Hamilton Ontario

From the GoFundMe description:

On December 5th, workers at Democracy found out that our café was unexpectedly closing in less than two weeks.

We were officially laid off on December 21st, four days before Christmas.

The news hit only two months after our first union contract was ratified. As a team, we worked hard to win a contract that protected our job security, our safety, and basic fairness. Even though many of us were unfairly targeted for our union work (we even filed a Labour Board complaint and were compensated for the union-busting we experienced), we kept fighting for fairness.

Now, owner Chris Mindorff is claiming that he can’t operate the café “due to the recent resignations of key management.”

This notice came less than 24 hours after our General Manager announced her resignation. That same week, our Assistant General Manager also resigned. No workers were approached about taking on manager tasks, and to our knowledge there was no search to hire a replacement manager.

The shocking truth? Chris transferred our General Manager and Assistant General Manager to new jobs at his non-unionized cafés. Chris owns five other “small” businesses in the Hamilton area – Mulberry Coffeehouse, Paisley Coffeehouse, Donut Monster, RedChurch Cafe, and Station One.

As workers, we are heartbroken to lose our community at Democracy.

We are gutted to overhear managers misleading customers about their “resignation”.

We are angered that the year we spent building a safer, better workplace is being tossed down the drain.

And we are terrified about unexpectedly losing our jobs so close to the holidays.

The community’s response to Democracy’s closure has been incredibly touching. We have been overwhelmed by the support and encouragement we’ve received.

Small community, but I figured I'd ask anyways. I may be moving to Hamilton soon for work -- I've never lived or visited the area before. The furthest North I've been, excluding a plane trip to Montreal, was London.

What do I have to look forward to? Or not look forward to. I've heard the rent situation is something crazy.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/48291473

The story gets sadder the more you read.

Runs from September-June, pickup every other Thursday, cost is 22 dollars and financial assistance is available if needed. I got one this week, it had carrots, celery, romaine lettuce, apples, pears, bananas, peppers, turnip, butternut squash, potatoes and onions. It's a cheap and healthy way to get good food!

Monday, September 8, 2025 @1800

seemed lost, fatigued, but not erratic.

Hey Hamilton,

Posted on /r/Hamilton 2 years ago looking for tech folks - www.reddit.com/r/Hamilton/comments/143d9jr/just_landed_in_hamilton_looking_for_cyber/ . Got a swell reaction!

The world's changed since then - we've all watched what happens when communication infrastructure gets cut, when platforms get censored, when "the cloud" becomes someone else's political weapon.

TL;DR, I am a real guy, who has no sell ... I simply love technology and believe it's being used to control us.

I'd like to change that dynamic.

Let's sit down and have a real cup of coffee. That's it. Talk tech, what we got going on.

Today, while posting this below ( and subsequently arguing with the admin of /r/Hamilton got me perma-banned... techs aren't allowed to set up "meetups". Can't even reoccurring Coffee Shop invite... That's unfair when I'm trying to give away services, knowledge and time for free.

What I've been building: Self-hosted communication (Matrix servers) Local AI that doesn't send your data to Silicon Valley (chatbots, RAG, recursion) Backup systems that work when the internet doesn't (immich/photoprism, Plex/Jellyfin, OS level, metastatic) Digital infrastructure you actually own

Not trying to sell anything or start some grand movement. Just a 31-year-old guy whose wife is tired of hearing about server configurations and thinks I should find some actual humans who get why this stuff matters. I'm offering my time to sit down; let's just chat about our projects, sustainability, and potentially leverage some of our resources together.

I have some of my own - yet unreleased products I'd like to have a few sample... https://backup.wiuf.net/ an example (this page while live isn't broadcasted beyond this post, we're in alpha testing with private developers - but this is a taste of the architecture we want to see). A "Gift-Economy" model for trading storage spaces with your peers - your own friends, on your own decentralized server. Just one example of a few.

The reality: When systems fail - whether it's Rogers going down for a day or something more serious - having your own infrastructure isn't just a hobby anymore. It's insurance.

If you're working on similar projects, dealing with the same "how do I actually own my data" questions, or just want to talk tech over coffee without the startup pitch energy, drop me a DM.

Not looking to organize anything huge. Just quiet conversations about building resilient systems in an increasingly fragile world. Lessons and sharing of resources as we're able or desire... ultimately, the ability for us to create circles where locally we can get together to gab.

That's all...

Casey Tunturi https://www.caseytunturi.com/briefings/overview

I found this and shared it bc I wanted to tell a true story:
I have 3 kids, born in '85, 87, & '89, and throughout the early nineties, I would relive my childhood and hop a bus w/them on a random Saturday to go to the downtown Farmers' Market.
Every so often we would traipse over to the Art Gallery, and hang out for a bit, appreciating...(they're great kids, immaculately behaved, thank god...)

It was only on about our 15th visit that I discovered there was an admission fee! We'd always just wandered in, even greeted the staff!
And never been challenged?
I've always found it odd that no one ever said anything.

American ruling, reported by a UK paper, nevertheless food for thought as Hamilton (and everywhere) grapples with these issues.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ca/post/40997702

Not Hammer but Simcoe.
Make no mistake - this was 100% targeted and racial.

Google Maps says 'temporarily closed'.