Alex Schmidt

Great thread. Frank Zappa - calm, in control, brilliant, so incredibly prescient.

@HarbourfrontTO est au cœur de la culture torontoise, et un lieu vivant pour les artistes et les programmes créatifs. Nous sommes fiers d’investir 40 M$ pour qu’il continue d’attirer de grands événements, de soutenir de bons emplois et d’accueillir des millions de visiteurs.

That's why jets shouldn't be allowed at YTZ.

Kaja Kallas. EU’s foreign policy chief. Stood with Ukraine every single day since Russia invaded. Zelensky just gave her the Order of Princess Olha. One of Ukraine’s highest honours. Add it to the long list of prizes Donald Trump will never receive. Gandalv / @Microinteracti1

This photo is of a lighter from the American soldiers of the Vietnam War. The inscription reads, "We the unwilling, led by the unqualified to kill the unfortunate, die for the ungrateful." Perhaps these words capture well the essence of that war through the eyes of a soldier. The essence of many wars, maybe including the current one! #war

🇲🇽🚨 Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum just made it clear: Mexico has every right to send fuel to Cuba, whether for humanitarian or commercial reasons. No apology. No hesitation. No asking permission. Washington has spent six decades telling the world who can trade with Cuba and who cannot. Mexico is saying that era is over. Sovereign nations make their own trade policy. They do not wait for a blockade to be lifted. They act. First Mexico restarts oil shipments. Now the President is putting the empire on notice. Cuba is not alone. Latin America is waking up. And the days of Washington dictating who gets fuel and who gets starved are coming to an end.

This was the intention of Bill 124. corruptario.ca/bill-124-was-w…

@MarkJCarney @Myself9752465 @fordnation @MayorOliviaChow Billy Bishop should NOT be on the table. Doug Ford is getting away with corruption, catering to his rich donors & developer friends. RCMP is failing us, we need someone to hold OPC party to account. From education to healthcare, we are in trouble.

El Gobierno de España condena la pena de muerte contra palestinos que acaba de aprobar el parlamento de Israel. Se trata de una medida asimétrica que no se aplicaría a los israelíes que cometieran los mismos delitos. Mismo crimen, distinta pena. Eso no es justicia. Es un paso más hacia el apartheid. El mundo no puede callar.

My @TorontoStar column: There’s lots of disagreement about Toronto transit projects, but damn near everyone can agree about one thing: electrifying and increasing GO Train service is a great idea It’s a shame Doug Ford’s government has screwed it up again thestar.com/opinion/contri…

So we’re supposed to believe that every email was a privileged discussion? Liberal staffer went to jail for this.

"We condemn it." -- PM Mark Carney calls Israel's invasion of Lebanon an "illegal invasion"

ICE guards are betting on which detainee will kill themselves next. The AP just exposed the savage conditions of a detention camp in El Paso. The Associated Press got inside Camp East Montana. What they found should be on the front page of every newspaper in this country until it closes. About 3,000 people packed in per day. Loud, unsanitary quarters crawling with insects. Food so scarce that detainees steal from each other just to eat. Disease spreading through filthy rooms, showers, and restrooms that go uncleaned. People losing weight. People unable to see a doctor. People losing their minds. Staff made nearly one 911 call per day in the camp's first five months. One call captures a man sobbing after being assaulted by another detainee. Another has a doctor describing a man banging his head against a wall while expressing suicidal thoughts. A nurse calls about a pregnant woman in severe pain with coronavirus. Detainees suffering seizures, some resulting in serious head trauma. Ages ranged from a 19-year-old who fell from a bunk to a 79-year-old who couldn't breathe. And then there's the detail that should haunt this administration for the rest of its existence. Owen Ramsingh, a former property manager from Columbia, Missouri, who spent weeks in the camp before being deported to the Netherlands, told the AP he overheard a security guard talking about a betting pool among the staff. They were wagering on which detainee would be next to die by suicide. The guard said he had put $500 in. The total pot rode on the outcome. Ramsingh said the talk was particularly devastating because he had contemplated suicide himself. Guards are gambling on the deaths of people in their custody. People who are hungry. People who are sick. People who are begging for help through 911 calls that come in every single day. And the staff turned it into a game. This is not some rogue facility. This is the system working exactly as this administration designed it. Overcrowded by policy. Underfed by neglect. Understaffed by choice. They built a place where human beings deteriorate and then the people paid to watch over them place bets on who breaks first. The AP has the data. The recordings. The interviews. The court filings. This is documented. This is real. This is happening right now in El Paso, Texas, in the United States of America. Share this. Do not let them bury it under another news cycle.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, on behalf of Donald Trump, expressed regret that the Saudi authorities signed defense agreements with Ukraine without consulting the United States, which had been Saudi Arabia’s main ally. In response, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman noted that the U.S. had failed to fully protect the Kingdom from Iranian strikes, and therefore Saudi Arabia made a decision that could quickly strengthen its defense capabilities. The Crown Prince also stated that his country will continue to be guided by its own national interests when making decisions regarding its defense. This was a slap in the face to Trump from Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in response to Trump’s crude and scandalous public statement that “…now let the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia kiss my ass and be polite to me from now on.” Thus, Trump’s reckless and irresponsible remarks have effectively put U.S.–Saudi relations on pause. The Saudi Crown Prince proved to be more diplomatic than the American president and, notably, did not respond to Rubio by saying that Trump should “kiss my ass” and behave politely toward him in the future 😉

Today, Doug Ford’s Conservative MPPs defeated Marit Stiles’ motion to reverse the cuts to OSAP and eliminate interest on student loans. Doug Ford didn’t even bother to show up. Students will now graduate with tens of thousands of dollars in debt, because these MPPs chose to side with Ford over Ontario’s next generation. These are their faces. In the next election, remember what they chose. Marit Stiles and our Ontario NDP caucus are not done fighting to reverse the cuts to OSAP.

There are now reports that Secretary Hegseth may have been trying to enrich himself by trading stocks related to defense companies leading up to the Iran War. We’re launching an investigation today into what appears to be both major corruption and a national security threat.

Charlie Angus gets choked up recalling hearing Stephen Lewis speak about mining widows as a boy: “That was the moment that I realized politics has to be about serving people who have no voice. And that was Stephen Lewis.”

Dear @MarkJCarney @FPChampagne you need to forensically audit what @fordnation has done with all the housing and healthcare $ you’ve transferred to ON! We’re getting NOTHING for it, he’s getting richer as are his developer friends! Private healthcare and no affordable housing!

More people need to be talking about this. Remember the classified documents case Trump made disappear the second he took office? The one he was facing 40 felony counts for? The one where a judge he appointed buried the Special Counsel’s report? Well, Washington Republicans handed Congress documents last week to clear his name, and it backfired. BADLY. Because those documents contained evidence that Trump was showing passengers on his private plane some of the most CLASSIFIED secrets in existence — material so sensitive that only SIX people in the entire U.S. government had clearance to see it. This isn’t over. axios.com/2026/03/25/tru…

David Suzuki recounts Stephen Lewis rewriting Brian Mulroney's UN speech against apartheid: "And Stephen said, 'You'll get a standing ovation if you deliver this.' He did and did get a standing ovation."

He was sharp, thoughtful, and deeply human. And you could see that in his relationship with his wife, writer and activist Michele Landsberg. They had shared values, convictions, and a commitment to making things better. Rest in Peace Stephen Lewis.