News roundup, 19 March 2026

- Opponents of Avi Lewis in the federal NDP leadership race have focused on the Leap Manifesto and Lewis' involvement in its creation. Former Alberta environment minister Shannon Phillips, who has endorsed Heather McPherson, has gotten worked up about a video from 2020 in which Lewis and his wife Naomi Klein read out and ridicule negative tweets people had made about them. Along with the usual rightwing suspects, there is one from Phillips in which she calls Lewis a "radical ecoterrorist" who will "send Alberta's economy off a cliff". Interestingly that detail was omitted from the CBC article, which was happy to report how Klein and Lewis made fun of her in response to it. Phillips also accuses Lewis of "writing off Alberta New Democrats". Similarly, candidate Rob Ashton has accused him of being "divisive". The brutal truth, though, is that any even remotely satisfactory action on climate is going to be divisive, and some people are going to see themselves as being left behind. When you need to treat a cancer, you can't afford to lose too much sleep over the damage the chemo and radiation do to adjacent, non-malignant tissue. Oh, and let's not forget who else Phillips has endorsed; there are few topics more divisive among left-leaning folks in this country than tactical voting.

- Ontario premier Doug Ford is urging BC and Quebec to drop their electric vehicle targets, fearing the impact on auto manufacturing in his province. Both province have scaled back their targets, but not enough to satisfy Ford.

- After Ontario's Information and Privacy Commission (IPC) learned that Doug Ford had used his personal cellphone for government business, apparently to avoid scrutiny, the commission ordered the premier to release records related to this. In order to avoid having to comply with the ruling, the government has introduced a bill to retroactively change the law governing the commission to exclude any communication by the premier, cabinet, and their staff.

- Two teens, one in Rivers, Manitoba and another in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, have been arrested after allegedly planning coordinated attacks on schools in their respective communities. 

- Scotland's parliament has voted down a bill that would have legalized assisted dying. So no MAID in Fife for the foreseeable future.

- A staff member at the Pioneer Ridge Long Term Care Home in Thunder Bay, Ontario has been charged with criminal negligence for allegedly causing the death of an 86 year old resident. The care home itself faces the same charge, as well as one of obstructing justice.

- Jeremy Frimer, a psychology professor at the University of Winnipeg who came very close to being fired following a complaint against him by a student, is suing the university along with the faculty union for allegedly giving him complex PTSD. The union is included in the suit because he says they didn't go to bat for him adequately; he's representing himself after 21 different law firms declined to take the case. How credible his case is, I leave as an exercise for the reader.

News roundup, 18 March 2026

- Pete Hegseth, in a press briefing, made the flippant remark "We will keep pushing, keep advancing. No quarter, no mercy for our enemies". The thing is, the very act of someone near the top of the chain of command saying this may be a violation of American law going back to the Civil War, not to mention international law. 

- Joe Kent, the director of the National Counterterrorism Center in the US, has resigned, saying that he "cannot in good conscience" back the war on Iran.

- The partial government shutdown in the US and resulting shortage of TSA security screeners means that some smaller airports may have to close, just in time for Spring Break. That could get interesting for Florida businesspeople who gleefully supported Trump until now.

- The Israel question is starting to become an issue in Democratic primaries. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) is spending huge amounts of money on primary campaigns, but there seems to be a generational shift that has caught AIPAC off guard.

- New polling from Leger suggests that 60% of the electorate says that the province is on the wrong track, but a strong plurality (48%) would still vote for the UCP if an election were held now. I guess as long as being on the wrong track is worse for women, ethnic minorities and LGBT* folks than it is for straight white dudes, Albertans are fine with it.

- Speaking of the UCP, their former candidate Caylan Ford, who had to exit the race after some of her comments came to light, is trying to sue the news outlets that reported on said comments, including the CBC, the Toronto Star, and Press Progress. A lawyer for the Broadbent Institute, which operates Press Progress, has pointed out that "you cannot be defamed by your own words". I should hope the courts will agree, but don't worry about Ford, she should be fine; all she needs is a GiveSendGo campaign to raise enough money from the rubes to more than cover her legal bills.

News roundup, 17 March 2026

- Donald Trump appears to have admitted in an interview about Iran that "maybe we shouldn't even be there at all". This comes in the context of his increasing alarm about the fact that Europeans aren't keen to follow him into the war, and the fact that he seems not to have realized that the Strait of Hormuz would be closed by Iran in the event of a war. And of all of Trump's numerous shortcomings, failures, and out-and-out crimes, the thing most likely to do actual damage to his political fortunes (even more than the Epstein files) would be a failure to bring fuel prices back down.

- Israel has commenced a large ground invasion of Lebanon, ostensibly in response to Lebanon's failure to disarm the militant group Hezbollah. Around a million people have been displaced by the invasion.

- Palantir CEO Alex Karp recently declared that the AI revolution will disproportionately affect female Democratic voters. There is plenty of suspicion, far from unfounded, that this was meant not so much as a warning but a promise. There's another take, though, namely that this is a warning after all, and that what Karp is urging AI companies to do is not to slow down, but rather to make sure they don't alienate the US military, the implication being that Democratic voters, and especially women, are never going to be in AI's corner, so they have to make sure that the military is. And it seems to be particularly aimed at Anthropic, whose recent blacklisting by the Pentagon is causing Palantir concern due to the latter company's use of Anthropic's product Claude Opus.

- The US Transportation Safety Administration (TSA) has been unable to pay its staff since funding ran out for the Department of Homeland Security last month. A bill to restore funding to the department is being held up by Democrats until reforms to ICE and CBP are agreed to. Now that they're missing actual paycheques, TSA employees are starting to call in sick at higher rates, and staffing shortages are causing huge delays at many airports.

- The timeline for the opening of a supervised consumption site in Winnipeg has been pushed back indefinitely, with the Kinew government asking the organization that intends to run the site to address local concerns about safety before it is approved.

- Following the death of her husband, Kouri Richins published a book for children on how to deal with grief, called Are You With Me. However, she has now been convicted of poisoning him with fentanyl as well as with fraudulently claiming insurance benefits. To add to all that, it appears that the book was ghostwritten.

- German philosopher Jürgen Habermas has died at the age of 96.

News roundup, 16 March 2026

- Donald Trump seems to be trying to move the goalposts on the war on Iran; evidently even he can recognize that maybe getting into an endless war might not be a good idea. Unfortunately it's a bit late for that.

- FCC chair Brendan Carr is hinting that broadcasters who cause displeasure to the Dear Leader might have difficulties renewing their broadcast licenses unless they "correct course" before their renewal time comes up.

- Many Iranian dissidents understandably looked on the US/Israeli attack on their country with rose-coloured glasses before it happened, hoping that this might be the thing that finally liberates them from a regime that certainly is far from benevolent. However, disillusionment is starting to set in among those actually live in the country and are seeing huge amounts of destruction with no benefit. Opinions among the diaspora will doubtless lag somewhat, since they aren't face to face with the bombing, but it will probably come in due time.

- The Trump regime is having a hard time finding allies who will help keep the Strait of Hormuz open. France is willing to consider, but on their own terms; Trump seems to want countries to sign on to an open-ended commitment, which is naturally not an easy sell. He is responding in his usual fashion by hinting that for NATO allies to sit this one out would "be very bad for the future of NATO".

- While Waterloo's university district has often gotten rowdy on and around St. Patrick's Day, the regional police service shocked many, including the city's mayor, when they deployed a sniper to the district. Police have so far not explained their reasoning; the mayor has requested a meeting with the police chief.

- An 81 year old man has been charged with second degree murder following a shooting at a trailer park in Port Alberni, BC. 

News roundup, 13 March 2026

- Mark Carney has finally come out and said that Canada will not participate (directly at least) in the attack on Iran, while still saying that "Canada supports the necessity to prevent Iran’s nuclear program and the export of terrorism". 

- A man is dead after ramming a vehicle into a synagogue in Detroit and exchanging gunfire with a security guard, who was wounded. Authorities say that the attacker was a 41 year old US citizen who was born in Lebanon. They say they haven't found a motive yet, but this probably has something to do with it.

- FBI director Kash Patel gutted a counterintelligence unit specialized in monitoring potential threats from Iran mere days before the US-Israeli attack on the country. One wonders what the motivation for this might have been - had the unit not gathered enough evidence of a threat to justify the attack? Or, more ominously, are they hoping that a major attack will occur that could serve as the "Reichstag fire" that Trump could then use as justification to cancel the midterms, and that the unit might actually foil such an attack?

- The Pentagon has banned press photographers from briefings on the war after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth took exception to photos that he deemed unflattering to him.

- Bill C-9, the "Combatting Hate Act", was forced through committee by the Liberals with the assistance of the Bloc Quebecois, against the objections of both the NDP (who along with civil liberties organizations are concerned about the implications for freedom of protest) as well as the Conservatives (who are afraid about possible impacts on freedom of religion). It's kind of telling that the Globe and Mail glosses over the differences between the reasons for the two parties' objections.

- The Alberta Prosperity Project seems to be having difficulty getting enough signatures to force a referendum on independence, judging from the fact that they're now canvassing snowbirds in Arizona and Mexico. They have until May to get enough signatures, 

- Bob Gale, who was appointed by the Ford government as the chair of the Regional Municipality of Niagara, Ontario last December following the death of the previous regional chair, Jim Bradley, has resigned following revelations that he went to the effort (and considerable expense) to obtain an autographed copy of Mein Kampf. The fact that he was heavily pushing amalgamation of the lower tier municipalities in the region probably made him some enemies who might have blown the whistle on his rather curious collection habits.

- A Tennessee woman who was misidentified by facial recognition software was held for six months without bail and hauled off to North Dakota, a state where she says she's never been, over a bank fraud case in Fargo. Apparently they never checked to see if she had an alibi until she was brought there; perhaps it didn't occur to them that the software could get anything wrong. After it was shown that she couldn't have committed the crime they just turned her loose in a strange city until a volunteer with a prison-related nonprofit drove her to Chicago so that family could pick her up from there.

News roundup, 12 March 2026

- Israel bombed a residential neighbourhood in Beiruit, claiming that an apartment building they hit was "used" by an organization called Jama’a Islamiye (Islamic Group). The organization says none of its members were impacted by the attack. Israeli ground troops are also pushing into border areas in Lebanon, and there are fears that a wider invasion is planned. Meanwhile Iran has announced a full closure of the Strait of Hormuz (except for China apparently), causing a dramatic increase in oil prices. Air New Zealand is cancelling around 1,100 flights as the price of jet fuel spikes due to the war. Oil barons in Canada are salivating of course, as are those in Russia.

- The Manitoba government has announced that their proposed supervised consumption site, planned for a former industrial site on Henry Avenue, may open sooner than expected. This has led nearby homeowners to argue for reduced assessed values for their properties. In other provincial government news, Mintu Sandhu, the minister responsible for consumer protection, has introduced a "right to repair" bill modeled after similar legislation recently passed in Quebec.

- A Swiss man in his 60s set him self on fire on a bus in the town of Kerzers, killing himself and five other people. Police have ruled out a terrorist motive, describing the perpetrator as a "marginalised and disturbed individual" who had recently been reported missing by his family.

- Matthew Chorney, a paramedic in West St. Paul, Manitoba, received a call about an emergency in his immediate vicinity ten minutes before the end of his shift. He declined the call and left it to another paramedic who was almost 20 minutes away. Fortunately the patient did not die, but Chorney has been convicted of multiple charges by a disciplinary panel of the College of Paramedics of Manitoba. The charges include professional misconduct; his registration has been suspended for three months and he is being ordered to pay the college for the $25,000 cost of the investigation.

- Kenyan authorities arrested a man who they say was attempting to smuggle over 2,000 queen ants back to his native China. The ants are sold for the pet trade in that country; there are fears that they are being harvested at a rate that could have significant impacts on ecosystems.

News roundup, 11 March 2026

- The US consulate in Toronto was hit by gunfire early Tuesday morning. Nobody was hurt; police are looking for two suspects in what they are calling a "national security incident". As someone on this Reddit thread remarked:

So have your pick of suspects : Canadian angry at the tariffs? Iranian angry at the attack? Muslim supporting other Muslims? Indian, Brazilian, Mexican, European, Chinese angry at tariffs? Venezuelan angry at Maduro's ousting? Russian angry at America? Palestinian?

There are 195 sovereign countries on Earth, Trump managed to piss off most of them.

Others have pointed out the fact that the shots appear to have fired from a handgun, meaning that there's an excellent chance that the gun was originally smuggled into the country from the States, bringing things full circle.

- The US is reportedly putting pressure on Sri Lanka not to repatriate the survivors from the Iranian ship sunk by an American submarine last week, as well as the crew of a second Iranian vessel that became stranded near the island nation. A State Department cable indicates that the US ambassador to Sri Lanka has urged the country to "minimize Iranian attempts to use the detainees for propaganda".

- Nunavut's Lori Idlout has become the latest MP to to defect to the Liberals, this time from the NDP. This defection, along with 3 recent Conservative MPs who defected recently, brings the Liberals up to 170 seats, two short of a majority. The motive for Idlout's decision is unclear. Meanwhile at the provincial level in Manitoba, Conservative MLA Bob Lagassé has left his party to sit as an independent, saying that the last straw was the party's failure to eject Jeff Wharton after he was implicated and fined in the Sio Silica scandal.

- A recall campaign against Alberta premier Danielle Smith has failed after activists only managed to get 2,300 of the 12,000 signatures needed to force a byelection in her constituency of Brooks-Medicine Hat.

- French authorities are investigating an apparent foreign disinformation campaign against two members of the leftwing France Unbowed party who are running for municipal office. One of the candidates, Sebastien Delogu, who is running for mayor of Marseille, was the subject of a blog posting by an anonymous person who claims that he ruined their life; posters with a QR code linking to the blog were posted around the city. The blog, which has since been removed, appears to be connected with a network of accounts linked to the pro-Israeli ELNET organization, a registered lobby group in the country. The group had also targeted Francois Piquemal, who is running for the mayoral office in Toulouse. Both Delogu and Piquemal have been vocal critics of Israel.

- Hungary's parliament has passed a resolution opposing the admission of Ukraine to the EU. Hungary has also adopted a special resolution to permit the cash and gold that was seized while being transported through the country by Ukrainian financial institution Oschadbank to be held for the duration of their investigation into what they claim may be linked to organized crime. Strangely, in light of Hungary's claims, they have released the bank employees that they arrested during the seizure; perhaps they don't want the inconvenience of a trial that might undermine their case for taking the assets. And Slovak prime minister Robert Fico is vowing to "take up the baton from Hungary" and block EU funds to Ukraine even if Hungary's Viktor Orbán is defeated in the upcoming election.

- Lou Callaghan, a captain with the Canadian Coast Guard has been fired after he ignored a distress call from a fishing boat that had run aground. Callaghan claimed to have initially not heard the first call; crew members on his vessel claimed that he turned down the radio after the call came through. Fortunately he was eventually persuaded to attend and the crew of the fishing boat were rescued.