Gordon Hamilton, @DQStudent 🍉

#DataQuality instructor BCIT, Data Governance/Quality evangelist in the Vancouver data community.
#CeasefireInGaza

[guyfelicella🇨🇦🍁 @guyfelicella]

To all the haters, especially the weak anonymous weasel accounts hiding behind fake names:

I've heard it all before.

I came from sleeping in a doorway, struggling with addiction, and built an incredible life helping others.

I got better, while you got bitter.

Enjoy the ride.

[State of Palestine @Palestine_UN]

"Two million people who have endured an atrocious assault and a genocide for three years including one million children...

Our people are being denied even the most elementary healthcare, education, access to water, sanitation...

These are people. These are families. These are lives. These are children. They thought they were saved. They are still barely surviving...

There is no excuse for this manufactured human catastrophe. Ending it should be unconditional."

[Jason Hickel @jasonhickel]

I disagree that we are in a "New Cold War".

Rather, we are in a continuation of what we might call the Long Cold War, or the Great Anti-Sovereignty War, which has been waged by the imperial core against liberation movements and sovereign-seeking states in the periphery that have sought to break from their subordination and exploitation within the imperialist world-system.

The Long Cold War encompasses Western attacks against the Russian revolution and the Chinese revolution, through the long series of invasions and regime-change operations that targeted Korea, Guatemala, the DRC, Brazil, Ghana, Indonesia, Vietnam, Chile, Burkina Faso, etc, continuing well beyond the fall of the USSR with the invasions of Iraq, Libya, Syria, etc., all the way to the strangulation of Cuba and the invasions of Venezuela and Iran in 2026.

As I see it, the usual claim that the Cold War runs from 1945-1991 doesn't work, the periodisation is wrong. The core states sought to destroy the USSR as soon as it was founded, long before 1945, and in any case their violence was never only just against the USSR, or just against USSR-aligned states, nor even just against socialism; it was fought against any sovereign-seeking state in the periphery - including non-aligned states - that threatened to escape the imperial arrangement.

The Long Cold War is, in other words, an imperialist backlash against the long struggle for liberation in the periphery. This aggression didn't end in 1991, it continues today, and it will continue well into the 21st century until it is defeated. And defeated it will be.

[Avi Lewis @avilewis]

Major Canadian experts in internet security and privacy - like @RonDeibert, @OpenMediaOrg and @cancivlib - are absolutely freaking out about Bill C-22.

They’re sounding massive alarms, warning that it could:

- force companies to keep metadata for up to a year, making a vast trove of personal information vulnerable to leaks and hacks

- make encryption meaningless by creating backdoors in software that allow police and gov. agencies to scoop up our personal data and messages

- give US police and spy agencies direct access to Canadians’ personal data without warning or oversight

So what is the Carney government doing? Ramming C-22 through in the dying hours of the session.

Meanwhile, Minister Solomon offers a retail sales pitch for potential powers of a new regulator that won’t even exist for at least 18 months.

Instead of just banning surveillance pricing and protecting us from other forms of digital spying and extraction.

Bill C-22 is a disaster and should be withdrawn.

[BreakThrough News @BTnewsroom]

BREAKING: United Auto Workers today passed a resolution at its convention, 321-287, to divest from Israeli bonds.

With nearly 400,000 members, UAW becomes the largest US union to officially divest from Israel.

The vote received support from a range of sectors, including a large number of Michigan auto delegates, in addition to legal services and higher education.

The original call for divestment came from a wildcat strike of 2,000 mainly Arab American workers at Chrysler’s Dodge Main in 1973. Amid the genocide in Gaza, pro-Palestinian labor groups and UAW locals renewed and intensified their campaign.

Speakers motivated for the resolution by citing the union’s legacy of divesting from South African apartheid in 1978.

[🦅🏆 El HINCHA 🏆🦅⚽ @El_Hincha12]

LO QUE NADIE QUIERE QUE SEPAS.

☑️ Irán le solicitó a la FIFA jugar sus partidos en México por sus problemas políticos con Estados Unidos, la FIFA se lo negó.
☑️ Estados Unidos les advirtió que NO podían garantizar su seguridad dentro de su territorio.
☑️ Estados Unidos le negó la VISA a varias personas de su staff.
☑️ Irán tuvo que instalarse y hospedarse en Tijuana.
☑️ Para su partido de debut volaron de Tijuana a Los Ángeles, y justo al terminar el partido, se fueron directo al aeropuerto para tomar su vuelo de regreso a México en donde pasaron horas en revisión migratoria. ¿La razón? Estados Unidos les negó hospedaje en su territorio.

Es la selección que más difícil la está pasando en el mundial. Es increíble que sigan pasando estas cosas. Hoy Irán merece TODO nuestro respeto.

[Avi Lewis @avilewis]

The Liberals have used their newly acquired majority to push through major changes to Canada’s laws at the last minute and shut down debate on legislation with major implications for the lives of all Canadians.

This is not normal. This is what happens when a government thinks it can act with impunity.

[Steve Sweeney @SweeneySteve]

What David fails to mention here is where the I$raeli soldiers were killed. Just for clarity they were in Lebanese sovereign territory as an invading/occupying force

Lebanon has the right to defend itself, enshrined in international law.

But David seems to think that I$rael should have the right to carry out killings and massacres with impunity and complains when its soldiers face resistance.

You couldn’t make it up.

[Sony Thăng @nxt888]

They taught their children to fear the word "socialism" while their government was overthrowing socialist governments across four continents.

They taught their children that democracy was their "greatest export" while their intelligence services were assassinating democratically elected leaders.

They taught their children that America had never lost a war while losing wars.

They taught their children that the market was "free" while using military force to open other countries' markets.

They taught their children that they were "the good guys" and then sent those children to places that had never been given the option of seeing them as anything else.

And the children came home broken, or did not come home, and the country called them "heroes" and moved on, and the next generation of children was taught the same things, and the cycle continued, and the people who profited from the cycle donated to the libraries and universities that produced the textbooks that kept the cycle running.

This is not a conspiracy.

This is an ecosystem.

And everyone inside an ecosystem experiences it as nature.

[Theresa 🇨🇦 @TheresaLubowitz]

I'll remind the commentators that while this may be the greatest day in Canadian men's soccer history, the greatest day in Canadian soccer history was the day Christine Sinclair led the women's team to a gold medal in the Olympics.

[Omer Osman @OmerOsman200]

Hey racists/anti-immigrants that are always crying “go back to your country,”

7 of the 9 goals in Canadian World Cup history has come from an immigrant/child of immigrants:

Alphonso Davies: Liberian (born in a refugee camp in Ghana)

Cyle Larin: Jamaican

Jonathan David: Haitian (born in Brooklyn)

William Saliba: Haitian-Lebanese

Sam Adekugbe (he did not score a goal, but forced an own goal vs Morocco back in 2022): Nigerian (born in London, UK)

If you’re enjoying this success Canada is having lately, a large part of it is because of immigration.

[Oliver Janich @OliverJanich]

🔥Jewish Actor Mandy Patinkin (brillant in Homeland) gets really passionate about Gaza and the child killer Benjamin Netanyahu.

[Nassim Nicholas Taleb @nntaleb]

Today in Haaretz there is an article accusing Israel of being a terrorist state (plus committing crimes against humanity). It was not written by a Marxist member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
It was written by former Israeli PM Ehud Olmert.

[Hunter Biden @HunterBiden]

@guyfelicella If you’re looking for inspiration in your recovery, or just life in general, here it is. Guy’s story is amazing. We do recover.

[guyfelicella🇨🇦🍁 @guyfelicella]

@steeletalk Incredible. You should have seen all the people on Granville Street with Canadian flags and jerseys.

Pretty cool.

[William Dalrymple @DalrympleWill]

The illegality of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank is one of the most well-established positions in international law, resting on four distinct pillars:

📜 GENEVA CONVENTIONS
Article 49(6) of the Fourth Geneva Convention (1949) explicitly prohibits an occupying power from transferring parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies. Israel ratified the Convention in 1951. The International Committee of the Red Cross, the authoritative interpreter of humanitarian law, has consistently held that this provision applies directly to the settlements.

🌐 UN SECURITY COUNCIL RESOLUTIONS
The Security Council has repeatedly affirmed settlement illegality — including in binding resolutions the US did not veto:
• Res. 446 (1979): settlements have "no legal validity"
• Res. 465 (1980): calls on Israel to dismantle existing settlements
• Res. 2334 (2016): passed 14-0 (US abstained), explicitly states settlements constitute "a flagrant violation of international law" and have "no legal validity"

⚖️ ICJ RULINGS
• Advisory Opinion on the Wall (2004): the Court found settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, had been established in breach of international law, and that the wall built to protect them compounded that illegality
• Advisory Opinion on the Occupied Palestinian Territory (2024): the Court went further, ruling that Israel's continued presence in the OPT — including the settlement enterprise — is itself unlawful, and called on all states not to recognise or assist it

🏛️ UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY
Countless UNGA resolutions have reaffirmed settlement illegality, including Res. 77/247 (2023), which requested the landmark 2024 ICJ opinion.

No serious legal scholar disputes this consensus. The settlements are illegal. The only remaining question is whether the international community will act on it.

[Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt @FranceskAlbs]

US Sanctions? Hear the case, then decide for yourself.
You may disagree with my words, my findings, or my work as a UN independent expert altogether. That is legitimate.
But using sanctions against me for fulfilling a mandate is not debate about opinions: it is an abuse of power.

[guyfelicella🇨🇦🍁 @guyfelicella]

When some Americans tell me to stay out of their business because
I’m Canadian. 🇨🇦

When a U.S. president threatens my country, disrespects Canadians, and makes decisions that impact the entire world, it becomes my business too.
Human rights don’t stop at a border, democracy doesn’t stop at a border, and neither does my voice.

So no, I won’t stop talking about it. 🇨🇦✌️

[Hunter Biden @HunterBiden]

Dear Joe,
I wish I could sit down with you face to face and explain why so many of us were offended by the UFC fight on the South Lawn of the White House.
For me, it had nothing to do with the UFC or who showed up for the fights. The brand you and Dana have built is a bona fide American success story. More power to you. As for the fighters, in my book, anyone brave enough to put it all on the line in the arena is remarkable to witness. Their dedication and discipline inspire me. I don’t understand anyone who can’t admire that.
And as for the people who attended, I, for one, love Shane Gillis. I think he’s hilarious and brilliant. It was a show. A once-in-a-lifetime spectacle. I can’t blame anyone for wanting to witness it firsthand.
My problem is that I believe some of our public spaces are sacred. And unlike many of the great powers that came before us, these American monuments belong to all of us. Not to whoever happens to hold power at the moment.
The White House does not belong to Donald Trump. It does not belong to any President. It belongs to the people. To treat it as Caesar treated the Colosseum is antithetical to everything our founding fathers fought for.
This is not Rome. Presidents are not emperors doling out bread and circuses for the peasants. The White House is the People’s House. This “celebration” could have happened in any stadium within a stone’s throw of the South Lawn. No one would have had an issue with it.
But that was obviously Donald Trump’s whole point. By holding the event on the South Lawn, what he was saying to the rest of us is:
“This is my house. I own it. I will do with it what I please. I’ll build a colosseum and have the gladiators fight under my gaze. I’ll tear down the East Wing. I’ll pave over the Rose Garden. I’ll cover everything in gold and marble. I’ll erase the names of all the men who came before me.”
The fights were an exhibition of imperial domination, not a celebration of our 250th anniversary as a democracy.
The White House is not Buckingham Palace. It is not the Palace of Versailles. It is not the Forbidden City of Beijing. It does not belong to an emperor, or a king, or a commissar.
The White House belongs to us. All of us. The person who sits behind the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office is nothing more than an honored guest. A temporary caretaker.
The President is our servant. Not our Caesar.
Respectfully, Hunter

P.S. Cage match between me and Don Jr.? Your call on the venue. Anywhere but the South Lawn.