Ontario

Ontario Housing starts:

• 2022: 91,885
• 2023: 85,770
• 2024: 72,118
• 2025: 62,561

With the current economy and cuts to funding, many festivals have called it quits.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.dbzer0.com/post/61551905

“‘This obsession with bike lanes is, frankly, not helping anyone. And if, instead, the government stayed in its lane and focused on things like helping cities with transit, that would be a real improvement for Torontonians.’ Longfield said the money could be used to fix growing pains in opening Toronto’s new Line 6 Finch West or to finally open the long-promised Eglinton Crosstown LRT, both of which are under the jurisdiction of the province’s Metrolinx corporation.” — Ethan Lang, CBC News

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/58432388

also ear cropping

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/58411636

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/53198948

From casual dismissal to systemic neglect, a mother details the long, quiet harm of anti-Black racism in the classroom — and the emotional toll of fighting it, year after year.

From the GoFundMe description:

On December 5th, workers at Democracy found out that our café was unexpectedly closing in less than two weeks.

We were officially laid off on December 21st, four days before Christmas.

The news hit only two months after our first union contract was ratified. As a team, we worked hard to win a contract that protected our job security, our safety, and basic fairness. Even though many of us were unfairly targeted for our union work (we even filed a Labour Board complaint and were compensated for the union-busting we experienced), we kept fighting for fairness.

Now, owner Chris Mindorff is claiming that he can’t operate the café “due to the recent resignations of key management.”

This notice came less than 24 hours after our General Manager announced her resignation. That same week, our Assistant General Manager also resigned. No workers were approached about taking on manager tasks, and to our knowledge there was no search to hire a replacement manager.

The shocking truth? Chris transferred our General Manager and Assistant General Manager to new jobs at his non-unionized cafés. Chris owns five other “small” businesses in the Hamilton area – Mulberry Coffeehouse, Paisley Coffeehouse, Donut Monster, RedChurch Cafe, and Station One.

As workers, we are heartbroken to lose our community at Democracy.

We are gutted to overhear managers misleading customers about their “resignation”.

We are angered that the year we spent building a safer, better workplace is being tossed down the drain.

And we are terrified about unexpectedly losing our jobs so close to the holidays.

The community’s response to Democracy’s closure has been incredibly touching. We have been overwhelmed by the support and encouragement we’ve received.

See also: https://www.canadianarchitect.com/ontario-science-centre-opening-interim-location-at-harbourfront-centre-by-summer-2026/

You can also submit comments on a motion to save the original Science Centre building: https://secure.toronto.ca/council/agenda-item.do?item=2025.MM35.4

The Ottawa Citizen reported in 2024 that the Department of Canadian Heritage was told by historians that more than half of the 550 names to be inscribed on the Memorial to the Victims of Communism should be removed. The reason was because of potential links to the Nazis or questions about affiliations with fascist groups.

Canadian Heritage has now reversed course on inscribing specific names. “The Government of Canada has emphasized that all aspects of the Memorial to the Victims of Communism must align with Canadian values of democracy and human rights,” department spokesperson Caroline Czajkowski said in an email. “The Wall of Remembrance will now solely feature thematic content that conveys the broader commemorative and educational intent of the Memorial.”

cross-posted from: https://piefed.ca/c/fairvote/p/390561/when-a-party-can-win-unchecked-power-with-40-of-the-vote-accountability-becomes-optional

Proportional representation would prevent governments from sidelining the legislature and would require cooperation instead of unilateral control.