On Sunday 29 March, my university @brocku.ca will host an open house for prospective students & their families. 👨‍🎓👩‍🎓 brocku.ca/brock-news/2...

Brain drain from US to Canada: "89 doctors, 42 nurse practitioners, 260 nurses and 23 allied health professionals from the U.S. accepted jobs in the province between March 2025 and January 2026" 👨‍⚕️👩‍⚕️ #EpiSky #MedSky www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Happy Pi Day! 🥧🥧

"Quebec whisky sales increased 114% since last year" thanks to ban on US products. 🥃💲 www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Ontario government is defunding 8 safe consumption sites. It is switching to abstinence-based programs instead. 💉💊 www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

"The high price of intercepting Iran’s low-cost drones" By @pippanorman.bsky.social "The war in the Middle East is laying bare how bigger doesn’t necessarily mean better in modern warfare defined by cheap munitions and saturation attacks meant to overwhelm the enemy’s defences" 🪖🚀

Canada will fund 2 more defense-related R&D projects: A Drone Innovation Hub between Ottawa & Montreal will focus on drone and counter-drone technologies. A Biomedical Countermeasures Initiative will focus on diagnostic tools, vaccines & treatments. 🧪💲🪖 www.theglobeandmail.com/business/eco...

"Across the province, more than half of undergraduate courses are now taught by contract faculty - highly trained instructors hired on short-term, often precarious contracts" Full-time students deserve full-time professors. 👨‍🎓👩‍🎓 @ocufa.bsky.social @bufa.bsky.social ocufa.on.ca/ontarios-uni...

Precariously employed contract faculty teach almost 50% of university courses in Ontario with little job security or institutional support. OCUFA is holding a Social Media Day of Action to call for fair, stable working conditions for contract faculty. tinyurl.com/ybanf5yp

Over the past 5 years at my university, the number of senior managers grew about 30% while the number of profs grew 4%. After inflation, managers' average salaries rose 8.2% while profs' rose 1.2%. 💲🎓 @bufa.bsky.social

Tomorrow morning at 07:20 I'll join CKTB St Catharines to discuss the Middle East missile war. 🪖🚀

I wrote an article for @ca.theconversation.com with some thoughts about Iran's unusually widespread missile & drone attacks against nearby countries. 🪖🚀 @brocku.ca theconversation.com/irans-missil...

What is the Strait of Hormuz, and why does its closure matter so much to the global economy?

Seems like a good moment to re-up my primer on the endless empty promises that strategic airpower can win wars entirely from the air: acoup.blog/2022/10/21/c...

Well. He’s a list of actually credible defense people to follow I suppose.

Wineries in Niagara are currently experiencing a surge in sales, leading producers to fast-track the release of white wines made last fall. Homegrown wine sales have increased owing to retail expansion and the removal of U.S. products from liquor stores. www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/260a807...

FWIW @bretdevereaux.bsky.social, here are my online reader stats from @ca.theconversation.com. Between 27 Jun 2017 & 27 Feb 2026, my 61 articles there collectively drew 1.04 million page views. 39% from Canada, 29% from the USA, & 32% from elsewhere. The most-read article has 126,000 views.

Diageo's Crown Royal bottling plant in Amherstburg, ON, shut down 3 days early. 🍹 www.ctvnews.ca/windsor/arti...

A @brocku.ca history course this spring will analyze the letters received by a World War I soldier from his Canadian fiancée, plus the lyrics to a Taylor Swift song. www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSjT...

Product recall for some Cannabis Cartel edibles sold in Ontario. They might contain mold toxins. recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-rec...

"3 ways Canada can navigate an increasingly erratic and belligerent United States" theconversation.com/3-ways-canad...

"Elsevier Shuts Down Its Finance Journal Citation Cartel" #EconSky

Canadian retail sales of licensed recreational cannabis totaled $5.6 billion in 2025, up 4.1% from 2024. Adjusting for declining prices implies product volumes rose 5.7%. 1/2 🥬💲 #EconSky #EpiSky

Health Canada inspectors found that 99% of gas & convenience stores were complying with vape retail rules, but only 57% of specialty vape shops were compliant. 🏪 www.ctvnews.ca/health/artic...

Study on X: "the algorithm increased the share of right-leaning content ... It also significantly demoted the share of posts from traditional news organisations’ accounts while promoting or boosting posts from political activists" 🤖💻 #polisky theconversation.com/a-few-weeks-...

"ONES's products contain only 0.5 per cent alcohol and zero sugar. Since launching in 2022, ONES's wines went from selling in small boutique shops to lining shelves in nearly 600 stores across Canada." 🍷 www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

For the 1st time in 40+ years, the Canadian government looks like it will actually take defense spending seriously. 🪖⚓✈️💲 www.cbc.ca/news/politic...

"Is teasing playful or harmful? It depends on a number of factors" theconversation.com/is-teasing-p...

Under the deal Diageo will give $2M to development agencies, spend $5M on ads, & buy $16M of raw materials in Ontario. 🍸💲 www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

'“The wine side of it is pretty dead, there’s barely anybody buying U.S. wine,” said Ivonne Martinez, president of Alberta Liquor Stores Association. However, demand for U.S. bourbon has surged' www.theglobeandmail.com/business/art...

'Brock plans to reduce staffing by one third across all programs “beginning with administrative assistants, academic co-ordinators and some academic advisors" ... cutting back on those positions will only hurt students' @brocku.ca @bufa.bsky.social www.pelhamtoday.ca/local-news/a...

Ontario universities will be allowed to raise tuition rates up to 2% per year. So, they'll keep falling behind inflation, but more slowly than they have been for the past decade. 💲🏫 www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Newmarket, ON, decides to maintain its ban on licensed cannabis stores. 🏪 www.newmarkettoday.ca/local-news/o...

"Every broken commitment, every tariff threat announced via social media, teaches important economic partners that American trade agreements are not worth the paper they’re printed on. And they are learning fast." 💲 www.cato.org/commentary/t...

"Both countries also experienced a post-war reassessment of their ties to their colonial pasts, evident in the Union Jack occupying the upper left quadrant of each flag. But the efforts to redesign the Canadian and New Zealand flags followed different pathways." theconversation.com/flag-politic...

Product recall on some Lunaire dried cannabis due to arsenic. 🚫 recalls-rappels.canada.ca/en/alert-rec...

For perceived absence of public sector corruption in 2025, Denmark remained the least corrupt country worldwide. USA continued its downward trend, while Canada hovered in between. 🏛️💲 #EconSky

'some workers are being directed toward so-called “restructured” or “new” positions that the university is attempting to reclassify outside the bargaining unit'

Donald's gift is to make people from the world richest and most powerful country feel they got that way cos everyone was taking advantage of them.

We are in production, but we need some help to get over the final hump. You can find out more on our pre-launch page. There will be various rewards for different tiers of support, including custom artwork from Simpsons' animator @annamaltese.bsky.social

"The layoffs come as Ontario’s post-secondary institutions grapple with a prolonged domestic tuition freeze ... Since 2017, OSSTF’s membership at Brock has fallen to 148 from 230" Brock had already lost 36% of its support staff before last week's cuts. www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/news/niagara...

"staff that have been offered new positions are also being required to sign a non-disclosure agreement and given a short timeline to accept" Universities should be banning non-disclosure agreements, rather than demanding them.

Quebec liquor stores will sell-off US products approaching their best-before dates and donate the proceeds to food banks. Apart from that, Quebec's 11-month-old boycott of US alcohol will continue. 🍷🍸 www.ctvnews.ca/montreal/art...

Grade inflation at Ontario high schools: “there’s an incentive for schools to give out high grades so they can report that their students are getting into prestigious programs" 🏫 www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

On 4 Feb, @brocku.ca Dr Michael Ripmeester will give an online talk about the motivations and expectations of wine club members. 🍷 experiencebu.brocku.ca/event/315648

In Canada during 2025, retail prices fell 1.7% for recreational cannabis, rose 5.6% for alcohol, & stayed flat for tobacco. Since legalization in 2018, cannabis prices have fallen 30%, while prices rose 18% for alcohol & 45% for tobacco. 🥬🍺🚬

Canada & other countries have soldiers serving on exchange duties in US military units. That's become a problem. (Paywalled article) FYI @steffanwatkins.bsky.social 🪖

"Danish pension fund AkademikerPension said ‌on Tuesday it would sell off its holding of U.S. Treasuries, worth some $100 million, by the end of this month, blaming ‌weak U.S. government finances." 💲 #EconSky www.reuters.com/business/dan...

"the U.S., through its 2018 CLOUD Act, has claimed the right to exercise control over data collected by U.S. companies, even if it’s stored outside the country" By @bhaggart.bsky.social 🖥️