News roundup, 21 Oct 2025

- An estimated 5 million people (more than 1% of the country's population) participated in the "No Kings" protests across the US on Saturday. The protests were largely peaceful; Republicans were predictably dismissive of course.

- A gang of thieves broke into the Louvre over the weekend and stole priceless jewelry once owned by French monarchs. More info on the missing items here; whether the theft was commissioned by a collector (in which case the items might be recovered) or done for the precious metals and gems (in which case they'll likely be broken up and melted down) is unknown. Definitely, though, the recent surge in the price of gold is making it attractive to thieves.

- Israel suspended their ceasefire and the shipment of aid in Gaza on Sunday, claiming that two IDF soldiers had been killed by Hamas, however they now say they're resuming the ceasefire and aid shipments.

- Calgary mayor Jyoti Gondek appears to have been defeated in the city's municipal election yesterday. The actual winner has yet to be determined, but it appears that it will be one of two rightwingers (Jeromy Farkas and Sonya Sharp) who are separated by less than a percentage point.

- Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries disposed of some $29,000 worth of American liquor following its removal from shelves in protest to the US' behaviour towards Canada. I still think they should have done what they did with South African wine back in the 1980s - they sold the stuff, but turned over the proceeds to opposition groups in South Africa. Not sure why they couldn't have done that here.

- Some activists are concerned about the Manitoba government's plans to allow 72 hour detention for severely intoxicated persons. The move was motivated by cases in which people remain high on meth after the current maximum of 24 hours runs out. The argument is made by some that forced withdrawal leads to an increased risk of overdose upon release due to reduced tolerance. I'm not sure how sound their reasoning on this is though; I was of the understanding that it takes longer than 72 hours for tolerance to decrease, and it's notable that several physicians including some who specialize in mental health and addictions agree with the government. I'm inclined to believe a doctor over an activist on that point. In all likelyhood the activists are primarily motivated by other factors (and to be fair they do mention other factors, such as concerns about autonomy and what they refer to as "arbitrary" detention).

- Police in Temiskaming Shores, Ontario stopped a semi and found 72 smuggled handguns as well as 66 other prohibited devices inside. The truck's operators had been targeted following an investigation into cocaine trafficking.

- A woman in the rural Minnesota community of Nashwauk was convicted of submitting her dead mother's absentee ballot so as to cast an extra vote for Trump last fall. She was given an $885 fine, up to three years' supervised probation, and was ordered to read Erin Geiger Smith's book Thank You for Voting: The Maddening, Enlightening, Inspiring Truth About Voting in America and to write an essay on the importance of voting and the harms of voter fraud.

News roundup, 20 March 2024

- Pierre Poilievre plans to introduce a non-confidence motion against the Trudeau government based on the carbon tax. This is largely symbolic as it is not expected to pass, but a signal that the Tories are going to be making this the centre of their campaign. Sadly, it's highly probable that it will work; Globe and Mail columnist Andrew Coyne sums it up neatly as follows:

As for the Conservative Leader, Pierre Poilievre, I suppose he is to be congratulated. The Liberals won three elections on a promise of taking action on climate change, which had become equated with the carbon tax. Many people concluded this meant the public wanted action on climate change, and were willing to pay the carbon tax.

But Mr. Poilievre saw through the public. He understood that the public are deeply, almost perversely, hypocritical on this as on most things: they want something done about the climate but they want someone else to pay for it. Or, perhaps: they are prepared to pay for it, if they have to, but they want to be lied to about it.

They want to pretend that a tax that applies only to “the big polluters” would not be passed on to them, or that they would not also pay the costs of whatever regulations and subsidy schemes Mr. Poilievre eventually proposes, if he does. They know it is a lie. They know that nothing is free. They just don’t want to have it rubbed in their faces. Which is more or less the point of a carbon tax.

Or perhaps it’s simpler than that. It may simply be that the public were all for action on climate change as long as the economy was strong, but as soon as inflation began to climb, they lost all interest.

Either way, Mr. Poilievre correctly read their ambivalence, understood that they were every bit as cynical as he is and is about to be rewarded for it. To the victor the spoils and all that.

Cynical indeed, but in the words of Sir Humphrey Appleby from Yes Minister, a cynic is what an idealist calls a realist. I do have to take issue with one thing Coyne says here, however:

What if, instead of receiving the occasional opaquely labelled “climate action incentive payment” – too small to notice, too far removed to make the connection – Canadians had been compensated with offsetting income-tax cuts, something they would have seen and felt every two weeks on their paycheques?

A far better approach, to my mind, would be to apply the offsets to sales taxes, not income taxes. You see, one of the things about a carbon tax where the critics actually do have a valid point is that carbon taxes are somewhat regressive, all other things being considered. And offsetting a regressive tax by cutting a progressive tax like income tax is the wrong way to do it; if you offset carbon taxes by a reduction in the GST, you have no net increase in the regressiveness of the tax regime, and people will see the savings every time they buy something. Yet I never see this idea brought forward, even to later dismiss it. Why, I wonder?

- New York Attorney General Letitia James appears to be preparing to seize property owned by Donald Trump in the state due to his failure to cough up the bond money to allow an appeal of the civil fraud case.

- The British government is planning to conduct a review of the takeover of the Daily Telegraph by a company based in the United Arab Emirates. This is expected to delay the deal long enough for a new piece of legislation to stop the takeover entirely.

- The Manitoba NDP is moving forward with plans to create an independent seniors' advocate; the Tories, for their part, plan to use their limited power of delay on this legislation. Not clear why they'd choose this hill to die on, except maybe that such a position could make things awkward for them once they're back in power.

- A majority of Winnipeg residents now favour reopening Portage and Main to pedestrians. Most of the owners of buildings at the intersection, though, are opposed, the exception being the Manitoba Métis Federation which owns the former Bank of Montreal building at the southeast corner.

- The recall campaign against Calgary mayor Jyoti Gondek seems to be backed by a rightwing organization called Project YYC that uses a lot of buzzwords like "common sense". Some of you may recall that back when the campaign started I said in this very blog that it reeked of rightwing populism; I'd say this new information supports this.

News roundup, 6 Feb 2024

- Conservative Party supporters in Canada are increasingly of the view that Canada gives "too much support" to Ukraine. When polling Canadians overall, 25% of those polled agreed with the statement, compared to 13% a couple of years ago - and among Conservative supporters this has jumped from 19% to 43% over the same time period. It seems like the Cons are betting on the Canadian public hating Justin Trudeau so much that they'll blindly vote for whoever has the best chance of beating him; sadly, it's a pretty good bet. Not that there isn't reason to dislike Trudeau, quite the contrary (just look at his latest gaffe for instance), but the public's willingness to jump from the frying pan into the fire is unfortunate.

- Former Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi is said to be considering a run for the Alberta NDP leadership. This could make for a very interesting provincial election in 2027. Nenshi isn't that left by non-Alberta standards, but he'd certainly be an improvement on their current premier.

- Calgary's current mayor, Jyoti Gondek, could theoretically face a recall election - that is, if the petitioner is able to collect signatures from 40% of the city's nearly 1.3 million residents by the 4th of April. Reasons cited include a bylaw prohibiting stores from giving out free single use bags, as well as tax increases and a deal entered into by the city and the owners of the Flames, among others, to build an event centre. Don't know enough about the event centre issue to comment but the other two reasons reek of rightwing populism, and I suspect the petitioner will be able to get some support from the same kind of people who show up at city hearings talking about "neighbourhood integrity" out of fear that someone might build a duplex down the street from them. Meanwhile in the neighbouring city of Chestermere, the mayor and half the council have been ousted by the provincial government; I know essentially nothing about the place, but the folks on Reddit seem to think this move by the province is a case of a stopped clock being right twice a day.

- On Thursday the US Supreme Court will be hearing Donald Trump's appeal of Colorado's move to exclude him from the ballot. This will be the first time in history that the court hears a case related to the "disqualification clause" in the Fourteenth Amendment; it seems that it would take some pretty intense mental gymnastics for self-professed "originalists" like the conservatives on the court to keep Trump on the ballot, but they may well find a way.

- The International Code Council is a nonprofit dedicated to developing model building codes. Lately they seem to have been bending to every demand of the natural gas lobby, even hastily changing their own rules to give the lobbyists more favourable treatment.

- The European Union had a plan to cut pesticide use in half by the end of the decade, as well as setting carbon reduction targets for the agriculture sector, but is backing away in the face of an outburst of populist rage.

- Apparently those convoy protesters who went down to Texas to "defend" the border against the supposed "invasion" were disappointed to see that things weren't as they'd been led to believe. The convoy's leaders managed to crowdfund a lot of money though, so there's that.

- Pakistan International Airlines just had a flight attendant walk away in Toronto and not show up for their return flight. This would not be very newsworthy in itself, but the same thing has happened several times in the last few years, which is starting to look like a pattern.