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“how many white employees work in Tim Hortons” was hilarious.

I am so happy people are starting to speak up. Sadly, I am changing. I am becoming angry. Angry at immigrants and the system. Am I becoming racist? Or just so lost at how things seem so wrong. My main upset is for my teen son. Turned 16 after Christmas. So excited about looking for a part-time job, earning some money, getting experiences and (unbeknownst to him ) expanding his social circle. This excitement came from me. LIke all us Canadians who remember our first part-time jobs (mine was at a McDonalds), I regaled my son in stories of that first part-time job. How much I learned from it, and the so many benefits it would have for me as I got older. He listened, and couldn't wait to turn 16. Also, like most parents, I raised him on the benefits of working hard in school, getting good grades, learning, getting involved, etc. Do these things son, and you will have a good future. He listened. Honours student all his life. Played on school teams. Performed in talent shows, Volunteered his time, etc., etc. Not a bad resume for a first time teen seeking a job. It is now heading into September. He has applied at all the traditional teen job hotspots, (all the fast food joints, grocery stores, drug stores, etc). Dozens of resumes, online and in-person applications. Not a single response. Then I walk into the local Burger King. Not a single Caucasian, Black, Hispanic, Indigenous, or Far Eastern employee. All East Indian (or Pakistani). Suddenly I am really noticing this trend everywhere, especially in the franchise fast food industry; especially upsetting when I even see it in a Harvey's (even more Canadian than Timmies). It's either East Indians or Arabs. I don't know for how long I have been hearing about diversity and fair hiring practices (which I have always supported); but to see this trend makes me furious. Are the owners of these franchise exempt from fair hiring practices? Are they not taught we are a diverse country? This is wrong. I want to finish with two sad situations which we should all be concerned about. When my eldest was looking for part-time work after the pandemic, he walked into a Mr. Submarine. He asked if he could leave his resume or fill out an application. The Arab cashier told him in broken English they were not hiring. As he was walking out, a young Arab man walked in. He approached the same cashier and asked for an application. She gave him one. WTF. My last comment, is the most concerning of all. My 16 year old, who works so hard at school, and at everything he does, recently commented, after yet another non-reply after handing out a slew of resumes, "Dad... what's the use of working so hard if I can't even get a job at McDonalds." I wonder how many other Canadian teens are feeling the same way. Not just white teens. Black, Hispanic, Indigenous and East Asian teens. Seems the broken English East Indian and Arab teens and young adults aren't asking themselves that. How long until my son thinks I am just spewing BS about this hard work thing? This is not about racism. This is about fair hiring practices, especially in more and more franchises; however, I do find myself listening to more and more of these videos, and find myself developing sucb negative feelings towards these two cultures. This is not Canadian. To be thinking this way, especially, is not Canadian. What do we do? Speak up, and we are racist. Stay quiet, and our teen kids move into adulthood without job experience, money put away, or just having a life experience that any of us over 30 (no matter our race) experienced. Something has to change; but I haven't a clue how to do that.

Too many people are so uneducated about what Trump is really going to do!! They do NOT understand how tariffs work!! Unlike Kamala’s plan to stop the price gouging in the grocery stores…the GOP will drive prices through the roof!!! Anyone who voted for Trump has a lot of moments ahead of finding out what he was claiming he would do that 1) either he can’t because he doesn’t have the authority to just play God or 2) he had not intended the results that people thought in the first place!! \nBut it is truly going to be a scary time as we watch unemployment start to skyrocket, especially as he gets rid of career government employees!! The unemployment numbers under Biden soon will be a distant memory!! After all, Biden has continued to drop unemployment numbers on a monthly basis, breaking all prior records of low unemployment on a monthly basis for the past 4 years!! The inflation rate which did not include costs of food, were also dropping consistently including this past month!! I believe it under 3% by close to 1/2 a percentage point!\nBut what will truly be frightening will truly be if he accomplishes his plan to get rid of SSI, Medicare & Medicaid as well as the Affordable Care Act!! I’m sure millions are also hoping the $35 cap on Insulin doesn’t just stop before they have to pickup their next prescription! \nBottom line: when in our History have we ever faced a more frightening future at the whim of the Dictator in the White House??

Aren’t we fortunate in the US to have **none** of these problems!\n\nWe have no homeless here!\n\nTake a look at SF, LA (where all “solutions” are rooted in Bolshevism; “Hi, we’re from the government and will be taking over half of your front yard for homeless yurts (Ok, tents)--true story. Take a gander at any large, medium, and even a few small cities.\n\nHave you ever heard of Detroit (once proud home of my beloved Motown music), Baltimore (complete devastation), or Chicago (my home town—don’t make me cry)?\n\nThe entire homeless situation started when mental hospitals were snake pits and certain factions demanded that people be released.\n\nSure, it sounds humanitarian but they didn't bother to consider what would happen to mentally ill patients suddenly left to their own devices on the streets.\n\nThe do gooders actually were foolish enough to believe that the seriously ill patients (schizophrenic, bipolar, borderline, and plenty of others) would take their meds on their own. It doesn't work that way for patients who are not in contact with reality.\n\nNow we add extreme drugs (crack, meth, heroine, ketamine, whatever they hand out at parties, etc) and severe cases of PTSD/PTSS. It's obscene that we have veterans on the streets.\n\nHeath care--?. Pre Obamacare it wasn’t terrible but medicine had become a CYA project. We are so litigious (side eye to John Edwards ) that doctors practice defensive medicine and carry high limit malpractice insurance (guess who pays for that?). Every decision is driven by avoiding lawsuits, not proper patient care.\n\nPost Obamacare, US health care is an unmitigated disaster at every level. We’re short on doctors, too. Many quit and students are losing interest—medicine won’t pay enough anymore to justify $500K in loans.\n\nWe could repeal every bit of Obamacare tomorrow and still not be able to fix it. The leviathan grew tentacles that released toxins into every nook and cranny of the system. Now that they have buried themselves in critical layers, it would be impossible to yank them out.\n\nI have a good PCP who is booked 6-8 weeks out. Specialists? Hah. GI, neuro, and derm? Four to six month wait post referral.\n\nI never thought I would say such a thing but I would probably swap the Serial Sexual Predator occupying the WH for your Little Lord Fauntleroy.\n\nCan Canada compete with us in corruption? Government employees seriously tried to topple a sitting president and not only were there no consequences, they were able to retire on fat pensions that we citizens work hard to provide for them.\n\nOur government is run entirely by K Street lobbyists; our “representatives” don’t even draft legislation, that’s done for them by K ST.\n\nHow about crime? Do we even need to talk about it?\n\nHousing crisis? Prices were already too high when the regime (predictably) created runaway inflation and we saw the end of affordable interest rates. Even 0.25% increase will knock out many buyers; they won’t be able to qualify.\n\nWe are seeing huge jumps; young people have resigned themselves to never being homeowners.\n\nRacism? Again, look to the US. It’s nothing even close to what the make believe media caterwauls about. If white supremacists are behind every tree, where is the evidence? Surely, in 2023 has caught a cell phone video, right? Where are the videos? Show me the proof. There is plenty of footage of BLM destroying property and injuring, even murdering innocents. If we gripe about this behavior, we are raaayyyycccciiiiissssts.\n\nNo rational adult would claim that the US is not a violent country and becoming more so. Nor can we claim to have eliminated racism. That takes time; it cannot be done by force.\n\nOur economy went from smokin hot to dumpster fire in a short span of time. Pre election, head hunters were shaking the trees to find job candidates.\n\nOur unemployment is up as are our taxes with the stomping out of the tax cuts. \n\nDespite the endless sloganeering about how the Trump tax cuts only benefited “rich” people, it’s quite the opposite.\n\nHigh earners lost their pet deductions and lower income taxpayers were quite pleasantly surprised when they did their returns. The cuts were targeted to preserve wealth for the middle and lower classes.\n\nI could go on for another 100 pages but you get the idea and I get crabby writing for free.\n\nI will leave you with the caution that it’s best if you doubt and question any data and any stats coming from our government. Those are seldom legit. If the data comes from a study, always look to see who paid for it. And how large the sample size was; how were the participants selected? We are all on our own when it comes to ferreting out info.\n\nOh Canada!\n\nYou’re welcome.

Shoppers Drug Mart employees are the absolute worst in my experience for racial profiling. They opened a new store so had hardly any customers, I was shopping for painkillers where there are numerous drug types, brands, strengths (mg), styles (capsules, gel cap, tablets), amounts and prices - all in small writing which takes quite a bit of time to disseminate and decide upon especially when your eyesight is poor as mine is. After a while I looked up and noticed a security guard standing in the aisle watching me. I was shocked and confronted him, asking if he was watching me, to which he quickly denied and left. Was so disturbed I quickly left the store without buying anything and refused to return to that location. Another time I was shopping for an eyebrow pencil where the colour name was printed again in small letters so was spending time to find the one I wanted amongst all the different browns. After I had chosen and started to walk past their counter, their staff member stood with her arms folded shaking her head. This was very alarming as I had shopped in that store since it had opened! So after effectively being accused of shoplifting a $3 eyebrow pencil for no reason other than being black, at the cash line, a white guy sprints out the door carrying a $50 box of diapers! Whatever they are selling at Shoppers or anywhere else is not worth my freedom. They have no right to profile me when it is never going to be me stealing. There are many, many black people who just do not do those kinds of things. We are not all criminals. I have worked in lots of stores and the majority of people stealing are the majority of people in Canada - the white people. Stop living on stereotypes, Shoppers Drug Mart and don't pooh-pooh people's experiences when they call and complain!

I hate that at my work that we have a 5 foot rule; if a customer is within sight in 5 feet of you, you are to ask them if they need help with anything. Whether or not we suspect them of stealing. We don't discriminate racially, we do this with every person who walks into the store. Which is ridiculous because our store is very small and we have anywhere between 3 and 6 employees on the floor at any given time. So, inevitably, every customer is offered help many many times in their visit. I am always worried that a person of colour will think I'm profiling them, when I'm really not. I genuinely just want to know if they're finding everything they need or have any questions. If we were to racially profile based on the people who have stolen from us in the past, we'd be going after every white person who walks in the store. In my 3 years working there we have had only white people steal from us. So sick of the race issue, we're all humans. The amount of melanin in our skin should not matter.