And the Rest of It

A busy world: 

The Canadian Armed Forces are shrinking. Defence Minister Bill Blair yesterday said more soldiers, sailors and air crew are quitting than can be replaced with new recruits amid “a great deal of priorities right now” with war in Israel and Ukraine and domestic search and rescue operations: “Over the last three years we’ve actually seen greater attrition.”

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The Saskatchewan government has passed new legislation to firm up workers’ rights around wearing a poppy in remembrance of veterans, during November.

Bill 139, or the The Saskatchewan Remembrance Observance Act, asserts that employees have the right to wear a poppy in their workplace, provided it does not pose a danger to health or safety.

The protection applies to provincially regulated employees, to wear poppies recognized by the Royal Canadian Legion from Nov. 1-11 annually.

Federally regulated workplaces, like banks, telecommunication entities and airports or other interprovincial transportation hubs are outside the scope of the legislation.

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Whatever you do, don't go after the tax-dodgers in the government, nor their friends:

There will likely be some teary eyes at a wedding reception in the next few days after provincial police seized 326 cases of beer after they were called Wednesday to a vehicle breakdown on busy Highway 401.

L&A OPP detachment was dispatched to a “traffic hazard” for a rental van with a blown tire on the shoulder of westbound 401 near kilometre marker 522.

When police arrived, they found rim marks along the highway shoulder, eventually becoming flatter, indicating the rim was worn off and the vehicle was running on the hub.

They found the van, still moving, slowly, about one kilometre further, just west of Highway 37.

The rear left wheel was beginning to smoke from heat, police said in a release.

The vehicle stopped and officers who went to speak to the driver noticed four cases of beer in the front passenger seat area. The cases had only French-language marking on the boxes.

The driver was described as “evasive” when “confronted about the transportation of the beer from Quebec.”

“A further search of the vehicle for liquor found the entire back of the van filled with beer cases,” the OPP report said. When unloaded the final count was 326 cases of 24 beer of various brands with bottles and cans.

The driver eventually admitted that the beer wasn’t purchased in an Ontario store.

He further admitted that the beer was for a wedding and not for his personal use.

Const. David Yome of the L&A OPP detachment explained “Liquor purchased from Quebec and transported to another province must be for personal use only.

“Driver admitted it was not for his personal use. (It would be) Kind of hard to explain 326 cases of 24 packs of beer for personal consumption.”

The driver was charged with unlawfully possessing liquor, unlawfully purchasing liquor, and operate unsafe vehicle with a provincial court date to speak to the charges.

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That's an inflated opinion of a channel no one watches:

Cutting the CBC “would be devastating” for Canada, CEO Catherine Tait yesterday told the Commons heritage committee. The market share for CBC-TV is currently 4.4 percent and falling, according to the Crown broadcaster: “This is a precious asset.”

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The legal system protects the creeps:

The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that mandatory minimum sentences for child luring are unconstitutional.

This decision stems from cases involving individuals who challenged the minimum sentences for child luring, arguing they violated their Charter rights.

Child luring is outlined in section 172.1(1) of the Criminal Code and involves adults using telecommunication to target children or individuals believed to be children for various offenses like sexual exploitation, sexual assault, incest, and child pornography. 

The mandatory minimum sentence for child luring is one year for indictable offenses and six months for summary convictions.

The decision comes after Maxime Bertrand Marchand challenged the one-year mandatory minimum sentence for child luring. Marchand had previously pleaded guilty to sexual interference and child luring after meeting and having sexual intercourse with a 13-year-old victim multiple times when he was 22.

Marchand argued that the mandatory minimum sentence was inconsistent with the Charter’s section 12, which protects against cruel and unusual punishment. 

On Friday, the Court agreed with Marchand, finding the one-year sentence to be grossly disproportionate to the five-month sentence imposed for luring.

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This is what cancelling looks like:

A B.C. nurse accused of making numerous "derogatory and discriminatory" public statements about transgender people took the stand in her discipline hearing on Friday, telling the panel considering her case that she is not transphobic.

During a hearing at the B.C. College of Nurses and Midwives, Amy Hamm of New Westminster testified that her advocacy on social and other platforms is meant to protect women and children from what she described as dangerous infringements into sex-segregated spaces.

"I'm not transphobic. I don't have any issue with trans people — it's the infringement on women and children's rights," Hamm told the college disciplinary panel.

She said she is fighting against what she described as a "fringe" movement of activists influencing official positions on transgender rights and access to gender-affirming care.

"It's a movement that is infringing on the rights of women and pushing institutions to adopt what are false and delusional beliefs," she said.

Hamm faces allegations of unprofessional conduct for making "discriminatory and derogatory statements regarding transgender people" while identifying herself as a nurse, according to a citation from the college.

Hamm frequently refers to transgender women as "men" in social media posts, videos and podcasts, implying they pose a danger to cisgender women and children. She has referred to the disciplinary proceedings as a "witch trial" and suggested the college "would love for me to suicide myself."

She has also said she rejected a proposed settlement from the college that would have seen her agree to a two-week licence suspension and social media training.

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A sad commentary on a graying country:

Fading photos of smiling children still adorn the staircase walls at Ashigakubo Elementary School, one of thousands of educational facilities that have shut in aging Japan over the past 20 years.

The school, which was more than a century old, was forced to close in 2009 when the last few dozen children left to join a bigger school "because they couldn't make any friends," said Mayor Yoshinari Tomita.

The playground was removed after becoming dangerous due to a lack of maintenance, and the swimming pool is now used by ducks and dragonflies.

But the oldest part of the school, built in 1903, has been preserved, with local authorities working to bring the wooden rooms full of nostalgia back to life.

Public money is available to help municipalities manage old schools and repurpose the disused buildings to best serve their communities.