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Monogram Coffee & #CommunityOverCOVID – Calgary Supports Local

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4 minute read

As the COVID-19 crisis continues to sweep the nation and the globe, companies across Canada have continued to respond with a number of initiatives designed to support essential workers and foster community connection. There have been countless supply donations for hospitals, free meal initiatives for healthcare workers and long-distance truckers, local support movements in solidarity with local business owners, and more. The individual and corporate responses to the impacts of the virus have been something of a sunbeam during these strange and uncertain times. 

As a result, social media has seen a surge in locally-based community trends and hashtags such as #SupportLocal, #ThankATrucker and #CommunityOverCOVID. There have been countless heartwarming stories surrounding local businesses and the people of Calgary – but what does it really mean to support one another in the face of COVID-19? What is #CommunityOverCOVID?

 

Jeremy Ho, Cofounder of Monogram Coffee, shares the impact of COVID-19 on their day-to-day operations and thanks the people of Calgary for coming together to continue their support. 

Since the launch of their original Altadore location in 2015, Monogram has been committed to serving the Calgary community through coffee and has always placed the wellbeing of their customers and team at the forefront. That’s why, in an early effort to minimize the risk of COVID-19, all three Monogram Coffee locations were some of the first businesses in the city to close their doors. 

Monogram transitioned to online alternatives with free shipping options as a way to remain connected with the community while putting public health and safety first. The public response to this adjustment has been overwhelmingly positive, according to Ho. “People appreciate still being able to get the coffee they love, delivered directly to their homes.”

Not only have people continued to buy Monogram coffee online, the shop’s email and social platforms have been continually flooded with notes of encouragement and thanks. “Customers have also been purchasing gift cards,” says Ho, “as their way of saying ‘don’t worry, we will come back when this is over’”.  

 

Grateful for the sense of community and determined to give back, Monogram Coffee launched an initiative at the beginning of April to provide frontline workers with free coffee. Relying on a public nomination system, Monogram has sent coffee to hundreds of workers around the city as their way of saying thanks. “This is beyond coffee, food, anything,” says Ho, “We have to stay together as a community and make an effort to support each other, our workers, and all our great local businesses.” 

 

Monogram Coffee’s story is just one of many others like it. In Calgary, during these strange times, #CommunityOverCOVID is an entire city coming together to look after its most vulnerable members. It is loyalty and love between businesses and customers, it is personalized thank you notes on every take-out order and signs of support in front windows, it is donations to hospitals and essential workers. It is stories like this one that highlight Calgary’s character and reminds us that as long as we look after one another, things will be okay again.

Business

EU Tightens Social Media Censorship Screw With Upcoming Mandatory “Disinformation” Rules

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From Reclaim The Net

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This refers not only to spreading “fact-checking” across the EU member-countries but also to making VLOPs finance these groups. This, is despite the fact many of the most prominent “fact-checkers” have been consistently accused of fostering censorship instead of checking content for accuracy in an unbiased manner.

What started out as the EU’s “voluntary code of practice” concerning “disinformation” – affecting tech/social media companies – is now set to turn into a mandatory code of conduct for the most influential and widely-used ones.

The news was revealed by the Irish media regulator, specifically an official of its digital services, Paul Gordon, who spoke to journalists in Brussels. The EU Commission has yet to confirm that January will be the date when the current code will be “formalized” in this way.

The legislation that would enable the “transition” is the controversial Digital Services Act (DSA), which critics often refer to as the “EU online censorship law,” the enforcement of which started in February of this year.

The “voluntary” code is at this time signed by 44 tech companies, and should it become mandatory in January 2025, it will apply to those the EU defines as Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) (with at least 45 million monthly active users in the 27-nation bloc).

Currently, the number of such platforms is said to be 25.

In its present form, the DSA’s provisions obligate online platforms to carry out “disinformation”-related risk assessments and reveal what measures they are taking to mitigate any risks revealed by these assessments.

But when the code switches from “voluntary” to mandatory, these obligations will also include other requirements: demonetizing the dissemination of “disinformation”; platforms, civil society groups, and fact-checkers “effectively cooperating” during elections, once again to address “disinformation” – and, “empowering” fact-checkers.

This refers not only to spreading “fact-checking” across the EU member-countries but also to making VLOPs finance these groups. This, is despite the fact many of the most prominent “fact-checkers” have been consistently accused of fostering censorship instead of checking content for accuracy in an unbiased manner.

The code was first introduced (in its “voluntary” form) in 2022, with Google, Meta, and TikTok among the prominent signatories – while these rules originate from a “strengthened” EU Code of Practice on Disinformation based on the Commission’s Guidance issued in May 2021.

“It is for the signatories to decide which commitments they sign up to and it is their responsibility to ensure the effectiveness of their commitments’ implementation,” the EU said at the time – that would have been the “voluntary” element, while the Commission said the time it had not “endorsed” the code.

It appears the EC is now about to “endorse” the code, and then some – there are active preparations to make it mandatory.

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Business

Premiers fight to lower gas taxes as Trudeau hikes pump costs

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From the Canadian Taxpayers Federation

By Jay Goldberg 

Thirty-nine hundred dollars – that’s how much the typical two-car Ontario family is spending on gas taxes at the pump this year.

You read that right. That’s not the overall fuel bill. That’s just taxes.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau keeps increasing your gas bill, while Premier Doug Ford is lowering it.

Ford’s latest gas tax cut extension is music to taxpayers’ ears. Ford’s 6.4 cent per litre gas tax cut, temporarily introduced in July 2022, is here to stay until at least next June.

Because of the cut, a two-car family has saved more than $1,000 so far. And that’s welcome news for Ontario taxpayers, because Trudeau is planning yet another carbon tax hike next April.

Trudeau has raised the overall tax burden at the pumps every April for the past five years. Next spring, he plans to raise gas taxes by another three cents per litre, bringing the overall gas tax burden for Ontarians to almost 60 cents per litre.

While Trudeau keeps hiking costs for taxpayers at the pumps, premiers of all stripes have been stepping up to the plate to blunt the impact of his punitive carbon tax.

Obviously, Ford has stepped up to the plate and has lowered gas taxes. But he’s not alone.

In Manitoba, NDP Premier Wab Kinew fully suspended the province’s 14 cent per litre gas tax for a year. And in Newfoundland, Liberal Premier Andrew Furey cut the gas tax by 8.05 cents per litre for nearly two-and-a-half years.

It’s a tale of two approaches: the Trudeau government keeps making life more expensive at the pumps, while premiers of all stripes are fighting to get costs down.

Families still have to get to work, get the kids to school and make it to hockey practice. And they can’t afford increasingly high gas taxes. Common sense premiers seem to get it, while Ottawa has its head in the clouds.

When Ford announced his gas tax cut extension, he took aim at the Liberal carbon tax mandated by the Trudeau government in Ottawa.

Ford noted the carbon tax is set to rise to 20.9 cents per litre next April, “bumping up the cost of everything once again and it’s absolutely ridiculous.”

“Our government will always fight against it,” Ford said.

But there’s some good news for taxpayers: reprieve may be on the horizon.

Federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre’s promises to axe the carbon tax as soon as he takes office.

With a federal election scheduled for next fall, the federal carbon tax’s days may very well be numbered.

Scrapping the carbon tax would make a huge difference in the lives of everyday Canadians.

Right now, the carbon tax costs 17.6 cents per litre. For a family filling up two cars once a week, that’s nearly $24 a week in carbon taxes at the pump.

Scrapping the carbon tax could save families more than $1,200 a year at the pumps. Plus, there would be savings on the cost of home heating, food, and virtually everything else.

While the Trudeau government likes to argue that the carbon tax rebates make up for all these additional costs, the Parliamentary Budget Officer says it’s not so.

The PBO has shown that the typical Ontario family will lose nearly $400 this year due to the carbon tax, even after the rebates.

That’s why premiers like Ford, Kinew and Furey have stepped up to the plate.

Canadians pay far too much at the pumps in taxes. While Trudeau hikes the carbon tax year after year, provincial leaders like Ford are keeping costs down and delivering meaningful relief for struggling families.

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