News roundup, 17 Dec 2025

- The surviving suspect in the Bondi Beach attack has been charged with 15 counts of murder as well as 40 counts of causing grievous bodily harm as well as with committing a terrorist act. 

- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is willing to consider a referendum on the surrender of territories occupied by Russia. The Trump regime is demanding that Ukraine withdraw from the Donbass region as a condition of peace; Zelenskyy is not willing to unilaterally offer this but has offered a referendum to placate Trump and Putin.

- Winnipeg's executive policy committee plans to hire a full-time transit planner in order to address the concerns about Winnipeg Transit's new network. Whether this can resolve the issues remains to be seen, though one transit activist is hopeful.

- Brayden Bushby, who was convicted of manslaughter in the death of Barbara Kentner in Thunder Bay in 2017, has been granted day parole for the second time. The first time it was granted, it was subsequently revoked following numerous breaches of conditions, including associated with people he'd been ordered not to as well as theft and impaired driving. He also got a Confederate flag tattoo while on day parole, and after he was locked up again he was seen on video mowing a swastika into a prison lawn. None of this seems to bode well for his rehabilitation prospects.

- A professor of nuclear science and engineering at MIT has died after being shot in his home on Monday. Nuno F Gomes Loureiro had been working on developing nuclear fusion technologies; a suspect and motive for the killing have not been identified so far.

- A Chilliwack, BC woman was killed by a falling tree after taking her kids to a local park. The children escaped injury.

News roundup, 16 Dec 2025

- A proposed 800 unit housing development in north Toronto is at risk as the provincial government considers imposing a municipal zoning order that would limit the height of the complex to 33 metres (around 10 storeys). The developer wants three connected towers, with the largest being 133 m tall (39 storeys); the proposed height limit would kill the viability of the development. The pretext that the government is giving for considering killing the project is an odd one - Sanofi Pasteur, a pharmaceutical company that neighbours the project, allegedly fears that allowing tall residential buildings near their facility would be a security risk. It's not entirely clear that this is the real reason, though; it doesn't make much sense. Do the folks at Sanofi Pasteur really think people in the apartments will be able to sit there with binoculars and read their employees' notes and sample labels? I kind of doubt that, even if they're so careless as to do all their top-secret work next to windows. More likely the Ford government has another reason for wanting to kill the project (e.g. not wanting to normalize the kind of housing that would make their opponents' votes more efficient).

- Winnipeg councillor Janice Lukes has hired private security for a community consultation event related to the recent changes to the Winnipeg Transit network. Lukes, who is chair of the city's public works committee, has been harshly criticized for the way the changes have been implemented.

- The suspects in the Bondi Beach terror attack had apparently undergone paramilitary training in the Philippines last month. The younger of the two was apparently a follower of Wisam Haddad, an extremist imam based in Sydney. Haddad is thought to have connections to the Islamic State but denies any involvement in the recent attack. The surviving suspect is apparently now conscious and under guard in hospital.

- A Canadian military counterintelligence officer has been charged with leaking operational secrets to Ukraine without getting the approval of his superiors. Prosecutors say that he "was not motivated by personal or financial gain or to cause harm"; nonetheless, this would seem to be a significant overstep on his part. It could also have backfired; it's not hard to imagine a scenario where a Russian agent poses as a Ukrainian agent to get backdoor information.

- A consortium consisting of Vancouver-based Consensus Core and Las Vegas-based Jet.AI wants to build a data centre near Île-des-Chênes, in the rural municipality of Ritchot, Manitoba. What makes this problematic, though, is that they want to generate their own electricity from natural gas; under new legislation companies wanting to connect highly energy-intensive projects to the power grid are subject to added scrutiny, so the consortium wants to get around this by generating their own power instead.

- Nick Reiner, the middle child of Rob and Michelle Reiner, has been arrested for the murders of his parents. He has a long history of homelessness and substance abuse. For his part Donald Trump says that Reiner, who had long been a vocal support of Democratic candidates, may have died "due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with... Trump Derangement Syndrome".

News roundup, 15 Dec 2025

- At least 15 people were killed and numerous others injured in a mass shooting at a Hanukkah festival in the Sydney suburb of Bondi Beach. One of the suspects is among the dead, while the other was successfully disarmed by a man who tackled him from behind. Predictably, the Israelis are trying to blame the Australian government because the government recently voted to recognize a Palestinian state, which Netanyahu claims "pours fuel on the antisemitism fire".

- The federal government is moving ahead with plans for a high speed rail corridor. The first leg to be constructed will span the 200 km between Montreal and Ottawa, with a stop in Laval. Construction is expected to begin in 2029.

- Alberta's attorney general and justice minister Mickey Amery has introduced a bill which would prohibit the province's law society from sanctioning the attorney general for actions taken while carrying out the "duties and functions" of the position. Amery claims that the change is needed to protect the office from "political activism". Several former holders of the position have run into trouble in the past, including one who was reprimanded by the society after getting caught calling Edmonton's police chief in the hope of making a ticket disappear.

- Thirteen Republican members of Congress voted with the Democrats to advance a bill that nullifies one of Trump's executive orders. The order in question aims to remove the collective bargaining rights of employees of several federal agencies; the bill will presumably be vetoed by Trump if it makes it through the Senate, though.

- The Trump regime's new national security strategy is earning praise from the Putin regime in Russia. The Russians apparently like the fact that it shifts the US' focus from Eurasia to the Americas; the strategy has already raised eyebrows for alluding to the so-called "Great Replacement Theory" in saying that Europe faces "civilizational erasure" due to excess immigration.

- A new proposal would require tourists visiting the US to provide access to five years' worth of their social media posts. Just how this would be implemented, and which platforms would be covered, remains to be seen. This is not likely to help the country's increasingly beleaguered tourism industry, but perhaps the regime thinks it's worth it to keep "wrong thinkers" from visiting.

- Two people were killed and nine wounded in a mass shooting at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. A person of interest was taken into custody but subsequently released.

- Acclaimed American filmmaker Rob Reiner, who directed classics such as This Is Spinal Tap, Stand By Me, The Princess Bride, and Misery, was stabbed to death in his home along with his wife of 36 years, Michelle Singer Reiner. Police say that a family member is being "interviewed" in connection with their deaths; other sources say that the suspect is their 32 year old son Nick.

News roundup, 12 Dec 2025

- Michael Ma, the up-till-now Conservative MP for the GTA riding of Markham-Unionville, has crossed the floor to the Liberals, a month after his colleague Chris d'Entremont did the same thing. I'm wondering if someone like Michael Chong might follow. After all, Carney is a neoliberal who would have fit in quite comfortably in Brian Mulroney's cabinet, and isn't mean and petty and reactionary like Pierre Poilievre. It kind of says a lot about both parties and their leaders, really. Fortunately we still have alternatives to both, in theory at least. Meanwhile a recent poll by Angus Reid suggests that 58% of recent Conservative voters want Poilievre to stay on as leader, though that is a decline from 68% in August. That means that Carney is likely to remain prime minister for some time to come; sadly while he's doubtless better on purely social issues (not to mention decorum) than Poilievre, he's not much of an improvement on economic matters - not to mention environmental ones. Ma's move brings the Liberals to within one seat of a majority.

- Yves Engler, a self-described "agitator", has been barred from running for the NDP leadership by the party's federal council. Party president Lucy Watson said that candidates "need to uphold values of integrity, honesty and respect for human rights" and that Engler fails this test. The party cited "credible evidence of harassment, intimidation and physical confrontation", including following party members to their homes and vehicles to question them. Engler is also accused of denying or downplaying the Rwandan genocide, being overly sympathetic to Russia, and making comments "consistent with antisemitic attitudes". That last point is a source of contention for many, given how freely that accusation is thrown at people who speak up for Palestine - but Jordy Cummings thinks that in Engler's case there's merit to the accusation, though it's worth noting that Cummings doesn't actually think barring Engler was necessary.

- Jennifer Homendy, the chair of the US National Transportation Safety Board, has publicly condemned a section of the latest defense policy bill before Congress. The bill would effectively erase the NTSB's recommendations in the wake of last winter's disastrous midair collision over the Potomac River. The safety board had called for military aircraft to be required to use ADS-B to make them trackable. Evidently making the military follow civilian rules, even (or especially) for safety reasons, is woke. In tangentially related news, the default font in Microsoft Office is apparently too woke for the regime to use because it was favoured over the fonts like Times New Roman by those with vision problems or dyslexia, and had been made the standard in the State Department for that reason.

- Manitoba Hydro plans to increase its generation capacity by 1,760 megawatts. The corporation hopes to do this by a combination of improvements to hydroelectric plants, new wind farms and battery storage, as well as the construction of three new natural gas turbines in Brandon. Except for the natural gas part, this is a good move, but it should have been made 20 years ago. Unfortunately that would have required governments to plan ahead by more than an electoral cycle.

- Heavy rains have brought significant flooding to parts of BC, with some neighbourhoods in Abbotsford being evacuated. The situation is considerably worse south of the border, with tens of thousands of people being evacuated in various communities in Washington State.

- Jordan Peterson has created an online school full of courses that attack progressive ideas and deny climate change. The school isn't accredited, but Danielle Smith wants to change that.

- Some in the film industry fear that Netflix's bid to take over Warner Brothers could devastate the movie theatre industry, with critics saying the company's business model "does not support showing movies in theatres".

News roundup, 11 Dec 2025

 - A Winnipeg man has been sentenced to 3½ years for possession of child pornography and related materials. What makes this case different is that the charges included possession of several anatomically correct child sex dolls, as well as a large amount of AI-generated materials. The judge declared that this constitutes abuse "whether involving real or computer-generated images". At first blush this might seem like overreach until you consider the fact that the AI-generated porn likely required actual child sex abuse materials in order to train the AI in the first place - and even if it didn't, it would need actual images of children, so there's a risk that it would generate material that looks like the abuse of identifiable children. The existence of such material is, to say the least, not in the children's interest. The dolls are more of a grey area since no actual abuse would need to occur in order to make them. On the one hand, one could argue that they could prevent actual abuse by sublimating pedophiles' desires; on the other hand they could also cause future abuse by serving as a "gateway drug". Since determining which happens more often with any certainty would likely require unethical research methods, though, I'm OK with erring on the side of banning them. In any case the guy had plenty of real materials made by abusing real children so locking him up seems more than fair.

- Kirsten Hillman, Canada’s ambassador to the US, has announced that she is leaving her post in the new year. She didn't provide a specific reason for her resignation, but I think we all can guess the reason.

- A US District Court has struck down Trump's executive order that was intended to stop offshore wind development and limit that on land, calling the order "arbitrary and capricious". Unfortunately it will not immediately reactivate suspended projects, as the agencies involved are expected to put as many barriers in the way of development as possible while the regime appeals the decision, and at best the entities working on the projects will have to bring more lawsuits in order to get things moving again.

- Democrats in Minnesota are holding a primary to choose their candidate for the Senate next year as incumbent Tina Smith is retiring. Bernie Sanders has endorsed Peggy Flanagan, the state's lieutenant governor, while Pete Buttigieg has endorsed the more centrist Angie Craig. 

- Downsview Airport in Toronto, which served as a test facility for Bombardier until it was closed last year, is being redeveloped into a mixed use urban district with housing for more than 50,000 people as well as commercial buildings (which will be conversions of existing hangars on the site).

- A 12 year old boy in Lethbridge, Alberta has pleaded guilty to attempted murder after stabbing his 7 year old brother multiple times. The younger boy survived but was seriously injured.

- A 35 year old woman from Ochre River, Manitoba was turned away from a vendor in nearby Dauphin due to already being intoxicated. She proceeded to crash her truck into a parked car, a stop sign, and a telecommunications box, the latter knocking out internet service in the city for several hours. After blowing over the limit she was arrested, and then faced additional charges for threatening an officer and another prisoner as well as pulling a fire alarm while detained.

News roundup, 10 Dec 2025

- An Alberta judge has ruled against the provincial government on the independence referendum question, only a day after the government introduced a bill that, if passed, would have shut down the case. Court of King's Bench Justice Colin Feasby condemned the bill, saying that "Legislating to preemptively end this court proceeding disrespects the administration of justice".

- An earthquake struck Kluane National Park near the Yukon-Alaska border. The magnitude was measured at 7.0, but was a lot less severe in Whitehorse, where residents reported significant shaking but no injuries or major damage. 

- Donald Trump has hinted at abandoning Ukraine to its fate, something many have expected ever since he retook the Oval Office. He also claimed that Europe is "weak" and "destroying itself" through immigration. A policy document released by the regime also confirms what we all suspect - that the US is actively supporting far right parties in order to "cultivate resistance".

- A structure intended to prevent the escape of radioactivity from the Chernobyl nuclear plant was damaged in a Russian drone attack according to a report from the International Atomic Energy Agency. The agency says that while the structure is repairable it currently is not fulfilling its primary safety function.

- Australia's ban on social media for those under 16 has been enacted. Polls indicate that about 2/3 of the electorate supports the move, but there are teething problems as expected, and enforceability remains to be seen.

News roundup, 9 Dec 2025

- The US, Russia, and Saudi Arabia are refusing to agree on an official summary of the findings of the UN's latest Global Environment Outlook, due to the report coming down too strongly for their liking on fossil fuels and plastics.

- Canada's Department of National Defense is trying to distance itself from the US attacks on boats in the Caribbean. However, this is not as simple as it might seem because of Canada's involvement in Operation Caribbe, a longstanding joint mission with the US Coast Guard. While it is the US Air Force and not the Coast Guard that has been conducting the attacks, both are under the command of US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, which limits the amount of political cover that can be provided by this. France has already condemned the attacks, and the UK and Columbia are suspending intelligence-sharing with the US in the region; so far Canada has not followed suit.

- Former cabinet minister Steven Guilbeault doubts that it will be possible to meet Canada's emissions targets due to recent moves by the government.

- A Canadian court has ordered French cloud provider OVHcloud to turn over customer data that is stored in Europe. Problem is, under French law it is illegal for the company to hand over the data. Penalties can be up to €90,000 and six months imprisonment.

- Despite fears of gridlock, the reopening of Winnipeg's Portage and Main intersection to pedestrians has had minimal impact on traffic. 

- In recent years the majority of fraud cases in Ontario have been dropped or stayed due to a lack of resources for prosecutors. The problem has gotten considerably worse since 2020 due to backlogs in the courts related to the pandemic.