Even by French standards, the protests that have convulsed the country this week have been more dramatic than the usual flare-ups.
About a quarter of a million high-school students, teachers, trade unionists and activists were on the streets on Tuesday, facing off against police touting riot shields and tear gas.
But one high-profile figure was missing: Marine Le Pen, the leader of the hard-Right populist party National Rally.
Carney sure can pick em.
I’m thrilled to share that my new book, Unreliable Boyfriend, will be out on October 13. I can’t wait for you to read it. https://t.co/3xOOpia7mo
— Chrystia Freeland (@cafreeland) October 8, 2026
h/t Canuknucklehead™ and Mauser
I’ve just looked up the exchange rate between the Canadian and American dollar. We are malingering at 1.62 of the Benjamin. This is the indelible indication of what the “great banker” — the former director of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England where he distinguished himself as an abject incompetent — has done to the nation pretty well mired in Chapter 11.
My interest in Mark Carney, about whom I’ve written more than a dozen articles for this site and others, has waned for the last year from a dismal bout of boredom. It seemed beneath my pay grade to continue focusing on an endlessly accumulating calamity. But when he was recently spotted at an Oiler-Canuck hockey game remaining seated, smiling, and chatting, during a standing tribute honoring a military veteran, the truth of this man’s appalling fitness for leadership hit squarely home again. The contrast with a respectful Donald Trump was glaring.
Related …
h/t Hermes and Malcolm Y
Patricia Krenwinkel, a former Charles Manson follower, was granted parole on Tuesday after nearly six decades in prison for her role in the infamous Tate-LaBianca murders in Los Angeles.
This is the third time that Krenwinkel, 78, has been approved for release by California’s board of parole hearings. After both of her last two parole grants, Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, reversed the parole board’s decisions and denied her freedom, and Krenwinkel’s attorneys are now urging the Democrat to allow this latest ruling to stand.
Krenwinkel, who was 21 at the time of the 1969 killings, has been imprisoned longer than any other woman in California, and the parole board has repeatedly acknowledged her record of rehabilitation over 57 years in prison, concluding she would not in her elderly age be a danger to society.
The scandal involving student-aid grants at Ontario’s private career colleges may have blown into the open on Tuesday, when the Doug Ford government announced that it had called in the auditor general and the Ontario Provincial Police to investigate “serious concerns” in the sector, but the juicy stuff was revealed a few days earlier.
I’d like a guy like that in charge here in Ontario.
— Yvonne C (@CountryGardener) October 7, 2026
Standing before the Acropolis in Athens, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio swept through the history of ancient Greece to the rise of American industry in a speech on Wednesday that portrayed western civilisation at risk of decline.
Rubio said the world was at an “inflection point”. Nations, particularly in Europe, should return to ancient Greek values and “rebuild our institutions and our alliances to face these threats together”.
“We believe that Europe can awaken from its long slumber and rekindle the fire that was here millennia ago,” he said.
Canada’s industry minister said Wednesday Stelco Holdings Inc. cannot use the trade war to justify cutting jobs it committed to when it bought the Hamilton-based steel plant, particularly when the head of its U.S. parent company has publicly backed steel tariffs.
Mélanie Joly told reporters that the chief executive of U.S.-based Cleveland-Cliffs has supported steel tariffs and therefore cannot characterize the company’s plan to lay off up to 500 workers due to tariffs and market pressures as beyond its control.
A statue of US President Donald Trump was put on exhibit in the European Parliament building in Strasbourg, France.
The 2.5-meter satirical statue, by Danish artist Jens Galschiot, is called “Orange Plague,” and it shows the US leader naked, holding a long gold club and sitting on the shoulders of a smaller man.
The artist said it is coated with 23-karat gold. The statue is also known by the name “King of Injustice.”
No comment from Trump
Preparing a traditional Thanksgiving dinner this weekend may require Canadians to dig deeper into their wallets than last year, a new study suggests.
A traditional Thanksgiving turkey dinner for four is estimated to cost 10 percent more this year than in 2025, according to a report from food professor Sylvain Charlebois and the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University.
Last year, the cost of cooking turkey dinner for four rose 18 cents, from $32.30 in 2024 to $32.48. This year, though, the cost is up 10 percent at $35.72.
The BBC pays white staff less on average than their ethnic minority colleagues in every pay band bar one, figures show.
Black, Asian, mixed and other ethnic minority employees received 13.2pc higher median pay than white workers in the corporation’s lowest pay band, and 5.3pc more in the highest pay band.
White employees’ median pay was higher – by 0.6pc – in just one out of seven pay scales. This is despite the BBC’s commitment to “fair, clear and competitive” pay.
H/T Patti Jo
No self-respecting shopper pays for anything without looking at the checkout total first.
But Prime Minister Mark Carney and Public Safety Minister Gary Anandasangaree are moving full steam ahead with their gun ban and confiscation project without being transparent with taxpayers about the full cost.
In July 2023, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) filed an access-to-information request with the RCMP for all projected costs to confiscate firearms.
The convicted murderer who survived two doses of a lethal injection during a botched execution in Tennessee last week is now conscious and speaking.
Christa Pike, 50, woke up Tuesday and has no memory of the execution attempt, Dr Joel Zivot, an anesthesiologist and intensive care physician who is advising her lawyers, told the BBC.
Pike was able to recall her name and incorrectly guessed the date, believing it was still the month of September, Zivot said. Pike’s botched execution took place on the evening of September 30.
The College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO), one of the province’s main medical regulators, is considering severe restrictions on the availability of so-called “safer supply” drugs. Their proposed reforms are long-overdue and must be implemented if the regulatory body wants to maintain its credibility as a guarantor of responsible health care.
"Alberta will separate not from the Canada we knew. Alberta will separate from a globalist economic exploitation zone which considers its tax slaves to be economic production units who can be MAiDed when their utility expires." 🎯🎯🎯
— Patti Jo (@TheSupeHero) October 7, 2026
