Thread detailing Mark Carney’s war on libraries, knowledge, and culture throughout so many parts of society. His deep cuts to the public service are not in line with the vision he presents of a bold and more independent Canada.

this is not only an "over there" problem. ppl who make harming children & targeting minorities an explicit part of their politics have no place in public life and should be nowhere near the levers of power. but to actually keep them out, others need to step up with a compelling alternative vision.

My book Courtroom Science and Trans Youth is out TODAY, just in time for Trans Day of Visibility! It’s about how courts treat science and scientific expertise in family law cases involving trans children, and how we need to do better and stop medicalizing and gatekeeping them.

Canada rejected her permanent residence application. Her job duties were made up — by Immigration’s AI reviewer. New from @nicholaskeung.bsky.social:

Not just any provincial minister of health, but the Deputy Premier Uzoma Asagwara, the first Black *or* non-binary member of the Manitoba Legislative Assembly www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

obscene. as alan richter says in the article: the officers would have known through that encounter that she was a lawyer. impossible not to see the confluence of anti-black racism, misogyny, & unchecked police violence so familiar to the criminal system, now turned against one of its members.

another troubling question the incident raises is the protection of defendants' rights to, or exercised with the assistance of, counsel. if their lawyers' physical safety is at risk (& they risk criminal charges) for working, how can defendants be expected to believe the system is fair?

in addition to what de melo notes here that defence lawyers may stay late because JUDGES ask us to--if you're in court daily, you start to recognise the faces of the other ppl who work there. are we supposed to believe the officers who (allegedly) assaulted her didn't know who riley was?

Here's a story from Canada's National Observer about our press freedom case against the RCMP, which is underway right now in B.C.'s Supreme Court. www.nationalobserver.com/2026/01/12/a...

"Attorneys get their clients off on technicalities!" If my client is walking on a "technicality," it's because either the state, their bank, or their landlord BROKE THE LAW and therefore should not win.

i am SO STOKED for this paper to be out in the world. got to read an early draft. bold and unflinching examination of a particularly dangerous mismatch of law and evidence that has real-world consequences. crim law practioners, judges, and academics, take a read when it's out!

I know people are closely following what's going on the US and the horrors of ICE, but do you know how Canada is quickly and quietly is growing its deportation machinery? Canada plans to increase deportations by 25 percent over the next two years. 25 PERCENT!!! Here are 5 other things to know:

sisi thibert. alloura wells. julie berman. and this year: sam norquist. elisa rae shupe. eden knight. brianna ghey. nex benedict. every one of them deserve life. as places like ab & nz willingly join the ranks of anti-trans state hostility, remember the lawmakers chose to add to these lists.

This Trans Day of Remembrance taking a short break from mourning the dead to think about how much of a miracle it is that I survived all of this shit and how us supporting each other and fundamentally changing the social relations of our society are the only ways we Moreover, ICE must be destroyed

can all make it through this together. Don't let them isolate you and pick you off one by one, rage against the dying of the light and start a fucking bonfire to keep that shit going, stay with us and we'll watch the sun rise together over the world we built Moreover, ICE must be destroyed

this is a great idea imo. participants in criminal legal systems with decision-making power should understand the human consequences of their decisions. i'd argue this extends to the lawyers, too - prosecutors & defense. make it part of their/our CPD.

Well, shit. I wrote something about this team we've been watching #bluejays www.humandchuck.com/baseball/202...

Wasn’t able to watch WS live but apparently the Jonas Bros did some of a song at some point? I cannot express this urgently enough: NO. Baseball is not meant to be associated with entertainment. The beauty of baseball is its uninterrupted agony. The outside world must be barred from the stadiums.

I wanna posit this really big and awkward question: What does "Canadian digital sovereignty" mean for Indigenous Peoples here when Canada is not only giving up its pretences for "Reconciliation", but also increasingly hostile to Indigenous Peoples who oppose Canada as a resource extraction colony?

You want a nuanced analysis of "digital sovereignty?" Ask Indigenous people who have been thinking about this long before settlers have who take the notion of "sovereignty" for granted. That's why Canadians are flailing about panicking now. They didn't barely considered this a "thing" until Trump

I've yet to see a single discussion of "Canadian digital sovereignty" include any Indigenous experts, at best we're given a token mention that at some point they'll "consult with Indigenous Peoples" like we're some sort of monolith. Umm, y'all need to consider all our lands, and our distinctiveness.

It's as if there's some sort of weird cognitive algorithm in the minds of settlers that Indigenous Peoples = backwards and savage therefore anything tech related doesn't apply to them. Ummmm, you do realize all this "Canadian digital sovereignty" stuff requires unfettered access to Indigenous land.

What is it about tech that gets a pass when it comes to respecting Indigenous rights? Why is it that the Internet itself depends on trespassing through Indigenous territories yet it's framed as something that we're given access to through some sort of charity? Why are we never even considered?

the number of times I've seen Canadians give land acknowledgements at tech conferences and then immediately launch into discussions about "Canadian digital sovereignty" that completely excludes any concept of Indigenous rights or even us as Peoples at all. It's absurd, I can't wrap my head around it

I am once again asking Canadian journalists to ask the most basic-ass question of "on whose land will these be built?" How is it that every other major industry must consider Indigenous rights but with tech it's like "meh". www.cbc.ca/news/busines...

The Toronto Blue Jays are AL East champions. For the first time since 2015, the division belongs to Toronto. You never know where a season will take you.

another canadian govt obsessed with attacking children's rights and trans ppl. minors, trans or otherwise, need protection from the ab govt & the kinds of adults who are so obsessed with hurting children in a fruitless attempt to end trans existence. every other govt in cda needs to step up, now.

WHY is he being eulogised in the CDN Parl anyways? they care about political violence but only when it's the guy who advocated for the eradication of trans people, the subjugation of women, the brutalisation & inherent inferiority of immigrants & ppl of colour, & the Great Replacement Theory?!

why i do criminal defense: governments like to lock people up. my job is to make that harder.

"“I have ordered a complete siege on the Gaza Strip. There will be no electricity, no food, no fuel, everything is closed,” said then-Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Oct. 9, 2023, two days after the Hamas attack on Israel that launched the war." From Emily Tamkin, The Forward.

from the start to now, (when the perpetrators themselves aren't boasting about it), every stage of this genocide has been documented by its victims for the global public to witness, for its perpetrators and accomplices to see.

I really feel like people don’t know what prolonged starvation means because there is a point that even when a body receives food it cannot digest it. This means that it doesn’t matter if aid is dropped from the sky, many, many Palestinians need actual medical support to eat.

This is absolutely an important and positive precedent but this case is not about a claim for asylum/refugee status. It's also not a final determination; a Pre-Removal Risk Assessment is a sort of Hail Mary move to stop an imminent deportation while an application to stay in Canada is considered.

i'm saying this as a canadian trans law person to the trans people seeing this: the outcome of this decision is NOT ABOUT ASYLUM CLAIMS. a pre removal risk assessment is a final check "can we kick this person out" step for the person facing deportation. if the person says there's risk, immigration

Andrea Gibson has died.

important to celebrate the victories however small. for now, kids in alberta are protected from the dangerous (and creepy) state intrusion into their medical care

he's right and he's right to say it

belated but former SCC Justice Gérard La Forest passed away on 19 June, age 99. easily the single most influential voice in cdn extradition law & jurisprudence, his big hits included Schmidt (excluding the application of legal rights beyond s 7) and the majority in Cotroni -

for the last 100yrs, civilians make up half or more of casualties in all major wars. with the attacks over the past few days, esp after decades of global economic sanctions & diplomatic isolationism, the us and israel are barreling towards a situation where we WILL see those stats play out again.

Has anyone written about the intersection between Bill C-2 and Bill C-5? They are directly related but I haven't really seen anyone analyze that. Bill C-2 creates extra surveillance powers to further criminalize Indigenous people (and allies) resisting the "national interest" projects C-5 enables.

particularly troubling that levana transitioned & made this request in connection with a FEDERAL pen, but it's the PROVINCE changing the rules. like the govt saw an opportunity to jump on the anti-trans social movt (esp as against transfemmes and trans women) and took it. the bigotry is the point

1. Today, SCOTUS allowed for bans on trans care in a devastating, though limited, ruling in Skrmetti. It ruled discrimination against gender dysphoria is not trans discrimination, and used the same rationale used by VA to defend its interracial marriage ban. Subscribe to support my journalism.

The NYT was cited in the Supreme Court ruling used to strip trans people of healthcare. This is EXACTLY WHY the “just asking questions” crowd of centrist edgelord journalists are dangerous. They launder transphobia through faux neutral “debate” and act like it’s intellectual curiosity

One thing I am seeing misreported in the media today about the Skrmetti ruling is a claim that the supreme court ruled this is "about age, not transgender status." SCOTUS also ruled this is about "diagnosis, not transgender status" Bans targeting adults are likely legal under this ruling.

fuck Supreme Court released Skrmetti Roberts opinion, liberals dissent the awful outcome--blessing anti-trans discrimination--isnt in and of itself surprising, but it's a bit stunning the way they're pretending the Equal Protection Clause isn't even *relevant* www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...

Premier Ford is deeply misinformed on the applicable law here, including the Treaty-based law, and his remarks below are just unconscionably rude and racist.

Stop using "felon" as a pejorative. I have known A LOT of people charged with or convicted of felonies who were good and decent people. When you have 4% of the world's population and 22% of the world's prisoners in a racialized police state, "felon" isn't predictive of anything, character-wise.

My heart goes out to all affected in Vancouver, especially the Filipino community celebrating their Indigenous resistance. VPD needs to release details. “Thirty-year-old lone man” evokes a clear image anyway if you’ve been alive this century. (Yes, the fallout is political & the act was terrorism.)