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Québécois à #Toronto. Toots in English et #francais

I previously was the co-founder and ran operations for two #ecommerce #smallbusiness stores that work with artisans in the #Philippines

I also work as an IT consultant on #Salesforce, mostly working with #retail brands.

What interests me: #PublicTransit #transit #TOPoli #urbanism #F1 #CivicTech #MeshCore #Meshtastic #FediQC #BuyCanadian #searchable #fedi22 and my cat!

@mayintoronto @chu So there are a few issues I commonly see when talking about Chinese social issues:

  • The lack of visibility into those issues in the first place. The suppression of independent journalism means that there are many systemic issues that you will just never hear about, and the activism that does exist is often in Chinese (and many people in the west, despite speaking for and about China, still just can't read Chinese). The online censorship environment is very heavy and extends into mundane topics as well, that you wouldn't even think are topics for censorship. As an example, take a look at some of the censored/deleted topics in China Digital Times' monthly archive: https://chinadigitaltimes.net/2026/04/cdts-404-deleted-content-archive-summary-for-march-2026/.

  • The lack of basic knowledge about PRC society. For example, I see a lot of people assume that healthcare in the PRC is free: It's not, and being able to afford even basic medical care is a huge issue for seniors and those in rural areas. Similarly, I see a lot of people assume that China has strong labour protections, while completely being ignorant about the systematic and large scale labour inequality perpetuated by the hukou system.

  • Finally, the discussion of Chinese issues only in terms of the issues that exist in our own western societies. This is using China as a mirror, rather than as a real place. Climate change and electrification is an issue for us Canadians, so people look wistfully at Chinese solar panels. The devastating wars that America is waging are a horrible issue that we feel powerless about, so people look wistfully at China who is speaking against the US. But this is still fundamentally centred around ourselves. This is not only bad in that it ignores the Uyghur slave labour that's being used to build those solar panels, and the Chinese airplanes that are being used to bomb the resistance in Myanmar. It also never engages with PRC society, and the real people there living at the bottom, on their own terms from the perspective of the problems they face. It stops any attempt at understanding Chinese society and its actual tensions and contradictions. A thought experiment: What would it look like if we started from the Chinese perspective on a problem, and then used America as the mirror and comparison instead? For example, the PRC's mining operations and environmental damage in Zambia - how does mineral exploitation that western countries have done in Zambia compare? Or for example, the white paper revolution in 2022 - what can Americans learn from the protests that happened then?

CDT’s “404 Deleted Content Archive” Summary for March 2026

CDT presents a monthly series of censored content that has been added to our “404 Deleted Content Archive.” Each month, we publish a summary of content blocked or deleted (often yielding the message “404: content not found”) from Chinese platforms such as WeChat, Weibo, Douyin (TikTok’s counterpart in the Chinese market), Xiaohongshu (RedNote), Bilibili, Zhihu, […]

China Digital Times (CDT)
Ça se mérite

La police de #Vancouver rejette une demande d’escorte policière pour Infantino, chef de #FIFA

“Les cortèges officiels entraînant l'arrêt de la circulation sont réservés aux chefs d'État, a déclaré le chef adjoint de la police, Don Chapman, par voie de communiqué.”

https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2250372/rejet-escorte-infantino-fifa-police

Pas d’escorte pour le patron de la FIFA à Vancouver

Le président de la FIFA, Gianni Infantino, souhaitait bénéficier d'une escorte policière pour circuler dans Vancouver, mais sa demande a été rejetée.

Radio-Canada

BREAKING: Global Sumud Flotilla reports that last night Israeli naval forces intercepted, boarded, and disabled and destroyed various boats of the Global Sumud Flotilla in a violent raid in international waters.

They attacked 180 civilians, illegally detained and kidnapped several participants, jammed communications, and smashed an engine, leaving civilians stranded on powerless vessels.

These are international crimes. The sustained Global silence from world leaders is indefensible.

Tiny little update to  is out (v2.5.2)!

- New option in Behavior settings to fetch an alternate image for link cards when opengraph doesn't provide one (disabled by default).
- Improved card layouts when preview images are unavailable.
- Improved local translation support on Mac.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/ivory-for-mastodon-by-tapbots/id6444602274

Ivory for Mastodon by Tapbots App - App Store

Download Ivory for Mastodon by Tapbots by Tapbots on the App Store. See screenshots, ratings and reviews, user tips, and more apps like Ivory for Mastodon by…

App Store

AVIS DE CONVOCATION

Assemblée générale annuelle 2026 des membres de FACiL

Vous êtes convoqué(e)s à l'assemblée générale annuelle des membres de FACiL qui aura lieu :

Samedi 23 mai 2026 à 10h00

en ligne sur Conférence FACiLe

Tous les détails sur notre site web:

https://facil.qc.ca/assembl%C3%A9e-g%C3%A9n%C3%A9rale-annuelle-2026

Merci et au plaisir de vous rencontrer !

François Pelletier
Secrétaire de FACiL

Assemblée générale annuelle 2026 | FACIL

They will start posting on Threads because their existing social media posting platform Emplify already supports it.

Timeline? 3rd quarter of 2026! Council voted on that on 4th quarter of 2025. So 9 months for a checkbox!

Can’t do Bluesky, their software doesn’t support it. No mention of mastodon

I had missed the news that Vancouver city council had asked the city to stop relying exclusively on Twitter for updates.

The staff did a report on feisability. Shows too well how governments can be so slow at the most basic changes.

https://vancouver.ca/files/cov/2026-04-22-council-memo-exploring-alternatives-to-x-april-14-2026-rts-18396.pdf

#vancouver

OpenAI says its models, starting with GPT-5.1, "increasingly mentioned goblins, gremlins, and other creatures", leading to prompt instructions to mitigate it (OpenAI)

https://openai.com/index/where-the-goblins-came-from
http://www.techmeme.com/260430/p14#a260430p14

Where the goblins came from

How goblin outputs spread in AI models: timeline, root cause, and fixes behind personality-driven quirks in GPT-5 behavior.

OpenAI
328 is the answer