Michèle Champagne
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michelechampagne.com
Michèle Champagne
@michelechampagne.com
Graphic artist, M.Des. Studies mandatory positivity and its effects on freedom of expression, architecture media, and “smart” cities. Invited to Harvard, MICA, McGill, and UQAM.
This is a clever song, and this video is a series of lovely portraits—of people and places. The cinematography is great.

"Prices go up
and they don’t go down.
Cost forty bucks
just to hang around.”

– Suffer, by Boy Golden, Winnipeg
– via @canadianshieldinstitute.ca
Boy Golden - Suffer (Official Video)
YouTube video by Boy Golden
www.youtube.com
January 23, 2026 at 7:59 PM
And speaking of Quebecois cheesemakers, I highly recommend Fromagerie L’Ancêtre, especially its lactose free selection. Avril supermarkets carry L'Ancêtre as well as Lufa Farms.
À la fine pointe - Fromagerie L'Ancêtre
YouTube video by La Famille du lait
www.youtube.com
January 23, 2026 at 6:17 PM
Taps the ‘inspiring speeches-vs-actual actions’ sign.
My Trade Secrets today. Mark Carney’s speech: nice truth bomb even if not totally original.

But the middle powers finding a new way to run the world requires a massive shift in political will which Carney’s Canada itself has had trouble making.
Carney’s new global order needs a huge shift in political will
[FREE TO READ] Middle-power diplomacy of the sort the Canadian PM calls for requires governments to throw off domestic constraints
as.ft.com
January 23, 2026 at 6:01 PM
Carney talks about a rupture but is not preparing for it.
Almost 10,000 federal workers were told this week they may be laid…
National Newswatch: Canada's most comprehensive site for political news and views.
nationalnewswatch.com
January 23, 2026 at 5:47 PM
And some people don’t. Years ago, I started abandoning Gmail and avoid Google Drive if I can. I switched most of my work to @proton.me, an end-to-end encrypted service owned by the Swiss firm Proton AG. Proton Mail owns its network, located inside four datacenters in Switzerland and Germany.
Some people actually want this.
January 23, 2026 at 5:42 PM
Il n’est jamais trop tard pour faire le switch.
January 23, 2026 at 5:25 PM
Reposted by Michèle Champagne
We're talking about this with @jeetheer.bsky.social on CBC Radio's Day 6 tomorrow. Steve Bannon has compared Canada to Ukraine, and talk is more prominent of using a potential Alberta referendum as a reason to try to take Canada.
Bessent pushes Albertan independence from Canada: "Albertans are very independent people. There's a rumor they may have a referendum on whether they want to stay in Canada or not. People are talking. People want sovereignty. They want what the US has got."
January 23, 2026 at 3:52 PM
“To his credit, @mark-carney.bsky.social knows the old world is dying. But the new world he is trying to create is just a refurbished version of that old world. It will not help us in defeating the monsters.”

@jeetheer.bsky.social
Mark Carney Knows the Old World Is Dying. But His New World Isn’t Good Enough.
The Canadian prime minister offered a radical analysis of the collapse of the liberal world order. His response to that collapse is unacceptably conservative.
www.thenation.com
January 23, 2026 at 5:22 PM
Some of us got the gist of this a year ago, when the threats of annexation got started. First we were told by our government that it was just a “joke”, then we got a fierce electoral campaign by the current Prime Minister who has since governed with appeasement followed by another fierce speech.
-laughs nervously in Ukrainian-

So er, I don't want to be alarmist my Canadian friends but it's not a GREAT sign when the superpower next door starts talking about how the people of a resource rich region of yours yearn for the freedom to join them and suggesting referendums...
Bessent pushes Albertan independence from Canada: "Albertans are very independent people. There's a rumor they may have a referendum on whether they want to stay in Canada or not. People are talking. People want sovereignty. They want what the US has got."
January 23, 2026 at 4:47 PM
It is not lost on many that the country leading the ‘Board of Peace’ is also running “the camps”.
People are dying in Trump’s squalid concentration camps | Will Bunch
Deaths are occurring in ICE detention facilities at nearly 10 times the rate of the Biden years. It will likely get worse.
www.inquirer.com
January 23, 2026 at 3:20 PM
McGill’s @jaredwesley.ca has kept an eye on this phenomena. I watched his recent talk there, at the Institute for the Study of Canada. It was called “Populism, Sovereignty, and Democracy in Alberta”.
Bessent pushes Albertan independence from Canada: "Albertans are very independent people. There's a rumor they may have a referendum on whether they want to stay in Canada or not. People are talking. People want sovereignty. They want what the US has got."
January 23, 2026 at 3:09 PM
Reposted by Michèle Champagne
Fun with charts! Now let's add in health care. And school shootings. And minimum wages. And, well, democracy.

Peace in Greenland (for now), so time to roll out the Crimea/Donetsk scenario for Alberta?
Bessent pushes Albertan independence from Canada: "Albertans are very independent people. There's a rumor they may have a referendum on whether they want to stay in Canada or not. People are talking. People want sovereignty. They want what the US has got."
January 23, 2026 at 2:48 PM
Catherine-Anne Toupin est de retour.
«Boîte noire»: machine infernale
La nouvelle pièce de Catherine-Anne Toupin se contente d’effleurer son sujet.
www.ledevoir.com
January 23, 2026 at 2:52 PM
«Top Girls» au théâtre Espace Go.
«Top Girls»: elles dansent avec les loups
Personnages historiques et contemporains se relaient dans l’une des premières pièces écrites par Caryl Churchill.
www.ledevoir.com
January 23, 2026 at 2:47 PM
These smears against journalism sound familiar: @hootsuite.com chief executive officer Irina Novoselsky “acknowledged on the internal call Thursday that Hootsuite has a contract with ICE but also referred to recent media coverage as ‘fake news,’ containing ‘factual errors’ and ‘misinformation’.”
Hootsuite CEO says ICE contract will stand as long as agency honours terms and conditions
Leader of Vancouver social media management company addresses employee questions in internal call. “We did nothing wrong here,” CEO says
www.theglobeandmail.com
January 22, 2026 at 10:56 PM
In its own terms of service, @hootsuite.com prohibits the use of its platform for law enforcement, surveillance and tracking.
Hootsuite CEO says ICE contract will stand as long as agency honours terms and conditions
Leader of Vancouver social media management company addresses employee questions in internal call. “We did nothing wrong here,” CEO says
www.theglobeandmail.com
January 22, 2026 at 10:52 PM
“Social listening”: @hootsuite.com has discussed monitoring conversations and sentiment on social media related to the agencies, including talk of ICE.
Vancouver social-media company Hootsuite looking to work with ICE to ‘build trust’
Company has secured a project with ICE that involves ‘social listening’ after cancelling a contract in 2020 over employee backlash
www.theglobeandmail.com
January 22, 2026 at 10:48 PM
LOL. On Saturday, it will “feel like” -33 degrees Celsius in Montreal.
Canadians you are not prepared for the temperature he tells you he is experiencing here.
January 22, 2026 at 8:29 PM
They are built for a previous century. But it’s worse. He can claim “AI” and quantum as a contemporary cover. And he will delay everyone’s adaptation because he is touted by many Canadians as “inspiring” and by many internationally as the new “leader” of the west.
You can't build new int'l institutions while cutting GAC.
You can't push Canadian businesses to diversify without providing substantial direct support to enter other markets.
You can't have a "sovereign" cloud w/ US hyperscalers.
Carney's 80s-era policies are built for a world that no longer exists.
January 22, 2026 at 8:13 PM
Reposted by Michèle Champagne
Canadians are going to have to come to terms with the reality that Mark Carney may understand that the world has changed, but he has *zero* policy imagination beyond boilerplate conservatism. None. New world, fossilized ideas. And his policies simply can't deliver what he claims they will.
January 22, 2026 at 7:25 PM
Reposted by Michèle Champagne
We now had nine months of evidence confirming that Mark Carney's idea of how to respond to a global rupture moment is quite different from that of most people.
If I were a PM who believed we were at a global rupture moment, upending decades of international order, and requiring totally new relations with the world, I probably wouldn’t cut my foreign affairs staffing and budget by 15%
January 22, 2026 at 7:32 PM
Kowing that Carney’s speeches don’t match his actions makes this all the more dangerous: because he’s going to make it sound nice and egalitarian, like something “for all”.
Prime Minister Carney on AI and his government's upcoming 'AI for All Strategy.'
January 22, 2026 at 7:26 PM
Today, reading posts and articles about Carney’s “inspiring” and “clear-eyed” speech has been worrying. Davis and others are right: Carney’s own actions do not match his speech. Delivering beautiful words of false hope is no way to rebuild a country.
January 22, 2026 at 5:36 PM
Reposted by Michèle Champagne
If I were a PM who had delivered a seminal speech on the global rupture and the need for new relations with the world, I probably wouldn’t send hundreds of layoff notices to my foreign affairs department the next day

www.hilltimes.com/story/2026/0...
Tracking job cuts in the federal public service
Workforce adjustment notifications have hit thousands of employees across dozens of government departments and agencies.
www.hilltimes.com
January 22, 2026 at 2:46 PM
Google’s big innovation is: targeted ads. #lolsob
“If you take a lot of selfies with ice cream, then it could curate recommendations for ice cream parlors.”
Google Search AI Mode can use Gmail and Photos to get to know you
Don’t worry, it’s an opt-in feature.
www.theverge.com
January 22, 2026 at 4:29 PM