“At $73 billion in direct impact on the national GDP, Canada’s cultural industries contribute more than oil and gas extraction at $71 billion.” www.timescolonist.com/opinion/comm...

When you work a federal job that is front line (talking to the public) you understand that people actually expect certain levels of service and they notice when that changes. I’m sure AI will fix that, though.

everyone living around light pollution and clouds right now:

Some thoughts on Remembrance Day buttondown.com/leftcoastdis... #bcHist #cdnHist

spoke with the executive director of my local food bank today and got this really incredible line: "if you donate 1 can of green beans, we can give away 1 can of green beans. but if you donate a dollar, we can give away 6 cans of green beans"

As far as I can tell, the difference between Carney’s housing plan and what Canada did in the Second World War is that the housing that was built was *publicly owned* (at least until the Liberal government later reversed it) thediscourse.ca/cowichan-val...

The Stump Ranchers thediscourse.ca/comox-valley... #EnvHist #BChist #CdnHist #Comox

Way too much press coverage of "AI" is spent debating the hypemerchants' claims of speed & efficiency & scale of impact, & not nearly enough is time spent on 2 very basic questions: Are these systems outputs anything like correct? And, if & when they get things wrong, how much harm will that cause?

I missed the detail that Mark Carney ditched the luxury tax on private jets, yachts, and vehicles over $100,000 in the budget, though I also can’t say I’m surprised. The banker-in-chief is serving his Bay Street buddies.

In a rare case of Substack notes usefulness, I just learned that Sarah Kendzior (author of They Knew and a brilliant writer) got bounced from Bluesky. What the hell? new @sarahkendzior.bsky.social

The Cowichan sweaters are world renown for their beauty and warmth, but that very fabric of authenticity is being tested by Eddie Bauer with a similar sweater for sale on their website.

Excited to see AI's results in the Canadian government!

3/ We got photos of all of them and got to work finding their names. CBC verified our identifications and added two. By bringing in the CBC, we were able to reach a much larger audience to talk about the threat of white nationalism in Canada. Read CBC's reporting here:

Some thoughts on Remembrance Day buttondown.com/leftcoastdis... #bcHist #cdnHist

agreeing to make a terrible deal while your main opponent is quite literally being boo'd on live tv by an entire stadium of people is the kind of political instinct you'd normally only find in a 3 week old dead goldfish

1/ The US Government has quietly removed a memorial to Black soldiers who died in World War II from the Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, South Limburg. The move follows a complaint from the right-wing Heritage Foundation to the American Battle Monuments Commission. ⬇️

This is one of the best explainers on the ongoing saga out of BC. Too few mainstream news articles touch on the connections to the Convoy, or the fact that it’s really the same movement, with ostriches. The farmers are saying this is just starting. it’ll be interesting to see where it goes now.

we keep falling for it bsky.app/profile/t0us...

FIFA’s private Vegas buffet coming soon to Vancouver - courtesy of a small $650 million donation from the BC NDP government!

🚨 From our latest post, which looks at medical doctors affiliated to 🇨🇦 universities who served in the IOF as per @davidemastracci.bsky.social 's findidfsoldiers.net. This pediatric orthopedist + Prof at UBC Medicine went to serve during the genocide. More details: substack.com/home/post/p-...

NEW📍Israeli soldier hosted by Students Supporting Israel - a group at Toronto Metropolitan University - reshared a story on Instagram admitting he was the one who smashed the glass. He cut his own arm & then played victim. Instead of doing any investigating, Canadian media ran with his narrative.

lol why put it this way

Here's hoping both Esquimalt and Victoria push back hard this year. It's bonkers there's zero discussion of reducing the police budget & instead we have to worry about crime reduction measures like bike valet being cut

Hey! Don’t forget, free Palestine

Hey! Don’t forget, free Palestine

I shall say this only once: wearing a poppy ≠ remembrance and it should always be your personal choice whether to wear one or not.

Full article is up. “There is no issue that the Crown has proven the essential elements of the offence of [possession for the purpose of trafficking],” Murray said. “However, this case is not that straightforward.” Read more at @pressprogress.ca pressprogress.ca/founders-of-...

OVER A MILLION USERS DISCUSS SUICIDE WITH CHATGPT EVERY *WEEK* what the fuck are we DOING here

Wondering why no one likes your posts anymore, even among your friends? It's because @jay.bsky.team and team have decided to hide a huge amount of content from all of our feeds by default. Here's how to turn it off. First go to the hamburger menu in the upper left corner

I wrote about the need for a Youth Climate Corps in 2023, & it has only grown greater. Instead of investing in the military industrial complex, policing, and more state oppression, we need a robust climate corps! Young people deserve good work and a dignified future. rabble.ca/columnists/w...

Conservative MP thinking of crossing floor wakes up with severed head of a John A. Macdonald statue in his bed

The Works Progress Administration literally created pots to piss in. The Jasper County Fairgrounds in Rennselaer, Indiana, has a “Roosevelt Privy,” an outhouse built by WPA workers and sold for $5, or about $110 today. Still a cheap bathroom.

I've seen it suggested that city council should approve the dramatic increase in the police budget because the province will step in and overrule them. City council should deny the increase rather than complying in advance. Make provincial politicians take responsibility if they want to.

I don't believe that city councillors are increasing the police budget because the province would only do it anyway. Instead, I believe that city councillors are choosing to increase the police budget, and then saying the province would do it as a way to deflect responsibility and criticism.

BREAKING: The BC Labour Relations Board has ruled that all research assistants at Simon Fraser University are workers and members of the Teaching Support Staff Union (TSSU). TSSU successfully organized research assistants twice over the last six years. www.tssu.ca/grad-student...

Oh! Oh! We know #DefundVicPD and save our community grants and programs! Write #yyj council today using the resources on our website: defundvicpd.org/2026-draft-b...

wtf are we doing here folks!? 🙃 #yyj #yyjpoli

A derelict building at the heart of one of Victoria’s public squares. Local MLA @dianagibson.bsky.social is in charge of the building… Coming up on 11 years of the old court house being closed: buttondown.com/leftcoastdis... #yyj

The first teaser for “Michael,” the long-waited Michael Jackson biopic, is out:

asking people if they need Bofa- bofa deez arms, before going in for the hug

Can't stop thinking about the fact that the government is literally slashing public service jobs while bringing in AI for use in the public service. They are literally doing, as a government, what we scream at tech bros for doing to their employees. Pretty gross!

I signed on to this letter because I refuse to accept the framing of "AI" as inevitable or even urgent. Generative "AI" in particular is slop tech for a fascist era and this rushed "consultation" period is just part of the overall griftosphere that constitutes modern tech. bccla.org/policy-submi...

The Liberals' budget -- it mostly helps upper income people, it mostly helps men, it mostly helps war, oil and gas. Sandy and Nora Talk Politics -- Budget 2025 - Liberal Carnage sandyandnora.com/episode-348-...

I don’t object to cuts to Canada’s international spending per se I object to the capricious, callous and dismissive way it’s being done I get this is feminized, wooly stuff. Not like hard, tangible economics, or hanging out with private equity talking billion dollar deals

In his so-called "austerity" budget, Mark Carney wants to delete the luxury tax on private planes, yachts, and underused homes. Reminder: as of September, 89% of the "owners of Canada" are living paycheque to paycheque. globalnews.ca/news/1151083... #Budget2025 #Canada #CDNPoli #ClimateCrisis

Heckuva show from @ronsexsmith.bsky.social and his band tonight in Sidney. The new album is amazing and the set was great! Check him out on tour: ronsexsmith.com/tours/

Tonight's even more proof the mainstream reporters who are still on Twitter are suffering from a brain problem akin Havana Syndrome that is preventing them from accurately doing their jobs. They are being cooked alive by a snuff-focused apartheid algorithm.

You are absolutely right, there is no vision for this building and it's such an important historical resource.

The purpose of austerity budgets is always to transfer public wealth into private hands. And in a country like Canada that always means a transfer to the same handful of domestic oligarchs and resource extraction multinationals.

1. Despite Pierre Poilievre’s partisan rhetoric, Conservative MPs feel ideologically at home in Mark Carney’s Liberal Party 2. Despite the Liberal Party’s partisan rhetoric, Conservative MPs feel ideologically at home in Mark Carney’s Liberal Party