I was a little sorry, I admit, not to see 2024’s most exciting new form of wokeness get more attention in the press. I am referring, of course, to Alberta denialism. Late last month a few people noticed that a research questionnaire on “2SLGBTQ+” poverty, part of a federally funded project by St. Mary’s University in Halifax, was being published in search of Alberta participants — and so the questionnaire asked “Do you live in Alberta?”
Available multiple-choice answers were “Yes,” “No,” and the hyper-modern third option: “I do not recognize the province of Alberta, but live in a region within the geographic boundaries of what is known as the province of Alberta.”
I work in a technical/artistic field that provides contracted services for a federal government department. I get a lot of people sending me resumes, and then follow-up phone calls, just to see if there are any openings. My favourite throw away line –always over the phone, is “we don’t currently have any openings” followed by, “and while it’s not an official policy, generally speaking we don’t acknowledge degrees from ______ (it’s always Concordia or Simon Fraser).”
You should all stop acknowledging the ‘so-called’ university on the unceded territory known as the University of…..whatever.
I do not recognize planet Earth but live in a region called the universe which includes Earth within its limitless boundaries.
So, next time we’re in the neighborhood we should look you up?
Oh btw, how do you feel about Pluto?
I do reside on a colonized planetary body but I do not recognize the planet claimed by humans called Turtle Island.
“the hyper-modern third option” which was historically referred to as ‘treason against the Crown.’
Not that I put great stock in the Crown and it’s doings these days, but it is always good to know the meanings of things.
They left out the option I would need. “‘Alberta’? I am a complex transdimensional being, and know little of this ‘Alberta’ of which you speak.”
All right, I should be more honest: “I do not recognise the province of Alberta because I cannot recognize my hand in front of my face, but I am parasitically dependent on the services and money provided to me by Alberta and its people.”
I’m still waiting for the “and therefore I do not use fossil fuels”.
This is where land claim announcements lead to.
Given that this poll had something to do with the alphabet people, it would be consistent that it include some level of deviancy. IOW, biological and psychological deviancy may be consistent with geographical and or psycho-epistemological deviancy.
In short, the alphabet people don’t know where they are, nor do they have a grasp, let alone a theory, of knowledge.
Late last month a few people noticed that a research questionnaire on “2SLGBTQ+”
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Someone ran an APB? What did the driver with that license plate do? (I say while being proudly obtuse)
It could be directed at certain morons in marketing departments.
Examples: Alberta Vodka says it’s in Calgary, Canada, not Calgary, Alberta.
Or a few that claim to be “Better Buy Alberta” products but, again, their addresses make no mention of being in Alberta; only Canada.
I do not recognize Mexifornia, but acknowledge the State of CA my great grandparents “settled” in 1919. The 31st State in the United States of America, admitted to the Union in 1850.
The Calgary area and what is now called southern Alberta was purchased by the United States of America from France in 1803, 67 years before Canada existed.
This international transaction was known as the Louisiana Purchase.
When the NWMP were first sent to Rupert’s Land (Hudson’s Bay Company chartered territory) in 1873 to interdict American whiskey traders who lived and acted as if the area they traded in was part of the United States of America. Which it was.
https://cdn.britannica.com/70/89970-050-1635C383.jpg
No, it wasn’t. The Americans bought the French claim to its full extent, and it extended not to the Lesser Divide but only to the 49th parallel, which the French had agreed with the British was the easily-surveyed approximation of the Divide as long ago as the Treaty of Utrecht. The Milk River country north of 49 had ceased to be French well before the Americans bought from them. The Calgary area was of course never French or American.
Sounds like the Sovereign Citizens in court.
Judge says, “Is your name Joe Blow?”
Defendant: “No. I am the executor and beneficiary of the Joe Blow Trust.”
Decolonizing and indigenizing are all the rage in Halifax (where the once-Catholic Saint Mary’s University is located). The Land Declarations get longer year-by-year, and they are repeated at the beginning of all university meetings, before each varsity athletic event, and, by many professors before each class. A few years ago I sat on a committee tasked with hiring a new Dean, and one of the first of several useless files supplied us by the highly-paid “academic executive search” firms, included a cover letter that began, “I wish first to acknowledge that I am writing this letter on the unceded territory of the …. etc.
Increasingly, the fashionable people of Nova Scotia’s capital only refer to the municipality as “Kjipuktuk/Halifax”.