Author | Lightnews

Rue Merlot @ruemerlot.bsky.social · 1d

I think this also means that once middle class people stop adjusting- their new habits become the norm- a lot of the public attention on crime will go away

Which is bad because crime is a real problem that ruins lives and we need to invest a lot more into addressing it!

Rue Merlot @ruemerlot.bsky.social · 1d

For a lot of people, their metric is "if I need to change my behaviour to avoid crime, crime is up" ie shifting from walking or public transit to Uber or buying a car after a few close calls

But crime doesn't actually need to be up for your exposure to it to change!

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Rue Merlot @ruemerlot.bsky.social · 1d

(As a side note; I've met SO many newcomers to Canada from objectively much more dangerous countries who say they feel less safe here. Part of that is that they are now richer in absolute terms, but don't have the resources to avoid crime in Canada like they did back home)

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Rue Merlot @ruemerlot.bsky.social · 1d

Public transit and downtowns can be similar because they're visible areas people relate to; though they're also much easier for middle class and above to avoid (with the impact of that crime falling disproportionately on newcomers to Canada and people who can't afford to move)

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Rue Merlot @ruemerlot.bsky.social · 1d

As an example, one mall in my city has had a few major violent incidents in the last two years (severe assaults, "flashmob" armed robberies). Very minor impact statistically; but a HUGE impact on perception because its a very public place that "normal" people go

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Rue Merlot @ruemerlot.bsky.social · 1d

You can have a relatively large increase or decrease in crime in marginalized neighbourhoods, and most people will have zero exposure to it. On the flipside it doesn't take THAT much crime in a wealthier area (relative, not absolute) or more public area to shift perceptions

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Rue Merlot @ruemerlot.bsky.social · 1d

My understanding is crime in America had a big upswing and then started falling again (unlike Canada that had a smaller rise from a MUCH lower baseline, but which is still trending up). But I think in both a big change in experience has been where crime happens

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Rue Merlot @ruemerlot.bsky.social · 1d

Debates about crime (whether its rising or falling, and what is the appropriate way to measure this) often miss that there are vastly different experiences of witnessing or being victimized by crime (largely driven by socio-economic status)

Rates aside, distribution changes can shape perceptions

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Kathleen Bachynski @bachynski.bsky.social · 4d

“Some former employees speak of the company like refugees of a once-great city, grief-stricken and a little bewildered by how it all came undone. They point to moments — a clinical trial result, an election outcome, the selection of a presidential Cabinet member — that could have changed everything”

How Moderna, the company that helped save the world, unraveled

Exclusive: The inside story of why Moderna now faces a crisis unlike any in its 15-year-history.

www.statnews.com

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Dr. Mike P. Moffatt @mikepmoffatt.bsky.social · 4d

Spoiler for an upcoming piece. The GTA is increasingly a place Ontarians move from, rather than to, and that's not just a pre-pandemic-era thing. Yet Ontario municipal planning is based on the idea that the future will be like the present.

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Rue Merlot @ruemerlot.bsky.social · 1d

I think I mentioned previously that the UK has like a dozen ongoing crisis level issues equivalent to US trade/Trump tariffs in Canada. But a key difference is that half of them have been problems for 10-20 years, and not externally caused

They are in for interesting times

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Rue Merlot @ruemerlot.bsky.social · 1d

You'd probably like the new leader of the Greens: archive.is/fAwNS

But the biggest cause isn't the leaders of Reform or the Greens; its people are really really mad at Labour and Tories over the economy, immigration, crime, housing, and the NHS (all of which are tangled together in a big web)

archive.is

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Rue Merlot @ruemerlot.bsky.social · 7d

I've never been to a Wawa; but very interesting that they are 40% employee owned

I'd guess part of the story here is declining value of fast food (lower quality, higher price) opened up some space for Wawa to enter the market

How Wawa Is Beating Fast Food Companies At Their Own Game

YouTube video by CNBC

www.youtube.com

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Jay Rosen @jayrosen.bsky.social · 10d

It's not just the newspapers.

"While declines to print readership are almost a foregone conclusion, 'digital traffic to local news sites is experiencing a cratering similar to that of print,' State of Local News Project director Zach Metzger writes in the report. www.niemanlab.org/2025/10/in-m...

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Alex Usher @alexusherhesa.bsky.social · 9d

Have heard from two people in last 24 hours that Mark Carney has banned cabinet ministers from wearing brown shoes at work. Black only.

Surprised more outlets aren't on this one.

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Rue Merlot @ruemerlot.bsky.social · 10d

Every provision in this bill is a reasonable first step. However it seems unlikely that any of this survives contact with the supreme court; and it doesn't address any of the issues with lack of court and prison capacity

Carney government gets tougher on crime with proposed bail regime changes | CBC News

The federal Liberal government announced Thursday changes to the justice system that are intended to keep some offenders locked up for longer as Ottawa tries and drive down crime rates.

www.cbc.ca

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Eric Hittinger @elephanteating.bsky.social · 12d

Folks, it is the year 2025 and Word's grammar checker is suggesting that I should change "fewer" to "less few".

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Isaac Callan @isaaccallan.bsky.social · 14d

Ontario’s Ministry of Health has tasked hospitals struggling with deficits to come up with a three-year plan to balance their budgets, and service cuts and bed closures do not appear to be off the table for extreme cases. #Onpoli
globalnews.ca/news/1148537...

Ontario hospitals told to find savings; ministry doesn’t rule out service cuts | Globalnews.ca

The Ontario Hospital Association has said that hospitals ended last year $360 million in the red and need an additional funding to keep pace with population growth and inflation.

globalnews.ca

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Dave Weigel @daveweigel.bsky.social · 14d

I have an inert FB account (deleted my personal info, just keep it alive so I find people/event pages for work), but when I check, Reels is trying to get me back with videos of deformities and gore. The OutBrain-ization of everything - just get those eyeballs to focus!

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Dalmeet Singh Chawla @dalmeet.bsky.social · 14d

More than 20% of chemists have deliberately added information they believe to be incorrect into their manuscripts during peer review, a new study has found.

My latest for @cenmag.bsky.social:

cen.acs.org/policy/publi...

@nanoporous.net, @freddie2310.bsky.social

#ChemSky

One in five chemists have deliberately added errors into their papers during peer review, study finds

Conclusion is one of many in a report about how chemists handle errors in manuscripts

cen.acs.org

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Clara Jeffery @clarajeffery.bsky.social · 13d

Anonymous accounts asking if you have security. Tweeting that your life is in danger. Warnings you could end up with a similar fate to a murdered journalist.

Inside the shocking campaign to silence critics of Medical Properties Trust, the landlord gutting America’s hospitals. bit.ly/3WMeCG1

The secret campaign to silence critics of a hospital real estate empire

When skeptics called out Medical Properties Trust, they found themselves harassed—and surveilled.

bit.ly

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Alessandro @poli.sisti.ca · 13d

Literally anyone who commutes into Toronto's Union Station has gotten lost in these tunnels. Was fun to learn tons about them and the rare success they represent, in this article by @scp-hughes.bsky.social

Toronto's underground labyrinth - Works in Progress Magazine

Pedestrian tunnels are often thought to undermine urban life. The opposite happened in Toronto.

worksinprogress.co

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Rue Merlot @ruemerlot.bsky.social · 17d

Notably while many countries (like Canada) are reducing prison sentence length; they're also reducing the chance of receiving punishment at all AND experiencing severe delays in trials and sentencing

We're functionally incentivizing crime; especially among youth

What Really Works Against Youth Crime?

Jennifer Doleac argues that the focus on harsher prison sentences in the US and Europe is distracting from proven solutions.

www.project-syndicate.org

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Rue Merlot @ruemerlot.bsky.social · 19d

Don't worry; we can use the same argument that pundits make about crime to argue that lack of enforcement and charges means less offences

So ESA and OHSA violations must be WAY down! /s

Ontario Federation of Labour @oflabour.bsky.social · 25d

🚨BREAKING: Workers pay the price as Ford’s Conservatives slash employment law enforcement

Full Release: ofl.ca/ofl-workers-...
#OnLab #OnPoli

OFL: Workers pay the price as Ford’s Conservatives slash employment law enforcement | The Ontario Federation of Labour

The Ontario Federation of Labour issued this media release on GlobeNewswire on Wednesday, October 8, 2025. TORONTO,...

ofl.ca

Rue Merlot @ruemerlot.bsky.social · 21d

And even within hospitals, there wasn't a big decline in diverted opioids during 2020-2023... there was just a pandemic that meant the tracking got worse while everything was in chaos