JFC they FINALLY got rid of the F'ing pumpkins, and now I got to deal with Jesus trees and caroling serial killers??

... Dan Gibson ... said while he was up against some "orthodoxy in the community,” he believes the city shouldn’t be encouraging winter cycling because it’s “not safe.”

Guelph’s unofficial bicycle mayor and GCAT board member Andrea Bidgood took to social media, dubbing herself Guelph’s orthodox bicycle mayor.

"Vision Zero doesn’t discourage people from moving by a certain mode. It demands we make movement safe," Bidgood said in one post. "Winter cycling is only ‘unsafe’ when the city chooses not to maintain safe conditions. Not maintaining infrastructure and then blaming the people who use it is the opposite of Vision Zero."

Global news is reporting that Bill 56 "streamlines" the Clean Water Act. I had my aintern look at the bill (...) with an eye for what the effects on the clean water act are. The biggest change I see is that the bill removes the power of municipalities to place restrictions on any existing polluters in agriculture (the culprits in Walkerton) or industry:

Bill 56 reframes Ontario’s Clean Water Act from a precautionary, locally driven regime toward a centrally managed, discretionary one. The most direct consequence will be reduced ability of local authorities to block high-risk land uses near wells, aquifers, and intake zones. The language of “designed to achieve” introduces interpretive flexibility likely to favour development interests over strict protection.

It doesn't move this power to the province, it just does away with it. Municipalities can set restrictions on the emissions of future polluters, but existing ones are to be grandfathered in.

Why would we want this?? Even assuming someone doesn't have our best interests in mind, why would they want this? The only reason I can see is that they already own large agricultural and industrial polluters.

Overall, this omnibus is clearly the next salvo in Ford's war against municipalities and accountability.

The law school has offered courses before, but the program will now allow students to study the topic more deeply through courses, seminars, fellowships, advocacy outreach and research opportunities.

While organizations like Animal Justice exist to help people navigate animal welfare laws and policies, and law programs across the country offer some variety of courses related to animals, U of T's is the first animal law program at a Canadian law school.

The federal government has launched a new strategy to reduce the number of animals used in regulatory laboratory testing across Canada — a strategy that some experts estimate could result in thousands fewer animals each year being subjected to painful or toxic tests.

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