Canada

This is ridiculous. How can we, as Canadians, let this happen? Let a whole nation starve to death like this?

Let's all flood our MP's phone lines and let them know that what is happening is immoral, and definitely is a Genocide, and that we must pressure the Israeli government to cease fire and let the humanitarian aid through, or face severe sanctions.

Just a five minute call you guys. If we all do it, it might actually have a real impact. And tell your family members, your relatives and your friends to do it too. Share the message!

Let's try to save the Gazans from starving to death.

It’s been two decades since the government of Canada passed the Civil Marriage Act — an official nod to approve same-sex marriage in the country.

The act passed July 20, 2005, following the Supreme Court of Canada upholding the Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 2003.

Not too many news outlets carrying this story. I can't say I'd heard of Simcoe.com before - but good on them for covering it. Given the surging rise in bigotry around the globe these days, Canada becoming the 4th country in the world to legalize same-sex marriage 20 years ago yesterday is something I'm proud of

The driver didn't wait, I waited for them. Four cents is twice the cost of my brand loyalty.

I hope this starts a trend. If these greed-driven whoring corporations want to glom onto every penny they can, fuck 'em. I'm out.

As first reported by CBC Hamilton in 2023, and according to subsequent LSO investigations, Bruyn has a pattern of promising to help clients successfully navigate Canada's complicated refugee process, but then failed to complete their applications, show up for hearings or submit evidence, and in some cases lied about it.

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In two other cases, clients paid her a total of $10,500 in fees without completing any work and Bruyn never provided refunds, LSO lawyer Kristin Bailey said at the hearing.

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Bruyn didn't submit any evidence on behalf of her client, even after the Refugee Protection Division gave her an extension, said the LSO. As a result, the woman's refugee claim was denied. Bruyn told her she'd file an appeal, but never did.

The woman was almost deported back to Mexico, but a new lawyer, retained through a local refugee organization, intervened and helped her get a temporary resident permit, said Ushirode's affidavit. She's currently applying for more permanent status.

What's she doing now? Surely she isn't in a position to harm others:

She told the panel she isn't opposing her licence being suspended. She's no longer practising law and was appointed as an adjudicator to Ontario's Landlord and Tenant Board last year, but is on a leave of absence.

Multiple contractors allege they haven’t been paid for millions of dollars worth of work

If you lived in a neighbourhood where people were dying from poisoned drugs, and over 2,000 were homeless, what would you say the solution is? At the Carnegie Housing Project we asked residents at various Downtown Eastside groups like the Aboriginal Front Door Society, Carnegie Community Centre, Our Streets and the Western Aboriginal Harm Reduction Society.

They said things like: housing people can afford, places to be, safer drugs, more garbage cans on the streets, jobs and job training, more greenery, more washrooms, access to detox and treatment — not a wait-list — and keeping essential service organizations funded. Aboriginal Front Door’s funding has not been renewed and is set to expire in September, bringing an end to this well-loved Downtown Eastside service that stores belongings for hundreds of homeless people, as well as providing food, rest, cultural programs, advocacy and dozens of emergency shelter beds.

No one said the Downtown Eastside, or DTES, needs 32-storey market-rental housing towers with only a tiny percentage affordable to low-income residents. But that’s what the city is about to propose in a report to council this fall.

When it comes to Canada's often tense debate around gun laws, most Canadians likely will not have heard of an RCMP database called the Firearms Reference Table, or FRT.

The FRT is a database used by the RCMP to help classify firearms. That classification determines whether a gun is non-restricted, restricted or prohibited.

Technically, the FRT isn't a legal instrument, but instead just an internal RCMP tool based on definitions set out in the Criminal Code and Firearms Act. But in practice?

"It's both the law and not the law," said A.J. Somerset, the author of Arms: The Culture and Credo of the Gun.

Clutching a teddy bear and trembling through her story in the witness box, a female former Afghan interpreter who worked for Canada in Afghanistan detailed the harrowing sexual abuse she allegedly suffered at the hands of a Canadian government employee.

For four days this week, the woman, whose identity is protected by a publication ban, recounted to an Ottawa courtroom how the alleged abuse started when she was 17, shortly after moving to Canada in October 2011, and went on until 2013.

"He called me his sex toy, a whore and a bitch," the woman said of her alleged attacker, whose family she was living with during some of the alleged abuse.

Isolated, thousands of miles away from her family in Kandahar, she said she couldn't draw on support from her mother, father, siblings or friends. Coming from an honour culture, she said, meant that if word of the alleged abuse reached her father there would be dire consequences.

With the emergence of drug-resistant nits, lice removal has become a booming business, catering to harried, itchy parents willing to pay for relief.

Archived

Op-ed by Marcus Kolga, founder of DisinfoWatch and a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute.

Almost every night since May, Russian missiles and drones – powered by Iranian designs and packed with Chinese components – have torn through Ukrainian schools, hospitals and homes, killing or maiming thousands in a ruthless campaign of terror. Those drones are now reaching further into Ukraine, striking apartment buildings in Lviv over the weekend.

In June alone, 5,429 Russian drones and ballistic missiles struck Ukrainian targets. According to the UN, they have caused more than 3,000 civilian casualties since the start of the war, with 232 civilians killed in June. Analysts warn that Russia could soon develop the capacity to launch up to 1,000 drones in a single night against Ukrainian civilian targets.

Russia’s weapon of choice in its war of terror is the Iranian-designed Shahed drone – now mass-produced in Russia and rebranded as the “Geran.” Day after day, waves of these drones hover over Ukrainian cities, with their operators safe inside Russia, actively targeting civilian infrastructure and hunting civilians.

[...]

What is less known, but deeply disturbing, is the extent to which China is supplying components and technology to enable Russia’s growing ability to build these drones. The collaboration of Chinese companies and the Chinese regime in building these weapons makes them directly complicit in facilitating and enabling the war crimes being committed against the Ukrainian people.

The evidence of Chinese involvement is clear. Ukrainian security services have identified Chinese-origin components in Russian drones recovered after attacks on Kyiv. A recent Bloomberg investigation revealed a direct partnership between Russian firm Aero-HIT and Chinese suppliers and engineers to help Russia mass-produce drones. A growing list of Chinese companies have been exposed for supplying critical components: engines, carbon fibre airframes, electronics, navigation systems and antennas – all essential parts integrated into drones now rolling off Russian assembly lines.

[...]

While Canada was among the first to sanction Iranian drone manufacturers in 2022, Ottawa added just 20 Chinese entities to our sanctions list last February, far fewer than our allies and nowhere near sufficient given the growing scale of China’s support for Russia’s drone program.

Even here in Canada, there is disturbing evidence of complicity. In June, the RCMP charged Anton Trofimov – a Russian national living in Canada – for allegedly exporting restricted technologies to Russia via Hong Kong for the purpose of manufacturing weapons, underscoring how Canada itself has been exploited as a platform for Russian sanctions evasion.

[...]

Canada should designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism under the State Immunity Act – an action that would allow victims to pursue civil cases in Canadian courts, including against Chinese entities that enable Russia’s war.

The need to act is dire and undeniable: thousands of lives are at stake. As innocent Ukrainian civilians endure relentless nightly bombardments from Russian drones powered by Chinese-made components, we cannot afford to hesitate. Disrupting the supply lines that fuel Russia’s campaign of terror and holding the Chinese private and government entities enabling this deadly collaboration to account will help save innocent Ukrainian lives.