Joan Baxter
@joanbaxter.bsky.social
Author, independent investigative journalist, member ICIJ global network - environment, climate, and corporate capture my obsessions - allergic to hypocrisy, propaganda and greenwashing grifters. Still writing after all these years. Opinions my own.
A guest speaker is invited to each session to talk about various topics. Thanks to @joanbaxter.bsky.social and @nsnewsh0und.bsky.social for agreeing to interviews to talk about their respective sessions at Democracy Talks. We need more of this! Now, I'm getting offline.
A proposed municipal pause on AI data centres in Hamilton seemed like a done deal. All but 1 of the 16 elected officials in the city voted in favour of bringing the bylaw forward. Then, the majority flipped. Here's what happened + what implications it could have for other municipalities.
Hamilton's mysterious data centre reversal haunts other municipalities
All but one of the 16 elected officials in the city had voted in favour of a bylaw that would put a pause on new data centres in the city for a year. Then, at a council meeting the following month whe...
nationalobserver.com
A story of cause and effect: Last November, Ontario banned cities from using speed safety cameras to issue tickets. Reckless speeding immediately surged in Toronto, Ottawa, Guelph, and cities throughout the province. A 🧵 about my latest in Bloomberg (gift link)
What Happens When Speed Cameras Get Shut Off
In 2025, Ontario banned automated traffic enforcement. Now the number of drivers exceeding the speed limit has surged, according to traffic data.
bloomberg.com
One of the clearest descriptions of climate dynamics for laypeople that you’ll ever hear: “It will inevitably get worse. It will get worse and worse and worse.”
This isn't the new normal. It's just the beginning
This summer’s disasters appear to have boosted climate multilateralism, at least within Europe, and underscored the need to tackle fossil fuels. But we may not be waiting long for the scientists' “wor...
nationalobserver.com
1/ Over the weekend -- while Canadians across the country were dealing with raging wildfires and the aftermath of severe flooding and heatwaves -- PM Carney quietly accelerated the timeline on his taxpayer funded pipeline. environmentaldefence.ca/2026/08/04/p...
PM Carney proceeding at breakneck pace with West Coast Pipeline - Environmental Defence
Statement by Julia Levin, Associate Director, National Climate, Environmental Defence Over the weekend, while Canadians across the country are dealing
environmentaldefence.ca
Something I'll never understand - if I want to make substantial enough changes to my house, it has to go through a neighbourhood consultation process, but someone on my block can buy a vehicle that significantly increases the chances one of my kids gets run over.
David Zipper@davidzipper.bsky.social · 5d agoWhich vehicles most endanger the drivers of other cars? Giant pickup trucks — and the Dodge Charger Source: www.iihs.org/news/detail/...
The Sahelian Parklands story in film: youtu.be/0360iMXnxeY?...
Green Treasure of the Sahel
YouTube video by Center for International Forestry Research (CIFOR)
youtu.be
Africa Institute in Ireland@africa-instituteie.bsky.social · 5d agowww.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... @joanbaxter.bsky.social @thinkorswim.bsky.social @kevinkosullivan.bsky.social #Parklands #Sahel
AI just doing its thing. (With a little help from Trump’s state department, where geography matters not.) Where in the world has Carmen Sandiego gone? www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
US government map of Africa mislabels every country at global conference
State department ‘takes full responsibility’ for erroneous, widely shared chart displayed at Aids conference in Brazil
theguardian.com
another shameful reversal by mark carney that shows how much power the US tech companies have over our government. there’s no sovereignty when foreign companies wield this much influence over our domestic policy.
DT Cochrane@dtcochrane.bsky.social · last wk.A massive giveaway from Carney to Big Tech. Elbows up to punch yourself in the face, I guess. www.thewirereport.ca/2026/07/28/b...
Hilarious how so many people on this website see Carney as a great defender of Canada from Trump, when the evidence shows the opposite.
Mark Carney speaks of extreme weather events and wildfires caused by climate change, but Mr. “Value(s)” and former UN Special Envoy on Climate Action and Finance - now Mr. Fossil Fuel and Pipeline Pusher- can’t even make himself mention the climate crisis by name.
Nova Scotians respond to European-style austerity with European-style protest
Nova Scotians respond to European-style austerity with European-style protest
WOLFVILLE, NS - Police were summoned to Acadia University on Wednesday afternoon, after demonstrators voicing displeasure with Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston’s European-style austerity measures opted...
thebeaverton.com
These images of First Nations community members evacuating Collins, Ontario on motorboats are absolutely surreal www.facebook.com/reel/1548244...
Luke LeBrun@lukelebrun.ca · 3w agoThese photos of FNs community members fleeing their homes by boat are genuinely apocalyptic (Photo via Wayne Wastaken of Collins, Ontario, who says his “hometown is gone”) www.facebook.com/share/r/1ArN...
Climate change is terrifying. Even more terrifying is so many human beings’ ability to deny it, and let the oil and gas (and tech and auto) industries and their lackeys in our governments get away with destroying the climate we need to survive, committing mass murder and ecocide.
Catherine McKenna@cathmckenna.bsky.social · 3w agoClimate change is real.
I should have put this in my Morning File. @joanbaxter.bsky.social wrote about how Nova Scotia RCMP ignored red flags about the Portapique gunman. Brenda Forbes warned RCMP about the killer and was ignored. www.halifaxexaminer.ca/mass-casualt...
RCMP ignored 'red flags' about the killer's violence and illegal firearms: MCC Report - Halifax Examiner
If the RCMP had done their jobs correctly in the years leading up to the murders of April 2020, they might have found the illegal firearms in the future gunman’s possession, according to the final rep...
halifaxexaminer.ca
How dare he talk about protecting kids while supporting the oil industry that's destroying their future. How dare he. The shamelessness of this man.
Mark Carney@mark-carney.bsky.social · 3w agoWe’re making big changes to combat crime and keep Canadians safe.
Reality check: www.halifaxexaminer.ca/green-hydrog...
EverWind Fuels gets approval for largest wind project in Nova Scotia, but the renewable electricity is not for Nova Scotians, and so far the Crown land is free - Halifax Examiner
Electricity from the Ocean Lake wind project is intended solely for hydrogen and ammonia-for-export-production, and not to green Nova Scotia’s grid.
halifaxexaminer.ca
Canada's National Observer@nationalobserver.com · 4w agoWind power in Nova Scotia has long struggled to find a route to market, due to its small population base and lack of industrial buyers — but hydrogen generation is expected to drive wind market growth.
EverWind Fuels gets approval for largest wind project in Nova Scotia, but the renewable electricity is not for Nova Scotians, and so far the Crown land is free reported by Joan Baxter @joanbaxter.bsky.social
EverWind Fuels gets approval for largest wind project in Nova Scotia, but the renewable electricity is not for Nova Scotians, and so far the Crown land is free - Halifax Examiner
Electricity from the Ocean Lake wind project is intended solely for hydrogen and ammonia-for-export-production, and not to green Nova Scotia’s grid.
halifaxexaminer.ca
EverWind Fuels is currently a fossil fuels shipping and storage company, and its green hydrogen and ammonia dreams are … apparently … still dreams, awaiting lots more government (public) money.
Tim Bousquet@timbousquet.bsky.social · 4w agoEverWind Fuels gets approval for largest wind project in Nova Scotia, but the renewable electricity is not for Nova Scotians, and so far the Crown land is free reported by Joan Baxter @joanbaxter.bsky.social
VIA Rail has been deliberately broken incrementally by Ottawa over 6 decades. And of course, it was kneecapped in 1995 when Ottawa privatized CN along with the tracks, leaving VIA to the mercy of CN, and of passenger-rail-cutting politicians.
J. Kelly Nestruck@nestruck.bsky.social · 4w agoVIA Rail is fundamentally broken.
It’s been a big week for the Alberta premier — and a terrifying one for the future of the human race. Hot on the heels of a proposal for a new oil pipeline, Smith unveiled yet another horrifying project that will send us careening towards climate dystopia: Meta’s HUGE new AI data centre. It's bad:
Mark Carney is paying our taxes to Ai and the military. While prices rise and people go homeless. Neoliberalism and hypercapitalism are leading us to oligarchy, with Mark following the American playbook. #cdnpol
We Investigated The Corporations Buying Trump's Sons
YouTube video by More Perfect Union
youtu.be
Vancouver roadside commentators put it succinctly years ago.
Dale Smith@journodale.bsky.social · 4w agoShocked—shocked!—that a cult's propaganda organ was involved in financial misdeeds and money laundering.
Mark Carney sold out Cuba at the UN. If you are lobbyist for a pesticide company or an oil giant looking for a handout he's got your back but a nation being crushed by an illegal blockade? Well that's another story. Call your Liberal MP and ask why. canadiannetworkoncuba.ca/2026/07/07/c...
CNC Statement on Canada’s Abstention at the United Nations – Canadian network on cuba
canadiannetworkoncuba.ca
The same Liberal government that's destroying the post office, ostensibly because it's not profitable, is willing to spend billions on a pipeline that will likely never be profitable, to join an existing pipeline that is also not profitable and likely never will be.
The Narwhal@thenarwhal.ca · 4w agoWhat a week. Amidst the blur of World Cup shenanigans and Canada Day festivities, politicians dropped not one, not two, but three massive pipeline announcements. If pipelines such an economic boon, why are taxpayers footing the bill? thenarwhal.ca/three-pipeli...
Carney fans, rationalize away!
The Narwhal@thenarwhal.ca · 4w agoWhat a week. Amidst the blur of World Cup shenanigans and Canada Day festivities, politicians dropped not one, not two, but three massive pipeline announcements. If pipelines such an economic boon, why are taxpayers footing the bill? thenarwhal.ca/three-pipeli...
At a time when the price of wind and solar power are now both undercutting new-build oil and gas, the Canadian government has been labouring to offload the potential financial perils of LNG mega-projects with problematic economics from private investors to the taxpayer.
Who's pushing Canada's pension giants to back LNG?
After years steering clear of investment in the Canadian LNG sector, the generally risk-adverse Maple 8 group of pension funds, which have an asset base totalling C$2.7 trillion, might be enlisted by ...
nationalobserver.com
