News roundup, 1 Sept 2026

- Three federal byelections were held yesterday, in the ridings of Vancouver-Capilano, Beaches-East York, and Chicoutimi-Le Fjord. All three were won by the Liberals. In the case of Chicoutimi-Le Fjord, the byelection was necessitated when the Conservative incumbent Richard Martel was "kicked upstairs" earlier this year, so this is a net gain for the Liberals.

- Kevin Klein, a former councillor and Tory MLA (and current CEO of the Winnipeg Sun's parent company) has entered the race for mayor of Winnipeg. Hopefully this means there will be a split in the rightwing vote between him and Mike Vogiatzakis (and maybe also Brad Gross) but this remains to be seen.

- Russia has responded to Ukraine's strikes on the warehouses of online retailers by hitting food distribution centres, leaving many grocery store shelves empty. 

- Another tornado has been reported in Manitoba. This one touched down near the community of Elkhorn in the RM of Wallace-Woodworth.

- A pedestrian was killed after walking in front of Waterloo's ION LRT over the weekend. The victim has not been identified and it is unclear if this was an accident or a suicide.

- Montreal's former anti-racism commissioner is suing the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) for defamation after the organization allegedly compared her to Hitler. Bochra Manaï says that the comparison was made in materials published by the organization; she is asking for $125,000 in damages.

- A 68 year old man has been charged with arson following a fire that destroyed a church in St. Simon, New Brunswick. Several social media posts subsequently made false allegations about the suspect, some saying that he was Israeli while others said he was Palestinian.

News roundup, 9 July 2026

- Flooding as a result of recent storms has resulted in the evacuation of the Dauphin Regional Health Centre. The city got 115 millimetres of rain in a two day period, and the hospital's basement was flooded, knocking out power to the facility and causing substantial damage. Patients were sent to other hospitals across the province, the largest share being sent to Brandon. It may be months before full service is restored. Also in Dauphin, a huge commercial greenhouse was flooded, destroying vast amounts of crops. While the Parkland region, which includes Dauphin has gotten the worst of it, more than 50 municipalities across the province have declared local states of emergency due to recent storms.

- The federal government is cutting funding to a weather radar research group, even as the incidence of tornadoes is increasing in this country. More than a little short sighted, I'd have to say.

- Jesse Wheatland is accused of setting numerous fires across Winnipeg, including at the constituency offices of ministers Bernadette Smith and Nahanni Fontaine as well as several downtown businesses and an addictions treatment centre. He was reportedly in possession of a list of potential targets when he was arrested; these included the office of Health Minister Uzoma Asagwara and the CBC. Another list found following searches mentioned a proposed location for a supervised consumption site; he is also accused of having attempted to start a fire there as well. He had previously posted concerns about that site on a community Facebook group; other targets appear to have been former employers.

- The Rural Municipality of East St. Paul is refusing to publicize the names of registered candidates in this fall's municipal election until the deadline to register has passed in September. The policy has been in place since 2022; the practice is anomalous and the province has urged the municipality to be more transparent, but there is no legislation to actually prohibit such secrecy. The motivation for the policy has not been made public; none of the council members would address the matter with the CBC. I suspect it may have something to do with councillors and/or the mayor hoping to get in by acclamation and not wanting it to be known that they're running unopposed until it's too late to do anything about it. Certainly some community activists fear that this could be a consequence of the policy.

- Graham Platner, the winner of the Democratic primary for the Maine Senate seat that's up for grabs this fall, is withdrawing from the race following sexual assault allegations. Platner had been seen as a progressive compared to the establishment candidate Janet Mills who he'd defeated in the primary. The party must now select a new candidate by the 27th of July in order to contest the seat, which is critical in gaining control of the Senate.

- Mark Zuckerberg, whose company just laid off thousands of people to replace them with AI, admits that it isn't working as well as he had hoped. In his words, the "trajectory of the agentic development over at least the last four months hasn’t really accelerated in the way that we expected". Other companies are facing similar issues; Ford has had to rehire many engineers and technicians. The company's VP of vehicle hardware engineering, Charles Poon, is trying to spin this as bad timing, saying that the experienced workers left before they could transfer their knowledge to the AIs. This comes as Ford had more recalls than any other US automaker so far this year. I have to assume all this folly is driven by investors.

News roundup, 8 Aug 2025

- JD Vance had the US Army Corps of Engineers change the outflow of a lake so as to create better kayaking conditions on the river downstream so he could enjoy his vacation.

- Mike Flood, a Republican member of Congress from Nebraska, faced a lot of public outrage at a town hall session over his support of Donald Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill" and fears for what it will mean for programs that people depend on. He's not backing down, however, and he'll probably weather the storm just fine given how willing Republicans are to vote against their own interests as long as it's also against the interests of people they don't like.

- Two senior Winnipeg police officers were arrested on Wednesday on several charges, which included drug trafficking as well as distributing a photo of a dead woman. One of them was already awaiting trial on theft and other charges dating back to November, along with two other officers.

- A man has died after being found with severe injuries at Winnipeg's Millennium Library on Wednesday. Police would provide no information other than saying that the death was "non-suspicious" (the folks on Reddit are naturally drawing their own conclusions about what that means, of course); the library will remain closed until Saturday.

- The RV that Sunshine House used as a mobile safe consumption site was destroyed in a hit and run crash last month. They are in the process of obtaining a decommissioned ambulance as a replacement. This requires them to reapply for the federal exemption that allows them to operate; predictably, Tory leader Obby Khan is calling for the federal government to deny them the exemption.

- Environment and Climate Change Canada is investigating reports of a "likely tornado" near Belleview in the Rural Municipality of Sifton, Manitoba. No reports of damage or injuries so far. More ominously, there were also reports of tornadoes in East St. Paul and Springfield, just outside Winnipeg.

- The New South Wales state parliament voted to expel one of their members, Gareth Ward, following his conviction for several sexual offenses. Ward has been sitting as an independent since getting turfed from the Liberal caucus following his arrest; he attempted to appeal his expulsion in court but lost. Assuming he has no other appeals he will be the first member expelled from the NSW parliament in 66 years.

News roundup, 20 June 2024

- Three Manitoba credit unions (Assiniboine, Westoba, and Caisse Financial Group) have agreed to a merger which will take effect in the new year; the new institution will be called Assiniboine Credit Union / Caisse Assiniboine and will be the province's largest.

- Researchers have confirmed that the storm system that hit western Manitoba last week spawned five tornadoes; fortunately nobody was hurt and damage was minor.

- Manitoba Conservatives have been making themselves scarce since their defeat in the Tuxedo byelection. They now only hold two seats inside Winnipeg (really 1 ½ since the Roblin constituency includes the RM of Headingley). On the other hand, their grip on rural southern Manitoba is stronger now than it was 20 years ago; they now hold constituencies like Interlake-Gimli (formerly an NDP stronghold) and Swan River (formerly a swing constituency).

- At the federal level, a byelection in the Toronto riding of Toronto-St Paul's is a much bigger fight for the Liberals than expected. The Liberals have held the seat for over 30 years, and won by more than 20 points in the last election, but the Conservatives are surging even there. Dissatisfaction among the Jewish community with the government's failure to completely, unquestioningly support Israel is being cited as a reason.

- The federal government has announced a ban on open-net salmon farming in BC; this is a good move but one has to wonder why they waited so long to do it. A smarter move would have been to ban it earlier in their mandate; as things stand, the Conservatives, who are almost certain to take power next year, will likely reinstate open-net farming long before any impact on wild salmon populations can be assessed.

- Some UK Conservatives are being investigated for placing bets on the election date shortly before Rishi Sunak called it.

- A strike has been averted at WestJet after mechanics agreed to return to the bargaining table.

- Russia's scorched-earth approach in eastern Ukraine is being interpreted by some as an attempt to make sure that there's nothing worth continuing to defend in the area.