Canada

No fucking thanks.

This is the third time I'm seeing this type of political smear ad run via Google Ads, specifically through Google News on my phone's "Google Now" screen. The ads are supposedly paid for by Indian companies with nondescript names like "Thiess India Private Limited". The ad usually features an AI-generated image of a left-leaning politician appearing injured or in handcuffs. I've seen doctored images of Jagmeet Singh and Mark Carney so far. This particular ad pointed to a fake website setup to look identical to a CBC News article, with more misinformation. I've reported this to Google, CBC, and The Walrus.

Hundreds of thousands of Highway Traffic Act (HTA) charges that were dropped last year are a sign Ontario’s justice system is failing to live up to its basic functions and puts Ontario on the road to “lawlessness,” said the province’s opposition justice critic.

NDP MPP Kristyn Wong-Tam urged that the provincial government provide more funding of the court system at a news conference outside the Toronto courthouses on Monday, to avoid further impacting road safety.

“Ontario’s justice system is failing its basic promises of fairness, timeliness, and public safety,” Wong-Tam said. “If there are no consequences to offenses, if there are no consequences to crimes committed, we become a land of lawlessness.”

Wong-Tam was responding to numbers uncovered in a CTV News and W5 investigation where more than one in ten HTA charges were dropped before trial.

That number rose from about 57,000 charges withdrawn in 2019 to about 253,000 charges withdrawn in 2024 – around 10 per cent of all charges.

In her news conference, Wong-Tam also added in charges that were dropped at trial for a grand total of 338,000, amounting to 13 per cent of all charges laid under the Act.

Some serious charges were withdrawn at greater rates, including: about 8,924 careless driving charges withdrawn, around 31 per cent of the total; 9,302 driving while suspended charges, or about 32 per cent of the total; and 5,464 stunt driving, nearly 42 per cent of the total.

One of the charges dropped include a driver running a stop sign on Shaw Street in Toronto and colliding with a cyclist. That such incident was caught on video with clear evidence, said Biking Lawyer David Shellnutt.

“The simple slap on the wrist of the Highway Traffic Act ticket and penalty is not even administered. How crushing is that to somebody who remains off work after being injured by someone?,” he said at the news conference.

Another of Shellnutt’s clients, Anna Pratt, said she had been hit while on her bike in 2022.

“I was really badly hurt. I had multiple fractures to my pelvis, in my sacrum, (and) I had a concussion,” Pratt said.

Pratt said she followed the charges laid closely, representing a “sliver of justice that was really important.” But the charges were dropped, she said, without warning.

“I really was beyond disappointed. I was upset. I was angry. And I really felt that I had been completely, completely ignored by the system.”

Trish MacKenzie, the CUPE Local 79 representative for the city’s prosecutors, said part of the problem is a “staffing crisis” in the prosecutors’ offices.

“We’re very concerned about this,” MacKenzie said, adding that there are unnecessary barriers to hiring more people.

“It’s been devastating to the morale of the office. Of course, people feel extremely burdened and overworked and stressed out. There has been difficulty with being able to simply get all the work done.”

An Ontario court judge also pointed the finger at a lack of a file management system to keep track of the volume of cases, saying that was why the system is in “shambles.”

A tale of memory loss and adventure, Sarah Louise Butler's Rufous and Calliope is available now

A tale of memory loss and adventure, Sarah Louise Butler's Rufous and Calliope is available now

By 1998, vaccination rates were already high enough that Canada declared measles eliminated, meaning the virus could still be brought in from abroad but no longer spread within our borders. That happened because a strong majority of people here were immune: when more than 85 percent of people are vaccinated, community-level outbreaks can typically be controlled; if more than 95 percent are vaccinated, few if any measles outbreaks will happen at all.

But over time, vaccination rates began dropping. In 2015, 87 percent of kids in Alberta had received their first dose of the measles vaccine by age two, and 81 percent had received their second dose by age seven; by 2024, those numbers had dropped to 80 and 72 percent respectively—well below the so-called herd immunity rate.

That Alberta’s vaccine uptake reportedly remains among the lowest in Canada is not surprising. The province has become a case study in declining trust in science at the highest levels. Alberta was a hotspot for resistance to vaccines and public health restrictions during the COVID-19 lockdowns of 2020 and 2021. Church services, rodeos, and protests were common here. In July 2021, Health Canada reported that 60 percent of Albertans had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. The province was tied with Saskatchewan for second lowest rate in the country, ahead of only Nunavut’s 53 percent; Newfoundland and Labrador led the pack with 73 percent.

Archived

Canada’s largest private sector union is calling on Ottawa to keep its 100 per cent surtax on electric vehicles imported from China, warning that removing it would threaten auto jobs across the country.

Unifor submitted its position to the federal government’s Section 53 review of the tariff, saying Chinese automakers enjoy unfair advantages through state subsidies, weak labour standards and carbon-intensive production.

“Lifting tariffs on China will make a bad situation far worse, if Canada becomes a dumping ground for cheap, unfairly subsidized imports,” said Unifor national president Lana Payne. “It would be nothing short of a self-inflicted wound at a time when one-third of our members at Detroit Three facilities in Canada are on layoff, with three automobile assembly plants sitting idle.”

The union said lifting the surtax now would risk undoing recent investments in vehicle assembly, battery production and critical minerals. It is asking Ottawa to extend the surtax for at least 24 months, broaden it to include EV and battery components, and reinstate federal EV rebates restricted to Canadian and North American-built vehicles. The union also wants stronger enforcement against goods made with forced labour.

Unifor said Canada should align its approach with the United States and Mexico. The U.S. has combined tariffs of 127.5 per cent on Chinese EVs and plans to restrict connected car technology by 2027, while Mexico raised its EV import tariffs to 50 per cent this year after Chinese vehicles surged to 70 per cent of its market.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/47362136

cross-posted from: https://piefed.social/post/1337448

This week, Canadian airline WestJet became one of the first to try to switch the ability to recline into a paid "perk" by announcing that it was reconfiguring 43 of its Boeing 737-8 MAX and 737-800 (BA) planes to have what it classifies as a "refreshed range of seating options."

Health Canada is touting the major uptake of its public dental insurance program, but data shows that nearly half of the 5.2 million eligible patients have yet to see a dentist.

Of the Canadians approved for coverage, 2.8 million have been to a dental clinic, Health Canada says. And to date, those visits have cost taxpayers $3.37 billion.

The new data comes six months after the Canadian Dental Care Plan expanded significantly to cover 18- to 64-year-olds. So far, 1.8 million people in this newest cohort are approved for the plan. A quarter of them have actually used it so far.

Health Minister Marjorie Michel says having people enrolled is the first step.

"It's still a new program," Michel said Thursday at a news conference at a community centre in Ottawa. "To have people enrolled in the program is key for them to have the opportunity to go."

"It's like, you can go to your doctor, and you don't feel the need to go tomorrow morning, but you still can go to the doctor. It's just the same."

Health Canada also now says close to 100 per cent of active dentists, denturists and independent dental hygienists are treating patients through the program. It's a significant milestone considering initial uptake from dentists was low.

The national insurance program subsidizes the cost of dental care for Canadian residents with a family net income below $90,000 if they don't have access to a private insurance plan.

The program helps pay for a range of dental work, including cleanings, fillings and dentures. Health Canada says that on average, each patient has had $800 in expenses covered per year.

Local hospitals saved $1.66 million after 48 residents moved into Dunn House, says doctor

When Dr. Andrew Boozary and his team at Toronto's University Health Network looked deeper into the issue, they discovered that about 100 patients accounted for more than 4,500 emergency department visits in one year.

A month-long hospital stay costs the public health system more than $60,000, he said, compared to $15,000 a month to keep a person in a provincial jail and about $6,000 to house someone in a shelter.

There had to be a better way, he thought.

Boozary and the hospital network teamed up with Fred Victor, a non-profit housing and social services organization led by a kindred spirit, CEO Keith Hambly.

A four-storey building was erected on a parking lot UHN owned next to its rehabilitation hospital on a quiet residential street in Toronto's west end. It features 51 units where residents sign long-term leases and have access to doctors, nurses, social workers and a whole host of health and social supports.

Residents began moving into Dunn House in the Parkdale neighbourhood a year ago. Now, Miles and 50 other people, many of whom came off the street or from emergency shelters, call the place home.