BlogsCanada.ca
Top Canadian Blogs and News Sites


A Canadian view of the best of the web!

NEXUS General

Canadian Border Now Fully Open

On October 1st 2022, the Government of Canada removed all COVID-19 border measures such as required proof of vaccination, random testing, and mandatory isolation for high-risk travelers. For the first time since early 2020, the Canadian border is operating under “normal” conditions. For example: Americans interested in visiting Canada no longer need to download the […]

Canada border testing General

Pre-Entry COVID Test No Longer Required at Canadian Border

As of April 1st 2022, the Canadian border will no longer require a pre-arrival negative COVID-19 test from fully vaccinated travellers entering or returning to the country. Previously, a rapid antigen test or a PCR test indicating a person does not have COVID was required by border authorities. This rule change should encourage Canadians to […]

USA Border General

US Land Border Opens to Canadians

After being closed for nearly 19 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, on November 8th 2021 the United States land border officially opened to all fully vaccinated Canadians. US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has announced they will be staffing their border at pre-pandemic levels, but warns that wait times may be longer than in […]

General

When Will USA Border Open to Canadians?

On August 9th 2021, Canada opened its border to all fully vaccinated Americans allowing tourists from the United States to visit the country once again. The US border remains closed to Canadians, however, and American authorities recently extended the border closure until September 21st citing COVID-19 transmission rates south of the border as well as […]

International travel General

Where Can Vaccinated Canadians Travel?

Most Canadians are now fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Consequently, Canadians are starting to think about international travel again, and are beginning to research possible vacation destinations. This leads to the question, which countries can a fully vaccinated Canadian visit? As of July 2021, Canadian citizens who have received two doses of the Pfizer, Moderna, or […]


 
 

LATEST POSTS !

 

 
0
comments
General

Twenty years ago

Posted  March 21, 2023  by  Anonymous

…Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate int…

Full Story »

 
0
comments
General

Today’s News: Saskatchewan has created another cat party

Posted  March 20, 2023  by  Anonymous

A new provincial political party recently formed here, calling themselves the Sask United Party, which intends to out-conservative the existing Saskatchewan Party. Basically, I think its just another Cat party trying to pretend to be mice (see…

Full Story »

 
0
comments
General

Today’s News: Temper Tantrums

Posted  March 18, 2023  by  Anonymous

Here’s how I see it: First of all, Canadian voters haven’t turfed Trudeau in three elections and chances are they won’t in the 2025 either. The opinion polls are back and forth a bit – and who knows now what might be an issue in BC and Quebec…

Full Story »

 
0
comments
General

Today’s News: David Johnston to the rescue

Posted  March 16, 2023  by  Anonymous

 I do keep wondering what, exactly, this China scandal is all about: Seriously. Watching journalists in Canada is like watching 7 year olds playing soccer. Just a gaggle of kids chasing the ball. No strategy or plan. Only focused on one ball …

Full Story »

 
0
comments
General

Today’s Random Stuff: Cats and Pigs and Politics

Posted  March 12, 2023  by  Anonymous

Its the weekend, so here we go with some random stuff from the lighter side. BBC News posted an very odd tweet about how the pandemic hadn’t really affected anyone’s mental health – and the internet immediately went nuts:I built my cat a mech suit…

Full Story »

 
0
comments
General

Today’s News: Outstanding Support for Trans Rights

Posted  March 10, 2023  by  Anonymous

I thought this was outstanding: And with a disturbing rise in anti-transgender hate here in Canada and around the world recently, I want to be very clear about one more thing: Trans women are women. We will always stand up to this hate – whenever and …

Full Story »

 
0
comments
Dogs

Today’s Random Stuff — dogs, frogs, and physics

Posted  March 7, 2023  by  Anonymous

Dogs, bruh!Great, now I have to go buy twice as many tennis balls. https://t.co/PMJnXwp8lJ— Gerggers (@gerggers) February 23, 2023this dog is friends with a crow and it’s like a real life pixar movie(jukin media) pic.twitter.com/A3pKDJOb…

Full Story »

 
0
comments
General

Today’s News: “Being Woke” = “Being Kind”

Posted  March 5, 2023  by  Anonymous
My husband and I were talking tonight and he asked “Exactly what is ‘Woke’ anyway?” 
Hmm, good question.  Coincidentally, I have been reading some stuff just today about it, and here it is. 

First, a few cartoons I found about how crazy the anti-woke MAGA is getting:

But defining Woke isn’t difficult — here’s a succinct tweet from Bob Rae that describes the definition pretty well:

And now, the hysterical MAGA reaction:

In Dan Rather’s substack Steady tonight, he and Elliot Kirschner ask “Does Anti-Wokeness Resonate?”:

In our bifurcated bubble-induced political ecosystems, trends can pop up, escalate, and reverberate with such ferocity that those who are exposed to them see them everywhere. But it is unclear how much they escape the echo chambers to permeate society at large.
These thoughts come to mind around a term that has become so ubiquitous in right-wing political and media circles it might as well have its own show on Fox News. The term is “woke” … [which] originated in African American English to mean an “awareness of racial and social justice.” But it has since been appropriated by the political right as a cudgel to attack any reckoning around the injustices and inequalities of American history and society. These “anti-woke” crusaders love saying the word with the winks, sneers, and glee that their political ilk had once reserved for railing against “political correctness.”
If you happen upon a Republican campaign rally, “woke” probably competes with words like “the” and “a” for total number of utterances. And there is no level of shame in how low pandering politicians will stoop in warning of the purported dangers of “wokeness.” Nikki Haley, the supposedly sober-minded and serious Republican presidential candidate, recently said “wokeness is a virus more dangerous than any pandemic.” Remind us again how many people have died from wokeness as compared to COVID?

Yes, just like the Marvel Universe and the Star Wars Universe, there is now a MAGA Universe that is creating its own hysterical version of reality:

On the Canadian side, here is a great photo of Canadian MAGA that Brittlestar describes very well:

And this:

Speaking of hysterical over-reactions, in other news of the day, Hershey’s Chocolates are being targeted by Canadian MAGA for daring to use a Canadian transgender woman as one of the women in their International Women’s Day “her/she” campaign. 

Honestly, these MAGAs are nuts.

CBC reports:

A social media campaign by U.S.-based chocolate giant Hershey’s has garnered both a hateful response and a loud chorus of support after a call to boycott the brand’s chocolates over ads featuring a Canadian transgender woman.
For International Women’s Day, Hersheys Canada has released five limited edition “HER for SHE” chocolate bars, featuring the faces of five women to “shine a light on women and girls who inspire us every day.”
The chocolate bars feature Autumn Peltier, an Indigenous rights and water activist, Naila Moloo, a teenage climate innovator, Rita Audi, a gender and education equality activist, Kélicia Massala, the founder of Girl up Québec and Fae Johnstone, a transgender activist and the executive director of consulting firm Wisdom2Action.
The campaign was meant to celebrate women and note the ongoing fight for equity, according to Hershey’s. It is donating up to $40,000 to Girl Up, a group that focuses on women’s equity.
When the HER for SHE bar launched on March 1, Johnstone posted that she was honoured to be featured.
In the social media campaign video, the 27-year-old raises an eyebrow, twirls and talks about creating a world where people live in “public space as their honest and authentic selves.”
“I hope this campaign shows trans girls they can dream big and change the world, too.”
After #BoycottHersheys started trending, she posted Thursday, saying it “shows just how far we still have to go in the fight for feminist liberation and trans rights.”
“I’m not going anywhere. I’m not shutting up. I will always stand up for women and girls, cis and trans.”
“Spurring an international campaign to boycott a chocolate company definitely wasn’t on my list of predictions for 2023,” she quipped.

Yes, there’s lots to chuckle at MAGA about, with these crazy goings-on — but MAGA hate isn’t really funny, is it.

Full Story »

 
0
comments
General

Today’s Scene: An Inquiry If Necessary, but Not Necessarily An Inquiry

Posted  March 2, 2023  by  Anonymous

A batch of very good substacks this week. When it comes to the news of the day, the conclusion of the Canadian columnists I read is this: 1. If China interfered in Canadian elections and the Liberals let them, then there needs to be an invest…

Full Story »

 
0
comments
General

Today’s Random Stuff

Posted  February 26, 2023  by  Anonymous

First, here’s something I didn’t know: Reservation runway: Rising Cree designer makes New York runway debut — ‘The future is going to be Indigenous-led’: designer Scott Wabano /via @CBCMontreal https://t.co/5ADVQ8anAR— Treaty Commissioner (@TreatyOffi…

Full Story »

 
0
comments
General

Today’s News: Ukraine Strong

Posted  February 25, 2023  by  Anonymous

A year ago, Russia launched its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. A year later, Ukraine still stands. There is lots of commentary today about how Ukraine did this — Zelenskyy’s brilliant leadership, the indominable spirt of Ukraine’s people, t…

Full Story »

 
0
comments
General

Today’s News: “Home On Native Land”

Posted  February 22, 2023  by  Anonymous

Yes, “home on Native land” is exactly right. Some Canadians may be freaking out about this national anthem version at the NBA All-Star game, but I think it’s perfectly justified: “Our home ON native land” -@JullyBlack 🙌🏽 pic.twitter.com/SMoxKHkMPE— And…

Full Story »

 
0
comments
General

Today’s Funny Stuff: rounding up the tweets and substacks

Posted  February 20, 2023  by  Anonymous

I still love this cartoon, from a year ago. Here’s one more great comment about the Rouleau report:So far it seems, according to Justice Rouleau, @JustinTrudeau’s worst fault regarding the convoy protest is that he said some things that some of th…

Full Story »

 
0
comments
General

Today’s News: Justified

Posted  February 18, 2023  by  Anonymous

TL;DR Breaking: #POEC report “Canada’s use of Emergency Act justified due to shit policing and ongoing political interference and douchebaggery from the great unwashed” (I’m paraphrasing). Now go get jobs.— Dean Blundell🇨🇦 (@ItsDeanBlundell) February …

Full Story »

 
0
comments
General

Today’s Scene: “What about the squirrels?”

Posted  February 14, 2023  by  Anonymous

One of the things I love about social media is that we keep finding “some guy” who knows an awful lot of great stuff.For example, here is a Balloon Juice post with an outstanding discussion thread: Sunday Night Open Thread: Chatbot vs Jagoffs. The pos…

Full Story »

 
0
comments
General

Today’s Funny Stuff: Baseball and Billings Bridge and Penquins and more

Posted  February 12, 2023  by  Anonymous

I know I’m pushing the season a little — six weeks until opening day! – but in honour of Superbowl Weekend, here’s some baseball stuff: Some of the worst baseball you’ll ever see pic.twitter.com/qURCSX3HtW— Shit Bsb Players Say (@ShitBsbPlyrsSay) Feb…

Full Story »

 
0
comments
General

Today’s News: Roundup time

Posted  February 10, 2023  by  Anonymous

A roundup of this week’s news: First, this happened on Tuesday — weird, wasn’t it: The handshake. pic.twitter.com/9KBgNH1mcP— Andrew Brown (@browncbc) February 7, 2023 I can’t believe this needs to be said but- if you’re meeting the bloody Prim…

Full Story »

 
0
comments
General

Today’s Scene: We don’t get to choose the battle. We only get to choose our side.

Posted  February 7, 2023  by  Anonymous

I said this years ago and I say it again today:  We don’t get to choose the battle. We only get to choose our side. Right now, Canada finds itself dealing with Islamophobia and the anti-Muslim Bill 21 law in Quebec. This isn’t an issue t…

Full Story »

 
0
comments
General

Today’s Great Stuff: Thoughtful, interesting, funny

Posted  February 5, 2023  by  Anonymous

I noticed some of the kids from down the block coming home from school yesterday and one of them was wearing shorts ….Here’s some thoughtful, interesting, and funny stuff I have collected over the last week or so.First, the thoughtful:#Maddow20 years…

Full Story »

 
0
comments
General

“Abandoned to violence” – Ottawa People’s Commission first report

Posted  February 3, 2023  by  Anonymous

The Public Order Emergency Commission report is due this month, but already we have an initial report from the Ottawa People’s Commission — a community initiative set up last June when it looked like official Ottawa just wanted to deep-six the whole m…

Full Story »

 
0
comments
General

Today’s News: “In the Covid era, the vulnerable die earlier, the remaining become vulnerable earlier”

Posted  January 31, 2023  by  Anonymous

I’ve been noticing and collecting a variety of recent posts and tweets about Covid and our situation these days, and the challenges we will be facing in 2023.

This pretty well sums it up, really:

And as for the continuing political implications:

Yes indeed:

But wait, there’s more….

In Stat, Helen Branswell writes a good article about the “scariants” – XB what? BQ huh? Do you need to keep up with Omicron’s ever-expanding offspring?:

When people start to develop immunity to a virus, it must evolve to be able to continue to infect people. Three years into our coexistence with SARS-2, most people on the planet have either been infected (in some cases several times) or vaccinated (in some cases multiple times) or some combination of the two. The virus must employ new tricks to get around our mounting defenses.
“It is important to explain that variants will continue to emerge as the very survival of the virus depends on it,” Pollard explained. “We can expect new variants for the rest of our collective lifetimes, but we might anticipate less frequent waves in the future as immunity across the population continues to build.”

Others are not so sanquine about the virus evolution:

In The Tyee, Andrew Nikiforuk writes We Now Face An Army of Covid Viruses — a useful article to read in full, but here is a summary of his points:

Here are six observations on viral evolution and how it may shape our lives in this, the fourth year of the pandemic. 

1. One virus has become many…
2. The new COVID soup is a unique experiment in evolution…
3. What were viral peaks are now a constant rising sea of infections with high and low tides…
4. One pandemic has morphed into regional epidemics…
5. Reinfections rarely happened. Now they are commonplace…
6. We can do more to blunt the evolutionary threat of COVID subvariants…
Here is a useful tweet thread summary of the current situation — I am copying some of the most significant tweets in this thread:

~~~

~~~

Some recent comments on Covid epidemiology:

Here are some comments about Long Covid:

~~~

Long Covid now seems to be called Covid DECATI – Delayed Effect Cardiovascular And Thrombotic Injury:

‘ ~~~

Finally, some new statistics on excess deaths.

Stats Canada recently released some info about Canada’s excess deaths over the last three years — more than 50,000 extra from January 2020 to October 2022, mostly due to Covid and its damage to our health, but also due to drug overdoses. 

Stats Canada says:

There is evidence of excess mortality when weekly deaths are consistently higher than the expected number, but especially when they exceed the range of what is expected over several consecutive weeks.
Provisional data show there were an estimated 53,741 excess deaths in Canada from the end of March 2020 to the end of August 2022, 7.6% more deaths than expected had there not been a pandemic. During this period, at least 42,215 deaths were directly attributed to COVID-19.

The worst times in Canada for excess deaths were January/ February 2022 in Ontario and Quebec, and  mid-April/ mid-May 2022 in Alberta and BC. 

Though Canada’s 7.6 percent excess death percentage seems high to me, England is reporting even worse percentages:

Finally, an interesting thread on Covid in the workforce:

Tern gets the last word:

UPDATE: Just saw this one, about booster shots:

Full Story »

 
0
comments
General

Today’s Great Stuff

Posted  January 29, 2023  by  Anonymous

Here are some of the funny tweets and stories I have seen over the last couple of weeks: I am so tired of living like it’s the 1600s. Can I afford eggs at the market? Are my friends gonna die in the plague? Puritans coming for my sinful lifestyle. I wa…

Full Story »

 
0
comments
General

Today’s Scene: Enshittification

Posted  January 27, 2023  by  Anonymous

I used to title these posts “From the Substacks” but good commentary is not just Substacks these days, its Medium and Patreon and blogs and opinion pieces from all over. So I will call these posts Today’s Scene – a collection of observations and o…

Full Story »

 
0
comments
General

And whoosh! The McGonigal spy story is gone!

Posted  January 25, 2023  by  Anonymous

Was there ever a conspiracy theory more bizarre, more crazy, than believing that Russia was behind Trump’s unexpected 2016 election victory? But just because something sounds crazy doesn’t mean it isn’t true. For years now, I have believed so…

Full Story »

 
0
comments
General

Funny stuff

Posted  January 22, 2023  by  Anonymous

First, a few recent cartoons:

Next, here are some fascinating accounts to follow:

(If you can’t remember the details about the “half a giraffe” asteroid measurement, its at the end of this post from March – Today’s News: The end of the beginning?)

Full Story »

NEXUS
General

Canadian Border Now Fully Open

Posted  November 24, 2022  by  Ben

On October 1st 2022, the Government of Canada removed all COVID-19 border measures such as required proof of vaccination, random testing, and mandatory isolation for high-risk travelers. For the first time since early 2020, the Canadian border is operating under “normal” conditions. For example: Americans interested in visiting Canada no longer need to download the […]

Full Story »

Canada border testing
General

Pre-Entry COVID Test No Longer Required at Canadian Border

Posted  April 2, 2022  by  Ben

As of April 1st 2022, the Canadian border will no longer require a pre-arrival negative COVID-19 test from fully vaccinated travellers entering or returning to the country. Previously, a rapid antigen test or a PCR test indicating a person does not have COVID was required by border authorities. This rule change should encourage Canadians to […]

Full Story »

USA Border
General

US Land Border Opens to Canadians

Posted  November 8, 2021  by  Ben

After being closed for nearly 19 months due to the COVID-19 pandemic, on November 8th 2021 the United States land border officially opened to all fully vaccinated Canadians. US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has announced they will be staffing their border at pre-pandemic levels, but warns that wait times may be longer than in […]

Full Story »

General

When Will USA Border Open to Canadians?

Posted  August 25, 2021  by  Ben

On August 9th 2021, Canada opened its border to all fully vaccinated Americans allowing tourists from the United States to visit the country once again. The US border remains closed to Canadians, however, and American authorities recently extended the border closure until September 21st citing COVID-19 transmission rates south of the border as well as […]

Full Story »

International travel
General

Where Can Vaccinated Canadians Travel?

Posted  July 1, 2021  by  Ben

Most Canadians are now fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Consequently, Canadians are starting to think about international travel again, and are beginning to research possible vacation destinations. This leads to the question, which countries can a fully vaccinated Canadian visit? As of July 2021, Canadian citizens who have received two doses of the Pfizer, Moderna, or […]

Full Story »