yourmom 🇨🇦❤🇺🇦

Just a fella,standing in front of the twitters, supporting Ukraine. Background photo is not me.
Proud member of #NAFO Slava Ukraini 🇨🇦❤🇺🇦

[yourmom 🇨🇦❤🇺🇦 @summerlong01]

"Behind every #Fella is a real person who believes in #Ukraine’s victory." - @kajakallas
#NAFOExpansionIsNonNegotiable

[𝙕𝙮𝙥𝙝𝙤𝙧 @ImZyphor]

Something I Put Together For @KamuiSpins

Enjoy!
#fyp #cod #mw3 #edit #aftereffects

[Terror AirMaxAngel @AirMaxAngel69]

VST been popppin off 🥵
#ObeyUs @ObeySupremacyHQ @ObeyGirlsHQ

[Francis Dearnley @FrancisDearnley]

David would be thrilled 'Ukraine: The Latest' is nominated for 'Podcast of the Year' at the Society of Editors Media Freedom Awards.

Thank you @EditorsUK for the honour, and to our listeners for all your support. We pass 100 million downloads this month.

https://t.co/L28TMAzQTv

[Jay in Kyiv @JayinKyiv]

Imagine how fast the war could be over if this German Major General was Chancellor.

There's not a Russian money loving bone on his body, unlike Scholz. https://t.co/wkfohhW6NT

[yourmom 🇨🇦❤🇺🇦 @summerlong01]

Check out Preston Stewart's video! #TikTok https://t.co/nQbRG5EMYT

[CAF with Ukraine @CAFwithUkraine]

The new rotation of Canadian Armed Forces troops at #OpUNIFIER are on the ground, training members of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in basic soldier skills, tactical combat engineer skills, and combat medicine.

[yourmom 🇨🇦❤🇺🇦 @summerlong01]

https://t.co/Mnaih0SErD

[David Knowles @djknowles22]

Well this is nice - thank you to everyone working on the show in The Telegraph and to all of our guests.

[Black Cloud Six @blackcloudsix]

*The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.*

Burke

We are at a tipping point. Across the democracies, we are awash in disinformation with billionaire-sponsored fascism ascendant & multiple threats to our way of life.

And we do nothing.

[✨діана кулик✨ @IamBohhi]

The fundraiser for the trucks have stalled a bit.

Do you have any idea how to preach and share the word? Anything fun in mind?

Let's brainstorm 🧐

[Francis Dearnley @FrancisDearnley]

A service is taking place on Utah Beach to launch @UkraineFocus's "Convoy of Hope", delivering 50 ambulances to Ukraine.

Each one will save around 250 lives during its service.

The convoy is being blessed by the chaplain of the @101stAASLTDIV, which dropped here 80 years ago.

[Dom Nicholls @DomNicholls]

As I was actually present at the Where’s Wally event last night on Omaha Beach, I’ve been asked for my thoughts. 🧵 1/12

[Black Cloud Six @blackcloudsix]

These are the troops that the usual suspects would have you believe are too “woke” to fight and that the Russians would roll over.

Do they look “woke”, whatever that is?

Let’s talk briefly about the Old Army that they claim is so much better…

1/x

[Shawn Harris for Congress @ShawnForGeorgia]

I'm running against Marjorie Taylor Greene. Her being in the news the last two days might be the reason we're about to hit 100,000 followers.

But the reasons she's in the headlines don't make Georgia proud.

400 more to go. Can you retweet to help us reach our goal by midnight?

[NATO @NATO]

Retweet to join us in celebrating our newest Ally 🇸🇪 Sweden on their National Day!

@SwedenNato 🤝 #WeAreNATO

[Howard Miller & Lulu @HPM1984Concord]

Fellas if you have time consider subscribing to the @Telegraph Ukraine Today podcast. @DomNicholls and @FrancisDearnley )and others) have been doing a superb job day in and day out on exploring the hows, whys and when of the war. You can get it free on apple podcast (Itunes or what ever the hell it is now called0

After about 2 months of listening in MAY 2022 tI sprung for an online sub to the @Telegraph. So Dom and Francis the circulation editor owes you chaps commissions! I owe you a beer!
@TElegraph is also an excelllent online newspaper and a great bookend to the @WSJ and @TheEconomist subs I already had & with much better war coverage.
US Fellas they now have a US online edition.
Plus it also carries very weird stories about the Royals and British elections and other strange happenings that mystify us Yanks but that we enjoy anyways!

[Halifax Fire News @HRMFireNews]

Good afternoon, Happy Sunday, and welcome to the Sunday update! This week I have a single-issue update on the topic of fire department radio encryption. That may sound wonky, but if you have ever found this page useful, I ask you to please read the following post on a very important topic. Here is what I will address:

1. What is happening
2. What does encryption mean
3. Why I am against full encryption
4. Two key myths about encryption that need to be corrected
5. The realistic solution to balance privacy and public access
6. The future of this page
7. What you can do to help

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1. Background: the Province of Nova Scotia announced in December they would be purchasing encryption-enabled radios for all fire departments across the province. During the 2024/25 budget process, HRFE also confirmed they are replacing their portable radios with encryption-enabled radios with a target date of early 2025.

I want to get all of the facts out there on this situation now so people can be fully informed of what this would mean, and hopefully this can end with a reasonable balance between the need for secure communications and the need for public information.

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2. What does encryption mean? Fire department personnel use fixed and mobile radios to communicate with each other and their dispatch agencies. Up until now, these transmissions have largely been accessible to the public through the use of scanners and online streaming services. The term encryption means that these transmissions would no longer be publicly accessible as all radios would be programmed with an encryption key, and therefore accessible to internal users only. While this may sound reasonable on the surface...

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3. I am completely against the full encryption of fire department radios, for a variety of reasons. I think a reasonable balance can be found between the advantages of encryption vs. the usefulness of public information. The main reasons I am against full encryption are as follows:

Full encryption means that pages like mine will be unable monitor fire department transmissions. This will have a massively negative affect on my ability to do real-time reporting. In fact, I basically will likely have no live information on incidents what so ever under a fully encrypted system. This will severely limit the usefulness of this page.

In my several years of running this page, I have found myself in a number of situations where this page was able to provide critical information that enhanced public safety in an urgent situation. Yes, it is unofficial but that doesn't mean it isn't useful to people. Being able to access fire department radio transmissions isn't simply a case of being nosey. I've had hundreds of messages over the years from people during major incidents (The Tantallon and Porters Lake Wildfires, 2024 Flooding, Hurricanes Dorian and Fiona, etc.) who said they first learned of an urgent situation from my page and were able to evacuate a home, grab a pet of loved one, or protect their property sooner than they otherwise would have due to them seeing the reporting on this page.

Setting aside my little page here, countless other similar pages, and the main stream media will also find their access to information be severely restricted as a result of full encryption if it goes ahead.

It has been proven time and time again that many agencies in the province, and especially HRFE, do not communicate in a timely fashion during an emergency. While I support and reinforce all official messaging, it has been proven time and time again that there can be a lot of value to having unofficial reporting as well.

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4. I want to address two key myths that are being trotted out to support the shift to encryption.

First, the province is saying the move toward encryption is a result of a recommendation from the Mass Casualty Commission (MCC). I think it is crucial to understand what the MCC actually said in recommendation P16B:

"All emergency response agencies in Nova Scotia should be given access to encrypted radios while responding to a critical incident, even if these radios are loaned for the duration of that response. Emergency responders must be given the opportunity to train with these radios on a regular basis so that they are familiar with their use, when needed."

Nowhere does this say that all fire department radios should be fully encrypted at all times. Note the MCC says "given access to encrypted radios while responding to a critical incident, even if these radios are loaned". This is quite a distance from full encryption.

Secondly, HRFE has cited confidentiality the justification for their move toward encryption. There's no point in mincing words: this is bullshit.

One, they haven't offered a single problematic case of somebody's confidentiality being breached as a result of the current system.

Two, I think this page, the other similar pages that exist on social media, and the mainstream media, all of whom use fire department transmissions in their reporting, by and large do a pretty good job of respecting people's confidentiality. Further, they could create some sort of regulations around what can and can't be shared rather than going to full encryption if privacy was such a deep concern.

Three, *the department itself* ​ has set up an automated twitter account which tweets the street names of all fire calls in HRM. In fact, my page arguably respects confidentiality more than their official account as I do not tweet out locations for calls like medicals.

Four, I fear that some of the eagerness around going to full (rather than partial) encryption has to do with ass-covering. If the public has less information, fire departments are less accountable.

Five, even if you acknowledge there may be concerns around confidentiality, the costs of those concerns need to be weighed against the benefits that arise from having open communications. The department has not made this case to the public.

Six, this is a department dealing with capital budget challenges such as a fleet in disarray, PFAS (cancer-causing agents) in bunker gear, many stations in a state of disrepair, an undersized and out of date training grounds, among many other capital budget issues. What exactly makes the expense of encrypted radios a top priority? The 2+ million this would cost could buy the department a much-needed aerial, or staff a station for a year, or be directed to literally a million other things that might actually help the public.

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5. Here is the solution I support.

I was online the night and morning April 18th and 19th, 2020, when a deranged gunman senselessly murdered 22 innocent Nova Scotians. As I was listening to that series of events unfold, I was very, very concerned about the lack of encryption on some of the police radio transmissions and the potential they could be used to benefit the culprit.

I fully support the encryption of police radios and everything to do with police operations for obvious reasons. Police radios in Nova Scotia have been encrypted for a few years now and I think that is logical. I can remember when police communications were not encrypted and the ability to listen to police calls always seemed very problematic to me. However, the same rationale doesn't apply to the fire department most of the time.

During the Mass Casualty incident, police were operating alongside other agencies on provincial mutual aid channels. Police, fire, EHS, DNR (for air support) and other agencies were all operating on these common channels and those communications were not encrypted. I agree this part is a problem.

This is where I agree with the MCC recommendation as it is written: fire departments should have the *ability* to operate on encrypted channels as needed, particularly when responding alongside police to critical incidents. I fully and completely support this.

What I do not support is full encryption of fire radios. This is a needlessly broad solution to the problem above and will have negative consequences. In other words, encryption when necessary, but not necessarily encryption.

When, for example, I'm able to alert residents an evacuation order is coming because a wildfire is threatening a neighborhood and it takes the city and province 50+ minutes to issue an emergency alert, and when I hear some of those people report to me that they got out of their homes early because of that reporting, I think it is awfully hard to justify full encryption of fire radios. This is a completely different situation than the Mass Casualty incident which does not call for encryption.

Partial encryption on interagency channels is the only logical solution in my mind.

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6. The future of this page.

Either directly or indirectly, they're trying to get rid of me by doing this. I won't be going away easily. In terms of what happens going forward, I have not made any firm decisions about the future of the page in the event that full encryption proceeds.

The first step is to put this information out there and see what else I can find out about their official plans. As mentioned above, this was promised for early 2025, so there is some time. I plan to make my arguments forcefully in the meantime in hopes of finding a reasonable balance on this issue. Another reason I am not making any firm decisions is that very often HRFE's plans don't unfold in the way they envision. A lot could happen between now and 2025. Maybe I'll run for Mayor and knock some sense into this issue and a few others. Just kidding on that last part, but the future of the page is basically a wait and see approach until more is known on encryption. So, I'll keep.

I won't be able to run this page forever, obviously, but for now I still enjoy providing the service and I still think the public benefits from it, so I'd like to do it as long as I can. Encryption is also an issue much larger than just me as it affects all similar pages as well as the mainstream media, as mentioned above.

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7. What can you do to help? First, thank you for getting informed on the issue by reading this post. I understand it is a niche issue but it affects the future of this page so I want to be honest with people. Second, if you're as concerned about this issue as I am, make your voice heard, whether that is to your elected representatives or internally through your chain of command. Lastly, if you are on the inside and have information you can offer me, or if I can be helpful in bringing some common sense to this issue, my DMs are open and anonymity is always guaranteed.

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That's all for this week. The Sunday Update will return to the normal format next week. Enjoy the rest of your weekend!

[CAF with Ukraine @CAFwithUkraine]

Our Ukrainian partners' dedication and desire to learn everything they can from us feeds our resolve. We are proud to be able to contribute to their fight against Russian aggression. #OpUNIFIER #StandWithUkraine

[yourmom 🇨🇦❤🇺🇦 @summerlong01]

@CarmelH14822276 100% true

[yourmom 🇨🇦❤🇺🇦 @summerlong01]

@HalifaxReTales Going with Kuh-nard. I am too old to go with fancy correct pronunciations. The Man will be wanting me to pronounce Inglis and Dalhousie right. Stick it to the Man