livelaughawesome:

“I’m a Canadian.

We’re a quiet bunch; prone to enjoying hockey, drinking stronger beer than our friends south of the border, and lovers of fries smothered in cheese curds and gravy.

We also, apparently, have an inferiority complex when it comes to being evil dirt bags, because we’ve decided to pass our very own version of SOPA up here.

Only better*

Meet Bill-C11. Formerly Bill C-32. (I think they thought if they made the number lower people would care less about it?)

{…}

But, as innocuous as it sounds, C-11 does a whole lot that SOPA did with a few extra twists you might not find in the Wikipedia write-up.

Like your PVR? You can’t keep it under C-11.

Like ripping CDs to your iPod? Say bye-bye.

Hey, do you want to be able to unlock your $500 smartphone and take it to a provider less dedicated to violating your wallet? That won’t be allowed either.

Did you get accused of internet piracy but no evidence has been presented and a trial date hasn’t even been set? Under C-11 your ISP will now be forced to terminate your internet access.

And people say that governments can’t be bought.

{…}

There are only 14 days left people. Get active.”

Send a letter to your Member of Parliament now. The letters are prewritten, you just need to click send.

http://www.ccer.ca/letter-wizard-enter/

Come on non-Canadian people, please signal boost this for your Canadian friends.

help us polite canucks please :)

(via artmotherfuckers)

thepetroguy:

handfu1ofdust:

ursella:

Do you want the abortion debate opened in Canada?

disgustinghuman:

myasphyxiatedmind:

stfuhypocrisy:

selfsamewoman:

nessfraserloves:

stfuhypocrisy:

Hell no.

Tumblr… can you please?

Sort this shit out.

reblog for signal boost.

Yes is outweighing no. Tumblr. Fix this.

reallyyyyy? :c

FUCK NO. Please vote. please. please…..please.

OH CANADA

No.

I’ll be in Europe.

Bye.

This is a pretty big issue for Harper. He has promised the seats he stole from the liberals that he was going to make a more liberal conservative party and that the abortion debate would remain closed as long as he is in office. At the same time he made contradictory promises to his original conservative seats… 

Whatever he does, there is a chance that parliament will fall apart. 

*Fingers crossed*

Tumblr, work yo magic. 

stokedonscience:

Written by Dr. Ryan Mailloux, postdoctoral fellow in biochemistry and bioenergetics at the University of Ottawa, this article details steps taken by the Canadian Conservative party under the leadership of Stephen Harper with regard to academic funding.

Since taking office in 2006, Harper has used anti-academic policies to control information and direction of research funding. Between 2006 and 2008, Harper made significant cuts to various academic programs including funding for arts and basic science. During this time, approximately $45 million dollars was removed from the arts and culture. The justification Harper used was that “ordinary people do not care about the arts” (thestar.com, Sept 2008).

…

Research scientists in Canadian agencies also felt the sting of going against the Conservative agenda. Following the generation of data that indicated the oil sands are contributing significantly to climate change, the Conservatives decided to muzzle these scientists preventing them from sharing this critical information with the public (Montreal Gazette, March 2010).

Now, with the recent majority government that the Conservatives have secured, this raises further questions about what future budgets might bring for our post-secondary educational institutions and their researchers. While early indicators suggest little improvements from previous years…

The March budget did not offer much for the basic science or arts communities and, in the new budget, nothing has really changed. The Research Tri-Council of Canada will remain in the poor house ($15M CIHR, $15M NSERC, $7M SSHRC per year), post docs will still be taxed heavily with a dearth of funding available, and the arts will remain grossly underfunded.

… Mailloux ends the article with a warning.

With an already abysmal success rate for research grants, funding for the Tri-Council at an all time low, and postdoctoral positions looking very unattractive, a purging of academics from our country appears inevitable.

If you’re interested in Canadian politics and the fate of academia, I encourage you to read the whole article on rabble.ca. 

(Full disclosure: Dr. Mailloux is currently involved in my training as a Master’s student in biochemistry at the University of Ottawa)