Canada

There are a few reports coming in from this thread. I'm open to changing my mind on any of the following, but the reason why I haven't taken action on a few of the reports is as follows:

I think that it is both valid to question why these people are covering their faces, while also noting that covering your face isn't "bad" in all cases. The same comment ("if they think they're right, why hide their faces") is also used against protestors when they push against the government. Based on the context, I think that's the point that the other users in this thread wanted to make, but did so poorly. I don't think those other users are in support of the white nationalists in the post, but rather they picked a bad example.

The difference between the two situations comes down to why the face is covered and what power that serves. Generally:

• In rallies such as this, the face covering is for intimidation and group identity, and using anonymity to threaten the targeted minority group. It is also intended to hide the person from their community members, because of shame and embarrassment.
• In protests, the face covering is to avoid retaliation from the authority figures that the person is protesting against. They rarely hide their thoughts and feelings about the matter from their community members.

Again, there is some overlap, but that it is why it's usually more valid to criticize the former and not the latter.

As for the second argument, I think there is a misunderstanding between 'human trafficking' and 'human smuggling'. Human trafficking is almost always defined as the exploitative practice, where the person being moved is being harmed. Human smuggling can take different forms, but it is not necessarily harming the person being moved. The example of the Underground Railroad and the networks that help refugees and victims escape harm, those would fall under the label of "Human Smuggling", but the terms are often confused.

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_trafficking
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_smuggling

So overall I think the issues in this thread come from users making errors, rather than malice, and so I haven't taken specific moderation actions. But again, open to changing my mind and taking action if more info is brought to light.

It's too late now, we already showed them they could march across the whole country and terrorize a city for weeks without repercussions. We need to take more action, absolutely, but I wouldn't call this one a small or easy flame to take out anymore.

They are all controlled by the same narrator.

Not much different than pop cultures tbh.

With a baseball bat. Right in the nose.

Rachel Gilmore does fantastic journalist coverage and a great job of calling out specific names and people associated with it. She has been threatened quite brazenly for it, but she's also a badass that continues to do it. We need more Rachels.

Settler violence reached abhorrent, crimes against humanity level of evil when the Canadian government, aided by the Catholic church, abducted indigenous children from their homes and forced them into residential schools in an attempt to force their (indigenous people generally) complete assimilation into western norms and culture. Many sufferred horrific abuse while there, many died; the trauma is generational.

These degenerate losers deny it or embrace it.

TRC is a day we set aside to remember them and our need to heal.

Just to add to Brilliants comment, these residential schools were not shut down completely, until 1996.

The town of Kamloops was where one of the most recent unveilings of atrocities of the residential school system. It was a program to "help" the indigenous people adjust to the colonial usurpation of their lands and way of life.

What it actually resulted in massive mistreatment, atrocities, genocide, and erasure of the students in their care.

A site in Kamloops recently(inside the last 15 years) was revealed to have found another 50 ish bodies that were hidden.

The holiday truth and reconciliation was created a few years ago to acknowledge the problem and it was a big deal because it also was the first time the government of Canada officially acknowledged it

Somebody replied with what happened already, so I will add that this day (Sept 30th) is Canada acknowledging the crimes of the government and church with Truth and hopefully Reconciliation of those events with the Indigenous people..

But heres the Truth: Our government didn't make it a federal holiday, so only some provinces treat it as a holiday where you can go and watch an indigenous celebration. When it was instituted our Premier (Trudeau) was in British Columbia on the Holiday and rather than meet with the Indigenous leaders at a celebration, he went to his island home to chill out. To me this showed exactly how much Canada cared about Reconciliation.

I'm probably getting wooshed, but that's a Canadian crosswalk sign.