For the past year, Bibhu Acharya has served behind enemy lines.
Not in Ukraine or Afghanistan but in The Esplanade in downtown Toronto.
“This is a war zone,” said one resident.
Guns, knives, fights, drugs and even dog fights have been the reality since the once four-star Novotel was converted into a homeless shelter to help deal with the COVID-19 pandemic crisis.
At least 174 were killed, many of them trampled to death, at a football match in Indonesia as riots triggered a stampede in one of the deadliest sports events in the world.
Riots broke out after the game ended Saturday evening with host Arema FC of East Java’s Malang city losing to Persebaya of Surabaya 3-2.
Disappointed after their team’s loss, thousands of supporters of Arema, known as “Aremania,” reacted by throwing bottles and other objects at players and football officials. Fans flooded the Kanjuruhan Stadium pitch in protest and demanded that Arema management explain why, after 23 years of undefeated home games, this match ended in a loss, witnesses said.
NEW – Over 100 people were killed tonight in riots that broke out at a football match in Indonesia.pic.twitter.com/hGZEwQyHmL
— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) October 1, 2022
The death toll is still being revised up and down.
The federal government offers its employees a variety of Indigenous cultural awareness and sensitivity programs through the Canada School of Public Service (CSPS), but participation in the optional sessions is relatively low.
The CSPS offers 15 different training sessions on Indigenous issues known as the Indigenous Training Series, but fewer than a fifth of public servants have attended any one session, according to the numbers from CSPS, which were included in a response to an order paper question submitted by NDP MP Bonita Zarrillo.
The most-attended session, called Reflecting on Cultural Bias: Indigenous Perspectives, has seen 51,430 public servants participate as of June this year.
According to the Treasury Board of Canada, the federal government employed as many as 319,601 people in 2021, meaning the training session with the highest attendance had roughly 16 per cent of public servants take part.
The latest theatre of the absurd from Canada’s prime minister Justin Trudeau has received mixed reviews. For reasons best known to himself and his circle of advisors, Trudeau thought it might be a swell idea on the eve of Queen Elizabeth’s funeral to go to the lobby bar in his swank five-star London hotel for some kick-ass karaoke and first-growth Bordeaux.
The Calgary branch of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress is calling on the federal government to take a harsher stance against Russia as the situation abroad continues to worsen.
The organization wants to see Ottawa declare Russia a state sponsor of terrorism, expel Russian diplomats from Canada and suspend the issuance of Canadian travel visas to Russian Federation citizens.
According to her own words, Stacy Clarke never envisioned a career in police because she didn’t see herself — as a Black woman — represented within the rank and file.
When she did join the Toronto Police Service in 1998, it was a result of the force’s “valiant” effort to “recruit within our diverse communities,” she said, speaking about her career in the police podcast, 24 Shades of Blue. Still, after her hire, she continued to sense the organizational culture was not doing enough to add racial diversity to leadership ranks.
“I again was not seeing myself represented in those positions,” she said.
Vice President Harris came in for a torrent of criticism after telling an audience that “communities of color” would be first in line for relief in the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Ian.
“We have to address this in a way that is about giving resources based on equity, understanding that we fight for equality, but we also need to fight for equity,” she said during a discussion with Priyanka Chopra at the Democratic National Committee’s Women’s Leadership Forum on Friday.
Has there ever been a more unfit duo running the US?
The good news is the Ford government in Ontario finally appears to have figured out that shutting down the Pickering nuclear plant while simultaneously eliminating natural gas-fired electricity from the grid would be a disaster, leading to blackouts and soaring electricity bills.
Roblox removes ‘meat grinder’ Ukraine v Russia game
The world’s biggest gaming platform for children, Roblox, has removed two games that allowed players to fight and kill each other as Russians or Ukrainians.
One of them, called War on Larkiv: Ukraine, was showcased to users in the Roblox discovery section.
It clocked up 90,000 plays in less than two weeks.
The union representing workers at Torstar Corp. said it was “blindsided” by news of a court application to wind up the parent company, which has put the future proprietorship of the firm’s assets in doubt, including the Toronto Star.
Randy Kitt, director of media for Unifor, said the union had no advance notice a battle was under way between Paul Rivett and Jordan Bitove, who purchased Torstar in 2020 through a newly formed company called NordStar Capital Inc., in which they are equal partners.
OTTAWA – Federal workers are increasingly cynical, skeptical and disillusioned about the idea of reporting wrongdoing in the public service, says a recent survey.
That pessimism is more “palpable and widespread” now than it was before the pandemic, and bureaucrats have become more likely to fear reprisals for whistleblowing.
Research firm Phoenix Strategic Perspectives Inc. delivered the report in March to the Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner, which investigates serious abuses within the federal government.
Just who exactly is a public service union whistleblower expected to tattle to? Canada’s public service unions and the Liberal government are in bed together. Trudeau feathers their nest and they watch his back and faithfully vote in return.
King Charles III has reportedly abandoned plans to attend and deliver a speech at the Cop27 climate change summit on the advice of Liz Truss.
The monarch, a veteran campaigner on environmental issues, had been invited to the 27th UN climate change conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, next month.
But the prime minister is understood to have raised objections during a personal audience at Buckingham Palace last month, according to the Sunday Times.
Charlie can’t be happy about that.
Vladimir Putin’s disastrous military adventure in Ukraine has raised the prospect that his 22-year rule could be nearing its end. But will he go, or will he have to be pushed?
Seven months into the Russian president’s war of aggression, his troops have suffered massive losses of men and equipment and are in headlong retreat in eastern Ukraine. Putin’s order last week to mobilize hundreds of thousands of men has descended into chaos, drawing rebukes even from his own propagandists and political allies.
The 69-year-old autocrat rose to power in 2000, succeeding an ailing Boris Yeltsin after championing Russia’s second war in Chechnya. The chances of his leaving anytime soon are still remote, but it’s clear that the escalating fallout from his military gamble is already loosening his viselike grip on power.
You might be forgiven for mistakenly believing race hoaxes couldn’t possibly get more brazen, or morally depraved, than actor Jussie Smollet’s theatrical rendition of a midnight MAGA lynching in sub-zero downtown Chicago.
I have noted in the past that criminals tend to brag about their criminality when they believe there’s nothing anyone can do about it. Frankly, in their narcissism many of them can’t help but revel in the moment and let everyone know how “superior” they are to the rest of us. We witnessed many moments like this from elitists within globalists institutions the past couple of years at the height of the pandemic pandemonium.
