“The transport was so good,” said streetcar enthusiast Jay Miller. “I learned from the people I talked to about how very different the city used to be.”

Local entrepreneurs Thomas Ahearn and Warren Soper started the Ottawa Electric Railway Company in 1891, which was later purchased by the city. At its peak, the streetcar lines covered over 90 kilometres.

Not only did Ottawa have a robust streetcar network, but the capital became known for manufacturing them.

“Ottawa built streetcars for Vancouver, the prairie provinces, and some were even built for Toronto,” Dong said. “But now people don’t even know that history.”

Some media outlets are also reporting this as a 1.6% annualized decrease in real GDP (which is the quarterly rate multiplied by 4). While that's technically true, it may seem rather sensationalist since this is the first quarter we've contracted in recent history (since mid 2023) and assumes GDP will continue decreasing by this rate for the next 3 quarters.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/45036971

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is calling on the federal government to amend the Criminal Code so that use of force is presumed reasonable against a person who illegally enters a house and poses a threat to those inside.

"After 10 years of Liberals, the system treats victims like criminals and criminals like victims," Poilievre said during a news conference outside a home in Brampton, Ont.

Under current law, Canadians are not guilty of an offence if they believe on reasonable grounds that force (or the threat of force) is being used against them or another person.

Their act of defence must also be for the purpose of defending or protecting themselves and must be reasonable in the circumstances.

In determining whether the act of defence is "reasonable," courts consider nine factors — including the nature of the threat, the physical capabilities of the parties to the incident, the history of the parties to the incident and whether any party used or threatened weapons.

The Conservative leader said Canadians who are defending their homes "don't have time to think about nine conditions" and it's wrong for the law to apply "a complicated, indecipherable legal doctrine when you were only doing what is right."

Poilievre also said the federal government can implement his "stand on guard" principle or else a Conservative MP will push the idea forward in a private member's bill.

'Your home is your castle'

said "your home is your castle" — a reference to a legal principle called the castle doctrine, which says homeowners have the right to protect themselves from an intruder.

The Conservatives' press release highlighted Cameron Gardiner, a man from Collingwood, Ont., who shot and killed two masked men who zip-tied and held him at gunpoint in a chaotic home invasion in 2019.

The Crown charged Gardiner with manslaughter, but then withdrew the charges in 2021.

"This was yet another case of the Liberals' two-tier justice system: where monsters get sympathy and endless second chances, while Canadians defending their families are treated like criminals," the Conservatives' press release said in reference to Gardiner.

A more recent case in Lindsay, Ont., has sparked widespread reaction and debate over Canada's self-defence laws. Jeremy David McDonald, 44, has been charged with aggravated assault and assault with a weapon after a man allegedly broke into his home wielding a crossbow.

A fight ensued after the break-in. Police said the alleged intruder, Michael Kyle Breen, 41, was so badly injured that he had to be airlifted to a Toronto hospital, located about 100 kilometres away.

Legal experts have clarified that self-defence is legal in Canada, and some have expressed concern about misinformation over the case in Ontario.

The Canadian economy contracted for the first time in nearly two years as the trade war with the US pinched exports and business investment. Canada’s gross domestic product shrank at a 1.6% annualized pace in the second quarter, Statistics Canada reported Friday from Ottawa. That’s the biggest decline since the Covid-19 pandemic and the first contraction in nearly two years.

Web Archive: https://archive.is/Ku8H0#selection-1467.0-1575.306

Lawyers’ Rights Watch Canada (LRWC) is deeply troubled by Canada’s conspicuous silence about unlawful sanctions by the United States (US) against jurists of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the United Nations (UN) Human Rights Council’s Special Procedures. Canada has made no public statements since February 2025 even in the face of the most recent US sanctions on 20 August 2025 which target a Canadian ICC Judge, Kimberly Prost.[1]

The alarming pattern of accelerating sanctions by the US indicates a systematic effort to obstruct the work of the ICC so as to secure impunity for officials of the US, Israel, and other US allies, from accountability for suspected war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide

When Prime Minister Mark Carney met with oil and gas executives in June, he touted “partnerships” to make Canada an “energy superpower,” but disclosure reports show industry leaders had something else in their crosshairs: the federal climate plan.

On that day, and throughout the two months on either side of it, the oil and gas industry lobbied Carney and his ministers not only on economic issues, like U.S. tariffs — but also on several of former prime minister Justin Trudeau’s climate policies in the Emissions Reduction Plan, according to The Narwhal’s review of lobbying activity disclosures.

These include: the clean fuel regulations, passed in 2022, which require oil and gas companies to slash the amount of carbon pollution they generate as a byproduct of producing fuel; the clean electricity regulations, put in place at the end of 2024 to achieve a net-zero power grid; the 2018 rules for methane, the main component of natural gas and a potent heat-trapping compound; and the proposed oil and gas emissions cap, the draft rules for which were released last year.

The provincial government says it’s largely due to a reduction in net income from removing the federal carbon price levy and increased expenses such as wildfire and evacuation costs.

'What we're seeing is an exercise of discretion that's much stricter than ever before': Toronto-based lawyer

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has released new data showing a sharp rise in electronic device searches at border crossings.

From July to August alone, CBP conducted 14,899 electronic device searches, up more than 21 per cent from the previous quarter. CBP also reported a 36 per cent increase compared to all of last year's third quarter. Most of those were basic searches, but 1,075 were "advanced," allowing officers to copy and analyze device contents.

While electronic device searches jumped by 12.6 per cent over the past year, the total number of travellers entering the United States rose by 6.6 per cent. Among the most notable inceases are searches of U.S. citizens' devices, which rose nearly 22 per cent.

Finance Minister Nate Horner says softening oil prices mean this year's projected budget deficit is expected to grow by $1.3 billion, and will now finish at $6.5 billion in the red when the fiscal year ends next spring.

That represents a massive multibillion-dollar swing in Alberta's financial fortunes, as it is coming off an $8.3-billion surplus the year prior.

Horner said oil prices, along with uncertainty created by U.S. trade policy — specifically conflict over tariffs — are hurting the Alberta economy and remain a significant risk.

Against the backdrop of the deadly, devastating inferno engulfing northern Manitoba and escalating belligerence from the U.S., a lively debate is playing out over the future of domestic economies and potential nation-building projects in the province and beyond. Some have argued that the province needs more fossil fuel infrastructure to expand Canadian export markets and profit from remaining oil and gas demand.

But a provincial economic strategy based on increased fossil fuel exports would do nothing to address crises of affordability and resilience, and would instead likely worsen them. The dire realities of the climate crisis and trends in global energy transition have changed dramatically in the last few years, undermining claims that doubling down on the status quo is realistic and practical. Investments in climate solutions like upgrading building energy efficiency and heating offer an alternative to resource extraction and export with potential to create more local jobs while adapting our indoor spaces for a more volatile climate.

Investing now in new fossil fuel infrastructure for growing exports is a risky gamble. The International Energy Agency, far from a radical voice, forecasts that global oil and gas demand will peak by 2030, in large part due to China’s rapid and unprecedented electrification which has accelerated dramatically in the last three years. There are now major concerns about looming oversupply and potential price collapses for both oil and gas, which would undercut marginal high-cost producers first, leading to stranded assets and public bailouts.

The idea that fossil fuel exports could significantly boost the province’s economy is unfounded. Almost all fossil fuel infrastructure requires substantial public subsidies. The Trans Mountain Expansion and LNG Canada typify this, requiring tens of billions of dollars in support with tax breaks, loan guarantees, discounted electricity and much else.

Now Canada has lifted most of the retaliatory tariffs, with Carney explaining that Canada has the “best deal with the United States right now.”

Canadians may choose to follow the direction of their prime minister or they may view this as an opportunity to take more responsibility and continue to use their purchasing choices to influence trade relations.

Prost, a Canadian citizen who was raised in Winnipeg, will have any U.S. assets frozen, and she could have difficulty accessing financial services in Canada.

He said Ottawa should issue a blocking statute under the Foreign Extraterritorial Measures Act, which bars Canadian businesses from enforcing what the Department of Justice refers to as "unacceptable extraterritorial assertions of foreign jurisdiction" and allows lawsuits against those who co-operate with unjust foreign sanctions.

Ottawa's silence tells Canadian officials they won't be defended if they take up politically sensitive work, he said, which erodes morale and Canada’s global standing.

"If we don't do anything about this now, it won't just be the ICC. We will normalize the use of coercive sanctions, not only against our citizens, but against people who have done exactly nothing wrong and who have dedicated their lives to serve others."