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.
Get @signal.org.
Minder privacy betekent voor bigtechbedrijven vooral: meer data roven waarmee winst gemaakt kan worden. Wat Meredith Whittaker betreft, worden marketingpraat, mythes over superintelligentie en vage privacy-beloften veel te weinig bevraagd. 'Privacy washing in deze branche komt veel voor.'
January 27, 2026 at 7:07 PM
Get @signal.org.
Reposted by Michèle Champagne
Breaking news: Composer Philip Glass withdrew his highly anticipated Symphony No. 15 from its scheduled Kennedy Center performance, saying “the values of the Kennedy Center today are in direct conflict with the message of the Symphony.”
Philip Glass pulls world premiere from Kennedy Center
The pioneering composer announced that “the values of the Kennedy Center today are in direct conflict with the message” of his Symphony No. 15: “Lincoln.”
wapo.st
January 27, 2026 at 4:16 PM
Breaking news: Composer Philip Glass withdrew his highly anticipated Symphony No. 15 from its scheduled Kennedy Center performance, saying “the values of the Kennedy Center today are in direct conflict with the message of the Symphony.”
Reposted by Michèle Champagne
Add this to the list of things Mark Carney could be focusing on to safeguard Canada, but isn’t.
This is an easy win. It’s relatively inexpensive. And others have already done all the work. And doesn’t Carney want deeper links with Europe? Canada should announce tomorrow that we’re on board.
This is an easy win. It’s relatively inexpensive. And others have already done all the work. And doesn’t Carney want deeper links with Europe? Canada should announce tomorrow that we’re on board.
"France to ditch US platforms Microsoft Teams, Zoom for ‘sovereign platform’ amid security concerns"
www.euronews.com/next/2026/01...
www.euronews.com/next/2026/01...
France to replace US's Teams and Zoom for 'sovereign control'
France announced that it will roll out the Visio platform across all government departments by 2027.
www.euronews.com
January 27, 2026 at 1:26 PM
Add this to the list of things Mark Carney could be focusing on to safeguard Canada, but isn’t.
This is an easy win. It’s relatively inexpensive. And others have already done all the work. And doesn’t Carney want deeper links with Europe? Canada should announce tomorrow that we’re on board.
This is an easy win. It’s relatively inexpensive. And others have already done all the work. And doesn’t Carney want deeper links with Europe? Canada should announce tomorrow that we’re on board.
How to gain control over your digital infrastructure.
France to replace US's Teams and Zoom for 'sovereign control'
France announced that it will roll out the Visio platform across all government departments by 2027.
www.euronews.com
January 27, 2026 at 1:17 PM
How to gain control over your digital infrastructure.
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
"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
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
"Prices go up
and they don’t go down.
Cost forty bucks
just to hang around.”
– Suffer, by Boy Golden, Winnipeg
– via @canadianshieldinstitute.ca
As @joshokane.bsky.social notes for The Globe and Mail, “The @agotoronto.bsky.social has had numerous curatorial departures in recent years.” Wanda Nanibush. Taqralik Partridge. Xiaoyu Weng. And now, John Zeppetelli:
AGO rocked by resignations after failed Nan Goldin acquisition
Senior curator and two volunteers stepped down over gallery’s vote not to acquire work
www.theglobeandmail.com
January 22, 2026 at 3:35 PM
As @joshokane.bsky.social notes for The Globe and Mail, “The @agotoronto.bsky.social has had numerous curatorial departures in recent years.” Wanda Nanibush. Taqralik Partridge. Xiaoyu Weng. And now, John Zeppetelli:
Reposted by Michèle Champagne
In other Unfrozen news, @katewagner.wehwalt.net pours dirt on The Line's grave and calls for participant firms to be held account, citing AECOM in particular. www.thenation.com/article/worl...
The Line, a Saudi Megaproject, Is Dead
It was always doomed to unravel, but the firms who lent their name to this folly should be held accountable.
www.thenation.com
January 22, 2026 at 1:55 PM
In other Unfrozen news, @katewagner.wehwalt.net pours dirt on The Line's grave and calls for participant firms to be held account, citing AECOM in particular. www.thenation.com/article/worl...
Reposted by Michèle Champagne
At the "Board of Peace" launch in Davos, Jared Kushner shared slides depicting "New Gaza" and "New Rafah," both of which closely echo the Gaza "GREAT Trust" proposal Dan Safarik covered in Unfrozen #104, pleading with architecture firms not to participate. unfrozenarch.net/episodes/mak...
January 22, 2026 at 1:53 PM
At the "Board of Peace" launch in Davos, Jared Kushner shared slides depicting "New Gaza" and "New Rafah," both of which closely echo the Gaza "GREAT Trust" proposal Dan Safarik covered in Unfrozen #104, pleading with architecture firms not to participate. unfrozenarch.net/episodes/mak...
Here we go.
Battle over Doug Ford’s Ontario Place redevelopment heads to Supreme Court of Canada
The Supreme Court of Canada has given a group opposing the Ford government’s redevelopment of Ontario Place leave to appeal legislation the province used to fast-track construction.
www.thestar.com
January 8, 2026 at 9:57 PM
Here we go.
Welcome back from the holidays.
“Can I begin by saying I hope all colleagues had a happy Christmas. It probably feels quite along time ago now, but not for Reform of course because today is the day that they celebrate Christmas in Russia”
Keir Starmer
#PMQs
Keir Starmer
#PMQs
January 7, 2026 at 3:47 PM
Welcome back from the holidays.
Ditching American big tech. It can be done.
International Criminal Court to ditch Microsoft Office for European open source alternative | Euractiv
The court will move its internal work environment to Open Desk, a German-developed open source software
www.euractiv.com
January 5, 2026 at 2:26 PM
Ditching American big tech. It can be done.
Here, @rolandparis.bsky.social is careful but clear with his take on Canadian and European responses. He describes them as “circumspect” and notes “there are patterns they all reproduce” (views on Maduro, calls for int. law). This reflects “the weak position they currently find themselves in.”
Implications of US military action in Venezuela | CBC | 4 January 2026
Roland Paris | Implications of US military action in Venezuela | CBC | 4 January 2026
soundcloud.com
January 4, 2026 at 6:39 PM
Here, @rolandparis.bsky.social is careful but clear with his take on Canadian and European responses. He describes them as “circumspect” and notes “there are patterns they all reproduce” (views on Maduro, calls for int. law). This reflects “the weak position they currently find themselves in.”
Reposted by Michèle Champagne
Surreal to find myself cited approvingly in Monocle this morning.* (*Thanks to Tom Vanderbilt.) monocle.com/culture/soci...
December 31, 2025 at 2:23 PM
Surreal to find myself cited approvingly in Monocle this morning.* (*Thanks to Tom Vanderbilt.) monocle.com/culture/soci...
“The benefits were apparent almost immediately.”
A good news story about the results of banning cell phones in Quebec schools four months ago 💓
montreal.citynews.ca/2025/12/24/f...
montreal.citynews.ca/2025/12/24/f...
Four months after Quebec schools ban cellphones, impact 'is major'
Four months after Quebec banned cellphones in primary and secondary schools, many school administrators report positive effects on social life, physical activity, and academic performance. At École Mo...
montreal.citynews.ca
December 27, 2025 at 3:10 PM
“The benefits were apparent almost immediately.”
Dropping Canadian policy and digital taxes to indulge threats from Trump. Buying American fighter jets to further a unified air fleet. Neglecting local media, art, and culture in a world flush with American big tech and allowing firms like Facebook Canada to qualify under the Build Canadian Poilcy.
Canada Drops Digital Services Tax at 11th Hour, Backing Down After Trump Terminated Trade Talks Over the Issue
Canada rescinded the Digital Services Tax just hours before it was to go into effect, backing down after President Trump had ended trade talks over the issue.
variety.com
December 26, 2025 at 8:05 PM
Dropping Canadian policy and digital taxes to indulge threats from Trump. Buying American fighter jets to further a unified air fleet. Neglecting local media, art, and culture in a world flush with American big tech and allowing firms like Facebook Canada to qualify under the Build Canadian Poilcy.
Reposted by Michèle Champagne
I assign this for my National Security Law class (when we cover the Fourth Amendment and electronic surveillance)
December 23, 2025 at 11:09 PM
I assign this for my National Security Law class (when we cover the Fourth Amendment and electronic surveillance)
Watch: The Lives of Others, 2006, a film by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. It won an Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.
All of these bootlegged copies of the 60 Minutes segment flooding my feed (saying, ‘Watch it quick! Before it disappears!’) makes me feel like I’m in the Soviet Union and just got some black market foreign newspaper I need to hide under a floorboard in my house.
This is where America is now
This is where America is now
December 23, 2025 at 11:00 PM
Watch: The Lives of Others, 2006, a film by Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck. It won an Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.
Reposted by Michèle Champagne
It's unfortunate how often I've had to pull this article out of the drawer recently, but I wrote about what happens when US tech interests converge with the administrations' ideologues earlier this year (and have a continuation of this piece which brings in the NSS out soon).
icds.ee/en/trump_sil...
icds.ee/en/trump_sil...
December 23, 2025 at 10:15 PM
It's unfortunate how often I've had to pull this article out of the drawer recently, but I wrote about what happens when US tech interests converge with the administrations' ideologues earlier this year (and have a continuation of this piece which brings in the NSS out soon).
icds.ee/en/trump_sil...
icds.ee/en/trump_sil...
Reposted by Michèle Champagne
Bring back the Alfred Sung style!
December 23, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Bring back the Alfred Sung style!
Remember this.
December 19, 2025 at 5:15 PM
Remember this.
Reposted by Michèle Champagne
With AI systems deployed at schools misidentifying a bag of Doritos and a clarinet for weapons in recent months, I'm resharing my library Against School Surveillance Technologies in case anybody is looking for news stories, peer-reviewed articles, reports, and other media to teach.
Against School Surveillance Technologies
docs.google.com
December 19, 2025 at 5:10 PM
With AI systems deployed at schools misidentifying a bag of Doritos and a clarinet for weapons in recent months, I'm resharing my library Against School Surveillance Technologies in case anybody is looking for news stories, peer-reviewed articles, reports, and other media to teach.
Solid reporting from @natashabulowski.bsky.social for Canada’s National Observer: Carney’s revolving ‘DOGE’ door, coming soon.
Ottawa hands corporate leaders 50 roles in government
Ottawa plans to embed the private sector workers after adopting a business group's proposal — even naming the program after them, a briefing note reveals.
www.nationalobserver.com
December 17, 2025 at 8:19 PM
Solid reporting from @natashabulowski.bsky.social for Canada’s National Observer: Carney’s revolving ‘DOGE’ door, coming soon.
I say this because a piece in Le Devoir made no mention of the fact that foreign branch plants like Google Canada would qualify as “Canadian” companies. And a Globe journalist on Bluesky speed read the policy and was impressed, did not pick up on the fact either.
No journalist from The Globe and Mail or Le Devoir – who understands IP and the new economy – should be under the illusion that the “Buy Canadian Policy” will buttress domestic Canada-owned firms. The policy recognises Amazon Canada, Google Canada, and Microsoft Canada as “Canadian” firms.
Buy Canadian policy lets foreign-owned firms qualify as Canadian, Lightbound says - The Logic
Companies must "actively operate" in Canada to bid on big federal contracts, says Procurement Minister Joël Lightbound. For some business groups, that's not Canadian enough.
thelogic.co
December 17, 2025 at 3:22 PM
I say this because a piece in Le Devoir made no mention of the fact that foreign branch plants like Google Canada would qualify as “Canadian” companies. And a Globe journalist on Bluesky speed read the policy and was impressed, did not pick up on the fact either.