LightNews — News, ranked by scholars

Reposted by Karen Lord 🇨🇦 (Jochumsen)

The New York Times

@nytimes.com

Breaking News: The Nobel Prize in Literature was awarded to the Canadian poet and essayist Anne Carson. nyti.ms/4yCUebH

Anne Carson Is Awarded Nobel Prize in Literature

The writer joins a list of laureates that includes Toni Morrison, Samuel Beckett and Bob Dylan.

nyti.ms

October 8, 2026 at 11:09 AM

Karen Lord 🇨🇦 (Jochumsen)

@karenjlord.bsky.social

Mail it in! Get it done!! 🍁 #Referendumb #Alberta #ABpoli #ABleg #CdnPoli #SpecialBallot #ForAlbertaForCanada #ForeverCanadian #NoToTheNine #ChooseOption1 #RemainInCanada 🇨🇦

Elections Alberta @elections.ab.ca · 22h

2026 REFERENDUM - Special Ballot Mail-in Deadline

Voting by mail? Canada Post recommends you get your completed special ballot package in the mail by October 9 to arrive at Elections Alberta before the deadline of October 16, 5:00pm.

October 8, 2026 at 1:42 PM

Reposted by Karen Lord 🇨🇦 (Jochumsen)

Senator Paula Simons 🇨🇦

@senatorpaulasimons.bsky.social

I didn't mince my words. Alberta's anti-immigration referendum questions are racist. They are also a potential disaster for Alberta's economy. Last night, I rose in the Senate to denounce them - and to thank all the thousands of Albertans fighting against them. Please share. #notothenine #cdnpoli

Watch: Senator Paula Simons denounces Alberta's anti-immigrant referendum questions

YouTube video by Senator Paula Simons

youtu.be

October 7, 2026 at 2:01 PM

Reposted by Karen Lord 🇨🇦 (Jochumsen)

Elections Alberta

@elections.ab.ca

2026 REFERENDUM - Register to vote

Tomorrow is the last day you can register to vote online: https://ow.ly/LOG750ZUAIP
If you miss this deadline, you will still be able to register at your voting place on advance voting or Election Day. Find out where at https://ow.ly/svBW50ZUAIO.

October 6, 2026 at 6:00 PM

Reposted by Karen Lord 🇨🇦 (Jochumsen)

David Keegan

@drdavidkeegan.bsky.social

Here is a screenshot of the covid waste water.

Everyone should wear an N95 respirator mask at all times indoors, and in crowds outside.

Demand air filtration and ventilation at schools and work.

Get vaccinated.

covid-tracker.chi-csm.ca

Graph of Calgary’s covid wastewater, showing a clear surge from mid July to now (early October).
Details at https://covid-tracker.chi-csm.ca/

October 6, 2026 at 5:19 AM

Reposted by Karen Lord 🇨🇦 (Jochumsen)

David Keegan

@drdavidkeegan.bsky.social

The minimum wait time at ANY of the four adult Emergency Departments in Calgary right now is 11 hours and 36 minutes.

Foothills 11h 36m
PLC 12h 33m
RGH 12h 17min
SHC 11h 56 min

Alberta, your healthcare system has collapsed.
#abpoli

Here’s the screenshot.

H/T www.threads.com/@derekheisle...

October 6, 2026 at 4:48 AM

Reposted by Karen Lord 🇨🇦 (Jochumsen)

Andries (Andy) Sytsema - I Stand With Canada🍁

@asytsema.bsky.social

Alberta does not need a referendum that turns neighbours into opponents. Vote No on all nine. Remain in Canada. Get out and vote.
#NoToAll9 #RemainInCanada #GetOutTheVote

September 23, 2026 at 5:48 PM

Reposted by Karen Lord 🇨🇦 (Jochumsen)

Carrie Tait

@carrietait.bsky.social

Howdy! Alberta separatists + American Republicans. Read all about it. -->
www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic... By Nathan VanderKlippe, Grant Robertson, and friend.

The elephant in the room

Alberta separatists have gone to D.C. offering fresh water and oil in exchange for American support – and Republican operatives have provided tactical assistance inside the province

www.theglobeandmail.com

October 3, 2026 at 4:45 PM

Reposted by Karen Lord 🇨🇦 (Jochumsen)

Bruce Arthur

@brucearthur.bsky.social

Maybe more than a whiff of treason. Alberta separatists are flat-out traitors to the nation. www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...

October 3, 2026 at 2:51 PM

Karen Lord 🇨🇦 (Jochumsen)

@karenjlord.bsky.social

The recommended return date is the 9th, next Friday! Why wait? Get your specialballot into the mail & back to Elections AB asap!! (if anyone in northern #YYC needs a copy of their ID, let me know) #ABpoli #ABleg #CdnPoli #Referendumb #VoteOption1 #Remain #NoToTheNine #UCPfail #Fseparatists

Elections Alberta @elections.ab.ca · 6d

NEWS RELEASE - Referendum Information Updates. Read more: https://ow.ly/aK2J50ZTEx3

October 2, 2026 at 5:46 PM

Karen Lord 🇨🇦 (Jochumsen)

@karenjlord.bsky.social

*Reminder* North American Day of Protest Against Data Centres - Tomorrow, Saturday, October 3rd, 11am to 1pm at the Alberta Legislature in Edmonton.
Who's going?! #ABleg #ABpoli #CdnPoli

Datacentre Claude

Alt: Datacentre Claude

static.klipy.com

October 2, 2026 at 5:22 PM

Reposted by Karen Lord 🇨🇦 (Jochumsen)

CHEK News

@cheknews.ca

Indigenous communities along the newly-announced West Coast Oil Pipeline route were given just two months for consultations, and that was still more than the government initially planned.

https://cheknews.ca/indigenous-communities-given-just-two-months-to-consult-on-west-coast-pipeline-1350891/

Indigenous communities given just two months to consult on West Coast Pipeline

Indigenous communities along the newly-announced West Coast Oil Pipeline route were given just two months for consultations, and that was still more than the government initially planned.

cheknews.ca

October 1, 2026 at 5:41 PM

Reposted by Karen Lord 🇨🇦 (Jochumsen)

Jeremy Appel 🍉

@readtheorchard.org

NEW: In the @thestar.com, I wrote about how the most dangerous aspect of Alberta’s October referendum is the scapegoating of migrants for the province’s overcrowded schools and hospitals.

www.thestar.com/opinion/cont...

The most worrying part of the Alberta referendum isn’t separatism

Nine questions are about immigration and immigrants.

www.thestar.com

September 30, 2026 at 2:44 PM

Reposted by Karen Lord 🇨🇦 (Jochumsen)

Cheryl in Nova Scotia 🇨🇦🍁🍁

@minibubbly.bsky.social

Orange Shirt Day creator Phyllis Webstad reflects on a life of overcoming adversity in new memoir

Webstad's new memoir We Are Still Here details how a single voice inspired a national movement

www.cbc.ca/books/orange...

Orange Shirt Day creator Phyllis Webstad reflects on a life of overcoming adversity in new memoir | CBC Books

The Orange Shirt Day creator reflects on her life in new memoir, We Are Still Here.

www.cbc.ca

September 30, 2026 at 11:44 AM

Reposted by Karen Lord 🇨🇦 (Jochumsen)

Naheed Nenshi

@naheednenshi.bsky.social

Danielle Smith’s referendum is an evil plot to keep the separatist fire burning.

On referendum day:

Vote Option 1 on Question 10.
Vote NO on Questions 1–9.

It’s the only way to save Canada.

To find referendum information and get involved with the campaign, visit savecanada.albertandp.ca.

September 29, 2026 at 5:38 PM

Reposted by Karen Lord 🇨🇦 (Jochumsen)

Alex Middleton

@alexyyc.bsky.social

Dreeshen should resign over this. He almost certainly won't. But he should.

thetyee.ca/News/2026/09...

Alberta’s Deadly Betrayal of Meat Plant Workers During COVID | The Tyee

A shocking report finds the UCP ignored evidence of high risk.

thetyee.ca

September 28, 2026 at 10:18 PM

Reposted by Karen Lord 🇨🇦 (Jochumsen)

World Health Network

@thewhn.bsky.social

We shouldn’t have to wait for a COVID surge to start protecting ourselves.

Layered prevention helps reduce transmission before cases climb and hospitals become overwhelmed. Masking, cleaner indoor air, vaccination, testing, and staying home when sick all work together to reduce (...)

September 28, 2026 at 10:21 PM

Reposted by Karen Lord 🇨🇦 (Jochumsen)

Senator Paula Simons 🇨🇦

@senatorpaulasimons.bsky.social

This grim, gripping report on Canada’s biggest Covid-19 outbreak from the University of Alberta’s Parkland Institute should be required reading for all Albertans - and all Canadians. Especially those who’ve decided to forget how deadly and terrifying the early months of Covid truly were.

Parkland Institute

Parkland Institute is an Alberta-wide, non-partisan research centre situated within the Faculty of Arts at the University of Alberta.

www.parklandinstitute.ca

September 29, 2026 at 1:29 AM

Reposted by Karen Lord 🇨🇦 (Jochumsen)

Charles Rusnell

@charlesrusnell.bsky.social

Read this in the context of the UCP's current scapegoating of immigrants.
Alberta's Deadly Betrayal of Meat Plant Workers During COVID via @thetyee.ca thetyee.ca/News/2026/09...

Alberta’s Deadly Betrayal of Meat Plant Workers During COVID | The Tyee

A shocking report finds the UCP ignored evidence of high risk.

thetyee.ca

September 28, 2026 at 6:51 PM

Reposted by Karen Lord 🇨🇦 (Jochumsen)

Mark Ungrin

@mark-ungrin.bsky.social

An absolutely damning report on the unnecessary COVID deaths of workers at the Cargill plant in High River, AB, highlighting public health and infection control's mismanagement of the crisis, and failure to engage OHS or follow the precautionary principle.

albertapolitics.ca/wp-content/u...

As the evidence marshalled in this report shows, the massive
outbreak associated with Cargill was by no means inevitable. It
occurred because systems designed to protect worker health and
safety failed. And they failed for a number of interrelated reasons.
OHS and AHS Did Not Adopt the
Precautionary Principle
The virus SARS-CoV-2 is spread among humans via aerosol
transmission. The period during which someone with COVID-19
can transmit the virus varies depending on factors such as the
variant and severity of illness, but transmission can occur both
before and after symptom onset. Some infected individuals never
experience illness but still spread the virus to others.
At the beginning of the pandemic, Hinshaw and many other
public health leaders believed that COVID-19 only spread via
large droplets and that asymptomatic transmission was not
occurring. As a result, AHS EPH primarily focused on physical
barriers, physical distancing, hand-washing, and surgical masks as
preventative measures at Cargill.

Cargill, AHS, and OHS did not consider the possible range of
aerosol transmission of the virus in a large crowded industrial
work setting and, therefore, did not prioritize — let alone consider
— higher-level control measures such as improved ventilation, air
filtration, and N95 (or equivalent) respirators.
Surgical masks, which were made mandatory at Cargill after April
16, provided inferior protection to workers working eight hours a
day, especially for those working in close quarters with inadequate
ventilation. Sometime between the closure of the facility (April
22) and its reopening (May 4), Alberta OHS came to believe that
tight-fitting, higher-filtration respirators (N95 or equivalent
masks) were required, as demonstrated by the ministerial order
approving KN95 masks (May 3) and OHS officers’ decision to wear
N95 masks during their May 4 inspection. However, the evidence
suggests that this view was not shared by Hinshaw.
Ventilation was not identified as a potential factor in the spread
at Cargill until early May, and even then, there is no evidence that
this pathway was further investigated by AHS or OHS.
Had OHS, AHS, and Cargill adopted the precautionary principle,
which requires taking proactive measures to maximize human
safety before the science about the transmission of a new virus
is known, more aggressive control measures would have been
adopted early on. If improved ventilation, provision of N95 masks
(or cartridge respirators), and other actions had been taken earlier,
hundreds of workers may have been spared from illness.

None of the evidence we reviewed showed any communication
or coordination between AHS EPH officials and Alberta OHS at
this time. In response to our freedom of information requests for
email correspondence between the manager for OHS in Calgary
and several AHS officials who were directly involved in the Cargill
response, we were informed by the Government of Alberta’s
access to information that “a thorough search […] did not yield any
records responsive to your request.”195
By April 16, the total number of known confirmed positive cases
had reached approximately 550. At this point, there had only
been one in-person inspection of the plant, that being AHS’ April
7 visit, which resulted in non-binding recommendations. And, as
mentioned, there was no epidemiological analysis of the outbreak
showing the temporal pattern of the spread within the plant and
in the community.
An internal AHS MOH update on April 17 noted that “84% of
new COVID-19 cases [in the province] are in Calgary Zone, ‘most
related to Cargill.”196 By this time, a Cargill worker and union shop
steward had been admitted to an ICU. On April 18, another worker
would need life support care in the ICU. Cargill, AHS, and OHS had
lost control of the outbreak.

Echoing Cargill’s response to the union’s April 12 letter, Dreeshen
cautioned workers not to listen to “inflammatory rhetoric” and
appealed to them to instead focus on information from public
health experts:
“…On this call are Alberta’s best medical minds and
they provide Alberta’s government with the best up
to date information on a daily basis and I would just
like to encourage everyone to not get distracted by
misleading noise or inflammatory rhetoric because
any government's primary goal — our core goal — is
to keep our people safe…”
Immediately after the town hall, Dreeshen posted on his social
media: “Directly communicated with [Cargill] workers to reassure
them that their worksite is safe.”217 Internal email messages
among senior officials with the Ministry of Agriculture and
Forestry suggest there was also “a request” to share some “key
messages” about the safety of Cargill’s plant through Hinshaw’s
Twitter account.218
Hours after the town hall, Dr. Nick Etches, acting lead medical
officer of health for the Calgary Zone, wrote to colleagues
requesting assistance with an epidemiological analysis of
the outbreak:
“[Hu] just spoke with [Hinshaw] and she wants us
to answer some questions that will likely require
additional epi support. Essentially we want to
determine the proportion of the Cargill-associated
cases that are due to:
1) Workplace transmission

September 28, 2026 at 8:04 PM

Reposted by Karen Lord 🇨🇦 (Jochumsen)

The Walrus

@thewalrus.ca

Over the ten years, Premier Smith claims Alberta faced a hostile federal government, oil and gas production doubled, and Ottawa poured tens of billions into energy infrastructure. The tolerance of her big lie is almost as remarkable as the lie itself. https://ow.ly/Fl7950ZRRaq

On the left: a photograph of Alberta’s flag, which features the provincial shield of arms, waving in front of the Alberta Legislature building in Edmonton. On the right: text that reads “Danielle Smith has turned western grievance into a national unity crisis.”

September 26, 2026 at 4:00 PM

Reposted by Karen Lord 🇨🇦 (Jochumsen)

Jared Wesley

@jaredwesley.ca

Why should Albertans vote “no” on the four constitutional questions? Because we risk opening Pandora’s box — inviting another round of divisive and potentially detrimental constitutional debates that could well reduce, not expand, provincial autonomy.

drjaredwesley.substack.com/p/pandering-...

Pandering to Pandora

Why the UCP’s four constitutional questions are threats to provincial autonomy

drjaredwesley.substack.com

September 25, 2026 at 1:55 PM

Reposted by Karen Lord 🇨🇦 (Jochumsen)

David J. Climenhaga

@djclimenhaga.bsky.social

Guest post by former Alberta chief electoral officer Lorne Gibson: The voters list, scrutineers and the question of trust. albertapolitics.ca/2026/09/gues...