Canada

Note, this article is from a few weeks ago

“The Canadian government appears to have pursued a strategy of rushing through a record-breaking number of arms export permit approvals to Israel prior to publicly committing to pause approving any new ones,” Arm Embargo Now explained in their report. “This was then quietly undermined by a series of exceptions and loopholes,” researchers wrote, suggesting “the government’s policy shifts were… aimed at diffusing public criticism while maintaining material support.”

With climate change, it's more likely than you think

Some gardeners may be able to grow palms and even cold-hardy citrus in parts of Canada, according to the federal government's latest Plant Hardiness Zones map — the first update since 2014.

[...]

The plant hardiness zones come with accompanying species-specific models, which provide much more in-depth information for specific plants or trees. The models look at how specific plants would do under different climate change scenarios.

If we want to advance our economy, we need to embrace EV adoption. We already invested heavily into EV supply chains.

Buildings are the third-largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in Canada. In many cities, including Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary, buildings are the single highest source of emissions.

The recently launched Infrastructure for Good barometer, released by consulting firm Deloitte, suggests that Canada’s infrastructure investments already top the global list in terms of positive societal, economic and environmental benefits.

In fact, over the past 150 years, Canada has built railways, roads, clean water systems, electrical grids, pipelines and communication networks to connect and serve people across the country.

Now, there’s an opportunity to build on Canada’s impressive tradition by creating a new form of infrastructure: capturing, storing and sharing the massive amounts of heat lost from industry, electricity generation and communities, even in summer.

Just came across this video. I've never heard of him before, but he seems to focus on facts, which I always appreciate. May showed some promising results in the import/export front for Canada. Hopefully the trends continue.

Author: Gabriela Perdomo | Assistant Professor, Mount Royal University

From the newsletter:

A few weeks ago, in an overheated and packed room at the Centre for Social Innovation in Toronto, several journalists took the mic to speak about their work in a powerful new book — When Genocide Wasn’t News — about how Canada’s legacy media has been responding to Israel’s intensive military campaign in Gaza.

The book features contributions from journalists — some writing under pseudonyms — who describe newsrooms gripped by fear and a misguided commitment to a notion of “objectivity” that fails to serve the public.

Today, in The Conversation Canada, an article by journalism professor Gabriela Perdoma of Mount Royal University, points out that while Palestinians in Gaza have endured over 640 days of relentless military assault by Israeli Defense Forces, including attacks on children, hospitals and aid workers, Canadian mainstream media has too often remained silent or misleading in its coverage. She says one of the issues is that “journalists who support peace efforts can easily be accused of being ‘biased’ in favour of those promoting peace.” And such accusations, she says, “can have an outsized impact on reporting and be used to silence journalists.”

Perdoma’s article challenges mainstream news narratives and calls for newsrooms to urgently reflect on how journalism in Canada must evolve, especially in times of war.

President Donald Trump has said that Canada's support for a Palestinian state will make any trade deal between Washington and Ottawa "very hard."

In a post on Truth Social, Trump referred to comments made by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney that Canada was planning to recognize a Palestinian state at the United Nations in September.

Trump wrote: "Wow! Canada has just announced that it is backing statehood for Palestine. That will make it very hard for us to make a Trade Deal with them. Oh' Canada!!!"

Former Paramedic here. CUPE needs to pull all its medics off the job for this. That's what unions should be doing right now. Fuck these Zionists.

Those councillors and council need to be reprimanded as well for openly supporting genocide.

Canadians' electronic health records need more protections to prevent foreign entities from accessing patient data, according to commentary in the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

"Canadian privacy law is badly outdated," said Michael Geist, law professor and Canada Research Chair in internet and e-commerce law at the University of Ottawa and co-author of the commentary. "We're now talking about decades since the last major change."

Geist says electronic medical records systems from clinics and hospitals — containing patients' personal health information — are often controlled by U.S. companies. The data is encrypted and primarily stored on cloud servers in Canada, but because those are owned by American companies, they are subject to American laws.

For example, Geist points out, the U.S. passed the Clarifying Lawful Overseas Use of Data (CLOUD) Act in 2018, which can compel companies to disclose customer information for criminal investigations, even if it's stored outside the United States. The law allows for bilateral agreements with the U.S. and other countries. Canada and the U.S. began negotiations in 2022.

The companies have "Canadian laws that may say they've got to provide appropriate protections for that data," Geist said. "But they may have U.S. law that could compel them to disclose that information."

Canada's laws, Geist says, have not yet found a way to respond to that.

Rachael Gilmore - Canada intends to recognize the state of Palestine. But what does that mean?

• Invidious
• Youtube

Steve Boots - Canada's Plan For Palestinian Statehood

• Invidious
• Youtube

CBC - Cautious optimism, pointed criticism over Canada's decision to recognize Palestinian statehood

"Canada has failed to co-operate in curbing the ongoing flood of fentanyl and other illicit drugs, and it has retaliated against the United States for the president's actions to address this unusual and extraordinary threat," says the statement. 

If I remember correctly most of the fentanyl found was heading north to Canada not south to the US.