- The principal of an Ottawa high school has apologized after a song in Arabic, "Haza Salam", was played at a Remembrance Day ceremony. The song's title translates, roughly, as "This is Peace"; many were outraged, however, and claimed that it was "hurtful to the Jewish community", despite the fact that the song's lyrics apparently make no mention of the Israel-Palestine conflict. Of course Pierre Poilievre has jumped on that bandwagon in a big way. Poilievre is also outraged at the fact that Toronto's ceremony included a land acknowledgement and made mention of the discrimination against the No. 2 Construction Battalion, an all-black regiment, during WW1. He has vowed to dismantle what he calls a "woke" culture and replace it with a "warrior" one, so his response to these matters is not a big surprise.
- The topic of free public transit is a popular one among some urbanist types. Interestingly, though, the experience in many places has not been as favourable as you might expect. According to this DW report, the removal of transit fares in the Estonian capital of Tallinn, while increasing ridership, actually reduced the proportion of commuters who used it, and car use increased by 5%. Apparently free transit tends to replace walking and cycling rather than driving, while making transit more crowded and thus less attractive to commuters. There is also a perception among many that free transit makes transit less safe by attracting the "wrong" type of passengers. Whether that perception is fair is a fair question, but largely irrelevant - unfortunately it's perception, rather than reality, that determines people's decision to use transit. What needs to be done is to increase the frequency and reliability of transit, as well as perceived safety - and to make it more expensive and less convenient to drive. I would suggest additionally that reduced fares could be beneficial for lower income folks while not encouraging people to take the bus frivolously.
- A Trump-appointed judge has struck down a rule imposed by the US Department of Labor that would have increased overtime eligibility for some 4 million American workers (many of whom foolishly just voted to reelect the guy who appointed the judge). I guess they don't mind if Trump hurts them so long as he hurts black people more.
- With the federal Liberal government caving in to populism and capping international student enrollment earlier this fall, post-secondary institutions across the country are concerned about the impact on their revenue stream. The University of Winnipeg has implemented a hiring freeze as a result.
- In response to the Ford government forcing the removal of bike lanes, the City of Toronto plans to erect signs telling commuters to blame Doug Ford for any increase in congestion that results. Council was quite divided on the matter, though, with suburban councillors opposing the move.
