Canada

The Ontario government is considering bringing forward legislation that could prohibit the installation of bike lanes when lanes for motor vehicles are removed as a result, sources say.

Siemiatycki said "this government has signalled that the car is king," pointing to prior steps the governing Progressive Conservatives (PCs) have taken to ease costs for drivers.

He sees the PCs as making a clear play for the votes of motorists, and believes the policy would also appeal to many drivers frustrated with congestion on the roads.

A lesbian couple in Halifax, Canada was assaulted by a group of men who were shouting homophobic slurs at them.

Emma MacLean and her girlfriend, Tori, were walking down the street celebrating one of their birthdays when a group of men made a rude comment at MacLean, CTV News reports.

“A group of men walking in the other direction and they made a comment to me,” said Emma MacLean. “My girlfriend, Tori, said, ‘Hey that’s my girlfriend.’”

This response led to the men making explicitly homophobic remarks at the two, taunting them both.

“They continued walking and then Tori followed them to basically verbally be like, ‘That is not okay,’” MacLean said.

That’s when the men started attacking Tori.

“I see Tori being pushed on the stairs right in front of the BMO Centre and they are cement stairs and she’s on her back, that’s when all the men started punching and kicking her,” she continued.

MacLean said that she yelled for them to stop before she got involved in the fight to protect her girlfriend.

“The fight or flight came in. Basically jumped on one of their backs and put them in a chokehold, trying to restrain them.”

A bystander alerted police shortly after the fight ended. They spoke with one of the men involved in the incident, and he told them that it was the two women who had initiated the fight. The rest of the men refused to cooperate and give IDs, however.

There are currently no charges as police are investigating the situation.

Both MacLean and Tori suffered injuries. Tori had bruises covering her body, while MacLean had a chipped tooth, a broken nose, and many bruises as well.

MacLean said, “I felt punches and kicks and then I felt it on my nose and there was blood. I just thought this needs to stop now. I went to emerge the night of and they basically said it was too swollen for surgery.”

“I’m terrified to go downtown again in Halifax. I just feel like it’s so out of your control on what could happen. It’s overwhelming. I didn’t expect something like this to happen, especially with it happening during Pride Month as well.”

I didn't see it posted so I thought I should.

I'm Indigenous, full blooded Ojibway/Cree from northern Ontario. Both my parents survived the residential school system in the 50s and I attended the last vestiges of Christianized schooling when I was growing up. We saw a lot of discrimination against us in my family and we were always made to feel less than every other Canadian we ever knew.

Even with all that ..... my dad always enjoyed celebrating this holiday because he just thought it was fun and a good time to celebrate with family and friends. Maybe he just didn't know but whenever this time of year comes around, all I can think of is how much he enjoyed just having a bit of fun today in the middle of summer.

In my own experience, I've travelled the world to 34 countries so I got see and compare how our country compares to the rest of the world. With all its shortcomings and blemishes .... this is still a great country and a prime example of decent democracy. It isn't perfect and it is very problematic and unequal in many ways ... but its on the top of the pile of mostly or more democratic places on the planet. I may be wrong on that but that is just my opinion.

So with all that said .... to all my Native, non-Native, nation born, immigrant, brown, white, black, and every shade in between ....

Happy Canada Day to all of you.

Greg Fertuck was the type of man who solved his problems through "intimidation, threats and violence."

Evidence at his murder trial showed he had to have his way — or else.

"When [his wife Sheree] would not comply by his own admission he went to his truck, got his rifle, shot her in the shoulder, then coldly shot her in the head. He killed her in cold blood," wrote Justice Richard Danyliuk in his trial decision.

Danyliuk found Greg guilty of first-degree murder on June 14, 2024, after a lengthy and complicated trial at Saskatoon's Court of King's Bench.

Greg was also found guilty of indecently interfering with Sheree's remains because he hid her body in a secluded area near some poplar trees after the murder. Her remains have never been found.

"It's no secret that Saskatchewan has the highest rate of police-reported intimate partner violence among the provinces in Canada," Dusel said. "Saskatchewan also has the highest per capita rate of intimate partner homicides."

I’ve been at this university for the past three years and I’ve been pretty limited in my engagement with other disciplines. I tend to speak to the same people who take the same classes as me. This is one of the first times that I feel myself engaging with the academic community here. I’ve witnessed people put their studies to use: engineering students have stopped our canopies from leaking when it rains, urban planning students organized the setup of our tents, and philosophy and humanities students created a beautiful library space and held reading circles. It feels as if we have taken our classes and put them into practice.

Being at the Circle is one of the only times on campus I have felt a Palestinian presence. This university has a habit of alienating Palestinians, especially in the last eight months. There is an active genocide going on and academic departments refuse to acknowledge it. I have watched my professors get more and more uncomfortable when people bring up Palestine. They act as if senior administrators will pop in at any time and fire them on the spot.

The Circle is the only place on campus where I feel we can talk about Palestine for what it is and what it can be.

A secretive committee within the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General has given “politically-motivated” backing to the Toronto police’s targeting of pro-Palestine activism, a Breach investigation can reveal.

The committee has attempted to impose more severe criminal charges against individuals involved in peaceful protests since Oct. 7, or thwart the dropping of charges, multiple lawyers told The Breach.

Known as the Hate Crime Working Group and formed in 2019, it is composed of nearly two dozen Crown prosecutors, some of whose public comments show pro-Israel and anti-Palestinian bias.

The committee’s chair has said she is “committed” to the state of Israel, while another member described a pro-Palestinian activist as a “terrorist” and collaborated with a group of lawyers that aggressively defend Israel’s assault on Gaza, which has killed 38,000 Palestinians.

A man in St. John's rents office space, but he doesn't have an office job.

He's an electrician, driving from gig to gig all day. The office is where he sleeps at night, secretly, because he couldn't afford to rent an apartment anywhere in the city. For two months during the frigid Newfoundland and Labrador winter, he lived in his truck. Then, in February, he found an office listed for $450 per month.

"I'm 100 per cent doing this clandestinely," the 37-year-old told CBC News. "I basically have given up on finding anything else."

The average asking price for rent in Canada hit an all-time high of $2,202 per month in May, according to a June report from listing website Rentals.ca.

A consumer group is urgently calling on the federal government to follow other jurisdictions in the U.S and Europe and bring in legislation to stem the slide toward a cashless society.

Only 10 per cent of transactions in Canada today are done using cash, according to Carlos Castiblanco, an economist with the group Option Consommateurs.

"There is a need to protect cash right now before more merchants start refusing [it]," Castiblanco recently told CBC Radio's Ontario Today.

It's critical to act now, he added, before retailers begin removing all the infrastructure required to store and maintain physical money.

Some police services in Canada are using facial recognition technology to help solve crimes, while other police forces say human rights and privacy concerns are holding them back from employing the powerful digital tools.

It's this uneven application of the technology — and the loose rules governing its use — that has legal and AI experts calling on the federal government to set national standards.

"Until there's a better handle on the risks involved with the use of this technology, there ought to be a moratorium or a range of prohibitions on how and where it can be used," says Kristen Thomasen, law professor at the University of British Columbia.

As well, the patchwork of regulations on emerging biometric technologies has created situations in which some citizens' privacy rights are more protected than others.

Despite more than $239-million in provincial and federal funding committed to help rebuild, so far only five homes in the village that was home to around 250 people are close to completion, and about 15 building permits have been approved.

Only a handful of people have returned to the village after a catastrophic fire reduced Lytton, B.C., to ash on June 30, 2024.

According to the press secretary for the Minster of Indigenous Services Patty Hajdu, more than $120 million of that money went to Lytton First Nation to support recovery, plus an additional $1.3 million to fast-track 20 homes and help construct more than 175 homes using the Housing Accelerator Fund.

B.C. Auditor General Michael Pickup is investigating how provincial recovery money — more than $41 million — was spent and why the rebuild is taking so long. That report is due Sept. 1.

Archived link

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service and RCMP are telling private investigators that authorities in Canada and allied countries have observed multiple examples of their profession being hired to gather personal and “pattern of life” information about opponents of foreign regimes, to locate “purported” fugitives and dissidents, to conduct surveillance on or to harass targets. [...]

“Diaspora communities with roots in authoritarian countries are particularly vulnerable,” they say. [...]

Customers approaching private investigators may lie about the reasons for hiring them, alleging the target has committed financial fraud or marital infidelity, CSIS and the RCMP warn in their alert.

“The ultimate aim of the hostile state actor may be to harass, threaten or unlawfully repatriate persons living legally in Canada,” the alert said.

Jolene Johnson, who runs Vancouver-based West Point Investigations Corp., said a CSIS officer approached her on June 17 to discuss concerns that China has been hiring private investigators to track down alleged fugitives who are often critics of Beijing. [...]

Michelle Tessier, former deputy director of operations at CSIS, said China, Iran, Russia and India are increasingly adept at using sophisticated means to hide their involvement while tracking down opponents of their regimes.

Often, Ms. Tessier said private investigators are not even aware that they are being used by a hostile state because they may be hired through law firms or third parties. [...]

The RCMP have been conducting an investigation into facilities in Canada that were used as illegal police stations by China to intimidate or harass people of Chinese origin.

The stations are believed to be among at least 100 operating around the globe in 53 countries, including Canada, Britain and the U.S., according to Spain-based NGO Safeguard Defenders, which monitors human-rights abuses in China.

In a report last year, the non-profit said the illegal police stations are part of efforts by China’s regime to “harass, threaten, intimidate and force targets to return to China for persecution.”

In an update to members obtained by The Canadian Press, the union negotiating committee cited the Charter of Rights and Freedoms’ protection of collective action.

It also said the industrial relations board had not expressly barred strikes and lockouts while the tribunal undertook arbitration following Labour Minister Seamus O’Regan’s directive.

“Because the referral by the minister was silent on the issue, AMFA members’ constitutional right to strike must prevail,” the union committee claimed.

The article highlights a growing crisis where more older adults in Canada, particularly in Toronto, are experiencing homelessness and relying on shelters. Doctors and shelter workers report a significant rise in seniors seeking shelter due to housing affordability challenges and health crises. The existing shelter system is struggling to meet the complex needs of aging individuals, leading to calls for better collaboration between health, housing, and community services. The issue underscores a broader housing crisis impacting vulnerable older populations, urging for targeted support and policy interventions.

Might be kind of stringy.

It said Wednesday the airline asked the government to quash its strike notice without notifying its negotiators.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/24028242

"Assisted dying is the focal point for this case. But the case has implications beyond that," said Jocelyn Downie, a professor emeritus in the faculty of law and medicine at the University of Dalhousie, who has spent years researching health delivery at religious-run health networks across Canada.

"Canadians need to recognize that they can be denied care much beyond assisted dying," Downie said.

"There's all kinds of care that they could be denied because governments are allowing faith-based institutions that are publicly funded… to deny care based on their religious beliefs and values."

Missaghi and Samira Yousefi were shot and killed at Missaghi's Toronto office last week by a man named Alan Kats, who then killed himself. Kats's widow, Alisa Pogorelovsky, said her husband "could not handle losing our life savings, and that is what led to this tragic event."

Earlier this year, the couple sued Missaghi, Yousefi and others after losing $1.28 million in an alleged mortgage fraud.

CBC Toronto reviewed hundreds of pages of court records and found two dozen lawsuits against Missaghi and others claiming more than $90 million over 20 years, as well as police reports, criminal fraud charges and that two of Missaghi's lawyers had lost their licences. Despite all this, Missaghi was never convicted, sanctioned or found liable of any of his alleged serial frauds before his death.

Peter Smiley, a Toronto civil lawyer who started working on cases against Missaghi in 2018, said last week's tragedy "was the almost-inevitable result of decades of institutional inaction."