News roundup, 16 Oct 2024

- The federal government has expelled six Indian diplomats, accusing India of involvement in "widespread violence" in this country. The violence in question apparently includes homicides, such as the assassination of Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey last year. India has responded in kind, ordering six Canadian diplomats to leave the country.

- BC Conservative Party candidate Brent Chapman is facing calls to withdraw from the race following revelations that he circulated bizarre conspiracy theories alleging that several mass shootings, including the Quebec City mosque shooting in 2017 as well as the Sandy Hook and Pulse Nightclub shootings in the US were hoaxes. He had also made some social media posts in which he called Palestinians "little inbred walking, talking, breathing time bombs". He has also alleged that the UN is somehow interfering in municipal politics. Happily, recent polling from Angus Reid as well as Research Co suggests that BC voters - or at least urban and suburban ones - may be coming to their senses.

- Hacktivists professing to be acting on behalf of Palestinians have claimed responsibility for a cyberattack on the Internet Archive. What makes the archive a legitimate target for such activism is not clear, though the activists seem to be claiming that the fact that the nonprofit is based in the US is reason enough. Seems like pretty flimsy grounds to me; I guess organizations that are actually harming Palestinians have better cybersecurity, though, and they went for the low hanging fruit instead.

- The IDF appears to be using Palestinians as human shields. Not the first time such accusations have been made, but when a paper as sympathetic to Israel as the New York Times reports on them, it's a sign that the evidence is pretty hard to dismiss.

- An American journalist, Jeremy Loffredo, was detained in Israel last week; while he has been released from custody he is barred from leaving the country. The Israelis accuse him of "endangering national security" and "aiding and sharing information with the enemy" due to his having reported on Iranian strikes in the country.

- An auto parts maker, Yapp USA Automotive Systems, is challenging the jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Board; unfortunately the case is to be decided by the Trumper-dominated US Supreme Court.

- A four-year-old child has died after falling from the 19th floor of a highrise in downtown Winnipeg.

- After a delay resulting from the recent hurricane, Europa Clipper was successfully launched from Cape Canaveral. The probe is expected to arrive at Europa in 2030, in search of evidence of life.

News roundup, 15 Oct 2024

- Three cargo ships were hit by Russian missiles while in Ukrainian ports last week, killing at least 10 people and leading to fears that cargo operators will avoid the country.

- The BC NDP and Conservative parties remain in a statistical dead heat in the last week of campaigning. The NDP may well hold on due to greater vote efficiency and recent publicity about the Conservatives' extremism, but even if they do it's rather disconcerting that it's even a serious contest.

- The Canadian Association of Professional Employees, which represents around 27,000 federal employees, is calling for an investigation by the parliamentary Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates into a federal mandate that orders public servants back into the office a minimum of 3 days per week. Another union, the Public Service Alliance of Canada, is challenging the mandate in court but this could take years to resolve due to the backlog in the courts; the parliamentary committee could potentially get quicker results.

- Following an incident last week in which a patient at St. Boniface Hospital brandished knives, some are calling for stronger security measures at hospitals. There is some discomfort about the idea of putting metal detectors at the entrances due to concern that it could make the hospital feel less safe for some, even as it makes it feel more safe for others. No statistics are given, though on whether the presence or absence of metal detectors would scare away more people, which would seem to be a pertinent piece of information. The article does note that Health Sciences Centre has been testing an "AI weapons detector" at the entrance to their ER; why AI is needed for this is not made clear, though if it somehow makes the detector less intrusive than a standard airport-style medical detector then it might have merit I suppose.

- The distribution of rapid COVID-19 tests in Manitoba is being discontinued, except for the most vulnerable people such as care home residents. I guess too much continued awareness of the disease is bad for business.

- Two middle-aged residents of Winnipeg's Lord Roberts neighbourhood have been charged with torturing and killing cats to make videos which were posted on the dark web. The suspects are known to police; disconcertingly, this appears to be unrelated to some other killings of cats that have occurred in Point Douglas recently.

- Despite recent reports that the closures of several 7-Eleven stores in Winnipeg were due to crime, it appears that this is actually part of a company-wide shakedown. Some folks in this Reddit thread think that the plan is to move towards making the chain more upscale (as it apparently already is in Japan) and that they're closing locations that they don't consider suitable for this. It's also pointed out there that the red herring of crime has been tossed out in similar situations before, such as the closure of the Osborne Village Starbucks location (stories about this made reference to crime but left out the fact that Starbucks has been trying to eliminate locations without drive-thru service) and similar stories about various Target locations in the US (many of which were apparently in over-saturated markets). In any case, Canadian convenience store chain Couche-Tard has been trying to buy 7-Eleven for some time, but getting rebuffed, and might well leap at the opportunity to take over the closed locations as a consolation prize.

- Alexandre Brassard, a biologist at St. Boniface University, was alarmed to find that a new book, entitled Mushrooms of Manitoba, contains multiple errors and makes no mention of several deadly poisonous species. The book appears to have been written with AI; Amazon delisted the book after CBC contacted them about the matter.

News roundup, 11 Oct 2024

- The captain of a Turkish Airlines A350 flying from Seattle to Istanbul died mid-flight. The aircraft was successfully landed in New York by the first officer and a relief pilot.

- Despite the ravages of hurricanes like Milton, there is skepticism in some circles about the idea that the rich will abandon the state. Contrary to the view that the rich will take advantage of their superior mobility and leave while the poor will have no choice but to stay, the argument is that the rich are the only ones who will be able to afford to stay as insurance becomes more expensive. Of course, as some here point out, there are limits to this, not least the fact that if the poor are forced out, there'll be no one to serve the rich their iced coffees.

- The Manitoba government seems to be making substantial progress in improving access to physicians. There has been a net gain of 133 doctors between April and August of this year; there's still a long way to go, though, as nearly three times that number are still needed in order to reach the national per capita average.

- Cleanup is finally underway at the location where three businesses were destroyed by fire early last year. Some of the delay resulted when the owner of one of the buildings tried to challenge findings by the government that there was asbestos at the location, which requires additional expenditures in order to clean up safely. In related news, a report presented to the city on the policy of billing owners of vacant properties for the cost of firefighting claims the measure may have done more harm than good; the city has been paid less that $79,000 out of $1.15 million billed to property owners last year and has apparently been forced to dedicate resources to deal with appeals by the owners. Given how early it is in the game, it seems premature to declare the policy a failure, though - and as numerous folks in this Reddit thread are arguing, maybe the city should just move along with seizing properties from delinquent owners and use the properties to build affordable housing.

- BC Conservative Party leader John Rustad recently claimed that foot traffic in downtown Victoria has declined 60% in the last couple of years. Thing is, like a lot of things rightwing politicians say, it simply isn't true. There was a slight increase from 2022 to 2023; data from this year is not yet available. As regards Rustad's motives for making up such nonsense, it may be partly just an attempt to create a general impression of failure on the part of the incumbent NDP government. It may also be a way of signalling to people who are resentful of WFH that he's their guy. Or maybe, as some folks on Reddit think, as a rightwing politician he just lies by default. Who knows?

- An in-service held by the Winnipeg School Division at the Canada Life Centre on Wednesday created a stir when, during a speech by an American educator about matters related to indigenous education, the slogan "Resistance to colonialism is not terrorism" was displayed on a screen. This immediately raised the hackles of some members of the Jewish community, and the school division promptly apologized for this. You could argue that the slogan is over the top, but it's kind of telling that members of that community felt singled out by it notwithstanding that it makes no mention of Israel or Palestine and was displayed during a speech related to actual consequences of colonialism.

- A Nebraska woman is attempting to sue every gay person on the planet for breaking "religious and moral laws". She claims to be acting as the "ambassador" for the true plaintiffs, "God and His Son, Jesus Christ". That may be a bit much even for Nebraska; a statement from the court indicated that no summons will be issued to the defendants.

News roundup, 10 Oct 2024

- Hurricane Milton hit Florida last night as a Category 3 storm, with winds up over 160 km/h (86 kt, 100 mph). Fortunately the worst of it did not hit Tampa directly, hitting instead in the smaller city of Sarasota, 112 km to the south. Nonetheless, St Petersburg still got 41 centimetres (not millimetres) of rain. Several fatalities have been reported from the hurricane and spin-off tornadoes, and power is out for more than 3 million people.

- Federal Public Services and Procurement Minister Jean-Yves Duclos says the Trudeau government is "seriously considering" a high speed option for the proposed high frequency rail link between Toronto and Quebec City. Certainly this is a good idea, but it's a bit late in the game to be doing something like this given that they've been in power since 2015 and are almost certain to be replaced next fall by the Poilievre Conservatives, who will likely cancel the project.

- The former clerk of Mesa County, Colorado has been sentenced to 9 years in prison for her role in a breach in the security of the county's electoral system. Following the sentencing, staff at the county courthouse have reported being threatened by members of the public.

- The landlord who evicted dozens of people from his apartment complex in Winnipeg's North End earlier this year has been fined $9,000. This is apparently the largest fine ever issued by the Residential Tenancies Branch; apparently all previous fines for this sort of thing add up to a total of $28,000. Nonetheless, it's probably pretty much a rounding error for the landlord. Current legislation only allows a fine of $1,000 for each tenant who actually comes forward. And according to Street Links, who had made the arrangements to house several previously homeless people in the building, several of those people are now back on the street following the eviction, and thus probably have bigger things on their mind than talking to authorities.

- A 10 year old boy in the Montreal suburb of Longueuil was severely scalded when boiling water was poured over him. A woman in her 40s has been arrested. The accused apparently claimed that the boy had been knocking on her door as a prank for "the last three years"; according to the boy's family they haven't even lived in the area for that long. Most likely racism as well as psychiatric factors played a role here.

- A researcher at the University of Michigan proposes that autonomous vehicles be required to take a national driving test in order to be certified for road use. Seems eminently reasonable, even if the Silicon Valley boys think rules cramp their style.

- The Trump Bible (which Oklahoma was originally going to make required reading in state schools before a backlash forced them to amend the requirements to allow other editions) was printed in China. That's awkward...

News roundup, 9 Oct 2024

- One noteworthy thing about the far-right orientation of the American countryside - it wasn't always this bad. In 2000, Republicans only had a five point lead over Democrats in rural America - but today they lead by 25 points. How much difference the folksiness of Tim Walz will make in that regard is doubtful, though the Democrats are hoping that it will help in places like Nebraska which doesn't use a winner-takes-all system for their electoral votes. One wonders how much longer this will matter; the shift of the population towards large cities may not be as pronounced in the US as in a lot of countries, but it's still happening there, and the more that happens, the more irrelevant rural voters will become. Of course they will also become even angrier than they already are as that happens.

- The Manitoba government is putting $10 million into the Collaborative Housing Alliance Real Estate Investment Trust. The trust is being created by the Business Council of Manitoba and will assist community groups in the creation of affordable housing; Housing Minister Bernadette Smith hopes to have three projects going within a year.

- The Mountain View School Division in western Manitoba, which recently passed a motion banning all flags except the Canadian, Manitoban, and school flags despite not having a quorum, says that the motion was meant to "foster inclusivity" and "promote unity". An employee of the school division believes otherwise, though, saying that this is a veiled attack on the LGBT* community. I suspect that the employee is right.

- The BC Conservatives are vowing to "end tent cities" in the province; they plan to achieve this via policing to eliminate encampments, and involuntary treatment in secure facilities. Party leader John Rustad was evasive when asked about how they plan to get around recent court decisions such as the one last year which ruled that municipalities cannot evict encampments if they don't have sufficient shelter space for the residents; the folks in this Reddit thread suspect the notwithstanding clause will likely be used if deemed necessary.

- A new Leger poll in BC has the NDP up 5 points over the BC Conservatives; perhaps the Cons' extreme positions are starting to worry voters. Let's hope so.

- The Halifax Chronicle-Herald has fired award-winning editorial cartoonist Michael de Adder, who had worked for the paper for almost 30 years. The paper's parent company was recently taken over by Postmedia, and maybe the new owners didn't like cartoons like this one.

- The Ontario government's move to allow alcohol sales in convenience stores includes fortified wine. So you'll be able to pick up a bottle of Westminster at your local 7-11 to drink under a bridge. Ain't that grand?

- A Republican candidate for the US Senate has some awkward questions to answer about a social media post from a couple of years ago in which he said that "the bad guys won" in WWII.

News roundup, 8 Oct 2024

- Hurricane Milton is bearing down on the Tampa area, expected to hit late Wednesday or early Thursday. It is currently a Category 5 hurricane, with winds reaching 180 mph (290 km/h or 156 kt). The barometric pressure in the hurricane's eye has been measured at 897 millibars (standard pressure is 1,000). Some people think this could wake people up to the seriousness of climate change, but given that the MAGA crowd are claiming that the Feds are somehow controlling the path of the hurricane, presumably in order to influence votes this fall, this might be a bit much to hope for.

- With less than a month to go before the US election, polling numbers are remarkably close. Key swing states, including Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Georgia, and North Carolina are all too close to call. You'd think that the choice between a competent (albeit centrist) candidate and a raving fascist lunatic would be a pretty straightforward one, but this is America we're talking about...

- BC Conservative leader John Rustad indicated that he would be open to "Nuremberg 2.0" trials for those responsible for public health measures during the height of the pandemic. He subsequently backed away from this, presumably after advisors warned him that suggesting that making things inconvenient for the unvaccinated is just like stuffing them into gas chambers is not a good look. In other Rustad news, he called the Eby government's housing policy "Soviet-style housing", falsely suggesting that premier David Eby "thinks that the private sector has no role in providing housing" when in fact one of the biggest things the government has done is removed restrictions on the kind of housing that can be built by the private sector. Unfortunately, all this nonsense doesn't seem to be significantly hurting Rustad in the polls. For their part, the NDP is trying to get Elections BC to put the party's name on the ballot as "BC Conservative Party" rather than just "Conservative Party"; they are presumably resigned to the popularity of the federal Conservatives but want to draw a distinction between the federal and provincial parties. It's hard to see positives in the way this is going.

- The "Victims of Communism" memorial commissioned by the Harper government was scheduled to be unveiled last November, but has been beset by controversy following revelations that more than half of the 553 names that were supposed to go on the memorial belonged to people associated with the Nazis or other fascist organizations.

- The looming strike by healthcare support staff in Manitoba seems to have been averted, as a tentative agreement was reached at 4:25 this morning, with only 95 minutes to go before the strike deadline. CUPE and MGEU leaders are urging their membership to approve the deal.

- The newly elected mayor of the Mexican city of Chilpancingo, Alejandro Arcos, was beheaded just days after taking office, possibly having run afoul of local drug cartels.

News roundup, 7 Oct 2024

- The US Supreme Court has refused to preemptively block new EPA rules concerning methane and mercury, asking for the plaintiffs to file their claims in U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia first. This is somewhat promising, though if the case does land on their desks after going through the lower court there is no guarantee that they will uphold the rules.

- While natural gas has been promoted as a somewhat cleaner alternative to coal, a recent study has concluded that the climate impact of leakage during the transportation of liquefied natural gas is actually worse, largely due to the inevitable leakage of methane (the main constituent of the fuel).

- Bubba Pollock, the man who posted a selfie with a woman's dying father in order to harass her after getting into an online debate with her, was sentenced to 60 days in jail. He has a history of other criminal activity, including bribing homeless people to steal Pride flags and to pull fire alarms in libraries where drag-related events were being held. This is on top of more mundane (but equally disturbing) convictions such as sharing intimate images without consent.

- Physicians in Manitoba are getting tired of having to waste time signing sick notes demanded by employers. The province is one of three that have no restrictions as to when an employer can demand one; Doctors Manitoba is calling for this to be changed, saying that this can open up more time for actually useful patient visits.

- The chances of averting a healthcare strike in Manitoba are quickly fading; the unions say they are nowhere near a deal as tomorrow's strike deadline approaches.

- A child in the Brantford area has died of rabies, after having apparently contracted the disease from a bat while on vacation in Timiskaming District. Disconcertingly, there was no visible sign of a bite from the animal; experts are recommending that anyone who has been in contact with bats to get immediate medical attention.