News roundup, 2 Dec 2025

- The Kinew government's plans for a 72 hour detox facility in Winnipeg are a a source of concern for Ontario senator Kim Pate. While she believes the government has good intentions, she believes it to be an "ill-considered" response that will further traumatize already troubled people, and moreover believes that it might be open to a Charter challenge. On the other hand, some parents in BC want this sort of thing to enable their own addicted children to be treated.

- The Ontario coroner's office is calling for the legal definition of an e-bike to be tightened in the wake of several fatalities. Under current law, to be considered an e-bike a vehicle has to be speed limited to 32 km/h but can weigh up to 120 kg; the coroner is proposing that the weight limit be reduced to 55 kg. This would mean that many e-bikes, such as the ones that look like a Vespa with a couple of useless pedals added, would be considered motorcycles or mopeds and would require licensing. This would doubtless come as a shock to people who bought such e-bikes after losing their drivers' licenses.

- Rahmanullah Lakanwal, the man suspected of shooting two West Virginia National Guard members in Washington, had worked with CIA-backed units in Afghanistan before being brought to the US. Unfortunately upon arrival his mental health began to unravel and even Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem admitted that he appears to have been radicalized after his arrival.

- US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reportedly ordered a second strike on a Venezuelan vessel that was suspected of smuggling narcotics. Hegseth allegedly wanted to ensure that there were no survivors.

- Sales of electric, hybrid, and plug-in hybrid vehicles exceeded those of conventional gasoline and diesel vehicles in Europe in October. The devil in the details is the non-plug-in hybrids, whose emissions really aren't that much lower than non-hybrid gas cars.

- Australian children's entertainers The Wiggles were alarmed to find a song making reference to ecstasy (MDMA) played over one of their clips on TikTok. The group has made it clear that they do not condone drug use.

News roundup, 30 Sept 2025

- The Trump regime is revoking the visa of Columbian president Gustavo Petro, essentially making him persona non grata in the US, after he spoke at a pro-Palestinian rally in New York City on Friday and urged American soldiers to disobey the orders of Trump.

- A special election (i.e. what's known as a byelection in most other English-speaking countries) was held in Arizona's 7th congressional district last Tuesday. The election was necessitated by the death of incumbent Democrat Raúl Grijalva in March. His daughter Adelita Grijalva won the race handily; what makes this potentially significant is that this could give the necessary 218 signatures to force the House to vote on the release of the Epstein files. Of course, in the long run this likely won't have the effect many hope for; even if a few more Republicans defect in the actual vote, it will face a bigger hurdle in the Senate - and even if it passes there, Trump could easily veto it and say "what are you going to do about it?" About the only positive would be that Republican members of Congress would be forced to publicly declare their willingness to conceal the files, and that only really matters if next year's midterms are something approaching fair. That might be a tall order, unfortunately.

- The Alberta government is considering legislation that would allow it to ignore international agreements signed by the federal government. While it's easy to dismiss this as more nonsense from Danielle Smith and the UCP, this may actually be an example of a stopped clock telling the right time (though the example her press secretary gave, the World Health Organization Pandemic Agreement, is certainly not an example I would use). When one considers the impact of the Canada China FIPA on provincial (and First Nations) rights, for instance, it becomes a lot easier to question the merits of the feds being able to sign an agreement on things outside their jurisdiction.

- The BC government has announced that two involuntary care facilities will be built, one in Surrey and one in Prince George. The goal is to avoid tying up regular hospital beds and put the detainees in what is described as a "home-like" setting; municipal leaders are pleased with the move but advocates for the homeless are understandably uncomfortable with the idea. One thing is clear - this isn't a solution to homelessness, though given that actual solutions are extremely difficult it might be a necessary evil as a stopgap measure. Involuntary commitment is certainly not something that should be taken lightly, though.

- A pilot study that allows emergency vehicles to preempt traffic signals has been deemed a success by the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service. Response times in the area covered by the study (in and around Osborne Village) were reduced by 15-20%; there are plans to expand the program to around 70% of the signalized intersections in the city. Of course, expect searches for "chrome box" from Winnipeg-based IP addresses to skyrocket if that happens.

News roundup, 12 Nov 2024

- The FBI is investigating after numerous black Americans report receiving racist text messages in the wake of last week's election, telling them to report to a plantation to pick cotton. Alarmingly, many of the texts addressed the recipients by name.

- The Canadian Union of Postal Workers has given notice that they will be in a legal strike position as of Friday, though they have not formally set a date to actually walk out.

- An addictions treatment centre that had purchased numerous units in a condo complex in Winnipeg's Lindenwoods neighbourhood as transitional housing has received a cease and desist order after the condo association took them to court. The complex had a policy against using units for "business purposes", and while acting as a regular landlord was exempt, the court has ruled that this was not and is forcing the centre's clients to leave. Because "property values" or something. Some of the clients had apparently been followed by other residents and had their pictures taken. Well, that's Lindenwoods for you I guess...

- A poll has found that none of the potential candidates for the leadership of the federal Liberals is particularly popular with the Canadian public. Mark Carney scored highest, with 18% of those polled approving of him, but "none of the above" was the choice of 26% of respondents.

- Gwynne Dyer attempts to put last week's US election results in perspective, saying for instance that while the plan to push ahead with oil exploration is worrisome, the global demand for oil is declining, which might limit the severity of such moves. On the other hand Dyer thinks it likely that Ukraine will be thrown under the bus and that Gaza is pretty much finished (then again, Gaza's prospects were dim regardless of the outcome of the election).

- Century-old weather records are tumbling; last Thursday it was almost 23°C in Sainte-Clotilde, Quebec. Slightly more promising is the fact that deforestation in the Amazon has dropped by over 30% compared to the previous year. However, reading the fine print it becomes apparent that it's not as good as it sounds; fire damage is classified as "degradation" rather than deforestation, and there have been a lot of fires.

News roundup, 10 Sept 2024

- Ukraine has upped the ante in the war, sending numerous drones into the Moscow area. At least one person was killed and dozens of flights were forced to divert. Russia accuses Ukraine of targeting residential neighbourhoods, which even if true is a wee bit hypocritical.

- With the NDP and Conservatives essentially tied in the polls following the Conservatives' de facto absorption of BC United, one political scientist thinks that the Cons are seeking to present a moderate image by getting former BC United candidates to represent them in the suburbs. He think the NDP still has a slight edge, though, due to their votes being more "efficient" (one of those quirks of the first-past-the-post electoral system). Meanwhile, despite their leader's move to merge with the Cons, some candidates will apparently still be running under the BC United banner, which is also potentially good news for the government.

- Federally, the byelection being held next week in the Quebec riding of Lasalle—Émard—Verdun is turning out to be a much bigger fight for the Liberals than they've generally faced there. The Bloc Québécois is within striking distance of winning. Meanwhile the NDP faces a similar fight in Elmwood-Transcona.

- A plan to open an addiction rehabilitation home in Winnipeg's suburban Lindenwoods neighbourhood is getting a lot of pushback from locals, who expressed concern that it will attract drug dealers and violence. The neighbourhood is one of the wealthier and more socially conservative ones in the city, so that's to be expected. Hopefully good sense will prevail, but you can never be sure.

- A 65 year old man has been sentenced to 7 years in prison for the death of a 38 year old man in Hartland, Wisconsin. He had apparently confronted the younger man about his tattoos, saying that "marking up God's work is a sin", then punched him, causing him to fall and strike his head on the sidewalk. Now I'm no expert on religious matters, but I'm pretty sure that killing someone because you don't like his looks would be considered a sin by most faiths.

- A Delta Air Lines A350 got a little too close to a CRJ owned by a subsidiary of the same airline, and knocked off the entire empennage. Nobody was hurt, but I suspect that at least one of the captains is going to have some 'splainin to do.

News roundup, 20 April 2024

-  Jury selection is now complete for Donald Trump's trial on the Stormy Daniels case. In other trial-related news, the New York Times has obtained information about where the jurors and alternates get their news; looking at juror #2, I have to wonder why the prosecution allowed that one. Meanwhile a man has died after setting himself on fire in front of the courthouse yesterday.

- Mike Pence accuses Trump of "betraying the pro-life movement" by moderating his stance on abortion. Division of this sort is good news for the Democrats.

- The US Forest Service is losing firefighters, even as the wildfire situation gets worse.

- Mayoral candidates in two different Mexican cities were found dead on the same day. Some 15 other candidates have been killed in the campaign period leading up to the elections scheduled for June; drug cartels are the most likely suspects.

- Assiniboine Credit Union is seeking to absorb two more institutions, Westoba Credit Union and Caisse Financial Group; if approved by the membership of the three entities this will be the only bilingual credit union in the province.

- While you can hardly throw a stone in Winnipeg without hitting a dope store, the province currently prohibits people from growing their own. This may be about to change, however; the government is expected to announce that Manitoba will be joining most other provinces in allowing it.

- Apparently they've developed an algorithm that tries to assign a risk score indicating how likely a person is to become addicted to opioids. Since this is a proprietary algorithm, though, it can't be easily scrutinized for accuracy, and it could leave a mark on patients' records that could be very hard to remove.

- Researchers are trying to selectively breed corals for heat tolerance in the hope of saving some coral reefs.

News roundup, 13 March 2024

- This past winter (the meteorological winter ends on the 1st of March, not the equinox), was the warmest winter in the US in over a century of records. The Lower 48 had an average temperature of +3.1°C (37.6°F); that's 3°C above average. Those numbers don't fully convey the story, though. Leaves are budding on trees weeks earlier than normal, Lake Erie and Lake Ontario have been essentially ice-free all winter, and mosquitoes were biting in Michigan as early as February.

- Since Paris moved to triple parking costs for SUVs, other cities are looking to follow their example. It's almost as if everybody knew it was a good idea, but nobody had the nerve to go first until Anne Hidalgo did.

- Manitoba's minimum wage will be going up to $15.80 an hour this fall. It did not go up this past fall because the deadline to make a decision on the matter came too soon after the election, and the new government, rightly or wrongly, was reluctant to make a snap decision on the matter. In the long run they want to bring it up to a "living wage", currently pegged at $19/h by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

- The interim leader of the Manitoba Progressive Conservatives, Wayne Ewasko, is following the standard rightwing playbook, calling for parents to be notified when their kids request to be addressed by different pronouns at school. I'm sure that the life of a trans kid in, say, the RM of Hanover would not be made any easier by this (not that it's easy in any case, of course) but it seems the PCs don't care and are doubling down on the far-right messaging that contributed to their defeat last fall.

- Manitoba Public Insurance has suspended the sale of "special risk extension" coverage for truckers that operate outside the province. The Tories are trying to make political hay with this by accusing the NDP of "abandoning" truckers; funny thing is, though, MPI says that they made this move in August, while the Tories were still in power.

- The City of Winnipeg's Executive Policy Committee has voted 5-1 in favour of moving ahead with reopening Portage and Main to pedestrians. It will not be surprising to anyone that North Kildonan councillor Jeff Browaty was the holdout.

- Loblaws, like many grocery companies, has been pushing hard on self-checkout, but they're having to take measures to combat theft, like setting up gates with receipt scanners at the exits. Many customers find this to be an alienating experience, of course. Interestingly, Loblaws claims that this is largely driven by "organized crime", even as many studies find that self-checkout makes thieves of previously honest people (and that's not even counting the number of people who accidentally fail to scan an item). In other places, many chains are abandoning it entirely, finding that it's not even cutting down on their labour costs.

- Many people think of opioid addiction as a big city problem. In fact, in Canada at least, when municipalities are sorted by population, the ones with the highest incidence of hospitalization from overdoses are small cities between 50,000 and 100,000 people, and the next worst are municipalities with less than 10,000. Hospitalizations were actually least common in large cities over half a million.