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Here's a thing I wrote for @thestar.com:

The price of electricity in Ontario just jumped 29%, but it's hidden in the tax base. #FordNation 's high cost nuclear + gas plan will cost taxpayers an additional $2 B/yr, on top of the $6.5 B the province already pays to reduce the cost of power. #onpoli www.thestar.com/news/ontario...

NEW: Another fiscal update, and it's more bad news for housing starts. The Fall Economic Statement is predicting Ontario will build 82,000 fewer homes from 2024 to 2027 than the 2024 budget had modelled. #OnPoli globalnews.ca/news/1151495...

Staggering atrocities in Sudan. Following the mass slaughter of nearly 500 men, women, and children at a maternity hospital, UN officials say: "The situation is simply horrifying... El Fasher, already the scene of catastrophic levels of human suffering, has descended into an even darker hell."

The Liberals promised to end boil water advisories on First Nations. They didn’t. Auditor General Karen Hogan says the government's record on water was the most disappointing failure she found in her audit. Hear the full discussion on the latest APTN Nation to Nation: youtu.be/xQ9LvNMVf7s?...

From today: The Ford government gave millions of tax dollars through the Skills Development Fund to a company with a PC Party vice-president, and another group run by an unsuccessful PC candidate. #onpoli www.thetrillium.ca/news/politic...

According to the Canadian Centre for Cyber Security, ransomware is now the top cybercrime threat facing Canada’s critical infrastructure. Journalist @kunalchaudhary.bsky.social explores how hackers are exploiting weak links in Canada’s defences: thewalrus.ca/the-cyberattack-...

Wrote about the dire straits of York University, which like many in Ontario is cutting its programming and employee ranks down to the bone. For decades, York has brought higher education to some of the most disadvantaged communities in the GTA -- the loss of this would be incalculable.

Excellent reporting and writing. As a TMU alumna, I always heard from students about York U being the bastion of humanities, art, critical thought and social sciences. So, reading this story was really eye-opening. I knew York U had several issues but I had no idea about the depths of it all.

Water leaked, columns and beams were cracked, staff were getting trapped in malfunctioning elevators. Then came the bankruptcy and the fraud charges. When big public-private projects go wrong. The story of Bondfield and Infrastructure Ontario. www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/c0f8440... gift link

Al Jazeera’s Gaza bureau chief, Wael al-Dahdouh, was told live on air that his wife, son, daughter and grandson had been killed in an Israeli-designated safe zone. He speaks to @imaanirfan.bsky.social.

NEW: Emergency room closures are dropping in Ontario, according to data shared with Global News by the Ministry of Health. Critics, however, say the data should be proactively released and communicated to residents. #OnPoli globalnews.ca/news/1145678...

“Do you know what I find ironic? The mayors I’ve asked: the [speed camera] money you’ve collected, how much have put into road safety? How much have you put into calming traffic? Not ONE DOLLAR has gone into that,” declares Premier Doug Ford. Can only speak about Toronto but this is very wrong.

If the Ford government decides it doesn't like how a university sets its admissions standard, the new Bill 33 would give the province the ability to unilaterally change them. The implications for university autonomy, critics say, are unprecedented. thelocal.to/bill-33-onta...

"Although the homes are configured as compact micro-units, the lack of double-loaded interior corridors allows every suite to be a dual aspect unit — a rarity, unfortunately, for North American apartments — with natural light coming in from two sides."

This piece by @kunalchaudhary.bsky.social is part of The Local's Higher Education Issue (launched today!) and it's the clearest, most damning look at the financial crisis in Ontario colleges and universities I've read yet.

The largest professional organization of scholars studying genocide said Monday that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.

The Ford government touted Therme as a ‘world-class’ partner for Ontario Place. In Europe, ‘significant’ concerns have emerged over finances, records obtained by the Star show. From the front page of today's paper, by Ana Pereira and me: www.thestar.com/news/investi...

Al Jazeera journalist’s parting words is a haunting tribute to the truth and a condemnation of those who ignore it. If not for the efforts of journalists like Anas Al-Sharif, the world would know little of what has been happening in Gaza. #Analysis

WHY THE FUTURE OF TORONTO IS A PILE OF GARBAGE The Green Lane Landfill, where our city’s trash goes, is set to hit maximum capacity in the next 10 years. @kunalchaudhary.bsky.social finds out why it has become virtually impossible to replace it. www.westendphoenix.com/stories/why-...

During the 2017-18 school year, the Toronto District School Board used non-teachers as emergency replacements 4,131 times. In just part of the last school year, the board used replacements a whopping 51,727 times. thelocal.to/tdsb-emergen...

‘I must document everything’: the film about the Palestinian photographer killed by missiles in Gaza

NEW: Sometime in 2021, the Ford government paused its secret study of a tunnel under Highway 401. One of the reasons? An analysis found “potential for roadway collapse” and “risks to public safety.” It is now studying the idea again #OnPoli globalnews.ca/news/1131543...

the trump administration is selling its war on higher education as a strike against the elites who have disadvantaged ordinary americans. in actuality, the administration is destroying advanced education for *everyone* in pursuit of its effort to deskill the american public

What’s at stake if Ontario halts power exports to the US? @kunalchaudhary.bsky.social says we risk punishing the residents of states that voted against Donald Trump, jeopardizing decades of successful and ongoing cross-border infrastructure development. thewalrus.ca/ontario-energy-t...

“”The worst-case scenario of famine is currently playing out in Gaza,” UN-backed food security experts said on Tuesday… According to the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) platform, two out of three famine thresholds for food consumption have been breached across most of Gaza”

"Without these services, preventable deaths will continue to rise...Communities will remain unsafe, and families will continue to suffer." Read her letter to the editor in the Toronto Star: www.thestar.com/opin... 2/2

US contractors say their colleagues are firing live ammunition as Palestinians seek food in #Gaza. The AP has obtained videos of a food-distribution site in Gaza and interviewed two American contractors working there. apnews.com/article/pale...

#cdnpoli #onpoli #ontario #toronto #SaultSteMarie #Ottawa

NEW: Records of hundreds of emergency calls from ICE detention centers obtained by WIRED—including audio recordings—show a system inundated by life-threatening incidents, delayed treatment, and overcrowding. Unpaywalled from @dell.bsky.social and @dmehro.bsky.social:

What is happening in Gaza is an injury to our collective conscience. We must be allowed to speak out. The only resolution is the freeing of the discussion around Gaza. #Opinion

Family doctors won’t just appear in Canada – we have to train and support them. Our approaches to medical education and the structure of family practice have led directly to dire shortages of physicians, by Anthony Sanfilippo www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti... via @theglobeandmail.com

The Toronto waterfront is already home to the largest cormorant colony in North America. As they threaten to spread to the Islands and beyond, Alexandra Kimball goes inside the squawking, puking, toxic-guano-covered war over the world’s most divisive bird. thelocal.to/cormorants-t...

NEW: Ontario's transparency watchdog has released an investigation into record-keeping during the Greenbelt decision. It lambasts the government for using personal emails and code words, actions that 'erode public trust' in government. #onpoli globalnews.ca/news/1123783...

Wrote about the impending expiry of Toronto's main landfill and our lack of a plan for @westendphoenix.bsky.social

#Breaking: RCMP says it’s probing war crimes related to Israel-Hamas conflict

Fucking horrifying and heartbreaking

Refugees in Kenya have died at food distribution centers, officials noted, including a pregnant woman crushed to death during a stampede. Aid workers said they expected more people to get hurt “as vulnerable households become increasingly desperate.”

Great article from @torontotoday.ca about a couple of businesses supportive of #RapidTO such as Toutoune Gallery & The Spruce Wellness Clinic. @anotherglassbox.bsky.social was also quoted saying some anti-RapidTO businesses risk alienating customers. #TTC #TOpoli www.torontotoday.ca/local/transp...

Ontario rejected the City of Toronto’s proposed affordable housing requirements on dozens of specific properties after at least three real estate investment trusts asked them to do so, the Star has learned — with two trusts suggesting the quotas could result in no housing development at all.

Good work by NDP - effective opposition tactics - but it requires Ontarians to care about corruption, which they don't seem to. Example after example of not caring about corruption, even when the New York Times comes to town. Ontario: open for (all kinds of) business.

108 Palestinians killed by Israeli airstrikes yesterday, as half a million face “catastrophic” levels of hunger. www.thestar.com/news/world/m...

Today is the last day for Ontarians to comment on Bill 5, which would wipe out the the Endangered Species Act and give cabinet the power to create “special economic zones” where development can be pushed through without regard for provincial or municipal rules. #onpoli

NEW: Records show that senior State Department officials in both D.C. and Gambia coordinated with Starlink execs to coax, lobby and browbeat Gambian government ministers to help Musk. One official said Gambia is under “maximum pressure” to yield.

Climate crisis? "Ford cancelled 750 renewable energy contracts when his Conservatives formed government in 2018" Now: Ontario electricity produced with highest percentage of greenhouse-gas-emitting power since coal plants were phased out. #ONpoli globalnews.ca/news/1117916...

The Economist says that the Gaza health ministry's death toll, criticized by some as inflated and as Hamas propaganda, might actually undercount the death toll (it could be as much as double).

Shoppers Drug Mart billed Ontario almost $62 million for medication reviews. Former store owner says program is being ‘abused’ www.thestar.com/business/sho... @thestar.com 𝗚𝗲𝘁 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸𝗹𝘆 𝘂𝗽𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗲𝘀: CanadaHealthwatch.ca/newsletter 🍁

The subtitle says it all ... "TDSB’s deficit would be erased if funding had kept up with inflation" #onpoli #onted www.sudbury.com/beyond-local...