This weekend in #Toronto:

"We Create Our Futures

a co-created climate, culture, and arts festival at the Centre for Social Innovation in downtown #Toronto, Oct. 16–18. 192 Spadina Ave.

We’re bringing together artists, activists, neighbours, makers, thinkers, dreamers and doers to explore what a more beautiful, regenerative and connected future could actually feel like."

And, hey! Sunday is free, and includes a Repair Café!

Always such great energy at the CSI!
https://socialinnovation.org/news/2026/10/01/we-create-our-futures-2026/

Now, this is interesting! 💃🤜🏻🤛🏼
#TOpoli

"This Saturday:
Women Canvassing: with Olivia Chow & Sarah Polley

This election is a clear choice. Between going back to cuts to services like libraries, transit, and child care, or building an affordable city together. 

Women have the power to decide this election. To decide the future of our city. 

Near Ossington subway
Sat, Oct 17, 10 AM - 2 PM EDT

Register for details:
https://volunteer.oliviachow.ca/womens-canvass

Declassified Report Shows How CIA Resettled Nazis In Canada

From The Maple:
https://www.readthemaple.com/declassified-report-shows-how-cia-resettled-nazis-in-canada/

#Toronto #ONpoli #cdnPoli

So, the municipal election, and …

"Then comes the awful truth: your municipality doesn’t in fact have authority to do these things … Or rather, a higher power has the authority to undo them. Any of them.

… you did not vote for the politician now meddling in city decisions … [but] he threatens to dismantle much of what your councillors were elected to do—& it’s all perfectly legal."

Doug Ford vs. Toronto
https://thelocal.to/toronto-city-council-vs-doug-ford/

I'm generally disturbed by the tone of #gambling ads I see. But this is so much more blatant.

"Advertising like Sydney Sweeney’s Novig campaign teach women to see themselves as objects."
https://theconversation.com/advertising-like-sydney-sweeneys-novig-campaign-teach-women-to-see-themselves-as-objects-292329

#Toronto or Canada folks who mask: 😷

I have 10 child-sized kn95 masks to give away, due to a slip when I ordered. They are gray, so less obtrusive. Also very breathable (they are Breatheteq XS from CanadaStrong).
https://canadastrong.ca/collections/breatheteq-easy-breathing-kn95-made-in-canada-95-pfe

It's amazing how much easier it is to wear a mask that fits well!

Everyone masks at some time, right? When visiting Grandma, maybe?

If you'd use these, or give them to s'one who'd use, I'll mail to you for free in Canada. Or for postage cost, outside Canada.

"Having a guy like Musk telling us via … Twitter that he thinks Alberta, Saskatchewan & Quebec should all separate … is almost as persuasive as he and his fellow[s] telling us that all those energy- & water-sucking AI data centres are gonna be really … good for us. Really. Some day.

… Musk’s dislike … is probably rooted in the fact that his [grandpa] was arrested by the Cdn govt in 1940 for membership in an org. … subversive to the war effort … against Hitler." #cdnPoli

https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2026/10/09/Elon-Musk-Makes-Clear-Hates-Canada/

Over the past decade, rents in Spain have almost doubled, while wages have not. Rent is estimated to constitute almost 99% of a young (under 30) person's salary.

Citizens have had enough. The eviction of an 87 year old pensioner, nicknamed Maricarmen, has become a tipping point. Folks took to the streets demanding action on housing.

So the Prime Minister called a snap election.

(Short narrated video from the CBC)
https://youtube.com/shorts/4Rpgof79y_M?si=vA60Xb6BCsK8fBkU
#housingCrisis #spain #espana

… Btw: you can subscribe to The Breach newsletter here, for solid Canadian journalism: https://breachmedia.ca/subscribe/

They also have RSS and social media accounts, including @TheBreach, which you'll see on their website. But I like newsletters and the subscribe page was hard to find, so now you have it 🤗 .

a historic court ruling ⋆ The Breach

"Last week, the B.C. Supreme Court made a stunning announcement: the two harm reduction organizers who risked imprisonment to save drug users’ lives won’t be going to jail, & the government has six months to rewrite Canada’s drug laws. 

The judge said Canada needs a legal pathway for 'compassion clubs,' organized in Vancouver by the Drug User Liberation Front, … to reduce overdose deaths by supplying safer drugs."

(Audio or video)
https://breachmedia.ca/bc-activists-risked-jail-time-to-provide-safe-drugs-and-won-a-historic-court-ruling/

There are still tickets to see Denmark's* star singer-songwriter Tina Dico when she's in Toronto at the end of this month! It's a smallish venue, so you should be able to really feel the music.
I quite enjoyed her when we saw her in the EU. (She sings in English, moody and truthy songs).

Just sayin' 🤗.

* Denmark. Not Norway. I was watching Norwegian stuff today it was apparently stuck in my head 🤗.

In my inbox, from #Toronto city councillor Gord Perks:

"Brad Bradford wants to take Toronto backwards.

He’ll close libraries, raise transit fares, and cut services we rely on. I remember those days well, I was on Council the last time they tried this. 

Worse, Brad will even open the door to privatizing our drinking water."

Make your plan to vote.
#TOpoli #ONpoli

I'm streaming "Gray" and enjoying how award-winner Patricia Clarkson brings such humanity and depth to yet another unusual role. Standing just 5'5" she still dominates every scene; I can't take my eyes off her. What an actor.

And here, she's surrounded by an international all-star cast, including Rupert Everett (unrecognisable with an American accent) and a well-camouflaged Wendy Crewson (took me a while to figure that one out!)

@OldAintDead you might like! Director: Ruba Nadda.

#whatToWatch

Apparently, the DC National Guard has now issued a statement* that the troops, pictured, were not "guarding" that election dropbox … it seems to suggest their location was inadvertent.

Truth or spin? Either way, it doesn't make it any less threatening.

… Or any less illegal.

The Guard is explicitly barred from electoral intervention, I believe.

Via @nullagent https://partyon.xyz/@nullagent/117414873813939279

#usPol #voterIntimidation #voterSuppression

* EDIT re: statement by National Guard: https://archive.is/WU153

Again, first-past-the-post fails to represent the people:

"Parti Québécois win with record-low vote share revives calls for electoral reform.

With only 28% of the popular vote, the party secured 59 seats — enough for a minority government."

(The party came within a few votes in a few swing ridings of winning a majority government & 100% of the power.)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-parti-quebecois-electoral-reform-9.7373016
#cdnPoli #cdnPolitics #quebecpol #quebecpoli #quebecpolitics

I love how a prosaic piece of equipment here also became an artistic message. Thanks @minouette

#NASA #dareGreatly https://spore.social/@minouette/117411294379605785

"‘It’s way beyond an epidemic’: Food demand is surging across Canada as non-profits struggle to keep up.

Organizations in the Second Harvest [food bank] Network say growing demand is leaving some with waitlists, while others have been forced to turn people away due to a lack of food.

#housingCrisis #affordabilityCrisis #cdnPoli #cdnPolitics

9 in 10 Canadian non-profits report rising food demand: study
https://nowtoronto.com/news/canada-nonprofits-food-demand-second-harvest-study/

Translated: "The US has placed the International Criminal Court in The Hague on its sanctions list. ‘This is an unprecedented escalation.’

Previously, individual staff members were on the US sanctions list. With sanctions against the International Criminal Court as a whole, the Court’s functioning will become nearly impossible."

Oh, FFS. #ICC #usPol

De VS zetten het Internationaal Strafhof in Den Haag op hun sanctielijst. ‘Dit is een ongekende escalatie’ | Trouw
https://www.trouw.nl/buitenland/de-vs-zetten-het-internationaal-strafhof-in-den-haag-op-hun-sanctielijst-dit-is-een-ongekende-escalatie~bfa9ff4c/

#Toronto The Nutcracker Prices Increase Next Week! Don’t Delay

https://nationalballetca.prospect2.com/index.php

"Brad Bradford and Olivia Chow clash over AI data centres in Toronto

Brad Bradford says AI data centres belong in Toronto, while Olivia Chow says she has paused approvals to assess their impact on the city’s water, electricity grid and communities … "

Bradford muddies the issue: "Every bank transaction, email, … depends on a data centre …"

BUT those differ widely from *AI* data centres, which can use 10x the resources.

https://nowtoronto.com/news/brad-bradford-olivia-chow-ai-data-centres-toronto/

#noAI #TOpoli