News roundup, 27 Aug 2026

- Mark Carney's willingness to walk away from US trade talks is drawing praise from many former European leaders, many of whom see the EU's recent deal with the States as capitulation. Current leaders are being far more discreet, but observers say that they are quietly admiring Canada's resistance.

- The Pentagon apparently keeps a list of journalists whose questions it will not answer. Richard Allee, an official with US Central Command Public Affairs, reportedly threatened a reporter with being added to the list if they keep asking the wrong questions.

- BC premier David Eby is calling on the federal government to shut down US coal shipments through the Roberts Bank port in Delta. According to someone in this Reddit thread, the Americans depend on the port for access to Pacific markets, as Washington, Oregon, and California have blocked the development of infrastructure needed to export coal. If true this would make it an excellent and effectively targetted measure against the coal producing states, which lean Republican.

- BC MLAs Teresa Wat and Brennan Day have left the BC Conservative caucus, becoming the third and fourth MLAs the party has lost in a three day period. Both say that they have lost confidence in party leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay and can no longer serve under her. One observer says that Findlay has gone "out of her way" to alienate those she disagrees with.

- Alberta NDP leader Naheed Nenshi is calling on Danielle Smith to cancel, or at least postpone, a referendum question scheduled for October which asks voters whether they favour starting the legal process to hold a future binding vote on independence. Nenshi argues that Canada needs to show unity in the face of American aggression; Smith, not surprisingly, refuses to consider doing this.

- Former Conservative MP Inky Mark, already facing numerous firearms charges, has been re-arrested and hit with 26 new charges. These include weapons trafficking, three counts of knowingly possessing a prohibited weapon, nine counts of possessing a restricted/prohibited weapon with ammo without a licence or registration, nine counts of possessing a firearm knowing it is unauthorized, possessing a firearm with a tampered serial number, two counts of failing to report a lost firearm, and having more than six kilograms of explosives.

- There's a street in Ottawa named after Donald Trump. The street is in a neighbourhood with several New York-themed street names, but not surprisingly many want it renamed. An attempt to do so in 2021 failed, but the area's councillor believes that it's time to put an end to this "embarrassment".

News roundup, 14 July 2026

- Hungary's parliament has voted to remove the country's president, Tamás Sulyok, from office. The Tisza party under Péter Magyar won a supermajority in April's election, ending the reign of prime minister Viktor Orbán, but a constitutional amendment was required to end the term of Sulvok, widely seen as an Orbán loyalist. Orbán's Fidesz party walked out in protest prior to the vote; notably Orbán himself has refused to take his seat in parliament and was in the US watching a World Cup game during the vote. Besides removing the president, the amendment includes numerous other measures to reverse the damage that Orbán and his party did to the country's political institutions.

- Alberta lawyer (and prominent separatist) Jeffrey Rath has had over $8.5 million in assets frozen by a court following accusations of fraud in his oversight of a trust belonging to Tallcree First Nation.

- Former Conservative MP Inky Mark was arrested last week at and charged with multiple offenses, including firearms trafficking and possession of a weapon with an altered serial number. The arrest followed an investigation into another Dauphin-area resident who was arrested earlier this year following the theft of a handgun at a gun show in Minnesota; Mark had allegedly purchased weapons from the suspect in that theft. The RCMP seized 439 firearms from his home along with various accessories, ammunition, and cash; among the items seized was an antique cannon. 

- Public health authorities in southern Ontario are urging 884 patients who had dental work done at a Brantford clinic between 2021 and 2025 to get tested for HIV and hepatitis. The clinic was shut down last November and the dentist stripped of his right to practice after a whistleblower reported inadequate sterilization of equipment.

- Over 2,000 workers in Manitoba suffered injuries or psychological harm due to workplace violence in 2025, more than triple the figure from ten years previously. Nearly 80% of these cases involved workers in only a handful of jobs, including nurses, bus drivers, daycare workers, and similar occupations. No cause for the increase is given in the article, but I suspect that the pandemic is a big part of the reason.

- Temperatures have been so high in Winnipeg and surrounding areas in the last few days (the mid to high thirties) that roads have buckled due to thermal expansion, sometimes enough to cause damage to vehicles. As hot as it's been here, though, it's not as hot as was in the hamlet of Armstrong, Ontario, north of Thunder Bay, where temperatures hit 40°C on Monday.

- Colombian soccer player Jaminton Campaz appears to be in hiding after missing the net in a crucial game against Switzerland last week, leading to his team's elimination from the World Cup. He did not join his teammates for the flight home, and still has not returned to Colombia due to death threats. No doubt the story of the hapless Andres Escobar, who was shot to death in 1994 after scoring an own goal in that year's World Cup, weighed heavily on his mind.

News roundup, 16 Jan 2026

- Donald Trump is threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act in Minnesota, which would enable him to send regular military into the state to maintain order. This follows widespread protests against the killing of Renee Good and the wounding of another person. Some protesters (and/or agents provocateurs, and/or straight-up nihilists) apparently threw stones at law enforcement, and tear gas and flashbangs were used by police. Meanwhile governor Tim Walz is calling on citizens to film ICE agents operating in their communities, stating that this footage may be useful for future prosecutions. A bold move for sure; Walz had better stay well away from upstairs windows for the next while. And someone in this Reddit thread made this comment:

Firearms for liberals is like abortion for Republicans. We have them too, we just don't talk about it.

 All in all, things could get rather interesting down there.

- Mark Carney has made a major breakthrough on tariffs after meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping. China will drop tariffs on canola and other products, and in return Canada will allow the import of 49,000 electric cars at a tariff rate of 6.1%. It's the right move I think, but a politically dangerous one given the importance of the auto industry.

- Winnipeg Centre MP Leah Gazan has endorsed Avi Lewis for the federal NDP leadership. She is the first sitting member to issue an endorsement for this race; former MP Charlie Angus has endorsed Alberta MP Heather McPherson. 

- A former Winnipegger who now heads the Anhart Community Housing Society, a BC-based housing nonprofit. is interested in redeveloping the site of the destroyed Manwin Hotel. They hope to work with the Main Street Project to build affordable housing on the site. The organization is also interested in redeveloping the site of the Sutherland Hotel which burned last year. A snag has arisen already, however - the cleanup of the Manwin site has been delayed due to concerns about asbestos.

- The Manitoba government will not be participating in the federal government's buyback program for firearms that were banned in legislation passed in 2020. Justice Minister Matt Wiebe has expressed concerns about the cost and effectiveness of the program, especially given that a pilot of the buyback in Cape Breton that was expected to collect some 200 firearms netted only 25.

- A construction crane fell onto a passenger train in Thailand, killing at least 32 people and putting another 64 in hospital, seven of them in serious condition. The accident is under investigation.

- UK Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch has removed MP Robert Jenrick from her shadow cabinet and suspended him from caucus after being presented with what she calls "irrefutable evidence" that he was planning to defect to another party, which other sources identified as the far-right Reform UK.

- As of the new year, all margarine and dairy milk sold in Canada is required to be fortified with vitamin D. This is a good idea, but it will be interesting to see how the antivax/anti-flouridation crowd will react. I suspect they won't like it; anything done by the government that improves people's health goes against their libertarian individualist spirit.

News roundup, 23 April 2024

 - An independent review headed by former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna has concluded that there is no evidence connecting the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNWRA) to terrorism, despite claims to the contrary by the Israelis.

- Apparently Trump is not happy at the small number of protesters outside the courthouse where he is on trial. He's trying to convince anyone who will listen that the poor turnout for the protests is in itself further evidence of a plot against him.

- Among the numerous bad things the Tories did during their time in office, it seems they might have done something good as well, if only by accident. Legislation passed in 2022 that imposes strict restrictions on the purchase of catalytic converters has apparently reduced the theft of converters to near zero.

- A Canadian Pacific train experienced an en-route fire late Sunday night in several boxcars full of old railway ties. The train was brought to a stop in a residential neighbourhood of London, but fortunately the fire was contained and nobody was hurt.

- When a buyback program was announced for firearm types banned following the Portapique mass shooting in Nova Scotia, the plan was for the guns to be shipped via Canada Post. However, the corporation does not want to be involved out of fear that it will bring their staff into conflict with gun enthusiasts.

- The City of Winnipeg's Executive Policy Committee has voted to spend up to $170,000 to develop a program for the removal of garbage from homeless encampments, in cooperation with the Main Street Project, Siloam Mission, and the Downtown Community Safety Partnership. More important, they're trying to make more housing available in cooperation with the province. Some folks aren't satisfied with this, though; they want the city to crack down on those damned poors. Because property values, dammit!