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canada·Canadabykbal

Carney government pledges reform to get infrastructure projects approved within one year

Environmental groups said the proposals would gut Canada’s environmental laws simply to fast-track infrastructure projects.

“The government’s main rationale is, it’s complicated and it takes time. Basically, our job is too hard. This is also not a convincing argument for removing environmental assessment for pipelines and nuclear projects,” said Marc-André Viau of the environmental group Équiterre.

“This policy paper rather suggests they only want to rubber stamp any projects that are put in front of them. They don’t want to assess, they only want to approve.”

Carney government pledges reform to get infrastructure projects approved within one yearhttps://www.thestar.com/politics/federal/carney-government-pledges-reform-to-get-infrastructure-projects-approved-within-one-year/article_f87d1dd1-bf91-47d7-890a-4a767c691743.htmlOpen linkView original on fedia.io
canada·Canadabykbal

Civil Society to Parliament: Kill Bill C-22 — OpenMedia

Letter signatories include the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, the Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project, the Canadian Association of University Teachers, the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, Canadian Muslim Public Affairs Council (CMPAC), the Canadian Council for Refugees, Centre for Free Expression, Clinique pour la justice migrante, the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group, Ligue des droits et libertés, Migrant Workers’ Alliance for Change, OCASI, OpenMedia, and individual experts including Ron Deibert (Director, Citizen Lab), Teresa Scassa (Canada Research Chair in Information Law and Policy), and Michael Karanicolas (Dalhousie University).

It's another open letter opposing C-22, this one with imo a more clear explanation of the many things that are wrong with it. There is also this: Tell your MP

Civil Society to Parliament: Kill Bill C-22 — OpenMediahttps://openmedia.org/press/item/civil-society-to-parliament-kill-bill-c-22Open linkView original on fedia.io
canada·Canadabykbal

Open Letter: Bill C-22, An Act respecting lawful access - The Hill Times

The undersigned civil society organizations, companies, and cybersecurity experts, including members of the Global Encryption Coalition, urge the federal government to withdraw Bill C-22, An Act respecting lawful access.

The Supporting Authorized Access to Information Act, will force services to install “technical capabilities” to access Canadians’ communications and sensitive data. The consensus among cybersecurity experts is clear. There is no way to provide backdoor access to encrypted data and communications without compromising the privacy and security of millions of law-abiding citizens.

https://www.hilltimes.com/sponsored/open-letter-bill-c-22-an-act-respecting-lawful-access/Open linkView original on fedia.io
dull_mens_club·Dull Men's Clubbykbal

I have just noticed that there is a hole in my boots.

I have just noticed that there is a hole in my boots.

To test the hypothesis that modern materials science and manufacturing techniques had rendered obsolete Sam Vimes' famous saying about boots, last autumn I bought the cheapest winter boots available at Walmart.

They are not fashionable, well-fitting, or particularly warm, but they looked indestructible and waterproof — made of seemingly tough material with good think soles. The soles probably are indeed indestructible, but just at the heel where they meet the other part of the boot, some kind of design flaw has resulted in a hole in exactly the same spot on each boot after only one winter of light use.

I will patch them and see if the repair holds next year.

View original on fedia.io
dull_mens_club·Dull Men's Clubbykbal

I just did 20 minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise per day for 8 weeks.

I just did 20 minutes of vigorous aerobic exercise per day for 8 weeks.

It was pretty good, I guess. My fitness is much improved. 150 minutes per week is what all the public health information websites recommend that everyone should get, so according to them I'm almost doing the bare minimum for the first time in my life. I'm pretty old, so it took some time for it to start having an effect. It feels like it will probably take another 8 weeks before my body actually starts getting used to it and stops getting stronger so quickly as it still is doing for now.

View original on fedia.io
ndp·New Democratic Party 🍁 Nouveau Parti Démocratiquebykbal

Pluralistic: Austerity creates fascism (13 Apr 2026)

"Austerity begets fascism" is one of those things that makes a lot of intuitive sense, but it turns out that there's a good empirical basis for believing it. In "Public Service Decline and Support for the Populist Right" four economists from the LSE and Bocconi provide an excellent look at the linkage between austerity and support for fascists

(Avi Lewis gets a mention towards the end, but the whole premise is increasingly relevant to Canada.)

https://pluralistic.net/2026/04/12/always-great/#our-nhsOpen linkView original on fedia.io
amd·AMDbykbal

AMD: WTF? [Gamers Nexus]

AMD is spending record money on lobbying after decades of absence or near-absence from any form of political contribution and, in our opinions, is now joining the ranks of companies like Micron, NVIDIA, and Palantir in effectively bribing the US government for favorable deregulation, tax incentives, and safety bypasses for AI and data centers. We dig into AMD's millions of spending on Super PACs associated with President Trump, lobbyists, and in general, what we view as anti-consumer and anti-humanity efforts as AMD partners closely with the Federal Government to reduce safety nets around construction and development. Like NVIDIA and Micron, AMD is taking the same path of directly engaging in what we think are, effectively, bribes, while still maintaining an image of being the plucky underdog.

View original on fedia.io
canadapolitics·CanadaPoliticsbykbal

"We are not looking for sneaky ways to surveil Canadians" says minister, as he introduces a bill that allows him to demand that any web service they choose to victimize must assist them in the

"We are not looking for sneaky ways to surveil Canadians" says minister, as he introduces a bill that allows him to demand that any web service they choose to victimize must assist them in the surveillance of Canadians and that they can't tell anyone about it.

https://www.parl.ca/DocumentViewer/en/45-1/bill/C-22/first-reading#ID0EMBA

View original on fedia.io
canada·Canadabykbal

Carney backs U.S. air strikes on Iran

Prime Minister Mark Carney backed U.S. air strikes on Iran, saying Tehran is the main source of instability in the Middle East and must never be allowed to possess nuclear weapons.

“Canada supports the United States acting to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and to prevent its regime from further threatening international peace and security,” the Prime Minister said in a joint statement with Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand Saturday from Canada’s trade mission to India.

Carney backs U.S. air strikes on Iranhttps://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-anand-urges-canadians-to-leave-israel-palestine-and-lebanon-as/Open linkView original on fedia.io