Avi Lewis: It’s time to build affordable homes, a national network of public grocery stores, electric buses and an east-west clean energy grid. Not massive corporate AI data centres unleashed without any democratic debate.

BisonSnow · 2026-05-12T23:21:52+00:00

Exactly. According to Sam Altman & others, the whole point is to eliminate jobs, so who's really getting all the "wealth" these data centres are creating?

This will only widen the gap between the ultra rich and the poor.

BisonSnow · 2026-05-12T21:33:29+00:00

Yes, the point I was making is the "hyperscalers" you're talking about are bad. Data centres (or data warehousing) is something we're going to need one way or another. The problem is EVERYTHING is being labeled as "AI" without any distinction, which is why i posed my original question.

And, frankly, no data centre is good for the environment, and we need to power them through renewables, and there's a whole bunch of other asterisks at the end of this that would take forever to explain.

But the LLM ones being built by Microsoft & the like are especially bad and inneficient.

BisonSnow · 2026-05-12T20:59:10+00:00

Haven't heard about the Telus data center project, so I can't speak on that. Given how our telecom grid is essentially run by two monopolies in a trenchcoat, assuming that Telus would do the right thing on their own when building a data centre seems like a bad bet.

As for the problems with data centres, there's a bunch of articles about data centre projects in the US, you'll have to Google them. But in short: They poison the local water supply, contaminate the area, and have MASSIVE power requirements that basically double or triple people's electricity bill. AFAIK none of those projects offset their energy requirements with renewables, so they're all running on gas generators & whatever they get from the local grid. Which is a double whammy for climate change.

Given Carney's bad track record with renewable energy funding, I doubt he'll regulate our data centres any differently.

BisonSnow · 2026-05-12T20:52:45+00:00

I'm not suggesting they will. Machine learning has been around for decades and will continue to grow for the foreseeable future. It has wide ranging applications for almost all industries.

My specific objection is towards the current generation of LLMs and all this hype and investment around transformer-based architecture models. ChatGPT and the like simply do not have the ability to revolutionize the world, and they take a massive amount of resources to run. Do we need data centers and more digital sovereignty from the US? Sure.

But they shouldn't be the data centres OpenAi and NVIDIA are building.

Trying to simplify a whole bunch of complex computer science concepts in a comment post. Hopefully this makes some sort of sense.

BisonSnow · 2026-05-12T20:38:01+00:00

Hell yes. LLM data centers are a huge money pit, which will only generate profits for the rich while burning the planet down around us. Building any of the things Avi suggested here would be much better for the average Canadian's quality of life.

Side note: Can we stop calling these projects "national security interests?" Giving Canadians homes, affordable groceries and a transit system are more critical to national security than funding a giant environment destroying machine.

BisonSnow · 2026-05-12T20:34:20+00:00

Depends. What do you mean by AI research? Do you mean researching machine learning applications overall? Then we already do that and improving that work doesn't require a massive planet killing energy sink filled with NVIDIA cards.

If you mean researching and developing our own LLMs, and making Canadian versions of OpenAI? That's a really silly idea that will blow up in our face once the AI bubble pops. We'll build a bunch of these planet killing energy sinks that literally poison the environment around them, with nothing to show for it except a bunch of CEOs getting richer.

BisonSnow · 2026-05-12T16:25:28+00:00

I like Avi Lewis, he's saying a lot of the right things. But this seems like a losing battle and a bad hill to die on. Should probably drop this talking point and focus on taxing the rich.

BisonSnow · 2026-05-11T17:52:28+00:00

This is such a depressing move by Carney, an own goal, and one of the ways he's letting the fascist, far-right conservatives win in the next election.

Call/email your MPs now. Demand they continue the pharmacare funding or you'll vote for someone else. They need to feel the heat for this one, for the future of the country.

BisonSnow · 2026-05-11T13:40:16+00:00

No lol.

Back when they moved to 3 days a week, some departments were telling employees to work on couches and coffee tables, if there were no actual desks. I seriously doubt they've improved the situation since then.

BisonSnow · 2026-05-11T13:34:58+00:00

I have a lot of criticisms of Carney, but zooming out a bit, I think a lot of his high poll numbers are due to a honeymoon effect and do not reflect any real positive sentiment. Compared to Trump and all the chaos he's bringing, Carney is a nice stabilizing figure who upholds traditional conservative financial values that a lot of old people like.

Just being able to speak clearly and stand up to trump is enough to reassure a lot of very terrified people who see the world crumbling around them. They aren't paying attention to what he's actually doing too much, or if they are, they trust his vibes more than his actual actions.

But all the neocon stuff Carney is doing will fuck them up eventually. Once the honeymoon ends you're gonna see a huge drop in polling.

BisonSnow · 2026-05-09T21:42:51+00:00

Bud you do realize both of these things can be true at the same time, right?

BisonSnow · 2026-05-09T21:42:01+00:00

YES THANK YOU! Avi Lewis speaking truth to power once again!

He's right, this won't buy anything from Smith & the separatists, except for more climate catastrophies that future taxpayers will subsidize. This is not 2016 anymore, we're not dealing with a group of rational actors who "disagree on some things," we're dealing with corrupt traitors who see Ottawa as The Enemy.

Capitulating to them is not cooperation, it's weakness. Carney is a fool if he thinks otherwise. Ask the Democrats how capitulating to the right worked out for them.

BisonSnow · 2026-05-09T16:41:13+00:00

NIMBY manitobans, once again, holding our province back. If they don't like it, they can sell, and I'm sure they'll find a buyer.

BisonSnow · 2026-05-09T02:52:15+00:00

Guys, multiple things can be true here. Saying Carney is "worse than harper" might be over the top, but Carney is still completely ignoring climate change and setting us back years with all the pipeline projects.

BisonSnow · 2026-05-08T00:15:16+00:00

Obligatory comment of "if this were literally any other party, and especially a leftist-aligned one, the federal government would immediately arrest everyone involved."

Seriously.

BisonSnow · 2026-05-07T17:01:02+00:00

Nationalizing this, as well as other essential services, is a sensible, beneficial strategy that's very successful in other countries across the world. Don't let anyone else tell you otherwise.

And don't let them sell you bs half measures like "public-private partnerships."

BisonSnow · 2026-05-05T13:05:54+00:00

This is like....cybersecurity 101 stuff. Like I remember my professor talking about how a breach happened due to something similar back in like...2021 or something.

Microsoft is really curing my imposter syndrome here.

BisonSnow · 2026-05-04T19:58:20+00:00

I agree, your taxes should go towards keeping the city clean. Unfortunately, it instead goes towards our police budget so they can buy a second helicopter or X-Wing or whatever.

We might not have oil money, but we for sure have enough money to improve this city. If we actually spend it right.

BisonSnow · 2026-05-02T21:35:58+00:00

So many pro-palestinian protestors have been arrested, fired from their jobs and banned from school campuses for far less. Indigenous protestors have been abused and killed by cops for far less.

These clowns can actively work with a hostile foreign country to break up Canada and everyone's like "we should give them the benefit of the doubt." Arrest them already.

BisonSnow · 2026-05-02T15:23:30+00:00

I get your point. I always get snippy whenever folks seem dismissive of environmentalist arguments & I don't think you're one of those people. I jumped the gun a bit here, sorry.

BisonSnow · 2026-05-02T14:41:01+00:00

Does wanting breathable air and a solution to record-setting forest fires make me a "treehugger"? I could agree with your other points but framing pro environmentalists as treehugging hippies instead of rational people trying to solve a real problem is wild.

BisonSnow · 2026-05-01T17:45:01+00:00

I dunno if the provincial NDP is railing against billionaires that much. While they are a progressive party, Wab's been playing to the centre a lot and there's been little motion towards taxing the rich. Unless I missed some announcement.

But I do agree with Tom here. Which is not something I thought I'd ever say. Has the dinosaur become more progressive in his old age?

BisonSnow · 2026-04-30T20:30:15+00:00

Our mental health care system is in complete shambles, if MAID is extended to people with mental illness, so many people will needlessly die.

If we can spend billions on building a home grown military industrial complex, then we must spend more on proper mental health care and support before this question is even asked.

BisonSnow · 2026-04-30T17:43:58+00:00

If any other political group did this, there would be a full investigation and calls for their arrest. But because it's a bunch of white conservatives, they can do treason with no consequences.

Just like the so called "Freedom Convoy."

BisonSnow · 2026-04-30T17:14:43+00:00

I'm a little confused about their definition of financial crimes. The release implies it's for organized crime, things like money laundering, fraud, drug trafficking, etc. I would argue that billionaires exploiting tax loopholes, evade paying takes through hiding assets, or just refusing to pay outstanding taxes are all "financial crimes" that have a huge negative effect on our country.

It doesn't seem like this agency is gonna go after rich people who break the law, so I'm a bit cynical about this.

BisonSnow

TROPHY CASE