Canada

[RTH10260]

Canada: Indigenous fishermen left to walk shoeless after officers seized boots
Justin Trudeau says allegations ‘extremely troubling’ after officers arrested First Nations men and confiscated their boots and phones

Leyland Cecco in Toronto
Wed 3 Apr 2024 20.41 CEST

Two First Nations fishermen have said they were forced to walk shoeless for hours in the dark and cold after Canadian federal officers seized their boots and phones.

The prime minister, Justin Trudeau, said the allegations were “extremely troubling” amid mounting anger over the treatment of the Mi’kmaw fishermen, whose ordeal has prompted comparisons with the notorious “starlight tours” in which the police routinely abandoned Indigenous people in the bitter cold.

Blaise Sylliboy of Eskasoni First Nation and Kevin Hartling of Membertou First Nation were arrested by federal fisheries officers on the night of 26 March while fishing for elvers in a river in south-west Nova Scotia.

The season to harvest glass eels is relatively brief, beginning in March and typically running until May. Coveted in China and Japan, where they are grown on farms and harvested for food, the translucent fish command a steep price, with buyers paying $5,000 a kilogram last year.

Canada’s endangered wildlife committee designated the species as “threatened” more than a decade ago, and the federal government has put limits on the harvest. The total allowable catch for 2023 is 9,960kg, unchanged over the last 18 years.

Recently, however, the federal government granted Indigenous communities a growing share of the commercial quota, an industry worth nearly C$50m ($36m). Last year, nations were allocated 14% of the commercial harvest.

But this year, Canada’s fisheries minister refused to open the spring fishery for elvers, amid rising violence and poaching. Officers have arrested nearly 40 people since early March, and seized vehicles, nets and weapons. In one case, officers were struck by a truck fleeing an inspection.

Indigenous nations have grown increasingly frustrated that their treaty rights have not been recognised by the federal government. Canada’s supreme court has previously ruled that Indigenous peoples have a right to harvest from the land and water in order to obtain a “moderate livelihood” – a term the federal government repeatedly failed to define over the years, leading to tense standoffs. Both Sylliboy and Hartling asserted their claim that they have a treaty right to harvest the glass eels.

After the pair were arrested, the officers confiscated their fishing waders – with their boots attached – and their cellphones, a “standard practice” when investigating poaching, the department said in a statement.



https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/ ... t-shoeless

[Volkonski]

10 people in Kingston, Ont., sent to hospital with eye injuries. One patient blames a foam party

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/kingston ... press.coop

Ten people in Kingston, Ont., were treated for chemical eye exposure and needed to have their eyes flushed after what one patient says was a foam party gone wrong.

Kingston Health Sciences Centre's Emergency Department treated 10 patients late Sunday and early Monday for "chemical eye exposure," a spokesperson confirmed with CBC News. The hospital would not confirm the patients had attended a foam party, due to patient confidentiality.

But one of those patients told CBC News it all started when she went to a foam party at Stages Nightclub — a bar on Kingston's downtown strip popular with students. At these types of parties, foam is typically sprayed onto a dance floor throughout the night and several feet of foam can accumulate.

The woman and her friends arrived at the club at around 11:10 p.m. Sunday, she told CBC News. Her eyes started burning within the hour, she said. CBC is not naming the woman, a student at Queen's University, because she is concerned that being associated with drinking in clubs could affect her career prospects.

"It was kind of like someone was slashing your eyes almost, with a knife. It was just really painful and not a feeling that would go away even when your eyes were closed," she told CBC News.

CBC News reached out to Stages Nightclub for comment, but has yet to hear back. In an email response from Stages sent to the Queen's student, viewed by CBC News, the club said it was frustrated to hear what happened to its patrons.

"We … want nothing more than to make this right," the email said.

Kingston, Frontenac, and Lennox & Addington Public Health told CBC News it's investigating an increase in patients experiencing eye irritation, "unrelated to the solar eclipse."

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

What’s a foam party?

[keith]

What’s a foam party?

Third paragraph in report above.

[Suranis]

At these types of parties, foam is typically sprayed onto a dance floor throughout the night and several feet of foam can accumulate.

Foamy

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

What kind of “foam”? Fire retardant? Shaving cream?

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

What’s a foam party?

Third paragraph in report above.

Thanks! I missed that sentence.

[qbawl]

We had something similar in the '60s except we used whipped cream and caramel sauce iirc.

[Flatpoint High]

Shall we?

fqdo4apycjtc1.jpeg (224.74 KiB) Viewed 2149 times

got this via r/MayorMcCheese. The Mayor has been following the "Axe the Tax" protests up in Canada. he also streams on twitch

[RTH10260]

Elephant seal makes ‘epic’ trek back after Canadian officials relocate him
Notorious for drawing large crowds, Emerson was removed by officials who were surprised to find him back in Victoria in a week

Leyland Cecco in Toronto
Wed 17 Apr 2024 13.30 CEST

Last week, gun-wielding conservation officers stuffed a 500-lb elephant seal in the back of a van, drove him along a winding highway in western Canada and left him on a remote beach “far from human habitation”.

The plan was to move the young seal far from British Columbia’s capital city, where over the last year, he has developed a reputation for ending up in “unusual locations”, including flower beds, city parks and busy roads.

Emerson, as he is known to locals, had other plans.

Less than a week after he was removed from Victoria, he made an “epic” 126-mile trek along the rugged west coast of Vancouver Island back to the city, a return that has left conservation officers in disbelief.

But Emerson’s presence and growing popularity has alarmed those same officers, as the public takes increasingly risky behaviour around the animal, including one group who encouraged a child to pet his nose.



https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... mpt-failed

[Ben-Prime]

Elephant seal makes ‘epic’ trek back after Canadian officials relocate him
Notorious for drawing large crowds, Emerson was removed by officials who were surprised to find him back in Victoria in a week

Leyland Cecco in Toronto
Wed 17 Apr 2024 13.30 CEST

Last week, gun-wielding conservation officers stuffed a 500-lb elephant seal in the back of a van, drove him along a winding highway in western Canada and left him on a remote beach “far from human habitation”.

The plan was to move the young seal far from British Columbia’s capital city, where over the last year, he has developed a reputation for ending up in “unusual locations”, including flower beds, city parks and busy roads.

Emerson, as he is known to locals, had other plans.

Less than a week after he was removed from Victoria, he made an “epic” 126-mile trek along the rugged west coast of Vancouver Island back to the city, a return that has left conservation officers in disbelief.

But Emerson’s presence and growing popularity has alarmed those same officers, as the public takes increasingly risky behaviour around the animal, including one group who encouraged a child to pet his nose.



https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... mpt-failed

"In Canada, even our wild seals are friendly!"

[RTH10260]

The gardener who took a Canadian city to court for the right to not mow his lawn
Missisauga officials have twice forcibly cut Wolf Ruck’s grass and billed him, after he decided to rewild his garden

Campbell MacDiarmid
Fri 21 Jun 2024 13.12 CEST

Most mornings, Wolf Ruck walks the mown paths in his yard in Mississauga, Ontario, watching for insects landing on the goldenrod, birds feeding on native seed heads, and chipmunk kits playing in the tall grass.

The septuagenarian artist, film-maker and former Olympic canoeist began rewilding his garden with native plants three years ago, as part of a growing movement across Canada towards replacing water-thirsty lawns with “naturalised gardens”.

Letting nature take its course has been a blessing to observe, Ruck says. But to city officials, his garden violates the city’s nuisance weed and tall grass control bylaw. Twice, officers responding to anonymous neighbour complaints have brought workers to forcibly cut Ruck’s garden, billing him later for the work.

“My property is not abandoned. It’s not a blight on the community. It simply seems to offend some neighbours who don’t like the look of it,” Ruck says.

A growing number of Canadian gardeners are facing legal action for their efforts to rewild their gardens, a movement that took off during the coronavirus pandemic, as people confined to their homes reconsidered their relationship with their lawn. Proponents of rewilding cite greater biodiversity, drought resistance, and lower upkeep as advantages.

Beyond sidewalk gardens overflowing with black-eyed susan, hairy beardtongue and white turtlehead, signs of the growing movement can be seen in the proliferation of community initiatives, such as wildflower seed libraries and butterfly ranger programs. In recent years big-box retailers and garden centres have started carrying native plants alongside Kentucky bluegrass seed and hybrid tea roses.

But the growing movement is facing blowback from lawn-loving neighbours complaining about gardens overrun with “weeds”. Prof Nina-Marie Lister says the Ecological Design Lab she directs at Toronto Metropolitan University is receiving more requests than ever to help gardeners facing bylaw complaints. “The number of cases we have supported with advice through my lab has more than quadrupled since 2020,” she says.

Across Canada and the United States, local bylaws regulate private gardens, often using subjective terms such as “tidy” or “neat”, arbitrary rules such as limiting grass height to 20cm, and vague or undefined terms such as “weeds”. Enforcement is driven by anonymous complaints and is carried out by often-harried bylaw officers without specific botanical training, who may also be dealing with noise complaints, parking violations and vermin outbreaks.


https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... w-his-lawn

[AndyinPA]

A naturalized garden almost always looks much better than a lawn. My husband was allergic to grass, so mowing was a miserable experience for him. We have an acre and a half wooded lot. Naturalized is keeping the trees. I do have a big hole in the front of the house as I had to take out a bunch of trees that were dead, but what's going back? More trees, trees that are natural to this area.

Good luck to the Canadians.

[raison de arizona]

In a previous life here in Arizona, I had a boss build a custom home out near Cave Creek. It was a fancy development, and the HOA specified that the landscaping be “natural,” desert. My boss built his house, carefully not disturbing the natural foliage, put up a wood pole fence around it at completion, and called the landscaping DONE. This began a multi-year legal battle, eventually culminating in my boss’ victory and vindication for his truly natural landscaping.

I must say, visiting his neighborhood with the well coiffed “natural” landscaping of his neighbors, his yard did kind of stand out like a sore thumb. Legally natural, however.

[northland10]

A naturalized garden almost always looks much better than a lawn. My husband was allergic to grass, so mowing was a miserable experience for him.

I could call my front yard (well, the landlord's front yard) a naturalized garden since it is more weeds (clover and such) than actual grass. I suppose, during a dry time like right now, it does have the advantage of still being green, unlike the grass which is now turning brown.

Mowing weeds and grass on a very bumpy surface with a reel mower does not always result in something useful, but I least I get my exercise and don't pollute anything.

[RTH10260]

Canadian woman gets three years’ jail in first ever sentencing for a ‘Pretendian’
Karima Manji, whose daughters accessed over C$150,000 in benefits for Inuit residents, pleaded guilty in February

Leyland Cecco in Toronto
Fri 28 Jun 2024 21.32 CEST

A Canadian woman who fraudulently claimed her daughters were Inuit has been sentenced to three years in jail, in what is believed to be the first ever custodial sentence for a “Pretendian”.

Karima Manji, whose daughters accessed more than C$150,000 in benefits intended for Inuit, was sentenced on Thursday, after pleading guilty to fraud in February.

Nunavut justice Mia Manocchio said the case “must serve as a signal to any future Indigenous pretender that the false appropriation of Indigenous identity in a criminal context will draw a significant penalty”.

In recent years, Canada has grappled with a wave of cases in which people falsely claim Indigenous identity. Many of those instances feature vague and questionable affirmations of First Nations or Métis ancestry. Instances of Inuit fraud –and ones in which people successfully obtained official identity cards – are rarer.


https://www.theguardian.com/world/artic ... efit-fraud

[W. Kevin Vicklund]

Happy Canada Day to my neighbors to the south!

[p0rtia]

Backk at you, WKV!

[Slim Cognito]

You may end up with a whole bunch of fogbowsers moving up there thanks to the crooks on the Supreme Court.

Just warning ya.

Edited for, well, just edited.

[raison de arizona]

You may end up with a whole bunch of fogbowsers moving up there thanks to the on the Supreme Court.

Just warning ya.

[RTH10260]

from a newsletter, an opinion on upcoming Canadian computer legislaion

Dr. Michael Geist Explains the Impact of Canadian Digital Policy on Content Creators and Consumers

In a recent podcast episode, a host discussed various legislative issues in Canada with Dr. Michael Geist, a law professor at the University of Ottawa. They explored troubling legislation that affects content creators and consumers, focusing on three key bills: S210, C18, and C11.

Bill S210 aims to protect children from explicit content on the internet by requiring age verification, but it raises privacy concerns and the risk of website blocking. It also lacks clear thresholds, potentially affecting major platforms like Google and Twitter.

Bill C18, the Online News Act, intends to support Canadian media by requiring tech giants like Google and Meta to pay for news content. Meta chose to block news links rather than comply, while Google negotiated a deal to pay $100 million annually. This bill highlights the tension between supporting legacy media and adapting to digital realities.

Bill C11, the Online Streaming Act, seeks to regulate streaming services like Netflix and YouTube to ensure they contribute to Canadian content. This bill has faced criticism for potentially impacting user-generated content and the role of the CRTC in regulating algorithms.

Geist emphasized the need for smart regulation that balances innovation and public interest without overly favoring legacy players or stifling new media. He also highlighted the importance of public engagement in legislative processes and the risks of over-politicizing digital policy.




Read: https://axisofeasy.com/aoe/bill-s210-on ... in-canada/

[johnpcapitalist]

Something for Jem to mull over as she is recovering from her recent injuries:

Canadian Niceness Is a Myth: Ontario Man Drives Over Cop Cars in a Ford Bronco
The things people do when they haven't had their morning Timmies.

Wild scenes came out of Canada this week after an Ontario man was seen ramming and driving over police cars with a Ford Bronco in—get this—a Tim Hortons drive-thru line.

According to CBC News, police were called to Westwood Square in Mississauga (the city west-adjacent to Toronto) on Tuesday after somebody recognized the 25-year-old Bronco driver as the same person who allegedly stole from a nearby store a few weeks prior. He was also reportedly in possession of weapons. When police arrived, the Bronco was sitting at a Tim Hortons drive-thru and they also determined that the vehicle was stolen, making this incident yet another intense chapter in the Toronto area’s ongoing car theft saga.

Multiple cop cars surrounded the vehicle, at which point the driver tried to flee, taking full advantage of the Bronco’s off-road capabilities.

Ford’s boxy off-roader may be great on a trail, but driving over an entire Dodge Durango isn’t quite in its skillset.

“Our officers managed to pin the vehicle in to prevent the driver from fleeing, but as you can see in the now-viral videos, the driver tries desperately to break free — and at one point even mounts the front end of one of the cruisers,” Constable Nikhil Chakravarthy told CBC News.

According to witnesses, the Bronco driver then attempted to flee out of the passenger window before an officer subdued him by firing a Taser. The man was reportedly charged with three counts of possessing property obtained by crime (stealing), flight from and obstruction of a peace officer (ramming cops), and dangerous operation of a vehicle (willingly lining up for Tim Hortons coffee).

This level of aggression may come off as uncharacteristic for Canada, but as The Drive‘s resident Torontonian, this behavior is merely the latest in what feels like a long string of chaotic on-road behavior up in these parts. In addition to a rampant theft problem, Toronto has some of the worst traffic in the world, ranking third in a recent list of cities with the slowest-moving commutes. As many locals will tell you, “Toronto is an hour away from Toronto.” This has led to a noticeable uptick in road rage, with videos of brawls and drawn knives going viral in recent months.

That said, the overall visuals of this incident are extremely Canadian. The Tims in the background, the red Bronco, the lack of gunfire from police—there may as well have been a polar bear hanging out just outside the frame.

[neonzx]

That is crazy video at the article link jpc. Was he really thinking he could flee?

[pipistrelle]

Timmies!

[W. Kevin Vicklund]

Shouldn't the title of this topic be "O, Canada"?