News roundup, 12 May 2025

- India and Pakistan have agreed to a ceasefire, though tensions still remain high and not all conflict ended immediately. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio claims that the two parties have agreed to talks on "a broad set of issues at a neutral site", but India denies agreeing to this.

- A recount in the Quebec riding of Terrebonne has given the riding to the Liberal candidate by a single vote over the Bloc Quebecois. This leaves the Carney government two seats short of a majority.

- When ICE agents attempted to apprehend a woman and her two children in Worcester, Massachusetts on Friday, around 25 angry residents swarmed the officers and asked to see their identification. The officers refused, and they called the local police for backup. The cops behaved as you'd expect them to. Some video can be seen here.

- Waterloo Region's Ion LRT system has been involved in an average of 15 collisions a year since the service rolled out in 2019. The collisions have not cost the region anything, as all of them were the fault of motorists whose insurance covered it, but it suggests that some motorists have a hard time adapting to the service that was rolled out six years ago.

- A team from the University of Manitoba's faculty of agriculture is working with Opaskwayak Cree Nation to set up a vertical farming operation in the community, which will produce fresh vegetables and herbs year-round.

- At the end of April, the city of Pickering, Ontario was debating a motion to do something about the tariffs imposed by Donald Trump, including redirecting the city's purchasing to non-American sources if possible. One councillor, Lisa Robinson, opposed the motion, saying "No to 'Elbows Up'!" Robinson has a long history of bleating about what a patriot she supposedly is while never knowing a far-right cause she didn't like (to the point of coming under criminal investigation for siccing her potentially violent followers on her colleagues).

News roundup, 16 Aug 2023

- Earlier this month a Toronto man came across a group of people surrounding a man on the ground, and went up to see what was going on. Unfortunately, the people turned out to be plainclothes cops arresting a suspected fentanyl dealer, and one of them shoved him violently, causing him to strike his head on the pavement. For their part, the police are doubling down, charging the victim with somehow "obstructing" the people that he had no reason to believe were peace officers. One might think they'd have a better sense of public relations than to charge the victim, but that only applies if you assume they want to be loved rather than feared; perhaps most cops would prefer the latter.

- Ukraine's military has reportedly captured the town of Sudzha in Russia's Kursk Oblast, the largest centre so far taken in the recent invasion. Russia is downplaying the situation, saying that this is merely "the incursion of terrorist sabotage groups" and that "there is no front line as such".

- IDF soldiers blew up a water facility in southern Gaza last month. Their leadership is claiming that this was a rogue action not sanctioned by them; nonetheless the Canadian government is calling for an investigation (at least so long as said investigation doesn't lead to anything of substance).

- Manitoba is banning the use of cellphones in schools for K-8 students and restricting it to lunch and other breaks for grades 9-12. Some divisions had already introduced restrictions, but limiting such devices province-wide will come as a welcome move to most adults (helicopter parents excepted).

- An investigation into the cyberattack at the University of Winnipeg has confirmed that banking information of people employed at the university as far back as 2015, and other information including social insurance numbers going back to 2003, was taken. Some stolen information goes back as far as 1987.

- A Missouri woman who spent 43 years in prison for murder was released last month after a judge found that "clear and convincing evidence of actual innocence" had been presented. Despite this, the state's Republican attorney general refused to release her until the judge threatened to hold him in contempt of court.

- A restaurant owner in Owen Sound, Ontario was killed last year after following three patrons out of the restaurant after they left without paying. Police now say they made some arrests at the end of July but have released no details about the case so far.

- After the body of a man from Pimicikamak Cree Nation who drowned last month was sent to Winnipeg for an autopsy, remains were sent to a funeral home and sent back in a sealed coffin. Unfortunately, they sent the wrong body.

Toronto police chief apologizes to beaten protester

A couple of days ago police chief Bill Blair savagely criticized the Special Investigations Unit for their ruling on the vicious beating of a chap known, publicly at least, as Adam Nobody. Blair alleged that the video had been tampered with. Now he's backing away from that statement:

Chief Blair said there is no evidence Mr. Nobody was armed at the time of his arrest.

He also said he regretted that his comments in a radio interview created a false impression that the video of Mr. Nobody’s takedown, captured in two segments by bank employee John Bridge, had been doctored in an attempt to mislead.

Source. Well, at least Blair is willing to admit that he was wrong, which is probably more than can be said for a certain previous police chief...

Cops beat journalist at G20: report

It's been reported that a journalist for the Guardian got beaten up by the police, who refused to recognize his media credentials:

Jesse Rosenfeld, a Canadian activist journalist who has written opinion pieces on the G20 for the Guardian newspaper, has been arrested and possibly beaten, his friends and father say.

His girlfriend, Carmelle Wolfson, called Mr. Rosenfeld late Saturday night, only to have him tell her he was in police custody at the Novotel, where dozens of protesters were arrested en masse after a protracted sit-in.

“He said, ‘The cops are telling me that they’re going to arrest me. I’ve told them that I’m a journalist, but they’re not recognizing my press badge and they’re telling me that they’re going to arrest me,'” she said.

“Then he told me to get on the phone with his editor.”

Mr. Rosenfeld, a Canadian activist journalist based in Tel Aviv and Jaffa in Israel, was in Canada for the summer. Ms. Wolfson said he was on assignment from Britain's Guardian to cover the G20. He was also helping to organize the summit’s alternative media co-op, whose coverage has been sympathetic to protests.

Source. Admittedly, the police were a bit on edge following a riot, but that hardly justifies the treatment of Mr. Rosenfeld (witnessed, incidentally, by a TVO reporter).

Some folks don't like getting their pictures taken...

... like cops, for instance:

I snapped another picture. The cops noticed this time. One of them strode directly over to me.

“You can’t take pictures of this,” he said. His tone was aggressive.

I slid my camera back into its case.

“Okay,” I replied.

“Erase it,” he ordered me.

“What?”

“I said ‘Erase it’!” he said, “I work undercover and I don’t want my picture anywhere.”

I really didn’t want to erase my picture. Not unless I had to. Besides, if he’s so concerned about keeping his undercover identity secret, he shouldn’t walk around in a police uniform.

“Do I have to?” I asked.

“I told you, I don’t want my picture anywhere.”

“Is it the law?” I asked.

“I asked you nicely,” he said, but he didn’t say it very nicely. It sounded threatening to me.

“Is it the law?” I repeated.

“I asked you nicely,” he said menacingly as he stared down at me, “Are you refusing?”

I looked at him. Maybe if we were in a dark alley with no witnesses, I would have deleted it. But here? In broad daylight, surrounded by witnesses, with a tiny, bleeding, unconscious, handcuffed woman lying on the street? He was probably in enough trouble already.

“Yes,” I said, “I’m refusing.”

“Real nice,” he said in disgust, “Thanks a lot.”

And he turned around and started to walk back to the knot of officers and the unconscious handcuffed woman.

From here, via skdadl at pogge.