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[andalucia]

Okay, fair enough.  But what if you worked in the U.S. and *lived* in Canadia?  That would be a pretty sweet way to take advantage of the favourable exchange rate, no?

And of course, the weed.
Yes, of course I was going to end up in this thread, Canadian pothead that I am.  And though the wastelandy corner of Southern Ontario which I have to call home for two more weeks this summer isn't Montreal or Vancouver, we do have this guy, who used to work with my father before beginning his crusade full time, and like side_show said, there's a very strong and open pro-legalization culture here.  So most people expect to see pot decriminalized here within the next decade, to give a generous estimate.

[AlohaDawg]

Ban on dog biscuits shaped like posties

TORONTO (Reuters) - Dogs chomping on mail carrier-shaped treats is no laughing matter for Canada Post.


The unamused Canadian postal service -- whose carriers endure more than their share of real dog bites -- convinced Pet Valu stores to stop carrying Bark Bars, dog biscuits that come shaped like cats and letter carriers.


"This is not in any way, shape, or form funny for us, and to make light of that ... I don't see that as funny at all, not even in the least," said John Caines, Canada Post's national media relations manager.


The pet store chain, which has 292 outlets in Canada, agreed to withdraw the treats after it received a letter from Canada Post saying that employees were concerned about the risks mail carriers face from dogs and unhappy with having dog biscuits shaped in their likeness.


Earlier this summer, a letter carrier from Chatham in southwestern Ontario broke both her wrists and had part of her ear ripped off when she was attacked by two pitbull-like dogs.


Caines said that in the first six months of 2004 there were 160 dog attacks on mail carriers across Canada.
 

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This sort of over-regulation is why I'm glad things are the way they are down here for now.

[Choop]

Hell, Dawg, my mailman just got attacked by a pit bull, off the job for such as three weeks recuperating. The problem above is this: what is a funny little treat to a sane person is a training tool of abuse to an insane person. Obviously, there are insane people with dogs. If dog ownership required sanity testing, the treats would be okay -- but there's no way to regulate that. Now, I don't know if Canada Post is run the same as the USPS, but if it's just a cease-and-desist plea from the postal service, it's hardly regulation.

[AlohaDawg]

Those of you capable of causally linking the shape of a dogbiscuit to the irresponsibility of the pet owner can vote for all the insane overregulators you want.  Even better if you can demonstrate that changing the shape of the dog biscuit will either make the owner more responsible or the animal less aggressive. As long as legislators continue to treat the symptoms, the illness will persist. These kind of bandaid solutions make legislators look like assclowns and don't serve to approach the real problem.

[wombat]

Do they really think a dog can associate a postman-shaped cookie to a live postman?  In any case the product in question doesn't look any more like a postman than any other human - you can only tell because it says "MAIL" on his chest.  Can dogs in Canada read?

Some of my best friends are Canadians, but, really, this is a hoot.

[side_show]

Do they really think a dog can associate a postman-shaped cookie to a live postman?  In any case the product in question doesn't look any more like a postman than any other human - you can only tell because it says "MAIL" on his chest.  Can dogs in Canada read?

Some of my best friends are Canadians, but, really, this is a hoot.

Ha!  This article just apeared in the Winnipeg Free Press this morning, and I actually just read it before I came in to work.  

These kind of bandaid solutions make legislators look like assclowns and don't serve to approach the real problem

Canada Post just sent them a little letter requesting they stop selling the cookies.  This isn't like a law or anything, just a Canadian company being typically politely Canadian to those poor Canadian Mail Carriers.  While it is owned by the Federal Gov't of Canada, (I'm pretty sure it's the same case for those of you down south too) Canada Post is definitely not a legislator.  And unlike the ultra-evil-insano' corporate hell hole, Wal-Mart, who sued the www.walmartcanadasucks.com out of existence and is now attempting to sue http://www.walmartsucks.org (also Canadian run) out of existence as well, there was never anything for the law courts here - a frivolous suit like that wouldn't make it through the courts.


So silly.  This is how Canada makes the news folks.

[AlohaDawg]

Do they really think a dog can associate a postman-shaped cookie to a live postman?  In any case the product in question doesn't look any more like a postman than any other human - you can only tell because it says "MAIL" on his chest.  Can dogs in Canada read?

Some of my best friends are Canadians, but, really, this is a hoot.

Ha!  This article just apeared in the Winnipeg Free Press this morning, and I actually just read it before I came in to work.  

These kind of bandaid solutions make legislators look like assclowns and don't serve to approach the real problem

Canada Post just sent them a little letter requesting they stop selling the cookies.  This isn't like a law or anything, just a Canadian company being typically politely Canadian to those poor Canadian Mail Carriers.  While it is owned by the Federal Gov't of Canada, (I'm pretty sure it's the same case for those of you down south too) Canada Post is definitely not a legislator.  And unlike the ultra-evil-insano' corporate hell hole, Wal-Mart, who sued the www.walmartcanadasucks.com out of existence and is now attempting to sue http://www.walmartsucks.org (also Canadian run) out of existence as well, there was never anything for the law courts here - a frivolous suit like that wouldn't make it through the courts.


So silly.  This is how Canada makes the news folks.

One word that does describe Canadians is "polite". I'm not sure how I parsed that into a law...in the US, what would have happened is a huge pile-on effect...as soon as the postmen said it was upsetting there would have been 20 companies making and mass-marketing them. Someone probably would have marketed a canned dog-food with "Kibble, Gravy and Chunks o' Mailman" even.

[slink]

Wow.
Good pot and mailman shaped dog-biscuits.
I have to hurry up and move over there.

[andalucia]

One word that does describe Canadians is "polite".

I have to follow up my yay Canada spiel with a reminder that the Aboriginal people of Canada have been dealing with a very polite genocide for our entire history.  I'm pretty sure the play I'm writing (and will hopefully soon get a grant for) will be called "Very Polite Genocide."  Part of the problem of fighting for actual, real, social change is that everybody in our country is so gosh, darn polite.  "Oh, wow, yes, as a gov't official, I can say that this is a horrible thing that's happening.  It's really terrible that the majority of Aboriginal Canadians live lives comparable to whose living in a third world country.  I feel very bad about that.  I do.  We're so sorry."  So you're sorry?  What are you going to do about all these problems.  "Well, I did say I am sorry.  Now that we're admitting we're sorry, can't you just be nice about it and move on?"

This is indeed a very good point, and I've found that the level of socially acceptable racism towards Aboriginals in Canada is much higher than that for any other group.  In my generation, there seems to have been a lot of attempts made in Canadian history classes to discuss important Aboriginal figures and to emphasize the fact that the European colonizers really did fuck the indegenous inhabitants over pretty badly, but I found that courses I took in European history still presented the colonizers as virtuous explorers... still a lot of work to be done, I suppose.

[AlohaDawg]

That's an unwinnable fight. But good luck.