News roundup, 19 Aug 2026

- The Trump regime is delaying the 50% tariffs on Canadian goods for three days. The announcement came less than two hours before the tariffs were set to take effect, with Trump saying that there is a "deal" pending the finalization of some documents. Mark Carney did not say that there was a deal, though he did say that "substantial progress" had been made. Whether the progress in question has to do with actually reaching a deal, or merely with Trump's stock portfolio, is unknown at this time.

- Canadian researchers have concluded that foreign actors, from the US as well as Russia, have been pushing pro-separatist content in Alberta. Danielle Smith has acknowledged this, but it's not clear what can or will be done about the problem.

- ABC (US) is suing the FCC in an attempt to stop the early review of the licenses of eight of their TV stations, whose licenses were originally not scheduled for renewal until after 2028. 

- Declining church attendance across Canada means that a lot of old churches are closing. Some of these buildings, however, are being converted to affordable housing. This article focuses on a particular church in Winnipeg's North End; I'm aware of at least two others (one is now a co-op while another, just down the street from me, is owned by Manitoba Housing).

- Columbia House, the storied mail-order provider of music (and later DVDs) posted, and then removed, an announcement on its website indicating that it was shutting down. The company, not surprisingly, had difficulty competing with online retailers.

- A pharmacist in Portage la Prairie has been fined and hit with heavy license restrictions after it was found that he improperly dispensed controlled substances to patients (while also using several of these drugs himself). Some 39,000 doses of various controlled drugs went missing under his watch, including over 2,500 that went to the same individual.

- Erin Patterson, the Australian woman convicted of fatally poisoning three of her husband's relatives with the aptly named Death Cap mushroom, is appealing her conviction on a couple of grounds, most notably that the jury was sequestered at the same hotel where the prosecutors and a key witness were staying. The Director of Public Prosecutions argues, however, that while this was an error there is no evidence of communication between the parties.

News roundup, 8 Sept 2025

- The agriculture sector in both Canada and the US is taking a beating due to the ongoing trade dispute with China. In the US, corn and soybean prices have collapsed; in Canada there's a similar situation with canola. In both countries, governments are trying to pick up the slack by incentivizing more biofuel production. Saskatchewan premier Scott Moe is calling for the removal of tariffs on Chinese EVs as these tariffs are widely seen as being part of the reason China has sanctioned our canola in the first place. I hate to agree with Moe on anything, but he's right about this. Unfortunately there's no way in hell that the federal government will throw auto workers under the bus.

- Suicide is now the number one cause of death in the EU for people between the ages of 15 and 29, accounting for nearly 19% of all deaths in that age group. This represents a reversal of a previous downward trend for suicide.

- Air Canada's flight attendants have rejected the latest wage offer from their employer. The union argues that even with the increase offered, flight attendants would still effectively be making less than the minimum wage for federally regulated industries.

- A consumer advocacy group in Australia has found that 16 out of 20 brands of sunscreen don't provide the level of protection claimed on the label. This in the country with the highest incidence of skin cancer in the world.

- Former Winnipeg Blue Bombers running back Willard Reaves is running for the leadership of the Manitoba Liberal Party. I guess he figures that if Obby Khan can lead a party, so can he.

- In France, the government led by prime minister François Bayrou is expected to lose a non-confidence vote. Bayrou had called the vote himself, hoping to "shock" politicians into getting their act together, but it doesn't seem to be working. Meanwhile the bleating masses are lining up behind Jordan Bardella, leader of the far-right National Rally, because he seems like "someone you could get a drink with". You'd hope that a democracy could choose its leaders based on something more substantial than that, but I guess not.

- Erin Patterson, who poisoned several of her husband's relatives with death cap mushrooms, killing three, has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 33 years.