u/RoutinePerfection

I’m reading through the ASF module slides and I’m based in Canada.

I noticed that the slides have quite a bit of information specifically about Canada, and some of the examples are Canadian as well.

Is this something everyone gets, or does SOA somehow dynamically change/customize the slides depending on the candidate’s location?

Like, do candidates in the US get different examples/info, or is the Canadian content just part of the standard module?

Just curious because I wasn’t expecting the material to be this Canada-focused lol.

Today I took an Uber and the driver was a guy from Burkina Faso.

For the first few minutes I was talking to my family on the phone in Tunisian Arabic. When I hung up, he asked me:

«I'm a little familiar with Arabic. Are you from Algeria?»

I said no, Tunisia.

He went quiet for a weird moment. My first thought was that maybe he had been to Tunisia and had a bad experience, so I tried to break the awkwardness. I told him that I know things aren't going well in Tunisia and that some politicians have made things crazy, and that I was personally sorry if he had ever been mistreated by Tunisians.

He said, "No, it's not me. You just reminded me of my brother."

And then he told me his story.

His brother was a very practicing Muslim. He went to Tunisia hoping to cross the Mediterranean and reach Italy, like many West Africans who don't have many legal ways to get to Europe.

He lasted less than a month in Tunisia before begging his family to buy him a ticket home.

The driver told me he isn't doing well mentally since then. He barely leaves his room and apparently says only a few words.

One of the things he keeps saying is:

«There is no God.»

The driver was completely heartbroken talking about it.

Maybe his brother experienced things that destroyed his faith. Maybe he saw people doing terrible things and felt that nobody was being held accountable, and it made him question whether there could be any justice or God at all.

What hit me the hardest was that he wasn't angry at me. He wasn't offensive. He wasn't trying to make some political point. He was just telling me about his brother, and you could see how much it hurt him.

And honestly, I felt embarrassed.

Not because I personally did anything to him, but because hearing someone tell you that their brother came to your country with faith and hope and left so traumatized that he stopped believing in God is just... fucking heavy.

I don't know what happened to his brother, and I don't want to pretend I know the whole story. But I can't stop thinking about that conversation.

Sometimes you hear about migration as statistics, boats, borders and numbers. Then suddenly you're sitting in the back of an Uber listening to an actual person tell you what happened to his family.

And it hits very differently.

I was reading about how some major cities dealt with metropolitan growth, and it got me wondering why this conversation seems almost nonexistent here.

Take Toronto. In 1953, Metropolitan Toronto was created as a regional government covering 13 municipalities. By 1967, that had been reduced to six municipalities, and in 1998 those six were amalgamated into the current City of Toronto.

New York is an even more extreme example. The modern NYC was created through the 1898 consolidation of Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island into one municipal government.

Meanwhile, Montreal went through the municipal mergers in the early 2000s, but then the demergers happened in 2006, leaving the metropolitan area with a whole collection of independent municipalities. And I'm not even talking about annexing random towns 50 km away. I'm talking about municipalities that are basically part of the same continuous urban area.

So why wasn't there ever a serious discussion about going further and creating something closer to a single Greater Montreal municipality, or at least a much stronger metropolitan government?

I know Montreal has its own political problems, and obviously simply making one giant municipality wouldn't magically fix them. But even when Montreal was at its peak and growing rapidly, why was the conversation never really "should the entire urban area be governed as one?"

We already have Montreal, Longueuil, Laval and a bunch of other municipalities functioning as one metropolitan economy while still having separate political structures.

Genuinely curious: is there a historical, legal or political reason why this idea has basically never gained traction here?

I don't understand how Montreal can be this bad when it comes to public washrooms.

If you have diabetes, you can’t exactly plan your need to use a bathroom down to the minute. Sometimes you need a toilet urgently, and yet Montreal seems to have made public toilets a freaking luxury.

There are barely any public toilets in the city. No toilets in STM stations, and many parks either have no toilets at all or have these ghost toilets that technically exist but are closed, sometimes looking like they haven't been opened since the invention of the metro.

I've even read that the lack of public toilets goes back to budget cuts under Drapeau. Maybe that was true decades ago, but it's been almost half a century. At what point do we stop blaming a decision made generations ago and actually fix the problem?

The result is that people who urgently need a bathroom are basically forced to ask private businesses for permission. And sometimes the owner or employee is rude about it, which is understandable to some extent because it's their business, but it shouldn't be the only option.

And honestly, once you leave the island, the difference can be ridiculous. On the South Shore, for example, I find public toilet access much more frequent.

I'm not asking Montreal to put a luxury bathroom on every street corner. Just give people reasonable access to clean, functional public toilets, especially in metro stations, parks and busy public areas.

A city that wants to be accessible and inclusive should probably start with the ability to freaking pee when you need to.

Opened a new Scotiabank account because of their welcome bonus. The deal was simple: receive direct deposit for 6 months, then set up a PAD or pay a bill from the account.

I did everything. Direct deposit started the first week and continued for 10 months. I also did the other requirements.

After 6 months, I contacted chat and they literally confirmed I met the requirements.

Guess what? No bonus.

After following up, they told me: "Oh, the direct deposit has to come from the same source for 6 months."

Well... thanks for mentioning that nowhere clearly.

My situation: 2 months salary from Employer A, 1 month government payment, then salary from Employer B. Direct deposits every 2 weeks. No missed payments. No gaps. Apparently, according to Scotiabank logic, money arriving regularly is not enough. It has to come from the same magical source for 6 months.

I checked the offer details again and still couldn't find this requirement clearly stated.

So a warning for anyone doing these promotions: don't change jobs, don't get laid off, don't have any change in income source during those 6 months, otherwise congratulations, you played yourself.

Scotiabank really found a creative way to say "you did everything we asked, but actually no."

Pathetic? Maybe. Funny? Also maybe. At least I learned how these "too good to be true" bonuses work 😂

I bought a smartwatch with the wrong plan by mistake (Standalone instead of Number Share). I contacted Bell right away to switch the plan, but they told me it wasn't possible and that I had to return the watch and order a new one.

I returned it within the 15-day remorse return period, actually on the same day I received it. I paid the down payment by credit card, but it's now been 2 weeks and I still haven't received the refund.

On top of that, I can't place a new order because the system says there is a pending transaction.

My last bill also included an early cancellation fee and the first month's plan charges. After several calls, I finally reached an agent who fixed the billing and removed those charges.

The biggest problem now is that every agent tells me something completely different.

Some agents say the refund will go back to my original credit card. Others say it will appear as a credit on my Bell bill.

Some say refunds take 10 days after the warehouse receives the return. Others say 30 days.

Some agents can see my down payment. Others say they can't find any payment for that amount or even on that date. One agent even saw a completely different amount.

I've also received different explanations for the pending transaction. One agent said it's because another representative tried to change my plan and accidentally left a reserved line on my account that's inactive and not visible to me. Another agent said the pending transaction is normal and that I simply have to wait until the refund is processed before I can order another watch.

I've been calling almost every day because this has become mentally exhausting. It feels like the outcome depends entirely on which agent answers the phone. Some genuinely try to help, while others just read the previous notes, put me on hold for an hour or two, and then tell me to wait.

Has anyone experienced something like this? Is there a direct number for the returns team, warehouse, or back office that actually handles refunds and pending transactions? I'd really appreciate any advice.

Hi everyone, hoping someone here can point me in the right direction.

While in Kansas City for the World Cup, I sent three postcards from the same location: one to a friend in Europe, one to a family member, and one to my daughter, the last two going to the same address here in Quebec. One card arrived after about 12 days, and the one to my friend in Europe arrived last week too. But the one to my daughter still hasn't shown up.

This one means a lot to me. I wanted her to have something from that trip she can keep for later. That's why I'm hoping to actually track it down rather than just accept it's gone.

A few questions for anyone with experience:

- Since these were sent from the US via USPS and would've crossed over to Canada Post, is there a specific Canada Post inquiry process for international-origin mail like this, separate from the standard "missing mail" form?

- Do I still have hope? If one card arrived to the exact same address, does that mean there's an issue with the other card, or is it normal for them to separate during the process?

- Has anyone had luck actually recovering delayed postcards like this, or once they're stuck, are they usually gone for good?

I've already got a USPS Missing Mail Search in progress. I'm willing to call, whatever it takes, just want to know if there's a smarter path than waiting it out.

Thanks in advance.

Italy has suspended imports of Tunisian red shrimp after alleging that Tunisia exceeded its annual Mediterranean fishing quota.

According to the Italian government, catch certificates validated by the Tunisian authorities indicate that the quota was exceeded, so imports of Tunisian red shrimp will remain suspended until the issue is clarified.

This does not appear to be a ban on all Tunisian seafood, only on red shrimp.

What do you think? Is this a legitimate enforcement of fishing quotas, or is it another example of trade protectionism in the Mediterranean?

Hi! I’ll be visiting Kansas City for the next World Cup match and would like to send some postcards to family and friends back home.

Does anyone know where I can buy postcards and stamps in downtown Kansas City, preferably within walking distance of the FIFA Fan Festival? Any recommendations for souvenir shops, bookstores, gift shops, or post offices would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Hey everyone, slight panic here. I just sent out a letter that weighs 32g using a regular domestic stamp ($1.44) because I thought the normal letter weight limit was up to 50g.

Just double-checked Canada Post's website and... turns out it's actually 30g max. So my letter is 2g over.

What's gonna happen? Will it get returned to me? Held at the post office? Charged extra? Or will it slip through because