To mark the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, the Canadian flag at City Hall will be flown at half-mast. Today is an opportunity for Canadians to commemorate the history and ongoing trauma caused by residential schools and honour those lost and the communities who continue to be impacted.

Am I crazy for feeling like it's crazy to suggest nationalizing our resource extraction-based industries? I have to silence the neoliberal in my head.

Signing onto this @climatecaucus.bsky.social Elbows Up for Climate letter was a no-brainer. IN FACT!!!! @civicgovernance.bsky.social has a report out now affirming how net-zero transition infrastructure is an unprecedented economic opportunity, with economic sovereignty as a nice treat on the side.

🧵 My story, "What's Wrong With Rehab?" won Gold for Long-Form at Alberta Magazine Awards last night! Thanks to @albertaviews.bsky.social & all who shared expertise: Brandon Shaw, Esther Tailfeathers, @ehyshka.bsky.social, David Hodgins & recovery workers. 1/ albertaviews.ca/whats-wrong-...

"What does it say about the state of free press in Canada when journalists can’t go to a vigil for their dead colleagues without worrying about whether it’s gonna cost them their jobs in this shitty economy?" Watch the full press conference below 👇 #cdnpoli

@cjjpmedia.bsky.social held a news conference today excoriating the Canadian government and media outlets for their complicity in genocide. That there is virtually no coverage of this news conference is damning.

Online gaming chats have long been a place for influencers to get into the minds of mostly male teens and young men. People focus on Rogan, Tate, and Peterson, but the actual work of right wing indoctrination is often seeded in gamer chats.

I was trying to motivate myself to go for a run this morning. Instead I opened up this app and was confronted with our cursed world (which I still love like the wounded bb bird that it is). A run sounds great now!

I resisted K-pop for over a decade after spending a year in Korea being driven nuts hearing 2NE1 ad nauseam. K-pop today slaps. It’s refined its musical formula in the last ten years, and I’m shocked to see how it’s changed contemporary popular music so quickly.

The Canadian Justice system loses $20 billion year. The Canadian military loses $34 billion a year. Canadian Health Care loses $372 billion a year. Imagine if Carneys liberals talked about services like it does the Post Office.

If you live in Victoria, or even BC, and you're interested in news and politics, and you don't follow Susan Kim's account for all her great council type roundups, you're missing out. #yyj #yvr #bcpoli

UBCM Day 5: the last day! We got back to resolutions at 8 am. We’ve got some repeat themes and after an hour have only made it through 13 resolutions. Next up - address by Gregor Robertson.

Eby repealed a carbon tax that had been working in BC for almost 2 decades in order to make gas a bit cheaper, and handed out $410 million to drivers for basically no reason. And now there's no money for active transport grants. 300 people a year are killed in BC in motor vehicle crashes.

One last question taken from audience. Will libraries see increased funding? The question got the most cheers. thanks to Duncan Cavens from Esquimalt for that question. He’s such a great GVPL Trustee. Eby: we have a hard time with one off funding. Need long term funding.

@zacdevries.bsky.social asks: will you reverse pause in active transportation grant program. Eby: the pause is a reflection of the financial situation in the province. So right now, no, it’s on hold.

“We have doubled education funding since forming government. But the debt from this investment in the community… there’s a discussion if we should be doing that between us and Conservatives.” Discussion in class sizes as point of division between parties.

Trish Mandewo asking about infrastructure gap as a barrier to build housing. What is the province’s plan for this? Eby: notes inflation of project costs, and he has raised this to the feds hoping for a return of more $. Working on finance reform with UBCM to fund infrastructure.

I feel compelled to note that voluntary treatment is far from accessible in BC, no matter where you live

[audience friend whispered to me “nothing on climate change.” I added “or on First Nations relations”… and I see Minister Spencer Chandra-Herbert in the audience!]

[this speech sounds like an American presidential debate where they speak really generally about the E C O N O M Y while hammering how important it is]

Eby raises how he has heard from local governments about the need to examine heritage as it pertains to community growth.

Outgoing UBCM President Trish Mandewo introducing Premier Eby as he waits to go on stage. Room is packed now and lots of Ministers floating around.

Oof. Always cringe to see folks speaking at these conventions talk about the importance of reconciliation while messing up the names of the local First Nations. Eby coming up after this last speaker from a sponsor. I get the pleasure of not naming them hehehe.

OMG the Premier’s address is scheduled to be an hour long. And I’m typing on my phone, not my laptop. And my battery is less than 33%. This is what I get for not plugging my phone in last night after doomscrolling myself to sleep.

Lololol. Councillor Teale Phelps Bondaroff tried to extend the resolutions session by 15 minutes. “The Premier can wait.”

[My intelligent audience neighbour says why are we talking about immigration that way but then being so PRO foreign investment that actually fucks up our domestic economy in the long run. “Immigration bad, foreign investment good?! Bullshit!”]

Minister Gregor Robertson takes the stage at UBCM. Let’s try to capture some of his words here.

Take a stand for life over profit! The Carnival of Resistance will build on the momentum from Saturday's #DrawTheLine march! Fri 10:30 am, Victoria Conference Centre. #yyj #bcpoli

The very large conference room cleared out quickly when Interim One BC Leader Dallas Brodie took the stage at UBCM.

Trish Mandewo, President of UBCM, asks what is a reason for having a deficit? Fin Min says, "There's more than one kind of deficit... the debt that worries me is operational and in growth in administration. That's the debt we're going after in full force... efficiency review, hiring freeze..."

Speaker now connecting the deficit to higher debt servicing costs we're facing for a few years into the future. Apparently debt is quite affordable in BC right now, but there's concerns of debt servicing costs "consuming all the oxygen in the room."

UBCM plenary "Modest Growth & Big Challenges: The Road Ahead for BC's Economy." Minister of Finance Brenda Bailey speaking now. Will try to capture some of what they say over the next hour.

See y'all there? Also, I just adore that there are local organizers putting in the effort so that we can be a part of this global movement today.

A conference on refugee healthcare lost sponsors, and a talk for employees at Canada's public health agency was cancelled, after Palestine advocates were labelled "antisemitic." A look at the campaigns targeting doctors who want to discuss the health crisis in Gaza: pressprogress.ca/campaigns-ta...

Mayor has concluded the section of the public hearing where Council can ask any questions. Public hearing is being recessed until Thursday Oct 2nd at 6:30 PM. She says it’s an organic point to recess the process instead of us trying to finagle a big decision with 40 minutes to go.

The new OCP would provide approx a doubling of 6-storey developable land in Victoria, from 15 to 30%. 4% of that increase is in James Bay.

Staff discussing how the engagement process had 23 different events (open houses, pop-ups, presence at community events, etc), 25 different stakeholder focus groups, ~850 emails into a special email count, and more.

Questions kicked off. Just learned the OCP aspires to have everyone in the city live within 400m of transit!

Third portion of #yyj OCP Public Hearing is going live imminently. 1+ hr of pre-recorded submissions, then questioning the staff, then deliberations and voting…. My money’s on a fourth evening; too much to work through, I think! pub-victoria.escribemeetings.com/VideoStream....

Going through individual items to ratify Item E1aa Transforming City Parking.

Back from lunch but going over permissive tax exemptions, an item from which I had to recuse myself. After that we’ll be discussing Councillor Thompson’s motion on a detox-treatment-recovery system access navigator.

This weekend, people in over 90 countries will take to the streets to #DrawTheLine against injustice, fossil fuels and the billionaires that fund them. Yes, Victoria is one of those dots on the map. #yyj

Thursday Sept 18 COTW kicking off with Dell joining us online. I’m armed with baked goodies I believe the City Manager brought in for us to munch on!

Missed the chance to note the part two of the OCP Public Hearing last night. Part 3 coming up this Thursday night at 6:30 PM. Will listen to recorded public input, ask questions, and hopefully vote on an outcome.

Evening council kicks off. Mayor is getting us going for the requests to address council speakers. We have 11 folks registered to speak. Then IT BEGINS. OCP Public Hearing let’s gooooooo. I won’t be live tweeting. Livestream here: pub-victoria.escribemeetings.com/VideoStream....

"This is what our ruling class has decided will be normal." Aaron Bushnell.

Oh yeah, sorry I'm not covering COTW/Daytime Council today, folks. Other job, important scheduled before I was around to have a say on meeting dates, etc etc. See y'all for the OCP public hearing tonight.

Also, wild that provincial funding for libraries is so lacking in BC! www.cbc.ca/news/canada/... "Public library directors in British Columbia say they are reaching a breaking point with rising demand and costs as provincial funding remains stagnant." @davidebybc.bsky.social

Shoutout to the Greater Victoria Public Library, specifically the librarians in the children's section. We completed 2025 #SummerReadingClub today, my 5 yr old's first & she received a medal! It was so special to her & brought back so many amazing memories of being a 1990s summer reading club kid.

Looking for recommendations from #YVR folks: independent, progressive flower shop that delivers. Profit sharing and/or co-op? Even better!