Independent

Residents and supporters of Toronto's Little Jamaica meet at a community-led townhall to discuss next steps for the neighbourhood's future. These meeting notes are part of Documenters Canada, which is partly funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC). Learn more about our program here. The Green Line maintains full editorial independence to ensure journalistic integrity.

This is the latest dispatch from Rizek Abdel Jawad, a photojournalist based in Gaza City who frequently contributes to the NB Media Co-op. Dr. Mahmoud Al-Hajj Ahmed, 37, from the northern Gaza Strip, is pictured treating patients in his tent, located just 60 m from the “yellow line,” which marks the Israeli military’s withdrawal during the first phase of the ceasefire agreement, in the Beit Lahia area.

Since coming to power in 2018, Ontario Premier Doug Ford has worked to fashion himself as a champion of working people. Despite leading a Progressive Conservative government with a decidedly pro-business agenda, Ford has often adopted populist language and presented himself as a defender of blue-collar jobs, manufacturing investment, and workers struggling with the rising cost of living. Central to this political branding has been the Ford government’s “Working for Workers” legislative agenda. Since 2021, the Conservatives have introduced seven successive bills under variations of this name, each accompanied by announcements promising to modernize employment standards, protect vulnerable workers, crack down on unscrupulous employers and make Ontario a better and safer place to work. The branding has been remarkably consistent. The substance, much less so. While the legislation has introduced some worthwhile protections, many of its most-publicized reforms have been narrow, poorly enforced or designed to impose minimal obligations on employers.

Dianne Saxe attends a meet-and-greet with constituents at Withrow Park in September. Photo by Nic Hotchkiss / The Local A walk through Toronto-Danforth with the former environmental lawyer, who jumped into the ward race just minutes before registration closed.

Both Toronto mayoral candidate Brad Bradford and B. C. Premier David Eby’s campaigns are being staffed by former Airbnb and real estate lobbyists, an investigation by Ricochet has revealed. Using On the Trail’s database of lobbyists from every jurisdiction across the country, Ricochet found that Bradford and Eby’s campaign staff hold long-term connections with both Airbnb and the real estate industry at large, and bring into question how serious both campaigns are with their claims of making housing more affordable. The two of them even worked together at certain points in their careers.

The parking lot off the highway is busy and there’s a line-up for the outhouses next to a Parks Canada information stand featuring maps from years past. To the left, a wide accessible trail leads to the well-trod bridges and pathways crisscrossing Marble Canyon in Kootenay National Park in southern B. C. just 50 kilometres from the Alberta border. The walk up the length of the canyon is short, barely a kilometre, with a little detour near its end where the ubiquitous red chairs of the national park system sit on a rise looking back toward the parking lot. It’s about as far as most people venture, but those red chairs don’t mark the end of the trail system through the valley.

Former staffers say he drove them to tears. Colleagues say he’s a bully. The Bradford campaign says his passion is just what this city needs. The first person to stand up and speak at Brad Bradford’s July 15 crime and safety townhall said he wanted to buy a gun.

In amiskwacîwâskahikan, more than 100 people protested on Oct. 3 against the provincial and federal governments’ permissive approach to energy-guzzling artificial intelligence centres Chief Sheldon Sunshine of Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation speaks at an Oct. 3 rally against data centres outside the ‘Alberta’ legislature building in amiskwacîwâskahikan (Edmonton). Photo by Jeremy Appel

If the sale of Suncor’s stakes in three of Newfoundland and Labrador’s offshore oil projects goes through, this province could end up contributing to Israel’s illegal occupation of the Palestinian territories. This month Suncor announced a “definitive agreement” with UK-headquartered Ithaca Energy to sell its 48 per cent interest in the Terra Nova project, its 40 per cent interest in the White Rose project, and its 38.6 per cent interest in the West White Rose project, for CAD $1.2 billion and up to an additional $350 million contingent on oil prices. Under the agreement, Ithaca would also take over Terra Nova’s operations.

To the University of New Brunswick and wider communities, We are writing as faculty members in Gender and Women Studies, as well as members of the community, with deep sorrow, frustration, and outrage regarding recent events that can only be described as emblematic of rape culture across university campuses. Over the weekend, a homecoming banner reading “Drop-off Zone: Acadia Girlfriends” was hung on off-campus housing at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia. The language in the banner objectifies women and carries an implicit threat of violence and dehumanization. The CBC reports that there was another “more offensive” sign that was also displayed. This follows the story of the “Cornell 7,” broken by the student newspaper The Cornell Daily Sun on September 18th, 2026, in which seven male students allegedly gang-raped a woman for seven hours.

Gail Krantzberg spent decades working on Great Lakes policy and protection — years before this whirlwind year of politics on both sides of the Canada-U. S. border crept into the ways the lakes are protected. In Canada, U. S. President Donald Trump’s ongoing trade war has seen federal and provincial legislation introduced in the name of national sovereignty, with major implications for the land, water and air. Now, Trump has given Lake Ontario a new name — at least for the purposes of the U. S. federal government and a couple online mapping services — like Google — that (controversially) followed suit.

Ottawa’s multibillion dollar increase in military spending has been met with practically no pushback from mainstream media, even as the federal government shifts funding from public services to American war contractors under an increasingly belligerent Trump administration. That was one of the takeaways from a recent talk by Alex Cosh, managing editor of The Maple, during the NB Media Co-op’s 17th annual keynote address, titled Silencing Dissent on the Military-Industrial Complex.

It’s a grey September afternoon, and a small group is gathered for a special behind-the-scenes visit with Assiniboine Park Zoo’s newest resident. “Heeeeere, bubba,” animal-care specialist Caitlin Gordon-Hall hollers from between a double layer of chain-link fencing.

Cree community in Saskatchewan brings home their Ancestor sîpiskwêsîkan’s painted fabric from Smithsonian in ‘Washington, D. C.’ Using wooden pins and great care, Kawacatoose First Nation members fasten an Ancestor’s painted tipi cover on Aug. 28, after it was finally returned to their Saskatchewan community from ‘Washington, D. C.’ Photo by Brittany Boschman

Party leader Doerkson refused to drop candidate who made anti-LGBTQ statements. The BC Conservatives announced a full slate of candidates this past weekend, running a total of 93 candidates across the province.

In a province where 53 per cent of adults in New Brunswick face literacy challenges, lovers of literature came together for the first ever Writers of the Realm Literary Festival in Fredericton on Sept. 19. Sakura Blue Studios held the inaugural festival at the Fredericton Inn.

This edition of the NB Update features reports from an ongoing series of media workshops at Elsipogtog First Nation hosted by the NB Media Co-op. The first interview highlights an alternative court program in Elsipogtog that aims to divert Indigenous people from the prison system, where they remain overrepresented due to the forces of systemic racism.

In early September, the organization behind Canada’s push for small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) quietly signalled their demise. In 2016, the president of Canadian Nuclear Laboratories proclaimed that “SMRs can live among the annals of great Canadian innovations.” Ten years later, the organization announced the termination of its two programs to support SMR development.