KevinPike
capespear.bsky.social
KevinPike
@capespear.bsky.social
Canadian privacy & security practitioner (CISSP, LLM, FIP, etc.). I slice through Gordian knots and build no-nonsense, secure systems for innovators who prioritise execution and profit.
Pinned
A state’s authority to condemn repression abroad rests on the integrity of its own domestic rights practice.

When protective norms are applied selectively at home, the message overseas is not one of principle, but of branding and political expedience.
Australia, Canada, UK urge Belarus to end 'campaign of repression'
The governments of Australia, Canada and the United Kingdom condemned what they called ongoing repression and human rights violations in Belarus and accused Belarusian authorities of waging a campaign to shut down civil society, independent media and any form of political opposition.
www.reuters.com
“To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.”

It is fitting -- and necessary -- to relieve the old guard of their post.

We must ask whether we still deserve to carry what they built.
If not, then let us make it so.
www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...
Second World War veterans are a shrinking presence on Remembrance Day
A generation that was once a ubiquitous feature in communities small and large is now waning
www.theglobeandmail.com
November 11, 2025 at 4:48 PM
When neutrality is confused with uniformity, justice loses texture.

A Charter that protects conscience shouldn’t yield to administrative optics. The robe defends impartiality; it doesn’t erase identity.
nationalpost.com/news/nova-sc...
Top N.S. judges defend right to ban staff from wearing poppies in courtrooms
Nova Scotia's top judges say their peers were in the right to ban court staff from wearing poppies in the courtroom.
nationalpost.com
November 11, 2025 at 12:42 AM
In systems built on faith, each crossing cracks the foundation.

The pillars give way long before the pretence.
nationalpost.com/opinion/lett...
Letters: 'Crossing the floor' weakens Canada's democracy
Readers comment on MP manoeuvring, Bill Gates' climate U-turn, remembering Canada's fallen, sentences for child porn, and more
nationalpost.com
November 10, 2025 at 2:41 AM
Every empire has its own bull market.

Confidence compounds until reality calls margin.

The correction always comes; the test is what still holds value when it does.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/07/b...
The Astonishing Bull Market Will End One Day. Are You Ready?
www.nytimes.com
November 9, 2025 at 4:06 AM
Systems that celebrate growth are often slow to acknowledge deadweight.

Whether in budgets, rigs, or boardrooms, mass must eventually be justified.

And gravity always gets the final word.
www.theguardian.com/business/202...
Lose weight or risk losing your job, overweight oil rig workers told
North Sea oil and gas rig staff need to be under 124.7kg so they can be safely winched on to helicopter in emergency
www.theguardian.com
November 7, 2025 at 7:15 PM
A nation that can’t keep its airspace moving has already grounded something deeper.

When continuity depends on payroll, sovereignty becomes a subscription.
www.nytimes.com/live/2025/11...
Live Updates: Hundreds of U.S. Flights Are Canceled as Shutdown Hits Air Travel
www.nytimes.com
November 7, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Democracies collapse quietly, one procedural shortcut at a time.

Omnibus governance is the administrative form of entropy:
convenience mistaken for order.
www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/art...
Liberals appear poised for possible omnibus bills as federal budget lays out 75 legislative changes
Former parliamentary budget officer compares long-criticized practice to Washington’s One Big Beautiful Bill
www.theglobeandmail.com
November 7, 2025 at 2:35 AM
Every system breeds the behaviour it rewards.

When conviction stops paying dividends, politics reverts to brokerage, and loyalty becomes a tradable asset.
www.politico.com/news/2025/11...
Conservative MP joins Canada’s Liberal government, moving Carney closer to majority government
The stunning twist brings the prime minister one step closer to a secure hold on the office until 2029.
www.politico.com
November 5, 2025 at 8:12 PM
When domestic discipline collapses, protectionism becomes the new patriotism.

Every empire learns too late that you can’t subsidise sovereignty.
www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/art...
Carney earmarks billions in new spending to counter U.S. protectionism
Federal budget projects $78.3-billion deficit and sets out tax incentives, public service cuts
www.theglobeandmail.com
November 4, 2025 at 11:35 PM
“Trumpism” emerged when institutions stopped representing people and started chasing attention.

For those keen on reversing Trumpism:
Reverse the sequence.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/02/o...
Opinion | This Is the Way You Beat Trump — and Trumpism
www.nytimes.com
November 2, 2025 at 9:41 PM
Hero-narratives always emerge when fiscal discipline falters.

Canada’s future won’t hinge on a minister-as-messiah, @remitheriault.bsky.social, but on a balance sheet resilient enough to outlast its ambitions.

www.theglobeandmail.com/business/art...
Man of the moment: François-Philippe Champagne prepares for make-or-break budget
At a time of deep economic uncertainty, the Finance Minister faces the biggest test of his political career
www.theglobeandmail.com
November 1, 2025 at 3:38 PM
The AI buildout centres on infrastructure -- an arms race of compute and capital.

When investment outpaces purpose, debt follows faith.
www.nytimes.com/2025/10/31/t...
Big Tech’s A.I. Spending Is Accelerating (Again)
www.nytimes.com
November 1, 2025 at 1:01 AM
Price caps signal governance failure -- a substitution of moral theatre for structural remedy.
www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...
Opinion: World Series tickets are a luxury item, and we shouldn’t put government caps on luxuries
Ultimately, the market will decide what highly coveted items are worth, and the market will find a way to deliver
www.theglobeandmail.com
October 31, 2025 at 1:28 AM
Property law erodes quietly when political systems outsource justice to symbolism.

Reconciliation without constitutional coherence produces legal schizophrenia -- the state promising two forms of sovereignty on the same land.
nationalpost.com/opinion/were...
'We’re just the victims,' Richmond property owners unleash fury over Cowichan ruling
City blamed for not telling property owners about the court case, that recognized Aboriginal title over private property
nationalpost.com
October 30, 2025 at 1:05 AM
The instinct to sanctify crafted metal -- whether calves or chips -- hasn’t vanished; it’s the same idolatry recompiled in code.

Moses and Calvin would have recognised it as the oldest form of human overconfidence: revelling at the words instead of the wordsmith.
Here's an interesting take on the way #AI is beginning to attract people seeking a religious experience.

AI is "something definitive yet unexplainable, an instrument we can cast our highest hopes onto and later blame. Our new Sky Daddy."

And yet we know AI has been created by humans. Fascinating.
AI Is Not God
In recent times, there have been two techno-religious awakenings. Here comes the third?
www.wired.com
October 28, 2025 at 9:49 PM
Milei’s victory stabilises Argentina only on paper.
When reform depends on U.S. liquidity, sovereignty becomes a leased commodity.

Monetary discipline divorced from fiscal independence converts restraint into outsourced austerity.
www.theglobeandmail.com/world/articl...
Milei emerges triumphant in high-stakes Argentine midterm elections closely watched by Washington
Governing La Libertad Avanza party won 40.84% ​​of votes in national elections to renew almost half of the lower house of Congress
www.theglobeandmail.com
October 27, 2025 at 12:34 PM
When residents inside city limits pay taxes yet haul water, the image of neglect masks something deeper:
governance triage.

Decline begins when jurisdiction outlives capacity -- when a council's bureaucratic reach exceeds its grasp on basic infrastructure.
ottawacitizen.com/news/private...
Private well users calling for City of Ottawa action amid 'water emergency'
Some residents in rural Ottawa have not had access to drinking water for weeks as they call on the city for emergency support.
ottawacitizen.com
October 27, 2025 at 12:17 AM
Automating the trivial signals decline -- the triumph of capability over judgment.

When machines erase friction that never existed, innovation becomes theatre.

A spectacle of systems staging their own relevance.
Robotic, AI-driven gas pumps are now being tested at select gas stations in China. The automated system handles the entire refueling process without human assistance.

While this isn't standard yet, it could signal where the industry.

#Technology #Automation #AI #China #FutureTech #Robotics
October 26, 2025 at 4:29 PM
Choosing South Korea or Europe will define Canada’s industrial sovereignty far more than any trade deal.

Procurement is now foreign policy by other means.
www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/art...
Carney faces historic choice between South Korea and Europe for submarine fleet
Canada’s planned purchase of 12 subs could break tradition in Indo-Pacific shift to South Korea
www.theglobeandmail.com
October 26, 2025 at 2:57 AM
Bilingualism has become Ottawa’s preferred instrument of cohesion -- federation managed by funding.

Every transfer buys a little more unity, a little less autonomy.
Federalism survives, but only through subsidy.
October 24, 2025 at 5:46 PM
When public utilities exhaust both capital and imagination, debt becomes their only instrument of continuity.

Governance that finances itself into relevance eventually confuses solvency with service.
nationalpost.com/opinion/step...
Stephen Lecce: Ontario utilities are heading towards a financial cliff
The province risks falling behind. We cannot let that happen.
nationalpost.com
October 23, 2025 at 1:30 PM
Ambition unmoored from fiscal proportion turns progress brittle.

When vision outpaces discipline, budgets evolve into instruments of politics, and strategy dissolves into a cycle of deferred delivery.
www.theglobeandmail.com/gift/d9dd9ce...
Canada to double non-U.S. exports over next decade, Carney says
Prime Minister says Nov. 4 budget will respond to the unprecedented pressures facing the Canadian economy in light of U.S. trade war
www.theglobeandmail.com
October 23, 2025 at 1:32 AM
Constitutions endure through shared narrative continuity.
Legal text functions as record, but coherence lives in memory.

When citizens sustain meaning across generations, governance retains structure and spirit alike.
www.thefp.com/p/the-consti...
The Constitution Can’t Save Us. Only We Can.
Newly minted democracies began to prevail across the globe after 1787, and they did so thanks largely to the political and cultural success of America’s Constitution, writes Akhil Reed Amar. “The mode...
www.thefp.com
October 21, 2025 at 1:10 PM
Chapeau to @robynurback.bsky.social for adeptly pathologising dissent while shielding consensus from scrutiny. An elegant instrument of control.

Framing polemic as diagnosis is a refined form of soft censorship. Discerning journalists would be less daring.
www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/arti...
Opinion: Is Pierre Poilievre okay?
The Conservative Leader used to be shrewd and careful about his image. Now he’s ranting about the RCMP covering up for Justin Trudeau
www.theglobeandmail.com
October 21, 2025 at 12:45 AM
When uncertain data hardens into doctrine, economies bend around it.

The real cost is epistemic:
institutions start rewarding conviction over verification, and citizens learn to treat belief as evidence.
www.thefp.com/p/i-thought-...
I Thought Climate Change Would End the World. I Was Wrong.
My worldview was built on apocalyptic models sprung from faulty assumptions, writes Ted Nordhaus for The Free Press.
www.thefp.com
October 20, 2025 at 11:31 PM