Tim Abray, PhD 🇨🇦

People riding bikes in a protected bike lane in downtown Vancouver

It’s REALLY important that #Vancouver’s Downtown Business Association, who were originally against downtown bike-lanes, are now among their most vigourous supporters, because of the evidence that they are better for downtown business than any street parking they replaced.

Bike-lanes mean business.

And yes, I’m aware she hosts the Saturday call in. That show routinely outshines CCC but likely to a much smaller audience.

Braced myself and tuned into Cross Country Checkup… and, hallelujah, it’s Saroja Coelho today. This is the change we need. She is such a good open line host. Smart, strong, excellent moderation skills, not afraid to handle complex ideas with curiosity and grace. This is the journalism we need.

Trump says Canada backing Palestinian statehood jeopardizes U.S. trade deal he was gonna break anyway WASHINGTON D.C. - U.S.President Donald Trump has announced that Canada’s decision to recognize Palestinian statehood will “make it very hard for us to make a Trade Deal with them, which I had no inten...

Trump says Canada backing Palestinian statehood jeopardizes U.S. trade deal he was gonna break anyway

Bike Lanes: 2 - Ford Nation: 0 - Spacing Toronto In an intriguing aside a third of the way into Justice Paul Schabas’ extraordinary decision (issued yesterday) in Toronto’s bike lane war with Premier Doug Ford, he reveals how, about a month ago, he ...

"in a period when it feels like we’re adrift in a universe where political might has crushed any semblance of rational policy discourse, Cycle Toronto et al vs the Attorney General of Ontario et al feels like a balm" - @johnlorinc.bsky.social
<3 @cycletoronto.bsky.social
spacing.ca/toronto/2025...

…salacious gossip is now justification enough to turn the power of the public broadcaster onto cheap tabloid fodder. We’ve fallen a long way. Question for you, Ian: How many affairs of public officials and colleagues have you turned a blind eye to in your career? Right. But this? Pillory time. /end

Stories need to be grounded in the public interest… not the interested public. Why must we, as a society, deal with this issue? If you can’t answer that, it doesn’t deserve coverage. Otherwise, you are just filling the niche that gossip rags have filled for generations. But no… /2

Another week, another journalistically bankrupt offering from Ian on Checkup. He has no trouble interrupting, nullifying or otherwise discounting views that question his own role in driving the controversy. Key point for those of you who give a crap about media ethics and the role of journalism: /1

Leave it to Checkup to rile me up. Ian just tried to dismiss a caller’s fears about the border and having her citizenship stripped by telling her Trump can’t really do that because it’s “illegal.” FFS look around buddy. MOST of what he is doing is illegal. But that does not seem to be stopping him.

Remember, this new normal -- in which gangs of masked armed gunmen are causing chaos in the streets, pulling weapons and assaulting innocent people, and no one can say if they're crooks or cops -- was all sold to Americans as a way to make us feel safer.

No, I don’t think we should. But it’s going to require engagement to ensure our values are at the table and part of the conversation. This is a messy, dangerous time where the status quo is radically shifting.

Things are going to be very challenging for the next few years. The world order is being remade in real time at a breakneck pace. It’s not an option to stand back and watch and see what happens as predatory states flex muscle. Canada is trying to be part of the conversation, not part of the menu.

Here we go. Time for session one (for me) of the Canadian Political Science Association (CPSA) annual conference. A session on Municipal resilience in the face of multiple, inter-related threats. Learning time!

Most Canadians agree childhood vaccines should be mandatory, a new poll suggests | CBC News Measles cases are surging across Canada, so it might not come as a surprise that nearly 70 per cent of Canadians surveyed recently by the Angus Reid Institute agreed that childhood vaccinations should...

Children need to be kept safe, including safety from deluded parents who put their health at risk. Under many laws, children were property of their father until the 1950s. Thankfully, this is no longer true.
Should childhood vaccinations ...
www.cbc.ca/news/health/...

My friend, Adam, shining the spotlight on the great work of the Community Foundation for Kingston & Area. The idiots are getting all the headlines right now. But, as always, there are amazing people doing amazing things every day in our communities. Check it out.

World Health Assembly adopts historic Pandemic Agreement to make the world more equitable and safer from future pandemics Member States of the World Health Organization (WHO) today formally adopted by consensus the world's first Pandemic Agreement. The landmark decision by the 78th World Health Assembly culminates more t...

This morning, WHO Member States adopted the Pandemic Agreement by consensus.

They also established a working group to negotiate the PABS Annex for 2026.

Once the Annex is adopted the Agreement opens for signature.

It will enter into force when there are 60 Parties.

www.who.int/news/item/20...

Hurricane season starts June 1 and if you live in a Gulf state, you need to watch this. It’s worse than you might think.

The few employees still left at FEMA admit: they are not prepared. Not enough staff. Not enough supplies. Not enough leadership. Plan accordingly.

Honestly? I’m not surprised. The team, as a whole, did not show up to play tonight. So fans departing when it’s 5-1 seems about right. Throwing stuff on the ice during play, though? Not so much.

Despite Berube’s improvements this year, there is still something wrong with the whole approach. You can see the whole team hesitate under pressure. That suggests some common thing that makes them second guess themselves. You can see them freeze whenever there is a quick decision to be made.

Also time to say goodbye to Shanahan, too. He’s had a decade. Nothing. Time for someone who takes this more seriously.

Bye bye Core Four. Time for some new blood… a few players who know how to rise to the occasion would be good.

Canadian political biographies latest in rising pile of AI-generated books scamming customers online The fake-looking books about Mark Carney and Pierre Poilievre flooded search results during the federal election campaign, including one ostensibly authored by a cat

Me being shocked and appalled about AI book scams:

www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/books/a...

Fascists are excited to take away your rights. When people start talking about “freedom” with a wild look in their eyes… chances are they are actually excited about the exact opposite.

So far, zero judges have agreed we are in a "state of war."

And voters didn’t like what they saw. /3

A “makeover” will just compound the issue. It will demonstrate that he lacks all integrity and truly is willing to do anything just to secure power. Someone who has done the things he has and courted the support he has cannot claim he was misunderstood. The issue is that he was fully understood. /2

Conservative insiders say they need to sell Pierre Poilievre's 'softer side' to voters next time — Toronto Star Nearly two weeks after a bitter election defeat, the Conservative party has turned its sights to its next chapter: rolling out tone shifts, a renewed media strategy, and the reintroduction of its lead...

The disingenuous bullshit has begun in earnest. This “we were misunderstood” nonsense is completely devoid of integrity. The reason people rejected Poilievre (even in his own riding) is because this is who he is—a flippant, self-satisfied, toxic personality. /1 apple.news/AEsKvaC--S9-...

Wow. That sniff from Berube was poetic violence. Sam Bennett should be shitting his pants. Daddy Craig is gonna tan your hide, buddy.

"I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."