Amnesty International is concerned Canada is backsliding on Indigenous rights under Mark Carney's Liberal government.
New laws passed last year fast-tracking major projects and expanding resource development have threatened Indigenous peoples' right to self-determination.
www.cbc.ca/news/indigen...
(deleted & reposting for title in encyclopedia name -- oops!)
Latest bit of gut stuff writing from me: I wrote this last summer & it's out now in the Springer Encyclopedia of Phenomenology -- "Digestion, as a Theme in Phenomenology." Includes Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche. I've got the preprint up and a link to the Springer site itself. philpapers.org/rec/DRYDAA
Has anyone figured out a way to keep Copilot turned off on Outlook? I keep turning off the little toggle and then sure enough it pops back in the very next time I open Outlook. (If I did not have to use Outlook for work, I would not.)
Liam has reminded me of something I've been meaning to do for a while:
Why "Beauvoir" and not "de Beauvoir"?
A thread 🧵
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.
You might enjoy the novel Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots!
1 The arctic environment is extremely vulnerable: disrupting permafrost & living beings from large to microscopic ends its balance. The people of the north are left out while NATO gets space & no one has responsibilities for emissions, environmental damage. ricochet.media/climate/carn...
Sad news.
My father Stephen Lewis is spectacularly uninterested in social media, so I’m posting this myself (though he has read it and is prepared to suffer the indignity of all I'm about to reveal). When he was Canada’s ambassador to the UN from 1984-88, Dad was truly shocked by the regularity of open, vitriolic antisemitism in the cocktail parties and ambassadorial receptions that surround that crucial but flawed institution. For this reason (among others) he’s always been the one in our family with the deepest atavistic fear of antisemitism. He was sympathetic to the idea of Israel as a refuge longer than the rest of us. This is no longer the case. Like so many Jews who for decades adopted the dominant narratives of Zionism, he can no longer defend the current actions of the state of Israel. He now regards Israel as a rogue state, committing genocide and other crimes against humankind, which ought to be opposed by every tool and tactic in Canada's diplomatic arsenal. To return to the personal, seven years ago my Dad was diagnosed with a vicious cancer and was given as little as 3 months to live. It’s a sublime understatement to say that he’s a fighter - but he has persevered in life with a tenacity familiar from his political, diplomatic and humanitarian pursuits. Which brings us to this morning, when at 87 years old, he spent an hour standing at the side of the road in his old riding of Scarborough West. Standing up as a Jew against genocide. Standing up for justice for Palestine. Standing up on the right side of history, where the vast majority of humanity currently stands. I’ve never been prouder, never more humble before the stubborn principle and insistent moral clarity of the guy I’m so lucky to call Dad. People of Canada: don’t stop talking about Palestine. Starvation as collective punishment can never be forgiven. Burning and burying children alive can never be defended. Stand up against genocide until we make it stop! Thanks Dad.
Pictures of Stephen Lewis at a protest against genocide.
Here a story Avi shared on facebook last year about his father showing up at a protest against Israel's genocide.
Years long into a cancer battle Stephen Lewis still showed up to fight for human rights.
On a daily basis @assignedmedia.org tracks trans news coverage in eight major msm outlets, including right leaning WSJ and CBS, to understand the overall media landscape. Using this tracker as a baseline Assigned further analyzes the work produced by influential sites like The Atlantic. 🧵
Congratulations!! That’s great!
there’s nothing complicated about Hegel right
woo migraine developing but planning to give a departmental talk this afternoon on material that is still pretty drafty and half-baked. wooo!
my plan is to trust the fact that I’ve been working in this area for a couple of decades and hoping that habit and mental auto-pilot steer me through. ugh
Also we made a really intense website with a LOT of information on it for folks, including a reading list, a huge timeline of events, an some additional explainers.
www.tested-podcast.com/learn/
www.tested-podcast.com/timeline/
if you want to know the history of this kind of policy, I made a podcast two years ago that explained why these tests make no sense, how they were already used and eventually abandoned by the IOC in the 80's and 90's, and the devastating impacts they have on real athletes: www.tested-podcast.com
I am also so sorry for saying twice that I am so sorry
being very canadian I suppose
I wish there were childcare-finding gnomes.
the mental labour of juggling all the things is ridiculous and I am so sorry.
blaaaarg, I'm so sorry.
Absolutely horrific.
Canada’s massive border bill, C12, has been adopted after third reading at Senate.
C-12 will become the country's largest machinery of deportation: deporting refugees without hearings, retroactive bars, and mass status cancellation.
A mirror of anti-migrant ICE violence.
Yay!!! welcome and congratulations!
In comments of the quoted thread, @fractalecho.bsky.social says:
"In my book I call this the Disability Diversion where all criticism of techno fascism is deflected with appeals to technosaviorism."
"Disabling Intelligences: Legacies of Eugenics and How We are Wrong about AI"
by Rua M. Williams
Emmy is our resident queen and owns most of the household, demanding near-constant affection and pets.
round black cat sitting on a kitchen chair stares blearily up into the sun.
a cat picture perhaps?
When a country endorses something like US/Israel illegally starting a war with Iran, as Canada just has, they own a piece of it, whatever the outcome ends up being. And the worst part is we have absolutely no control over that outcome. We just signed onto it anyway.
玉險 Office of the Prime Minister Cabinet du Premier Ministre Statement by Prime Minister Carney and Minister Anand on the situation in the Middle East "The Canadian government is closely following Iran-related hostilities throughout the Middle East and urges all Canadians in Iran to shelter in place. Canadians in the wider region should follow local advice and take all necessary precautions. Canada's position remains clear: the Islamic Republic of Iran is the principal source of instability and terror throughout the Middle East, has one of the world's worst human rights records, and must never be allowed to obtain or develop nuclear weapons. Canada and our international partners have consistently called upon the Iranian regime to end its nuclear program, including at the 2025 G7 Leaders' Summit in Kananaskis and with the United Nations' reimposition of sanctions in September. Despite diplomatic efforts, Iran has neither fully dismantled its nuclear program, halted all enrichment activities, nor ended its support for regional terrorist proxy groups. Canada stands with the Iranian people in their long and courageous struggle against Iran's oppressive regime. Canada has listed the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist entity, and has sanctioned 256 Iranian entities and 222 individuals in response to the regime's repression and its violence both against its own people, and persistently, beyond its borders. Canada reaffirms Israel's right to defend itself and to ensure the security of its people. Canada supports the United States acting to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and to prevent its regime from further threatening international peace and security. The Canadian government urges the protection of all civilians in this conflict. We will take all possible measures to protect our nationals and Canadian diplomatic missions throughout the region." February 28, 2026
“Canada supports the United States acting to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and to prevent its regime from further threatening international peace and security.”
Well. For those of us wondering if he’d walk the walk of the Davos speech, this is a pretty big answer.
Nope.
I’m so sorry, Christine. What a fine handsome boy.
2026: we talk up "Canadian Identity" to avoid getting invaded, but we don't understand the icons we use, and can't create new ones, because we've decided culture is a luxury disconnected from economic propulsion, and that luxury itself is a benefit for billionaires, not the public.
"Holt has claimed to reverse course on the STU-UNB merger plans and Mount Allison privatization scheme, but that may be little more than sleight of hand to distract from the real target: a classic neoliberal transfer of wealth from the public sector to the private."
NEW piece on NB Holt debacle.
it's 2016: north carolina introduces a bill to ban trans people from using bathrooms safely. there's a national outcry; companies withdraw business up to and including the NCAA cancelling a publicized game. the bill fails.
it's 2026: kansas passes a law nullifying trans people's licenses. crickets.