Hamilton Fire Stations & HRIC accepting supply donations through July 29

A coworker who just relocated here from the US has had her housing options fall through, she intends to buy a house ASAP but has to find somewhere to stay for now, and the rental company for the apartment she was going to take is not answering her. They are a professional couple with one cat, both of the houses they tried to buy ended up failing inspection so now she's in a bit of a bind. Can anyone give advice?

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/61582484

A crucial first step

On June 4th, Hamilton's Committee of Adjustment voted to deny a land severance application (pdf) by Slate Asset Management which, if approved, would have accelerated Slate's plans to build a hyperscale data centre by the waterfront.

The denial was in no small part due to the overwhelming response from Hamiltonians; the Committee member who moved to deny the application even cited the collective effort as the reason for the denial. Residents showed up in large numbers - thousands signed petitions, nearly 1800 sent written submissions to the Committee, and dozens spoke at the meeting itself, for nearly 8 hours in total.1

Perhaps most importantly, around 1000 people showed up physically outside City Hall at 8:30am on a Thursday - on just a few days' notice - making it absolutely clear that we will not allow those with money and power to unilaterally impose these data centres on our city.

But despite this win, the fight is far from over.

"And the Steelport site is indeed zoned to allow data centres, seemingly of any size; the M5 zoning allows for a "Research and Development Establishment" use case, which, according to its definition, allows for a "Computer, Electronic and Data Processing Establishment" - a definition last updated in 2010, surely never meant to include the massive hyperscale data centres of today."

Hi everyone, please hear me out…

I desperately need to talk to a vet regarding my cat’s prescription renewal.

I’ve spent all of my savings on vet appointments and emergency animal hospital visits. My family has helped me out a lot but they’ve done all they can. I’m waiting on ODSP due to a semi-recent traumatic injury and this has severely impacted my finances. For years after adopting my cat I had stable income and the means to support her.

Now it’s the long weekend and my regular vet is closed and the animal hospital won’t give me a prescription renewal unless I pay for a consultation fee again.

I’ve come so so so close to helping my poor girl out and giving her a chance at a happy life and management of her condition.

I’ve got tons of documentation and information available, I could probably even have the animal hospital send a report directly to another vet.

I really really need a prescription renewal that I’m running out of. I don’t want my kitty to suffer and she deserves proper treatment.

All I need is one short consultation, I will pay a fee if I can afford the quote. I’m not trying to beg or gain sympathy, I’m legitimately desperate.

Thank you.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/57592884

Wtf is a Banadian?

also Joy Inn, Oodles of Noodles, Tony's Open Kitchen, Fullers, Bright Spot

From the GoFundMe description:

On December 5th, workers at Democracy found out that our café was unexpectedly closing in less than two weeks.

We were officially laid off on December 21st, four days before Christmas.

The news hit only two months after our first union contract was ratified. As a team, we worked hard to win a contract that protected our job security, our safety, and basic fairness. Even though many of us were unfairly targeted for our union work (we even filed a Labour Board complaint and were compensated for the union-busting we experienced), we kept fighting for fairness.

Now, owner Chris Mindorff is claiming that he can’t operate the café “due to the recent resignations of key management.”

This notice came less than 24 hours after our General Manager announced her resignation. That same week, our Assistant General Manager also resigned. No workers were approached about taking on manager tasks, and to our knowledge there was no search to hire a replacement manager.

The shocking truth? Chris transferred our General Manager and Assistant General Manager to new jobs at his non-unionized cafés. Chris owns five other “small” businesses in the Hamilton area – Mulberry Coffeehouse, Paisley Coffeehouse, Donut Monster, RedChurch Cafe, and Station One.

As workers, we are heartbroken to lose our community at Democracy.

We are gutted to overhear managers misleading customers about their “resignation”.

We are angered that the year we spent building a safer, better workplace is being tossed down the drain.

And we are terrified about unexpectedly losing our jobs so close to the holidays.

The community’s response to Democracy’s closure has been incredibly touching. We have been overwhelmed by the support and encouragement we’ve received.

Small community, but I figured I'd ask anyways. I may be moving to Hamilton soon for work -- I've never lived or visited the area before. The furthest North I've been, excluding a plane trip to Montreal, was London.

What do I have to look forward to? Or not look forward to. I've heard the rent situation is something crazy.

cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/48291473

The story gets sadder the more you read.

Runs from September-June, pickup every other Thursday, cost is 22 dollars and financial assistance is available if needed. I got one this week, it had carrots, celery, romaine lettuce, apples, pears, bananas, peppers, turnip, butternut squash, potatoes and onions. It's a cheap and healthy way to get good food!

Monday, September 8, 2025 @1800

seemed lost, fatigued, but not erratic.

Hey Hamilton,

Posted on /r/Hamilton 2 years ago looking for tech folks - www.reddit.com/r/Hamilton/comments/143d9jr/just_landed_in_hamilton_looking_for_cyber/ . Got a swell reaction!

The world's changed since then - we've all watched what happens when communication infrastructure gets cut, when platforms get censored, when "the cloud" becomes someone else's political weapon.

TL;DR, I am a real guy, who has no sell ... I simply love technology and believe it's being used to control us.

I'd like to change that dynamic.

Let's sit down and have a real cup of coffee. That's it. Talk tech, what we got going on.

Today, while posting this below ( and subsequently arguing with the admin of /r/Hamilton got me perma-banned... techs aren't allowed to set up "meetups". Can't even reoccurring Coffee Shop invite... That's unfair when I'm trying to give away services, knowledge and time for free.

What I've been building: Self-hosted communication (Matrix servers) Local AI that doesn't send your data to Silicon Valley (chatbots, RAG, recursion) Backup systems that work when the internet doesn't (immich/photoprism, Plex/Jellyfin, OS level, metastatic) Digital infrastructure you actually own

Not trying to sell anything or start some grand movement. Just a 31-year-old guy whose wife is tired of hearing about server configurations and thinks I should find some actual humans who get why this stuff matters. I'm offering my time to sit down; let's just chat about our projects, sustainability, and potentially leverage some of our resources together.

I have some of my own - yet unreleased products I'd like to have a few sample... https://backup.wiuf.net/ an example (this page while live isn't broadcasted beyond this post, we're in alpha testing with private developers - but this is a taste of the architecture we want to see). A "Gift-Economy" model for trading storage spaces with your peers - your own friends, on your own decentralized server. Just one example of a few.

The reality: When systems fail - whether it's Rogers going down for a day or something more serious - having your own infrastructure isn't just a hobby anymore. It's insurance.

If you're working on similar projects, dealing with the same "how do I actually own my data" questions, or just want to talk tech over coffee without the startup pitch energy, drop me a DM.

Not looking to organize anything huge. Just quiet conversations about building resilient systems in an increasingly fragile world. Lessons and sharing of resources as we're able or desire... ultimately, the ability for us to create circles where locally we can get together to gab.

That's all...

Casey Tunturi https://www.caseytunturi.com/briefings/overview