There another shooting to investigate for Hamilton Police’s Shooting Response Team. Hamilton Police are investigating an overnight shooting incident that occurred in the Glover Rd. and Lakeshore Rd. area of Stoney Creek.  Police responded to a 911 call where they subsequently located shell casings in the area. There are no reported injuries as a result of the incident at this time.

Residents in the area are asked to check their security video and if they see any images that  could assist Police with the investigation, they are asked to contact the Shooting Response Team at 905-546-4883 or by email at [email protected].

To provide information anonymously call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or submit anonymous tips online at http://www.crimestoppershamilton.com.

New Brunswick Premier Susan Holt urged unity as the country faces tariffs on exports to the United States imposed by President Donald Trump.

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — Families of victims of the deadliest U.S. air disaster in a nearly in 25 years visited the crash site Sunday just outside Washington, D.C.

Dozens of people walked along the banks of the Potomac River near Reagan National Airport, close to where an American Airlines jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter collided Wednesday, killing all 67 aboard.

They arrived in buses with a police escort, memorializing loved ones as federal investigators work to piece together the events that led to the crash and recovery crews were set to pull more wreckage from the chilly water.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Sunday said he wanted to leave federal aviation investigators space to conduct their inquiry.

But he posed a range of questions about the crash while appearing on morning TV news programs.

“What was happening inside the towers? Were they understaffed? … The position of the Black Hawk, the elevation of the Black Hawk, were the pilots of the Black Hawk wearing night vision goggles?” Duffy asked on CNN.

The American Airlines flight, with 64 people on board was preparing to land from Wichita, Kansas. The Army Black Hawk helicopter was on a training mission and had three soldiers on board. Both aircraft plunged to the Potomac River after colliding.

The plane’s passengers included figure skaters returning from the 2025 U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Wichita, Kansas, and a group of hunters returning from a guided trip.

Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Austin O’Hara, 28, of Lilburn, Georgia; Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Loyd Eaves, 39, of Great Mills, Maryland; and Cpt. Rebecca M. Lobach, of Durham, North Carolina, were killed in the helicopter.

The National Transportation Safety Board said Saturday that preliminary data showed conflicting readings about the altitudes of the airliner and the Army helicopter.

Investigators also said that about a second before impact, the jet’s flight recorder showed a change in its pitch. But they did not say whether that change in angle meant that pilots were trying to perform an evasive maneuver to avoid the crash.

Data from the jet’s flight recorder showed its altitude as 325 feet (99 meters), plus or minus 25 feet (7.6 meters), when the crash happened Wednesday night, NTSB officials told reporters. Data in the control tower, though, showed the Black Hawk at 200 feet (61 meters), the maximum allowed altitude for helicopters in the area.

The discrepancy has yet to be explained.

Investigators said they hoped to reconcile the difference with data from the helicopter’s black box, which is taking more time to retrieve because it became waterlogged after the Black Hawk plunged into the Potomac. They also said they plan to refine the tower data, which can be less reliable.

“That’s what our job is, to figure that out,” NTSB member Todd Inman said.

“This is a complex investigation,” investigator in charge Brice Banning said. “There are a lot of pieces here. Our team is working hard to gather this data.”

Banning said the jet’s cockpit voice recorder captured sound moments before the crash.

“The crew had a verbal reaction,” Banning said, and the flight data recorder showed “the airplane beginning to increase its pitch. Sounds of impact were audible about one second later, followed by the end of the recording.”

Full NTSB investigations typically take at least a year, though investigators hope to have a preliminary report within 30 days.

Inman said he spent hours meeting with victims’ families since the crash. The families are struggling, Inman said.

“Some wanted to give us hugs. Some are just mad and angry,” Inman said. “They are just all hurt. And they still want answers, and we want to give them answers.”

The remains of 42 people had been pulled from the river as of Saturday afternoon, including 38 that have been positively identified, officials said. They expect to recover all of the remains, though the plane’s fuselage will probably have to be pulled from the water to get the rest.

More than 300 responders were taking part in the recovery effort at a given time, officials said. Two Navy salvage barges were also deployed to lift heavy wreckage.

On Fox News Sunday, Duffy said the Federal Aviation Administration was looking into staffing in the Reagan Airport control tower.

Investigators said there were five controllers on duty at the time of the crash: a local controller, ground controller, assistant controller, a supervisor and supervisor in training.

According to an FAA report obtained by The Associated Press, one controller was responsible for helicopter and plane traffic. Those duties are often divided between two people but the airport typically combines them at 9:30 p.m., once traffic slows down. On Wednesday, the tower supervisor combined them earlier, which the report called “not normal.”

“Staffing shortages for air traffic control has been a major problem for years and years,” Duffy said, promising that President Donald Trump’s administration would address shortages with “bright, smart, brilliant people in towers controlling airspace.”

With the nation already grieving, an air ambulance crashed in Philadelphia on Friday, killing all six people on board, including a child returning home to Mexico from treatment, and at least one person on the ground.

Also Friday, the FAA heavily restricted helicopter traffic around Reagan National, hours after Trump claimed on social media that the Army helicopter had been flying higher than allowed.

“It was far above the 200-foot limit. That’s not really too complicated to understand, is it???” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

Wednesday’s crash was the deadliest in the U.S. since Nov. 12, 2001, when a jet slammed into a residential neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens, just after takeoff from Kennedy Airport. The crash killed all 260 people on board and five people on the ground.

Experts regularly highlight that plane travel is overwhelmingly safe, but the crowded airspace around Reagan National can challenge even the most experienced pilots.

David R. Martin And Claudia Lauer, The Associated Press

Manitoba Merv says we’re in store for an early spring after making his annual Groundhog Day prediction as Oak Hammock Marsh on Sunday, February 2, 2025. (OAK HAMMOCK MARSH PHOTO)

Manitoba will see an early spring, according to the province’s trusty groundhog.

Manitoba Merv popped his head out at Oak Hammock Marsh Interpretive Centre near Stonewall Sunday and did not see his shadow. According to Groundhog Day folklore, that means we’re in for an early spring. Had Merv seen his shadow, it would signify six more weeks of winter.

Manitoba Merv has had a 73 percent success rate in making correct predictions since 2000, according to The Weather Network.

Elsewhere across the Groundhog Day celebrity circuit, Wiarton Willie (Ontario) and Balzac Billy (Alberta) predicted an early spring, along with Merv. Lucy the Lobster (Atlantic Canada), Shubenacadie Sam (Nova Scotia), Fred La Marmotte (Quebec), Van Island Violet (British Columbia) and Punxsutawney Phil (Pennsylvania) called for six more weeks of winter.

Happy World Wetlands Day!
Manitoba Merv did not, we repeat did NOT see his shadow!! Looking like an early spring (all being relative for Manitoba of course).@weathernetwork @weatherchannel pic.twitter.com/pEjWBfMKUv

— Oak Hammock Marsh (@OakHammockMarsh) February 2, 2025

© 2025. This article Manitoba Merv Makes Annual Groundhog Day Prediction appeared first on ChrisD.ca - Winnipeg News.

For a second consecutive day, Marielle Thompson of Whistler, B.C., defeated Germany's Daniela Maier to win a women's ski cross competition in Veysonnaz, Switzerland, on Sunday.

The nine-day winter carnival in Quebec City is steeped in tradition that goes back more than 100 years. A big part of that is the ice palace – the headquarters of the festival's representative, Bonhomme Carnaval.

Police say they were alerted around 1:30 p.m. Saturday, after a passerby found the victim lying on the ground behind a licensed building on Ste-Catherine Street East near Bercy Street.

Between 2015 and 2024, more than 8,000 women were killed in Mexico because of their gender.

These crimes are referred to as femicides and, unlike homicides, are not the consequence of private or personal disputes. Instead, they are the result of a culture of oppression and domination that historically has targeted women and perpetuated a patriarchal society.

While the number of femicides has decreased in recent years, there has not been any significant decline, and it remains a serious crisis. According to government data, around 10 women and girls across Mexico are killed every day by intimate partners or other family members. Worsening the crisis is Mexico’s systemic impunity, with many crimes going unreported or uninvestigated, and unreliable data masking the true scale of this problem.

As a result, femicides in Mexico have been described as “another pandemic” — one driven by a deeply embedded machismo culture of violence against women, combined with a lack of transparency and justice from the state.

In response to this crisis, protests led by feminist groups have gained increasing attention in recent years. They have urged Mexican society to recognize the severity of this problem and called on authorities to act. However, the polarized political climate in Mexico has undermined the demands of these demonstrations.

Polarization shaped public conversation

My doctoral research focused on examining the political and public discourse surrounding protests against gender-based violence in Mexico. More specifically, my work analysed how polarizing narratives, especially on social media platforms, affected these demonstrations.

In 2020, feminist collectives organized the annual International Women’s Day march alongside a silent strike called #UnDiaSinNosotras (#ADayWithoutUs) in which women abstained from all public activities for an entire day.

While the support for these protests grew, even from conservative groups traditionally opposed to feminist ideals, speculations emerged about the movement being used opportunistically to undermine the left-wing federal government.

Initially, then-president Andrés Manuel López Obrador expressed solidarity with feminist groups. However, after refusing to revise his strategy on femicide, he warned that conservative elements could be infiltrating the protests. This created an unusual scenario where conservative groups backed feminist demands while the left-wing federal government dismissed them.

Such a turbulent political climate raises several questions: Did conservative groups suddenly embrace progressive feminist ideals? Did feminist groups align with conservatives despite historically opposing their ideas? Did the left-wing government adopt conservative positions to counter feminist movements? More importantly, how did this scenario impact the calls of the protests against femicide?

A fluid polarization

Polarization is typically framed as a stark and often stagnant political divisions between two dominant and opposing narratives. However, the interactions produced in scenarios like Mexico’s feminist protests suggest more fluid dynamics.

Rather than a rigid conflict between two opposing sets of ideals, polarization here should been seen as a relationship between narratives that are constantly reshaped and defined by each other.

This can be observed in how the narratives aligned with the federal government and those opposing it demonstrated apparent contradictions based on the other’s positioning regarding the protests.

Following this, it can be interpreted that conservative groups backed the protests as a way of reinforcing their opposition to the government. Similarly, the left-wing governing party, typically associated with more progressive ideals, appeared as dismissive of the protests and their demands to distance itself from perceived conservative influences.

Viewing polarization this way helps explain how unlikely allies find themselves on the same side of particular issues. In this context, polarization is less about fixed beliefs and values and more about maintaining a distinct identity relative to the opposing side. In essence, polarization becomes an exercises in being as opposed as possible to the other side.

Obscuring social issues

My analysis of social media comments about the protests revealed they centred on two themes: debates on whether the feminist movement was being co-opted by conservative forces and criticism of López Obrador and his administration.

In both cases, the discussions shifted away from the urgent issue of femicides, ignoring the protests’ central calls. Moreover, these conversations reinforced existing political divisions rather than addressing the root problem. This way, the interplay between the narratives involved created a polarized environment in which political rivalries overshadowed meaningful discussion of the structural violence against women.

In other words, polarized dynamics can obscure urgent and immediate social issues, contributing to impunity and a lack of action.

The Mexican political landscape reveals how forms of violence and oppression can be reproduced and reinforced through the interactions happening around them. In this sense, addressing femicides requires not only structural modifications to current strategies but also changing how this issue is discussed.

It’s also essential to recognize how polarization, as a fluid dynamic, shapes the public space. Doing this can provide insights into how meaningful action can happen in the context of today’s social and political debates framed by stark perceived divisions.

Arturo Tejeda Torres does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

The higher education sector continues to grapple with the advent of generative artificial intelligence (genAI), with much of the concern focused on ethical issues around student misconduct.

GenAI models such as ChatGPT offer students untraceable and economic means of churning out answers and term papers on any given subject.

For many instructors, this means traditional forms of course evaluation are now ineffective. The question that faculty and administration across the sector are asking is: how can we effectively assess and evaluate student competence on a given subject?

An equally significant question that needs to be asked — but remains relatively absent in current discussion — is the following: what existing conditions in higher education are shaping the scale and nature of the impact of genAI on learning?

As I argue in a recent article in the Journal of Interactive Technology and Pedagogy, widespread use of genAI among students needs to be understood as reflecting economic, structural and learning conditions specific to post-secondary education today.

This is not to justify violations of academic integrity codes. Rather, it is to emphasize that only by considering the realities of their milieu can educators contemplate more critical and engaged learning. It is also to underscore that this problem begs more systemic reforms.

The context

Since the mid-1980s, a political ideology that values the free market and the deregulation of government services has continued to inform federal and provincial levels of government — neoliberalism.

Read more: What exactly is neoliberalism?

In this context of deregulation, higher education has been undergoing what can be described as a “neoliberal turn.” This has happened as successive governments have either initiated or tacitly allowed for consistent funding cuts to public services in the education, health-care and social-service sectors.

In Ontario, while provincial funding made up 78 per cent of university operating revenue in the 1987-88 fiscal year, by 2022 it made up only 24 per cent.

Similar trends have been identified for federal and provincial government funding for higher education across the country, which is in steady decline as revenues from tuition fees continue to make up an increasing share.

The impacts of neoliberal policies have, for higher education, translated into a number of effects:

• The marketization of education as a private investment for individual students, as opposed to a public good, as public investment shrinks;

• A rise in tuition fees and increase in student debt;

• A restructuring of academic labour where casual and low-paid contract faculty now make up half the academic workforce.

A 2018 Policy Options report notes a correlation between a decrease in public funding and increased class sizes: “In 2005, just under 25 per cent of first-year Ontario university courses had more than 100 students. By 2018, that number was 32 per cent.” Large classes, the report notes, reduce opportunities for more student-faculty contact, and result in a poorer learning experience for the students.

Institutions have shifted as they increasingly adopt the competitive and cost-cutting measures needed to survive amid receding public funding.

Universities are now more “revenue-driven and expenditure-adverse,” with administrators prioritizing activities that enhance the institution’s revenue, such as research work or the securing of grants. Falling by the wayside is the practice of teaching and the education of students.

Read more: With precarious jobs, work identities shift — including for contract academics

The impact on students

A recent report published by Wiley surveyed more than 2,000 undergraduate students at institutions of higher education in North America on the topic of academic integrity in the era of AI.

Of the students surveyed, a majority noted the role of emerging technologies, such as ChatGPT, in making it easier to cheat than before. When asked why more students may turn toward cheating, almost half responded that because education is so expensive, there is an added pressure to pass or attain certain grades.

Thirty six per cent of students said they are more willing to cheat because it is hard to balance going to school with work or family commitments.

Read more: ChatGPT: Student insights are necessary to help universities plan for the future

Pressures facing students

There are innumerable pressures facing undergraduate students today. Neoliberal cuts to education have drastically increased the cost of education, and many students face significant hardships in making ends meet as wages stagnate while the cost of living rises.

When I ask my students about their employment situation, most are working part-time. Many are working full-time while juggling a full course load and some even take more than a full course load.

When larger numbers of students are batched into lecture halls, there are fewer opportunities for active student-teacher engagement, characterized by dialogue, which is a key ingredient in fostering engaged and critical learning. In this context, should we be surprised if students feel disconnected?

In the same Wiley report, students noted they are more likely to resort to cheating if they do not sense the significance of the course material to either their own lives or to the real world.

A case for structural change

These conditions are not isolated, nor are they the flaw of only one educational institution. They reflect broader structural conditions.

The crisis spurred by concerns with student ethics or of the use of genAI to cheat on assigned work must be understood within this larger context, as opposed to being seen as emerging from features specific to genAI.

If provided with the right conditions, genAI — as with other digital learning tools like PowerPoint slides or game-based platforms — can be harnessed in the service of developing more engaged learning practices.

However, doing so will require fundamental transformations to the higher education industry, and to its existing pedagogical commitments.

Salmaan Khan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

On a blustery Sunday morning, our province's furry forecaster Manitoba Merv bravely came out of his home at Oak Hammock Marsh, located north of Winnipeg, and did NOT see his shadow. According to the popular folklore surrounding Groundhog Day, that means an early Spring is on the way.

Happy World Wetlands Day!
Manitoba Merv did not, we repeat did NOT see his shadow!! Looking like an early spring (all being relative for Manitoba of course).@weathernetwork @weatherchannel pic.twitter.com/pEjWBfMKUv

— Oak Hammock Marsh (@OakHammockMarsh) February 2, 2025

Manitoba Merv has been making his annual prognostication on Groundhog Day since 1996. According to his bio on GroundhogDay.com, prior to taking on the role of amateur weather specialist, he kept busy as an actor in puppet shows.

And how accurate is Merv? Well, according to a review of his results released by The Weather Network before last year's Groundhog Day, he's been correct 73% of the time since 2000. That's a pretty good record, especially when he's predicting an early Spring!

As for Manitoba Merv's "cousins" across the country, these are some of their predictions:

Shubenacadie Sam: Nova Scotia - 6 more weeks of winter

Fred La Marmotte: Quebec - 6 more weeks of winter

Wiarton Willie: Ontario - early Spring

British Columbians need to get their winter jackets and shovels ready as a snowfall warning is in effect for the Lower Mainland in B.C.

Environment Canada says about 10 to 20 centimetres of snowfall will hit Metro Vancouver today until Monday morning after arctic air invades the region.

Canada has more lakes than any other country in the world, with a huge diversity of lake sizes, depths, shapes, water chemistries, underlying geologies and hydrologies (the waters that flow in and out of them). Sediments accumulate on lake floors which, at the offshore and undisturbed depths, act as archival records.

When a lake develops algal blooms, fishless conditions or masses of weeds, it is difficult to determine whether this is part of the lake’s natural cycle or the result of human activities. To understand this, we need to know a lake’s history, and particularly what it was like before humans settled in the area in large numbers.

As researchers in paleolimnology, the historical study of freshwater sediments, we examine the sediments that settles at the bottom of lakes. This accumulation of both organic and inorganic matter from within and outside then lake ecosystem helps us understand the history of these lakes and how they may have changed over time.

Seeing through glass walls

One group of microbes that preserve very well in lake sediments is the diatoms. These single-celled algae have delicately ornamented cell walls, of which each species is characterized by its distinct morphology. Because diatom cell walls are comprised of opaline silica — essentially, glass — they remain preserved in sediments even after their organic components have decomposed.

The shape of diatom cell walls often reflects their habitats in the lake — whether they lived floating in the open water (planktic species) or nearer to the shoreline or lake bottom, often attached to rocks, sediments or vegetation (benthic species). Additionally, different species are adapted to distinct environments, for example high or low nutrient concentrations, different salinity levels or lake acidity. As such, we can use the diatom remains in sediments to reconstruct past lake environments.

Unfortunately, not everything that lives in lakes will be preserved, and much of the cellular material of photosynthetic microbes decomposes over time. The main photosynthetic pigment across all photosynthetic organisms is chlorophyll a, which gradually breaks down over time. However, the molecules into which it degrades are more stable.

By measuring chlorophyll a and its degradation products in lake sediments, we can get a sense of how lake primary production (the amount of photosynthetic biomass produced in the lake) has changed through time. This is done by using spectroscopy to measure how sediments absorb and reflect light, since chlorophyll a and its degradation products absorb light in specific wavelengths.

By examining changes in the diatom species combined with sedimentary chlorophyll a from different core intervals, we can infer how the fundamental “producers” at the base of the lake food web have changed over the centuries, and even millennia.

Canada’s changing lakes

Our research team examined diatoms and sedimentary chlorophyll a from more than 200 lakes across Canada as part of a large-scale sampling program known as LakePulse.

At each lake, we collected a sediment core and samples from the upper-most and bottom-most sections of the mud were analyzed. These represented modern (deposited in the last few years) and pre-industrial (laid down more than 150 years ago, before the establishment of industrialized practices) samples. Comparing modern and pre-industrial diatoms in each lake, we found two clear patterns resulting from the impacts of direct human development and climate warming.

The first pattern was that lakes with high concentrations of agriculture or urban development surrounding them showed the biggest changes. Diatom species composition changed to forms better adapted to higher nutrients and salinity. The most pronounced changes occurred in the Prairies, which are currently characterized by intense agricultural development and relatively shallow lakes that are more susceptible to nutrient pollution.

The second pattern that we identified was a general increase in planktic diatoms. During the summer, a pattern known as thermal stratification develops in many lakes, where the upper water is heated by the sun and sits on top of colder water. As climates warm, the period during which lakes are stratified in summer has been getting longer.

Based on earlier research, we know that planktic diatoms thrive in thermally stratified, open water environments. LakePulse researchers noticed an increase of planktic diatoms in the majority of lakes across Canada regardless of the degree of human impacts, which suggested that climate change is having a marked effect on the composition of these primary producers.

Sedimentary chlorophyll a also indicated increased primary production in a majority of Canadian lakes, reflecting longer open-water periods (when most lakes show their maximum production) as ice duration decreases due to climate change.

Read more: Climate change could alter the chemistry of deepwater lakes and harm ecosystems

Preserving lakes

Across Canada, the effects of climate change and human activities are changing primary producers in lake food webs. Physical conditions are also changing, with transitions towards stronger and longer periods of stratification for many lakes, and increased nutrients and salinity levels in lakes with high human impacts.

These changes can have major negative consequences. Increased algal production means that as the organisms die and settle to the lake bottom, they are decomposed, which uses up the oxygen in bottom waters. Longer stratified periods can lead to greater oxygen depletion, as the time between episodes of mixing that renew oxygen in cold bottom waters increases.

This can have devastating impacts for cold-water species, such as lake trout, that need high-oxygen cold water to survive through the summer months.

By using paleolimnology to understand how ecosystems have changed over time, we gain valuable insights into the impacts that human activity and climate change may have on Canadian lakes. This knowledge will serve to preserve the health of our freshwater resources for future generations.

Katherine Griffiths of Champlain College Saint-Lambert co-authored this article.

Irene Gregory-Eaves receives funding from Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), Fonds de recherche du Québec -nature et technologies (FRQNT) and the Canada Research Chairs (CRC) programs.

Dermot Antoniades receives funding from NSERC, FRQNT, CFI and CRC.

Hamid Ghanbari does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Syria’s rebel leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, has defended his decision to fill his cabinet with wartime loyalists and delay constitutional and electoral processes, describing these moves as pragmatic necessities for the country’s fragile transition.

At the same time, he has called for the disarmament of all rival factions, especially the Kurds in northern Syria. In a recent Al-Arabiya interview, al-Sharaa outlined a vision for a presidential system, with appointed, not elected, delegates shaping Syria’s new constitution before elections could be held.

His blueprint leaves little room for international oversight, as he insisted the United Nations and foreign powers should play only a minimal role in the process.

Read more: Syria after Assad: A fresh chance for inclusive governance and power-sharing, or more of the same?

Many observers are focusing on Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the factional winner of Syria’s protracted war, and its troubling history of ties to al-Qaida and ISIS.

Questions abound: Will the group’s past alliances shape its governance? Can a group with such a violent legacy chart a path to inclusive peace?

These questions are vital, but my research with colleagues at the universities of Notre Dame and Pittsburgh suggests that regimes emerging from rebel victories tend to share strikingly similar governance challenges. The question isn’t just whether Syria will chart a different course — it’s whether it can defy the grim lessons of history.

Rebel victories

Rebel victories tend to follow a predictable script: a regime born of war seeks to solidify power under the guise of stability.

The Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in 1996 offers a stark example. After their military triumph, they penned a constitution in private, with input solely from Islamic scholars. No civil society entities were invited to the table. The resulting document prioritized ideology over inclusivity, and laid the groundwork for a repressive regime.

Rebel victories are not mere regime changes; they are seismic upheavals. Unlike negotiated transitions or elite-led coups, these regimes arise from violent conflict.

Our research has found that since 1946, 45 countries have experienced one or more episodes of rebel victory, leaving behind weak states with fragile institutions and deep societal divides. Governance in these situations often becomes synonymous with survival, with leaders prioritizing the consolidation of authority over fostering broad-based stability.

Cases of rebel victory underline a troubling trend: rebel leaders often use constitutional processes to centralize power rather than create institutions that can manage grievances or prevent renewed violence.

Expropriation of private property

Our research indicates that constitutions drafted by rebel regimes frequently allow for selective enforcement of property rights, granting broad powers to expropriate under vague justifications. For instance, constitutions of rebel regimes are more likely to allow the government to expropriate private property for “general public purposes,” often without compensation or legal recourse.

Most victorious rebels use constitutional changes to maintain property insecurity as a strategy for consolidating power in an uncertain environment. After the fall of the Derg regime in Ethiopia in 1991, the country’s rebel regime used constitutional provisions to expropriate land for “public use,” selectively targeting marginalized communities and dissenting regions. It consolidated power under the guise of reform while undermining property rights and economic liberalization.

While such measures may temporarily stabilize power, they also fuel grievances, erode trust in state institutions, and often sow the seeds of future conflict.

A small number of rebel regimes, however, take a different path, opting for negotiated constitutional reform. By including rival groups in the process and extending political, social and civic rights to marginalized populations, these regimes can lay the groundwork for more inclusive governance and lasting peace.

Between 1989 and 2012, 56 per cent of comprehensive peace accords included provisions for constitutional reform. Such reforms often serve as nation-building mechanisms in newly formed states, or promote peace among divided communities. By creating a written, negotiated framework for governance, constitutions incentivize non-violent engagement and provide citizens and international entities with tools to hold rebel incumbents accountable.

Helping rebel regimes

There are two ways the global community can influence what happens in rebel regimes — by being punitive and/or by incentivizing. When the Taliban won in Afghanistan in 2021, the international community quickly imposed sanctions on the new rebel regime and froze Afghan assets abroad.

In our analysis, we found that sanctions and arms embargoes — examples of punitive actions — do not significantly reduce the likelihood of civil wars recurring in rebel regimes.

Instead of punitive measures, the Global North in particular should try to influence Syria’s new leaders with incentivizing measures, such as offering economic aid in exchange for peace agreements and facilitating peace-building processes.

The good news for the international community is that, unlike the Taliban, al-Sharaa has shown an openness to collaborate with the West. This presents a critical opportunity to encourage Syria’s rebel leaders to adopt inclusive governance practices, which, in the long run, will reduce the risk of renewed conflict.

Instead of calling for the complete disarmament of rival factions and drafting a new constitution solely by delegates of the rebel winners, al-Sharaa should sign a peace agreement with rival factions which includes the terms for a negotiated, inclusive constitutional reform process.

Sally Sharif does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

Quebec Premier François Legault has vowed to fight for Quebecers who will be affected by U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to impose tariffs on Canadian imports.  

For Nova Scotians looking to escape the frigid temperatures the province has experienced of late, Shubenacadie Sam had some bad news for them Sunday. Nova Scotia's most famous groundhog is calling for six more weeks of winter.

The era of Neoliberalism officially ended yesterday. The tit-for-tat tariff war between Canada, the US and Mexico is an about-face and our economic paradigm is set to shift on Tuesday; free trade is out (long live free trade?)

Of course, these things don’t just end and what comes next, given the weakness of the left, is going to be worse, but regardless, it’s still a turning point.

Last night, senior executives across Canada were surely on calls trying to figure out what a tariff war means for their bottom lines, because regardless of the issue, the answer is always higher profit. While the leaders of corporate Canada figure out the questions to ask to get them to this answer, Canadians need to pay very close attention to what happens to prices if tariffs are added to virtually all US goods (and services?).

For example, will we see a price differential between American goods and non-American goods? Canada has 14 free trade agreements with 49 countries (I have removed NAFTA from that total) and so if the tariff war will impact anything, we should see a price increase on US goods while there is no price increase for goods from other countries with whom we have free trade.

The same should go for Canadian goods.

Sure, there could be inputs that are subject to tariffs and then that are repackaged as Canadian goods and then sold to us at a higher price, but that won’t be the case for all goods. And certainly not goods that are wholly made in Canada, like beef or for anything that is controlled by supply management, like dairy or eggs.

My hunch though, is that in the quest to find the questions that get corporations to the answer that is higher profits, corporations see opportunity to use the cover of tariffs to jack up their prices. We saw this during the earlier years of the pandemic and we will see this again. We will also see a lot of CEO whining that their profit targets might be missed this year (only to perhaps see that they still exceeded profit expectations at the end of 2025, despite the headwinds).

There also could be a rush of US companies to buy similar or affiliated Canadian companies so that they can operate them in Canada and avoid paying the tariffs. Could we be entering a new era of foreign branch plants?

Recall that the US already has the advantage of a low Canadian dollar — as of last night, it was just $0.688 of an American dollar. By imposing tariffs on Canada, Canadians buying US goods are doubly-dinged by the exchange rate when purchasing from the US (a combined percentage increase of 56.2% over the cost of 1 US dollar), while the Americans will still have a 6.2% savings on every dollar spent in Canada. In this tit-for-tat, the US still comes out ahead.

What’s more, everyone is assuming that the 25% tariff will automatically be passed onto the consumer. It doesn’t have to be. We can actually make it so that it’s absorbed by the corporations, who, by the way, have collectively been making record-breaking profits. Hell, why would a US company with Canadian operations, who has two feet on either side of this 25%-25% war, need to ding Canadians or Americans for the new tarrifs at all?

But with no price controls, or controls over gouging us under the cover of tariffs, average and below-average Canadians are likely in for even more pain than we should be. Just think about what Trudeau focused on talking about in his live address tonight: our critical minerals, our energy exports — the stuff that does not actually create anything in this country. He gave a boilerplate, rah rah, team canada bullshit speech. And while people ate Trudeau speaking slowly and in complete sentences, up (I am looking at you who ate it up), the big question was completely buried: what is Canada going to do to stop price gouging and profiteering, how will we stop job losses, and how are we going to use the chaos of a Trump presidency to actually rebuild our manufacturing base and restore sovereignty to our economy?

Sure, maybe it’s too early to start talking about brass tax. Certainly Jagmeet Singh thought that today was the moment to use ChatGPT to write a statement that said absolutely nothing (Poilievre understood the assignment). But the bar cannot be so low that it’s about to be mined and sold off to the US Department of Defense. We have to demand that Trudeau, in his moment of suspended parliament and lack of opposition scrutiny, actually acts to protect Canadians as much as he talks about loving them. Because in absence of some serious market interventions, the impact of the tariffs will go way beyond the actual impact of the tariffs.

The death of a prognosticating rodent in Quebec cast a shadow over Groundhog Day festivities on Thursday, while the notable furry forecasters who made their predictions were split over spring’s arrival.

Fred la Marmotte is dead, organizers in Val D’Espoir, Que., told the crowd that had gathered in anticipation of the rodent’s annual prediction.

Premier Doug Ford has ordered the LCBO to strip its shelves of American products in response to the U.S. imposing 25 per cent tariffs on most Canadian imports starting Tuesday.

Kazuyoshi Akiyama, who conducted the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra from 1972 until 1985, passed away last weekend at the age of 84. 

The administration at Queen’s University is trying to cut funding to academic programs. In response all the bargaining units at the University — including five CUPE units, as well as PSAC 901 and USW 2010 — are joining forces in an historic coordinating bargaining campaign. Together they represent over 5,000 workers including lab technicians, library technicians, food service workers, custodial and trades staff, graduate teaching assistants, and other support staff.

The post Queen’s workers unite to fight for better contracts first appeared on Spring.

The top two teams in the NHL facing off in front of a fired-up sellout crowd of over 18,500 fans on an early February Saturday night in the U.S. capital did not disappoint.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump’s second week in office seemed to deliver a daily dose of deliberate jolts for the country.

There were chaotic reminders of his first term. The White House found itself backtracking on its directive to freeze federal spending on grants and loans. And the Republican president indulged unsupported accusations after a deadly plane crash near Washington.

Trump also escalated his moves against the institutions that he was elected to lead. His administration ousted prosecutors who worked on Capitol riot cases and laid the groundwork for purging FBI agents. Elon Musk, Trump’s billionaire ally, began efforts to dramatically downsize the federal workforce.

Some takeaways from week No. 2:

New administration, old problems

Trump and his team had impressed even some of their critics with a steady stream of executive orders in their first week. The administration seemed better organized and more effective than the last time Trump was president.

But in his second week, Trump’s White House stumbled over itself with a confusing memo that was intended to freeze federal funding, causing disruptions and leading to lawsuits. A judge temporarily blocked the directive, and the memo was quickly rescinded. Then, Trump responded to the deadliest American aviation disaster in decades by baselessly blaming diversity initiatives, demonstrating his willingness to shoehorn tragedy into his personal political crusades.

The cascade of controversy and outrage recalled some of the more infamous moments of Trump’s first term, such as the chaos of his initial travel ban on people from Muslim countries and his freewheeling briefings during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Trump tries remaking Washington

Throughout the 2024 campaign, Trump made it clear that he would not settle for making small tweaks in Washington. He wanted dramatic change, particularly in institutions such as the Justice Department that he felt had wronged him over the years.

Once he was back in office, the first step was pardoning nearly everyone charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot. In the past week his administration went even further. Prosecutors were pushed out, and top FBI officials were ordered to retire or be fired. A senior Justice Department official who previously worked on Trump’s legal defense team asked for the names of every FBI agent who worked on Jan. 6 cases.

Other shakeups were reported across the nation’s capital. A top Treasury official quit and federal websites were scrubbed of “gender ideology.” There appeared to be few, if any, limits to how far Trump and his allies would go to remake Washington.

When in doubt, blame DEI

As Trump deals with various challenges facing the country, he has repeatedly pointed to efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion in society, or DEI, as the root cause of a multitude of problems.

One of Trump’s earliest moves upon retaking the Oval Office was to issue orders to undo the federal government’s DEI efforts. Trump and his supporters suggested such initiatives are discriminatory and lead to incompetence.

His administration is so intent on eradicating it from government that it is requiring federal workers to report any surreptitious DEI programs that continue. But he hasn’t stopped there.

While investigators were just getting started on investigating the cause of a midair collision near Reagan National Airport between an Army helicopter and a jetliner, Trump began speculating that federal diversity and inclusion efforts were somehow to blame. The president could not back up those claims when repeatedly pressed on it by reporters in the White House briefing room.

When asked why he thought diversity had something to do with the crash, he said, “Because I have common sense. OK?”

A day earlier, Trump reprimanded Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell over inflation and again pointed to DEI, saying on his social media network that “if the Fed had spent less time on DEI” and other liberal issues, “inflation would never have been a problem.”

Trump had his first big flop

Punctuating the week was the Trump administration’s first big policy setback: the abrupt freeze, and then unfreezing, of federal grant funds amid a public revolt.

Communities across the nation depend on federal grants and loans to run a vast array of programs and services, from housing and veterans services to community health care centers. The sudden spending “pause” announced in an Office of Management and Budget memo sent shockwaves coast to coast.

“Every corner of the country is feeling the wrath of Donald Trump’s cruel plan,” said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York at a news conference at the Capitol.

The memo was rescinded, although the underlying Trump executive orders to clamp down on spending that does not align with his policies on climate, DEI and more do remain. The White House about-face showed the limits of the administration’s broader effort to reduce the size and scope of government.

Rolling back government in the abstract is one thing. But cutting programs that deliver services to veterans, parents, children, older adults and others is a totally different political equation.

‘A fork in the road’ for federal workers

Trump campaigned on “dismantling the deep state,” and the federal workforce got a large dose this past week of just how disruptive that effort will be.

The new administration had already imposed a federal hiring freeze. Then, millions of federal employees got a “fork in the road” email shortly after business hours ended on Monday offering them eight months of paid leave if they agreed to resign.

Those who quit were promised they would be paid through Sept. 30. They would not necessarily be required to work and could seek new employment in the meantime. But there were broad concerns about the legality of the offer and whether Trump was trying to create a toxic work environment.

Employees have to decide whether to take the deal by Thursday. Those who opt to stay will be required to work from the office full time and face “enhanced standards of suitability and conduct.” The email also warned that future downsizing of the governmental workforce was likely.

That’s on top of the administration ordering federal officials overseeing DEI efforts to be placed on leave.

Asked Friday if he was worried too many experienced federal workers would leave, Trump replied, “Everybody’s replaceable. We’ll get good people to replace them if it turns out to be more. … But we’d love to have them leave.”

Is America stuck in a trade war?

Trump once famously posted on social media that “trade wars are good, and easy to win” — a claim that he’s now putting to the test against Canada and Mexico after imposing tariffs that within hours led to retaliatory measures by those two countries.

Trump said the tariffs are about stopping the illicit smuggling of fentanyl, as well as preventing illegal immigration on the U.S. borders with Mexico and Canada. The president on Saturday put 25% tariffs on imports from Mexico and Canada, with a lesser 10% rate on Canadian oil, natural gas and electricity. China faces a 10% tariff.

Those moves almost immediately angered Mexico and Canada, America’s two largest trading partners who had previously negotiated a deal with Trump during his first term. Both levied retaliatory tariffs. Hockey fans at the Ottawa Senators game in Canada booed the U.S. national anthem. The Canadian prime minister, Justin Trudeau, encouraged his citizens to buy Canadian.

They are up against a U.S. president who really loves tariffs. He is already promising more import taxes on computer chips, steel, copper, pharmaceutical drugs and the European Union. His administration has yet to explain why these taxes will not worsen the inflation he was elected to fix. The Budget Lab at Yale University estimates Trump’s tariffs would cost the average American household $1,000 to $1,200 in annual purchasing power.

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Price reported from New York. Associated Press writer Josh Boak in Palm Beach, Florida, and AP Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.

Michelle L. Price, Chris Megerian And Will Weissert, The Associated Press