1731 posts tagged with canada.
Displaying 1 through 50 of 1731. Subscribe:
Solidarity in aisle 5
If you want to pop into a no-shame-no-blame-if-you-can't-do-it, trounce the rich boycott with heart, enjoy this continuing saga. Background below the fold. The Loblaws boycott was set to take place in May, but continues, and rumour has it that it's had an impact. Alt.grocery is up and running with crowdsourced information. (Reminds me of Vaccine Hunters.) Executives are posting replies to social media complaints on LinkedIn. Some folks are creating posters in satiric support -??? - of Galen Weston grocery overlord. Support for the boycott crosses political lines. And oh yes, there's swag for sale (one example of many.) [more inside]
Leroy and Leroy Uber Alles
Still trying really hard? Trying really hard again?
“You know, this car is becoming a curse to us.”
The story of the 1967 Ferguson Super Sport, the product of a Canadian couple's years of obsessive planning and labour. [Mod Note: if access is denied, try refreshing, opening a second time, or opening in new window]
Alice Munro, 1931-2024
Alice Munro, master of short stories, wove intense tales of human drama from small-town life is the Globe and Mail obituary [archive] for the Canadian literary giant who passed away Monday night. She received the Nobel in literature in 2013 among countless other prizes. She also cofounded Munro’s Books in Victoria, British Columbia, who posted a remembrance on Instagram. The New Yorker, where many of her stories first appeared, has a section with links to her short fiction, as well as personal essays, appraisals and an interview and an obituary [archive]. The 1978 classic Moons of Jupiter was recently featured on their fiction podcast, and it is also available as text.
Is the Ottawa Food Bank really a must-visit vacation destination?
Keep truth human - take this short quiz from the Canadian Journalism Foundation to find out if you recognize AI generated, false news content.
Adorable footage of tiny bear cubs emerging from hibernation
Adorable footage of mother bear and tiny cubs emerging from den after hibernation. It’s spring time in Canada! (Video by Serge Wolf.)
Neither a good shield nor a good shovel: The Hughes Shield Shovel
The MacAdam Shield Shovel, also known as the Hughes Shovel, was designed and patented by Sam Hughes, the Canadian minister for the Department of Militia and Defence in 1913, to be staked in the ground for alternate use as cover. It was thicker and heavier than normal spades but failed to stop even small caliber bullets. It also had a large sight hole in the shovel blade for a rifle to poke through, making it a poor shovel. In 1914, 25,000 shield-shovels were ordered and shipped to Europe for use by the 1st Canadian Division, and then later scrapped. Sam Hughes had a string of failed inventions: "Hughes equated masculinity with toughness, and argued that militia service would toughen up Canadian men who might otherwise go soft living in an urban environment full of labor-saving devices."
The Great AirBnB Crackdown*
Last year, a massive blaze consumed several illegal Airbnb units in Montreal and killed seven people. The tragedy shone a harsh light on the Wild West of Airbnb in Canadian cities—and the battle to regulate it has just begun. (slMacLean's) [more inside]
“Damn, who the hell schedules these things?”
American-born Canadian comedy legend Joe Flaherty has died after a short illness. He was 82 years old. American audiences might know him best as Happy Gilmore’s heckler, or Big Bird’s co-kidnapper, or as Mr. Weir from “Freaks and Geeks.” Canadian viewers and comedy nerds will more likely recognize him from SCTV, or as Jennifer Tilly’s long-suffering dad in the cult classic The Wrong Guy. [more inside]
Low-End of Market Rental Housing Monitor (LEMR)
“About the LEMR Housing Monitor
The Low-End of Market Rental (LEMR) Housing Monitor is a centralized data mapping tool that presents critical information on the location and characteristics of the affordable “low-end” of market rental housing stock in six urban regions across Canada: Calgary, Halifax, Greater Montreal Area, Greater Toronto Area, Metro Vancouver Area, and Winnipeg.” [more inside]
The Low-End of Market Rental (LEMR) Housing Monitor is a centralized data mapping tool that presents critical information on the location and characteristics of the affordable “low-end” of market rental housing stock in six urban regions across Canada: Calgary, Halifax, Greater Montreal Area, Greater Toronto Area, Metro Vancouver Area, and Winnipeg.” [more inside]
Rodeo Clowns of the Sky
The aircraft they are following, the one they have been looking for, is not like the others in the group. She wears a paint scheme any other Liberator would think humiliating—white from chin turret to trailing edge, covered in a pox of bright red and blue polka dots about 18 inches in diameter. Aft of the trailing wing edge, she is army green, but the pox extends down her flanks in garish red and yellow dots. And she has a face... perhaps it was meant to be that of a shark, but it grins like a dim-witted dachshund. It seems to pant in the heat of the turbulent air. The spotted markings make her look like a massive flying bag of Wonderbread. from Polka Dot Warriors – The Assembly Ships of the Mighty Eighth
A Native Solution To Vancouver's Housing Woes
Vancouver, BC has been dealing with a major housing crunch for years due to a number of factors. But the Squamish First Nation has an answer - Sen̓áḵw, a major urban mixed use development on Squamish land in the Vancouver metro area - which means that it can be developed bigger and denser than Vancouver regulations would allow...and without NIMBY interference. (SLMacLean's)
To the Moon (eventually) but with great food!
Victor Glover will be the first African-American to eat maple cream cookies and smoked salmon while traveling to and from the Moon on the Artemis II mission
“They’re noticeably different, except for a few”
Meanwhile, Rybak and Hearn say that prospective buyers regularly call or email asking for guidance in authenticating this or that painting, worried they may have sunk large sums of money on worthless imitations. Some buyers were bilked out of their life savings. For the fraudsters, of course, the scheme was nothing more than a way to make money. But the devastation to honest buyers, to Morrisseau and his legacy, to Indigenous culture, and to Canadian art writ large is incalculable. Morrisseau’s works were not meaningless paintings but precious, irreplaceable examples of the Anishinaabe experience in Canada and the world. from Inside the Biggest Art Fraud in History [Smithsonian]
The right to live, to exist and to flow
This pristine Canadian river has legal personhood, a new approach to conserving nature, is a review of the documentary "I am the Magpie River". [more inside]
Alberta announces new policy on transgender youth
The Art Colony in Charlevoix
Perhaps more than any other town in Canada, Baie-Saint-Paul understands the appeal of its artistic side for tourists interested in hanging out where so many painters have found inspiration. [more inside]
Her first publication? her bat mitzvah speech in the synagogue bulletin
Naomi Klein on the podcast Between the Covers. Part 1 transcript & audio. Part 2 transcript & audio: "We can’t accept the weaponization of traumatic memories, which are real. Nazis boycotted Jewish businesses. That memory is in Jewish DNA and that is going to be weaponized and used to say [Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions advocates] are like the Nazis. At the same time, we have to somehow find a way to recognize that those feelings are real and trauma is complicated. We can’t just scream at people who feel things. We have to find a way to navigate that and hold more complicated spaces that allow for the reality of feelings without conceding the truth of the point." [more inside]
Now do eyes, next
"It's like I won the lottery."
What America can learn from Canada’s new ‘$10 a Day’ child care system [The Hechinger Report] Canada’s launch of a national child care system shows what it takes to improve child care across a country [more inside]
Incomes for the richest 1% increased almost 10% in Canada in 2021
While incomes in the top 1% went up in 2021, incomes in the bottom half of the distribution decreased, according to tax filing data reported by Statistics Canada. [more inside]
Introducing the "pizza pie"
She introduced pizza to Canadian television in 1957. She's still around! The adorable story of a dietitian who filmed a TV pilot about pizza. Come for the nippy cheese, stay for her delightful family.
...boasts a modern-day 1/16-scale likeness of the Great Pyramd of Giza
"It's definitely the most Canadian thing I've done."
This was immensely frustrating and dehumanizing
Air Canada has a bad history with wheelchairs. They break them, lose them, refuse them. This week, the one they left behind belonged to Canada's Chief Accessibility Officer, Stephanie Cadieux.
It's about to become easier to die
The beginning of the long dash indicates the end of an era
After broadcasting it for over 80 years, the CBC has ended its broadcast of NRC Official Time Signal. Canadians have been brought together by the NRC official time signal for generations and now the longest running segment on CBC radio is no more and people are making their tributes. [more inside]
The speaker has acknowledged his mistake and apologized.
Canada’s House speaker Anthony Rota sorry for honoring Nazi veteran [Washington Post] The speaker of Canada’s House of Commons has apologized for celebrating a man who served in a notorious Nazi military unit during World War II. Speaker Anthony Rota introduced 98-year-old Yaroslav Hunka of North Bay, Ontario, to fellow lawmakers on Friday during Ukrainian President Volodymyr’s visit to Parliament. After Zelensky addressed the body, thanking Canada for supporting Ukraine in its war against Russia and urging it to stay committed, Rota pointed out Hunka and described him as a war hero “who fought [for] Ukrainian independence against the Russians, and continues to support the troops today.” But on Sunday, Jewish groups condemned the honor, saying Hunka had been a member of the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division, a Waffen-SS unit composed of ethnic Ukrainians. [more inside]
An Assassination In The True North
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has formally accused the Indian government of involvement in the murder of Canadian Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar this past June. (SLCBC) [more inside]
When come back bring very expensive pie
This pie sold for $15,000 at an Ontario fair auction. Lonie Kady loved pie. And pie auctions. After his death, his business partner paid tribute by bidding high on pie.
🍁 Canadian Independent Media
Yellowknife, NWT, Canada evacuating due to encroaching fire
Yellowknife, the largest settlement, capital, and only city in Canada's Northwest Territories, is being totally evacuated by land and air due to an encroaching fire. [more inside]
A Family Drama Rife With Vendettas and Grudges, Accusations and Rumors
With his combative style and a business model centered on grabbing revenue that would otherwise go to big drugmakers, Sherman had accumulated his share of enemies in the pharma industry. In an interview for Prescription Games, a 2001 book by Jeffrey Robinson, Sherman had said he wondered why a big drug company didn’t “just hire someone to knock me off.” He’d continued: “Perhaps I’m surprised that hasn’t happened.” from Murder, Money and the Battle for a Pharmaceutical Empire [Bloomberg; ungated]
Evo-Devo (Despacito Biology Parody) | A Capella Science
Tim Blais is a Canadian science communicator and edutainer from Hudson, Québec. He reworks hit pop songs into educational and entertaining videos about science on his channel A Capella Science: Evo-Devo (Despacito) is a favourite, The Science of Love (Queen) is masterful, and his latest - Leukocyte (BTS Dynamite) - represents another level of his talent, skill, and dedication.
👍👍👍👍👍
Offer, Emoji, Consideration A Saskatchewan court has ruled that (in certain circumstances) an emoji can constitute a digital signature accepting the terms of contract.
2,200 Vintage Computers Are Being Liberated From a Barn in Massachusetts
Happy 40m!
Statistics Canada has a page where they extrapolate from census data, births, deaths, immigration, etc. and smooth it out to estimate the exact population of the country at any moment.
The country will, by this metric, hit 40 million in the next half hour or so.
It's a webcomic about ice hockey, not waiting tables.
Today is the tenth anniversary of Check, Please!, a completed webcomic by Ngozi Ukazu about Canadian university ice hockey, friendship, anxiety, love and pie. Available in print thanks to a series of wildly successful kickstarter campaigns, it nevertheless remains fully readable online for readers who like joy. [more inside]
Stay inside and reduce your exposure.
What to know about the Canadian wildfires affecting parts of the U.S. [The Washington Post] [Gift article] “Uncontrollable flames are ravaging swaths of Canadian forest in what authorities described as a “devastating” wildfire season that could become the worst the country has ever seen. The United States’ northern neighbor is home to some of the world’s densest forests, and it experiences wildfires every year. But this year, the fires have been particularly widespread, numerous and intense, burning through more than 3.7 million acres in Canada. Canada’s government expects “higher-than-normal fire activity” to continue throughout the wildfire season — which typically lasts between April and September — due to a combination of ongoing drought conditions and hot temperature forecasts. Smoke and haze from the Canadian wildfires has also affected the United States, leading authorities from New York to Minnesota to issue public health alerts and urge people to stay indoors and wear masks to protect themselves from potentially toxic fine particles in the air.” [more inside]
There’s one rule, and it’s the title
The Woman Shaping a Generation of Black Thought
Christina Sharpe is expanding the vocabulary of life in slavery’s long shadow — peeling back the meaning of familiar words and resurrecting neglected history. [NY Times Magazine] What would it mean to understand all of American life as still caught in the wake, still caught in the undertow of the ships that carried the enslaved? Sharpe also put forth the metaphors of the ship (the processes by which Black people are still seen as property), the hold (the ways that captivity and punishment are still central to Black life) and the weather (the ambient anti-Blackness that is as pervasive as climate).
Shoulda done an AskMe
A Farewell to Kings
Content warning: everything hateful thing you can imagine
Canada's first Indigenous Governor-General, Mary Simon, shares some of the comments that lead her to turn off comments on her socials.
The Rideau Canal Skateway in Ottawa will not open this season
This is the first year since records were kept in 1971 that the canal will not be open to skaters [more inside]
Toronto Urban Hike Collection
Urban hikes with transit available at the start and endpoints, and which give a feeling of being out of the city [via mefi projects] [more inside]
The USA repeatedly shoots down [redacted] over the USA and Canada
After the downing of Big Balloon off the eastern seaboard following monitoring and riffing, the USA air force has been busy shooting down an array of [redacted] over several locations. 10th February, off north Alaska. 11th February, over the Yukon territory. 12th February, near Lake Huron. There is much uncertainty. New York Times: U.S. Destroys U.F.O.s. BBC: "'I will let the intel community and the counterintelligence community figure that out,' Gen VanHerck said when asked if it was possible the objects are aliens or extra-terrestrials. 'I haven't ruled out anything at this point.' NPR: "'We did not assess it to be a kinetic military threat to anything on the ground...'"The UK will apparently shoot down [redacted] over its airspace, though hopefully not all.
Today in BC it's no longer a criminal offence to possess some drugs
Possession of small amounts of certain illicit drugs by people aged 18 and over is no longer a criminal offense in BC. [more inside]
Life, liberty, security of the person, and Waterloo homeless encampments
A Canadian judge has denied a request to clear a homeless encampment, ruling that doing so went against the residents' Charter rights to life, liberty and security of the person because of the lack of shelter space in the region. The region has not indicated whether it will appeal. Full text of the ruling [PDF]. Resident of the encampment quoted in the ruling say they prefer it to the shelter system because "we respect each other, we consider each other family and we don’t touch each other’s stuff. I have privacy here and no one steals from me." [more inside]