Angry RANT:
Since it was confirmed that @ryanjespersen was fired by @630CHED, I've taken a couple days to stew over it. I was angry, and I didn't want to say the wrong thing. I realize though, it's important to stand up and say something regardless.
And I am STILL angry
Thread:
Silence and neutrality only uphold the oppressor. Integrity matters. This is something Jespersen clearly believed in himself: He has the kind of Integrity that I've seen in few people. Which makes his firing all the more bizarre, and inspires me to stand up for what's right.
Is @ryanjespersen perfect?
Nobody is. (including me, and those railroading him). We didn't agree on everything, but I approved of *how* he did it: What I disagreed with, I still understood, and heard differing points of view on the subject to consider. That's a good thing.
I found the show fair, balanced, and factual. Some don't like that. They're most comfortable in a tribalistic echo chamber and fixate on what is not. He could have pandered to this but didn't. Often the guest did the talking, not him, but when it mattered, he stood his ground.
@ryanjespersen had racialized voices on-air discussing their own issues: He had Bashir Mohamed, a well known Edmonton Racial Activist, on for an interview and at the last minute was threatened with a lawsuit to prevent it.
He did it anyway.
Listen here:
He previously had him on when Mr. Mohamed was facing a lawsuit from Edmonton MP Kerry Diotte over his apparent support of white nationalist, Faith Goldy, who has appeared on a neo-nazi podcast and was seemingly too much of an extremist for even Ezra Levant and rebel "media".
He put a spotlight on racialized people & issues like @blmyeg, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, and would likely be talking about #OrangeShirtDay2020 today if he could. For that, he drew criticism, and had calls for his removal from people who "didn't listen" to his show 🙄
Where I fall on 'political correctness' and 'cancel culture' is they are generally euphemisms for 'correctness' and 'consequences'.
If someone does something wrong, we have every right to make decisions in our own lives, with it in mind. Some would call it voting with our feet.
But the problem with "cancel culture" is good people end up cancelled, often for the slightest mistake, or in this case, spindoctoring of something out of context, and we are worse off for it than we were before, while some truly horrible people get off.
So if he deserved it I'd have no issue with his removal, but @ryanjespersen
Isn't being punished for doing something wrong. He is being railroaded for calling out someone elses wrongs.
Isn't that what we want from the media? Someone to hold politicians accountable?
Mike Nickel, who is throwing as much mud as he can in his lead up to running for mayor, Violated #YEGcc's code of conduct multiple times on social media according to Jamie Pytel, YEG's Integrity Commissioner's report:pub-edmonton.escribemeetings.com/filestream.ash… and needed a sanctions hearing.
Jespersen comments on these bone-headed tweets, and HE is the one held accountable?! For what? Making reference to the 'Infinite monkey theorem'? Go ahead, google search it in images. How did so many get away with using this image?
Because
It's.
Not.
Racist.
Note:#YEGcc voted 8-4 against Nickel, but that's all he needed to not be held accountable for spreading defamatory disinformation, among other things, and he then quickly did it again to Jespersen. Kerry Diotte or even Faith Goldy haven't really been held accountable either.
Actual racists get away with it unscathed, and here we have the same people who call Jespersen a "snowflake" and decry cancel culture, acting all offended?
They're not offended. They are opportunistic.
I couldn't sit back and do nothing.
One day, our kids, and their kids, will ask what it was like in 2020, and what we did. I don't want my answer to be 'nothing'. So I did something: @AlbertaMasks was created to affordably get as many of the best masks out in public as possible.
They use nanofibre to filter 99% of particles the size of 0.075 microns! They're light and breathable, washable/reusable, and protect the mask wearer without taking away supply from the healthcare workers who need N95s the most. We are undercutting the competition at $14.99/mask.
Nanotech is quite new in face masks, but the few I've seen with this tech were selling for $35-$80+ per mask. I'm NOT doing this for the money. There is actually a high chance I will lose money since I have to pay upfront for stock, and then I'm selling for so much less.
Independent human rights board of inquiry chair @bnperryman said that medical marijuana should be an eligible expense since it requires a doctor’s authorization and thus didn’t fall within the plan’s exclusions.
“Since medical marijuana was prescribed for pain management (cont'd)
"...it was accepted that it is a medical necessity and should be covered,” the board said in in a statement.
“This is the first case of its kind in Canada” said Christine Hanson, director and CEO of @NSHumanRights
“we expect that it will examined in future case law.”
Still trying to remember more questions from the Weed the People Q&A: Was asked if we only see patients with cancer. I had wondered if there was too much focus on that in the movie, and it gives that impression. In fact, that's not the case at all. Cannabis works for so much:
A lot of people get medical cannabis for anxiety, pain, epilepsy, arthritis, insomnia, etc. There is also better evidence for treating these things compared to cancer, and the results can be pretty life changing.
I took this opportunity to point out why it can treat so much:
Some people are sceptical about medical cannabis and there is nothing wrong with healthy scepticism.
It often sounds too good to be true. But that's because the CB1and CB2 receptors arent concentrated in one place. They are all across the body in the endocannabinoid system.
*Thread part 3”
After Xmas I drove home to Alberta, and then on to B.C. (You should see the hilarious video of Jr learning to ski)
I stopped in Invermere, BC, at @Invermerecanna1 which was not far off the highway. Talked to the friendly woman working there, who was helpful. (1/4)
I wanted to pick up some @TantalusLabs flower, since I’ve seen lower prices for it in BC and I like what they are doing. Unfortunately they only had prerolls. I ended up going with a little @SanRafael71 Pink Kush (on sale) and @COVECrafted “Rise”. (2/4)
@SanRafael71 produces a decent Pink Kush, with about 19% THC, and a little over 2 mths from package date to purchase. It’s a shame there’s so much packaging for 1g, and I wonder if it is recyclable. In the box there is a plastic container like a big cheese and cracker handi-snack
*Thread part 2*
Aside from the Hash Plant from @emeraldhealthca, I also picked up some Wappa by @redecanca. This is one I had previously done the nose test on, and loved it, so I was looking forward to actually testing it out. (1/5)
At 24%, it is high THC. It was also packaged just under a month prior to purchase (Nov 26), which I was quite happy to see.
Minimal packaging, although the tiny plastic case is in a box twice it’s size, which goes straight into the recycling. (2/5)
Speaking of the box, I find it hilarious that @redecanca seems to literally use double sided tape to affix their excise stamp to it 😆. For some strange reason they don’t come with a sticky side, and each LP has to come up with their own method. (3/5)
*Thread* So let me tell you about travelling and seeing out of town Cannabis shops over Xmas break:
Ms. McCannabis and I took Jr to Saskatoon to start. While there, I stopped in at Living Skies Cannabis, which claims to be the only locally owned and operated store in Saskatoon.
The owner is 20-something entrepreneur, Cierra Sieben-Chuback. Other stores in S’toon include @TweedInc, a couple @Prairie_Records (owned by @Westleaf_Inc), @mykiaro, and The Pot Shack. (2/9)
Inside, it’s a little strange at first to enter a room to get ID’d before entering the actual retail area (Image from @Leafly). Complying with regulations must’ve been so fun...
Anyway, I wanted to see what kind of selection they had, and if they had “Cannabis 2.0” products.(3/9)