Fascism
It’s impossible to start the day without first noting that the U.S. is in a dire state. Yesterday, President Donald Trump explicitly said he is going to use the military against civilians in American cities. And at midnight, the U.S. government went into lockdown, which will undoubtedly be the excuse Trump will use to attempt to further consolidate power.
I said when Trump was elected that unless the regime is stopped, millions of people will be murdered outright. I stand by that view. For them, holding power means being ruthlessly cruel. There is no bottom to the depravity of the Trumpists, no shame, no low too low, no red line that won’t be crossed.
And the institutions have largely failed, at least so far. The courts have failed. The opposition party has failed. The media have failed.
Still, I know there are a great many decent people in the U.S. People who will work hard, collectively and creatively, to combat the evil. People who need our support from Canada and elsewhere. We cannot, must not, turn our backs on them.
(To send or post this item, copy the website address at the top of this page.)
NOTICED
1. AI is fascism
The AI industry has no discernible pathway to profitability. As Ed Zitron has been pointing out for three years, every dollar in revenue for the big AI firms is dwarfed by many times as much in costs, and the costs are only increasing as the products get shittier.
So lately I’ve been thinking of AI as a meme industry. Just as a “meme stock” like Tesla has no underlying economic value, the entire AI industry has no underlying economic value. Both meme stocks and meme industries only have value because of the hype around them.
(It’s true that the value of anything and everything, currency or shares of a mining stock or the national debt or whatever, is social — what people believe it to be — but with the meme stuff there’s not even a widely held belief of value beyond the hype; no one much is rushing out to buy actual Teslas with actual money, and no one much is buying actual AI products with actual money. At least not with anything near the money that is required to produce Teslas or AI products).
And so the hype must be maintained, and others must be forced to believe in the hype and buy into it.
This first became apparent with the notion that was often expressed as something like “you won’t lose your job because of AI if you learn how to use AI; only those who refuse to learn AI will lose their jobs.” Believe the hype or lose your job!
People are losing their jobs, but not really so much because of AI but because of managers who are looking for any excuse to cut payroll costs, even if, as in AI’s case, the excuse doesn’t make financial sense.
At some point, however, the hype of AI runs right up against the reality of the limitations of AI.
The federal government has fully bought into the hype. Prime Minister Mark Carney has appointed tech genius and art dealer Evan Solomon — Evan Solomon! — as “minister of artificial intelligence and digital innovation,” and promises to slashes the public workforce by using AI.
So we should expect some big AI news coming from the federal government, eh?
Or not.
On Monday, the government issued a press release entitled “Government of Canada invests close to $600,000 to help commercialize new technology and advance AI solutions for Northern Ontario.”
AI! Hooray!
But wait…The release notes that the bulk of the money is going towards tech that is used to upgrade electrical systems in hospitals and the like. Useful, but not AI. Here’s the AI part:
As part of the announcement, Waive is receiving a repayable contribution of $67,200 to help develop and commercialize an AI-driven automated form-filling tool to improve healthcare productivity. Once complete, the system will help leverage patient history from electronic medical records to autocomplete basic and complex forms such as disability tax forms, WSIB claims, and diagnostic referrals. Funded through the Government of Canada’s Regional Artificial Intelligence Initiative for Northern Ontario, this project will help Waive grow its operations, create jobs, and alleviate administrative challenges facing our healthcare system by bringing a new AI-driven technology to market.
The remaining $28,200 will allow the Ontario First Nations Technical Services Corporation to develop and implement an AI strategic plan. Provided through FedNor’s Northern Ontario Development Program (NODP), this non-repayable funding will also support AI training and help over 50 First Nation communities adopt AI frameworks to help them enhance operational efficiency and accelerate economic growth.
This is a terribly written press release. Nowhere does it explain who or what “Waive” is. Perhaps the press release was written by AI?
That aside, we’re talking about $67,000 for the development and commercialization of a form-filling tool? But not just any old forms — basic and complex forms! Please. Sixty-seven thousand dollars won’t pay a half-year salary of a decent software engineer, and not even that for the engineer’s boss. And then another 28 thousand and change to train people to learn to use AI — that is, to get them on the hype train.
There’s no there there.
And in this respect, I’m coming to understand the AI hype machine as part and parcel of the fascistic project. That’s not an analogy. I’m not saying AI is similar to fascism, or parallel to it. I’m saying AI is fascism.
Fascist regimes work to blur reality and to confuse us, to make it impossible to know what is truth and what is fiction. And AI does this perfectly. Most of the time, or at least some of the time, it is “right,” and we’ll just accept the wrong stuff because it’s easier and what are you going to do, anyway? Trust Donald Trump, and trust ChatGPT, there’s really no other option.
But it’s more than being occasionally wrong about stuff. It’s about being purposefully wrong. Ultimate power is wielded by telling lies as truth. Or, as George Orwell put it:
In the end the Party would announce that two and two made five, and you would have to believe it. It was inevitable that they should make that claim sooner or later: the logic of their position demanded it. Not merely the validity of experience, but the very existence of external reality, was tacitly denied by their philosophy. The heresy of heresies was common sense.
And by their internal logics, fascism and artificial intelligence are inevitable, the natural course of the world and evolution. You can no more deny fascism and AI than you can deny gravity. It’s just a fact of the universe.
The most important feature of fascism, however, is its insistence that you believe in it. The Trumpists will destroy anyone who calls them out, anyone who refuses to genuflect, anyone who lives in a world not controlled by the party. Similarly, AI demands allegiance, and anyone who questions the hype machine will be vilified, spurned, ridiculed.
Eventually, fascism runs its course, just as the AI hype machine will. In their eternal quest for enemies, fascists will in time eat themselves, and in their never-ending hype cycles, the AI machine will in time find the well empty.
It’s just a question of how much damage will be done before it’s over.
(Send this item: right click and copy this link)
2. Proposed change to Personal Health Information Act
Heather Spidell, co-lead for Nova Scotia Moms for Compassionate, Collaborative Mental Health Care, during the Sept. 29, 2025 meeting of the legislature’s public bills committee. Credit: Jennifer Henderson
This item is written by Jennifer Henderson.
At CBC, Michael Gorman reports on another section of the Houston government’s omnibus bill that makes a change in the wording of the Personal Health Information Act (PHIA).
Advocates for families of loved ones struggling with mental health challenges welcome the proposed change, but say it “does not go far enough and risks leaving too many vulnerable people without access to help before it’s too late.”
As Gorman notes, Bill 127 includes the removal of the word “imminent” from the act, a change intended to “broaden the ability of health-care providers to disclose information if there is a reasonable belief of significant danger to a person or others.”
A striking statistic raised during Monday’s meeting of the legislature’s public bills committee was the record high number of deaths by suicide in one year. As reported by the provincial medical examiner’s office, there were 159 deaths in 2024, up from 156 in 2022 (it was 144 in 2023).
In recent months the province, in partnership with the IWK Health Centre, has been investing in one-stop shopping (Integrated Youth Mental Health services) at eight locations across the province. We reported on that here.
In addition, there is now more help for people with all types of addictions. So far for the first nine months of 2025, the number of lives lost to suicide is 90. That’s still 10 people every month, but far fewer than the past three years.
(Send this item: right click and copy this link)
3. The scourge of mobility scooters
The machine that plowed me over Tuesday was roughly similar to this mobility scooter. Credit: heavydutymobility.com
Yesterday afternoon, I walked out of Park Lane Mall, descended the steps, and the next thing I knew was lying on the sidewalk with a mobility scooter atop my leg. As he was backing up, the driver yelled at me, “Why don’t you look where you’re going?!”
(When I say ‘mobility scooter’ I mean something that is one step up from a motorized wheelchair, and not the blue e-scooters that have popped up around town).
As one does when one finds themselves knocked down and twisted on the ground, my mind went immediately to self-assessment: Am I OK? Fortunately, I had not hit my head against the cement. I had broken my fall with my right hand, but hadn’t seemed to have broken a bone. My ankle was sore, but I could move it fully.
Only in retrospect could I put the moment in context. This was fucked up.
Yes, I watched where I was going. I descend those very steps two or three times a week. Each time, I watch my step down, and I have never run into another pedestrian. My peripheral vision is good, and I see anyone walking even at a good clip. What I don’t see is someone in a mobility scooter going 20km/h on a sidewalk.
In all my years, and I have a lot of them, I have never simply mistakenly bumped into another pedestrian because I wasn’t paying attention. There’s a normal expectation of walking down or across a sidewalk that many millions of people manage to successfully do every day, not a problem.
The mobility scooters are a problem.
I first noticed this about a decade ago, on the hill on Thistle Street running down to the Sportsplex. I was walking up the hill, and coming down the hill towards me was a man using a mobility scooter, and with the slope of the hill assisting his speed, I judged he was going about 30km/h. I stepped off the sidewalk, out of the way.
As the man passed, I judged he was about 70 years old. And he was carrying a baby — just carrying the child in one arm, and using the other hand to steer the machine. Neither man nor child were secured with a seat belt or harness. My dog, I thought, should he hit a rock or pothole in the sidewalk, this will spell disaster.
Since then, I’ve seen lots of people using mobility scooters at dangerous speeds on busy sidewalks. I don’t know what explains it. Perhaps some people who have some physical issue that requires them to use a mobility scooter feel that physical limitation entitles them to go fast. Perhaps it’s just fun to go fast. I think the real explanation, though, is just like every other subset of humanity, a certain percentage of mobility scooter users are simply assholes; they don’t give a shit about endangering others.
Up to now, I only considered mobility scooters as a potential hazard for other people. But here I sit this morning, popping ibuprofen for a sore back and ankle and typing with a bruised hand, and I’m angered all over again that some asshole using a mobility scooter blamed me for him plowing over and atop me.
Is it really OK that someone can drive a machine down the busiest sidewalk in Atlantic Canada at 20km/h? Why do we allow this? What if I were a more fragile elderly person? Or blind? Or just myself — why do I have to invent perfect victims? A healthy man should also be able to walk down the damn sidewalk without getting plowed over by a 350-pound machine carrying a 200-pound man.
I can’t find this morning with a quick search that Halifax or Nova Scotia has any speed limits for mobility scooters on sidewalks. In the U.K., however, “the maximum speed is 4mph. You must make way for other people using the pavement and drive considerately.” Four miles per hour — about 6.4km/h — is the typical walking speed for most people, and is entirely reasonable for people using mobility scooters as well.
I also don’t know why the machines don’t have governors that limit their speeds.
But until mobility scooter speed limits are imposed by law here, or until the manufacturers install speed governors on the machines, I guess we’ll just have to hope that mobility scooter users won’t be assholes and that they’ll make way for other people using the pavement and drive considerately.
(Send this item: right click and copy this link)
4. Halifax hosting public meeting for the Downtown Dartmouth Heritage Conservation District
This item is written by Suzanne Rent.
Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) is hosting a public meeting where the public can offer its feedback on the proposed Downtown Dartmouth Heritage Conservation District.
The public meeting takes place on Thursday, Oct. 2 from 4pm to 7pm at the Alderney Landing Farmers’ Market.
In April, the heritage advisory committee got the first look at the proposal for the heritage conservation district. Downtown Dartmouth is one of eight expanded heritage conservation districts proposed under the Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF), which was approved by Halifax regional council in 2024.
The boundaries for the new heritage conservation district are Victoria Road/Pine Street, Portland Street, King Street/Edward Street, and the Dartmouth Common.
During her presentation to the heritage advisory committee in April, HRM planner Elizabeth Cushing detailed the rich history of the area, which was first used by the Mi’kmaq for summer encampments. The Loyalists, Maroons, and Quakers also have historic connections to downtown Dartmouth.
The first town plot for colonial Dartmouth was created in 1750, while the first ferry started operating between Dartmouth and Halifax in 1752.
Industries that operated in downtown Dartmouth included a whaling industry, the Starr Manufacturing Company, and the construction of the Shubenacadie Canal.
HRM will host another public meeting later where planners will share the draft documents for the proposed heritage conservation district. For more information, click here.
(Send this item: right click and copy this link)
THE LATEST FROM THE HALIFAX EXAMINER:
1. I’m a citizen scientist working to protect Nova Scotia’s forests. Tim Houston is threatening to put me in jail.
Guided hike participants gathering at Lichen Camp, proposed Goldsmith Lake Wilderness Area, April 2025. Credit: Nina Newington
Nina Newington writes:
Whether or not the government decides to use the Crown Lands Act amendments in Bill 127 to try to dislodge the Mi’kmaq from the Tqamuoweye’katik camp, it certainly looks as if they have future Lichen Camps in their sights.
The camps that I and other citizen scientists and others have set up in Annapolis County since 2021 have all been in areas of high-conservation value that local people want to see protected.
None of these camps have blocked forest access roads.
The camps serve as a base for research and education. Citizen scientists — amateur naturalists, as they might once have been called — spend countless hours documenting biodiversity, identifying species-at-risk, and discovering stands of old-growth forest. The goal is to build the case for permanently protecting the area.
Old-growth forest stands and certain species-at-risk – the ones that stay put, like lichens and Black Ash — are protected from logging.
…
But now the government has expanded the prohibition to anyone who “obstructs the use of” or “impedes access to” a forest access road. Those terms are more open to interpretation than blocking or barricading. This vagueness combined with severe penalties seems intended to intimidate people working to protect our forests.
Click or tap here to read “I’m a citizen scientist working to protect Nova Scotia’s forests. Tim Houston is threatening to put me in jail.”
(Send this item: right click and copy this link)
2. On Truth and Reconciliation Day, the Houston government prepares to criminalize Indigenous land protectors
Left to right: Michelle Paul, Darlene Gilbert, Marian Nicholas, and Masa Kateb appeared at the Public Bills Committee on Sept. 29, 2025. Credit: Jennifer Henderson
I reported yesterday:
[Monday], the Nova Scotia legislature’s Public Bills Committee took public comment about Bill 127, the “Protecting Nova Scotians Act.”
Included in the bill are provisions for criminalizing acts that “block, obstruct the uses of or impede access” to forest access roads.
Anyone in violation of the new legislation can be subject to a fine up to $50,000 or six months in jail, or both.
It wasn’t lost on anyone that the legislation comes just as a group of Mi’kmaw people are blockading roads near Tqamuoweye’katik (Hunter’s Mountain) in Cape Breton to prevent clearcutting.
It certainly wasn’t lost on the Mi’kmaw people involved in the Hunter’s Mountain blockade, several of whom showed up to speak before the committee.
“It’s not lost upon us, first and foremost, the timing of it all, that it’s being rushed through on the eve of Treaty Day and the national Truth and Reconciliation Day,” said Michelle Paul, who lives on the Gold River Reserve of the Wasoqopa’q First Nation and is participating in the Hunter’s Mountain blockade.
“I just have to say: How dare you, Tim Houston? How dare you do this on the eve of these two special days?”
Click or tap here to read “On Truth and Reconciliation Day, the Houston government prepares to criminalize Indigenous land protectors.”
(Send this item: right click and copy this link)
3. A Dartmouth woman stole $619,000 from the Halifax Police benefit fund; they’ve only recovered $55,000 of it
Halifax Regional Police headquarters on Gottingen Street. Credit: Suzanne Rent
I’ve reported:
In 2013, the Halifax Regional Police (HRP) Benefit Trust Fund was alerted by a bank that there were “irregularities” with the funds’ accounts.
It was soon discovered that the woman who had been hired as administrator of the fund in 2003, Mary Louise MacDonald of Dartmouth, had been defrauding the fund.
A police investigation found that over the course of about three years, MacDonald had misappropriated $619,346 by “employing various techniques, including using a chequing account that was intended for HRP’s Annual Employee Gala.”
…
But in a document filed with the court last week, the fund states that “HRP Benefit Fund took steps to enforce the [civil] judgment against Ms. MacDonald and in the ensuing years recovered approximately $55,000. However, the majority of the judgment debt remains unsatisfied.”
Click or tap here to read “A Dartmouth woman stole $619,000 from the Halifax Police benefit fund; they’ve only recovered $55,000 of it.”
The “give to the policeman’s ball” thing is one of the oldest scams going, and still people fall for it.
(Send this item: right click and copy this link)
Government
City
Wednesday
Board of Police Commissioners (Wednesday, 1pm, HEMDCC Meeting Space and online) — agenda
Thursday
Environment and Sustainability Standing Committee (Thursday, 1pm, City Hall and online) — agenda
Public Open House (Thursday, 4pm, Alderney Landing) — (HRTGPLAN-2023-01756 ) – Downtown Dartmouth Heritage Conservation District Plan and By-law
Women and Gender Equity Advisory Committee (Thursday, 4:30pm, City Hall) — agenda
Province
No meetings
On campus
Dalhousie
Wednesday
PhD Defence: Mechanical Engineering (Wednesday, 9:30am, online) — Nima Valizade will defend “Microstructural, Tribological, and Corrosion Behaviour of Alumix 123 PM Alloys: Effects of Sizing Mechanical Surface Treatment”
Thursday
Group Read – Reclaiming Power + Place: The Final Report (Thursday, 12pm, Indigenous Student Centre and online) — details
PhD Thesis Defence: Animal Science and Aquaculture (Thursday, 1:30pm, online) — Zohreh Fazelan will defend “Exploring Decapod Crustacean Immune Responses through Pathogen Challenges in American Lobster (Homarus Americanus)”
Dept. of Physiology & Biophysics – Bela Issekutz Jr. Memorial Lecture (Thursday, 4pm, Theatre A, Tupper Building) — S.R. Wayne Chen from the University of Calgary will present “Targeting Cellular Hyperactivity to Prevent Cardiac Arrhythmias and Alzheimer’s Disease”
How to Be Hopeful: Overcome Despair and Act for Climate Justice (Thursday, 7pm, Potter auditorium, Rowe Building) — Elin Kelsey will talk
NSCAD
Wednesday
Artist’s talk (Wednesday, 12pm, Anna Leonowens Gallery 1) — Elanor Jazz
Watch Party: North of North with Q+A (Wednesday, 2pm, Treaty Space Gallery) — details
Thursday
Beading Workshop with Rachelle Mackay (Thursday, 2pm, Treaty Space Gallery) — details
Saint Mary’s
Wild Nova Scotia Screening and Reception (Wednesday, 4pm, Sobey 250) — details and RSVP
Faculty Author Series Reading (Wednesday, 6pm, Patrick Power Library Classroom) — Cathy Conrad will talk; details and registration here
Literary Events
Wednesday
Book launch (Wednesday, 6:30pm, Halifax Central Library) — Lesley Crewe’s The Spirit of Scatarie
Thursday
dART speak (Thursday, 7pm, East Dartmouth Community Centre) — details
Countryside Literary Arts Series (Thursday, 7pm, Maple Creek Centre, New Germany) — details
In the harbour
Halifax
05:30: Brilliance of the Seas, cruise ship with up to 2,580 passengers, arrives at Pier 20 from Saint John, on a seven-day roundtrip cruise out of Boston
08:00: Armada 78 02, offshore vessel, sails from Dartmouth Cove for sea
09:30: Celebrity Silhouette, cruise ship with up to 3,475 passengers, arrives at Pier 22 from Rockland, Maine, on an 11-day roundtrip cruise out of Boston
09:30: One Milano, container ship (150,706 tonnes), arrives at Pier 41 from Colombo, Sri Lanka
10:00: Atlantic Star, container ship, arrives at Fairview Cove from Liverpool, England
10:00: BBC Everest, heavy lifter, sails from Pier 9 for sea
10:45: Oceanex Sanderling, ro-ro container, arrives at Autoport from St. John’s
13:30: Ireland, bulker, sails from Bedford Basin anchorage for sea
15:00: CSL Tacoma, bulker, sails from Gold Bond for sea
16:00: Eagle II, container ship, arrives at Pier 27 from Mariel, Cuba
16:30: Oceanex Sanderling moves to Fairview Cove
17:00: Armada 78 02 arrives back at Dartmouth Cove
17:00: Atlantic Star sails for sea
17:00: Brilliance of the Seas sails for Sydney
17:30: Celebrity Silhouette sails for Sydney
Cape Breton
07:30: Vision of the Seas, cruise ship with up to 2,443 passengers, arrives at Sydney Marine Terminals from Halifax, on a nine-day roundtrip cruise out of Baltimore
07:50: Zuiderdam, cruise ship with up to 2,364 passengers, arrives at Liberty Pier (Sydney) from Halifax, on a seven-day roundtrip cruise out of Boston
08:30: Insignia, cruise ship with up to 800 passengers, arrives at Sydney anchorage from Corner Brook, on an 11-day cruise from Montréal to Boston
09:00: Aqualegend, oil tanker, arrives at EverWind from Arzew, Algeria
09:00: Fugro Supporter, research vessel, arrives at Mulgrave from Cork, Ireland
11:00: Algoma Value, bulker, sails from Aulds Cove quarry for sea
11:00: CSL Koasek, bulker, arrives at Aulds Cove quarry from Freeport, Bahamas
11:30: Star Pride, cruise ship with 254 passengers, arrives at Sydney anchorage from Halifax, on an 11-day cruise from Boston to Montréal
13:00: Algoma Integrity, bulker, arrives at Aulds Cove quarry from Tampa, Florida
17:30: Vision of the Seas sails for Baltimore
17:30: Insignia sails for Halifax
17:30: Zhi Yuan Kou, heavy lifter, arrives at Pirate Harbour from Rotterdam
18:00: Zuiderdam sails for Portland
18:30: Star Pride sails for Îles de la Madeleine
Footnotes
I started writing at 5:30 this morning, and still I’m late.