Federal Government & Politics II

[hipster duck]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

Student visa numbers capped for next two years at level 35% below 2023. Ontario will see decrease of 50%.

This is a good start, but I hope that the cut isn't applied randomly/arbitrarily.

I would hope that a foreign PhD student who got in to study AI under Geoffrey Hinton would have a better chance of getting their visa than some kid from Gujarat who's going to study Multi-level Marketing from Scarborough Upstairs For-Profit College.

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

Student visa numbers capped for next two years at level 35% below 2023. Ontario will see decrease of 50%.

Which excludes the surge coming this summer.

Forget policy. This is political incompetence on their part. Affordability will still be absolutely terrible when ever election happens in 2025.

Originally Posted by hipster duck

This is a good start, but I hope that the cut isn't applied randomly/arbitrarily.

I would hope that a foreign PhD student who got in to study AI under Geoffrey Hinton would have a better chance of getting their visa than some kid from Gujarat who's going to study Multi-level Marketing from Scarborough Upstairs For-Profit College.

I believe graduate students are exempt from the cap.

Let's see how quickly we get strip mall colleges offering MAs in marketing.

[Tvisforme]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

Which excludes the surge coming this summer....

Wouldn't that be impacted by the cap for 2024, which is 35% lower than 2023's total?

On a related note, do these numbers - and the issues with international students - include students in high school programs? Those would seem to be different since they usually involve shorter terms and homestays.

[Truenorth00]

Originally Posted by Tvisforme

Wouldn't that be impacted by the cap for 2024, which is 35% lower than 2023's total?

I stand corrected. I thought they were implementing the cap for 2025. Using 2023 as a baseline is interesting. I think this cut only takes the numbers back to about 2021 levels.

[kwoldtimer]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

Which excludes the surge coming this summer.

Forget policy. This is political incompetence on their part. Affordability will still be absolutely terrible when ever election happens in 2025.



I believe graduate students are exempt from the cap.

Let's see how quickly we get strip mall colleges offering MAs in marketing.

Not sure how it matters if the cap is based on the full year.

[MonkeyRonin]

Originally Posted by lio45

Sean Fraser, our former Minister of Housing Crisis Maximization, has turned himself into the hot dog costume guy in the classic meme (credit Truenorth for being the one to bring it up, it truly hits the nail on the head).

“We’re all looking for the (provincial/municipal jurisdictions) guy(s) who did this”, they say with a straight face

(“And if you reelect us, we’ll fix it then, we swear!”)

This Beaverton headline basically sums up where they're at right now:


https://www.instagram.com/p/C2VJJqgO...dsaDh1ZWMxYm4y

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by kwoldtimer

Student visa numbers capped for next two years at level 35% below 2023. Ontario will see decrease of 50%.

What a joke. Another “two year” policy just like Foreign Buyers Ban so that if they get re-elected (HA!) they can quietly let it expire.

Meanwhile in reality land:

Number of international students now exceeds one million, official figures show
MARIE WOOLF
OTTAWA
PUBLISHED JANUARY 19, 2024
FOR SUBSCRIBERS

The number of international students in Canada now exceeds one million, according to official figures that show an increase that has escalated far faster than the government’s own internal forecasts.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada told The Globe and Mail that at the end of December, there were 1,028,850 study permit holders, with just over half of them in Ontario.…

….Mr. Genuis said the disclosure that only 343,470 of the 1,015,744 students were studying at institutions accredited by Universities Canada showed that many international students coming to Canada were studying at private colleges, technical schools and other postsecondary institutions with varying standards.

Tom Kmiec, Conservative immigration critic, said some smaller private colleges have “questionable standards and very loose attendance rules.….

….The IRCC’s Student Integrity Analysis Report, dated November, 2021, found “no shows” make up as much as 90 per cent of students at some private colleges. “No shows” are students with letters of acceptance, who should be enrolled but either did not confirm the acceptance, never attended class or suddenly stopped attending….

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/poli...lion-official/

[Truenorth00]

^ Credit where due. It does stop the problem from getting substantially worse. And all the additional rules being put in will really put the hurt on the strip mall colleges. It doesn't come close to solving the problem. But it should end a lot of the most egregious abuse.

[Truenorth00]

$8M from Convoy funds missing.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottaw...ions-1.6410105

Not surprised the grift is coming to light.

[casper]

Originally Posted by Truenorth00

^ Credit where due. It does stop the problem from getting substantially worse. And all the additional rules being put in will really put the hurt on the strip mall colleges. It doesn't come close to solving the problem. But it should end a lot of the most egregious abuse.

Driving home today on CBC radio they were interviewing some consultant who indicated that as of today all new student visas are stopped for a time. There is some provincial government letter (did not get the correct term) that now needs to be included with the application. Until the provinces come up with a process to issue those, everything is blocked.

[whatnext]

There was discussion earlier about how many student/workers restaurants would need in the future. CBC had a fascinating article about this yesterday:

…. Domino's is running trials with a pizza-making machine at one of its locations in Berlin. White Castle has implemented giant mechanical arms to flip burgers (nicknamed Flippy) and cook french fries (Chippy) at locations across the U.S. At a pilot restaurant in Fort Worth, Texas, it's nearly all robots serving McDonald's customers.

American salad outlet Sweetgreen is going all in. In 2023, CEO Jonathan Neman told investors that he expects every location to be automated in five years.

From AI to robot butchers, automating the meat packing industry is not cut-and-dried
Making fast food faster

Chipotle Mexican Grill is buying in too, testing a few options that could roll out in its Canadian locations later this year.

"They can do the same task over and over and over again with a very high degree of efficiency and success," said Curt Garner, Chipotle's chief technology officer….


https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/aut...stry-1.7089291

[theman23]

Originally Posted by whatnext

There was discussion earlier about how many student/workers restaurants would need in the future. CBC had a fascinating article about this yesterday:

…. Domino's is running trials with a pizza-making machine at one of its locations in Berlin. White Castle has implemented giant mechanical arms to flip burgers (nicknamed Flippy) and cook french fries (Chippy) at locations across the U.S. At a pilot restaurant in Fort Worth, Texas, it's nearly all robots serving McDonald's customers.

American salad outlet Sweetgreen is going all in. In 2023, CEO Jonathan Neman told investors that he expects every location to be automated in five years.

From AI to robot butchers, automating the meat packing industry is not cut-and-dried
Making fast food faster

Chipotle Mexican Grill is buying in too, testing a few options that could roll out in its Canadian locations later this year.

"They can do the same task over and over and over again with a very high degree of efficiency and success," said Curt Garner, Chipotle's chief technology officer….


https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/aut...stry-1.7089291

You're missing the point, AI and machines don't need cell phone plans or have to go grocery shopping or take out huge mortgages on homes. How do you propose we prop up our oligopolies if we don't have record breaking population growth?

More seriously, last time I was in Japan a few months ago I noticed that they have far less automation in the service sector in Canada. Very few restaurants or shops had self service checkouts or ordering, for example. Not that I have anything against automation but it's odd that somehow they can staff their service sector with a dwindling population but we can't do the same.

[thurmas]

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/poli...ourt-decision/

Invoking Emergencies Act wasn’t justified and infringed on Charter rights, Federal Court rules

The federal government was not justified when it invoked the Emergencies Act and issued a public order emergency proclamation in response to convoy protests that gridlocked Ottawa and some border crossings two years ago, the Federal Court ruled Tuesday in a decision that will test Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government.

The emergency proclamation “was not justified in relation to the relevant factual and legal constraints that were required to be taken into consideration,” Justice Richard Mosley wrote in his decision.

“The decision to issue the Proclamation was unreasonable and led to infringement of Charter rights not justified under section 1,” the Justice wrote.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association filed an application for a judicial review against the government’s use of the Emergencies Act, as did several other groups and individuals.

“The Federal Court found that the decision to declare the Emergencies Act was ultra vires and unreasonable and that the measures violated the Charter,” the Canadian Civil Liberties Association’s lawyer Ewa Krajewska said in a brief statement on social media.

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Tuesday the federal government will appeal the court ruling. She said the government stands by its decision to invoke the Act.

“We do not agree with this decision. And respectfully we will be appealing it,” Ms. Freeland said. “The public safety of Canadians was under threat, our national security, which includes our national economic security was under threat. It was a hard decision to take.”

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was quick to condemn the Prime Minister over the federal court ruling.

“Judge rules Trudeau broke the highest law in the land with the Emergencies Act. He caused the crisis by dividing people. Then he violated Charter rights to illegally suppress citizens,” Mr. Poilievre said on X, the social media platform previously known as Twitter.

The Federal Court ruling comes almost exactly a year after the Commissioner of the Emergencies’ Act inquiry found that the government acted appropriately when it invoked the Act. However, at the time Justice Paul Rouleau said the factual basis to support his conclusion was not “overwhelming” and “reasonable and informed people could reach a different conclusion.”

Over all, Justice Rouleau found that there was “credible and compelling information” to support a reasonable belief that the protests posed a threat to the security of Canada. The information available to cabinet when it made the decision to invoke the act included evidence of the presence of ideologically motivated extremists at the protests, threats against public officials and fear of a “lone wolf” attack, he said

[MolsonExport]

Originally Posted by whatnext

There was discussion earlier about how many student/workers restaurants would need in the future. CBC had a fascinating article about this yesterday:

…. Domino's is running trials with a pizza-making machine at one of its locations in Berlin. White Castle has implemented giant mechanical arms to flip burgers (nicknamed Flippy) and cook french fries (Chippy) at locations across the U.S. At a pilot restaurant in Fort Worth, Texas, it's nearly all robots serving McDonald's customers.

American salad outlet Sweetgreen is going all in. In 2023, CEO Jonathan Neman told investors that he expects every location to be automated in five years.

From AI to robot butchers, automating the meat packing industry is not cut-and-dried
Making fast food faster

Chipotle Mexican Grill is buying in too, testing a few options that could roll out in its Canadian locations later this year.

"They can do the same task over and over and over again with a very high degree of efficiency and success," said Curt Garner, Chipotle's chief technology officer….


https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/aut...stry-1.7089291

Interesting. But it is somewhat revealing that the lowest quality offerings are the ones being automated. Did anybody ever say they loved Domino's pizza? McDonald's burgers are pretty sad, even when made by humans. No matter what Harold and Kumar say, White Castle is pretty crappy.

McDonald's uses clam shell grills (cooks both sides simultaneously) so that means that they have little use for Flippy.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Interesting. But it is somewhat revealing that the lowest quality offerings are the ones being automated. Did anybody ever say they loved Domino's pizza? McDonald's burgers are pretty sad, even when made by humans. No matter what Harold and Kumar say, White Castle is pretty crappy.

McDonald's uses clam shell grills (cooks both sides simultaneously) so that means that they have little use for Flippy.

Oh I agree, they won’t work in finer dining unless they become vastly more refined. But every fast food place I’ve been into over the last couple years have clearly been relying on TFWs or international students. Gone are the days when your first job as a teenager were at McDs

[ToxiK]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Interesting. But it is somewhat revealing that the lowest quality offerings are the ones being automated. Did anybody ever say they loved Domino's pizza? McDonald's burgers are pretty sad, even when made by humans. No matter what Harold and Kumar say, White Castle is pretty crappy.

McDonald's uses clam shell grills (cooks both sides simultaneously) so that means that they have little use for Flippy.

Lowest quality or rather the most standardized and therefore the more industrial-like produced restaurant food. It is easier to automatize a type of food that is already designed to be mass produced by employees.

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by whatnext

Oh I agree, they won’t work in finer dining unless they become vastly more refined. But every fast food place I’ve been into over the last couple years have clearly been relying on TFWs or international students. Gone are the days when your first job as a teenager were at McDs

Fine dining probably isn’t far behind. Once a robot learns how to use a knife a big chunk of prep does not need a human.

[acottawa]

Originally Posted by thurmas

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/poli...ourt-decision/

Invoking Emergencies Act wasn’t justified and infringed on Charter rights, Federal Court rules

The federal government was not justified when it invoked the Emergencies Act and issued a public order emergency proclamation in response to convoy protests that gridlocked Ottawa and some border crossings two years ago, the Federal Court ruled Tuesday in a decision that will test Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government.

The emergency proclamation “was not justified in relation to the relevant factual and legal constraints that were required to be taken into consideration,” Justice Richard Mosley wrote in his decision.

“The decision to issue the Proclamation was unreasonable and led to infringement of Charter rights not justified under section 1,” the Justice wrote.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association filed an application for a judicial review against the government’s use of the Emergencies Act, as did several other groups and individuals.

“The Federal Court found that the decision to declare the Emergencies Act was ultra vires and unreasonable and that the measures violated the Charter,” the Canadian Civil Liberties Association’s lawyer Ewa Krajewska said in a brief statement on social media.

Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said Tuesday the federal government will appeal the court ruling. She said the government stands by its decision to invoke the Act.

“We do not agree with this decision. And respectfully we will be appealing it,” Ms. Freeland said. “The public safety of Canadians was under threat, our national security, which includes our national economic security was under threat. It was a hard decision to take.”

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre was quick to condemn the Prime Minister over the federal court ruling.

“Judge rules Trudeau broke the highest law in the land with the Emergencies Act. He caused the crisis by dividing people. Then he violated Charter rights to illegally suppress citizens,” Mr. Poilievre said on X, the social media platform previously known as Twitter.

The Federal Court ruling comes almost exactly a year after the Commissioner of the Emergencies’ Act inquiry found that the government acted appropriately when it invoked the Act. However, at the time Justice Paul Rouleau said the factual basis to support his conclusion was not “overwhelming” and “reasonable and informed people could reach a different conclusion.”

Over all, Justice Rouleau found that there was “credible and compelling information” to support a reasonable belief that the protests posed a threat to the security of Canada. The information available to cabinet when it made the decision to invoke the act included evidence of the presence of ideologically motivated extremists at the protests, threats against public officials and fear of a “lone wolf” attack, he said

That’s awkward for the government.

[shreddog]

Originally Posted by acottawa

That’s awkward for the government.

JT ain't no PET

[Build.It]

I have to say I am pleasantly surprised by the verdict. Glad to see our federal courts still operate independently in practice.