News roundup, 31 May 2024

- Donald Trump has been convicted on all 34 counts of falsifying business records to conceal the hush money payments to Stormy Daniels. He responded pretty much as you'd expect Donald Trump to respond. Despite the fact that these are felony convictions, the chance of an actual custodial sentence may not be that high.

- A recent poll has revealed that Joe Biden has serious problems appealing to younger voters. Among voters under 45, he leads Trump by only 4 points, although the lead among millennials and Gen Z specifically is a bit higher, at 6 points. What's really worrisome, though, is that if you include RFK Jr., Jill Stein, and Cornel West in the polling, Trump is 6 points ahead with Gen Z/Millennials and 8 with the under 45s overall.

- Justin Trudeau says that he wants to make housing more affordable for younger folks... while not bringing down values for existing homeowners. This is of course probably not possible, and it illustrates a serious problem that  nearly all governments face in tackling the housing crisis. Because if you drive down property values, you make older folks (aka the people most likely to vote) feel less well off. Another problem, not mentioned in the article, is that if you drive down housing prices you weaken the main source of revenue for municipalities and, in some provinces, school boards.

- An investigation by the Guardian, +972 Magazine, and Local Call has found that Israel's intelligence agencies have been spying on the International Criminal Court for a decade. They are also not above intimidation evidently; following Palestine joining the court in 2015, two men showed up at the home of ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and handed her an envelope with cash and an Israeli phone number, and people familiar with the case suspect that the real reason was to make it clear to her that they knew where she lived. They also hacked her email. Some legal experts recommend that these actions be investigated as "offences against the administration of justice".

- Following yet another instance of shots being fired at a Jewish school, this one in Toronto, Doug Ford was quick to suggest, without evidence, that immigrants were to blame.

- A bill to recognize Two-Spirit and Transgender Day of Visibility was passed in the Manitoba legislature. What's interesting is that most of the Tory opposition voted with the NDP government to pass the bill, though four of them voted against it - Kelvin Goertzen (Steinbach), Josh Guenter (Borderland), Konrad Narth (La Verendrie), and Ron Schuler (Springfield-Ritchot).

- A city councillor in Whitehorse introduced a motion calling on the mayor to write a letter on behalf of the city to the prime minister and the foreign affairs minister calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza. The motion was ruled out of order due to it being outside the city's jurisdiction.

- A Winnipeg bakery that has experienced several robberies, most recently one in which someone pushed her way behind the counter, scaring off the staff, and took the cash from the till, has decided to go cashless. Under the circumstances I can't blame them, but if this becomes a trend, especially with services more essential than a rather niche bakery, it will be very bad for people who can't open a bank account (say, because they don't have a fixed address).

News roundup, 30 May 2024

- Israel's national security advisor says that he expects the war to continue for another seven months. Given how bad things are already in Gaza, you have to wonder how he expects them to resist that long. Maybe he figures that's what's needed to get everyone to leave.

- A Jewish school in Montreal has been hit by gunfire. Nobody was hurt, but no suspects have been found so far, and it's not the first time in the last few months that something like this has happened.

- Matthew Bzura, the president of the Professional Association of Residents and Interns of Manitoba, has lodged a complaint against Dr. Gem Newman, the medical graduate who dared to talk about Gaza in his valedictory address. Bzura alleges various policies related to professional behaviour and social media use were violated with the speech. Meanwhile businesses whose owners dared to share the video of Dr. Newman's speech have ended up on a list of "Jew-hating businesses" that is circulating on social media.

- Following the forceful removal of protesters from the University of Calgary earlier this month, Calgary police are denying that their body armour, shields, helmets, and flashbangs constitute "riot gear". If that's the case, I wonder what they'd use for an actual riot.

- A man who was ticketed after attending a People's Party of Canada rally in violation of COVID-19 restrictions has lost his bid to have the ticket thrown out. He has, however, been given a year to pay the fine.

- A couple of years ago the Alberta government began converting some beds at a long-term care home for use by psychiatric patients with "complex needs". This has not been good for the safety or comfort of the seniors already living there; violence and "shelter in place" orders are not the sort of thing most of us imagine would be a good way to spend our twilight years.

- A priest in Orlando, Florida may face criminal charges after allegedly biting a woman during an altercation over Holy Communion at a Sunday mass.

- A man in Michigan who had been charged with driving with a suspended license joined a virtual court hearing on Zoom... while driving. I do hope he doesn't get his license back any time soon; apart from whatever he may have done to lose it in the first place, he's clearly too stupid to allow on the road.

News roundup, 29 May 2024

- The World Health Organization is warning that the assault on Rafah in Gaza could shut down the city's last functioning hospital, potentially leading to a lot more deaths. The Israelis seem not to care.

- A student is suing the Ontario College of Art & Design University for failing to protect her from antisemitism on campus. The student, Samantha Kline, says that she has been subject to death threats. One thing to note is that she explicitly identifies as a Zionist; nonetheless, it's hard to justify that kind of behaviour.

- Speaking of Zionism, there's a rather interesting post in a Reddit thread where someone breaks it down quite nicely:

1. For some people, ‘Zionism’ means “Israel has a right to exist”.
2. For others, ‘Zionism’ means “Israel has a right to expand to encompass whichever territories in the middle-east it desires, regardless of who is living there currently.”
And,
3. For some people ‘Anti-Zionism’ means “Israel doesn’t have a right to expand indefinitely, and should negotiate a permanent two-state solution, ensuring the human rights of Palestinians in the process.”
4. And then, some people believe ‘Anti-Zionism’ means “I want to eliminate the state of Israel and its people”. 

So it's quite possible to be a Zionist by definition 1, but an anti-Zionist by definition 3. It's stuff like this that makes communicating across the divide even more difficult than it already is; perhaps it's best to be cautious about even using that word in the course of such discussions.

- Harassment of MPs, and actual threats towards them, has increased enormously in the last 5 years. The sergeant at arms at Parliament says in 2019, there were a total of eight files opened by his office regarding threats against MPs; in 2023 there were 530. I think it's a safe bet that the pandemic has been the main factor; tough and unpopular decisions had to be made, and people became isolated and filled the void with social media, making them more susceptible to manipulative conspiracy theories. Unfortunately I don't see things improving much  anytime soon, especially since a lot more tough decisions will be needed to deal with what's coming in the next few decades.

- The Kinew government is planning to tighten up rent controls. They are also providing a ten year exemption for owners of nonresidential buildings who convert them to residential, so as to provide an incentive to do this.

- In Ontario, the government is paying $225 million to the Beer Store consortium so as to be able to end their quasi-monopoly 16 months before the expiration of a 10-year agreement signed by the previous government, and thus get that beer into convenience stores. Some have wondered why they didn't just wait for the agreement to expire; Robyn Urback suggests that they plan to call an early election, and are hoping that easier access to beer will help their chances.

- The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has approved the release of two moth species for the biological control of invasive plants. The targets are reeds in the genus Phragmites, which were introduced from Eurasia in the 19th century and have been taking over wetlands across North America. Part of the problem with these plants is that, as with some other plants like Garlic Mustard, they release chemicals into the environment that keep seedlings of other plant species from successfully developing. The larvae of the moths are very specific in their foodplant requirements and thus hopefully will not become a problem themselves.

- A Winnipeg convenience store was destroyed by fire on Friday night. No cause has been announced yet, however one witness reported that the fire seemed to start at the front of the building. Certainly there have been a number of arson attacks on convenience stores in the city in recent years; some folks on Reddit are speculating that turf wars in the contraband cigarette business are to blame.

- The City of Toronto has renamed a football stadium after the late former mayor (and brother of the current Ontario premier) Rob Ford. Perhaps, in the tradition of giving stadiums nicknames, this one could be called "The Pipe".

News roundup, 28 May 2024

- The IDF bombed a refugee camp in Rafah, killing at least 45 people. They then followed it up by hitting the city's hospitals. The camp was not in one of the places where civilians had been ordered to evacuate, and was full of people who had been forced out of other parts of Gaza. One has to say that when you herd people into a small part of their homeland, and then bomb that area, the optics are very bad.

- The US House of Representatives committee on energy and commerce has requested a briefing from their National Intelligence Director Avril Haines regarding the firing of two Chinese-born scientists from the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg.

- Parks Canada is sticking to their guns regarding the recreational watercraft ban at Clear Lake in the hope of nipping an outbreak of zebra mussels in the bud. I have to respectfully disagree with the provincial government here; while a unilateral decision might seem heavy handed, you need to be heavy handed when dealing with something like this if you want any chance of stopping the spread. I do agree that measures should be taken to help businesses harmed by the decision, though.

- A Canadian senator has introduced a bill, known as the Climate-Aligned Finance Act, which would force financial institutions as well as pension funds to move their investments out of emissions-intensive sectors of the economy. In addition it would require lending to fossil fuel companies to be treated as higher risk. The bill is not expected to pass; nonetheless, the mere fact that it's being discussed is sending the likes of the Canadian Bankers' Association into conniptions. Now what did Ken Livingstone say about bankers again?

- The troubles at the Food Fare on Portage Avenue seem to be escalating, as cars belonging to the store's co-owner and a relative were torched in the store parking lot. The people seen lighting the fire in the surveillance video had apparently been kicked out of the store for shoplifting the previous day.

- The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT), the provincial police watchdog, recommended that three Lethbridge police officers involved in spying on an NDP MLA should face criminal charges, however provincial prosecutors have declined to take up the case.

- A company run by former Tory cabinet minister Kevin Klein is buying three newspapers, including the Winnipeg Sun, from Postmedia.

- The Beautiful Plains School Division in southwestern Manitoba is suing a Carberry woman for defamation after the woman made multiple allegations on social media about teachers at the schools her children attend.

- Upon seeing a distraught man walking along Highway 407 in Brampton, two drivers for Purolator put on their four-ways and drove slowly behind him to keep him from getting run over. Hopefully he'll eventually be thankful rather than angry that they foiled his apparent suicide attempt. 

News roundup, 27 May 2024

- The University of Toronto is warning faculty and staff participating in the pro-Palestinian encampment on campus that they may face dismissal if they do not leave the encampment by Monday morning, the deadline given for the camp to be removed. Meanwhile in Germany, protesters at the Free University of Berlin have faced an aggressive crackdown from the police.

- Donald Trump is doing dangerously well in the polls in several key swing states. Clearly something needs to be done about this, and fast. Bill McKibben thinks Biden and the Democrats need to pull out all the stops to make climate change the key issue. Seems reasonable to me; if nothing else it offers something on which the two major parties fundamentally differ, compared to things like the Israel-Palestine conflict where they're too similar to motivate many younger voters. Plus nature keeps sending Americans reminders that this really is an important issue; some of them might even listen under the right circumstances. And with such a high stakes election, Lloyd Axworthy and Allan Rock are proposing that Canada take the lead in sending election observers to the US this fall. Not a bad idea to be sure.

- Members of the German environmental group Letzte Generation have been charged with "forming a criminal organization", a move some fear could criminalize even public declarations of support for the group.

- A startup in the UAE claims that they will be able to use vertical farming techniques to grow several crops not generally amenable to this, including not only hydroponic standards like greens and tomatoes but also things like wheat, rice, and potatoes. Many are skeptical, however, especially since the UAE has not been above a bit of hype in the past.

- The US military is investing nearly $15 million in mines in northern Quebec and the Northwest Territories on national security grounds, apparently to limit China's ability to corner the market in critical minerals.

- The Competition Bureau is investigating two of Canada's largest grocery store chains for possible anti-competitive behaviour. Strangely, there's no comment from Sylvain Charlebois in the article; perhaps the media are starting to see through him.

News roundup, 24 May 2024

- Nikki Haley now says that she will be voting for Donald Trump, despite having previously called him "unstable and unhinged". Perhaps the fact that many of Trump's supporters are also unstable and unhinged, and moreover have a lot of guns, has compelled her to change her tune.

- Dan Lett argues in this article that the signs of improvement that are showing in the economy could be bad news for the Conservatives. I'd like to believe that this is true, but I seriously doubt it. The thing is, once the masses get it into their heads that it's "time for a change" (and there's no question that this government has had its fair share of disappointments, broken promises, and worse stuff like the Jody Wilson-Raybould affair) it's very hard to convince them to change course. There's a saying, "better the devil you know than the devil you don't know", but most people do not apply that to politics; far too many people figure they're all devils anyway, so might as well punish the current ones. In other words, they vote not out of idealism but out of vengeance.

- The public washrooms installed at Main and Higgins in Winnipeg have gotten national attention as a success story. Keeping them staffed adequately to make them tolerable to use does not come cheap, though.

- It appears that the far right has found themselves a preferred candidate for the byelection being held by the Louis Riel School Division following the resignation of Francine Champagne. They seem to like someone by the name of Sandra Saint-Cyr. So if you live in LRSD Ward 1, you now know who not to vote for.

- Many are worried that the US is falling behind China in the development of clean energy technology. Many others are worried that the American response, slapping punitive tariffs on the imports of such technologies from China, will make climate change worse than it has to be.

- Universities in Toronto and Waterloo are losing patience with the pro-Palestinian protest encampments on their campuses, and are issuing orders to move. The protesters seem to be defiant so far.

- The president of the University of Toronto Faculty Association, Terezia Zoric, is currently being investigated for antisemitism by the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario. The accusation stems from a 2021 webinar in which she blamed "an entitled powerful Zionist minority" for blocking the hiring of a critic of Israel. It's an interesting grey area; if she'd singled out organizations (such as B'nai B'rith) for lobbying against the hiring I don't think any reasonable person would call that antisemitic, but the expression she used does sound like a potential dog whistle.

- New rules for bringing dogs into the US are causing alarm among some Canadians who cross the border frequently with their dogs. I'm certainly not opposed to giving snowbirds another hoop to jump through, though it gets a bit more problematic when you consider the fact that it applies to guide dogs and other service dogs.

- Two chaps at a Walmart parking lot in Nanaimo, BC got out the bear spray and tire irons in an attempt to settle the question of who was entitled to use a parking space.

News roundup, 23 May 2024

- Norway, Ireland, and Spain have announced that they will be recognizing a Palestinian state. Not surprisingly the Israelis are up in arms; they're withdrawing their ambassadors from those countries as well as summoning those countries' ambassadors and making them watch video of female Israeli captives seized in the October attack. They're thus implying, not so subtly, that support for a Palestinian state necessarily means support for such atrocities. Some would say that tarring the entire Palestinian people with one brush that way is, well, racist, but I guess we're not allowed to say that.

- The University of Manitoba is getting pushback for their decision to remove the video of Dr. Gem Newman's valedictory address; many are understandably a bit uncomfortable that a single hissy fit from a billionaire donor is enough to get something like this done. Meanwhile both Newman and others have weighed in on the donor's comments.

- Julian Assange will get the opportunity to appeal his deportation to the US. Apparently the court was asking for written assurances from the American authorities that Assange would be accorded the same rights as a US citizen under the First Amendment, and the Americans were unwilling to provide that.

- A family medical practice in Ottawa is discharging all of its out-of-province patients, citing administrative difficulties with referrals and the like. The thing is, Ottawa lies on the provincial boundary, and forms a single metro area with its neighbouring city of Gatineau, Quebec. Many people live in one city and access services in the other, so some flexibility on this matter would have been nice.

- The team at OpenAI who were focused on long-term AI risks has been disbanded. The team had been plagued with resignations for months, however due to a "non-disparagement agreement" in the documents that you have to sign when leaving there have been few details of why. There are suspicions, though, mostly associated with CEO Sam Altman.

- Some residents in Newmarket, Ontario are going bananas over a proposed condo building - because they're worried about its impact on the local Tim Hortons. You can't make this stuff up, can you.

- An 18 year old student at the University of Victoria has died of a fentanyl overdose. Her parents believe that the 911 operator and campus security did not act fast enough; the province has ordered a coroner's inquest.

- A bear that climbed a tree in Winnipeg's Wildwood neighbourhood was successfully tranquilized and transported out of the city.

- The apartment complex in west Winnipeg that was evacuated last week due to structural concerns is fenced in and is supposed to have 24 hour security. One evacuee found out the hard way how reliable that security is - someone cut through the fence and stole her motorcycle, damaging another bike in the process. Meanwhile, people who live in houses behind the building have been warned to be ready to evacuate as well in case the worst happens.

- A woman in Dauphin, Manitoba has been arrested after stealing a septic truck from nearby Ebb and Flow First Nation and leading police on a chase, at times veering into the oncoming lane. Happily nobody was hurt in this little impromptu bit of real-life GTA.

News roundup, 22 May 2024

- The UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) is suspending its operations in the city of Rafah, saying that they do not have the supplies or security necessary. Perhaps this has something to do with the fact that Israeli soldiers have been taking it upon themselves to tip off the settler mobs regarding the location of aid convoys.

- A major donor to the University of Manitoba is in high dudgeon about the Faculty of Medicine valedictorian's speech daring to call for a ceasefire in Gaza. The donor, Ernest Rady, accuses the valedictorian of "hateful lies" and "calling for the destruction and elimination" of the Jewish people (to my knowledge he didn't, but when you donate $30 million to a university I guess they aren't going to question what you say). He's demanding, among other things, that the university edit the speech out of the official convocation video recording. The recording is apparently no longer on the university website, so I guess Rady's donation paid off.

- Justin Trudeau has come out with an expression of concern that the ICC is moving to prosecute both Likud and Hamas leaders. He says he's troubled by what he sees as the "sense of an equivalency" between the two. Of course no equivalency is being declared, merely that both Hamas and Likud leaders appear to meet the threshold for prosecution - but don't expect Trudeau to draw a distinction like that. The Biden administration, meanwhile, is moving to potentially sanction ICC officials in response.

- Evacuees from the Cranberry Portage area are returning to their communities, though not everyone has a home to return to. In Fort Nelson, BC a number of homes have been lost as well.

- The fact that a former (and possible future) US president is undergoing a criminal prosecution for the first time in history is making far less of an impact on the public consciousness than you might expect.

- Russia has begun conducting drills simulating the use of tactical nuclear weapons; this was motivated in part by French President Emmanuel Macron musing about the possibility of sending European troops. Unfortunately, this illustrates very well why NATO powers can't send troops - the risk of escalation is just too great.

- A passenger on a Singapore Airlines flight from London to Singapore was killed and several others injured when turbulence unexpectedly struck the flight. The victim was a 73 year old UK citizen. It's suspected that climate change is making turbulence worse; I guess it would be impolite to point out that it's pretty much certain that excessive air travel is making climate change worse, though.

- The Manitoba NDP has selected nurse Carla Compton to be the party's candidate in the Tuxedo byelection.

- Shop owners in Winnipeg are reporting that shoplifters are becoming "more brazen" and more likely to threaten store staff.

News roundup, 21 May 2024

- The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court is seeking arrest warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and his defense minister Yoav Gallant as well as Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif, and Ismail Haniyeh. Predictably the Israelis are closing ranks; for instance, Benny Gantz, who until now had been threatening to withdraw his support of the government, is now among those condemning the ICC's decision.

- Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian have been confirmed as having been killed in a helicopter crash. How that will impact Iranian politics remains to be seen.

- The valedictorian in the University of Manitoba's Faculty of Medicine delivered a speech that called for a ceasefire in Gaza. The school responded by sending out a statement from the dean alleging that some (unspecified) people were "disappointed and alarmed" by the speech.

- Residents evacuated from Cranberry Portage and surrounding areas due to wildfires are now returning home now that the immediate threat has been brought under control.

- Rightwing Americans are often vocal in their support of term limits (even as they're vehemently opposed to spending limits). I imagine many will suddenly shut up about that now that their idol is musing about getting around the presidential term limit himself.

- The Customs and Immigration Union held an informational picket at the exit from the tunnel between Detroit and Windsor. The government is accusing them of illegally holding up border crossings, something the union denies.

- The upper house of North Carolina's legislature has voted to move forward with a bill that would remove health-related exemptions to a law prohibiting the wearing of masks in public. The nominal reason for this is the pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses.

- A school district in Texas has voted to redact references to vaccines and climate change from textbooks used in the district.

News roundup, 18 May 2024

- Niigaan Sinclair has some thoughts on the recent incidents at the Food Fare on Portage Avenue, suggesting that the common factor in these and other incidents may be a lucrative black market in meat. He has some interesting things to say:

The motivation for the incident is unknown and the investigation is ongoing, but what is more likely: a teenager stealing food for himself or selling it?

Poverty is driving individuals who don’t want to enter the highly profitable but highly illegal and dangerous drug trade and instead sell something easily shoplifted and sold for a high margin.

It may also be that the stakes of thefts in smaller shops like Food Fare are much higher, leading to the spate of violent incidents.

Ask any of the big-box grocery stores on the outskirts of the city and they will tell you theft of meat is their primary problem. Stealing from a big corporation isn’t often noticeable or cause for the business to fold.

I do take issue with one of the things he says though:

Meat thieves may also be providing an essential service.

As one source who works for a front-line, North End social justice agency told me, it’s a way “poor families” can get cheap access to decent meat.

It's better described as something that's seen as an essential service. Food is definitely essential, but meat is not.

- One of the people the mainstream Canadian media love to consult as an expert when they're doing a story about the food distribution and retail industry in this country is one Sylvain Charlebois, a professor of food distribution and policy at Dalhousie University. He's one of this country's most quoted academics on any subject, and is almost a minor celebrity (complete with a nickname, "The Food Professor"). Notably, he has been quite vocal in the media lately dismissing any suggestion that grocery chains are overcharging, and especially the current Loblaws boycott campaign. Which is kind of unsavoury given his rather interesting relationship with Loblaws. Oh, and it's worth mentioning that he used to be a dean in the university's Faculty of Management until he suddenly resigned his post a couple of years ago after an investigation was conducted into allegations of bullying and harassment. In other Loblaws-related news, a Shoppers Drug Mart in Toronto apparently posted an ad for a volunteer position in their store. That's right - they tried to get a volunteer to "provide support to the staff". After it went viral the ad apparently was removed. I wonder why?

- Last June, Britt Leroux of Windsor, Ontario had a clash with a chap who goes by the name of Bubba Pollock (really!) on social media over her support of 2SLGBTQ+ rights. His response? He gathered a whole bunch more information about her, drove two and a half hours from his home in London, and paid a visit to the hospital where her dying father was in palliative care during visiting hours. He then took a selfie with her unconscious father, and then posted the photo to the comment thread. He has now pleaded guilty to harassment, and is awaiting sentencing. He already has a criminal rap sheet that includes sexual assault and distributing intimate images without consent, and is apparently a supporter of the White Lives Matter movement.

- The US is expected to impose a 100% tariff on electric vehicles imported from China. It's widely suspected that the main reason is fears that American automakers can't compete with them.

- A child under the age of 5 has died of measles in Hamilton, the first fatality in Ontario in 35 years. And no, the child was not vaccinated.

- The ban on single-use plastics has become the latest front in the culture war, complete with a Conservative MP railing against attempts to replace plastic with more benign materials as "woke".

- Alberta RCMP have concluded, using "investigative genetic genealogy" (which involves the comparison of DNA samples with a database obtained from those services like 23andMe and Ancestry.com) that a serial sex offender who died in an Idaho prison in 2011 was responsible for the murders of four young women in Calgary in the 1970s.

- Scottie Scheffler, the world's top ranked golfer has been charged with assaulting a police officer with his car after the cop tried to stop him from driving around a roadblock on the way to the PGA Championship in Louisville, Kentucky. The roadblock was in place because the police were investigating a fatal accident. Rather strange behaviour for someone who professes to be a devout Christian.

News roundup, 17 May 2024

- Climate activists in Russia are taking the government to court for failing to adequately protect its citizens from climate change. I'm guessing most of those activists will, at the very least, end up on a "foreign agents" list. They'd better start carrying Geiger counters and avoiding windows as well.

- Four neighbourhoods in Fort McMurray that were destroyed in the 2016 fire have been evacuated again, though it is hoped that the measures brought in after that fire will protect the community better than last time.

- Charlie Angus has written an opinion piece for the Tyee about Pierre Poilievre and the Conservative Party's courting of rightwing extremists. In it he mentions that when he called out Poilievre in Parliament for the latter's refusal to disavow an endorsement from Alex Jones, Conservative supporters responded by posting photos of Angus' daughters, along with the locations of their workplaces, on social media, accompanied by thinly veiled threats. With stuff like that going on, it's no wonder Angus has decided not to run again.

- Slovakian prime minister Robert Fico is now in stable condition following yesterday's shooting. His own political career has evolved in an interesting way, to say the least - he started out as a Communist during the cold war, then continued with that party's democratic successor, the Party of the Democratic Left, after the end of the one-party state. Then in 1999 he and others left that party and founded a party called Direction - Social Democracy, which he considered a "third way" party, but as leader he has continued to take that party to the right, to the point where they're straight-up rightwing populists now. One can't help wonder if the general mood he's helped to cultivate might have helped motivate the shooter; perhaps the likes of Poilievre should take note.

- Until recently, support for Israel (at least at the official level) has been very widespread in the West. Maybe not quite so much anymore; they've alienated a lot of allies, though I suspect that when it comes down to the crunch the US and Germany, at least, will still grudgingly support them after a bit of public finger-wagging. Canada has sanctioned four individuals for their involvement in some of the more egregious acts of violence by West Bank settlers against Palestinians, though I wouldn't hold my breath for sanctions against the Israeli state.

- Despite suicide being one of the biggest causes of death among young adults, over 70% universities in Canada do not keep statistics on this rather important issue.

- Joe Biden has declared that the federal government will issue no new leases for coal mining on federal land in the country's biggest coal producing region. In contrast, Florida governor Ron DeSantis has signed into law a bill that removes virtually all references to climate change from state legislation. The same bill also bans offshore wind turbines, among other things.

- Ten states in the US have not yet signed onto the Medicaid expansion that's part of Obamacare. Polls indicate that expansion would have broad public support, but the Republicans are apparently counting on that support not to be strong enough to get very many people to vote for the Democrats. Sadly, their confidence is probably justified; too many people think they'll be cast into a lake of fire if they do that.

- A flight instructor with the US Air Force was killed after apparently activating the ejection seat of his aircraft while it was sitting on the tarmac.

News roundup, 16 May 2024

- Mary Robinson, the former Irish president who has also served as a climate envoy for the UN, warns of the impact of investment treaties such as the Energy Charter Treaty. Like many modern trade agreements, these treaties enable corporations (such as fossil fuel firms) to sue countries that take measures that cost them money. This is a strong deterrent for signatories who want to take meaningful action on climate. The oil barons aren't satisfied with that, though; ExxonMobil launched a lawsuit earlier this year, not against a government but against actual investors who filed shareholder proposals to be voted on at annual general meetings. The shareholder organizations targeted by the company withdrew their proposal, but ExxonMobil is still pursuing the lawsuit. They were also careful to file the lawsuit somewhere where they could count on it being heard by a Trump-appointed judge. And speaking of Trump and the oil companies, concerns are being raised about Trump's promise to gut climate regulations if the companies can raise a billion dollars for his campaign.

- Slovakia's prime minister, Robert Fico, was shot and seriously wounded at a campaign rally in the leadup to EU parliamentary elections. A 71 year old suspect is in custody.

- The Manitoba government is changing the school tax rebate system. Starting next year, the existing rebate and credit will be replaced with a flat credit of $1,500 applied towards school taxes, but only for your primary residence. So people with expensive houses (over about $400,000) will pay more, as will people who own multiple properties, while those with less expensive houses as their primary residence will pay less. Seems more equitable, but of course that's not stopping the Tories from whining about "the middle class".

- The University of Winnipeg has closed its doors to the general public over perceived "safety concerns" stemming from the protest encampment on the front lawn, despite the fact that no violent incidents or threats have been reported so far.

- The Food Fare grocery store on Portage Avenue in Winnipeg had another incident on Tuesday evening; apparently a teen who had been kicked out of the store earlier in the day came back with brass knuckles and attacked three staff. The Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, who had cut ties with the chain following the earlier incident when a staff member apparently assaulted someone he suspected of shoplifting, announced a joint press conference with store owner Munther Zeid, but then cancelled it; neither the AMC nor Zeid has commented on the reason for the cancellation. Meanwhile, a Shoppers Drug Mart location in Steinbach say they've been able to greatly reduce shoplifting by prohibiting unaccompanied minors from entering the store.

- Following reports of high levels of H5N1 in unpasteurized milk, there has been a dramatic increase in the sale of said milk, as people have been buying the stuff in the hope of giving themselves immunity. One would be tempted to say, "so a bunch of Trump supporting morons will get sick and die. Where's the problem?" except that every human that gets infected is a potential "patient zero" for a new variant that spreads from person to person more easily than avian influenza currently does.

News roundup, 15 May 2024

- The gag order that's supposed to prevent Trump from attacking jurors, witnesses, and the judge's family does not apply to his supporters, who have been loudly shouting what their hero isn't allowed to say. The judge, however, plans to look into whether any of this behaviour was instigated by Trump himself, something which might well constitute a violation of the order. In other Trump news, following rumours that Trump has to wear adult diapers, some of his supporters have taken it upon themselves to declare that "real men wear diapers". No, you really can't make this shit up.

- Israeli settlers in the West Bank attacked an aid convoy bound for Gaza, destroying and scattering the food. The White House has condemned the attack, and even some Israelis say that this is "not in line with our movement", though the military seems to hit aid convoys and buildings far more than they have any excuse to do. Meanwhile, in Paris, some overly enthusiastic pro-Palestinian protesters thought it would be a good idea to vandalize a Holocaust memorial with red handprints, which cannot be reasonably called a legitimate target and only adds to the impression that antisemitism is part of their motivation.

- The Free Press and Brandon Sun columnist Deveryn Ross thinks that the NDP actually has a good chance of taking Tuxedo when the byelection to replace Heather Stefanson occurs. Given what I've seen of Ross' opinion pieces, I don't think this is wishful thinking either, though it could still be wrong.

- A patient who had been taken to Health Sciences Centre's mental health crisis response centre appears to have killed himself while awaiting treatment.

- United Food and Commercial Workers Local 832, which represents the workers at the No Frills store on Notre Dame Avenue, has filed a grievance following the stabbing of an employee, saying that the store has not provided a safe workplace as required in their collective agreement. A valid complaint, but it's an interesting question how to resolve this. Should the store do what the Liquor Marts do and require ID to enter? For the safety of the workers, maybe - but food is a necessity in a way that liquor isn't, and this will inevitably mean that some people who don't have ID won't be able to shop there. Of course, they can always go elsewhere, at least until other stores do the same thing - but I could see this becoming a human rights issue of its own.

- The cost to Canadian taxpayers for the protection of MPs has skyrocketed since the pandemic and convoy protest. At current rates, costs for the RCMP alone for protecting MPs could hit $3.4 million by the end of this fiscal year - and that doesn't include the protection of the prime minister, which has hit over $30 million a year.

- The head of personnel at Russia's defense ministry has been arrested on suspicion of taking bribes, following the discovery of over a million dollars' worth of cash and valuables in his home. Unfortunately stuff like this hasn't stopped Russia from making substantial gains in Ukraine; I'm not sure that the conquest of that unfortunate country can be prevented at this point. Perhaps the best hope is that any conquest will be incomplete and will lead to a drawn-out guerilla campaign that will wear away at Russia over the years, much like Afghanistan did in the 1980s; this will at least keep Russia from attacking anyone else. Certainly Ukraine deserves better than to serve as Europe's sacrificial anode, but that's the world we live in I guess.

- Georgia's much reviled "foreign agents" legislation has been passed, though not before one of their traditional parliament brawls occurred.

- Wastewater surveillance has been extremely useful in tracking the spread of several diseases, including COVID-19, mpox, and polio - yet the US Centers for Disease Control have apparently discouraged its use for tracking avian influenza, much to the consternation of many experts. One researcher says he was told not to use a virus assay he'd developed specifically for that purpose - ostensibly because it would "add to the confusion". One can't help but wonder if the real reason is that factory farming is a big factor in the spread of the disease, and that if the extent of the disease in livestock were known, it would force the government to take measures to control it. And as we know, such measures would infuriate the farmers who are so good at milking populist rage - and in an election year.

- A two-way video portal between public spaces in New York and Dublin has been temporarily shut down following reports of "inappropriate behaviour". This apparently included "flashing body parts" and "displaying images of 9/11 and swear words on phone screens" as well as one woman who was escorted away by Dublin police after being seen "grinding" against the portal.

News roundup, 14 May 2024

- The wildfire situation is not improving. The entire population of Cranberry Portage, a community of about 600 people, have been evacuated; the fire in the area could take weeks to put out. In BC the fire threatening Fort Nelson is getting closer to the town and adjacent reserve, forcing more evacuations, while in Alberta the entire municipality of Wood Buffalo, which includes Fort McMurray, remains on evacuation alert.

- BC's measures restricting short term rentals like Airbnb are upsetting people who hoped to make money renting out their properties. A new organization, calling itself the "West Coast Association for Property Rights", has formed to fight this; of course their executive director declares that restricting short term rentals won't solve the problem, but then he would say that, wouldn't he. The organization is seeking an injunction to stop the enforcement of the law.

- Teresa Ribera, Spain's deputy prime minister, is hoping to be appointed the EU's commissioner for the Green Deal. She is not pulling her punches in criticizing EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen for her deference to the far right and the rural dinosaurs in particular.

- In recent years many corporations have at least gone through the motions of being concerned about environmental, social, and governance (ESG) and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) matters. However, corporations aren't generally a reliable ally on such matters, especially when there's a very aggressive push in the other direction from the far right. Even companies that remain (somewhat) forward thinking on these matters are a lot quieter about it than they were a few years ago.

- David DePape, the man who showed up at Nancy Pelosi's home with a hammer in 2022 and then beat her husband with it upon finding that she wasn't there, is set to be sentenced on Friday. Prosecutors are asking for a 40 year sentence.

- Deomcratic Senator Bob Menendez goes on trial on Monday for accepting large amounts of money in bribes. Of course, he represents New Jersey, a place whose corruption makes Quebec seem like Norway in comparison; he's just one of the unlucky ones to get caught.

- An 8 month old child in the UK, who was born deaf, is now able to hear without any assistance, thanks to gene therapy. It will be interesting to see the reaction of the folks who call themselves Deaf with a capital D and who have at times characterized cochlear implants as genocide.

News roundup, 13 May 2024

- People are being evacuated as a wildfire threatens homes and cottages near Flin Flon. The smoke is noticeable as far away as Winnipeg. The situation is worse in BC, where thousands have been evacuated from Fort Nelson and the adjacent First Nation.

- Joe Biden's reluctance to provide Israel with certain kinds of bombs while they're moving in on Rafah is being hailed by some as the first significant crack in the rock-solid alliance between the countries. Others, however, point out that plenty of other weapons shipments that are unaffected, suggesting that Biden's move is more for show than anything.

- The "Never Trump" Republicans are split on whether to actually do something about the Trump problem by voting for Joe Biden, or at least on whether to publicly admit a willingness to do so.

- Another pro-Palestinian encampment has been set up, this one at the University of Winnipeg. There has been no disruption to classes; the activists say they intend to stay until their demands, which include cutting "all academic and economic ties with Israeli institutions", are met.

- Some may recall the story of programmer Eugenia Kuyda who, after her best friend was killed in an accident, created a chatbot with all the texts he'd sent her over the years so that she could still have text conversations with him. A few years after that, Joshua Barbeau went a step further, creating a chatbot that actually spoke to him in the voice of his dead fiancee. Such "deadbots" are now commercially available, as are services that will do things like make an animated video from an old photo. Some in the mental health community are wondering if this is such a great idea.

- The village of Sainte-Pétronille, Quebec cut funding to the local newspaper, Autour de l’Île, and threatened to sue the paper in attempt to prevent the publication of a story about the municipality's general manager, who had been fired from her previous job for misconduct. Moreover, they also threatened to sue almost 100 of their residents who raised concerns about the hiring at a council meeting. An investigation has concluded that the village did nothing actually illegal but warned about the potential implications for press freedom.

- At a rally in New Jersey, Donald Trump stated his admiration for Hannibal Lecter (not for the first time, apparently). I'm not sure whether his inability to know the difference between reality and fiction, or his choice of a fictitious character to praise, is more disconcerting.

News roundup, 10 May 2024

- Solar and wind power are the fastest growing electricity sources in history. Renewables now represent 30% of global electricity production. Meanwhile Danielle Smith continues to make a fool of herself on this issue (and numerous others).

- Drought conditions have resulted in Lake Winnipeg's water level being the lowest it's been in 35 years, and the second lowest since Manitoba Hydro's Jenpeg control structure began regulating the lake level.

- Police moved in to forcibly clear a protest camp from the University of Calgary yesterday, using flashbangs (they claim that this was a response to aggressive behaviour by the protesters). The encampment at the University of Manitoba remains and has stayed peaceful, though the university has cited the existence of the encampment as a reason to cancel a public event on campus.

- Parks Canada has banned watercraft from Clear Lake in Riding Mountain National Park in the hope of containing a potential zebra mussel outbreak. Interestingly, there has been some speculation among cottagers that the appearance of zebra mussels may have been a deliberate attempt at sabotage; on this Reddit thread a poster attempts to draw a link to an activist who was accused of planning an armed blockade in the park in 2022, though no actual evidence is presented and it's hard to say if this is something real, or just an attempt to poison the proverbial well.

- Legislation introduced in Ontario in 2022 which changed the fees paid to municipalities by developers led to a backlash from several municipalities. In response, the provincial government launched audits to determine the impact - only to cancel them (presumably because they had the potential to make the government look bad).

- Tim Hortons is testing new fibre coffee cup lids at some locations. Conservative MP Lianne Rood is up in arms about the new lids, which she considers to be "woke" because they aren't made of plastic.

- The town of Oakville, Ontario has voted to turn down money from the federal government because they don't want to densify their neighbourhoods. Some important context - despite officially continuing to call itself a "town", Oakville is larger than many cities in the province, at over 213,000 people. Apparently the residents want to continue to delude themselves into thinking that they're simple, small-town folk who don't want none of that big city stuff, and certainly nothing like apartments or fourplexes that might bring those darned poors to town. They also famously banned clotheslines until a previous government prohibited municipalities from banning them.

- The former CAO of the Rural Municipality of North Cypress-Langford has pleaded guilty to diverting about $30,000 to the Carberry Curling Club to replace money she'd stolen from the club while serving as their treasurer. I'm guessing that a gambling problem was involved; that seems to be how this sort of thing usually happens.

- Rex Murphy (or "Nervous Rex", as the good folks at CODCO called him) has died, though not before spouting a lot of rightwing propaganda in recent years.

News roundup, 9 May 2024

- Judge Aileen Cannon, who is presiding over Donald Trump's trial in the classified documents case, has delayed the start of the trial indefinitely, probably until after the November election. And guess who was President when Cannon was appointed to the bench? 

- A Republican representative from Nebraska, Don Bacon, has introduced a motion to censure Ilhan Omar; this was ironically motivated by a statement that Omar made against antisemitism, albeit one which had a little jab thrown in. When asked by a news outlet about antisemitism at the protests on university campuses, she said "We should not have to tolerate antisemitism or bigotry for all Jewish students, whether they are pro-genocide or anti-genocide." I guess insinuating that some of those students are pro-genocide was too much for Bacon.

- Doctors have removed a dead parasite from Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s brain. Whether this will restore him to rationality, though, is doubtful.

- Police say that the three men charged in the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar are members of a prominent Indian organized crime group known as the Bishnoi gang. Maybe this is true, and the gang was doing the work of the Indian government. However, since proving such a link will be very difficult, this could be a convenient way for Canadian authorities to rationalize maintaining relations with India.

- Italy's far-right government is imposing restrictions on the deployment of solar panels on agricultural land. They're also putting the military to work shooting wild boars; perhaps the latter is necessary but it does seem quite consistent with the style of that government.

- Former Tory MLA Shannon Martin, who lost his McPhillips seat in last fall's election, is seeking the party's nomination for the byelection in Tuxedo, whenever it occurs. 

- This past January was the worst month in recorded history for overdose deaths in Manitoba, at 56. The previous record was held by December 2023, with 54. Some of this may be attributable to the use of benzodiazepines, including a new designer drug called desalkylgidazepam, to cut opioids; the standard treatment for opioid overdose, Naloxone, does not work on these drugs.

- Venezuela's last glacier has been reduced to an ice field. While not as dependent on glaciers as some of its neighbours, this is not a good sign.

- Analysis of sperm whale communication with the help of AI has concluded that there is a lexicon of sound patterns that function like an alphabet, suggesting that they are using a bona fide language.

News roundup, 8 May 2024

- A report prepared for the City of Winnipeg's Standing Policy Committee on Property and Development is recommends against the planned sale of two historic city-owned buildings, a fire hall and the building that served as the city hall for the former City of St. Boniface. Instead, it recommends retaining ownership but entering into long-term leases with community organizations. I'd have to agree; the city hall in particular is a gem, and the only surviving example in this city of that style.

- An inconvenient truth for people who hate speed cameras - they work. In Guelph, average speeds in school zones have decreased from 42 to 33 km/h since the introduction of cameras. Of course, some people immediately bleat "CASH GRAB!" whenever the topic of speed cameras comes up, but there's a very simple way to avoid getting your cash grabbed - don't drive so bloody fast.

- Tom Heehler argues that one of the failings of the mainstream centrist or "liberal" media is that it gives too little coverage of non-crazy conservatives. There's something to that; simply put, Donald Trump and Marjorie Taylor Greene are a far better source of lurid stories than, say, Liz Cheney or Mitt Romney. For that matter, on this side of the border, when was the last time you heard Michael Chong mentioned in the news? I think Heehler is going a bit too far in calling Cheney and Romney "good", but they're rational and have a basic sense of integrity, which is more than can be said for the people who get all the coverage.

- A pro-Palestinian encampment has been set up at the University of Manitoba. Unlike many such encampments, the university and the protesters both seem to be acting reasonably, so far at least.

- The biggest barrier to installing heat pumps? There aren't enough trained workers to meet the demand.

- While honey bees get all the coverage, many species of bumble bee are in much more dire straits. A recent study has found that the optimal temperature range for a bumble bee nest is 28–32°C. Temperatures above 35°C are lethal; before that point, it leads to developmental issues, with larvae developing into smaller workers.

- A Newfoundland trucker went missing in Ontario two weeks ago. A big search was organized; strangely, nobody seems to have thought to properly search his truck until it was returned to Newfoundland, whereupon his body was found in the trailer. Strangely, the OPP seem a bit reluctant to answer questions on the matter.

- A 3 year old boy found something at home that he thought would be interesting to bring to his Richmond, Virginia preschool - a loaded handgun. Fortunately it didn't get fired and thus nobody was hurt, though a family member has been arrested; even in America they draw the line at letting three year olds play with guns.

News roundup, 7 May 2024

- Hamas has agreed to a ceasefire under a proposal from Egypt and Qatar. Despite some international pressure, including a warning from France that the forced removal of thousands of Palestinians from Rafah (pretty much the last refuge in Gaza for them) could constitute a war crime, the Israelis seem bent on pushing ahead. Mairav Zonszein of the International Crisis Group (who is Israeli, by the way) thinks that "Netanyahu is sensing that this deal could go through, so he’s looking to avert it". One can't help thinking that he fears that being prime minister in wartime might be the only thing standing between him and prison, so he's going to try to maintain a permanent state of war.

- Former Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis was scheduled to give a video address to a conference in Germany on the Israel-Palestine conflict last month, however the event was cancelled by German authorities who claimed that they were trying to prevent "antisemitic and violence-glorifying remarks", despite the fact that one of the organizations behind the conference was Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East. Varoufakis says that in response he recorded the speech and posted it to his blog; he says that the following day German authorities warned pro-Palestinian activists against playing the speech on loudspeakers at any protest.

- Ukrainian men of military age (defined as between 18 and 60) who live abroad face loss of consular services if they don't return home to fight. This applies to those who left before the war as well as during it.

- Donald Trump has been held in contempt of court for the tenth time for violating the order not to speak publicly about witnesses or jurors in his trial regarding the Stormy Daniels hush money. Judge Juan Merchan is warning that he will impose a jail sentence if this keeps up, even while admitting that this is "the last thing" he wants to do. Not sure of the reason for his reluctance.

- A Republican fundraiser in Colorado was cancelled due to "safety concerns". These concerns appear to have arisen because of threats stemming from South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem's admission that she shot her dog for being unruly. As an aside, the first article indicates that the chair of the Republican Party's Jefferson County wing is named Nancy Pallozzi; I bet she has to put up with a lot of ribbing about her name from her fellow Republicans.

- Despite all the FUD about how Canada's deficits will scare off investors, Warren Buffett's company, Berkshire Hathaway, is looking north of the border. Buffett himself says "We do not feel uncomfortable in any way, shape or form, putting our money into Canada".

- The Winnipeg Housing Rehabilitation Corporation will redevelop a housing complex closed by Manitoba Housing in 2019, in cooperation with Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs and the Spence Neighbourhood Association. The province is donating the site; the existing units (which were problematic from the start) will be demolished and a new building constructed.

- Two men in Headingley were arrested for possession of a large amount of explosives as well as firearms. One of them has a significant record already. Meanwhile, police in Winkler arrested another man and seized an enormous arsenal of firearms, including a homemade cannon as well as 21 rifles (two of them were loaded; in addition one was fitted with an over-capacity magazine, and one with a suppressor), 4 shotguns, explosives, body armour, and over 6,500 rounds of ammunition.

- The suspected serial killer being tried in Winnipeg for the deaths of four women has admitted to the killings but is trying to argue that he is not criminally responsible due to mental illness. Following this development the prosecution has agreed to allow the case to be heard by a judge alone, and the jury will be discharged.

- A large species of catfish, indigenous to the American South, has turned up in the Thames River in Ontario. In other invasive species news, several large flatworm species have also been found in the province.

- A former Hamilton police officer who was convicted of sexually assaulting a woman he was mentoring has been sentenced to 12 months of house arrest followed by 12 months of probation. What stands out about this story, though, is that the judge had already told him that he wouldn't serve any jail time, two weeks before the actual sentence was issued.

- In Saskatchewan, sexual health education is pretty much banned from all classrooms; this includes such things as educating kids about consent. I guess Saskatchewan Party MLAs don't want their kids' victims to know what their rights are.

News roundup, 6 May 2024

- Three men, all Indian citizens, have been arrested in connection with the murder of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey last year. Police are investigating links with three other homicides as well, including the death of an 11 year old boy in Edmonton.

- The Israeli government has shut down all of Al Jazeera's operations in the country and raided its offices. They accuse the broadcaster of "incitement" and "working with Hamas", which the broadcaster denies. Notably, the BBC was not allowed to film the raid. The UN's Human Rights office as well as the Committee to Protect Journalists are condemning the decision. In other Israel news, many Bedouin citizens of that country are unable to build bomb shelters to protect themselves from Hamas-launched missiles - because even though they live in villages that predate the founding of Israel, the communities have never been officially recognized, and thus do not have the ability to issue building permits. So the Israeli state considers any shelters they build to be unauthorized structures, and demolishes them. Then they cry a few crocodile tears at best, or smile smugly at worst, when Bedouin citizens die in the attacks. Meanwhile the Globe and Mail's Marsha Lederman warns supporters of both sides of the confllict against reducing the matter to simple slogans.

- It's increasingly apparent that one of the biggest barriers to effective climate action is the agricultural sector. In the European Union, rioting farmers have been doing their damnedest to undermine efforts to make Europe a leader in sustainable agriculture. No wonder farmers have been downgraded, in the minds of a lot of people, from "salt of the Earth" to "necessary evil". On a related note, Florida governor Ron DeSantis has just signed a bill outlawing the sale of cultured meat in the state. He also  spouted conspiracy nonsense about the supposed global elite's plans to force everyone to eat it, even as he signed legislation taking away his own citizens' freedom to eat it if they so choose.

- A federal appeals court in the US has ruled that a lawsuit by an organization called Our Children’s Trust on behalf of 21 young Americans lacks standing and must be dismissed by the US district judge hearing the case. The judges who made the ruling are Trump appointees, but this was an "emergency" petition filed by the Biden administration's Justice Department, who claimed that the government could be "irreparably harmed" if it were forced to waste resources litigating the case.

- The Manitoba government will be using funds from an out-of-court settlement with the tobacco companies to pay for the building of a new headquarters for CancerCare.

- Following the report of a woman being punched in a Winnipeg grocery store by an employee who suspected her of shoplifting, other members of the community say that this is not the first time something like this has happened at that store - nor even the second.

- Use of the "Community Connections" service in the lobby of Winnipeg's Millennium library are on the increase, even as the city prepares to shut it down so that Evan Duncan's constituents don't have to look at poor people when they use the library.

- In something worthy of the Piranha Brothers, a man in Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland suffered potentially life-altering injuries after having his hands nailed to a fence. This has apparently happened before; there have been no official statements regarding responsibilty but many locals suspect Loyalist paramilitaries.

News roundup, 3 May 2024

- The Kinew government is going to be holding an expert-led review of the Pallister government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic in manitoba, but apparently no judicial inquiry as originally planned. It might seem odd that they would forgo such an opportunity to make the Tories look bad in public, especially when they had campaigned on doing just that. What's interesting is one of the main reasons some sources have apparently given for downgrading the inquiry. According to Dan Lett, "NDP government sources indicated that while a public inquiry would likely produce some valuable insight into the pandemic response, it would be difficult to control some of the collateral and volatile politics that would no doubt accompany public hearings... In other words, the inquiry would become a rallying point for a political movement that, while it is not growing in numbers, is most certainly growing in toxicity". In still other words, it would trigger the freedumb crowd, and increase their public presence, which could possibly put innocent people in harm's way. Sadly, I believe that this fear is entirely justified; whether this was the correct response, I don't know.

-  In other health-related news, the Manitoba government has increased the number of medical residencies by 17 in order to make a step towards addressing the physician shortage in the province. Every spot has already been filled.

- Jagmeet Singh has announced that the federal NDP will support the Liberals' budget once again. Whether this is a good move on their part depends on whether you're looking at tactics or strategy. In purely tactical terms, it might hurt the party in the next election, by delaying the opportunity to "throw the bums out", but in terms of long term strategy, it's essential for the nascent dental care program to have time to show its merits to the public and thus make it more politically risky for the Tories to kill it when they do take power in another year and a half.

- Yet another MP, Liberal Pam Damoff, has announced she's not running again in her riding of Oakville North-Burlington, citing the misogyny and threats that she has experienced. Can't say I blame her, especially since running for reelection would probably ramp up the awfulness, and at the same time is probably futile given that the Tories are likely to sweep most suburban GTA ridings this time round.

- The federal Tories are calling for Speaker Greg Fergus to resign after Pierre Poilievre, but not Justin Trudeau, was ejected from Parliament on Tuesday, saying that accusing someone of courting rightwing extremists is exactly the same as calling someone a "wacko". Not sure how to adjudicate that, but it's worth pointing out that even Konrad Yakabuski is worried about the fact that Poilievre is courting people like the convoy camp on the NB-NS border. As he points out, the fact that Poilievre is shown on a video shared by his own people exiting a trailer with a Diagalon flag on it is probably not accidental. I generally don't have much time for a neoliberal like Yakabuski, but he's right about this, and I'll take a neoliberal over a fascist any day.

- Another pro-Palestinian protest encampment has appeared, this one at the University of British Columbia. So far, things don't seem to have gotten out of hand, except maybe from the point of view of those who would normally use the athletic field they've taken over.

- Joe Biden is showing openness to relaxing federal laws on marijuana. It's the right thing to do, and probably also a wise move if he wants to get the youth vote.

- Police are investigating after an employee at a Winnipeg grocery store apparently punched a woman who he suspected of shoplifting. The store manager claims that this happened after the employee caught her taking meat on video, but even if this is true this generally isn't how you're supposed to handle such situations.

- Peter Nygard, recently convicted of four counts of sexual assault in Toronto, is suing a Vancouver woman for defamation; the suit was launched a month after he was charged by Winnipeg police with sexually assaulting her while she was here for a modelling job back in the 1990s (not to be confused with other pending charges against him in Montreal and New York). I'll say this much - the man's got chutzpah. But the fact that you can launch a defamation suit against one of your accusers while you're awaiting trial for the crimes they're accusing you of is a rather serious hole in the law.

- DARPA has rolled out a robotic tank. I can't see anything possibly going wrong with that, can you?