News roundup, 30 Jan 2026

- Sources who spoke to the Financial Times allege that leaders of the separatist Alberta Prosperity Project held secret meetings with officials from the Trump regime, and are trying to negotiate $500 billion in credit in the event that the province votes to separate. BC premier David Eby did not hold back on what he thinks about that. Whether it meets the legal definition of treason is debatable, of course, but I have little doubt that those people would commit literal treason or even high treason (specifically the part about assisting an enemy at war with Canada) if it were to come to that. It's also notable that this is being reported in Ukrainian media, and the very fact that they have taken note of that given all the other stuff they're dealing with should be taken as a serious warning.

- The Ontario Progressive Conservative party has banned reporters from its convention in Toronto this weekend. I have to assume they're worried about what moderate voters would think about the kind of thing delegates might be recorded saying.

- Donald Trump is threatening to decertify Canadian-made aircraft in the US, specifically naming Bombardier's business jets, in response to Transport Canada's reluctance to certify certain models made by the competitor Gulfstream. The models in question had been exempted from certain rules about fuel system icing by the FAA, and EASA went along with the exemption shortly thereafter.

- Ontario's Conestoga College is now looking to rent out space at its newly opened satellite campus in Stratford. Like many postsecondary institutions in this country, the college has taken a big hit from the caps on international students, though it's big enough that it probably won't go the way of the Manitoba Institute of Trades and Technology.

- A scientist with Echoes Ecology, which surveys populations of endangered species, had been off work on mental health leave due to severe social anxiety. Accordingly, she was not invited to the company's Christmas party; this led her to sue for discrimination. She lost; the court ruled that while it may have constituted discrimination, this was justified by her mental health at the time.

News roundup, 29 Jan 2026

- Some fear that the next round of "reapportionment" of the US House of Representatives will make things more difficult for the Democrats after 2030. I think this could be a hard problem to solve. The thing is, urban areas - and by extension, more urbanized states - are becoming more expensive to live in (this is of course a worldwide problem). And the kind of places where young people traditionally lived after moving out of their parents' houses are increasingly seen as desirable places to live even if you aren't young, which makes them harder for young people to afford them. So many of them move to less desirable cities in less desirable states - and many of those states are red states. On the other hand, this may well be academic given that we can't count on this year's midterms being free and fair elections anyway, much less those a few years down the line.

- Pierre Poilievre faces a leadership review at the Conservative Party's convention in Calgary on Friday. He seems likely to prevail given the lack of coherent opposition and his popularity among the party's base.

- The Manitoba Institute of Trades and Technology is shutting down following a loss of over 55% of their enrollment after the federal government put a cap on international students. Renee Cable, the province's minister of Advanced Education and Training, says that students will be able to complete their programs at other institutions such as Red River College.

 - A pilot project being launched in Winnipeg  will see properties that have been seized by the city transferred to Manitoba Housing, renovated by the nonprofit social enterprise Purpose Construction, and sold to people leaving social housing.

- Research has found that self-service terminals at restaurants increase sales. This might seem counterintuitive to those who hope that a personal touch would seem friendlier, but the actual evidence suggests people are more likely to accept an upsell from a robot than from a person who they might imagine to be judging them for eating too much. 

- A court ruling in Colombia will outlaw cockfighting following a three year transition period to give those whose income depends on the sport time to find alternative livelihoods.

News roundup, 28 Jan 2026

- Over 97% of all new cars registered in Norway last November have been electric. The government is now removing some of the initiatives it introduced to encourage people to buy them, as they seem not to be needed anymore.

- US ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra is warning that more American aircraft will need to enter Canada's airspace to address perceived threats if Canada goes ahead and buys planes from those dirty Swedes instead of from Lockheed-Martin. Denmark, on the other hand, is warning us not to listen to the Americans; they're in the position of having previously done what they were told and replaced their entire fleet with F-35s, and now fear that the US could cut off access to replacement parts if the Greenland crisis reescalates.

- Ilhan Omar was sprayed with an unknown substance at a town hall meeting in Minneapolis. The assailant was removed by security; Omar refused to end the meeting and continued, not wanting to give the enemy a success.

- The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has moved the Doomsday Clock to 85 seconds to midnight in response to increasing risks of war as well as climate change and artificial intelligence. Particularly concerning is the increasing breakdown of international cooperation which, as flawed as it is, has managed to prevent nuclear war since 1945. Meanwhile, in the UK a national security assessment released following a freedom of information request paints a pretty dismal picture, warning of possible threats to the country's food security unless there are major dietary shifts away from meat, and of growing risks of international conflict. The version initially released had some redactions, including fears that the loss of glaciers in the Himalayas could lead to conflict between the nuclear powers of India, Pakistan, and China. Evidently the government wanted the report suppressed because it was overly negative, and because it calls attention to the government's own failures.

- A lawyer says she was viciously assaulted by Durham Regional Police while finishing up some post-trial work in an interview room at the Oshawa court house. Apparently they thought a black woman in a hijab didn't look like she belonged there, and expressed their displeasure in the way that cops so often do.

News roundup, 27 Jan 2026

- Border patrol commander Gregory Bovino has been stripped of his duties in Minnesota and reassigned to the US-Mexico border. Tim Walz says that the feds are showing some willingness to deescalate; perhaps Trump's fears of losing control of the narrative have something to do with it.

- St Boniface Hospital is set to become the third hospital in Manitoba to be "grey-listed" by the Manitoba Nurses union (after HSC and Thompson General), designating it as an unsafe workplace.

- The sale of TikTok to a consortium of mostly US investors was followed very soon after by reports by users of being unable to use the word "Epstein" in direct messages to other users. On the positive side, I guess you can talk about Winnie The Pooh on the platform now.

- Five people have been charged with extortion following a series of arson attacks on Winnipeg businesses; two of them have been charged with some of the actual arsons as well.

- The Huron Perth Health Care Alliance paid $241.42 to put a homeless man from Blyth, Ontario on a taxi to London to get them out of their hair.

News roundup, 26 Jan 2026

- A US Border Patrol officer fatally shot a protester in Minneapolis on Saturday. The DHS claimed that he was undocumented and armed, and that he'd "violently resisted" when they attempted to disarm him. Minneapolis police chief Brian O'Hara says that, contrary to the claim that he was "undocumented", the victim was in fact a US citizen and lawful gun owner with a permit to carry. Other sources identify him as Alex Pretti, an intensive care nurse with no criminal record. More info, including video, may be found here and here, and few find the DHS' account credible. Multiple witnesses say that he did not brandish his weapon, and the video evidence appears to corroborate that. A bipartisan group of senators are calling for an investigation into Pretti's death.

- An elementary school in Minneapolis is sending out an urgent warning about offers of food support being used as bait by ICE. 

- The European Commission is opening an investigation into Elon Musk's X over allegations that the platform's AI tool, Grok, can be used to create fake sexual images of real people. This follows a €120 million fine issued to X over the fraudulent use of the blue checkmarks used by X to denote a "verified" account; the regulator concluded that the company did not meaningfully verify who was behind the accounts. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio responded by accusing Europe of "attacking and censoring" American companies; for my part I'd be happy to see X banned in Europe as it's become little more than an agent of far-right propaganda.

- Doug Ford is urging Ontarians to visit Michigan this summer. He dropped that suggestion in the midst of a press conference railing against the Carney government's decision to allow the import of Chinese cars without prohibitive tariffs; so much for "elbows up" I guess.

- A former police officer has been sentenced to seven years in prison after being convicted of numerous crimes including voiding tickets in return for bribes, drug trafficking, and sharing photos of a dead woman. That means the federal penitentiary; I'm guessing that he very much hopes that he gets sent out of province to serve his sentence.

News roundup, 23 Jan 2026

- One of the things about Donald Trump's sudden retreat in the Greenland crisis is the extent to which it undermines his case for taking the territory in the first place. After all, if it were really essential to national security as he was claiming, there would be no room for compromise - but yet he backed down quite abruptly, no doubt having been finally convinced of the economic disaster that could result to his country - and his and his friends' stock holdings - if he went ahead and Europeans started dumping Treasuries and other key American securities. One hopes that this might, ever so slightly, chip away at his tough-guy image among the MAGA crowd. This is certainly not the end, or even the beginning of the end. Is it the end of the beginning? Time will tell.

- A leaked internal ICE memo advises officers that they don't need a warrant to enter private homes, contrary to officially acknowledged training materials (not to mention the Constitution).

- The US has followed through with its threats to withdraw from the World Health Organization. Under their own laws they're supposed to give a year's notice and pay all outstanding fees (around $260 million), but a State Department official denies this.

- Pierre Poilievre says that he will not run in his current riding in the next election, saying that Damien Kurek (who stepped aside to allow him to sit in the House after he was defeated in his old riding of Carleton) will be allowed to have the riding back, no nomination needed. Where he is going to run remains to be seen; maybe he'll just slink away with his tail between his legs if we're lucky.

- Edmonton mayor Andrew Knack reports that there has been a disturbing amount of harassment of snowplow operators as well as a city councillor, Erin Rutherford. Plow operators have had shovels thrown at them, while Rutherford has been the target of an online disinformation and doxxing campaign by rightwing influencer Jesse Watson (who was Rutherford's opponent in the last municipal election). More information about this charming character may be found here.

- Power generation from coal has declined in both China and India for the first time in 52 years, with clean energy technology taking up the slack.  

- A teacher in the Louis Riel School Division in southeast Winnipeg was suspended for five days without pay and transferred to a different school after mimicking a nine year old's temper tantrum to mock the child, prompting other kids to do the same.

- Investigators in Queensland have concluded that the Canadian woman found dead on a beach surrounded by dingoes most likely drowned and that the bite marks on her body were inflicted after death. 

News roundup, 22 Jan 2026

- Donald Trump's plane had to turn back shortly after departing on a flight to the World Economic Forum in Davos due to a failure of some electrical systems on the aircraft. Sadly the plane made a safe return to DC. Trump then boarded another one, which made it to Davos where he started backpedalling on the whole Greenland issue in return for a "framework of a future deal". I wouldn't be surprised if Trump was spooked by the prospect of Europe unloading a lot of Treasuries (with other countries and all manner of other investors inevitably following suit). Perhaps the people around him explained how, if that were to happen, he would be losing as much money as they would. And then there's one more factor...

- The Pentagon has ordered military police from Fort Bragg, North Carolina to prepare for a possible deployment to Minneapolis. The fact that it's specifically military police suggests that there are plans to use them for law enforcement. This would require Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act, which is supposed to occur only in response to a "rebellion". And the Justice Department has opened an investigation into Minnesota governor Tim Walz and Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey on the grounds that some of their public statements constituted "conspiracy" and "obstruction" of federal immigration officers. The Department declined further comment, but possible grounds might include Walz's recommendation that people record video of ICE in action so as to provide evidence for future prosecutions once the fascists are out of power. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche had previously declared the intention to stop Walz and Frey by "whatever means necessary", and it seems that the regime is doing what such regimes do. It also might be part of the reason Trump is backing down on Greenland - he thinks he's going to need those troops at home.

- The school attended by Renee Good's six year old son has had to move to online lessons after receiving phone and email threats from far right extremists. The depravity of a sizeable chunk of that country knows no bounds, it seems.

- A senior curator and two longtime volunteers at the Art Gallery of Ontario have resigned in protest of a decision by the gallery's board to back out of acquiring a video work by acclaimed American artist Nan Goldin. The gallery had been planning to jointly buy the work along with the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, but some board members considered Goldin's public statements on the situation in Gaza to be "antisemitic" (notwithstanding the fact that Goldin is herself Jewish).

- The student federation at the University of Guelph's agriculture college is under investigation by the university and police following a pub night that allegedly featured racist and homophobic language and the use of hate symbols, including swastikas, on T-shirts.

- Mark Edward Grant, who was initially convicted of the 1984 murder of Candace Derksen before being acquitted on appeal, is facing new charges in BC, including sexual assault and unlawful confinement.

- It appears that the polling company that inserted questions about immigration affecting the "purity" of the country into a customer experience survey for the Thermea spa has a history of this sort of thing. Back in 2018 CROP was hired by Aeroplan for a similar survey and included a question almost identical to the one in the recent Thermea one.

- A Toronto man named Dallas Pokornik posed as a commercial pilot for several years. Fortunately he never actually flew an aircraft; his plan was simply to pose as a deadheading crew member and get free flights. He had obtained fake employee ID from three different airlines. His past experience as a flight attendant probably helped give him an idea of what he could get away with (until he couldn't). He's hardly the first person to do so, however; a sixteen year old boy from the English town of Wigan pulled it off decades ago. I can't find anything online, but according to the account in Brian Moynahan's book Airport International he hitchhiked down to London, started hanging out with flight attendants, talked his way into getting issued "replacement" ID and a uniform, and took flights to Nairobi and Hong Kong before getting caught and sent home. Some time later he stole a pilot's uniform and got a free flight to Frankfurt before getting caught again. He got off relatively lightly; Pokornik, on the other hand, could face up to 20 years in prison.