If I recall correctly, they’re diverting to Timmins instead of continuing north to Cochrane (although it’s been a little while since that part was in the news, so I’m not 100% sure). Still an improvement over the current state of public transport in the area.

Have you ever lived in any of the Northern Ontario ridings (or any other part of northern Canada, for that matter)? I have, and do, although I haven’t lived in Kap-Timmins-Mushkegowuk specifically since the 1990s. Still, I doubt it’s changed much.

To put it bluntly, it’s an area that’s used to being ignored if not outright mistreated by government at both the provincial and federal levels. Small and shrinking population with a high percentage of Indigenous and Francophone individuals, large tracts of land with limited transport options, little industry, few jobs, and no influence. Our MPs normally have no influence either, unless they somehow make it into Cabinet. It almost doesn’t matter what party they belong to.

Charlie, according to everything I’ve seen, heard, and read, tried. Dude worked his balls off for his constituents, and for Canada in general, with little in the way of result or recompense. I don’t know if he’s doing more for Canadians right now than he did when he was in Parliament, but his seat didn’t give him much more scope to accomplish anything than he has as a private citizen.

The US has health institutions? I thought they’d all been defunded.

Furthermore, we’re talking about exports. Does anyone really believe that other countries that haven’t banned plastic straws won’t just source them elsewhere instead? China’s usually willing to manufacture any random plastic object someone is willing to pay for. If plastic straws really are the hill someone wants to die on, environmental activism in the countries that still allow them seems like it would be more effective than an export ban here.

China is a lucrative enough market that some trade with them is inevitable, alas (and, to be honest, Canada as a whole probably can’t support itself if it limits international trade to countries that have had fairly clean human rights records for the last fifty years or so—it’s just too small a fraction of the world). We just have to be careful that we don’t get in so deep that we can’t easily pull out again.

Please let the people in positions of power in this country have learned something from the consequences of the current US administration’s antics. We can’t afford to put all of our eggs in one basket, no matter how large or tastefully decorated that basket is.

The record coldest temperature in North America of -63⁰C was recorded in the Yukon (specifically, at Snag, Yukon, in 1947). Brrr.

The right to arm bears might be more pertinent in this case. They become much less attractive targets if they’re shooting back.

(Seriously, though, how much longer do we have to wait before we can employ cloning/vat-grown tissue strategies to feed the insatiable demand of traditional Asian “medicine” markets, and stop killing animals for ineffective superstitious bullshit?)

It’s really just institutionalization by another name. While homeless people are in involuntary care, the people who don’t want them around will have their wish, and from their point of view, having the homeless cycle back into the system within a few months of release is a feature, not a bug. It doesn’t actually do anything to curb substance abuse, but it isn’t really meant to.

If this involved any other province, I’d think it was a Beaverton headline.

Bagged dry beans require more prep before they can be eaten, though, and you have to have the clean water to rehydrate them on site, and the know-how to do it. There’s an energy cost (electricity in remote off-grid communities isn’t necessarily cheap either), and a time cost on the part of the people cooking, all of which has to be taken into consideration. That doesn’t mean that replacing canned foodstuffs with dried or freeze-dried can’t be part of the answer, but it may have to be supplemented with recipes or facilities or cooking classes or something.

If there’s a systemic issue here that goes beyond people in the supply chain profiteering, the solution may not be simple.

Sensible people had rather deal with ice than with ICE.

Being nabbed for dissent requires having a strong opinion on something that’s at odds with the preferences of the Powers That Be, and not being afraid to speak up about it. I would guess that that’s only a small percentage of social media enthusiasts—less than a third, and I’m being generous there.

Unfortunately, this won’t happen, because the people most interested in social media tend to be those with the least interest in privacy and least understanding of data breaches and how to prevent them. Would be nice, though.

To be exact, the geometry of a moose makes it so that a lower-built vehicle will hit it in the legs, knock it over, and cause it to land on the hood, and quite possibly on the people in the front seat. This is in addition to the deceleration from hitting a critter that can weigh more than 500kg. Best result, if you managed to brake before hitting it, is a completely shattered windshield and deformed vehicle hood before the moose gets up and flees back into the bush. Worst result . . . well, I grew up in moose country, and the uncle of one of my elementary school classmates died in a moose collision.

You don’t, really, although “crime spree traced to out-of-work voice actor!” sounds like a plot from a Saturday morning cartoon several decades ago.

It seems unlikely that keeping this service would make a significant dent in their bottom line, so why?

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Mirroring what happened in Ontario years ago. Used to be that northeastern Ontario had a bunch of mills. Now there’s only Kapuskasing left, and they’re not really viable—by my understanding, they’ve been hanging on by their fingernails due to being mostly employee-owned and so not having to do more than break even, but they’ve now had to approach the government for a bailout, and their future seems doubtful. The next-to-last was Espanola, which closed down a couple of years ago now.

Then they’ll complain about having nothing to complain about.

“Uttering threats” is an offence under the Criminal Code and, as I understand it, the requirements for it to be considered a crime are pretty steep—kids on schoolbusses wouldn’t qualify because their threats usually aren’t meant to be taken seriously. It’s more like “dude standing over you holding a knife threatens to stab you” stuff.