Canadian politics thread

[pastarocket]

Your thoughts on this announcement from PM Carney? New legislation on bail reform.
-also hiring of 1500 new RCMP personnel to target money laundering, organized crime, online fraud, and asset recovery.

https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2025/1...tencing-rules/

The federal government will introduce new legislation around bail reform aimed at keeping violent criminals and repeat offenders off the street.

Prime Minister Mark Carney says the Minister of Justice will be tabling legislation next week that will focus on new reverse-onus bail provisions for violent and organized crime-related offences.

Carney says under the reverse-onus provision, it will no longer be up to the Crown to prove why someone should stay behind bars, it will be up to the accused to prove to the court why they can be trusted to be released.

“Right now, in most bail hearings, the starting point is to release, and the Crown must prove why someone should not be released on bail, making it too easy for repeat violent offenders to quickly get back on the street,” said Carney during an announcement in Etobicoke on Thursday. “We’re making bail stricter to keep you safer.”

He said his government intends to “toughen sentences for repeat offenders of auto theft, of organized crime, and of home invasion, so that criminals who have repeatedly victimized your community do not have the chance to do so again.”

The bill will allow for consecutive sentences for violent and repeat offenders, so that multiple sentences can’t be served at the same time. Carney said that means an offender with a seven-year sentence and a five-year sentence must serve a total of 12 years, not seven.

The Liberals also plan to introduce more punitive sentences for organized retail theft and eliminate conditional sentences for sexual assault.

The legislation will also invest in frontline law enforcement by hiring 1,000 new RCMP personnel, including 150 RCMP staffers focused on financial crime, who will target money laundering networks, organized crime, online fraud and asset recovery.

“Financial crimes take many forms, and they are rising with devastating impacts on millions of Canadians. Retired Canadians who spent a lifetime saving carefully are losing thousands of dollars in seconds, sometimes just for answering a call from the wrong person,” Carney said.

The bail reform plan comes two years after the Liberals introduced other bail-reform legislation in 2023. That came after calls from provincial leaders and many police chiefs to make bail more difficult to access for repeat violent offenders.

The bill, which took effect in January 2024, made changes to bail for some firearms and weapons offences, and some circumstances in which the alleged crime involves intimate partner violence.

The Toronto Police Association called Carney’s statements about the new legislation a “positive step,” adding that many of the recommendations they put forth to the federal government have been included.

“However, there is still work to do, including reforming the Youth Criminal Justice Act and making changes to the parole system,” they said in a statement. “We also hope to see some federal funds allocated to the City of Toronto to address urgent public safety issues that the Prime Minister acknowledged today, such as hate crimes, gun violence, and drug trafficking.”

[EvoFire]

Where's Hehe and Honda on this?

[spoon.ek9]

Originally Posted by EvoFire

Where's Hehe and Honda on this?

[westopher]

I’m sure they are doing it wrong somehow and they have a better way that they won’t be able to articulate in 5200 words.

[BIC_BAWS]

Fingers crossed that the Supreme Court of Canada doesn't bitch out and deem it unconstitutional violating the Charter of Rights and Freedoms’ guarantee against cruel and unusual treatment.

Imagine a world where criminals don't get punished cause "but think about the criminals' feelings" LOL

“If there’s a judgment of the Supreme Court that something is illegal, you follow it. This is Canada. It’s a country of the rule of law” he said.

Country of the rule of law.. LMAO that's good.

[AstulzerRZD]

anything here is going to be a bandaid fix, yet it's convenient to get people outraged about crime.
bro canada needs ECONOMY where the money velocity is faster than the standard 4 years in real estate

without economy, healthcare, crime, etc will go to shit either way.
even now, it's still way better than most US major cities and countries I've lived in

[bcrdukes]

This is why BIC_BAWS believes HK is better!

[AstulzerRZD]

Yeah... my 2c on comparing the two cities.
They got pros and cons but we need to compare apples to apples.

HK is more convenient
Sheung Wan-style living exists here - think West End or Olympic Village.
Saying Vancouver sucks because u live in Delta (closer to Tuen Mun/Fanling energy) isn’t fair.

HK money gets further
Your family’s manager-level comp maps to CAD $200–250k, which qualifies for ~$1.25M in housing and leaves room for discretionary spends like a small boat.

Which condo are you affording on salary manager in HK?
Does it even get you into Kowloon at Elements?

I've been eyeing this spot:https://www.realtor.ca/real-estate/2...reet-vancouver

Dating life and lifestyle is better
Vacation/chill weeks at work? My girlfriend visited Vancouver and loved our week:
- Best Japanese food outside Japan at Zakkushi, Kingyo before Celebrities Tuesday
- OEB duck and lobster otw to beach volleyball/tennis
- Running into friends you haven't seen since last year walking on Denman
- Taking the convertible across Lions Gate to a rainy/misty forest walk
- Stanley Park bike ride on the way to pregame at Arc

In HK you gotta go to Shenzhen, Thailand or like Japan for a weekend.
You can only go to Tai O or Sai Kung so many times.

[BIC_BAWS]

Originally Posted by AstulzerRZD

bro canada needs ECONOMY where the money velocity is faster than the standard 4 years in real estate

The problem here is the only capital that stays in Canada, is for real estate. We don't have enough capital invested in tech, capital infrastructure (power generation, data centers, etc) or other critical industries. The low competition in Canada allows for this learned helplessness. Some of Canada's industries are very comfortable and are not very competitive, even if these industries are bottlenecked on people or price per quant, things are unlikely to change.

The crappy thing is that we definitely have the talent - people keep saying Vancouver is like SF talent but significantly discounted. We have the #s of people too, supposedly a higher concentration of engineers (15-18,000) that have delivered global enterprise software compared to Toronto. These are the same people who leave these multi-nationals and go to startups. Then they take the same recipe as everyone else - the current incentive structure is to start businesses, IRAP or SR&ED the shit out of them, do some creative share structuring, and then sell to US company.

To paraphrase some notes I took at an AI conference with the YC guy speaking,

The Canadian gov needs to create an incentive structure (maybe tax credits) to leverage government money for Canadian corporations and governments for local SMEs to stimulate economic growth of Canadian technology. Rn, grants are for the multi million dollar level that only benefits the biggest companies. But 50% of AI adoption in Canada is SMEs, who need to and can afford to take the risk. Change is a threat to large enterprise and typically require POC via the SMEs. We can increase productivity factor with AI by grants directed towards SMEs.

.com boom vs now is a much larger capability base in BC than in Canada, than what we used to have. Urgency and Hunger is not here in Canada vs US.

[westopher]

Data centres employ like 8 people and make one person 500 million. Thats not a path to a good economy, that’s a path to the American economy where average wealth and median wealth aren’t even on the same chart because only 8 people have all the money.
The unfortunate reality is Canada, and most of the world, will never have a great economy ever again. Too much has been sold. We do not own any of our own resources anymore. Harper made sure they were sold to get us through the 2009 financial crisis. We can have every land raping project get approved til the end of time, but most of the money will leave the country to foreign corporations. More of the jobs will be automated and if we try and collect anything via taxes, various loopholes will be exploited and even more of the money will go offshore to the bottom dwelling countries which will be thankful to get a pittance in tax revenue for “basing the corporation” inside their borders.
Until the United Nations creates a mandatory minimum tax rate, globalization will continue to drop the quality of life in first world countries in the name of corporate profits.
There is no fixing this. Capitalism has passed the point of fixing things and humans will either need to create an entirely new economic system if we ever want to see a decent portion of humans being able to have what they are worth.

[BIC_BAWS]

Originally Posted by westopher

Data centres employ like 8 people and make one person 500 million. Thats not a path to a good economy, that’s a path to the American economy where average wealth and median wealth aren’t even on the same chart because only 8 people have all the money.

LOL sure.

We need the data center here in BC for critical infrastructure components or additional expansions like innovation centers or research facilities which bring in a lot of money for the local economy. Link below - 30Mil to Calgary and 165 new jobs.

https://www.calgaryeconomicdevelopme...ub-in-calgary/

Currently BC Hydro and it's subsidiaries use Seattle based data centers. Due to latency requirements they can't use Calgary, Montreal or Ontario. Given the current political landscape, there's a growing concern for data privacy and control (or rather reducing our reliance on American infrastructure) in Canada. We can't have a cyber secure, privacy sensitive Canada if everything is based off American technologies.

LOL both West and I continued to edit our post - added quotes for clarity

Originally Posted by westopher

More of the jobs will be automated

Industry experts believe that AI does not lead to unemployment. Full adoption of AI means that companies won't want to layoff 80% of staff as they still need to meet revenue expectations. AI will reduce busy work (like notetaking or smt) but ultimately it should drive productivity upwards.

Originally Posted by westopher

If we try and collect anything via taxes, various loopholes will be exploited and even more of the money will go offshore to the bottom dwelling countries which will be thankful to get a pittance in tax revenue for “basing the corporation” inside their borders.

Correct. A good example of this is Calgary who provides significant tax credits for companies based out of Calgary. Another example of this is Quebec, but I think their government actually does a fantastic job in terms of business development and fostering innovation. Not only do they provide Quebec specific grants, but because you have to comply with QC specific laws, they can actually enforce shit. An example of this is Act 25 a privacy law for QC that all QC companies (regardless of size) had to comply to and there are ACTUAL consequences. As a result, the QC gov rolled out Ma Loi 25 which is a grant to help companies comply with the new privacy law, promoting spending and ensuring that QC (or at least Canadian) vendors get the bid.

[CivicBlues]

Originally Posted by EvoFire

Where's Hehe and Honda on this?

I don't see immediate results looking out my window, so it's not working.

More Liberal lies!!

More LEfty LiEs

More TrUDeAU lies!!

[westopher]

Just looked up how many employees are employed at the Microsoft data centres in Canada.
51.
FIFTY ONE
How much money is going through that to make sure 51 people are gainfully employed.

[bcrdukes]

Most of these data centres are probably managed remotely offshore.

Unrelated but somewhat related: A data centre company recently purchased the Pittrace International race track to make way for a data centre. The kicker? The track's location checked off every data centre company's dream: middle of nowhere, not many people near it, lots of land, and the cherry on top - super close to an energy/power station. Source - Hagerty - RIP Pittrace: Another Amazing Track Closes

[BIC_BAWS]

I'm assuming I found your source - https://local.microsoft.com/wp-conte...-in-Canada.pdf

I don't think the continual employment of people are as important as capital expenditure via construction, property taxes, and the transfer of money via all these local companies. Tho like you said, likely Ledcor or some other large multi national will be used so again the money doesn't stay in Canada unfortunately. It's not that black / white tho, I believe it will generate economy for Canada.



I think having one in BC, far outweighs the con of "oh no MS is gonna make another $500Mil off the back of Canadians" as it is a critical prereq for other additional infrastructure and capital expenditure investments.

[68style]

It's asinine to not think that if a company is spending $92M to be somewhere with such a small actual footprint (ie: 225 jobs) that they're absolutely raping the system in some other thing.

Likewise the Calgary example... 165 tech jobs for a $30M spend? Okay yah +165 jobs great, that's an absolutely MINISCULE number of hires even for a city the size of Calgary... they're not investing $30M for the benefit of Canada or Canadian jobs or to be "green" like they say in the article, they're betting on the real estate of the office they're building and when they're done raping the system in 10 years and absorbing all the tax breaks and loopholes for employing a measly 165 people they'll close up shop and sell the building for profit.

The biggest mistake you can make is to assume that outsider companies, especially US or foreign corporations, have anyone's interests at heart besides their own.

Collectively yes they are required for the job market to exist, but Canada and places like Alberta better be pretty fuckin careful how many handouts they are giving to attract these sorts of businesses here, it's all a mathematical calculation to these entities and nothing more.

[BIC_BAWS]

Even if they're betting on CRE, they're still building a space that allows for further growth and innovation to happen in one building. A good example of this locally is that a bunch of companies effectively co-work out of SFU's space in the Harbour Center - it's coined SFU Venture Labs. These companies get to know each other by being in the same physical space, share resources and maybe scratch each other's backs on projects or share clients. I see nothing wrong with this and I'm surprised you guys are so against innovation.. when if not this, it'll be fragmented offices or no improvement in the Canadian economy.

In Calgary, the firm will be opening a data centre, a training facility for its globally accredited cybersecurity curriculum and a centre of excellence to enhance resiliency and knowledge in safeguarding critical infrastructure and operational technologies.

To address the forecasted shortage of tech talent, Fortinet is providing a new career path to workers needing to re-train or acquire updated expertise. The firm offers one of the industry's most extensive and comprehensive training programs, aimed at diversifying available tech talent.

“(Fortinet’s) vision extends beyond providing top-tier security products and services. We aim to innovate constantly and cultivate cybersecurity talent through comprehensive training and development programs,” said Chow.

The facility will actively enhance opportunities for women in STEM fields, contributing to more inclusivity and advancements in technology-related sectors.

Already a partner with the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT), the University of Alberta, and the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT), Fortinet will work closely with Alberta’s post-secondary institutions to continue efforts to build talent capacity, while promoting its work to diversify the sector.

[bcrdukes]

Are you confusing a data centre with a co-share/co-working space? They are very different.

What Fortinet is doing in Alberta is different from that of a co-share/co-working space. what they are doing is a purpose-driven data centre to upskill their employees and streamline talent from under represented communities, and women in technology is a great example of that. Fortinet (or any company for that matter) could just be like, "Well, see ya! We've got AI now!" to their employees, but instead, took an ethical*** approach to the human aspect of AI implications.

What 68style and westopher are alluding to are a broader set of outcomes stemming from foreign investment, in particular, data centres in general.

***When I say ethical, at least they tried to do something. Whether something comes out of it is another story.

[68style]

Read again, I'm not against it... I'm against it costing locals and various levels of the Canadian government more to assist companies to do these things than if they had just done it themselves in the first place.

Fortinet is not a charity.

Calgary in particular is palying a dangerous game with this stuff, it's not a global or nice enough city to make people of high incomes say "I wouldn't want to be anywhere else!" with their training and $ and position... the company will keep them there as long as its highly profitable to do so, but as soon as that tap falters a bit they're going to vacate and go somewhere else, like Vancouver. This ends up with the city or province getting basically held hostage by the companies if they're big enough... keep making it worth our while to stay or else we're leaving somewhere else and taking all those jobs with us.

[BIC_BAWS]

No shit Fortinet/Microsoft/Private corporations isn't a charity. And unfortunately it's easier to participate in the project (Calgary is giving $3M) than it is to start the project themselves. Calgary will not shell out $30 mil to do that, there's no way for them to get the public buy in for that. Same reason why consultants are being used everywhere - to limit exposure and blame.

Originally Posted by bcrdukes

Are you confusing a data centre with a co-share/co-working space? They are very different.

What Fortinet is doing in Alberta is different from that of a co-share/co-working space. what they are doing is a purpose-driven data centre to upskill their employees and streamline talent from under represented communities, and women in technology is a great example of that.

They are also creating a center of excellence (for research and innovation - so basically an incubator).

A good example of this is Mastercard's center of excellence here in Vancouver, or Blackberry's Center of Excellence in Malaysia which is both an incubator and training factility.

Thank god we don't have any of those retard PP lovers in this thread rn, cause the Canadian gov has a hand in this MALAYSIAN center of excellence.. inb4 reeeee foreign affairs money cry cry

[Hehe]

Originally Posted by EvoFire

Where's Hehe and Honda on this?

Lol. If you guys can't see this is nothing but a face saving announcement, I've got no comments.

Just live in the reality for a moment. What the actual fuck have Carney done since becoming PM? Jack shit. So much for being tough on dealing with Trump and negotiate a good deal for Canada. Elbows still up?!

And to be absolutely clear... do you really think I even give a flying fuck? I get most of my incomes from outside of Canada. Canada accounts less than 1% of my total family income yet I pay Canada taxes on income from everywhere. I have 5 citizenship/permanent residencies and I can go wherever and whenever but yet I stay in Canada because it's the one place I love.

You guys never understood my intentions. You think that I support the Conservative policies to make people like me better off and those less fortunate worse off. The truth is, I genuinely think for Canada because as a Canadian, I wish to see Canada prosper and my follow Canadians live a better life. And what Liberals are doing is nothing other than keeping those Canadians dependent of the government.

[6793026]

ALl i know is that HK tax rate is extremely low

Above $200,000 HKD = (40k / yr) 17% that's epic low. So in a way, you got more money to play around. Keep in mind min wage is $8 / hr (~$42.10 per hour)

[JDMDreams]

^^ you forgot there's also no gst, pst, tip (unless you eat high end everyday) so you're not getting double taxed.

You gotta look at this from Big picture. Nothing to do with capitalism, that will continue to work based on efficiency and supply, demand. I think this is more of a failure of the Democratic system. 4 years lib, then 4 years conservatives trying to undo that the libs did, then they fuck up like trump and you get libs again trying to cancel cancel.

Everything is shit because the goal isn't to make life better for the average Joe. You're not the one donating to get them elected that they owe favors to. You are a nothing. The goal isn't to make Canada better, they goal is to make we shit policies that sounds good so they stay elected next election or they get cancelled again.

Try running a business like that, one month you do Indian food, next month coffee shop, next month Chinese. There's no accountability when shit fails cuz you have an unlimited credit line, who cares if shit fails, you're not paying for it, you still get your pension regardless. That's the Canada way, and it will never change, that's the system.

Look at Canada post, the world keeps turning, you can strike all you want, now look you voluntarily go back to work? Cuz you got no cards left, next stop is everyone loses their job.

[noclue]

I dont think democracy can handle the modern misinformation push from social media using photoshop back then and now AI slop. It convinced enough morons in the UK to vote for brexit, massive failure and they're too proud to rejoin the EU. Here it spread and now you have enough morons that think alberta can seperate and become a US state. Then you got vaccine crazies and whatever else.

"The best argument against Democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.” Winston Churchill

[westopher]

I think the funny part about what you said up top, and what you said in quotes, if you aren’t being satirical, is it’s widely disputed that Churchill ever even said that.