streetfestival

"You're at home and then you hear that Donald Trump maybe wants to invade Canada, and that all the Trumpist values can come and contaminate us," said event organizer and renowned Quebec journalist Alain Saulnier. "What we wanted to do was allow people to get out of their homes and make it clear that they do not want Trump here."

The sentiment resounded from the Maritimes to the Prairies.

The demonstrations came a day after Americans gathered in all 50 states to protest the president's agenda following a dizzying 11 weeks that saw Trump throw up tariff walls, dismantle some government offices and pardon nearly all defendants involved in the attack on the U.S. Capitol in 2021.

People showed up to celebrate the Canadian nation and show their Manitoban and Canadian pride!

“We’ll always be the true north strong and free. And we will never be the 51st State!” Kinew exclaimed. “Together, we will keep this land glorious and free! Merci, vive la Canada!”

The rally featured musical guests, food trucks, and plenty of activities for kids, with premier Wab Kinew addressing the crowd.

“The fact that somebody like me, people like us have opportunity to make our lives what we want them to be, that’s what makes Canada so special, that’s what makes Canada so beautiful, and that’s what makes Canada worth fighting for,” said Kinew.

People showed up in droves, decked out in all things Canadian, and the message to President Trump and the United States was quite clear.

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https://mstdn.ca/@stevevrporter/114293351479492573

A newly released audit of the Toronto Transit Corporation’s (TTC) operations found growing discontent among the transit agency’s non-unionized staff, including worsening concerns about safety and a turnover rate of up to 62 per cent in some departments in recent years.

In 2023 and 2024 exit surveys the TTC conducted with departing employees, over half of respondents said their decision to leave was influenced, mostly or in part, by an “unhealthy organizational culture,” “lack of trust in the executive/senior leadership,” and “growth and career advancement.”

A smaller percentage of employees responded that “psychological safety” (35 per cent), “discrimination towards them during their employment” (29 per cent), and “physical safety” (14 per cent) were contributing factors in their choice to leave.

It was surreal to watch this unfold in real time. And it reminded me of an important and eye-opening 2024 report, Disruptions on the Horizon, by Policy Horizons Canada. It identified 35 potential disruptions to Canadian stability.

Number one among the top potential disruptions: People cannot tell what is true and what is not.

I’ve been reporting on right-wing politics over the last decade for PressProgress and have gone deep into the weeds on Canada’s online far-right. We are not simply seeing a rise in “conspiracies” and “misinformation” per se, I think we are witnessing tectonic shifts inside Canada’s conservative movement.

A decade or two ago, this was a movement that revolved around ideas about free markets, small government and reactionary social values. That’s all still there, but for a growing segment of the right, these ideas have been increasingly displaced by a sprawling, conspiratorial metanarrative that imagines an evil global cabal is using technocratic climate policies, authoritarian public health rules and gender-inclusive educational materials to control the world and keep ordinary people in their place—and yes, it is every bit as unhinged as that sounds.

In fact, I’m no longer sure the word “conspiracy” fully captures what’s really happening here.

The first thing you need to understand is that we can draw a direct line connecting the weirdness of B.C.’s 2024 election with the wave of anti-2SLGBTQ+ protests in 2023, the 2022 Freedom Convoy and the anti-public health protests throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. These are all symptoms of the same problem.

This phenomenon is driven by the collapse of traditional media and the rise of digital platforms. Across Canada, including B.C., newsrooms are being decimated by layoffs, local newspapers are shutting down and what remains of our stripped-down media ecosystem is concentrated in the hands of a small number of corporations and wealthy individuals. At the same time, our public discourse is being shaped by mysterious, unregulated social media algorithms that are distorting our democracy in ways nobody seems to fully understand.

Pierre Poilievre’s first days in government would rely on ‘the Mike Harris playbook’

It was an ominous sign. Mike Harris’s government had moved quickly to make dramatic reforms. They had a hundred-day agenda, and they got a lot done: laying off public sector employees, cutting funding to education, slashing social assistance rates, deregulating industries, repealing equity laws, selling off Crown corporations, and empowering the government to impose user fees on public services.

“It’s going to come hard and fast from every direction again,” Evan’s acquaintance said. The groups and communities impacted, as well as the political opposition, both inside Parliament and outside, would have to fight on dozens of fronts at once.

In Canada, the widely adopted International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism has served as a tool to bludgeon and silence those engaged in political activism — the primary goal of which is to halt the mass murder of Palestinian children — as being hostile toward Jewish people as a group.

As Independent Jewish Voices notes on its webpage detailing the numerous faults within the IHRA definition:

“The IHRA definition comes appended with 11 illustrative examples of antisemitism, seven of which specifically focus on the state of Israel, rather than on Jews as a group. The list of examples is intended to conflate antisemitism with criticism of Israel and Zionism.”

Polls have done an about-face in the region, which experts say is fuelled by a historic lean toward the party amid threats from the outside, while the longstanding desire for change has been satiated by a new Liberal leader.

Most recent polling found the Liberal Party has a 21 percentage-point lead in the region, which includes Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. Nationally, the Conservatives and the Liberals are neck-and-neck.

The Liberals had fallen behind in popularity over the past two years. The party currently holds 24 of 32 seats across the Atlantic provinces, a decline from the 32 seats it captured in the 2015 election.