10 Canadian stories from last week on policing, legal battles, & transparency 1. Drug User Liberation Front trial closes, but no decision likely until 2027 DULF co-founders are constitutionally challenging their possession-for-trafficking charges www.defactomedia.ca/newsletter/d... More in thread:

a bunch of popular ASMR artists lost their channels forever this week, after YouTube cited them for violating terms against "sexually gratifying" content: www.404media.co/youtube-asmr...

YouTube Bans Popular ASMR Artists, Accusing Them of Making 'Sexually Gratifying' Content

YouTube told ASMR artists including Bunnii, Slight Sounds, Rose, and others that their content broke the platform's sex and nudity policy. Creators say these bans are unfair and potentially life-alter...

404media.co

how about instead the more money you make the fewer votes you get. you already have money, do you really need votes too

Rachel Gilmore@rachelgilmore.bsky.social · 6d ago

Days after Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke publicly supported the idea that pensioners and the poor should lose their right to vote — and the wealthy should have extra votes — Elon Musk called him a "national treasure." But that's not all. Lutke also has the ear of Canada's prime minister. Here's proof:

OneCity has spent the last year telling progressives that they're the superior group in organizing, fundraising, and a clear electable message, and the Greens and COPE should get in line behind them. You can make all the caveats you want about a single poll, but 4% is so far from what they wanted.

BC's Mental Health Act violates Charter rights (sections 7 and 15), court finds: You can't assume an involuntarily hospitalized person lacks capacity to consent or withhold consent to treatment. Win for disability rights activists: www.bccourts.ca/jdb-txt/sc/2... ht @ivacheung.com

gmail doing an ai summary of your email then telling you ai makes mistakes so you should probably read the actual email anyway cool thanks

My last article as the labour reporter at @pressprogress.ca is about.... media layoffs! Earlier this month, Rogers closed six stations and laid off 230 radio workers across the country. In Vancouver, the layoffs hit a newsroom that had struggled for years to unionize.

PressProgress@pressprogress.ca · 6d ago

Rogers Layoffs Stemmed from ‘Corporate Decisions’ Taking Precedent Over Workers, Union Says “Workers are often the last to be considered when these decisions are made.” pressprogress.ca/rogers-layof...

I hate it here ... 🫠 New from me, on the Canadian discount coffee chain in the year 2026 (!!) choosing to partner with the British anti-trans lady's three-decade-old children's book series ⬇️ xtramagazine.com/culture/tim-...

Tim Hortons and the no good very bad ‘Harry Potter’ collaboration | Xtra Magazine

Tim Hortons licensing “Harry Potter” in 2026 essentially means directly funding J.K. Rowling’s anti-trans crusade

xtramagazine.com

I've had the privilege of working with Emma over the last 2+ years in launching @defactomedia.ca both in an organizational capacity and in co-authoring two pieces in De Facto's first series. If you've got work that needs doing, I highly recommend working with Emma!

Emma Arkell@emmaarkell.bsky.social · last wk.

This is my last working week as the labour reporter at PressProgress. I received notice a little over a week ago that the labour reporter position is being terminated and I’m being laid off.

If anyone is interested in hiring this award-winning journalist, I'd be pleased to give a reference check extolling how talented and competent my former colleague and co-union steward @emmaarkell.bsky.social is to anyone interested Exhibit A:

PressProgress Labour Reporter Emma Arkell Wins Silver Canadian Association of Journalists Award for Labour Reporting

Emma Arkell reported on anti-LGBTQ+ harassment targeting teachers and education workers for Xtra Magazine last year

pressprogress.ca

Emma Arkell@emmaarkell.bsky.social · last wk.

This is my last working week as the labour reporter at PressProgress. I received notice a little over a week ago that the labour reporter position is being terminated and I’m being laid off.

AI “art“ and “writing” is so hollow and soulless. If you conceive of the meaning of life as existing with other plants and creatures in this sort of state of death and life and creation… there’s no space for it. It mocks and undermines what makes life worth living

Riding bikes is 10X more important than electric cars for reaching net-zero cities. And that’s just the climate emissions. Doesn’t include the massive public & personal cost difference, the air & noise pollution difference, the massive space difference, etc, etc…Via @theconversation.bsky.social

Cycling is ten times more important than electric cars for reaching net-zero cities

Active travel can help tackle the climate crisis earlier than electric vehicles – even if you swap the car for a bike for just one trip a day.

theconversation.com

“While oilsands carbon pollution more than doubled from 2007 to 2024 to 92 million tonnes, the ability of facilities in Canada to capture carbon from industrial sources hasn’t yet grown beyond a few million tonnes of emissions per year.”

For 20 years, Canada’s leaders have promised a carbon capture fix | The Narwhal

It’s expensive and unproven at scale. From Stephen Harper to Mark Carney, Canadian politicians have made promises on carbon capture — yet to be delivered

thenarwhal.ca

MARK CARNEY, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN! ottawacitizen.com/public-servi...

Carney government cut nearly half the jobs at nerve centre for managing wildfires: union

The Carney government cut about 50 positions from the federal nerve centre responsible for managing forest fires, the union says.

ottawacitizen.com

Today is the last day to sign up to volunteer for @transmarchyvr.bsky.social If you're willing to be a road marshal, they could use your help! linktr.ee/vancouvertra...

vancouvertransmarch Official: Instagram, Facebook | Linktree

Next event: Vancouver Trans March – July 31st, 2026; Commercial Drive

linktr.ee

“You start wondering whether there was mal intent or just incompetence. Neither [one] is good from a public accountability perspective” Transparency experts weigh in on how public trust is eroded by “secrecy & information control” by police & other public bodies www.defactomedia.ca/interview-fi...

Transparency advocates on police ‘culture of confidentiality and secrecy’

A conversation with BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association's leaders about Vancouver top cops' claims to have no emails about Drug User Liberation Front before they raided — emails we later...

defactomedia.ca

can someone please go fight the weather over this antisocial behaviour

glad @crackdownpod.bsky.social has been able to come back! it's been such an important source of storytelling pushing back on moral panics. looking forward to hearing what they do with the podcast moving forward

Petra Schulz@msthpetra.bsky.social · 2w ago

Aptly named new episode from our friends at @crackdownpod.bsky.social So pleased they are back! ❤️💜❤️ Please share with your friends. www.crackdownpod.com/episodes/epi...

Aptly named new episode from our friends at @crackdownpod.bsky.social So pleased they are back! ❤️💜❤️ Please share with your friends. www.crackdownpod.com/episodes/epi...

Episode 57: We Ain’t Dead Yet — Crackdown Podcast

Description Garth and Sam discuss Elanore Sturko, Vaughn Palmer and Tristin Hopper’s responses to Canada’s declining overdose deaths in 2025. Was it the NDP’s abandonment of decriminalization and “...

crackdownpod.com

I've always said the city of Burnaby eco center is my second favourite place to bring used motor oil, but I'm glad to see this put Burnaby on the map

all right Alexis Henderson, you have my attention

Vancouver City Council has endorsed a high-density, mixed-use future for the former Molson brewery on Burrard St., with Senakw being a precedent. Metro Vancouver Regional District will have the final say on lifting industrial protections. #vanpoli #vanre dailyhive.com/vancouver/mo...

Vancouver City Council endorses high-density future for former Molson brewery site | Daily Hive | Urbanized

Vancouver City Council has taken steps to support Concord Pacific's high-density, mixed-use redevelopment of the old Molson brewery.

dailyhive.com

While Wab Kinew was speaking about the greatest possible nation building project that Canada could undertake is public healthcare... Danielle Smith quietly privatized a huge swath of Albertan's healthcare. #abpoli #ableg #cdnpoli

Wow... a speaker at the Villages hearing says the plan is fine for the East side... but the West side is far too classy and exclusive, and West side children need to be protected from things that are just fine on the East side.

Someone just called my posts about life in Canada "relentlessly negative and depressing." Yep. I'd probably be more cheerful if there wasn't a warning that the air quality where I live will be awful tomorrow, and if anyone in power in Canada was trying to make these events less likely in the future.

Here’s the full story: the BC Conservatives have hired an Alberta separatist and a far-right media figure, signalling the direction the party plans to take under new leader Kerry Lynne Findlay thetyee.ca/News/2026/07...

BC Conservatives Hire an Alberta Separatist and Far-Right Media Figure | The Tyee

Leader Kerry-Lynne Findlay commits to a MAGA approach to winning power.

thetyee.ca

Jen St. Denis@jenstden.bsky.social · 3w ago

Working on a #bcpoli story...

And yet they are moving way faster than they are in curbing the car menace

North Shore News@northshorenews.bsky.social · 3w ago

Rob Shaw: B.C. moving at snail's pace to curb e-scooter menace

that used to be Vancouver. unfathomable now. when a city declares this, they're giving you a tool to do politics, a lever for making change. use it. instead of yelling NO! you can together build YES the harm is not *drugs" but *drugs policy*

The Guardian@theguardian.com · 3w ago

Bristol declared ‘city of harm reduction’ as Greens seek less punitive drug policy