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As part of her climate change plan, Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo is pedestrianizing streets, building bike lanes, and planting trees. The goal is to reduce carbon emissions, reduce traffic noise and make the city more able to resist heat.
She has been very aggressive and upset some car drivers. But the results are starting to pay off.
91·4 days agoControversial opinion: This is actually a very good thing.
20·5 days agoOf course Donald Trump hates Juneteenth.
In 2021, Joe Biden signed the bill making Juneteenth a federal holiday:
US President Joe Biden signed The Juneteenth National Independence Day Act in the White House on Thursday 17 June to formally recognise Juneteenth as a national holiday.
Mr Biden said: “Great nations don’t ignore their most painful moments. We come to terms with the mistakes we made. And remembering those moments, we begin to heal and grow stronger.”
This story is maddening. Bessemer city officials are signing NDAs about a proposed hyperscale data center that will require destroying 100 acres of forest, use 90x as much energy as all homes of the city, & threaten a newly discovered species with extinction.
34·7 days agoIt’s a tram/light rail project meant to connect a large island in Eastern Helsinki with downtown. The most significant part are 3 new bridges that only carry trams, cyclists and pedestrians.
The tram will start operation in 2027, but the bridges are opened for pedestrian traffic as they are completed. The next one should be finished later this summer.
Here’s a short video of the project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTW2VIf5k0I
But the tax is set to be fully repealed on July 1. Its abolition was one of the first acts of Premier John Hogan, who took office in May. He said it was contributing to affordability issues in the province.
Very short-sighted decision.
Obesity costs the Canadian Healthcare system billions of dollars every year:
https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-025-21905-2
Currently, most Canadian politicians are treating people like little children.
It’s time to tell people the brutal truth:
“We can end traffic jams in our city. But we are going to increase parking fees. We are going to build a bike lane network. Many drivers will be unhappy and will have to change their habits. Do you think it’s worth it?”
“We can reduce the number of car crashes. Less people will die. Less people will be injured. But the number of speed cameras will increase. A lot of speeding citizens are going to receive fines and will be furious. Getting a driver license will also become much harder for older people. Do you think it’s worth it?”
“We can make our healthcare system more financially sustainable. We can do that by increasing your income tax. Or we can increase the sales tax. Or we can tax all business owners. Or we can increase the alcohol tax and sugar tax. Which tax do you prefer? What do you think?”
“We can reduce gun trafficking. We will do it by tripling the number of inspections of trucks and cars coming from the United States. But this means longer waiting times at border crossings. The number of american tourists will be reduced. The price of some imported things may also increase. Should we do it?”
"We can significantly reduce homelessness. But we are going to build very tall buildings like in Eastern Europe blocks. We will ban cities from opposing housing projects that meet legal norms. In many neighborhoods, individual homeowners will be outraged. What do you think? Should we do it?
No pain, no gain. It’s true at the gym. But it’s also true in politics.
There are some decisions that are easy wins : cracking down on tax evasion, using open source software, stronger ethics laws.
Unfortunately, most decision aren’t easy wins. They actually require some pain if you want gains.
Time to start treating people like adults. Tell them the brutal truth.
I’m not a Canadian citizen. I studied in Quebec before moving back to my country. I love Canada and I follow Canadian politics very closely.
Justin Trudeau has done some disappointing things. Bill C-59 is not one of them.
In fact, I believe Bill C-59 is perhaps the single greatest bill adopted under Justin Trudeau.
This bill gives enormous new powers to the Competition Bureau:
https://theconversation.com/canadas-competition-laws-just-changed-heres-what-you-need-to-know-220020
This bill also allows the Competition Bureau to punish companies that knowingly lie about their environmental record:
https://ccli.ubc.ca/bill-c-59-anti-greenwashing/
Here is a funny thing that happened. A few hours before Bill C-59 was set to pass, some oil companies started deleting content from their websites:
Pathways Alliance, a coalition of Canadian tar sands producers aiming to build a massive carbon capture project in Alberta, scrubbed their website of its content June 19.
In its place is a notice indicating the organization “removed content from our website, social media and other public communications” and that they had done so in response to anticipated changes coming with Bill C-59.
https://www.desmog.com/2024/06/20/pathways-alliance-website-scrubbed-ahead-of-new-greenwashing-law/
It’s just outrageous to see Danielle Smith and these CEOs whine like that about Bill-C59.
If you don’t break the law by knowingly lying, you have nothing to fear.
You know the worst thing about this story ?
This was published recently 👇👇👇
Alberta paid more than 6 times usual price for pain medications in $70-million import deal
Alberta purchased children’s pain medication from Turkey at a price more than six times greater than what the provincial health authority normally pays for the same volume of product, according to documents obtained by The Globe and Mail.
The Alberta government explained in 2022 that the manufacturer required a minimum order of five million bottles - or $70-million worth of drugs - to get the deal done. But a briefing note, obtained by The Globe, indicates the health authority could have reduced its total bill by ordering less medicine, albeit at a higher price per bottle.
5 million bottles equated to roughly eight bottles for every child in the province.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/alberta/article-alberta-turkish-pain-medication-deal-prices/
The United States and Canada have the most expensive elevators in the world. Prices charged in North America are at least three times those charged by the same manufacturers in comparable mid-rise buildings in high-income countries in Western Europe.
As a result, the U.S. and Canada have fewer elevators per capita than any other high-income country for which data could be found
Unique North American elevator standards have led to no discernible improvement in safety outcomes compared to those in Europe.
https://admin.centerforbuilding.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Elevatorsexecutivesummary.pdf
Are you serious…?
Canadian Intelligence foiled an Iranian attempt to assassinate a former minister:
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-iran-allegedly-planned-to-assassinate-human-rights-crusader-irwin/
Iranians agents tried to kidnap a woman in New York City:
https://www.france24.com/en/americas/20210714-four-charged-with-plot-to-kidnapped-new-york-based-iranian-journalist
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/13/nyregion/iran-masih-alinejad-kidnapping.html
Iranians agents tried to blow up the Saudi Ambassador to the United States:
https://archives.fbi.gov/archives/newyork/press-releases/2012/man-pleads-guilty-in-new-york-to-conspiring-with-iranian-military-officials-to-assassinate-saudi-arabian-ambassador-to-the-united-states
https://www.washingtonpost.com/history/2020/01/04/iran-agents-once-plotted-kill-saudi-ambassador-dc-case-reads-like-spy-thriller/
https://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/30/justice/new-york-saudi-assassination-plot