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Michael Kovrig, a former Canadian diplomat who was held in China for nearly three years [told] about the interrogation he endured during his six months in solitary confinement.

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"They are trying to bully and torment and terrorize and coerce you … into accepting their false version of reality, in which you're guilty.

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On December 14 [2018], four days after he was taken into custody [in China], Kovrig got his first consular visit with Canada's then-ambassador John McCallum and another official from the embassy an an offsite location.

Kovrig said he remembers trying, in that meeting and others, to communicate that China was violating international law by interrogating him the way they were.

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He said his food rations were cut for being uncooperative. He said that during interrogations he was put in a high-backed wooden chair and restrained, forbidden from crossing his legs or changing his position.

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[Kovrig and Michael Spavor, another Canadian who had also been detained but was being held separately] had been illegally detained by China in apparent retaliation for the Vancouver arrest of Huawei's chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, who was detained at the behest of the U.S. to face fraud charges related to American sanctions against Iran.

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Kovrig's partner [who was pregnant at the time when he was detained] had played their daughter recordings of his voice and showed pictures of her father while he was locked up on the other side of the world. Their daughter was two-and-a-half years old when he finally arrived back in Canada.

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Author: Steve Boots
Length: 4:37
Summary:
Steve Boots discusses the growing issue of violence in Canadian schools. He highlights several incidents that have occurred in different provinces and emphasizes that school violence is a widespread problem across the country. The lack of formal tracking for these incidents is also highlighted, as well as the increasing demands placed on teachers who often face violent situations without adequate support. Boots argues that the rise in violent behavior among students is tied to broader societal issues and calls for a more compassionate approach towards tackling this epidemic.

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Rogers is somehow, impossibly, worse at customer service than Shaw, who were already terrible.

Fuck the government for allowing these mergers and acquisitions to happen. Fuck the previous governments too. (This isn't a Liberal versus Conservative issue at all -- they all allowed this to happen.)

The hoops they force you through to cancel your account should be illegal.

The stores where you sign up for internet in the mall? Nope, sales only. All the local customer service options are gone. They claim I have a secret pin or phrase to access my account (which I never set up with Shaw when I created my account), so I can't deal with anyone over the phone. I basically cannot cancel my Shaw internet post-acquisition.

Well, one of the guys at the store at least gave me some info on how to ship the modem back. Rogers only allows you to return your modem using Canada Post, and they don't provide a box -- only an account number. So I have to scrounge a box and go to Canada Post with an account number. I'm contemplating shipping my modem back in a refrigerator box out of spite.

I'm thinking of just putting a chargeback on the VISA and forcing them to call me. Well, if it wouldn't affect my credit. Fuckers.

To register: https://eregister.electionsbc.gov.bc.ca/ovr/welcome.aspx

Who can vote: https://elections.bc.ca/2024-provincial-election/who-can-vote/

List of voting locations: https://elections.bc.ca/2024-provincial-election/where-to-vote/

The data, which was obtained through an access to information request, also shows that nearly a dozen RCMP firearms have gone missing so far this year.

In total, 122 handguns, 55 shotguns, 23 rifles, three submachine-guns and two machine-guns have been reported lost by RCMP detachments across the country since 2020. Canadians are largely prohibited from using or acquiring machine-guns and submachine-guns, which are fully automatic and capable of rapid fire.

Nearly half of the guns were lost in 2021, when a staggering 99 RCMP firearms were reported missing, including three fully automatic weapons. There were also 25 lost firearms in 2020, 44 in 2022, 26 in 2023 and 11 in the first seven months of 2024.

The head of the Air Canada pilots union says she'll step down if members opt not to approve a tentative deal with the airline, raising the stakes as aviators mull whether to accept hefty salary gains or drive an even harder bargain.

Charlene Hudy, who chairs the Air Canada contingent of the Air Line Pilots Association, told her fellow employees in a virtual townhall Friday that she "will have no choice but to resign" if they vote down the would-be contract.

"If the membership votes no to this (tentative agreement), it would clearly indicate to the public, media, government and company that I no longer speak on your behalf," she said in a question-and-answer session that followed the online gathering. The Canadian Press has obtained a copy of her statement and confirmed it with two pilots.

The Bearspaw south feeder main has been reconnected to Calgary's water distribution system, city reservoirs have been filled and all water use restrictions have been lifted, Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek said at a news conference Sunday morning.

Outdoor water restrictions have been in effect since the feeder main, which distributes most of Calgary's treated water, was shut down at the end of August for additional, urgent repairs following its rupture on June 5.

"This is the day we have all been waiting for," said the city's director of capital priorities and investment Francois Bouchart.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has committed explicitly to sending more Canadian natural gas to Germany and other European countries.

Edit: Added Summary as requested.

Author: Steve Boots
Length: 49:51
Topic:

• The Worst QP Ever
• BC's Heartless Policy
• Alberta's Oil Bailout
• Favourite Moment
• BC United's Hilarious Failure
• We Need To Help Refugees
• Casual Cruelty
• Less Than A Million

Summary:
This week, The British Columbia government is criticized for implementing a new, harsh addictions policy, while the Alberta Government continues to use public funds to support the oil industry. Additionally, political figures have taken increasingly anti-immigrant stances targeting specific groups. Meanwhile, Canada's Premier has displayed casual cruelty in politics, and the National Broadcast Corporation (NBC) United has been a significant embarrassment in political history.

A $2.14-billion federal loan for an Ottawa-based satellite operator has Canadian politicians arguing about whether American billionaire Elon Musk poses a national security risk.

The fight involves internet connectivity in remote regions as Canada tries to live up to its promise to connect every Canadian household to high-speed internet by 2030.

A week ago, the Liberal government announced the loan to Telesat, which is launching a constellation of low Earth orbit satellites that will be able to connect the most remote areas of the country to broadband internet.

Conservative MP Michael Barrett objected to the price tag, asking Musk in a social media post how much it would cost to provide his Starlink to every Canadian household that does not have high-speed access.

If POLICE KEPT working-class people safe, Winnipeg would be one of the safest cities in Canada, if not the world. The Prairie city of more than 800,000 people now spends more than one quarter of its operating budget on the Winnipeg Police Service—by far the highest share for any major city in the country. The police force is projected to spend more than $330 million in 2024 and $360 million in 2027. Comparatively, the entire Community Services department—which includes all libraries and recreation services such as pools, arenas, and community centres—is budgeted for a measly $110 million by 2027, while the city’s contribution to public transit will reach only $133 million by then.

A vast majority of this police budget goes toward the salaries, benefits, and pensions of a tiny cadre of extremely well-compensated cops. A cop starts making a six-figure salary after only five years on the job. In 2022, about 1,300 WPS employees made more than $100,000 a year, compared to only sixty employees of Winnipeg Transit and twenty-three from Community Services. In total, more than half of the 100 highest-paid city employees belong to the WPS. This situation also means that future wage increases will further inflate already enormous salaries, and that this divide will only widen in the years to come. Meanwhile, life-affirming care goes underfunded, understaffed, and unsupported altogether.

Unsurprisingly, this forcible process of cleansing and containing Indigenous people has frequently ended in killings. There’s been a staggering amount of death and injury caused by the WPS in recent years, from shootings, tasers, beatings, arrests, and in-custody mistreatment and neglect.

The 32 countries that have formally recognized non-human animal sentience include the European Union, Switzerland, Chile, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

The people behind a year-old medical school dedicated solely to turning out family doctors say the small program based in Oshawa, Ont., is disrupting traditional medical education in a way that could help solve Canada's shortage of family physicians.

"The big idea here is to preselect a group of students who not only want to become doctors, but they want to become family doctors, and right from the outset to surround them with all the wonders of family medicine," said Dr. Jane Philpott, dean of Queen's University's Faculty of Health Sciences, and former federal health minister.

But critics say, while it's a good initiative, the effort is a drop in the bucket and that solutions to the overwhelming primary care shortage lie elsewhere — from training more nurse practitioners to removing barriers for foreign-trained doctors.

Actually, the item at the top of the Bloc's list of demands is a bill that would benefit millions of seniors across Canada — not just those in Quebec.

Bill C-319 proposes to increase by 10 per cent the amount of full pension for people once they turn 65. It also would boost the employment income exemption used in determining the amount of guaranteed income supplement (GIS), from $5,000 to $6,500.

Blanchet is also using Bill C-282 as a bargaining chip. The legislation would provide new protections to Canada's supply management system.

When members of Asubpeeschoseewagong Anishinabek (Grassy Narrows First Nation) and their supporters arrive at Queen’s Park this week, they’ll be calling for the Dryden pulp and paper mill that’s been poisoning their water with neurotoxins for nearly 60 years to permanently close.

Staff at the upstream Reed paper mill in Dryden, Ontario, about 150 kilometres east of Grassy Narrows, dumped nearly 10 metric tonnes of mercury into the English-Wabigoon River system in the 1960s and early 1970s. Mercury poisoned the plants and fish that the people of Grassy Narrows, and neighbouring Wabaseemoong Independent Nation, were consuming.

A half-century later, medical experts are finding that varying nervous and neurological health effects affect up to 90 per cent of Grassy Narrows residents.

In May, scientific researchers released scientific researchers released (archived link) the revelation that sulphate and organic matter in the effluent that the mill is still releasing into the river is making methylmercury in the river system even worse, as opposed to diminishing over time as they were told.