New research from Proton finds 87% of top Canadian companies depend on US tech companies. For governments, it’s even worse: 100% of federal, provincial, and territorial governments rely on US companies for email. As Canada turns away from the US, major institutions need to cut that reliance.

Selling the house to buy the furniture.

Toronto Star@thestar.com · 3d ago

#Breaking: The federal government will allow private ownership of four major airports — including Toronto’s Pearson, Canada’s busiest — in a move that breaks with a decades-long arrangement that saw them run by non-profits on government-owned land.

#Poetry #Painting #Morning It is morning, and again I am the lucky person to be in it - Mary Oliver 🎨 Kaoru Yamada

The oil industry buys off Congress. No action on climate. The NRA buys off Congress. No action on guns. Insurance companies buy off Congress. No action on health care. Big Tech buys off Congress. No action on AI safety. The list goes on and on. Money in politics is the root of our dysfunction.

Slime molds are so weird and cool. This is some sort of Stemonitis, which I found near Cultus Lake. #SlimeMold #Stemonitis #Slime #Mold #iNaturalist #Macro #Nature #BritishColumbia #Canada

Great news! @copevancouver.bsky.social just backed proportional representation for Vancouver Council! We need other parties to step up and commit to PR too. Your move, @onecityvan.bsky.social @vangreens.bsky.social @votevancouver.bsky.social Read more: www.fairvote.ca/12/09/2026/w...

Which Vancouver parties support proportional representation?

Where do Vancouver's parties stand on proportional representation?

fairvote.ca

This. Giant LLMs and whatever risks they pose aren't some cosmic misfortune falling down onto us from outer space. They're being built by specific companies, which are run by specific people. Who could be held accountable, and who could be stopped, if we elected governments willing to do so.

blair@blairaf.com · 6d ago

Disappointing to see an increasing number of tech critics see the recent AI security events and conclude "maybe the doomers are correct and AI is an existential risk" rather than "maybe the tech execs are an existential risk"

Fighting the Oligarchy’s Stranglehold on the Media "Big corporate media mergers are bad for everyone other than those few who stand to profit. They’re harmful for media workers, consumers, local communities, First Amendment freedoms, and democracy writ large."

Fighting the Oligarchy's Stranglehold on the Media | Common Dreams

When it comes to media, journalism, and the broader information landscape, there’s a strong practical need to be utopian right now—to give us hope but to also provide clarity as to what we should be f...

commondreams.org

There's actually no way to put a positive spin on the fact that your industry is packed with people who sincerely believe that their project has a serious risk of killing out all of humanity, but for some bizarre fanatical reason, they're hellbent on doing it anyway.

BREAKING: Blizzard union workers have ratified a historic contract that has secured guardrails around AI usage, layoff protections, remote/hybrid work benefits, and much more.

Blizzard union workers ratify contract covering 1,900 employees

Union members have secured guardrails around generative AI usage, layoff protections, remote and hybrid work benefits, and more.

gamedeveloper.com

"Perhaps more concerningly, the TVs were capable of recording microphone audio when in standby; this continued even after the TV was disconnected from the internet, with audio files stored offline and uploaded once a connection was restored."

Alex Hern@hern.bsky.social · last wk.

It's finally happened: the improved quality of machine transcription and the greater ability to extract value from unlabelled data means "your tech is eavesdropping on you for marketing purposes" has crossed from "false conspiracy theory" to "true and concerning" www.theverge.com/tech/991190/...

“Every fraction of a degree of warming avoided means lives saved” is going to remain a true statement for the rest of our lives

James Dyke@jamesgdyke.info · last wk.

No, the UNEP Overshoot report does not mean we give up. Accepting warming will pass 1.5°C doesn't mean there's no point to climate action. Mitigation & adaptation become more important the warmer it gets. Why is this so difficult for some people to understand? www.technosphere.earth/overshoot-sh...

I'd like to slowly transition to focusing my social media activity on the Fediverse. If you'd like to follow me but don't want to join right away, I've set up account bridges: My text posts: @garrickwinter.mastodon.social.ap.brid.gy My image posts: @guerrichache.pixelfed.social.ap.brid.gy

Ascaphus truei (the coastal tailed frog) has become my favourite native frog. They're itty bitty, evolutionarily peculiar, and I love their streak of black on the face, the golden-bronze bit of their iris, the vertical slit pupils. Such cute little frogs. #Frog #Ascaphus #iNaturalist #Canada

This is why when someone says "AI literacy" you always have to ask what they mean by that. It's increasingly a phrase used to mean "use AI a bunch", and not "understand the cognitive, environmental, societal impacts of LLMs".

Benjamin Riley@benjaminjriley.bsky.social · 2w ago

While getting my hair cut, my stylist — also in grad school — tells me she had a guest professor who told her class they need “AI literacy,” which apparently meant having Chat write biographies for each student. My stylist asked, “why? We already…know who we are?” She got a nice tip.

This kind of report should be accompanied by a press conference—not with some low-level bureaucrat, but with the prime minister. Flanked by all of his ministers. In prime time, with technical briefings. This report says we're facing unimaginable disaster, yet we didn't even get a briefing.

Canada's National Observer@nationalobserver.com · 2w ago

Environmental groups say there’s a reason why the federal government quietly released its latest climate report, which finds that average temperatures in Canada are set to go up by at least 3.5 C by the end of the century.

New investigation from me. The 23 websites are designed to influence the answers that AI chatbots give to voters in Alberta, targeting farmers, young people, veterans, mothers and oil industry workers. www.nationalobserver.com/2026/09/04/i...

A US-linked network of fake websites is promoting Alberta separatism to AI chatbots

The websites present crude, AI-generated slop disguised as the voice of real Albertans. But they're made in Florida — and they're not even targeting Albertans directly.

nationalobserver.com

I'll be vending tomorrow at Jim Deva Plaza, noon to 7pm! Come drop by if you'd like to get some stuff, or just say hello! I'll have a mix of T-shirts, stickers, tote bags, mugs - and of course, some of these coyote patches, which might actually be the most popular item on my Etsy shop.

timeline cleanse

The website says it's open source, so I'm interested. It seems the source isn't available yet; hopefully it will be available alongside the launch of the software itself. This is the kind of thing that would be getting investment if the federal government were serious about digital sovereignty!

Emerence 🍁@damemyniah.bsky.social · 2w ago

“Soomi is a 100% Canadian-owned alternative to Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace. Mail, files, documents, calendar, and meetings, built so your data and control stays with you, and in Canada.” I’m intrigued. soomi.ca/en/

I dunno i guess i just think it's bad that, instead of rebuilding cultures of trust & shared consensus knowledgemaking which are fundamental to our society, we're just increasingly handing over decision- & sense-making authority to tools which a) we can't trust & b) further degrade trust foundations

Just a friendly little (BIG) goose. #Goose #CanadaGoose #VectorArt #Art #Illustration

Who doesn't sometimes long to become one with the bog moss? #VectorArt #Bog #NatureArt #Wetlands #GraphicDesign #Art

Map in progress ✌️

Hey Vancouverites! I've got some of my merch as physical inventory, and I'll be selling it at RainCity Local Market in the West End on September 5th. Stop by if you want to say hi, or if you want to pick up some stuff!

Meta's settlement also means that the AGs won't be laying out the evidence they've collected and the arguments they're making about the harms of social media. That doesn't just protect Meta's business; it muzzles an important avenue of critique against corporate social media more generally. #BigTech

Social Media Lab@socialmedialab.ca · 3w ago

"Meta's social media settlement leaves its money machine unscathed" www.reuters.com/world/asia-p...

The United States is taking aim at Canada once again, with a crushing new set of tariffs. Ultimately, government will need to solve this. But in the same way Canadians are avoiding US alcohol, produce, and other goods, they should get off US tech products too. Luckily, I have a guide for that.

Getting off US tech: a guide

I’m in the process of dropping US tech services. Here’s how I did it, and options you should consider.

disconnect.blog

This trade war should jolt us out of our reliance on volatile fossil fuels and accelerate our transition to clean, secure and reliable energy.

This is what we need to be doing: a form of retaliation that doesn't make Canadians pay the price, a genuine and fundamental reorientation of our economy and country towards infrastructure that's actually under our control, and a shot against an aristocracy that has been ruling with impunity.

Greg Bester 🇨🇦@gregbester.bsky.social · 3w ago

My advice on retaliation on Trump. Go after the tech oligarchs. Americans hate them too. Bring back the DST. Bring back the Online News Act. Announce a de-Americanization of software used by the federal government. Increase Canadian content rules on streamers. We can hit back without tariffs.

The Bloc Québécois says the Liberal government should bring back the digital services tax on tech giants and keep Canadian content financial contributions for streamers. https://cheknews.ca/after-u-s-targets-culture-bloc-asks-carney-to-backtrack-on-dst-cancon-payments-1343695/

After U.S. targets culture, Bloc asks Carney to backtrack on DST, CanCon payments

The Bloc Québécois says the Liberal government should bring back the digital services tax on tech giants and keep Canadian content financial contributions for streamers.

cheknews.ca