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Toronto Star » Ontario is planning to vastly expand its current gas-fired power plants and is set to build new ones
Hello everyone, and happy Canada Day.
With the spring 2021 census, we learned Canada was home to 36,991,981 people, 1.8 million (5.2 percent) more in just five years. Close to 27.3 million, nearly three in four, lived in one of Canada’s 41 urban centres.
The 41 urban centres, all have a population of 100,000 or more people, and accounted for most of Canada’s population growth from 2016 to 2021.
This list ranks the cities with populations of 1 million or more people.
Source » Statistics Canada
Freedom House rates people’s access to political rights and civil liberties in 210 countries and territories through its annual Freedom in the World report. Individual freedoms—ranging from the right to vote to freedom of expression and equality before the law—can be affected by state or nonstate actors.
The Earth’s 10 largest countries (as calculated by total area) »
Source » Wikipedia
July 1 is our national holiday!
On July 1, 1867, the British North America Act (today known as the Constitution Act, 1867) creates Canada.
Canada Day is a day to reflect on what it means to be Canadian, to share what makes us proud and to celebrate in our own way.
… after failing to bully – I mean lobby – Ottawa, Canada’s parliament this week passed bill C-18, known as the Online News Act. The new law requires tech giants like Google and Meta/Facebook to pay news outlets for their content.
Meta, parent of Facebook and Instagram, and Google will block local Canadian news from their platforms after the country became the latest jurisdiction to pass a law aimed at forcing tech giants to pay news providers for content.
Behemoth American companies like Facebook and Google have been killing local Canadian media while profiting off their backs for many years now. It’s time to be thinking about alternatives to these giant juggernauts and supporting local media.
National Observer » Silicon mobsters’ chokehold on Canada
BBC | UPI | The Guardian
CTV »
Thursday’s report plainly states that foreign states “are attempting to influence and interfere with Canada’s society and democracy” in a number of ways, including espionage and online disinformation.
While the report doesn’t draw a direct line between China and foreign election interference, as has been a central preoccupation for federal politicians in recent months, CSE does call out China for its diaspora intimidation tactics.
CBC »
CBC »
CBC »
CTV »
Canada surpassed the record for area burned by wildfires in a single year Monday as hundreds of fires continued to blaze in almost every province and territory.
The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre reported Monday afternoon that 76,129 square kilometres of forest and other land has burned since Jan. 1. That exceeds the previous record set in 1989 of 75,596 square kilometres, according to the National Forestry Database.
CNN » Canadian wildfire smoke reaches Europe
CBC »
BBC »
A left-wing progressive standard-bearer has won Toronto’s mayoral election, triumphing in a historically crowded field of 102 candidates.
Olivia Chow, 66, said she will work to build a city that is “more caring, affordable and safe”.
The race had focused largely on affordability and public safety.
Regional vice-president John Williston said the premier was “over the top” and “aggressive” when he shouted at the member of the PC provincial council on the weekend.
Valley of the Ten Peaks and Moraine Lake, Banff National Park, Canada (Public Domain, Source » Wikimedia)
Netflix in Canada has removed its $9.99 per month ‘Basic’ package, forcing new subscribers to endure commercials or pay a extra for an uninterrupted streaming package.
June 24, 1604, French explorer Samuel de Champlain reaches the mouth of the Saint John River, site of the Reversing Falls and present-day Saint John, New Brunswick.
Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto ranked in the top 10 according to a long-running Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) latest survey, the Global Liveability Index 2023 ranking of 173 metropolises.
For 2023, the world’s 10 most livable cities according to the EIU are:
Least liveable of the cities ranked include Douala, Cameroon; Kyiv, Ukraine; Harare, Zimbabwe; Dhaka, Bangladesh; Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea; Karachi, Pakistan; Lagos, Nigeria; Algiers, Algeria; Tripoli, Libya; Damascus, Syria.
Read the report » Economist Intelligence Unit’s (EIU) Global Liveability Index 2023
Sensitive, a little. Maybe?
Canada’s parliament on Thursday passed Bill C-18, the Online News Act. The new law compels the social media companies – such as Facebook – to negotiate commercial deals with news outlets and pay for news content. So why does this behemoth not want to pay?
Meta is worth US$720 Billion.
ABC News (Australia) | Press Gazette (UK) | NY Times | France 24 | The Verge | BBC | Al Jazeera | Reuters
Meta, Facebook and Instagram’s parent company, is making good on its threat to block news sharing on both platforms across Canada in response to Ottawa’s online news bill, which became law late Thursday.
“Today, we are confirming that news availability will be ended on Facebook and Instagram for all users in Canada prior to the Online News Act (Bill C-18) taking effect,” a blog post from the web giant notes.
News organizations and journalists are essential to our democracy. They play a vital role in providing accurate, fact-based, non-partisan reporting on current events happening in our communities, across the country and around the world, allowing all of us to make informed decisions on important issues such as health, public safety and education.
Bill C-18, the Online News Act will require the largest digital platforms to bargain fairly with Canadian news businesses for the use of their news content on their services.
The Online News Act levels the playing field between news businesses and large digital platforms to create greater fairness to ensure sustainability of the news industry. Through a market-based approach, it encourages voluntary commercial agreements between platforms and news businesses with minimal government intervention, as well as crucial safeguards to preserve the independence of the press.
The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) will be responsible for overseeing the Online News Act. It will oversee the bargaining, negotiation and external final-offer arbitration processes between platforms and news businesses. It will also create a code of conduct to support fairness and transparency in bargaining.
Media Release | NY Times | AP |
Facebook’s Reaction » Facebook and Instagram’s parent company Meta says it will end access to news on its platforms in Canada
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