Kate Lawson🍁

Truck driver hits pedestrian/police tell pedestrians to make eye contact. It never fails!
"male pedestrian saw the truck coming, pushed female pedestrian to safety and was struck by the truck," Guelph Police spokesperson Scott Tracey told CBC. "If you're walking, make eye contact with the driver”

Defend Canadian Journalism – Donate Form Support Our Journalism Defence Fund PressProgress is at the centre of what could be one of the biggest, longest and most expensive media trials in recent Canadian history. A former star candidate for ...

I chipped in to the @PressProgress.ca legal defence so journalists can keep holding the powerful to account. This case could set a chilling precedent across Canada. If you can, please donate and share. pressprogress.ca/journalism-defence/donate

The Albertan independence referendum is the wedge for the Trump regime's desire to annex Canada - Halifax Examiner A Trump regime bent on annexing Canada will interfere via social media campaigns and targeted messaging.

The Albertan independence referendum is the wedge for the Trump regime’s desire to annex Canada

by me

David Frum thinks recognizing Aboriginal title - i.e. Indigenous sovereignty over land - was a thing "invented" by today's Canadian courts. As opposed to, y'know, a thing recognized by the Royal Proclamation of 1763, over a century before the country of Canada existed.

How effective is protesting? According to historians and political scientists: very From emancipation to women’s suffrage, civil rights and BLM, mass movement has shaped the arc of US history

www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

Canada Post is already one of the world’s most cost-effective postal systems - CCPA There’s a common narrative about why Canada Post is in such bad shape—the company’s financial difficulties lie in excessive spending, and that the decline of letter-mail has made Canada Post too costl...

When we crunch Canada Post's numbers, we don’t see a system bloated by high costs—and when we look at comparison countries, we see that budget cuts and falling revenue go hand-in-hand. By Ryan Romard @policyalternatives.ca #canlab
www.policyalternatives.ca/news-researc...

The thing about collegial governance at a university is that it takes collegiality. By this I don't mean *congeniality* (being nice) but a shared sense of responsibility and dedication.

But is anyone going to hold Doug Ford accountable for the dismantling of our system? Of course not. All healthcare blame is to be directed to the federal government, because shut up.

This image describes the Canadian COVID Forecast for the fourteen-day period between Nov 8 - Nov 21, 2025, which is produced by COVID-19 Resources Canada. Ontario's COVID Forecast outlook is HIGH [no change] with a COVID INDEX SCORE of 9.2 About 1 of every 133 people is infected. Estimated infections this week: 208,300-288,000 What these numbers mean: MODERATE 1-5, HIGH 5-10, VERY HIGH 10-15, SEVERE >15 COMPARED TO THE LOWEST POINT IN THE COVID PANDEMIC IN CANADA How much higher are key indicators compared to the lowest point in the COVID pandemic in Canada? Waste water, infections: HIGH; 6.6X higher Long COVID: HIGH; 5.9X higher Hospitalizations: HIGH; 9.3X higher Deaths: VERY HIGH; 11.7X higher HOW TO HELP: EVERYONE: UPDATE vaccines every 6 months WEAR N95-type masks Who is HIGH RISK? People 60 and older, babies < 1 year, pregnant ALL AGES: immunocompromised OR medically at-risk OR no vaccine or infection in the last 6 months Recommendations are based on the COVID-19 Risk Index from the Peterborough ON Public Health Unit COVID-19 Resources Canada is a grassroots organization of volunteer scientists supporting Canadian COVID responses. Sources, data and methods for the COVID Index are available at www.Covid19Resources.ca

Canadian COVID Forecast Nov 8 - Nov 21, 2025

ONTARIO

HIGH [no change]

About 1 of every 133 people is infected.

Compared to lowest point of pandemic in Canada:

-Infections: 6.6 x higher
-Long COVID: 5.9 x higher
-Hospitalizations: 9.3 x higher
-Deaths: 11.7 x higher

The billionaire loophole: How Canada’s tax system fuels inequality While ordinary Canadians struggle, the top one per cent hide billions in offshore tax havens — a colonial system engineered to protect wealth and starve public services

““We colonized all those countries, and then we set up this structure with these tax rules to benefit us,” said Tedds, who specializes in tax policy. “That’s their industry.” Cc @wickdchiq.bsky.social ricochet.media/labour/class...

Ontario's hospitals have been starved to the point of collapse, but sure, find more savings because Doug Ford refuses to fund the system adequately.
Just appalling.

"more than 3000 sessional instructors, graduate teaching assistants and research assistants at UW organized and voted to form a union...several years later, we are still fighting for our first contract. Until the end of August, the university refused to even schedule dates to negotiate..."

Respect, Quality Education and Liveable Wages The University of Waterloo is very proud to be one of the top-ranked universities in the world, particularly when it comes to research. And proud of the $259 million they raised in research funding. W...

cupe.ca/WeAreUW?sour...

few things are as important at a university as collegial governance? not a stellar example here I will admit

Ottawa can’t cut its way to a stronger Canada Katherine Scott - Do we really want to relive the pain of Paul Martin’s 1995 budget?

The federal govt looks set to revive the deep cuts of the 1990s—cuts that gutted public services, widened inequality and left lasting damage still felt today. Here’s my op ed on what’s at stake today. bit.ly/4ovzcr3 #cdnpoli

Cautious optimism in B.C. after PM announces $1.2B in softwood lumber support | CBC News B.C.'s forestry industry has taken major hits over the last few years, as escalating U.S. duties on softwood lumber imports have piled atop a number of other challenges, leading to thousands of job lo...

Reminder on priorities. Widespread funding for things like gender based violence is a no but the usual domestic economic policies that favour men are a go www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Carney's cabinet asked to find 'ambitious savings' ahead of fall budget | CBC News Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne sent letters to his fellow cabinet members Monday asking them to come up with "ambitious savings proposals" to get a handle on public sector spending, acco...

Spending more on defence, less on ??? www.cbc.ca/news/politic...
How much less?
Campaign platform: cap spending growth to 2% a year.
Today: 7.5% in spending cuts by April (2026-27), 10% less in 2027-28, 15% less in 2028-29.
What will go?
/2

University of Waterloo students raise awareness about Long COVID Although COVID-19 no longer makes daily headlines, some are on a mission to spread awareness about the impact the virus is still having on the community.

www.ctvnews.ca/kitchener/ar...

Please. America. See what happens in other countries, including *right now*, *today*. You have hundreds of millions of people. Stand up in force. Put a stop to this.

🧵

Closer to 165,000 excess deaths in Canada in the last 5 years

--AFTER subtracting excess mortality attributable to toxic drugs and overloaded healthcare system (% excess cancer deaths)

-from '22 on it's ~35-45K/yr, similar to (and on top of) annual smoking deaths

-about 10-13X annual flu deaths

At my shop we are "leveraging to create change"

Canadian universities, colleges face cash crunch because of student visa cap | Watch News Videos Online Watch Canadian universities, colleges face cash crunch because of student visa cap Video Online, on GlobalNews.ca

Global News keeps misreporting the cause of the university financial crisis. Int'l student caps only exacerbated the real problem: endlessly falling government funding and, in Ontario, a brutal tuition freeze. globalnews.ca/video/110188...

Tens of thousands protest in Slovakia against PM Fico Tens of thousands come onto the streets, as Robert Fico threatens to deport foreigners he says are fomenting a coup.

Over 100,000 people protested in 25 Slovak towns and cities claiming their PM is "undermining the country's institutions, culture" etc.

Has there been a single mass demonstration in the US against Trump?

www.bbc.com/news/article...

I would love to get a copy too, especially to follow up on those links! thanks so much. klawson@uwaterloo.ca

If you use AI or allow your students to use it, you’re contributing to the destruction of the planet. Please consider a ban on AI in your classes. Here’s my AI policy if you want a model.

For Ontario teachers, arbitration is no substitute for the right to strike Trading the right to strike for binding interest arbitration is a minefield for unions.

see theconversation.com/for-ontario-...

The Auditor General’s Report, Part 1: The cost of privatizing Ontario Place This article is part of a multi-part series examining findings from the Auditor General’s 2024 Report. Future parts will be posted in the coming week. On Tuesday, December 3, 2024, Ontario’s Auditor G...

Elsa Lam at @canadianarchitect.bsky.social is absolutely killing it on Ford + Ontario Place. I referenced her July work in my current column, now she’s out w 3 new 🔥 examinations of the auditor’s reports. Here’s 1st
1/3

www.canadianarchitect.com/the-auditor-...?

Dr. Elaine Ma Case is Proof Ontario is Unfriendly to Physicians Last week, the Ontario Health Sector Appeal and Review Board (HSARB) denied the appeal by Dr. Elaine Ma in her fight against the Ontario Health Insurance Plan (OHIP). At the risk of upsetting Dr. M…

#ICYMI - ever wonder why #doctors like I feel #ontario isn't a friendly place to practice #medicine? It's because @ONThealth does things like this #physicians. Please read, sign petition and share widely #medsky and everyone:
justanoldcountrydoctor.com/2024/12/02/d...

title page of 1849 edition of Shirley, A Tale, by Currer Bell

screenshot of first page of Kate Lawson's article "Shirley, History after Wuthering Heights" (in SEL 61.4)

#OTD in 1849, Charlotte Bronte's novel Shirley is published. @kattl.bsky.social reads the novel as a sequel not to Wuthering Heights but to the historical narrative of Yorkshire, a history of labor and struggle. Read on in "Shirley, History after Wuthering Heights" (SEL 61.4) https://buff.ly/3BWz6F5

Freezes in provincial funding and dom tuition (in Ont at least) are what led to the huge run up in fee-deregulated international students at colleges and, to a lesser degree univs. No one to blame but the provinces in my opinion