News roundup, 1 May 2026

- New York mayor Zohran Mamdani, long a bogeyman for the political right and centre, is now taking some flak from left-identifying folks over plans to build a "climate innovation hub" on vacant city property. The concern seems to be that the area surrounding the site is a traditionally working-class area and that by bringing highly paid professional jobs into the area it will fuel gentrification. I can understand the concern to a degree, but this is New York we're talking about; the gentrification ship sailed long ago.

- Besides oil, among the most important commodities shipped through the Strait of Hormuz are fertilizers; around a third of the world's supply passes through the strait. If this goes on it will mean lower crop yields around the world. This is not expected to cause food shortages in rich countries, which will be able to outbid others, but the global cost could be up to 10 million meals per week.

- A use of force expert testifying at the inquest into the fatal police shooting of teenager Eisha Hudson says that the shooting was not justified. The officer who shot her claimed that the vehicle Hudson was driving was moving towards officers, however video taken by a witness appears to contradict this, with the shots being fired as the vehicle was reversing away from the cops.

- Winnipeg's Red River College Polytechnic is shutting down several programs, some of them permanently, and laying off 26 staff. Several other programs are having their capacity reduced. Both the Manitoba Government Employees' Union, which represents staff at the college, and the provincial government are blaming the caps placed on international student visas by the federal government.

- Winnipeg city council has removed Transcona councillor Russ Wyatt from all city committees following sexual assault allegations against him. 

- Intercity bus service is returning to Manitoba after an eight year absence, as the German company FlixBus (which purchased Greyhound in 2021) has announced a route between Winnipeg and Regina with a stop in Brandon.

- The Toronto suburb of Brampton leads the country in mortgage delinquencies among medium to large cities. The city was considerably below the national average only seven years ago; housing prices there surged in 2022 and some of those mortgages are now renewing at higher rates as a result of the Iran war.

- A man suspected in the murder of a five year old indigenous girl in the Australian city of Alice Springs was beaten unconscious by a mob; after he was taken to hospital a riot occurred outside the facility. Protesters were calling for traditional "payback"; the child's family have, however, appealed for calm.

News roundup, 19 Dec 2025

 - A resolution in the US House of Representatives ordering the Trump regime not to wage war with Venezuela without the consent of Congress (like, you know, the constitution already says) narrowly failed despite having two Republicans, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Thomas Massie of Kentucky, as co-sponsors. 

- The suspect in the mass shooting at Brown University has been found dead after apparently shooting himself. Claudio Neves Valente is also suspected of killing MIT professor Nuno F Gomes Loureiro, with whom he had attended university in Portugal many years ago.

- Quebec Liberal Party leader Pablo Rodriguez has resigned, only six months after taking the position. This follows months of dysfunction in the party, and comes only 10 months before Quebec goes to the polls in an election that is thought to favour the separatist Parti Quebecois.

- Toronto has found a potential workaround for the Ford government's restrictions on bike lanes. Instead of removing traffic lanes entirely, which would be prohibited by provincial legislation, the city is narrowing the traffic lanes to make room for nearly 20 kilometres of bike lanes. As an added bonus, the narrower car lanes will tend to have a psychological effect on drivers, slowing them down.

- Conestoga College in Kitchener is laying off 181 full-time instructors. This follows 190 layoffs earlier this year. The college has also suspended 82 programs and has not renewed leases for two of its satellite campuses, one in downtown Kitchener and one in Brantford. The institution has depended heavily on international students; they had more of them than any other postsecondary institution in Canada, and with the heavy cuts to student visas the school is taking a big hit.

- A student at Vancouver Island University in Nanaimo who was suspended for two years for pro-Palestinian activism (including hanging a banner on a building as well as a noisy protest that disrupted exams) has lost in court after attempting to challenge the suspension. 

- A Hanukkah ceremony at Winnipeg's Health Sciences Centre was disrupted by a man who called the participants "genocidal terrorists" and "fucking baby killers". In response, extra precautions were taken at a similar ceremony at the Asper Jewish Community Campus yesterday, with an enhanced police presence.

News roundup, 19 Dec 2024

- Following the retirement of Winnipeg police chief Danny Smyth, the city's police board had announced earlier this month that they had a candidate for the new chief and would make an announcement by the end of the year. However, this decision has now been deferred; Coun. Markus Chambers, the chair of the board, says that this is needed in order to "ensure the selection is the best decision" for the force. The Free Press has revealed that the board was planning to appoint the current deputy chief, Gene Bowers, and that the deferral was because of unspecified allegations against Bowers that were emailed to the board.

- Assiniboine College in Brandon is shutting down five programs following the federal government's decision to cap the number of international student visas it issues. This is happening to a number of post-secondary institutions in this country. Some are faring even worse; Oakville-based Sheridan College announced last month that it is suspending 40 programs.

- California has declared a state of emergency as avian influenza spreads through the state's cattle, while in Louisiana officials are reporting the first case of serious illness in the US due to the disease.

- A BC man who suffered from chronic back pain as well as bipolar disorder received approval for medical assistance in dying, however his family claims that he subsequently told them he did not want to go through with the procedure. He appears to have changed his mind; after leaving hospital on a day pass, he went to a MAID clinic and got himself put to sleep. His family is now suing the federal and provincial governments on the grounds that his psychiatric condition rendered him incompetent to make such a decision.

- The Wisconsin teenager who killed two people and wounded six before turning the gun on herself at the ironically named Abundant Life Christian School appears to have had an interest in school shootings and neo-Nazi ideology, based on examination of her internet activity. Apparently her profile picture on Tumblr was a screenshot from a security camera from a previous shooting.

- Three men have been arrested in the UK and are now facing extradition to Canada in the death of Sharif Rahman, a well-loved restaurant owner in Owen Sound, Ontario. Rahman was beaten to death outside his restaurant after confronting dine-and-dash customers over an unpaid $150 tab.

News roundup, 18 Nov 2024

- 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.