Category Archives: Freedom

Hungary’s Democracy Starts Its Revival

vote sign

vote

Democracy requires ongoing maintenance and that comes in the form of civic engagement by the people within the democracy. In Hungary, the now former prime minister Viktor Orban, has lost this past weekend’s election thanks to the hard work of civil society. This all happened despite the support of other authoritarians like Putin, and even a rally lead by alt-right symbol JD Vance. For years Hungary has a beacon of hope for politicians and corporate elites that wanted to control people rather than work with them. Former Prime Minister of Canada, Stephen Harper has praised Orban and tried to influence elections around the world in the hopes of eroding democracy.

With this context in mind, you can start to understand why it is good news that Orban lost: it gives hope to the scores of people fighting against authoritarians hope.

Turnout in the election reached a record 79.50%, according to the near-complete vote count.

Orban, who was seeking a fifth straight term, has transformed his country into a model of “illiberal democracy,” clashing with Brussels over rule-of-law issues, as well as over support for war-torn Ukraine.

Magyar burst onto the scene just two years ago, promising to fight corruption and offering better public services. He drew support against a backdrop of economic stagnation, and despite an electoral system skewed in favor of Orban’s Fidesz party.

Congratulations for Magyar poured in from around Europe, with France and Germany urging him to work together for a “strong Europe.”

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Canada Continues to Defend Sovereignty with “Elbows Up”

Peace Tower at Parliament Hill in Ottawa

America openly threatened Canadian sovereignty last year and has engaged in a planned economic destruction of the nation. The Republican Party views the entire hemisphere as theirs and is actively invading or influencing political operations in sovereign countries. Canadians do not like the stance that their ally has taken; and to make their concerns heard they have launched a boycott of the USA. It’s working. The American economy is being hurt by Canadians not buying their booze and not visiting the nation.

Where’s the good news in this? It’s working. Canadians have made it clear to the American government that we are not to be trifled with and that sovereignty is important to us. Canadians are not giving up either.

The shift has affected everything from what brands Canadians buy to where they vacation to how they vote. There are economic implications on both sides of the border that policymakers are taking into account. Polling suggests the altered behavior won’t change anytime soon.
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“We’ve always seen the U.S. as a very strong and reliable ally,” said Michael Devereux, an economics professor at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. “That has really been undermined in the last year.”

Canadians began moving their food purchases away from the U.S. starting in early 2025, a data analysis released last month from the Bank of Canada found. Domestic brands gained wallet share as retailers and liquor stores encouraged shoppers to instead buy Canadian

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Finding Atrocity-Free Technology is Easy

Large technology companies have been selling their software to countries and other organizations that commit violations of human rights. Sometimes the tech companies just cut off agreements and data access to organizations they don’t like, an example is when Microsoft eliminated the emails of the International Criminal Court. When we use and pay for services from some technology companies we support the development of oppressive tools and can become victims to their whims.

Multitudes of alternatives exist and a new site is listing technologies that are no connected with human rights abuses.

Lysverket is committed to promoting an open dialogue about the importance of informed citizenship in a democratic society. Here, we believe that everyone has a role to play in uncovering facts that are important to our society.

We offer resources and a collaborative environment for individuals and groups interested in investigative practice, whether through traditional journalistic methods or innovative digital tools. Through workshops, discussions, and joint projects, we aim to cultivate a diversity of voices that can contribute to social justice and meaningful change.

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Civic Searchlight: A Tool to Fight Disinformation

Picture of Vancouver City Hall

Canada’s National Observer as seen that journalists are feeling the years of budgets cuts and the lack of institutional supports and decided to do something about it. The National Observer has released a fantastic new tool to help Canadian journalists research and identify issues in municipalities throughout the country. The tool known as Civic Searchlight makes it easy to track issues and find what’s being discussed at the local level across Canada, and they are adding more towns and cities!

In at least one municipality — Cochrane, Alta. — reporting based on Civic Searchlighthas been instrumental in providing the council with the information it needed to stay in the net-zero program the town had been part of for more than 20 years. Canada’s National Observer’s reporting was the deciding factor in the town remaining in the program — that’s according to the group that targeted Cochrane with climate misinformation to try to convince it to leave. “We would have won in Cochrane if that hadn’t happened,” the group’s organizer said in a meeting.

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You Won’t Regret Not Having Kids

kids

People with kids put a lot of pressure on couples without kids to procreate, which is obviously rude but happens anyway. This could lead to people thinking they want kids when really they don’t. In some places there is even social stigma around not having a child.

If you’re in the no kid camp then good for you! Don’t listen to the parents justifying their life decisions to make more of themselves. Indeed, you will not regret your decision to not have children later on. So go ahead and live the life you want to live.

Childfree individuals, who are also described as ‘childless by choice’ or ‘voluntarily childless’, have decided they do not want biological or adopted children. This is an important population to understand because its members have unique reproductive health and end-of-life needs, and they encounter challenges managing work-life balance and with stereotypes. Prior estimates of childfree adults’ prevalence in the United States, their age of decision, and interpersonal warmth judgements have varied widely over time and by study design. To clarify these characteristics of the contemporary childfree population, we conduct a pre-registered direct replication of a recent population-representative study. All estimates concerning childfree adults replicate, boosting confidence in earlier conclusions that childfree people are numerous and decide early in life, and that parents exhibit strong in-group favoritism while childfree adults do not.

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