Category Archives: Liberal

Sen. Lindsey Graham. Evelyn Hockstein-Pool/Getty Images

Republican senators are already voicing their reasons for opposing the bipartisan infrastructure proposal unveiled on Thursday, with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) revealing what would be the "ultimate deal-breaker" for him.

A bipartisan group of senators 5 Democrats and 5 Republicans spent weeks negotiating with top White House aides, and on Thursday afternoon the White House released details on the proposal: it calls for $973 billion in spending over five years, including $579 billion in new funds not already allocated through other projects. There would be $312 billion going to transportation, $65 billion for broadband, and $55 billion for water infrastructure. President Biden tweeted that under this plan, millions of jobs will be created.

"Neither side got everything they wanted in this deal," Biden said. "That's what it means to compromise, and it reflects something important, reflects consensus. The heart of democracy requires consensus." However, Biden also said it must work "in tandem" with a Democratic reconciliation bill containing the party's spending priorities, and if the infrastructure package "is the only thing that comes to me, I'm not signing it."

That's not going to work for Graham, who tweeted that if the "reports are accurate that President Biden is refusing to sign a bipartisan deal unless reconciliation is also passed, that would be the ultimate deal-breaker for me. I don't mind working with the other side for the common good, but I'm not going to be extorted by liberal Democrats or anyone else."

Graham isn't alone. Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kansas) supports the bipartisan plan, his office told Kansas City Star reporter Bryan Lowry, but he's also in discussions with moderate Democrats, asking them to assure him that if the infrastructure bill passes, they won't push through additional spending proposals through reconciliation.

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7 scathingly funny cartoons about Democrats' Joe Manchin problem

Bernie Sanders wants to know if cannabis reporter is 'stoned' right now

'No one will be spared': Georgia election workers have reportedly received a 'torrent' of threats from Trump supporters

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Lindsey Graham says he won't be 'extorted by liberal Democrats' over infrastructure deal - Yahoo News

British Columbia Privacy Commissioner Michael McEvoy speaks during a news conference in Ottawa on April 25, 2019. McEvoy says he's considering launching an investigation into the use of facial recognition technology by the federal Liberals.

Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

Facial recognition technology used by the governing Liberals to verify the identities of people voting in the partys candidate nomination elections may be investigated by privacy commissioners at the federal and provincial levels.

After The Globe and Mail reported on Wednesday that the Liberal Party of Canada is using the technology, the federal NDP asked Canadas Privacy Commissioner, Daniel Therrien, to launch a probe. Meanwhile, B.C.s Information and Privacy Commissioner, Michael McEvoy, said his office is now reviewing the Liberal Partys practices.

We are going to look into the matter ourselves and review it before drawing any conclusions, Mr. McEvoy told the Globe and Mail on Thursday. The main questions, he said, are whether the data has been appropriately collected, whether its been appropriately used, and whether the process was compliant with B.C. law.

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Federal political parties are exempt from federal privacy laws, which put safeguards on the collection and use of personal information. But their operations in British Columbia fall under provincial privacy laws.

The Liberal party said it is using the technology to verify identities in B.C. nomination races and in other races across the country.

The technology is controversial because it is seen as invasive. The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) sent the Liberals a letter on Wednesday asking the party to cease and desist from using it. The association refers to facial recognition as facial fingerprinting, because its use is comparable to obtaining a fingerprint a biological pattern unique to every individual.

Civil liberties group urges Liberal Party to stop using facial recognition technology

The Liberal Party is using a version of the technology built by Jumio, a California-based company. Voters in Liberal nomination races are directed to a website, operated by Jumio. The website uses facial recognition to verify a picture of the front and back of each voters drivers licence against a selfie.

NDP MP Charlie Angus wrote a letter to Mr. Therrien on Thursday asking him to review the matter. The letter raises concerns that the Liberal Party did not adequately disclose that it is using facial recognition to verify identities. The partys website does not mention the technology by name. Instead, it refers to a secure automated ID verification portal.

Mr. Angus asked Mr. Therrien to address whether commercial third parties who are contracted by political parties enjoy blanket immunity from Canadas privacy laws.

It is troubling that Canadians may be unwillingly turning over facial data to an American-based company that may not be following Canadian laws, Mr. Angus wrote in the letter.

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The Liberal Party has said that verification information is deleted automatically and immediately, and not retained or stored. On Wednesday, Mr. McEvoy said the problem is that there is no way to verify if this is the case.

In an interview, Mr. Angus described using facial recognition to verify identities in a local nomination race as the nuclear option.

He said the federal political parties should not be exempt from privacy laws. As it stands, he said, all they have to do is pinky swear that theyre doing the right thing.

In an emailed statement on Thursday, Liberal spokesperson Matteo Rossi said the nomination process is in line with the partys privacy policy and public guidance from Mr. Therriens office.

Privacy commissions across Canada do vital work to help ensure that Canadians personal information is appropriately safeguarded, and we will always be pleased to engage with them about our commitment to doing the same, Mr. Rossi said.

Jumio did not provide a response to The Globes requests for information on Wednesday or Thursday. Its privacy policy describes the company as a data processor and not a data controller and says the company makes its services available to third parties for integration into those third parties websites, applications, and online services. The policy says that Jumio collects, uses, and discloses individual users information only as directed by these third parties.

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But the same policy says that Jumio may process certain individual users information in anonymized and/or aggregated form for its own purposes.

Representatives from the other major political parties have told The Globe they do not use facial recognition technology for any element of their partys work.

In its letter, the CCLA acknowledged that the type of technology the Liberal Party is using is likely less invasive than other forms of facial recognition because it compares one photo to a picture of an ID, rather than searching a database to find a matching face.

Mr. Rossi stressed on Thursday that voters who prefer not to submit to facial recognition can have their identities verified by other means. Its important to note that the party makes it clear that manual ID verification is always possible as an option for anyone who wants it, he said.

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Liberals face possible federal, provincial privacy probes for use of facial recognition technology - The Globe and Mail

Dr Lamings statement of claim alleged Milligan had not apologised either privately or publicly and rejected her attempts to clarify her comments in another tweet on June 17 as self-serving.

Milligans clarifying tweet was posted with a note saying attached are some things that should be known about Dr Andrew Laming and linked to an ABC article from April reporting that Dr Laming had not been charged, which she urged her followers to read.

In a broader Twitter discussion about gender and politics a couple of months ago, I did not include Dr Lamings denials, nor the decision by Queensland police not to proceed. I was not reporting on the matter, but nonetheless, am committed as ever to the full story being known, Milligan tweeted.

Liberal Senator James McGrath, a vocal critic of the ABC, on Monday tweeted a letter he had written to ABC chair Ita Buttrose questioning why the broadcaster was paying Milligans legal fees.

As the action relates to tweets issued by Ms Milligan not in a work capacity (as Ms Milligan has admitted) how can you justify this to the taxpayer? I note that Dr Laming is personally paying for his legal costs, Senator McGrath tweeted.

It is the second defamation case Ms Giles has acted in on behalf of Liberal MPs against Milligan this year. She representing Industry Minister Christian Porter in his litigation against Milligan over her reporting of alleged historical rape allegation him, which he denies. The parties settled last month, with the ABC agreeing to pay $100,000 for Mr Porters mediation costs. But the broadcaster did not apologise and the article remains on the ABC website with an editors note.

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The legal blitz by Dr Lamings lawyers has prompted a flurry of written retractions and apologies, issued over Twitter in recent weeks, including from Labor Senator Murray Watt, Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, former independent Senator Derryn Hinch, Queensland Labor MP Don Brown, and Chaser-owned website The Shot.

Labor Senator Kristina Keneally deleted a tweet after she received a concerns notice from Ms Giles, but has not apologised publicly.

Journalist and author Georgie Dent, represented by Marque Lawyers partner Michael Bradley, has also deleted a post but not apologised since being contacted by Ms Giles.

Nine, which owns this masthead, has also received concerns notice from Dr Lamings lawyers in connection with its reporting of the allegations against him, but no apology has been issued.

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Federal Liberal MP Andrew Laming threatens 10 MPs and journalists with legal action - Sydney Morning Herald

A venue for Deaf playwrights; an interpretation of a Tony Award-winning musical; performance by talented student dancers; and New Yorkers struggling with relationships and identity during the AIDS crisis are all part of a new collaborative season byRochester Institute of TechnologysNational Technical Institute for the DeafPerforming ArtsDepartment and theCollege of Liberal Arts.

The partnership between NTID and the College of Liberal Arts is a long-term collaboration in which strong backgrounds in performance, acting, directing, dance and music converge to create stunning theatrical productions.

The productions present an array of cultural, political and social issues. The 2021-2022 season includes:

Angels in America: Millennium Approaches, directed by Andy Head, Nov. 19-21 in the Robert F. Panara Theatre. The play is set in New York City in the1980s asPresidentReagan sits in the White House while the AIDS crisis rages on.Caught in the middle are aValium-addicted Mormon and her closeted lawyer husbandand two men ripped apart by an AIDS diagnosis. These New Yorkers are desperatelyfighting for survivalas they wrestlewith love, politics, and God.Throw in a few ghosts, angels, and the infamous McCarthy-sidekick Roy Cohn and you have afantasticalandheart-breaking story.Not appropriate for children under 12.

RIT Performing Arts Scholars Showcase: Dance, Music, Theatre, directed by Marc Ellis Holland, Feb. 11-13, 2022, in the Robert F. Panara Theatre. The RIT Performing Arts Scholars Showcase features the newly-formed RIT DanceCore, an ensemble of talented student dancerswith choreography by DanceCore Director Marc Ellis Holland and RIT Director of Dance Thomas Warfield. More than exploring different ways to make a shape or learning a series of steps to music, this dance performance presents ways of moving that use the body as an instrument of expression and communication. The performance will also include collaborations with live music, theater students and projection design.

Deaf New Play Festival, directed by Aaron Kelstone, Feb. 25-27, 2022, in Room 1510, Lyndon Baines Johnson Hall. NTID Performing Arts will spotlight four emerging Deaf playwrights chosen from the 18 plays presented in 2021 at the Chicago, Illinois/Columbia College MAP-Deaf Theatre Festival. Each of the four Deaf playwrights 10-minute plays were produced by Deaf Spotlight, Deaf Austin Theater, New York Deaf Theatre, and Northern Lights Collective (Canada). The top four plays representing each of the four producing groups will be expanded by the NTID Theatre Department. Working with a dedicated team of actors, directors, dramaturgs, and other theater professionals each of the plays will be developed through the remainder of 2021.

In the Heights, directed by Luane Davis-Haggerty, April 15-17, 2022, in the Robert F. Panara Theatre. This musical tells the universal story of a vibrant community in New Yorks Washington Heights neighborhood, a place where the coffee from the corner bodega is light and sweet, the windows are always open and the breeze carries the rhythm of three generations of music. Its a community on the brink of change, full of hopes, dreams and pressures, where the biggest struggles can be deciding which traditions you take with you, and which ones you leave behind.

All four productions are planned to be fully accessible for deaf, hard-of-hearing, and hearing audiences, whether using captions, American Sign Language in the performance, interpreters or a combination.

Tickets for performances in Panara Theatre$5 for students, senior citizens, and children under age 12; $10 for RIT faculty/staff/alumni; and $12 for the publicwill be available throughrittickets.com, by phone at 585-475-4121 or at the door two hours prior to curtain time.Performances in the 1510 Lab Theatre are free. Tickets will be released on Eventbrite.

For more information, visit RITs Performing Arts productions webpage.

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RIT's College of Liberal Arts, NTID Performing Arts announce 2021-2022 theatrical season | National Technical Institute for the Deaf | RIT - RIT News

Photo: Ng Han Guan/AP/Shutterstock

As we sift through the lab-leak debacle, the good news is that the healthy antibodies in the system are still strong enough to overcome the groupthink that produced the original error. News media are investigating a hypothesis they once dismissed, and the government has announced an investigation to find the truth.

The bad news is that the problem is turning out to be worse than it initially seemed and worse still, the source of the failure is not going away. The implications of this episode are much broader than understanding the source of the pandemic. It is a question about whether institutions like the media and government can withstand the pressure of ideological conformity.

A recent Washington Post story, looking back at the governments response to viruss origination, reported that many officials refused to explore the lab-leak hypothesis because it was associated with right-wing politics. For some of the officials who were privately suspicious of the Wuhan lab, Trumps and Navarros comments turned the lab-leak scenario into a fringe conspiracy theory, the Post found, It became nearly impossible to generate interest among health experts in a hypothesis that Trump had turned into a political weapon, they said.

That is an extraordinarily damning admission. Health experts who understood all along that it was entirely possible that the virus emerged from a lab simply refused to examine the hypothesis because it had become associated with the likes of Donald Trump.

Katherine Eban, writing in Vanity Fair, has written a lengthy expos drawing out the failure in detail. One State Department officialwrote that his team was warned not to investigate the origins of the pandemic because it would open a can of worms. Miles Yu, the State Departments principal China strategist, tells Eban, Anyone who dares speak out would be ostracized. After former CDC head Robert Redfield said he believed the virus originated in a lab, he tells Eban I was threatened and ostracized because I proposed another hypothesis.

In retrospect, the error is clear enough all along. The origins of the pandemic were always murky, and the strongest reason to dismiss lab-leak out of hand that the Wuhan lab supposedly had airtight security protocols was more rumor than fact. Whats more, the notion that the theory was racist was always transparently dubious. A story in which the virus emerged from failed safety protocols at the Wuhan lab is not inherently more racist than a theory in which it emerged from a wet market. (If anything, blaming the pandemic on Chinas people for eating bats lends itself much more easily to racism than blaming Chinas government for lax security at its research labs.)

Journalists make mistakes, especially operating in a chaotic atmosphere dominated by the ceaseless jabberings of a pathological liar with a giant megaphone. Whats concerning is that, even faced with undeniable proof of the error, many people still refuse to concede it.

An article in Nature warns against a a divisive investigation into the viruss origins. Remarkably enough, given that it comes from a scientific journal, the article does not directly question the possibility that COVID did escape from a lab. Instead, it warns that the investigation is fueling online bullying of scientists and anti-Asian harassment in the United States, as well as offending researchers and authorities in China whose cooperation is needed. One scientist who reports this bullying is Canadian virologist Angela Rasmussen, who in 2020 had developed a high-profile Twitter presence laced with confident dismissals of lab-leak hypothesis as a conspiracy theory that was steeped in racist stereotypes.

When scientists are openly arguing against the study of a scientific hypothesis, for non-scientific reasons, something has gone haywire. In this case, that something seems to be a hothouse atmosphere centered around social media, that has cultivated an ethos of moral fervor and political homogeneity.

Personally I think that when a public figure is a known racist liar its fine to treat their evidence-free statements as racist lies, insisted podcaster Michael Hobbes. If David Duke gives a speech about rising urban crime rates its not the medias job to report the most plausible version of his argument. Writer and University of Minnesota Law School fellow Will Stancil called renewed attention to the lab-leak hypothesis the latest example of hybridization between the right-wing fever swamps and the white guys who run journalism.

The notable aspect of these statements is not the conclusion but the logic that produced it. That journalists dismissed a plausible theory, because they associated it with people who have noxious beliefs, does not strike them as a problem, but a correct epistemological model.

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Jonathan Last, an apostate conservative writing for the Bulwark (a new magazine that serves as a kind of refuge for Republican and conservative intellectuals unable to stomach Donald Trump), recently made an observation about conservatives taunting the mainstream media for dismissing the lab-leak hypothesis. Yes, Last allowed, many outlets got the story wrong by describing the hypothesis that COVID-19 escaped from the lab in Wuhan, rather than the nearby wet market, as a false, racist conspiracy theory, when in truth they never really knew the viruss origins. But most of those outlets have since corrected their error and treated the issue as a live scientific mystery. When has conservative media ever engaged in anything like this sort of self-correction? Is Fox News running self-flagellating segments questioning, say, the networks promotion of hydroxychloroquine as a proven COVID treatment? The very thought is a punchline.

This asymmetry between the mainstream news media and the conservative media that was created to oppose it has long been a source of satisfaction for we liberals. Modern journalism, like think tanks and the bureaucracy, grew out of a Progressive Era belief in disinterested expertise. Guided by the principles of scientific inquiry, these institutions would follow the truth wherever it led.

The conservative movement built a counter-Establishment to oppose this network, but the alt-institutions of the right mimicked the hallowed liberal Establishment only in form. The Heritage Institution, the Washington Times, and Fox News were not mirror images of Brookings, the New York Times, and CBS News they were parodies of them. Liberals had a phrase to describe this imbalance: the hack gap. The Republican Party had an army of partisans at its disposal, unburdened by any fealty to any scientific or professional norms save the advancement of the conservative movement. The liberal media might make mistakes, and bureaucracies may produce wrong conclusions, but at least they aspire to norms of fairness and impartiality that the right-wing counterparts merely sneer at.

Openness to evidence is the historical strength of American liberalism. This is why, for all the errors liberals have committed since the Progressive Era, a capacity for self-correction has given continued vitality to their our creed. The lab-leak fiasco ought to be a warning sign of what happens if the urge to not be defeated or manipulated by the right turns into an emulation of its methods. The only thing worse than having a hack gap would be not having one.

Analysis and commentary on the latest political news from New York columnist Jonathan Chait.

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The Groupthink That Produced the Lab-Leak Failure Should Scare Liberals - New York Magazine

The Australian Electoral Commission has approved the registration of the New Liberals as a political party, despite warnings from the Liberal party it would result in widespread voter confusion.

In a decision published on Thursday, the AEC assistant commissioner, Joanne Reid, found the new partys name was sufficiently distinct and not likely to cause confusion or imply a connection with the Liberal Party of Australia.

The Liberal party had accused the New Liberals of a cynical attempt to piggyback on its brand, and tabled Crosby Textor research claiming up to two-thirds of voters wrongly believed the parties were connected.

The New Liberals registration sets up the nightmare possibility for the Liberal party of a repeat of the 2013 election, when David Leyonhjelm was elected to the Senate from New South Wales. Leyonhjelm recorded a 7.19% swing to him after the Liberal Democrats ticket was placed further to the left on the ballot paper than the Liberal party.

The Liberal party federal director, Andrew Hirst, has told Guardian Australia the party is disappointed with the decision and intends to seek a review of it.

After internal review by a three-person panel in the AEC, the Liberal party can also seek a merits review by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal.

In the decision, Reid said she was not in a position to judge the accuracy of a survey of 2,036 voters conducted by Michael Turner, the head of research at Crosby Textor, as the precise methodology was not specified.

Reid accepted the survey showed some of the participants in the research were confused or mistaken by the name The New Liberals and said she gave this evidence some weight.

Reid said the New Liberals application was much closer to the line than the earlier registration of the Liberal Democrats and Liberals for Forests.

But she found the new party name was sufficiently visually and aurally distinct from the Liberal Party of Australia, as they only shared the word Liberal and in the precedent case of Woollard the AAT had found that no political party can claim the exclusive right to generic words such as liberal.

Reid said the ordinary definition of the word new does have the connotation of representing something different.

Unlike New Labour, a rebranding of Labour in the UK, both the Liberal party and the New Liberals would appear on the same ballot making it very likely that a voter would have a choice between the two, she said.

The word liberal has a broad meaning and history. It is suggestive of a certain political philosophy.

It is not a word that is only associated with one particular party.

Based on the prevalence of the term liberal in politics and in relation to liberal thought, any perceived correlation between The New Liberals might be on the basis of their shared belief in liberalism.

Reid concluded a reasonable person would not think that a connection or relationship exists between the two parties.

The New Liberals was founded in 2019 by the Sydney barrister Victor Kline, who is also a founder and director of the Refugee Law Project. He is also the partys leader and a New South Wales lead Senate candidate.

The New Liberals say they are economically responsible and socially progressive and target the Liberals over failures on climate change and treatment of refugees.

Claiming the mantle of liberalism and providing inner-city voters with a non-Labor alternative to the Liberals has helped independents including Zali Steggall win previously blue-ribbon seats, efforts set to continue at the next election.

In April Kline told Guardian Australia the New Liberals aim to run candidates for the Senate in every state and up to three dozen urban seats held by Liberal MPs, preferencing independents such as the Voice movement first and the Liberals last.

On Thursday Kline said he and the party were absolutely thrilled with the registration decision. Although were not totally secure, our position is very strong, he said, commenting on the Liberal party challenge.

The New Liberals have announced 19 candidates so far, including lead Senate candidates in all states except Western Australia.

Excerpt from:

New Liberals registration approved despite Liberal party objection over voter confusion - The Guardian

The Liberal Party's national campaign co-chairs have declared a "state of electoral urgency," a procedural move that will allow the party to speed up the nomination processes for local candidates ahead of the next federal election.

It's the latest sign that the federal parties are preparing for a possible fall election. The Conservative Party is prepared to invoke a similar measure if an election is called to get many more would-be MPs nominated on a faster timeline.

MPs also unanimously agreed last night to hold a "take-note debate" in the House of Commons on June 15 to allow members who aren't running againto "make their farewell speech."

In a message to some senior members of the party Thursday, the Liberal co-chairsEconomic Development Minister Melanie Joly and former cabinet minister Navdeep Bainssaid they are invoking rule 18 of the national rules for the selection of candidates as of today "in all remaining ridings" that have yet to nominate a candidate.

CBC News has seen a copy of the message that was sent to national and provincial and territorial party leaders and organizers.

Under that rule, the two can "alter the timelines and procedures ... in such a manner as they, in their sole and unfettered discretion, may see fit," to get a local Liberal candidate in place.

As of today, the party has nominated just 162 candidates out of the possible 338 ridings, which means there are many more candidates to recruit and nominate in the months ahead of a possible fall election.

In statement, a spokesperson for the party, Braeden Caley, said the "electoral urgency" clause is a "longstanding administrative measure in our party's processes that gives the ability to shift timelines and procedures in the national nomination rules in order to nominate more candidates, more quickly in the months ahead."

Caley said the party is not pushing for an election but rather preparing for the possibility that the minority government could fall at any time.

"The Liberal team remains resolutely focused on doing everything it takes to keep Canadians safe and supported and that will continue to be the case," he said.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has repeatedly said "nobody wants an election before the end of this pandemic."

While the party has fewer than half of its 338 possible candidates nominated so far, Caley said the party is routinely "approached by a whole host of talented community leaders interested in running as Liberal candidates."

Caley said the party is committed to recruiting candidates "from traditionally unrepresented perspectives and communities," including LGBT, women, Black, Indigenous, and people of colour candidates.

Excerpt from:

Liberal Party triggers 'electoral urgency' clause to speed up nominating candidates - CBC.ca

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'This kind of motion on time allocation will do real damage to this place, not just today, not just tomorrow. But in the coming years'

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The Liberals and Bloc Qubcois voted to limit debate on controversial Bill C-10 Monday, as Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault blamed critics of the broadcasting bill for delaying the introduction of his governments promised online hate legislation.

The Conservatives, NDP and Green Party opposed the time allocation motion, but were outnumbered by the Bloc and Liberals, who want to push Bill C-10 through the before summer break.

The motion gives the heritage committee, which is currently amending the bill clause-by-clause, five more hours to complete its work before C-10 heads back for a vote in the House of Commons.

That process has been delayed over the past month, after the Liberal government introduced an amendment that critics said was a violation of free expression because it gave the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission regulatory authority over social media posts. The government later limited that authority, stipulating the CRTCs only power was to force platforms to promote Canadian content.

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The Conservatives have been the most critical of the free speech implications of the bill since the exemption for user-generated content was removed, but on Monday the NDP and Greens took issue with the governments move to shut down debate at committee.

NDP MP Alexandre Boulerice said in the House of Commons his party agrees with the aim behind C-10, which the government says is to ensure web giants like Google pay into the Canadian content system.

The minister talks about the importance of making the web giants pay their share. We agree in principle. We voted for this bill at second reading, Boulerice said in French. And thats not the issue. The debate now is the use of a gag to prevent parliamentarians from doing their work at committee.

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Time allocation has only ever been used three times to halt work at committee, Boulerice said, adding the NDP wants to let the MPs on the committee keep doing their work to fix the bill. Green Party MP Elizabeth May said the motion is the first time in 20 years that time allocation has been used to push a bill through committee, and it sets a bad precedent for Parliament.

This kind of motion on time allocation will do real damage to this place, not just today, not just tomorrow. But in the coming years, well find this used more and more and more to whip committees into shape, May said.

Guilbeault has argued time allocation is necessary to pass C-10, because otherwise it would be stuck in committee for months, time during which the Canadian cultural sector would miss out on hundreds of millions in contributions from large digital platforms. The committee has made it through more than 80 proposed amendments, including voting down a Conservative proposal to restore the exemption for social media content, with dozens more to go.

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During an appearance at the House ethics committee Monday, Guilbeault said the delay over C-10 is the reason his government hasnt yet tabled a separate bill that would tackle online harms. In early March, Guilbeault promised that bill would be introduced within weeks. Guilbeault acknowledged Monday he had initially planned the bill to be introduced even earlier.

Unfortunately, the systemic obstruction of the Conservative Party regarding Bill C-10 has prevented me from doing so. But I am still hoping to table this bill as soon as possible, he said.

Guilbeault was at committee as part of its study of allegations Montreal-based PornHub has distributed exploitative and illegal material. Though Justice Minister David Lametti told the same committee in April Canadian law may not apply to the company due to factors like the location of its servers, Guilbeault said Monday the online harms bill would cover any website accessible from Canada.

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He said the aim behind the legislation is to ensure whether or not the company is Canadian, or based in Canada or registered in Canada or its websites are housed in Canada, if they broadcast images and videos in Canada, then the law will apply to them.

That bill would require social media platforms to take down, within 24 hours, five categories of illegal posts: hate speech, terrorist content, posts that incite violence, child sexual exploitative content and intimate content that was shared without consent.

Guilbeault has said in the past the government would create a new regulator to enforce the online harms bill. On Monday his answers indicated that may have changed, as he declined to answer questions about whether the CRTC would be put in charge.

Guilbeault told the committee the goal behind the online harms bill is to develop a proposal that establishes an appropriate balance between protecting speech and preventing harm.He added that the objective is not to reduce freedom of expression, but to increase it for all users and ensure that no voices are being suppressed because of harmful content.

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Liberals team up with Bloc to limit debate on controversial Bill C-10 - National Post

AFTER THE sweet tea was poured but before the tomato soup arrived, in the middle of a crowded restaurant, Bill White lifted his shirt-tail to reveal the rubberised grip of a .38 revolver. Everyones got one these days, he says. Over lunch, he and two other residents of Buckhead, the wealthy northern section of Atlanta, swap stories: packs of cars blocking intersections for illegal street races, would-be thieves casing houses, neighbours too frightened to leave their homes. Lenox Square, an upscale mall, installed metal detectors after a spate of shootings. Mr White is CEO of the Buckhead Exploratory Committeea group of residents who have organised to push for Buckheads independence from Atlanta, driven, he explains, by three factors: crime, crime and crime.

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As of May 16th, murders were up by 59% in Atlanta compared with the same period in 2020. Rapes, aggravated assaults and thefts from and of cars are also well above levels in 2020. Nor is this just an Atlanta problem. Nationally, the spike in murders that began in 2020according to data from the Major Cities Chiefs Association, homicides in American cities rose by 33% from 2019 to 2020shows no sign of abating. This is a problem first, of course, for the people living in the neighbourhoods where much of this violence takes place. But it also poses a problem for advocates of criminal-justice reform, who made great strides in the 2010s, when violent crime was falling. Convincing people to back lighter sentences and decrease their reliance on police when murders are rising may prove more difficult.

The reasons why murder rates are on the rise nationally remain unclear. In fact criminologists are still debating why crime fell in the 1990s and 2000s. The pandemic closed schools and other institutions, leaving young people unoccupied and anxious. Police who might otherwise have been deployed to high-crime neighbourhoods or investigative duty were assigned to respond to protests. Gun sales soared, and many faced financial hardships and other stresses. But violent-crime rates were rising, albeit more slowly than over the past 14 months, even before the covid-19 epidemic began, beginning in 2014.

Whatever the reason, homicides can be sticky, says John Pfaff of Fordham University in New York. A shooting in March can lead to a subsequent shooting in July, when retaliation comes up. In other words, even if the pandemic is partly responsible for the homicide spike, any post-pandemic decline may well be gradual.

As a result, crime now has a political salience that it has not had in years. A poll released last month showed crime was the second-most-important issue (behind covid-19) for Democrats in New York, who will choose a mayoral candidate in a primary on June 22nd. Eric Adams, a former police officer who has recently defended the use of stop-and-frisk tactics and made public safety the centre of his campaign, leads in some polls. Jenny Durkan, Seattles mayor, has faced criticism from both the right and left over her handling of the citys police-free autonomous zone and tactics used by police against protesters; she will not seek another term. Chesa Boudin, San Franciscos district attorney, faces a recall campaign, driven by the perception that he is too soft on crime. Crime has become central in the race to succeed Keisha Lance Bottoms, Atlantas mayor, who also unexpectedly declined to seek a second term.

But before she leaves office, she plans to hire another 250 police officers. Other cities have taken a similar approach. Minneapolis, where a majority of the city council voted last year to defund and disband the police department, will spend $6.4m to hire new officers. While president of Baltimores city council, Brandon Scott championed a measure to cut the police departments budget by $22.4m; since taking office last December as mayor, he has proposed increasing it by $28m. Oakland will soon restore most of the $29m it cut from the police budget last year.

Such reversals testify more to the political than the budgetary costs of criminal-justice reform. But that does not mean reform is doomed, or that all voters will reject all reform-minded candidates. Last month Tishaura Jones was elected mayor of St Louis on a platform that included reducing reliance on police and closing one of the citys prisons. In a primary race on May 18th, Larry Krasner, Philadelphias crusading district attorney, trounced his police-union-backed opponent. On that same day, Ed Gainey, running on a reformist platform, defeated Bill Peduto in a primary election. He is poised to become Pittsburghs first black mayor.

Still, blame-mongering for violence is an effective cudgel for conservative state-level politicians to wield against liberal cities. Brian Kemp, Georgias Republican governor, is making Atlanta crime central to his re-election campaignthe better to win back Trump-hesitant Republicans in the citys suburbs. Florida has passed a law that lets the governor and his cabinet reverse any changes to cities police budgets that they deem unwise. Other states have proposed (and Texas has passed) measures cutting off funds to cities that slash police budgets. Unlike states, which the Tenth Amendment protects against federal overreach, cities are subsidiary creations of the state, and have no legal shield against these sorts of pre-emptive measures.

Reformers will have to change how they pitch their ideas. They cannot simply make a moral case. The impetus that led conservative and liberal states alike to reduce their prison populations in recent years was largely to save money. And, as Mr Pfaff notes, homicides are up nationwide, so if rising violent-crime rates indict reform in liberal cities, they must also indict the status quo in more conservative areas that have not pursued reform.

The rise in violence just makes everything related to these debates over how to reform policing and how to deal with police violence more difficult, explains Patrick Sharkey, a sociologist at Princeton University. Theres a knee-jerk response because weve been so reliant on police and prisons as the institutions we turn to to deal with violence. Faced with a choice between more and less policing, people frightened of violent crime will rarely choose less.

In fact the choice is not binary. Police play a crucial role in fighting crime and, in the near term, cities may require a more robust police presence than some reformers would like. They do not play the only role, however. A wealth of evidence exists that other institutionsanti-violence non-profits, drug-treatment programmes, summer jobs for young peoplealso help. Politicians who want to reduce violent crime in their cities and states should remember that, just as activists should remember that reform is a harder sell when people do not feel safe. Because, since murders usually rise in the summer, when people are out in the streets until late, safety is unlikely to return soon.

Correction (June 6th): A previous version of this article stated that Bill White was head of fundraising for the Buckhead Exploratory Committee

This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline "Reality bites"

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Reality bites Liberals and crime spikes - The Economist

If you are also at the crossroads of deciding which academic way to head for a prospering career, its worth considering the upcoming field of Liberal Arts. Today, many students have legit questions about what this field is all about, which institute would be the best to pursue this course from, and if there are enough lucrative career prospects out there?Lets first start by understanding what a Liberal Arts degree usually entails. It usually includes the study of history, literature, writing, philosophy, sociology, psychology, creative arts and much more. Key among the many skills students with Liberal Arts degree learn are formulating effective arguments, communicating well and solving problems, says Lasya Karthikeyan, a B. A. (HONS.) Liberal Arts alumni of Jyoti Dalal School of Liberal Arts (JDSoLA), NMIMS.'; var randomNumber = Math.random(); var isIndia = (window.geoinfo && window.geoinfo.CountryCode === 'IN') && (window.location.href.indexOf('outsideindia') === -1 ); //console.log(isIndia && randomNumber I, for instance, cultivated effective communication, analytical and research skills that I put to use in my profession almost daily, he says. Karthikeyan is a Brand Consultant with an organisation of repute. Jogging down his memory lane, he shares how he entered college with highly rigid ideas of what the world was, and what his place in it would be. It didn't take long for those ideas to get replaced with a broad-minded thinking. On a usual workday, you will find me solving multiple problems by taking different approaches; its all because of what I learnt during my college days, he says. Congratulations!

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At JDSoLA, the curriculum is a perfect balance between theory and practical learning allowing students to learn from different vantage points. Liberal Arts studies offer an immersive educational experience grounded in experimentation, deliberation, and creativity. You will join a small community of scholars with significant exposure to activities, projects, and trips, thereby readying you for life, says Vartika Arora, Associate Professor at JDSoLA, NMIMS.

Thanks to the experienced visiting faculty from industry, civil society, academics, government services and the arts, you can expect core academics to be supplemented with skills needed for the workplaces of the future.

Tell me more about B. A. (HONS.) Liberal Arts program at JDSoLAThe B. A. (HONS.) Liberal Arts program at JDSoLA combines Humanities and Social Sciences with Natural Sciences, Creative and Performing Arts. Dont get overwhelmed by this transdisciplinary approach because education goes far beyond just textbooks. For instance, theres scope for exposure outside of classrooms at NMIMS. Students even have the option of attending workshops for active and guided learning. They are exposed to field-based learning through regular community engagements, visits and fieldwork. All in all, the program provides exposure and helps in developing key research, critical and analytical skills, among several other capabilities.

What are my career prospects?

The world is a canvas for a B. A. (HONS.) Liberal Arts graduates. For instance, you can undertake higher studies in your area of interest at Indian and international universities like Kritiksha and Tanishk. Kritiksha Sharma, is Batch of 2016-19 graduate of B. A. (HONS.) Liberal Arts program at JDSoLA. Currently, she is pursuing a Master of Fine Arts course at Sarah Lawrence College (with a specialization in Creative Writing).

I started with Liberal Arts as a doe-eyed teenager who thrived on utopian enthusiasm and believed that the world was her oyster. I had high ambitions to be a writer but no tangible path to get there. Very few institutions are able to nurture young minds to create a realistic path of their own choosing, regardless of how unrealistic their dreams might be. But look at me. I am someone who got into a reputed art school with a rather unconventional degree of my choice, and in that, I feel honoured to call myself a part of the NMIMS family, she says.

The Fun ElementIf its getting all about academics, this school is also a great place for your overall personality development, thanks to the exposure to fun, outdoor camps and learning activities done here. Earlier in 2019, students were taken to Karnataka as a part of the Discover India campaign! You can expect a guided tour of the Asiatic library Book Conservation Lab or you could also find yourself writing for the institutes monthly newsletter and blogs made by students discussing current topics. The school has seen famous guests like Naseeruddin Shah and Tom Alter grace their important occasions. Also, JDSoLA students-run Paperplanes is one of the most exciting college fests!

NMIMS AccreditationsNMIMS is placed at the forefront of educational platforms owing to its academic quality, research focus and faculty from top national and global institutes and industries. In 2003, NMIMS was declared deemed to be a university under UGC graded autonomy regulator. With a NAAC score of 3.59 and grade A+, NMIMS has received Category-I Autonomy Status. A liberal arts education provides a strong foundation across disciplines and inculcates critical and professional abilities in students. This enables them to develop their interests, mould their personal pursuits and eventually find their career path. Tertiary education will equip our schools graduates with a range of skills. Critical thinking, the ability to recognise multiple perspectives, the proficiency to generate an argument, and the dexterity to acknowledge diverse stakeholders, says Dr. Achyut Vaze, Dean Incharge, Jyoti Dalal School of Liberal Arts (JDSoLA), NMIMS.

Am I eligible to apply?

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Heres how a Liberal Arts degree from NMIMS can open a world of lucrative career prospects - Times of India