I feel for the teacher if they don’t have a continuing contract, yet. You’re completely dependent on staying in the good graces of your principal to have a job for the next year, and you will only be recommended for a continuing contract with the support of a principal.

But if the teacher had a continuing contract, then they probably should have told the principal to censor the student’s work themselves if they wanted it done. Or that you want the instructions to do so in writing.

Sad but not surprising that governments failing to fund maintenance costs are leading to service failures. Even less surprising that a conservative government is using the problem they created to privatise profits.

I’m having a hard time having sympathy for someone who was supporting anti-trans bigots, who were accusing teachers of being pedophiles, and (I suppose) attempting a coup. (Hard to take the last one seriously.)

Like… Of course this ended poorly. I’m surprised they paid any of the hydro bill from their camp, tbh.

That’s… Hilariously bad. Canned meats vs. fresh. Fancy ice cream vs. cheap ice cream. Everywhere you look things are shittier for the Aboriginal People’s food guide. What the fuck were they thinking? Why did they even put out a different version?

Vitamin D supplementation is recommended for all Canadians, not just vegans. And Omega 3, D, and B12 are common supplement recommendations (actually backed by strong evidence) for the general population. (Although the benefits of Omega 3 supplementation for heart health has come under scrutiny, I think its anti-inflammatory effects are still pretty widely supported.)

Anyway, no need for the vitriol. Nobody is forcing you to go vegan. If it works for them, then great! It’s definitely better for the planet to eat less meat, so power to them. (I eat way too many eggs to ever consider going vegan, personally.)

Yeah, the new Canada’s Food Guide is actually really good. (The one below is modeled after it, but changed to vegan foods).

Like, it seems like a reasonable, evidence-based, practical guide to healthy eating habits. (Unlike every single previous version going back to the 50s that might as well have been propaganda from the Canadian Wheat Board.) The latest revision is from 2019, iirc, and it’s the first time I’ve felt comfortable using it as the basis of classroom instruction.

I’ve been thinking about this quite a bit, and I’m still not sure why a 100% inclusion rate is a problem. (With various exemptions for primary residence sales and small business sales, maybe with a $1MM lifetime maximum? idk, just making up a number.)

Are they concerned that people just… aren’t going to invest their capital to earn more money if they’ll be taxed on the profits? Or is this just a global “race to the bottom” that they won’t invest in Canada because they can earn more if they invest elsewhere?

Maybe something like: 50% inclusion up to $100K, 75% inclusion up to $1MM, then 100% inclusion thereafter, and add a mechanism to spread capital gains over several years so people making single-lifetime large capital gains aren’t treated the same as people earning millions every year.

That would still incentivize small-business creation and startups without letting multimillionaires off the hook.

Very good video overall, except I don’t think he made it clear initially that there’s a primary residence exception on capital gains tax, so people might be confused that this tax will affect them when it won’t. Similarly, the 1¼ million lifetime small business sale exemption should have been introduced earlier, imho.

Like, the example could have been a $2.6 million small business sale instead, then it would actually compare the old $1 million exemption with the new $1.25 exemption, and the old 50% incision rate with the new 50->66% inclusion rate to get a more accurate “apples-to-apples” comparison.

Napkin math:

Old capital gains tax: about 1 million is exempt, so paying 50% capital gains on remaining 1.6 million is 800K income, at 53% is about 424K tax.

New capital gains tax: 1.25M is exempt, so include 50% capital gains on next 250K, then 66% on the remaining 1.1M. Total capital gains income is 851K. 53% tax on 851K is only $27K more, for $452K, which is a 6.6% increase.

Vs. getting increased services over your entire lifetime from the ultra wealthy paying closer to their fair share? Even a small business owner selling a $2.6MM business comes out way ahead.

Also, do we really want to give doctors a pass for incorporating to shelter their income against income tax for their entire lives then say that’s a problem when they’re asked to pay closer to their actual fair share income tax when they retire? Really?

And we’re worried about people selling their multimillion dollar vacation properties paying more tax?

Anyway, I get the video is trying to be “balanced”, and it’s close, but it’s still biased toward the ultra wealthy.

The new rules aren’t even strong enough; the CRA calculates the mileage rate every year, yet BC is letting companies get away with paying about half the CRA rate. Why? Tips should be just that—a tip, not required so they can cover their vehicle costs.

If people can’t afford to pay minimum wage + mileage, then they shouldn’t get service. Go pick it up yourself, or make a frozen pizza or something. Or take public transit or a (regulated) taxi.

I have some sympathy for those with disabilities who can’t drive and need to deal with abysmal public transit wait times, but their disability doesn’t trump gig workers’ rights to the minimum wage.

I agree with all of that! Well explained.

My point was just that the government can’t exert complete control on the market to keep housing values inflated. If it’s a bubble, then eventually prices will revert to their “true” value, regardless of government interference.

I mean, they can try, but market forces are outside their control.

I don’t think the US wanted to have their housing market collapse in 2008 (?), but it happened nonetheless.

It would suck, psychologically, to “lose” 30% of my house’s value in a downturn, but it would be better for the economy if that happens. And, really, now that I’m a homeowner, all that really matters is the difference in house values when I go to sell/buy. So a downturn might actually be “good” for me, since the differential between this first and a “better” house would be smaller.

Right now, boomers are selling in hot markets to find lavish retirement, transferring wealth from the younger generation to older on massive volumes.

Very well explained.

Anyone who’s on a variable rate mortgage and hasn’t increased their monthly payments significantly is going to be in a lot of trouble when they go to renew.

This might actually lead to housing prices dropping significantly.

I don’t think this will affect housing, yet. Not much, anyway. This rate decision has already been widely anticipated and fully priced in to mortgage rates. The language used by the BoC sounds very similar, too, so I don’t think there’s any signal to the market that will change expectations significantly.

People on variable-rate mortgages will get a bit of relief, I suppose. But that won’t move the needle much on housing prices.

To add to the other comment, CBC framed this in a very pro-Zionism way. The headline could have been “UofM valedictorian called racist for denouncing genocide”.

The article explicitly says the opposite.

UofM stated that they had several complaints about the video before the open letter, and they made a statement that it was taken down because it was inflammatory and divisive—neither of which says anything about the accuracy or truth of the statements.

That said, the way CBC framed this with the article headline definitely implies that it was his complaint that mattered most. CBC also makes clickbait headlines, unfortunately.

I’m bothered that they didn’t do this with a two column layout with the (red) # of digits left aligned and the number and name right aligned.

This would make a nice, clean vertical line down the page and make all the numbers start in the same spot for visual comparison. As it is, there’s a messy not-quite-straight gap between the columns that suddenly veers right at the top, with numbers starting willy-nilly all over the place. Ugly and unnecessary!

… I’ll see myself out.

It was very quick, aside from waiting a bit for the email to arrive.

This is disheartening. I wonder how many of my former students were at these protests.

It’s shameful that Canadian universities can’t disentangle anti-Semitism from anti-Zionism. It is not racist to peacefully protest against the genocide being committed by the state of Israel.

I am feeling increasingly confused by the world and the direction it’s going. I live in a different reality, it seems.

The falling PISA scores are likely caused by smart phones and social media, neither of which are really in the control of schools. The data and argument are laid out on The Anxious Generation by Haidt. It’s on my to-read list, but I’ve heard a summary of the main argument from a technology leader in education. The data is compelling.

The Fraser Institute, a conservative think tank, pushing for privatization in education through any means necessary isn’t newsworthy. Can we stop giving propagandists air time? “Choice in education” is code for charter schools, which are a failed US experiment.

The real story about equity in education comes from Finland. Decades back, they set an educational mandate to increase equity in their system. They were trying to help the most disadvantaged students in their system succeed academically. The result? Finland rocketed to the top of the PISA scoreboard. Everyone did better.

The bullshit they’re peddling about meritocracy in education is based on conservative ideology, specifically the capitalistic notion that there are winners and losers in the world, there always will be, and winners get there because they deserve it. The evidence says otherwise; rising tides lift all ships. Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is better for all students.

I’m getting tired of conservatives trying to destroy our world-class education system. Yes, it has problems. Yes, it needs changes. But Canadian teachers are generally doing a very good job, and lots of places in Canada are on the cutting edge of implementing a variety of research-informed change that should make things even better.

If only we could only get conservative governments from cutting more and more funding from education…

I don’t see that as a counterpoint. I think it’s reasonable that banks (and corporations, in general) are fined significantly for regulatory violations.

With regulatory capture, most regulations are weak to begin with. And if they don’t have teeth, then they’re entirely pointless.

Two years of free cashflow is a good fine for serious violations of ethics/regulations, imho. I don’t think they’re getting off lightly with that, though; it’s a significant enough fine that they’re incentivized to do better and, even better, acts as a warning shot across the entire industry.