On the first day of back-to-class the best accessory you can have is a well-fitting, high-quality mask. If we value inclusion and accessible learning, this should be a priority.

The latest wastewater numbers for Ontario show Influenza A levels have spiked dramatically, with Covid levels also high. Not a great sign with the return to school next week. Wearing a good quality mask offers good protection from airborne viruses both for yourself and others. wwater.ca/Ontario

A new report finds that kids who got last year’s COVID-19 vaccine had a much lower risk of COVID-related hospital visits than kids who didn’t. All kids age 6 months & older should be vaccinated to help protect them from serious illness from COVID-19. See the data: www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes...

Three kids dead this month, just in our region. It's never too late to start masking again, get your vaccinations and clean the air. Get a HEPA for your home this holiday season (if you can) and crack a window/run a fan. Wash your hands religiously. All these measures prevent Covid, too!

NEW POST: The parallels between Trump's pardons and Danielle Smith's use of the notwithstanding clause emmettmacfarlane.substack.com/p/the-parall...

🚨 NEW: One of the largest COVID-19 vaccine studies ever (28 MILLION people in France) just dropped. Results? • 74% lower risk of death from severe COVID-19 • 25% lower risk of all-cause mortality • No increase in 4-year mortality #BlueSky #MedSky #IDSky #SciSky #NewsSky #PedsSky #ObSky #NurseSky

Many of you may have heard that trans girls are now banned from Girlguiding in the United Kingdom, their version of the Girl Scouts as we know them in the United States. It is a cruel new low in a country that has treated trans people horrifically in recent years. The latest from S. Baum.

Premier Danielle Smith is a coward, a bully and a hypocrite. Stripping kids of rights and denying them their day in court isn't leadership, it's cowardice. Sure, she's able to suspend their rights. That doesn't mean she should. My latest 👇🏻👇🏻 www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson has proposed disastrous cuts to our city's libraries while setting aside $5M for a ShotSpotter replacement. As library associate Sara Heymann told me, “Libraries embody everything we need to fight back against fascism.” My piece on what’s at stake and how to fight back:

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith plans to use the Charter’s notwithstanding clause to pass not one, not two, but three bills to override the rights of Albertans. Take 2 mins to tell her: our rights are off limits! Alberta: bit.ly/46EVnCM Outside Alberta: bit.ly/48whr55

Tomorrow (Nov 25) is the UN's International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and the start of #16Days of Activism on Gender-Based Violence I'm offering 2 FREE bystander intervention webinars to mark the date: 1 in English et un en français Learn community care with me. Sign up! ⬇️

Trans youth who are hurting in Alberta right now, please know SO many of us see you, care about you, and know you deserve to be protected. We’ve got your back and will do everything we can to keep you safe in the face of attacks from craven, pathetic politicians ❤️

Moments ago, Premier Danielle Smith's government made a terrifying decision and introduced legislation to suspend the charter-protected rights of transgender young people in Alberta. Now is the time to act. Visit www.stop-smith.ca to sign our petition denouncing this draconian erosion of freedom.

My story on this and a whole lot more 💫 xtramagazine.com/power/politi...

An anti-abortion protester has shot someone outside of a South Carolina Planned Parenthood. My source says one person was injured and taken to the hospital—and that the protester was arrested. More soon.

I have been charged in a federal indictment sought by the Department of Justice. This political prosecution is an attack on all of our First Amendment rights. I’m not backing down, and we’re going to win.

In about three years the entire university pivot to AI curricula and schools and programs is going to be so deeply embarrassing. We will all pretend it never happened and I will be standing there, looking at people with a mirror in my eyes. This is all so embarrassing.

Tomorrow! Oct 16 7-8pm ET Fast paced and interactive but cameras/mics are off, so you're never on the spot. You leave with 5 super practical techniques to de-escalate and safely intervene. Not recorded, so don't miss out! Registration: zoom.us/webinar/regi...

This story is somehow not on either CNN's or the NYTimes' main page...

Children & adolescents reinfected with SARS-CoV-2 face a significantly higher risk of …”myocarditis, changes in taste & smell, thrombophlebitis & thromboembolism, heart disease, acute kidney injury,… generalised pain, arrhythmias, abnormal liver enzymes, ...” www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

“Too often when public services are cut, the burden is shifted onto the individual or the community. Cuts to Canada Post will be borne by those least able to carry them and by rural communities that have been all but abandoned.” www.policyalternatives.ca/news-researc...

Seems like a good time to remind people that Canada Post will deliver any piece of mail to federal elected officials for FREE. No stamp necessary! Just a reminder in case you, oh I dunno, wanna send your elected officials a sternly worded letter a day for a year or something.

I am begging Canadians to understand that Canada Post, like public transit, should not be a business - it's a service. Canada Post is a lifeline for rural, remote and Northern communities and overall, we need to re-evaluate why people think they "need" random shit delivered ASAP.

"Tylenol causes autism" is bananas but easy to comprehend from a feminist perspective. They want women* to suffer without pain relief. They want to control pregnant women. But just saw @robinmarty.com point out that it's also to counter the "medication abortion is safer that Tylenol" And oooof.

Let's talk about Tylenol and pregnancy. Fundamentally, this is about making sure women do not get one ounce of relief, but it's also about criminalization. How long do you think it's going to be before they arrest someone for taking Tylenol during a pregnancy? We are going down that road.

Wonderful news. A salutary reminder of the absolute benefits of scientific progress, and the absolute evil of conspiracist bollocks. Huntington's disease successfully treated for first time www.bbc.com/news/article...

A must-read: @msmagazine.com is running an important 4-part series about the rise in anti-abortion violence under the Trump administration. It feels especially timely this week, as conservatives try to paint the left as politically violent in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s murder.

“I question the sanity of anyone who does not believe this is a five-alarm fire. They created a lot of false pretense with Stephen about money,” he says. “They didn’t bother with the pretense this time.”

So pleased that my 8th book (5th edited collection) is finally out! This one brings together a great group of political scientists and legal scholars examining institutional relationships surrounding rights, in Canada and other parliamentary democracies. utppublishing.com/doi/book/10....

For the record. My posts were not even about Kirk directly, but about America's apathy towards political violence, and the coddling of white male shooters and hate peddlers. I was fired because I mentioned race: white men and violence-- that was my "gross misconduct."

Some personal news: I've been fired from the Washington Post in the aftermath of the Charlie Kirk shooting. Thread incoming. substack.com/@karenattiah...

"The book that was missing from the catalogue about HIV/AIDS and the catastrophic health, legal, and political crises in its wake." Risk and Resistance by @azizaahmed.bsky.social (@bulaw.bsky.social‬), Coming Soon #LawSky #PublicHealth 💙📚 #Feminism https://cup.org/3TYlyyt

Anything by Allison is worth reading (with Anna Drake, one of the first to write on deliberative consociation).

I wrote about how Trump's threat to end mail-in voting is just his latest attack on disabled people, some of whom find voting by mail to be much more accessible, at @motherjones.com. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

If you give me 1 hour of your time, I'll give you 5 concrete ways you can safely intervene as a bystander if you witness hate or harassment in public spaces. It's open to anyone, anywhere aged 12+ and cameras/mics muted, so you're never on the spot! Register : zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Sickening. Every journalist in America should think deeply about the fact that most American politicians are willing to accept and indeed facilitate the murder of our colleagues.

The deliberate killing of five Al Jazeera staff has brought the total number of journalists killed by Israel since the start of the war to 237, according to Gaza's Government Media Office. 🔴 LIVE updates:

Bill 5 gives the government sweeping authority to: -Ignore the constitutional duty to consult First Nations. -Override labour protections won through generations of organizing. -Tear up environmental safeguards meant to protect our future. -Shut communities out of decisions that directly impact them

For the rest of my professional life, I will never forget how you all failed Gaza journalists who fought a genocide, an ecocide, the fifth stage of hunger, the murder of their family members and colleagues to tell the truth .

Hidden in the lungs of some breast cancer survivors are tumour cells that can remain dormant for decades — until they one day trigger a relapse go.nature.com/41iIdJR

So.. officially, I'm the last Black staff columnist left in the Washington Post's opinion section.

In light of this week's Hockey Canada trial verdict, it's worth listening to the young woman who was raped by Jacob Hoggard and is still in therapy from the trauma of that trial.

In light of *waves at everything*, @npr.org has re-upped this comic/episode from 2021. If you'd like to learn bystander intervention with me FOR FREE on Zoom, sign up for my mailing list and you'll be the first to know about the next webinar. Email : julie @ righttobe dot org

Doug Ford is paving the way to put cops back in our schools I don't know how many times we have to say this: No. my latest for @breachmedia.ca breachmedia.ca/doug-fords-p...

Free Ontario Nature webinar - Bill 5 Explained: What it Means and What We Can Do Now Wednesday, July 9: 7pm - 8:30pm What the Bill means for Indigenous rights, environmental protections and democratic transparency. #onpoli Registration & details: us06web.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

"An absolute moral failure." Around one in three disabled people are on Medicaid. I spoke to disability advocates about how devastated they are that the House passed the budget bill that will slash close to a trillion from Medicaid at @motherjones.com. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

"Held over four years, The Yoorrook Justice Commission gave Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people the opportunity to formally share their stories and experiences." Grim reading (not to mention where the article ends). www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Imagine that - institutional processes can *encourage* cooperation?! Well, I’ll be.

“Nobody can work under those conditions,” she said. “Kids can’t learn under those conditions. People go home sick, and then you have other illnesses that are exacerbated by the fact that you have this extreme heat.”

I’ve said it before and I will say it again: Ontario needs to have AC in schools to deal with the increasing frequency and severity of climate-fuelled heat waves. This is a health and safety issue as well as an education issue. #onpoli www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...