Bryan Ug

Creator, Critic, Problem Solver, Born/Raised Vancouverite, SFU Graduate, People with Permanent Disability Advocate - (Increase density not its footprint)

[Bryan Ug @BryanUgerr]

If any one claims, that we need to bring in more labour, it can now be concluded that they are actively being a detriment to the long-term viability, health and stability of young Canadians. Over-population by about a million people (young Canadians) with no employment options.

[Tablesalt 🇨🇦🇺🇸 @Tablesalt13]

🚨MAJOR BREAKING

BLEAK CANADIAN JOB NUMBERS

There are now 732,000 unemployed Canadians with highschool or less education

competing for only 269,000 jobs.

AND 493,000 uni. educated people competing for only 80,000 jobs.

-Stats Canada.

[Josh Dehaas @JoshDehaas]

Canada just quietly signed the UN Cybercrime Convention, a data-sharing initiative started by Russia that democracies until recently opposed. It requires states to establish real-time interception and data collection powers like those in Bill C-22.
https://t.co/hECNOYaqVx

[Michael Geist @mgeist]

Canada quietly signed the UN Cybercrime Convention last week. The problem: it isn't really a cybercrime treaty. It's a sweeping cross-border surveillance pact that places human rights at risk, which Canada once opposed and declined to sign nine months ago.
https://t.co/3xkpO9uPY2

[Bryan Ug @BryanUgerr]

If you qualify for organ donation, you should be healthy enough not to be on MAiD nor should it be offered to you. Or are healthy organed people now qualifying for MAiD.

[Dr. Leslyn Lewis @LeslynLewis]

Reports of proposals to retrieve organs from MAiD patients before death raise profound ethical questions that Canadians should not dismiss.

These discussions underscore the importance of maintaining clear safeguards and ensuring that organ donation never compromises the value we place on human life.

Canadians deserve thoughtful, transparent debate on these issues. We must protect the vulnerable, uphold informed consent, and ensure that compassion and human dignity remain at the heart of our healthcare system.

[DouglasTodd @DouglasTodd]

SPEAKER #92 - On Vancouver's "Villages Plan"
Below is the 5-minute presentation to @CityofVancouver council on Wed. by @UBC education prof. emeritus Anthony Clarke.
A highlight:
"I respectively ask Council to reject the SEDUCTIVE SIMPLICITY of the Villages Plan. As presented the One-Size-Fits-All algorithm is a fiction. It does not represent the reality of Vancouver nor is it based on modern and sound urban planning principles."
#vanre #vanpoli

Mayor (Chair) and Members of Council,

Good morning!

My name is Anthony Clarke. I am a recently retired academic from UBC. I live just off 33rd Avenue between Fraser and Knight in East Vancouver. I spent the first 30 years of my life in the city of Melbourne and have now lived in Vancouver for over 30 years.

For reasons that I will explain shortly, I oppose the Villages Plan.

I am fortunate in that nearly every year I return to Melbourne to visit family and friends.

I am the envy of my family and friends because I get to live in two cities—Vancouver and Melbourne—that are consistently ranked every year in the top 10 list of most liveable cities in the world.

Why are they in the top 10?

In the past eight hours of this hearing, the factors listed by those who have encouraged the Council to re-think the Villages Plan are the same criteria used to judge Vancouver’s place in that top ten list.

So congratulations, what you have been doing and what you continue to do is already an extraordinary success. When you make a decision about the proposed Villages Plan, I urge you not to throw out the baby with the bathwater.

Today, I would like to present a new way of thinking about the Villages Plan.

It has to do with the way we think about phenomena in the world.

For the purposes of this hearing, I suggest that there are two broad categories of phenomena in the world; Simple phenomena and Complex phenomena.

Simple phenomena have very few variables and we can isolate and study them independently.

On the other hand, complex phenomena have many variables that interact with each other and can only be studied through their interaction.

Like you, after listening to all the speakers over the past 8 hours, I noticed a curious feature emerging. For the majority of those speaking in favour of this Plan, they typically cite a single factor when presenting their case. Whereas the majority of those speaking in opposition to the plan refer to multiple factors in supporting their case.

This curiosity prompted me to look into the theories underpinning urban planning to better understand why this might be so.

What you will find is that complexity theory (or complexity science) underpins most, if not all, current theories on urban planning. Why? Because urban planning is a complex phenomenon.

Therefore it is curious that the Villages Plan opts for a One-Size-Fits-All approach which is to be applied across 17 different and distinct communities.

The problem with a One-Size-Fits-All approach to urban planning is that it is an algorithmic approach to problem solving.

Algorithms are great for simple, technical, and precise problems. Algorithms are wonderful for simple phenomena. But urban planning is a complex phenomenon.

The question then becomes, how did the staff who presented the Plan to Council manage to reduce it to a One-Size-Fits-All algorithm?

The only way they could do this is by removing enough variables from the system, so that it no longer looks complex but is rendered as a relatively simple phenomenon. And that is what I believe has happened here.

As I listened to the presenters of the plan at the beginning of the first meeting, I was struck by how they constantly qualified their response to your questions about the absence of key variables by using modifiers like: We could consider that in the future; We might have some flexibility later; That might be an amendment down the track, We will get back to you on that, etc.

Others who have spoken in opposition to the Plan have also pointed out these missing variables.

In essence, by deliberately stripping out key variables from the context of the problem you are trying to solve (and rendering it as a simple phenomenon) doesn’t change the reality of the complexity you are faced with. It only means that the simplistic solution you devise (in this case, One-Size-Fits-All algorithm) is not only misguided but imperils the very things that you argue are most desirable and needed in the city.

Two Points In Conclusion
I respectively ask Council to reject the seductive simplicity of the Villages Plan. As presented the One-Size-Fits-All algorithm is a fiction. It does not represent the reality of Vancouver nor is it based on modern and sound urban planning principles. Our neighbourhoods and communities are complex systems and that is their strength.

I ask that you request your staff to present you with an alternative plan for the growth and development of Vancouver that incorporates the principles of complexity and ensures that Vancouver stays in the top 10 list of most liveable cities in the world.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak at this hearing.

[Pirat_Nation 🔴 @Pirat_Nation]

Microsoft has confirmed that Windows includes a Global Device ID (GDID), a permanent identifier automatically assigned to a PC during installation.

According to Microsoft, the GDID is used for security purposes,The company says it is not used for advertising or tracking users across apps and websites.

Unlike advertising IDs, the GDID cannot be disabled or reset by users, as it is designed to remain tied to the device for its lifetime.
Microsoft publicly acknowledged the identifier only after it appeared in court documents related to an FBI investigation.

[Ryan Gerritsen🇨🇦🇳🇱 @ryangerritsen]

Digital verification ID for workers traveling between provinces sure feels like a pilot program to eventually force all Canadians to use while they travel.

[Kelsi Sheren @Kelsisheren]

BREAKING: a family member has come forward and in her words “my grandmother was wrongfully killed with MAID and approved while her power of attorney was on vacation and the grandmother didn’t have the capacity to consent and didn’t want it.”

I will be naming the doctors, the nursing home, the Maid assessors and every other person who touched this family. Welcome you’re about to be famous.

This happened in Belleville Ontario not far from where I grew up. This just got very personal.

[Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms @JCCFCanada]

The federal government is quietly testing digital ID apps. Officials insist they're voluntary and not a national ID system, but many Canadians remain skeptical. Polling shows widespread concerns about privacy, government data sharing, and whether digital IDs could one day make everyday life more restrictive.
https://t.co/FhCHCfbGrR

To help push back against Digital ID, sign our petition here: https://t.co/PGIBFerCzQ

[Pirat_Nation 🔴 @Pirat_Nation]

The EU’s highest court has ruled that VPNs are legal tools, and VPN companies cannot be blamed simply because users employ them to bypass geo-blocks.

The ruling stems from a copyright case involving Anne Frank’s writings.
A Belgian website published some of her manuscripts online but blocked visitors from the Netherlands, where parts of the work remain protected by copyright until 2037.

Anne Frank’s rights holders argued the site was still breaking the law because users could bypass the block with a VPN.
The court disagreed and ruled that a website using effective geo-blocking cannot be held responsible if some users circumvent it with a VPN.

The judges also affirmed that VPNs are legitimate privacy tools.

[Inclusion Canada @InclusionCA]

Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) is back in the news and in the court system today.

Here is a refresher on why Inclusion Canada and a coalition of disability organizations and citizens have deep concerns.

Most people in Canada believe MAiD is only available for people at the end of life.

But the federal government added a second tier—for people with disabilities and only them—who are not dying.

Instead of making it easier for people to die – our governments should be addressing the root causes of their “suffering”: high poverty, inadequate housing, lack of disability supports and social isolation.

Learn more about MAiD’s harmful impacts on people with disabilities.

[CityHallWatch @CityHallWchVAN]

Federal Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF) the $30M ‘dark horse’ driving Vancouver’s ‘Villages’ mass upzoning (Public Hearing in progress) #Endgame2026 #Vanpoli #VancouverODP https://t.co/2d2FHr7pGI

[Patrick Condon @pmcondon2]

Final letter submitted to Vancouver council re "Villages Plan". Feel free to repost.
https://t.co/g0sLDEwXZC

"It defies logic to expect an “unleashing of the housing market” — the primary justification provided for the Villages Plan — to produce affordable housing when we have spent decades trying to do just that. Vancouver has tripled its housing stock since the 1960s, all within a city that was already built out. This is a higher percentage increase of infill development than that of any other North American centre city. If adding housing to existing city districts was the sure fire path to affordability we would have seen positive results by now."

[Patrick Condon @pmcondon2]

Grok says : there are 78000 units already in the pipeline, enough for 160000 people. Enough for at least 20 years. Who are these villages for ??
https://t.co/VI4VAfsm4N

[CityHallWatch @CityHallWchVAN]

UCS #107: Sorry for the Delay. #vanpoli #UrbanCartoonSyndicate https://t.co/0TOF72p69O

[Inclusion Canada @InclusionCA]

Canada's labour shortages won't be solved by overlooking talent that's already here. Inclusion Canada and the @AllianceAutism point out that 500,000 people with intellectual disabilities and on the autism spectrum are Ready, Willing and Able to work and are waiting for opportunities.

In this Opinion Editorial, we say renewing and expanding the Ready, Willing & Able national initiative is a practical solution that helps employers fill workforce gaps while building a more inclusive economy. So far it has resulted in 6,300 jobs throughout all provinces and territories.
https://t.co/qZiNegbLWk

#InclusiveEmployment #ReadyWillingAble #LabourShortages #cdnpoli

[Kerry-Lynne Findlay @KerryLynneFindl]

The NDP calls British Columbia "racist", "colonial" and "genocidal." They even claim the word “British Columbian” is offensive.

The BC Conservatives disagree. We see what millions of British Columbians see: a beautiful province full of hardworking families who are proud to call BC home.

[Patrick Condon @pmcondon2]

For the government to step in to pay the development costs developers were contractually obligated to pay wont make housing cheaper, it will protect land speculator's big payday. CFA interview from today:
https://t.co/EvtJeTaDWc

[Holly Doan @hollyanndoan]

Cabinet is testing digital ID apps on an experimental basis, says @ESDC_GC briefing note. Department repeats assurances “the Gov’t of Canada is not establishing a national digital ID program.”
https://t.co/EPrznosqdQ
#cdnpoli

[Patrick Condon @pmcondon2]

This is data showing that Vancouver has already added to its housing units by 200 percent since the sixties. No other centre city has done the same. Our reward are the highest home prices by far when measured against median wages.

[JayGen 𝕏 er🇨🇦 @JayGenXer]

🚨 This should alarm every single Canadian.

In committee, Apple and Google just warned MPs exactly what Bill C-22 does.

They said the bill doesn’t just ask them to unlock encryption when needed. It lets the government issue **secret ministerial orders** forcing them to build a “hole in the wall” — a backdoor — that didn’t exist before.

Apple: “We’re concerned about a hole being put in the wall.”
Liberals: “There’s no hole in the wall.”
Apple: “But the bill lets you secretly order one.”
Google: “We’ve never built anything like this, anywhere in the world.”

And the response? Basically “pinky promise we won’t abuse it.”

This isn’t some conspiracy theory. This is tech companies that fight governments for a living telling Parliament that C-22 would force them to do something unprecedented globally — create secret backdoors and comply with sweeping, unchecked ministerial orders on metadata, encryption, and more.

After C-11 gave them control over what you can see and say online, C-22 is coming for what you can keep private.

Law-abiding Canadians. Your texts. Your calls. Your data. Your location. Your searches.

All of it potentially accessible through secret orders with minimal real oversight.

Privacy isn’t optional. Encryption protects everyone — including the people who have nothing to hide.

If this passes in its current form, Canada becomes a place where the government can quietly demand tech companies build tools to spy on its own citizens… and the companies are saying they’ve never been forced to do this anywhere else on Earth.

That’s not “lawful access.” That’s the foundation of a surveillance state.

Wake up. This one actually matters.

#BillC22 #C22 #LawfulAccessAct #CanadaPrivacy #SurveillanceState #Encryption #cdnpoli