Fear, Falsehoods, Conspiracy Theories Ignite Over Canada’s Wildfire Season

Canada’s current wildfire season is devastating evidence of the effects of climate change. But for some conspiracy theorists, the thousands of square kilometres of burnt ground isn’t enough to convince them.

Instead, space lasers, arsonists, and government plots to restrict people’s movement are some of the causes of the fires, according to fringe online circles. But despite being fringe (or far beyond the fringe when they get into space lasers and Q Shamans), these theories are widely circulated and boosted by social media algorithms, The Canadian Press reports.

People turn to conspiracy theories to help them make sense of disasters like the recent wildfires on the Hawai’ian island of Maui, in British Columbia, or the Northwest Territories, said Eric Kennedy, associate professor at York University’s school of administrative studies.

“Some of the conspiracy theories about wildfires create simple villains, or simple evil characters—‘this is Bill Gates, this is the World Economic Forum, this is a particular evil actor,’” said Kennedy, who studies decision-making in emergency contexts, particularly wildfires.

“Sometimes the simple stories are very appealing. Sometimes it’s about fitting into an existing world view and making things make sense within that paradigm.”

Ahmed said almost all conspiracy theories have a spark of truth but are distorted to attract attention or fuel outrage.|Read more https://www.theenergymix.com/2023/09/06/fear-falsehoods-conspiracy-theories-ignite-over-canadas-wildfire-season/|

#politics #wildfires #climateChange #conspiracy #environment #cdnpoli #abpoli

John Ivison: Success for Pierre Poilievre looks like the most boring Conservative convention ever

Party leader Pierre Poilievre will be hoping that by the time Fournier leaves the stage, his relentless march toward government continues apace, with the convention in the books, unremarkable and unremarked upon.

O’Toole’s humbling at the hands of social conservatives and climate skeptics in his own party was a textbook case in how not to stage-manage a convention.

O’Toole had made clear his position that climate change is real and that a party under his leadership would act. A motion that said as much went down to a crushing defeat and effectively signalled the beginning of the end for the leader. The Campaign Life Coalition rejoiced, claiming “global warming alarmism is being used by global elites and the UN to advance population control through abortion and sterilization.”

There is nothing in the policy book that seems unduly surprising or controversial — at least, not to Conservative party members. There are resolutions calling for the party to defund the CBC; kill the carbon tax; impose mandatory minimum sentences for criminals who use guns; allow provinces to use private health delivery; affirm the right to refuse vaccines; and oppose medically assisted dying. But those are already baked into assumptions about what a Poilievre-led government might do.
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If all goes to plan, 2,500 Conservatives will travel to Quebec City, enjoy three days taunting Justin Trudeau and all his works, and then go home to prepare for government. |Read more https://nationalpost.com/opinion/success-for-pierre-poilievre-looks-like-the-most-boring-conservative-convention-ever|

#politics #CPC #convention #PierrePoilievre #cdnpoli #unremarkable

N.S. affordability crisis deepens as gap between living wage, minimum wage grows: report

A new report indicates Nova Scotia’s minimum wage is getting increasingly more difficult for people to live on, as the rising cost of basic necessities continues to outpace pay increases.

The report, released Thursday, said the living wage is $7.85 to $11.59 higher than what the minimum wage will be next month.

“Working people deserve to work to live, not just live to work,” the report said. “The cost of living is making that even harder.”

According to the report, the living wage is now $26.50 in the Halifax area, $25.40 for the Annapolis Valley, $25.05 for southern Nova Scotia, $24.30 for northern Nova Scotia, and $22.85 for Cape Breton.

On average, those numbers are 14 per cent higher than last year’s living wage calculations.

“These year-over-year increases are the most significant we have seen since we began calculating the living wage for Halifax in Nova Scotia in 2015,” said Christine Saulnier, the report’s author and director of the Nova Scotia chapter of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, in a release.

“Such unprecedented increases are due to overall increases to the costs of living, for shelter and food, in particular.” |Read more https://globalnews.ca/news/9942951/ns-living-wage-report-2023-ccpa/|

#politics #nspoli #LivingWage #inflation #crisis #affordability

A Canadian study gave $7,500 to homeless people. Here’s how they spent it.

The newly published, peer reviewed PNAS study, conducted by the charity Foundations for Social Change in partnership with the University of British Columbia, was fairly simple. It identified 50 people in the Vancouver area who had become homeless in the past two years. In spring 2018, it gave them each one lump sum of $7,500 (in Canadian dollars). And it told them to do whatever they wanted with the cash.

Over the next year, the study followed up with the recipients periodically, asking how they were spending the money and what was happening in their lives. Because they were participating in a randomized controlled trial, their outcomes were compared to those of a control group: 65 homeless people who didn’t receive any cash. Both cash recipients and people in the control group got access to workshops and coaching focused on developing life skills and plans.

Separately, the research team conducted a survey, asking 1,100 people to predict how recipients of an unconditional $7,500 transfer would spend the cash. They predicted that recipients would spend 81 percent more on “temptation goods” like alcohol, drugs, or tobacco if they were homeless than if they were not.

The results proved that prediction wrong. The recipients of the cash transfers did not increase spending on drugs, tobacco, and alcohol, but did increase spending on food, clothes, and rent, according to self-reports. What’s more, they moved into stable housing faster and saved enough money to maintain financial security over the year of follow-up. |Read more https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/21528569/homeless-poverty-cash-transfer-canada-new-leaf-project|

#UBI #homeless #experiment #politics #bcpoli #peerReviewed