StopTouchingYourPhone

Rumeysa Ozturk's lawyer believes she is being targeted over a school paper editorial she co-authored

snips from the article:

U.S. Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin [...] did not specify what specific activities were engaged in by Ozturk, a Fulbright Scholar and student in Tufts' doctoral program for Child Study and Human Development. Ozturk had been in the country on an F-1 visa to study.

[...]

Ozturk co-authored an opinion piece a year ago in the school's student paper, the Tufts Daily, that criticized the school's response to calls by students to divest from companies with ties to Israel and to "acknowledge the Palestinian genocide."

"Based on patterns we are seeing across the country, her exercising her free speech rights appears to have played a role in her detention," said Mahsa Khanbabai, Ozturk's lawyer. Khanbabai called the claims against Ozturk "baseless" and said people should be "horrified at the way DHS spirited away Rumeysa in broad daylight."

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/26954158

Bethan Nodwell, Christine Loughead, and another unidentified Canadian joined neo-Nazi leader Chris Pohlhaus to discuss antisemitic conspiracy theories and dehumanize South Asian and Indigenous people.

[...]

Nodwell is part of Diagolon’s white supremacist network and has worked as an organizer for far-right events in Canada. She enjoyed a measure of notoriety in the media after allegedly serving as a stage manager during the 2022 “Freedom Convoy” blockade protests in Ottawa.

Nodwell has been quoted by major media outlets about the protests and appeared on the podcast of Tammy Peterson, Jordan Peterson’s wife. Once one of three owners of Trinity Productions, she helped bring the far-right Member of the European Parliament, German AfD MEP Christine Anderson, to Canada on multiple speaking tours.

She also attempted to organize a tour for UK Islamophobic activist Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon, better known as Tommy Robinson.

[...]

Loughead, better known as CandianGirl, revels in her racism, wearing it like a badge of honour. She describes herself as an “uber racist” during the interview. Arrested by Chilliwack RCMP in August 2024 after posting a series of videos showing her harassing South Asian people, typically yelling slurs and expletives at them from a vehicle.

[...]

Appearing to be a woman around middle age, [Posty's] X account is filled with praise and reposts for far-right activists in North America, Australia, and Europe. She often reposts reports of crimes committed by people who are not white, blaming Jews for their presence in the country.

During the interview with Pohlhaus, she complained that Canada had donated $5 million to the Ukrainian war effort after US President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance’s temper tantrum in the Oval Office with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

She also added that nothing had been done to secure the Canadian border, despite the over $1 billion committed by the government to bolster border security resources, staff, and equipment.

Bethan Nodwell, Christine Loughead, and another unidentified Canadian joined neo-Nazi leader Chris Pohlhaus to discuss antisemitic conspiracy theories and dehumanize South Asian and Indigenous people.

[...]

Nodwell is part of Diagolon’s white supremacist network and has worked as an organizer for far-right events in Canada. She enjoyed a measure of notoriety in the media after allegedly serving as a stage manager during the 2022 “Freedom Convoy” blockade protests in Ottawa.

Nodwell has been quoted by major media outlets about the protests and appeared on the podcast of Tammy Peterson, Jordan Peterson’s wife. Once one of three owners of Trinity Productions, she helped bring the far-right Member of the European Parliament, German AfD MEP Christine Anderson, to Canada on multiple speaking tours.

She also attempted to organize a tour for UK Islamophobic activist Stephen Christopher Yaxley-Lennon, better known as Tommy Robinson.

[...]

Loughead, better known as CandianGirl, revels in her racism, wearing it like a badge of honour. She describes herself as an “uber racist” during the interview. Arrested by Chilliwack RCMP in August 2024 after posting a series of videos showing her harassing South Asian people, typically yelling slurs and expletives at them from a vehicle.

[...]

Appearing to be a woman around middle age, [Posty's] X account is filled with praise and reposts for far-right activists in North America, Australia, and Europe. She often reposts reports of crimes committed by people who are not white, blaming Jews for their presence in the country.

During the interview with Pohlhaus, she complained that Canada had donated $5 million to the Ukrainian war effort after US President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance’s temper tantrum in the Oval Office with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

She also added that nothing had been done to secure the Canadian border, despite the over $1 billion committed by the government to bolster border security resources, staff, and equipment.

Another person posted this in c/ontario

From the site:

Volunteers can be trained to perform a variety of duties, including sandbagging, debris removal, serving meals and more. Volunteers are contacted when needed to support emergency response efforts and will be assigned duties based on their skill level, interest and availability.

...

To go with, a good read from the Tyee about Civil Defense Corps

[A] second Trump presidency is emphatically not like the first. In foreign policy, as in business, Trump does not deal with weaker counterparts — he dominates them. When engaging with countries that lack the leverage to push back, he is not transactional; he is predatory. His negotiations are not about mutual benefit but about extracting maximum advantage, imposing terms that serve his interests alone.

The shift from ally to adversary could happen overnight, as a protectionist United States looks at Canada’s vast energy reserves, fresh water and strategic Arctic position and sees weakness. Canadians must recognize that the luxury of assuming our security is someone else’s responsibility is over.

We must be strong enough to push back, resilient enough to survive cyberwarfare and economic coercion — including Tuesday's arbitrary imposition of illegal tariffs. We must be prepared to defend our sovereignty — not just with military spending, but with a population that is engaged, trained and ready.

Pause for a moment and imagine the skills or time you could bring — whether it’s first aid, co-ordination and logistics, communications, engineering, IT support, counselling and caregiving or any other expertise — to contribute to our collective security and resilience if called upon.

B.C. unlikely to follow Ontario's lead in slapping surcharge on power exports, premier says

"We're working with other premiers and with the federal government on how we can support the Team Canada approach with no-tariff responses," he said on March 5 about the possibility of B.C. imposing its own surcharges. [...]

Eby also said he is working on "contingency planning" should things escalate.

For example, he noted the impacts of Elon Musk's DOGE — Department of Government Efficiency — on B.C.'s power partners.

B.C.'s power grid is connected to the United States through the Bonneville Power Administration, an agency within the U.S. Department of Energy that both buys from and sells to British Columbia, as needed.

The agency is down hundreds of positions following mass firings by the Trump administration. [...]

Eby and Harrison both said B.C. has been hindered in the past because Alberta has its own regulatory scheme for managing power, focused around private providers, while B.C.'s grid relies on the publicly-owned B.C. Hydro.

But with increased interest in interprovincial trade, Eby said progress was being made on harmonizing standards to allow power to flow more freely across the Rockies, something Harrison applauded.

Eby also said similar conversations were happening with Yukon, where the barriers are more about geography and a lack of infrastructure rather than politics. [...]

B.C. has also announced plans to rapidly increase its own power supply both through the finalization of the Site C dam and the fast-tracking of several wind power projects across the province.

Keir Giles, a senior consulting fellow with the Russia and Eurasia Programme at Chatham House in London, says Putin's FSB has been casting a wide net for new agents since the invasion of Ukraine. It's all part of Moscow's push to harass and unbalance NATO nations.

"Russia will reach out and recruit anybody it can, because that is now very much cheaper and easier thanks to online access," said Giles. "The investment of time and resources in doing this is tiny compared to the potential results."

The end goal isn't necessarily to obtain secret information, or engage in sabotage, says Giles, but rather to sow fear, uncertainty and doubt. A goal that can be met even when spies are caught — or confess.

"Russia places very little value on the people that it recruits. They are disposable," he said.

Laken's family hope that he will soon return home, and have been told that quiet negotiations are underway to allow him to complete his sentence in Canada.

[A youngster was a Forces cadet and reservist, planned to join the army after his 18th birthday, and his dad's a retired master corporal. Warsaw regional court said they showed leniency due to his confession and cooperation. His mother's laywer is blaming Canada for letting the kid leave in the first place.]

https://archive.ph/F26VK

Mayor Olivia Chow says she plans to ban U.S. companies from bidding on contracts with the City of Toronto.

At a press conference Thursday morning to talk about the procurement of new TTC streetcars, Chow provided an update on her administration’s response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s imposition of tariffs on Canadian goods.

She confirmed that the city will award all contracts valued at less than $353,000 to Canadian companies exclusively. She also promised to present a motion to her executive committee “barring any U.S. companies from future Toronto contracts.”

alternate CTV news link here

Thought I'd leave some links for new gardeners, or people itching for spring who just want to come check out seeds etc.

This weekend, Saturday and Sunday at Brickworks from 9-2 (free bus just north of Broadview station) - https://www.evergreen.ca/evergreen-brick-work/events/seedy-weekend-2025

March 22, Scadding Court from 10-2 (west end of the city) - https://torontourbangrowers.org/events/scadding-court-seedy-saturday-2025

...

Other good resources for beginners:

General Planting almanac

North American Native Plant Society

Interviewed before he went on stage at UBC’s School of Public Policy and Global Affairs for his talk called American Identity and the Republican Party.

I found it interesting to listen to someone who self-identifies as one of the good ones and thought some here might be interested as well.

8:15ish to hear his advice to Canadians about the whole “annex your country jk but not really” thing. [spoiler alert!] It's #notallamericans with a supersize dose of paternalistic condescension about how Canadians need to grow some patriotism and push back. But just on tariffs, mind you, and not too hard because we’re still friends and Canada would suffer.

“You don’t need to be afraid of him.”
“Find a reason to continue to be proud of your country.”
Golly, thanks mister!

...

His overall take is bog standard - no surprises - hanging all the evil happening in the USA right now around DJT’s neck and mostly blaming it on Democrats not doing enough to stop him. Also used some gross new talking point repetition about the USA “flirting” (with authoritarianism, anger, division). Or it was new to me, at least.

Other than that, he speaks a bit about Ukraine fighting for sovereignty, the postWW2 order, and real elections; DJT as the Leader Of The Free World negotiating Ukraine’s future without Zelensky in the room. He hopes Europe and Canada “and others of our friends will take up the mantle if we’re gonna walk away."

It was good seeing so many flags in my neighbourhood today - for the first time since 2022 not thinking "frigging Convites." Was wondering what it must be like for people in Ottawa and found this on the cbc:

Even if [Robin Seguin, who owns Victoria Barbershop, which has been operating out of the basement of a government building at the corner of O'Connor Street and Wellington Street in Ottawa's Centretown for more than 100 years] had been able to forget the sight of those [burning, upside down, written on] flags, she said her business has since changed in ways that serve as an inescapable reminder of the convoy.

"The building is on permanent lockdown, and what used to be the entrance to the barbershop is now called a man trap," she said, explaining that customers used to come and go freely and now they have to ring a bell to be let in by security.

...

Brad Green, the owner of World of Maps on Wellington Street West, said he "chokes up, thinking about it."

"It's like they hijacked our flag and took its meaning and made it something else," Green said. "They twisted it into this dark and evil and wrong thing."

[Carmen Celestini, who studies disinformation, extremists and conspiracy theorists at the University of Waterloo] said people in "Ottawa encountered things that the rest of Canada were [only] seeing on television."

"I think that for the rest of Canada, and I would genuinely hope for Ottawa as well, that [Flag Day] is an opportunity for us to show the best of who Canadians are," she said.

Guerilla effort underway to preserve medical, environmental data from deletion

Among the pages observers have seen disappear are ones that monitor HIV infections, deal with health risks for youth and contain census data, education data and information about assisted reproduction technologies. A website containing the names of those charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol was also removed.

Well-researched (longer) read about a bunch of good people doing the right thing in a wildly craptastic situation.