If ya can't hangout, drop off a toy! Hell Bent Rockers and “Special Guests” 4th Annual X-mas Show and Toy Drive for CityKidZ @ Stonewalls steelcitymusic.ca/events/hell-... #HamOntEvents #hamont #hamontmusic #supportlivemusic #canada

Join me next week at Rockcliffe Park to talk #RunLikeAGirl ––about leading, learning, pushing for change & more! 📍Rockcliffe Park Community Hall 🗓️ Dec. 9 at 8 p.m. Thanks Sarah Anson-Cartwright for this thoughtful article on my book. Learn more 👉 tinyurl.com/CathMcKenna-...

Listen to this, #HamOnt: Broken author Michelle Stark interviewed on CBC Radio: www.cbc.ca/listen/live-...

Congrats to Michelle Stark (@thestarktruth.bsky.social), author of non-fiction book Broken: How far would you go for a dog that you love? It was shortlisted for this year's Hamilton Literary Awards. Published by Fire Ant Press, Broken is at local bookstores & Hamilton Public Library. Read it #HamOnt

Congrats to Michelle Stark (@thestarktruth.bsky.social), author of non-fiction book Broken: How far would you go for a dog that you love? It was longlisted for this year's Hamilton Literary Awards. Published by Fire Ant Press, Broken is at local bookstores & Hamilton Public Library. Read it! #HamOnt

A local Hamilton man has been ordered by the city to take down his security cameras that he has on the outside of his house, despite his claim that his footage has been useful in crime investigations.

Local theatre: "Never the 51st State" by Ray Rivers #HamOnt

My garden is open for tours during Hamilton’s Garden Journeys Open Days. AUG 16 & 17 | 9-4 DM for my address Stop by and shoot the breeze about native plants and insects and birds. More life. More plants. ✊ #gardenjourneysopendays2025 #gardenjourneys25 #hamont #dundasont #ontarionativeplants

Fire Ant Press author Michelle Stark ("Broken") will be at this year's #Supercrawl in #Hamont

Thursday, August 14, 7pm, right beside Beasley Park at 55 Elgin St. in Hamilton. The event of the summer.

Fort Elgin Presents: Drones Over Dufferin/Jamie Shea & The Gentle Reminders/Brandon Agnew Thurs Aug 14, 2025 #hamont #hamontmusic tinyurl.com/zpdpzasu

I was at the Waterdown Library this week and got such a thrill seeing Broken prominently featured. My publisher, Mark Coakely at Fire Ant Press shares my deep love for public libraries and encouraged me to make Broken available. Libraries matter. They always have. @markcoakley.bsky.social

Authors in the Park, 1-5pm Aug. 24, Victoria Park, #HamOnt

#hamont www.flamboroughtoday.com/columns/flam...

Elections aren’t a cost. They’re an investment. An investment in trust. An investment in turnout. An investment in democracy itself. #HamOnt

I’ll be back at Council when this comes up for a vote again. Every election expert I’ve spoken to—including Dr. Essex, just yesterday—has made it clear: this form of online voting is not secure. Vote-by-mail is accessible, auditable, and safe.

Tomorrow, City Council votes on adopting online voting—via a sole-sourced contract. This move will cut polling stations, eliminate jobs, and make it harder to vote the way you always have. Speak up before they take that option away. #HamOnt

Hamilton City Council will vote next Thursday on a staff recommendation to add online voting for the 2026 municipal election. Anon-competitive sole-source $850,000 contract. Note: vote is at Audit Finance and Administration Committee not GIC. #yhmcc #HamOnt

This is deeply concerning. I encourage everyone to talk to their friends and neighbours to help make sure this doesn't move forward.

Will this by-election be reliable and public - or will council put it under the control of a private, for-profit online voting company that stores voter data on servers controlled by a US company (AWS) owned by a Trump supporter? Will the results be trusted? #HamOnt www.thespec.com/news/council...

We need public consultation before risky online voting is imposed on #HamOnt @mayorandreahorwath.bsky.social @ward1wilson.bsky.social @ward2hamilton.bsky.social @marktadeson.bsky.social @tammyhwang.bsky.social ‪@nrindernann.bsky.social‬ ‪@cllrbradclark.bsky.social‬ ‪@craigcassar.bsky.social‬

Neuvote ran #Hamont Ward 4 byelection e-vote. Its CEO called security concerns "very valid" at public meeting. Neuvote keeps voter data on AWS, a US company owned by a Trump ally. "Canadian data on a cloud owned by a US company could be accessed by US govt." www.theglobeandmail.com/business/art...

No online voting in Ward 8 byelection! "There are practical arguments in favour of the system used for federal elections. Paper ballots cannot be hacked. A hand-count allows for maximum transparency. A paper ballot gives physical form to democracy." www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/edit... #HamOnt

Globe & Mail is against online voting: "There are practical arguments in favour of the system used for federal elections. Paper ballots cannot be hacked. A hand-count allows for maximum transparency. A paper ballot gives physical form to democracy." www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/edit... #HamOnt

"A senior [Canadian] intelligence official told a news conference ... that cyber threats pose a growing risk to democratic processes ... [with tactics that include] hacking election systems." www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic... Don't trust online voting, #Hamont

Globe article says AI-based foreign election interference is likely in 2025, but notes that risk of some harms is low because "Canada’s general elections are conducted by paper ballot" ... Online voting is at high risk from AI-based foreign threats www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/art... #HamOnt

"As long as Canadian data is on a cloud infrastructure owned by a US company, they aren’t safe ... data could be accessed by US govt without notification” Online voting firms (eg Neuvote, used in Ward 4 byelection) store voter data on US-owned A.W.S. #HamOnt www.theglobeandmail.com/business/art...

Globe & Mail reports that Microsoft is close to making a quantum computer that can crack encryption, including the encryption used by online voting companies www.theglobeandmail.com/business/art... Then, the content of every vote in every online election ever held will be publicly revealed #HamOnt

A great article about why #hamont should not trust online voting: www.theglobeandmail.com/business/art...

Aaron Shull of Centre for Intl Governance Innovation in today's Globe: "There's a higher degree of foreign interference in elections. Municipalities have the lowest level of cybersecurity. The main game is municipalities." globe2go.pressreader.com/article/2822... Don't trust online voting #HamOnt

Professor Holly Garnett of Queen's U. says in today's Globe & Mail: The best protection for integrity of elections is a "paper-based system with physical ballot boxes ... impossible for a foreign actor to mess with that." Don't trust online voting globe2go.pressreader.com/article/2822... #HamOnt

Federal Chief Electoral Officer Stéphane Perrault rejects online voting, saying in 2025: "Voters are better served by a system in which ballots are on paper, even though it may be less convenient, because Canadians trust the outcome more." #HamOnt #yhmcc www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/art...

Not all cities embrace online voting. The City of Toronto isn’t giving voters the option, citing security and accessibility concerns ... Guelph decided not to use online voting ... “There are risks," said Guelph's city clerk. "Council considered those" #HamOnt www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...

Say no to online voting, Western expert urges municipalities “If municipalities use online voting, they are exposing themselves to cyber, legal and reputational risks” said Aleksander Essex, a Western computer professor and privacy expert Say no. Don't trust it #Hamont lfpress.com/news/local-n...

Should #HamOnt follow Moscow's lead on online voting? On the one hand, all independent cybersecurity experts say that online voting is insecure and a threat to democracy. On the other hand, Vladimir Putin thinks its great ... www.themoscowtimes.com/2024/07/04/m...

“If I can bank online, why can’t I vote online?” Banks reimburse people whose money is stolen online. (Over $500m lost to online bank scams in Canada last year.) If a hacker deletes or alters a ballot, the action can neither be traced nor corrected. #HamOnt verifiedvoting.org/statement-on...

"Remote electronic voting ... has been analyzed and found insecure by virtually all cybersecurity experts for the past 20 years" -- Why Internet Voting is a Threat to Our Democracy, Barbara Simons, Verified Voting Board Chair, 2023 #HamOnt verifiedvoting.org/why-internet... Don't trust online voting

CBC News: "An online voting system could be hacked and ballots altered" Aleksander Essex, cybersecurity professor at Western, says, "There needs to be some form of evidence that supports the election results and in many cases we're not seeing [that]" Don't trust it #HamOnt www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Canada's Communications Security Establishment released a report that states that nation-states and cybercriminals are targeting Canadian elections, including municipal ones. The report concludes that federal elections are safe due to being conducted on paper. #HamOnt web.archive.org/web/20170621...

Ontario's Chief Electoral Officer: "If Internet voting is not trusted, voters may not accept the legitimacy of the elected members to govern... We do not have a viable method of network voting that protects the integrity of the electoral process" web.archive.org/web/20161130... #HamOnt #onlinevoting

Ontario has one of the largest concentrations of online voters globally but its use is not governed by any federal or provincial cybersecurity standard. Municipalities make decisions in isolation, relying on private for‐profit vendors. -- Prof. Essex, Western U whisperlab.org/ontario-onli... #HamOnt

"50% of the online voters in the 2018 [municipal] election were uniquely re‐identifiable by their login credentials ... We question whether the democratic and legal principles of the Municipal Elections Act are being adequately protected" Prof. Essex, Western U whisperlab.org/ontario-onli... #HamOnt

Online voting doesn't "meet the principles of the Municipal Elections Act ... [It does] not provide transparency of the vote tabulation ... Transparent, observable vote counting is a basic democratic principle." - Aleksander Essex, Western University professor #HamOnt whisperlab.org/ontario-onli...

The CEO of Neuvote, a for-profit company controlling the Ward 4 by-election, said at public meeting that concerns re online voting are "very, very valid" and online voting is "the wild west." All independent cybersecurity experts say online voting is insecure #HamOnt www.thespec.com/news/hamilto...