry nap.

#cdnpoli #bc politics #canadian politics #conservatives #justin trudeau #harm reduction #tw overdose #tw death #tw drugs #war on drugs #drug use #politics #government #pierre poilievre #liberal party

[apostate-in-an-alcove]

The majority of Canadians who vehemently hate Trudeau don't even know what the fuck they're hating. So few of these people actually have anything coherent or of substance to critique Trudeau on and resort to name calling and thought stopping techniques when you press them on to explain their thoughts and opinions.

#insane how many people are willing to just be blindly led and not pause to consider their own viewpoints in depth #for the record i too have criticsms of our PM but a lot of Canadians hate trudeau for things that aren't even his fault or responsibility #voting for the PCs out of spite is painfully stupid and ignorant #canada does not have a two-party system the way the US does #canadians as a whole are so PAINFULLY ignorant of polictics and and how our government works #makes me worried for our 2025 federal election especially with how increasingly right wing this country has become

[breezingby]

Canada's woke nightmare: A warning to the West | Documentary

#youtube #canada #Canada's woke nightmare #Justin Trudeau #government #power greed #Crime... #Homeless

[naradreamscape]

Watching Trudeau winge and grumble his way through this Question Period debate is fucking embarrassing. God this guy sucks

#political crap #Can we please let a party into power that isn't Liberal or Conservative. This isn't America. We have like 4 parties to choose from #TL;DR the now-former Speaker of the House invited a fucking WWII nazi veteran as a guest when the Ukrainian PM came to visit #IMO someone should have vetted this guy before he was brought in and it's not immediately Trudeau's fault BUT #our government has gotten so sloppy and poorly-managed under Trudeau. so it is indirectly his fault but he keeps going NUH-UH NUH-UH #Idiot Who Has Done Blackface Three Times Unable to Realize Party's Blunder Harms Jewish People and Zelensky's Credibility; more at 11

[intersectionalpraxis]

"Rt. Hon. Prime Minister @/JustinTrudeau at today's #YomHashoah commemoration in Ottawa."

"In a country like Canada, it should be and it must be, safe to declare oneself a Zionist - Jewish or not. Zionism is not a dirty word or something anyone should be targeted for agreeing with. It is the belief, at its simplest, that Jewish people, like all peoples, have a right to determine their own future."

"You can be a Zionist and strongly support the creation of a Palestinian state living in peace and security alongside Israel - a view I know is shared by many in the Jewish community and across Canada. It is my belief too."

Trudeau is a genocidal apologist, aids and doesn't condemn war criminals, and is watering zionism down as though it isn't a violent ideology that is responsible for the mass displacement and ethnic cleansing of Palestinian people... the way the Canadian government has been and continues to respond to what is happening in Palestine is beyond despicable.

#feminist #social justice #free palestine #palestine #free gaza #freepalastine🇵🇸 #current events #settler violence #settler colonialism #settler terrorism #zionist occupation #end the occupation #gaza genocide #canada politics #politics #justin trudeau #trudeau news #canadian government

[llovely]

so ashamed of my country, of the US, of the UK rn. they have so. much. power. to do some fucking good with, to put an END to this if they had even a shred of empathy but instead they've decided (time and time again mind you) to fund a genocide.

#sitting here posting protesting emailing donating and feeling so small meanwhile one guy wpuld just have to make a good decision for #fucking once and he could save so many innocent lives #biden trudeau sunak any other governing body funding israel i hope you die and burn in hell #free palestine #palestine

[something-nostalgic]

hi terrorize the U.S. government please

thats all goodbye

#stop the willow project #blm #keep trans ppl safe please #tell the united states government to stop being a bunch of stupid cunts #thanks #love from a canadian #also trudeau take the trans refugees in or ill terrorize you too #thanks again

[zee-man-chatter]

A bit of a hatchet job on Trudeau from India, but.....I like it!!!

#justin trudeau #incompetent government #socialism #Youtube

[genx3791]

#government #fuck trudeau #liberal #justin trudeau #politics #fjt

[canadianabroadvery]

#right wing freedom convoy #government of canada #justin trudeau #canpoli