News roundup, 1 June 2026

- A court in BC has ruled that forcing employees back into the office can constitute "constructive dismissal" under some circumstances. The case involved an employee of a real estate development company who had been working under a flexible arrangement since returning from maternity leave in 2013; she had gone fully remote along with the rest of the office staff in 2020 when the pandemic hit, and had continue to do so with the approval of successive supervisors until the arrangement was revoked in 2023. The court concluded that a longtime remote work arrangement can become an essential term of employment, though one lawyer suggests that the court might have ruled differently had she not already been working in such a manner before 2020. The company in question has a pretty big state in commercial real estate, which might be why they're so keen to stamp out WFH.

- US Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin is threatening to pull Customs and Border Patrol officers from "sanctuary cities" that limit cooperation with immigration officials, meaning that these airports couldn't take international flights. The idea, is that these flights would be redirect such flights to other cities, presumably in red states. The FAA and others (including Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy) warn that this would lead to chaos, because the airports in more pliant cities are already near capacity and numerous flights would simply have to be cancelled. We'll have to see how much longer Mullin and Duffy can remain in the same cabinet, and who will prevail.

- Manitoba is holding a "virtual town hall", by telephone, for residents of the Southern Health Region, the epicentre of the measles outbreak in the province. The province will be cold calling residents in advance to let them know of the meeting, and then called again at the start of the event. Dr. Melissa MacKay, a professor of public health at the University of Guelph, suggests that the uptake might be higher if the event is well-advertised, so that people are less disinclined to answer a call from an unfamiliar number. I think, though, that there's a deeper problem here - the kind of people who refuse to get vaccinated are also the kind of people who aren't going to answer when "the gummint" calls.

- The CEO of WiseTech Global, a logistics software company, was speaking at an investment conference and remarked that it's "stupid to be paying $100 for labour when you can pay $2 for the AI". Once his comments leaked to the public, this landed very poorly given that his company had already announced that it would be eliminating 30% of its global workforce, representing some 2,000 jobs. Predictably, this lead to threats of violence against him and his family; while I don't endorse that (certainly not bringing his family into the matter) nobody should be surprised at this.

- The Great American State Fair, an event organized by Trump-backed nonprofit Freedom 250, has announced a musical lineup. Almost immediately afterwards, several of the musicians on the bill, including country singer Martina McBride, rapper Young MC, and glam metal band Poison cancelled saying that they didn't realize it was a partisan event. Now it's easy to be a bit cynical about the supposed naïveté of these people, but several of them allege that there was an element of bait-and-switch; the name sounds innocent enough (many of these artists have played at numerous actual state fairs) and some claim that they were never told it was a Trump-affiliated event. On the other hand, it would be fair to ask if there was any plausible way that an event in DC celebrating the 250th anniversary of US independance would not have the Mango Mussolini's fingerprints on it. In any case, those who were hoping to get a breath of nostalgia at the event needn't despair - Vanilla Ice as well as Milli Vanilli (or rather, Fab Morvan and some other dude, Rob Pilatus having died in 1998) have both said that they will be playing. In in the case of Milli Vanilli, though, the people who did the actual singing on the recordings have also made it clear that they will not be there. Yes, for those who thought nothing could be more fake than Milli Vanilli, there's now a fake Milli Vanilli. In any case, the whole thing might well be cancelled anyway.

News roundup, 23 Feb 2026

- Iran's air defense systems have shot down three Israeli F-35s in Iranian airspace since last summer. Setting aside the question of what those fighters were even doing in Iranian airspace, it ought to be another nail in the coffin for Canadian plans to purchase more of the darned things. Whether it will be remains to be seen of course.

- New polling from Politico shows the severity of Canadians' alienation from the US. Among the findings, 48% of Canadians consider the US to be the biggest threat to peace, with Russia a distant second at 29%, and 57% consider China to be a more reliable partner than America under Donald Trump. Perhaps even more telling are the results by political inclination - a plurality, though not a majority, of Conservative supporters doubt their ability to depend on the US.

- An outbreak of violence in the Mexican state of Jalisco has led to the closure of schools and public transit. The violence follows the death of drug lord Oseguera Cervantes at the hands of Mexican authorities. The decapitation of his organization seems to have sparked a power vacuum in the world of organized crime; Global Affairs Canada has issued a travel advisory and airlines are cancelling flights to and from the state.

-  Manitoba's Southern Health Region, which includes the cities of Winkler and Morden, has seen over 50 measles cases so far this year, but a reporter sent there found that people aren't expressing much concern - when they are willing to talk to reporters about the matter at all. Winkler's deputy mayor Andrew Froese claims to have heard little about the matter from his citizens, and also claims that the townspeople "follow public health guidelines" (except the ones that recommend vaccination, presumably). Morden's mayor Nancy Penner declined to comment on the matter at all.

- The city of Powell River, BC is named after the province's first superintendent of Indian Affairs, Israel Powell. Given that Powell was a big supporter of the residential school system, the neighbouring Tla’amin First Nation has urged that the city's name be changed. The proposal was defeated in a vote last fall, and the council has deferred any discussion on the matter until after the next election. What's interesting, though, is that a lot of the pressure to keep the old name seems to come from outside the area; the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (a major player in the anti-public health movement, among other things) has been involved, and this organization appears to get a lot of money from the Atlas Network, an American organization of rightwing think tanks. It's almost as if these foreign influencers are trying to stir up rage against anything that can be called "woke". Most likely they want to tip the balance in favour of the Conservative Party.

- An armed intruder was shot to death after breaching the security perimeter around Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago compound in Palm Beach, Florida.

News roundup, 9 Feb 2026

- A bill before the New York state legislature would impose a moratorium on new data centres in the state for three years, making the state the largest to impose such restrictions. The moratorium will hopefully give them the chance to look seriously at what kind of effect those data centres have on things like grid stability. 

- This year's Ag Days, an annual agricultural trade show in Brandon, could turn out to be Plague Days, as it was an exposure site for measles. Anyone who attended the event or visited hotels, restaurants, or shops in the city that weekend is being asked to monitor for symptoms. That means much of the city's population could be at risk.

- A Manitoba Court of King's Bench judge has certified a class action lawsuit against Revera, the former owner of the Maples Personal Care Home, as well as against the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority, regarding a COVID-19 outbreak at the facility that killed 56 people.

- Elon Musk is calling Spanish prime minister Pedro Sanchez a "tyrant" after his government introduced strict regulations on social media, which not only follow Australia's lead by prohibiting those under 16 from using it but which can hold executives criminally liable for illegal content published on their platforms.

- King Cobras are turning up in parts of India where they don't occur naturally. Researchers believe the snakes may be catching rides on trains.

- The woman who was abducted in Pimicikimak Cree Nation on Thursday has been rescued, having sustained only minor injuries. The suspect was also captured alive and is in custody. I have to say, I wasn't expecting a happy ending to this story.

News roundup, 5 Feb 2026

- Jeff Bezos has ordered massive layoffs at the Washington Post, affecting a third of the newspaper's workforce. Among other things, the entire Middle East desk will be gone, as will be the paper's Ukraine bureau chief and correspondent. Former Executive Editor Marty Baron condemns this and previous decisions by Bezos, which he calls "ill-conceived". The thing is, though, they're only "ill-conceived" if you're thinking in terms of the greater good; if you're thinking in terms of Bezos' personal interests they aren't ill-conceived at all, especially in light of how Donald Trump is making new threats regarding the broadcast licenses of major networks in the US.

- The Trump regime appears to be issuing selective exemptions to tariffs for companies with which he has a good relationship. Nothing suspicious about that at all...

- Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi is warning federal leadership candidates to treat Alberta with kid gloves so that he has a chance of defeating Danielle Smith next year. Meanwhile, leadership candidate Rob Ashton singled out Avi Lewis for "turning New Democrats against each other".

- The Winnipeg Regional Health Authority is taking over the Golden Door Geriatric Centre, a personal care home in the Fort Garry district of the city whose private owners had announced plans to close the facility. Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara says that the province is working to fill the numerous beds that the owners had been leaving vacant in order to prepare for the closure.

- A little known fact - ICE actually has offices in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa, and Montreal. Their agents don't have the power of arrest in this country; they claim that these agents (who are not armed) assist in the investigation of international crimes. NDP MP Heather McPherson is calling on the Carney government to close those offices "until the human rights crisis is resolved"; whether the government will do so remains to be seen.

- Manitoba Hydro is hiring institutional safety officers for its downtown office tower following a seemingly random attack by a methed up teenager with a knife. Manitoba Housing is also hiring such officers for its downtown office. Unlike run-of-the-mill security guards, these officers have specialized training; they are equipped with handcuffs and pepper gel and are empowered to make arrests. CUPE, which represents Hydro employees, is calling for the officers to be deployed as soon as possible.

- Manitoba currently has the highest incidence of measles in Canada. To the surprise of few, these cases are concentrated mostly in the Southern Health Region, and in particular a church in Winkler, though some people were infected in Winnipeg after people from the province's Bible Belt were hospitalized at HSC. 51 confirmed and three probable cases have been reported in the province as of the 24th of January. This compares to 319 confirmed cases of measles and 29 probable cases last year, and only 18 cases between 2000 and 2024. At least 86% of the cases were in unvaccinated people; another 6.2% were in people of unknown vaccination status.

- Following the drowning death of a 12 year old student at a scuba school in Texas, her family sued the school. One thing that has come up in court is the fact that the school's owner had been caught on video bragging about the number of fatalities he'd gotten away with, which does not inspire confidence.

News roundup, 3 Dec 2025

- British researchers warn that shifting rainfall patterns have caused a net loss of fresh water from central and southern Europe, even as the northern part now has more. For a look at what that might mean for the future, Iran is in a severe crisis, with Tehran potentially facing water rationing or even evacuation. Where you would evacuate the 15 million people who live in the metro area to is another question.

- The American real estate listing company Zillow has removed climate risk data from their listings following complaints from sellers and realtors that the data was negatively affecting sale prices. Not sure how that's supposed to make the problem go away.

- The involvement of conservation officers in patrolling the border for potential migrants in response to Trump's claim that has not led to any additional reports of suspicious activity beyond that already found by the RCMP and border agents. Political scientist Christopher Adams figures everyone knew all along that they wouldn't find much (who'd want to sneak into that country right now anyway?) and that it was more about "optics to the Trump administration". If that was all it was, it it would be kind of futile (we all know Trump has annexation on his mind so he's not going to be appeased by this), but I think it's also about optics regarding the regime. Adams says that the provinces and the federal government were trying to say to Trump, "Look, we're doing everything we can and I hope you're happy with that", but I think it's more about telling those affected by the tariffs that.

- The mayor of Winkler, Manitoba gave a very, very mild admonition to his constituents that essentially amounted to "look folks, we've had a lot of cases of measles around here, and people up in Winnipeg talk about it, and it's embarrassing, and you really should do your research about vaccines, OK?", knowing full well that the people he's addressing think they've already done their research. It seems kind of weak and milquetoast, but then again I'm not sure what he could have said that would have made a difference. I think it was more a way of signaling to the rest of the province "hey, I know my constituents are crazy, but I'm not, and we can still do business, OK?"

- Scientists at the Pasteur Institute in Paris warn that a pandemic of one of the H5NX flu strains, while not especially likely, could be far worse than COVID-19 if it did occur. Myself, I think it would be far worse even if the actual virulence and contagiousness were identical to COVID due to the difficulty governments would have in getting people to comply with public health protocols.

- The 71 year old driver of a charter bus full of junior high students was pulled over reentering Saskatoon following a field trip after multiple reports of erratic driving from the public. He was found to be under the influence of alcohol, fentanyl, and hydromorphone. Certainly not a good career move; for his part, he attributes his poor decision to severe back pain.

- A Brantford, Ontario resident who lived along the route of the city's Santa Claus parade evidently was not in a festive mood about the matter. They posted signs in their windows saying such things as "Santa isn't real", "Your parents are Santa", etc. Several outraged neighbours called the police about the matter, and apparently an officer spoke to the person and convinced them to remove the signs; they clarified later that they couldn't actually force their removal. Left unspoken is how they persuaded the person to take them down.

News roundup, 24 Nov 2025

- Marjorie Taylor Greene has announced that she is resigning from Congress in January, saying that she wants to spare her district from a "hurtful and hateful" primary that would result if she tried to stay on. Greene was a staunch Trump ally until the president began stalling on the release of the Epstein files, but her stance on that issue has drawn the president's wrath.

- Four more measles cases have been reported in Manitoba, bringing the province's total number of cases this year to 253. Sixteen people have been hospitalized; nobody has died from the disease in the province so far, though two premature babies have died in other provinces. The emergency department at the Boundary Trails Health Centre outside Winkler is listed as a potential exposure site.

- US Senator Angus King, an independent who represents Maine, fears that Trump's behaviour towards Canada is causing a "cultural break" between the two countries that never was a issue with previous trade disputes. Threatening to annex a country has a way of doing that, though.

- Approximately 25% of all doctors in the US are immigrants. In rural communities, the proportion of immigrants in the profession is even higher; this leads to questions about what will happen to healthcare in the country if prospective immigrants no longer want to go there. 

- A home care worker is being investigated for multiple thefts from residents at an assisted living facility in Selkirk, Manitoba. At least eight residents and their families reported missing money and valuables as well as having seen the man in their units during odd hours. Charges have yet to be laid.

- The vice-president of research at Brandon University is under investigation for changing a student's failing grade to an A+ during her time as the university's dean of science. The student in question is related to someone known to her from outside campus.

News roundup, 12 Nov 2025

- There are signs that the record-setting government shutdown in the US may be moving towards resolution. Eight centrist Democrats in the Senate voted with the Republicans in return for a vote on enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies at some unspecified time in the future, with no guarantees of Republican support for the subsidies. The House of Representatives is expected to approve this today. This does not sit well with the more left-leaning Democrats, though, who see it as a capitulation. Probably the fact that over 10,000 flights have been cancelled in the country due to the shortage of air traffic controllers is a factor; the US Thanksgiving holiday is just around the corner, and presumably nobody wants to be the one blamed for ruining that.

- The European Union has proposed legislation that would, among other things, require satellite operators to address the space junk problem. The Americans are foaming at the mouth about this, saying that it would place "unacceptable regulatory burdens" on US companies and could threaten threaten technological advancement in space. Even if that last point is true, though, the threat to technological advancement from this is trivial compared to that posed by "Kessler syndrome"; hopefully the Europeans will stand their ground.

- Canada's top public servant, the Clerk of the Privy Council, met with the CEO of Saab recently. Now, a delegation including Sweden's king and numerous members of the country's business community are scheduled to visit next week, including a tour of aerospace plants. This is leading to speculation that the government may be considering a purchase of Gripen fighters. That would be a very interesting development; stay tuned.

- Canada has lost its status as a country free of measles transmission following over 5,000 recent cases. Of course the decline in vaccination is the reason. Meanwhile there are fears of a mismatch between the current flu vaccine and the strains spreading across the country, which could make for a very bad flu season this year.

- An event held at UC Berkeley by Turning Point USA, the organization founded by the late Charlie Kirk, was met with over 100 protesters, and there was at least one violent altercation between protesters and supporters. The US Department of Justice is investigating the university's preparations for the event.

- The US Travel Association is forecasting a 3.2% decline in tourism for this year, driven mostly by a decline in visits by Canadians. This is expected to cost the travel sector some $5.7 billion.

- Arizona representative-elect Adelita Grijalva is finally expected to be sworn in, potentially tipping the balance towards forcing a vote on the release of the Epstein files. 

News roundup, 28 Oct 2025

- The Alberta government is legislating striking teachers back to work and imposing a collective agreement. The government limited debate on all three readings of the bill, and the notwithstanding clause is being used to ensure that the legislation can resist a court challenge.

- Hurricane Melissa is bearing down on Jamaica. The hurricane is a Category 5 storm, with winds of up to 280 km/h; if it retains that strength when it reaches the country it will be the strongest to hit the island since detailed records began in 1851. Parts of the country could see up to 760 mm of rain.

- Germany's far-right AfD party is being accused of espionage. Georg Maier, the interior minister of the state of Thuringia, alleges that the party is using its parliamentary privileges to gain access to sensitive information about the country's infrastructure and handing the information over to Russia.

- Canada is on the verge of losing its status as a country where measles is not endemic. Of course, there's an obvious reason for it; whether the political will exists to overcome it is another question. It wouldn't be hard to bring back the idea of "vaccine passports" as used at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic - or at least it wouldn't in theory. Of course, enforcement would be challenging, and it might push some of the more extreme antivaxxers to violence - though it's an open question whether that violence would outweigh the harm done by measles itself. And some would feel uncomfortable on bodily autonomy grounds - except that the unvaccinated are potentially interfering with the bodily autonomy of everyone around them, so that argument falls flat even if you consider that principle to be fundamental. Myself, I frame this sort of thing as "what would do the greatest good and/or the least harm to humanity as a whole"; with that as the most fundamental principle, it's a lot simpler to argue for vaccine passports. Unfortunately, as we saw with the clownvoy a couple of years ago, the antivaxxers can get together enough support to make life difficult for a lot of people, and governments are often unwilling to take the necessary measures to contain such a disruptive force.

- Former world chess champion Vladimir Kramnik has asked authorities in Switzerland, where he currently lives, to investigate death threats made against him in response to his, um, tone deaf response to the tragic death of US grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky (not to mention his behaviour towards Naroditsky when he was still alive). I can't condone that sort of thing, of course, but Kramnik shouldn't be surprised that some people are taking it badly. A side note - while Kramnik has been accusing just about everyone of cheating, he had a scandal of that sort himself a while back, 

News roundup, 7 Aug 2025

- Manitoba's Southern Health Region has warned that numerous people appear to be defying public health directives regarding the measles outbreak in the region. I can't help thinking that while the law may allow for action to be taken against these people, public health officials are having to weigh this against the social harm that could result from the inevitable populist backlash against such measures.

- A man who was caught on video during the Jan 6 putsch calling on rioters to kill cops is now a senior advisor for the US Department of Justice. 

- The Trump regime appears to be planning to end the missions of the Orbiting Carbon Observatories, which measure CO₂ and plant growth around the world. NASA has been "asked" by the government to draw up plans to end the missions, including deorbiting one of the satellites. 

- Although some parts of the world have gotten wetter with climate change, a lot more have become drier. 75% of the world's people live in the latter. 

- Manitoba Justice sometimes outsources prosecutions to people who normally serve as defense lawyers. There has been a significant increase in this recently, with more than 70% of criminal cases being outsourced. Justice Minister Matt Wiebe attributes this to logistical matters (e.g. juggling maternity leave) and to the practice of hiring a special prosecutor when there is a potential conflict of interest. The union representing prosecutors, however, says the government needs to hire more prosecutors to deal with rising caseloads.

- A BC man who suddenly found himself getting rejected for loans discovered that his credit score with Equifax had been reset to zero. The agency refused to provide any explanation until the CBC started investigating, whereupon they pointed to an obscure policy under which they reset the scores of anyone whose file is labelled "inactive". The other major rating agency in the country, TransUnion, says that they do not do this, but many lenders rely solely on Equifax, with the result that people who studiously avoid using credit are putting themselves at a disadvantage.

- China has submitted plans to the UK government for a new embassy, to be located near London's financial district. The thing is, parts of the submission have been redacted, leading to fears about espionage. There are also fears that the facility could be used to detain dissidents living in Britain - Hong Kong authorities recently offered large amounts of money for information leading to the capture of 19 pro-democracy activists living abroad.

- The UK has arrested three people, two of them seniors, and charged them with showing support for a banned organization (Palestine Action) under the Terrorism Act of 2000. The "terrorism" attributed to the organization has consisted of disruption of the operations of factories owned by Israeli arms companies; it seems a bit of a stretch to call that terrorism, given the lack of actual violence. More on the organization here.

- Police in LaSalle, Ontario caught a man who had apparently entered Canada illegally by crossing the Detroit River in a kayak.

News roundup, 22 July 2025

- The evacuated town of Leaf Rapids, Manitoba is now surrounded on all sides by fire and winds are picking up. There are also concerns about Snow Lake and Garden Hill First Nation, as well as the generating stations at Kettle Rapids and Laurie River.

- Canada now has three times the number of confirmed measles cases as the US. In fact, Alberta on its own has more cases than the States - assuming of course that the Americans are accurately keeping track of their cases, which is far from clear.

- U.S. Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra said that Canadians' boycotts of US travel and the removal of American liquor from stores are "mean and nasty". BC Premier David Eby sees this as a sign that these moves are having an effect.

- The FAA is investigating after a B-52 bomber doing a flyover of the North Dakota State Fair in Minot came dangerously close to colliding with a commercial jet that was preparing to land at the local airport.

- A 9 year old Montreal girl whose father had told police she had been abducted has been found dead, and her father has been charged with murdering her after inconsistencies were found in his account. 

- Far-right Christian rock musician (and failed Republican congressional candidate) Sean Feucht has a concert scheduled for the York Redoubt National Historic Site overlooking Halifax Harbour. Many locals are calling on Parks Canada to cancel the gig, saying that Feucht's extremist views are at odds with Parks Canada's guiding principles of inclusion and safety for all visitors.

- Police in the Quebec town of Deux-Montagnes have found a vehicle at the bottom of a river that belonged to a man reported missing in 1988. Divers reportedly found suspected human bones in the vehicle, though they have not been officially identified to date. 

News roundup, 10 July 2025

- Four men from Quebec have been arrested over a plot to forcibly seize land near Quebec City; they appear to have been trying to start an American-style far-right militia. They had stockpiled 83 firearms and 16 bombs, as well as such things as smoke grenades and night vision goggles; all four have ties to the military.

- Donald Trump is musing about a federal takeover of New York City and the District of Columbia. In the case of New York, he suggested that it might be necessary if Zohran Mamdani (who he called a "communist") gets elected mayor. He also fulminated about the city's use instant-runoff (ranked choice) voting. In the case of DC, he tries to justify a takeover on the basis of excessive crime (despite the fact that overall crime in the federal district is down 8% compared to last year, and violent crime is down 25%). That said, there might well be a legal route to a takeover of DC (they could theoretically repeal the Home Rule Act). Ultimately, though, even in the case of New York the ability to stop a takeover depends on the whims of the courts, which have disproportionately been stacked with Trump loyalists.

- During the Biden years, the Democrats designed their climate law in such a way that many of the new green jobs would be in red states. The idea was that the Republicans, when they took power, would be reluctant to undo work that had created so many jobs for their supporters. Unfortunately the Democrats seem to have given voters too much credit for understanding this; the Republicans are betting on the bleating masses continuing to support them. Sadly it's probably a safe bet, even supposing that next year's midterms and the 2028 presidential election are fair (which seems unlikely in any case).

- A 25 nation survey by the Pew Research Center found that 59% of Canadians now view the US as the greatest threat to the country. Canadians' resolve to boycott as many American goods as possible and to avoid travel to the country seems to remain strong as well.

- Vaccination rates in the Maritimes are too low to reliably control the spread of measles. In Nova Scotia, about 23% of children have less than the requisite two doses of the vaccine; New Brunswick and PEI are somewhat better, but 10% of kids aren't fully vaccinated. The rate should be below 5% to keep the disease under control.

- The developer of ICEBlock, an app that allows people to share sightings of ICE officers has been threatened by the Department of Justice; Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News that "he better watch out". Moreover, Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem is threatening CNN for reporting on the very existence of the app. Admittedly, there are people out there who would happily do harm to ICE officers, but the people who lured a bunch of them out of a detention facility in Texas and opened fire on them didn't need an app to find them in any case.

News roundup, 10 June 2025

- California is taking the Trump regime to court over their unilateral decision to deploy the National Guard against protesters. Governor Gavin Newsom argues that it is "illegal and immoral" for the federal government to take such a measure without consulting the governor of the state in question. And a second journalist has been shot with a rubber bullet while covering the protests.

- Israeli authorities have deported Greta Thunberg and several other activists who were captured from a vessel delivering aid to Gaza. Several others from the same boat are contesting their deportation, and have been detained pending a hearing. The Israelis seem also to be continuing their policy of shooting people lining up for aid, which is not a good look.

- In addition to the infant who died of measles after being infected in utero, five other newborns in southern Ontario have been infected in the same manner.

- The Manitoba government is urging people to avoid non-essential travel in order to keep hotel rooms free for evacuees, whose numbers have now reached 21,000 people. This currently falls short of being an actual order, though.

- Winnipeg Transit is considering upgrading the shields that protect bus drivers from unruly passengers. Currently, they do not completely enclose the driver, making attacks still possible if a bit more difficult. A full upgrade of the fleet could be costly, but it seems more than worthwhile, and the Amalgamated Transit Union, which represents drivers, agrees.

- Mark Carney is promising to meet NATO's military spending target of 2% of GDP by next March. 

- Researchers at Anthropic, an AI startup, are predicting that white-collar jobs are going to go into serious decline, with more than half of entry-level office jobs disappearing. Others predict that it won't be the entry-level jobs that take the worst hit; those jobs tend to be lower pay, and new graduates with knowledge of AI should do OK, while people who have been in their jobs for a long time (especially if not unionized) might be more vulnerable.

- The Trump regime has issued an executive order lifting the longstanding ban on civilian overland supersonic flights. One company claims to have broken the sound barrier (just barely mind you, at Mach 1.1) without making a boom that was audible on the ground - but this is a small experimental aircraft that will need to be scaled up considerably in order to be economical, so there's no guarantee that the production aircraft will be tolerably quiet. And let's not get started on the potential emissions. But here's the thing - I don't think that there's any reason Canada should have to endure potential sonic booms over our own territory, as would be the case for, say, flights from the Midwest to New England or from the east coast to Asia. What if we simply refused to allow such flights over our territory?

- A school shooting in the Austrian city of Graz has killed eight people, including the perpetrator, and injured several more. 

News roundup, 6 June 2025

- It will come as a surprise to few that there are limits to how long two enormous egos can continue to work together. It seems those limits have been reached for Donald Trump and Elon Musk; following Musk's criticism of Trump's "one big beautiful bill", Trump hinted that he might cancel government contracts with Musk's companies, and then Musk replied favourably to someone's tweet calling for Trump's impeachment.

- Russia has responded to Ukraine's daring drone attack on their military aircraft by launching drone and missile attacks against cities; at least 4 people were killed in the attacks. 

- Mark Carney's new Minister of Northern and Arctic Affairs, Rebecca Chartrand, is coming under fire over allegations that she subjected an employee to bullying and harassment while serving as Red River College's Executive Director of Indigenous Strategy.

- A newborn infant in southwestern Ontario has died after being infected with measles in utero (the mother was unvaccinated, of course). This was in the Southwestern Public Health region, which includes Elgin and Oxford Counties. There are now over 1,700 known cases of measles in Ontario, the vast majority of them in Mennonite and Amish communities in the southwest.

- Manitoba has launched a campaign to recruit healthcare workers, including doctors, nurses, and other professionals, from the US. The campaign focuses on the Dakotas, Minnesota, and Michigan; I'm not sure why Minnesota was included except for its proximity, because I always thought it was a relatively progressive state.

- Four First Nations in the Island Lake region of Manitoba are evacuating vulnerable residents; the communities are not directly threatened but the smoke is causing serious problems for some. In related news, there are concerns that organized crime is targeting evacuees, trying to sell them drugs or worse.

- A school trustee in the Hanover School Division in southern Manitoba has been suspended without pay for six weeks. This appears to be for violation of policies requiring trustees to "support the legitimacy and authority of Board decisions" and to "treat Board colleagues, divisional and school staff, students and community members in a respectful and courteous manner". The exact nature of her violations has not been made public, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's similar to the case of Francine Champagne.

- Ispace, the Japanese company that tried to land a probe on the Moon two years ago, has tried again but appears to have failed for a second time. The company has ambitious plans to have a permanent human settlement on the Moon by 2040, but it seems they have a ways to go before they're ready for that.

- A Winnipeg man has been hit with a $1,680 fine for using a drone to harass wildlife in Riding Mountain National Park. Probably a wannabe influencer...

News roundup, 4 June 2025

- The Manitoba government has announced that around 1,000 hotel rooms have been made available for evacuees from the north. Some of this is the result of the cancellation of a conference that was being held in Winnipeg for Manitoba and Saskatchewan courtroom staff. Some evacuees are still having to go further afield though; hundreds are now as far away as Niagara Falls. In other wildfire news, much of the the village of Denare Beach, Saskatchewan was destroyed on Monday. Flin Flon is still intact but faces potential threats from all directions. And the chief of Pimicikamak Cree Nation is calling for the RCMP to help round up residents who are refusing to leave.

- A lawsuit filed in a Calgary court alleges that the Red Deer Public School Division, upon hearing a report that a Czech exchange student attending one of their schools had sexually assaulted a teenage girl, got the suspect out of the country before police could investigate, and even destroyed evidence. One might hope that there would be pressure for criminal charges against school division officials for this, but the locals are no doubt too busy trying to keep the drag queens out of their city to deal with people who actually aided and abetted a sexual offender. And in this Reddit thread it is alleged that the chair of the school board is an ex-cop who describes herself as a "proud Conservative". Wonder why she's so soft on crime then?

- Alberta now has 710 cases of measles; of these, six are in the Edmonton region and 13 in Calgary. In other words, it's not that Albertans per se are backward and unenlightened, it's just that rural Albertans are backward and unenlightened. I suspect you could draw a pretty direct line to the increased political polarization in that province; a lot of people who are of a broadly conservative bent would previously have gone along with such things as vaccination because it's what you're supposed to do, but now defying any kind of measures for the common good is such a part of the conservative identity that they follow the blue shepherds all the way to the slaughterhouse.

- Elon Musk is now calling Trump's "one big, beautiful bill" an abomination due to its impact on the deficit. Some think this could motivate some Republican senators to vote against the bill, but that remains to be seen.

- An Idaho woman who was jailed for two months for her involvement in the Jan 6 putsch has apparently had a significant change of heart. She declined the presidential pardon she was offered, saying that she and her co-conspirators were guilty and that the pardons are just an attempt to push a false narrative about what happened on that day.

- The sheriff's office in Johnson County, Texas obtained data from more than 83,000 automated license plate reading cameras across the US in order to investigate whether a woman left the state to get an abortion.

- Newark Mayor Ras Baraka is suing interim U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba for false arrest and malicious prosecution following his arrest on a trespassing charge after he attempted to accompany three Democratic members of Congress for an oversight tour of an immigration detention facility.

- A number of US states have amended their building codes to require roofs on new builds to be reflective, in order to limit heating. This did not sit well with the manufacturers of the synthetic rubber traditionally used for making some kinds of roofs - and they successfully lobbied Tennessee to repeal the new rule. 

- Actor Jonathan Joss, best known for his voice role in the animated series King of the Hill, was shot dead in an apparent anti-gay hate crime on Saturday.  

News roundup, 21 May 2025

- The bond-rating agency Moody's has stripped the US of it's triple-A rating, becoming the last of the three major agencies to do so.

- The UK has suspended trade talks with Israel, condemning the latter country's cutting off food aid to Gaza and accusing them, in effect, of planning to ethnically cleanse the territory. Maybe Kier Starmer isn't quite the American puppet that I initially thought.

- Cases of measles continue to show up, with warnings that an infected person or persons were at two locations in Winnipeg (the Franco-Manitoban Cultural Centre and a diner in Southdale) on the 11th of May. I guess it's better that they notify us late than never, but given that anyone exposed on that day is potentially in their pre-symptomatic but still infectious state...

- Five years ago, the Ontario government lifted the cap on the number of cannabis stores, and in some places this has led to a huge proliferation of stores, such as the six in just over a kilometre of Danforth Avenue in Toronto. The thing is, a whole bunch of them are expected to have signed five-year leases that will all be coming due over the course of the next few months, so it will be interesting to see how many of those leases get renewed.

- Canada Post's very mandate may be putting it in an untenable situation. It is required to provide service to every address in the country at a set price - but since 2006 it has had to service some 3 million new addresses, while the number of letters mailed in the country has been reduced by more than 50%. In January the federal government had to bail the corporation out to the tune of a billion dollars. CUPW points out that the Canada Post executives still seem to be getting their bonuses (something ignored entirely in the CBC story). This certainly isn't a good look, although it sounds like the elimination of those bonuses would be a drop in the bucket as far as addressing the situation.

- According to folks in this Reddit thread, several Alberta cabinet ministers were invited to the National Prayer Breakfast in the US in February. And in a softball question lobbed at Donald Trump, it appears that rightwing journalist Brian Glenn mentioned meeting with "two government officials from Canada" who told him that there was a path to annexation. Just curious, when was the last time we had a treason trial in this country?

- Andrii Portnov, a Ukrainian lawyer who once served as an adviser to onetime president Viktor Yanukovych, has been shot dead in Madrid after dropping off his kids at school. Portnov was under investigation in his homeland for corruption, and at one point had been investigated for treason for his alleged involvement in the annexation of Crimea, though the latter investigation was eventually dropped.

- The man who blew himself up in front of a fertility clinic in Palm Springs has been described as holding "nihilistic views" as well as having "antinatalist leanings". The thing is, if you're an antinatalist, doesn't that mean that you actually believe in something? Surely a true nihilist wouldn't care whether other people reproduce or not.

News roundup, 9 May 2025

- Another exchange of fire between India and Pakistan has killed several civilians in the escalating tensions following the terror attack in Indian Kashmir last month. For his part, JD Vance has said that a potential war between the two countries is "none of our business". The problem is, when the two belligerents are nuclear powers, Vance's line of reasoning doesn't wash. Of course, the two countries have had skirmishes before without coming to disaster, but both countries have become more nationalistic and militaristic since then.

- Some of the cases of "freedom freckles" in southern Manitoba have not been connected with another identified case, suggesting that the disease is spreading faster than contact tracers can keep track of it. The province is considering lowering the vaccination age for children in the hope of protecting as many kids as possible - or at least as many kids with sensible parents as possible. Meanwhile Ontario has reported 200 new cases in the last week, mostly in the rural southwestern part of the province. Officially the entire US has had "only" 1,000 cases all year, though given the Trump regime's gutting of the CDC it's hard to know how many cases are flying under the radar. For instance, it's quite likely that they're depending more on data supplied by states than ever - and the states with the highest concentrations of antivaxxers are also the ones that probably don't collect a lot of public health data.

- Recounts are being held in several ridings following the recent Canadian federal election. In two of these ridings, Terrebonne and Milton East-Halton Hills South, the recounts are automatic, because the apparent winner's margin of victory was under 0.1% of votes cast. This has not stopped the Conservatives from claiming the Liberals are trying to "tip the scales" in a fundraising letter; this is alarming to those who don't want to see confidence in democracy further undermined.

- Marjorie Taylor Greene has actually criticized the Trump regime's policies for a mixture of being too crazy (plans to attack Iran) and not crazy enough (not having withdrawn approval of the COVID-19 vaccine yet). Greene no doubt has her eyes on the next primary, which is only a year away.

- WestJet has suspended nine routes to the US, including three out of Winnipeg (Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Orlando). They attribute this to reduced demand, and in the case of the Winnipeg-LA route also to the end of a provincial subsidy that was brought in by the previous government.

- The papal conclave has selected Robert Prevost, an American-born cardinal who served in Latin America for much of his career (he was appointed bishop of a Peruvian diocese, and later a cardinal, by the late Pope Francis). He will be known as Pope Leo XIV. He is the first pope from the US, and only the second from the Americas as a whole. He has been strongly critical of the policies of Donald Trump and JD Vance, which could make things interesting - especially given how rightwing many American Catholics are. And although Trump is putting on a brave face, this is not good news for the "MAGA Catholics" (which is to say, it is good news for almost everyone else).

- Lawyers for two young women who pleaded guilty to manslaughter in a beating death a year and a half ago are calling for leniency from the judge. One particular point stands out:

Keeper has an IQ below 50, has fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, and had a childhood that was “chaotic, unpredictable and full of abuse,” her lawyer Scott Newman told Court of King’s Bench Justice Chris Martin.

The minimum age for someone to be criminally prosecuted in this country is 12. It seems to me that someone with an IQ below 50 is probably less capable of knowing right from wrong than the average 11 year old; is the criminal justice system the right way to deal with such a person?

- Struggling actors who signed contracts allowing their likenesses to be used to train AIs have found, to their horror, that this is facilitating deepfake videos made with said likenesses - often promoting products and causes that they would never have agreed to actually film an ad for.

News roundup, 30 April 2025

- Mark Carney's Liberals won their highest share of the popular vote in decades on Monday, receiving 43.5% of the vote. Paradoxically, the Conservatives also won their highest vote share in decades, at 41%. This means a number of things - most notably, that the Liberals were bailed out by NDP and Bloc voters. How much longer that can continue to happen is an open question. And it means that despite the Liberals' high share of the popular vote, they fell just short of a majority with 169 seats. It also, however, shows that the inefficiency of the Conservative vote masks some pretty strong divisions. If you go to the interactive map of results and click on rural ridings won by the Cons, you'll see margins of victory of 60, 70, or even 80%. And like it or not, those people are not going away any time soon, meaning the Conservative Party will not become more moderate for the foreseeable future. And this in turn means that the NDP will likely go into the next election with their prospective voters pondering the same tactical voting question that they did this time.

- Despite failing to win his own seat in addition to failing to defeat the Liberals, Pierre Poilievre says he intends to stay on as Conservative leader. It's possible that the speech was written before it became apparent that he was going go lose his seat; nonetheless, some party strategists believe that he can and should stay on as leader (possibly asking someone in a rural Alberta riding to step aside so he can run in the byelection). Oh, and one interesting tidbit - by law, Stornoway is reserved for the "Leader of the Opposition in the House of Commons" - without a seat, Poilievre may have to move out of there unless he can get back into the House pretty quickly.

- Donald Trump is apparently aware of his impact on the Canadian election. Currently he seems to be twisting this into some sort of perverse pride - "I'm so important Canadians couldn't ignore me". Given his volatility, we'll have to see how this evolves in the future.

- Manitoba's public health officials are trying to build trust with rural communities in the province's Bible belt in the hope of increasing the vaccination rate enough to prevent a full-scale measles outbreak. So far nine cases have been confirmed in the province, as well as four suspected cases with known connections with the outbreak in southern Ontario. Meanwhile modeling by Stanford University has concluded that there is a significant risk of the disease coming back in a big way - along with polio, rubella, and all kinds of other nasties.

- North Dakota's hospitality industry continues to take a severe beating as Canadians no longer want to spend money in a country that has threatened to take over Canada, and perhaps doubly so in a state that voted overwhelmingly for the guy who's making all the threats.

- One of the problems of using generative AI for your front line customer service is that AIs sometimes just make stuff up. People who contacted customer support for an AI-driven coding assistant regarding getting logged out of the app were told that this was "expected behaviour" under a "new login policy". The problem is, there was no such new policy. Stuff like this is not good publicity for any company, but especially when your primary product is itself dependent on AI. Companies are also finding that it weirds people out when an AI answers their call to a customer service line and starts calling them by their name unprompted, as if the AI had been reading How to Win Friends and Influence People or something.

- A woman says she was bitten by bedbugs when staying at the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre to give birth to twins.

News roundup, 8 April 2025

 - Stock markets around the world continue to tank as investors respond to Trump's reckless tariffs. Even CEOs on Wall Street, who usually are reluctant to criticize Trump, are warning of the damage that could result, both in economic and geopolitical terms.

- Not satisfied to fire people currently working on DEI projects for US government departments, the regime now appears to be firing people for past work on such initiatives. 

- Canada has imposed a new travel advisory on the US, warning that "If you are denied entry, you could be detained while awaiting deportation"; this has already happened to a number of people. 

- After killing 15 paramedics and rescue workers in an attack last month, the IDF has admitted that their initial account, which claimed that the victims were "advancing suspiciously", was "mistaken". The "mistake" was corrected only after video of the incident emerged.

- The Yale philosophy professor who moved to Toronto to take a job at U of T was not the only one to do so. Two historians from the same university did so last fall. There are limits to the Canadian university system's ability to take advantage of the troubles in the US, though, since many institutions here are making cutbacks as the supply of international students upon which they depended dries up. In Manitoba, researchers are urging the government to reverse the Tory cuts to Research Manitoba in order to ensure that there's work for these people.

- Canadian retailers are starting to follow the lead of their customers and are turning away from American products. 

- It has emerged that Andrew Lawton, the Conservative candidate for Elgin-St. Thomas-London South, was part of a secret chat group on Signal with "Freedom Convoy" organizers.

- The outbreak of "freedom freckles" in southern Ontario has exceeded 600 cases, and is serious enough that the New York State health department is taking notice.

News roundup, 7 April 2025

- Nearly a dozen candidates for the two major federal parties have left or been removed from the race since the start of the campaign. Besides the Liberals' Paul Chiang and the Cons' Don Patel, of whom we've spoken before, this list includes such luminaries as Simon Payette, who was the Conservative candidate in Berthier—Maskinongé until he accused École Polytechnique massacre survivor (and Liberal candidate) Nathalie Provost of exploiting the crime to "grease the palms of anti-gun extremists". I guess he'll have to move to Alberta and run for the UCP there. Today is the parties' last day to replace candidates.

- An Ottawa man was arrested after he entered Parliament's East Block on Saturday and allegedly made threats, sending Parliament Hill into lockdown. Nobody was injured and no weapons found; the nature of the threats and their target has not been disclosed.

- Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell is warning that inflation may remain high for the foreseeable future, and stagflation is a risk, due in large part to the policies of the Trump regime. It's a safe bet that Trump will do his darnedest to get Powell removed, not that this will help the situation of course.

- An Australian tourist was denied entry to the US, resulting in him losing out on a $15,000 non-refundable cruise, because the route he took to the US was circuitous and was deemed "suspicious" for that reason. For his part, he says that the route was chosen for the cheapest airfares, but American officials weren't having it. He has vowed never to return to the US. Stuff like this isn't going to help the American travel industry, which is already reeling from a dramatic drop in visits from abroad.

- Another child (unvaccinated of course) has died of "freedom freckles" in Gaines County, Texas. The victim apparently had no underlying health conditions. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has visited the area; perhaps someone should convince him to take a side trip to Dallas.

News roundup, 24 March 2025

- As expected, Mark Carney has called a general election for the 28th of April. Carney is running to replace outgoing Liberal MP Chandra Arya in the Ottawa suburb of Nepean, a riding that happens to be right next door to Pierre Poilievre's. Notably Nathalie Provost, a survivor of the 1989 École Polytechnique massacre and prominent gun control activist, is running for the Liberals in the riding of Châteauguay–Les Jardins-de-Napierville, something sure to send Alberta into conniptions. Speaking of Alberta, their premier apparently tried to convince the Trump regime to put tariffs on hold pending the outcome of the election. She vehemently denies that this constitutes asking for the US to intervene in the election though.

- A new poll in Manitoba by Probe Research lends support to the idea that the federal NDP could face a wipeout in the province. In Winnipeg, the Liberals have the support of 54% of decided and leaning voters; the NDP is at 9%.

- Green card holders in the US are being warned against leaving the country for fear that they won't be allowed back in.

- A food bank in BC is benefiting from the boycotting of American produces, as stores unable to sell the products are donating them so as to at least get the tax break for the donation.

- The young man facing terrorism charges over antisemitic graffiti apparently suffers from "global developmental delay" as well as ADHD. Shades of Stevie from Joseph Conrad's novel The Secret Agent.

- The parents of the 6 year old Texas child who died of "freedom freckles" last month are telling people not to vaccinate their kids out of panic, saying that measles still isn't that bad (after all, all their other kids survived) and that the vaccine is somehow worse.

- A 57 year old Florida woman has been charged with aggravated animal cruelty following an investigation to an incident at Orlando's airport in December. It appears that she showed up to board a flight with her 9 year old miniature schnauzer in tow, only to be told that she didn't have the right paperwork to board with the dog. So she did what I assume she figured that any reasonable person would do and drowned the hapless creature in a toilet before going to board her flight. Unfortunately for her she discarded the dog's body along with a collar with her name on it in the garbage in the washroom, where it was found by cleaning staff.