News roundup, 12 Aug 2026

- The Canadian Association of Professional Employees has confirmed what many of us have suspected for a while, saying they were told by a source in the federal government that officials were "very worried" about risks to the financial sector from remote work due to the decline in value of commercial real estate. The Bank of Canada had reported in 2024 that some pension funds and insurers had reduced their exposure to commercial real estate due to the high office vacancy rate. It sure looks like that governments were unprepared to deal with such a shift and decided to address the problem with return to office mandates.

- A working group led by former federal cabinet minister Lloyd Axworthy is examining the feasibility of relocating Winnipeg's rail yards to bypass the city. Such a move would take many years to implement, but would free up valuable land within the city and would also be beneficial to the railways in the long run, since it would remove the necessity for trains to slow to a crawl as they pass through built-up areas.

- Evacuees from the wildfires in northern Ontario have led to a severe shortage of hotel rooms in Thunder Bay, creating problems for people who have to visit the city for medical appointments.

- Spain is being bombarded with tourists in the midst of one of the worst wildfire seasons in living memory, due to a total solar eclipse that will be the first one visible from the Spanish mainland in more than a century.

- The war in Iran and the resulting spikes in fuel prices have led to a surge in sales of electric motorcycles in much of the world. Motorcycles are much more common than cars in less affluent countries, and improvements in electric vehicle technology have now made it cost-effective to make the switch. For instance, in Kenya at least 25% of new motorcycles sold are electric.

- Yolanda Olejniczak Marodi has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of her wife, Rebecca Marodi, in February of 2025. The victim, a decorated firefigher, was stabbed to death in her mother's home shortly after announcing her intention to file for divorce; Oleiniczak Marodi fled to Mexico but was captured after more than a month on the run. She had previously served nine years in prison for manslaughter in the death of her husband, James Olejniczak, who like Rebecca had planned to end the marriage.

News roundup, 27 March 2025

- Winnipeg police now believe that the woman hitherto known as Mashkode Bizihiki’ Ikwe ("Buffalo Woman") was Ashlee Shingoose of St. Theresa Point First Nation, who went missing in March 2022. Moreover, based on when she is believed to have been killed and the location of the bin where she was dumped, they now believe that her remains were taken to the Brady Landfill. This does offer at least some hope that something of her will be found. 

- Jagmeet Singh admits that the NDP faces "massive challenges" in the coming election, as the anti-Conservative vote is coalescing almost entirely around the Liberals. Former leader Tom Mulcair sums it up in terms of what is known as "the ballot question"; the threat from the US is the sole deciding factor for most voters, and it's increasingly turning into a two party race (Mulcair notes that the Bloc is struggling as well).

- Wildfires in South Korea have killed at least 24 people and destroyed a 1,300 year old temple in Uiseong City, though fortunately relics from the temple were removed in advance of the fire. Wildfires have historically not been common in the country, and this is the biggest death toll from such fires that the country has experienced.

- Eascan Automation Inc., a Winnipeg-based company that provides custom-built industrial robots to manufacturers, has laid off a third of its workforce owing to the fact that while most of their clients are Canadian, the products they manufacture are heavily dependent on the US market, meaning they're not in a hurry to upgrade their equipment right now.

- Immigration lawyers are advising Canadians living in the US to avoid international travel for the time being, given the increasingly unpredictable nature of ICE. One Toronto-based lawyer points out that even people who successfully got green cards after having previously gotten into trouble have had their old mistakes brought up at the border when they try to reenter; in addition, there is a danger that anything you might have ever posted online could be dug up and used against you. Myself, if I were giving advice, I wouldn't be advising against international travel. Quite the contrary - I'd advise any Canadian - or other foreign citizen - living in that benighted country to take a one-way international trip as soon as possible.

- It seems that the Atlantic journalist who was inadvertently sent sensitive military plans was not the biggest security risk in that chat group. Steve Witkoff, who serves as an envoy to the Middle East as well as Ukraine, was part of the chat group - and he was actually in Moscow at the time it was sent.

- The estranged wife of slain California fire captain Rebecca Marodi has been captured alive by Mexican authorities and sent back to the US to face trial for first degree murder. She has pleaded not guilty. Somehow I doubt she'll get it knocked down to manslaughter like she did last time she did something like that, though.

News roundup, 24 Feb 2025

- The centre-right Christian Democrats under Friedrich Merz have won a plurality of seats in Germany's parliamentary election, receiving just under 29% of the vote. The far-right AfD came second, with around 21%; all parties have vowed to maintain the "firewall" and not form a coalition with AfD.

- Robert Garcia, a Democratic member of the US House of Representatives from California, in a session of the House subcommittee on Doge, referred to a photo of Elon Musk as a "dick pick" and referred to Musk as "President". Shortly thereafter, the Department of Justice has sent Garcia a letter that makes reference to an interview with CNN in which he said "What the American public wants is for us to bring actual weapons to this bar fight. This is an actual fight for democracy"; the DOJ is demanding clarification regarding this comment, which it indicates could be interpreted as a threat.

- Former Liberal MP Ruby Dhalla has been disqualified from her party's leadership race after an investigation concluded that she committed 10 different violations of the rules for the race. This includes campaign financing issues as well as the apparent failure to disclose the involvement of a non-citizen in the campaign.

- Manitoba PC leadership candidate Wally Daudrich is claiming that there's porn in school libraries. He claims to have seen these books but refuses to say where. While a reasonable person would respond with "put up or shut up", the kind of people Daudrich is trying to attract to his campaign are not reasonable people. 

- Despite recent cold weather, the opening of the winter road network in northern Manitoba has been delayed until the end of February, causing significant problems for northern residents.

- Because bird flu has hit the US poultry and egg industry much harder than that in Canada and Mexico (so far), there has been a rash of egg smuggling at the borders, as well as large scale thefts of eggs.

- Rebecca Marodi, a CalFire fire captain who served on the front lines in the recent Los Angeles County wildfires, was stabbed to death in her home outside San Diego. She had been the subject of online abuse for supposedly being a "DEI hire" and blamed for the fires, which led some to speculate that this was the reason for her death. However, police now say that her wife is the prime suspect and may have fled the country. Yolanda Marodi had previously pleaded guilty to manslaughter following the stabbing death of her then-husband in 2000, and served more than 13 years in prison. I daresay there may be a pattern here.

- Around 200 people who stayed at a four-star resort in Playa del Carmen suffered from a nasty sickness, suspected of being food poisoning, that caused severe vomiting, diarrhea and dehydration. Just in case being in a resort full of middle-aged suburbanites wasn't bad enough on its own.