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As the postal workers’ strike stretched to four weeks, one argument against them has resounded loudly: that the post office is a quaint relic of a bygone era. Past its due due, no longer worth defending, it would be better supplanted by the digital giants or privatized entirely.

At least this is what the corporate class, right wing politicians, and the establishment media want you to think.

While the postal service is indeed threatened by a digital crisis, its purpose has in fact barely been realized.

Few people stop to think that there are actually twice as many post offices as Tim Hortons, making it a retail network unlike any other in the country. Working with this understanding, eight years ago the postal workers put forward Delivering Community Power, a comprehensive plan to transform Canada Post into a vibrant 21st century public service.

Though this plan has recently barely gotten any media coverage, it had enormous appeal: they proposed converting their fleet of cars to electric vehicles and setting up electric charging stations at post offices, introducing check-ins for seniors living at home and farm-to-table food delivery, and offering public banking services that could help low-income communities and bankroll renewable energy projects. (By way of disclosure, I helped launch this campaign, in my pre-Breach life.)

The plan’s environmental potential freaked out conservative pundits, one of whom was inspired to invoke a notorious anti-government quip. “Ronald Reagan often said the nine most terrifying words in the English language were ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.’ Not even Reagan could have imagined,” William Watson wrote in the Financial Post, “that people would one day be saying ‘We’re from the post office and we’re going to save the climate.’”

As 2024 draws to a close, there are many good reasons for liberation-minded people to feel concern about the state of the world. But there are also many victories to celebrate—victories that were achieved by ordinary people joining together to fight for a better future.

With right-wing forces celebrating their recent electoral triumph in the United States and holding a solid lead in the polls with a federal election due in Canada in 2025, the world can feel even more grim than usual.

In moments like this, though, it is more important than ever that we remember that when we organize, we sometimes win.

Continuing an annual Breach tradition, here are 15 movement victories in 2024 to take heart from as we look ahead to the new year.

This was a nice read, after a bleak year and amid a mainstream news culture that increasingly vilifies grassroots organizations that hold power to account

Far more than c/mildlyinfuriating

Alberta NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi is about to make headlines again.

After languishing for the past six months in the role of Opposition leader without a legislative seat, Nenshi appears poised to run in a yet-to-be called byelection in Edmonton-Strathcona.

Yes, that’s the seat held by former NDP leader Rachel Notley who announced this morning she’d resign her seat Dec. 30.

No, as I write this Nenshi has not confirmed he will run to succeed Notley. But it’s just a matter of time.

Nenshi has coyly been suggesting for months he’d be interested in running in Edmonton-Strathcona, one of the safest NDP seats in Alberta. But he didn’t want to be seen trying to push out Notley who has been serving as his key senior advisor.

By running in Notley’s old seat, Nenshi would be filling a vacancy that was bound to come up sooner or later and he wouldn’t need to ask an MLA in Calgary or Edmonton to step down to trigger a byelection.

He’d also be countering the narrative that as a former Calgary mayor he is a stranger to Edmonton.

The UCP government is already welcoming it with open arms — and celebrating it as the biggest investment in Alberta’s history. “Excited to see this incredible project led by Kevin O’Leary coming to Wonder Valley, located in the Municipal District of Greenview,” Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said on social media. “With Alberta’s low taxes, free market, abundant natural gas and skilled labour force, we’re positioned to be a world leader in AI data centres.”

First things first: this “incredible project” is, for now, just a website and a letter of intent signed between O’Leary Ventures and a small rural municipality. So far, it seems far more like an attempt to shake incentives and subsidies out of local governments and capitalize on the global investment community’s fascination with AI right now than anything real or tangible.

But at full capacity, it would require 7.5 gigawatts of power, which is almost 40 per cent of what the entire Alberta grid can currently provide — and that’s with increasingly frequent brownouts and some of the highest electricity prices in Canada.

Where, exactly, would all these additional electrons come from? Not wind and solar, which the provincial government has spent the last two years actively undermining with its new regulations — ones whose standards around land use and reclamation, curiously enough, don’t apply to oil and gas operations. Instead, they’d come mostly from additional gas-fired facilities, which just happens to suit the UCP government’s pro-fossil fuel agenda perfectly.

On Thursday, Environment and Climate Change Minister Steven Guilbeault announced Canada will aim to cut 45 to 50 per cent of emissions from 2005 levels by 2035. The new target is late — it was required to be set by Dec. 1 under the Canadian Net-Zero Emissions Accountability Act — and is expected to be formally submitted to the United Nations as Canada’s official commitment early next year.

The 2035 target is the smallest possible increase, given Canada’s current target is a 40 to 45 per cent reduction by 2030. Practically, that means if Canada were to meet its 2030 targets, it would have to do little else to hit its 2035 objective.

Right now, our political class is succumbing to pressure from oil- and gas-backed disinformation campaigns and some of the key political lackeys of that industry, which include President [Donald] Trump,” Caroline Brouillette, executive director of Climate Action Network Canada, said. “As a result, we're seeing a quite consternating race to the bottom when it comes to climate action.”

The 45 to 50 per cent emission reduction target is a far cry from Canada’s fair share of global climate action efforts, according to an analysis published earlier this year by Climate Action Network Canada. The country’s fair share would be an 80 per cent reduction from 2005 levels by 2035 — a target the organization landed on by taking into account what science requires to meet the Paris Agreement’s goal of holding warming to 1.5 C above pre-industrial temperatures.

After The Canadian Press published news of the unannounced expansion plans last year, two former conservation officers spoke out about the pens based on their experience investigating them in the years after the Harris government tightened the rules.

Rick Maw and Wayne Lintack said the dog sport is cruel to the captive prey and well-meaning regulations are impossible to enforce.

The two said the industry has long been rife with problems, including the illegal catching and warehousing of coyotes that are then fenced in as prey for the dogs. They also uncovered a coyote trafficking ring.

On April 2, 2006, conservation officers fanned out across southern and central Ontario for a series of raids. They seized nearly two dozen live coyotes and laid hundreds of charges. The criminal case eventually fell apart because it took too long to get to trial, but the province shut down a train-and-trial area where coyotes had been found packed in a barn.

“We were shocked to learn that Professor Tucker was recently abruptly removed from this teaching assignment and are deeply concerned that the decision for the removal relates largely to his advocacy for more learning and discussion about Palestine and Israel. We are aware that the university is being lobbied intensely to silence discussion of what is happening in Gaza, and we strongly suspect that the decision regarding Professor Tucker is linked to his activities in this regard.”

Months after Tucker’s event, the School adopted a new bulletin board policy, stating that posters that contributed to an “uncomfortable environment” would be restricted.

“This Palestine exceptionalism is just not acceptable. To me, the attitude of the school is itself anti-semitic because it implies that to talk about what’s going on in Gaza offends Jews,” another member said.

“There should be a recognition that there’s a diversity of opinion. Don’t stereotype Jews as people who are all expected to have values that are supremacist and racist and who don’t care about the suffering of Palestinians. We find that offensive.”

Sim is a crypto proselytizer. Last week, he preached in a video interview for the Coin Stories podcast that he believes Bitcoin "is the greatest invention in human history."

His proposal would order city staff to assess the feasibility of making Vancouver "Bitcoin-friendly," for instance, by accepting payments in Bitcoin and investing some of the municipality's financial reserves into the cryptocurrency.

Sim's motion, which will go to a vote on Wednesday, claims that "Bitcoin mining has shown environmental benefits" that are realized when mines use electricity that would otherwise be wasted. The motion did not cite sources and the mayor's office did not provide any to Canada's National Observer when requested.

Fellow council members aren’t buying it.

Researchers estimate that each Bitcoin transaction generates as much carbon emissions as driving a gas-powered car around 2,200 km. Between 2020 and 2021 alone, U.N. researchers estimated that if Bitcoin mining were a country, it would rank 27th in the world in energy use. The sector's electricity demand is so high that B.C. has temporarily banned crypto mining until officials can figure out if the province has enough power.

Mississauga Mayor Carolyn Parrish recently generated headlines when she stepped down from her local police services board, calling the city’s escalating police budget “out of control.”

Desmond Cole visits her office to discuss her resignation and the alternatives to policing.