Sandy Garossino 🇨🇦🌻 Profile picture
Writer, former trial lawyer, & columnist with @natobserver. Also on Post at this same handle. She/her Not notable at all, per my fam
papillon4444 🇨🇦🏳️‍🌈🇸🇻 Profile picture Dr Norlaine Thomas (She/Her) Profile picture Linda Bee 🌿🇨🇦🇵🇸 🇺🇦 Profile picture 3 subscribed
Jan 31 7 tweets 2 min read
In 2012 I began researching social media's failure to protect children & youth.

12 YEARS AGO I found rampant sexual blackmail/extortion of kids on the most popular sites.

Parents, media, the tech sector, educators consistently downplayed these findings. I asked @Raffi_RC if he would join the effort to raise public awareness, & he did.

He also wrote a book--Light Web Dark Web--raising alarms over children's vulnerability to tech & social media addiction, something I had not yet grasped.

The response in 2012-15 was silence
Jun 30, 2023 9 tweets 2 min read
Me on this latest #Meta & #Google business.

These companies are drawing ~$10 BILLION a year in ad revenue out of Canada--paying zero tax here on that income.

But they'll use mob tactics to skip out on a 3% tariff.

#cdnpoli Torstar & Postmedia have, between them shed $600M annually in annual payroll since 2011.

Taxpaying Canadian journalists gone.

Just think of the journalism we Could. Have. Had.
Jun 14, 2023 17 tweets 4 min read
Some reflections on @garymasonglobe’s strong & important column—

🧵 If all the CPC in its many iterations over the years was to oppose the carbon tax for votes, it would be bad enough.

But they did more—so much more than just that.
Jun 13, 2023 7 tweets 2 min read
This is only a theory, but based on some (now years old) real world experience.

The fixation in some circles on pedophilia and child grooming may be completely misdirected but is not baseless.

Short thread: The bizarre Qanon & other claims that there is an orchestrated child grooming campaign by the left and LGBTQ+ people is obviously false.

Yet, years ago, when I first looked at the dangers of social media for kids, it was clear that online predation was a growth industry.
Feb 22, 2023 8 tweets 3 min read
Don’t forget what they did before they were served donuts in Ottawa Blocking a children’s vaccine clinic.

cbc.ca/amp/1.6275947
Aug 29, 2022 8 tweets 2 min read
There is no fertilizer ban

Albertans are not taxed more than anyone else, but less.

They’re getting a new pipeline because Trudeau bought it and is building the expansion

But none of this matters Canada had one of the best vaccine rollouts in the world

We had extremely fast aid programs as we went into lockdown, saving countless Canadians & businesses

We negotiated inclusion in Biden’s historic climate legislation

We have the first ever national childcare program
Aug 27, 2022 5 tweets 1 min read
The fact that there are abusive jackasses of all stripes in a country of 38 million—

Does not mean that we’re dumb enough to fall for a defence like this.

The whole country saw it. Only one major party with elected MPs overtly or tacitly supported an organized group that illegally occupied our capital, blockaded our borders, targeted politicians & attacked journalists.
Jul 4, 2022 7 tweets 2 min read
Storytime--just in case it saves someone else.

Was out a couple of weeks ago for my regular forest run with a pal.

When I got to our meeting place she was on the phone with her 96 yo mom. 1/ But she was staying on the phone for a long time, and then rang off, saying that the home care nurse would be there in a couple of hours and she'd check in then.

I asked what was up.

She said her mom had called because she was "feeling funny" and "not herself"
Mar 5, 2022 11 tweets 3 min read
For my followers--please see the Google translate generated doc of the whistleblower's report posted by @christogrozev in this thread.

As he cautions, it's authenticity is not wholly verified, but looks very reliable.

(NB there is a fifth image in my thread) @christogrozev Key points:

"The Pandora's box is open - a real global horror will begin by the summer - global famine is inevitable (RU & UA are the main suppliers of grain in the world, this year's harvest will be smaller, and logistics will bring the catastrophe to a peak point)"
Mar 5, 2022 4 tweets 1 min read
This seems like a foolishly obvious conclusion, yet stunning to contemplate:

Putin is done for. There is no return to the world stage, to glory, wealth or power. He is finished.

The only question is what nightmare he will visit upon the world as his trajectory pitches downward. Putin's lifelong ambition of re-assembling the Soviet Union or even Tsarist Russia is an abject failure, 10 days into his first major assault.
Feb 24, 2022 12 tweets 2 min read
At the risk of being overly cerebral in a moment of true horror—

Russia is facing some extremely serious risks here, and not just from external sanctions.
1/
It’s worth looking at the history of the Soviet Union & Warsaw Pact, in large measure a creation of the Yalta Conference after WWII.

Ie, the Soviet Union as a functioning industrialized & unitary political entity lasted from the mid-40’s to the mid-late 80’s.
Feb 24, 2022 5 tweets 1 min read
Truly, my support for the EA was wholly about removing an occupation that had taken over the capital city & shut down commerce.

Per numerous accounts, the occupiers were dug in and determined to stay & resist authorities.

It seemed an overwhelming police response was needed. 1/ Because children were embedded among people who might or might not be armed, I supported cutting off access to funds as a temporary form of pressure.
Feb 16, 2022 6 tweets 3 min read
This podcast was the WORST take on the blockade except for Fox News.

Almost wholly sympathetic, excited, even tear-jerking. Over a group that has destroyed life for tens of thousands of Ottawans, throwing countless out of work.
1/n Glossed over or ignored that:

1. the blockade is not a majority trucker group

2. Its founders are extremists whose aim is to overthrow the Cdn govt

3. After an election where 60% voted for mandate supporting parties. 2/

@nytimes @mikiebarb
Feb 14, 2022 4 tweets 1 min read
What’s most frustrating about this is that the best tools to solve this haven’t even been touched.

Suspend drivers licences. Use civil forfeiture to seize vehicles.

Immediate dominos are MV insurance & bank loans.

Do it 10 times & 95% of protesters will vanish. These are all within provincial & municipal policing authority.

No idea if the fed govt can assume those powers in an emergency.

The failure by Ford, Kenney et al to lift a finger to use non-forceful measures to disperse these people needs some kind of inquiry.
Feb 14, 2022 7 tweets 1 min read
The other GoFundMe campaigns that hit the top 10 of all time were, with one exception, US based.

Remember their population is ~10x Canada’s & they donate MUCH more overall than we do as a rule. It’s hard to get an apples to apples comparison, but StatsCan puts the median total 🇨🇦 charitable gifts at $310 annually.

Experts estimate 60% of US households donate, & avg annual giving is $2-3000.
Feb 13, 2022 4 tweets 1 min read
Come what may I will always believe in the amnesia, stupidity, & laziness of the people. Which sounds terrible and is in some ways, but the sugar-high of these nutbars is wearing off.

Then comes the infighting over money, & the pressure of occupying a city where they’re hated
Feb 13, 2022 4 tweets 1 min read
While we’re on divisive subjects, everyone who says The Godfather was the greatest movie ever, in what decade did you last watch it?

Because I put it on for my niece t’other night, & hoo-boy… Haven’t watched it beginning to end for probably 30 years at least.

It was definitely brilliant & historic film-making, but the women characters without exception were capital D Disasters.

In roles, lines & acting. (Except Mama Corleone)
Feb 12, 2022 4 tweets 1 min read
Anti-vaxxer coda:

It’s my right to force you to serve me, sit next to me, socialize with me.

You will do what I say, when I say it. Freedom for me, not you.
Feb 12, 2022 4 tweets 1 min read
So we didn’t actually need the army after all?

We just needed provincial governments & police to enforce the law? This could’ve been done Day 1.
Feb 4, 2022 7 tweets 1 min read
Ahhhahh!

Moneypot is gone, lawsuits being served, time to lawyer up, cowboys.

If you thought Trudeau was f**king you, wait til you meet YOUR OWN LAWYER!!
😏😏😏 Remember the 50,000 truck convoy?

The biggest in history?

Look at this.

60. Six-Zero

SIXTY guys in their stupid goddamn trucks with their goddamn horns.
Feb 2, 2022 4 tweets 1 min read
.@gofundme must give a full accounting to Canadians of all funds spent enabling an unlawful occupation of our capital, costing taxpayers millions & harming the lives of thousands. GoFundMe’s participation amplified and legitimized a fringe group of organizers—that weren’t even truckers—

Catapulting them into international attention.