🔥The Internet is Cooked: May 29, 2026

Good morning. Here's your dispatch from the corners of the internet still fighting slop. Some new music for your ear holes, Toronto tenant Union, Bill 110 being passed and the protest that's happening tomorrow. We usually share broadly on issues in Canada and the U.S., but for this newsletter Toronto deserves a spotlight because Bill 110 is a doozy. We're also linking to a new book worth picking up if you're wondering how the left can succeed on city-based campaigns (we love you Bernie!).

Doug Ford just stole an island. His goal is to put jets at a downtown airport across the water from people's living rooms. Yesterday Ontario passed Bill 110, the Building Billy Bishop Airport Act, taking over the City of Toronto's stake in the island airport. NDP leader Marit Stiles, has been one of the loudest voices against it (watch her interview). Focus should be on equality of access to healthcare, education, public parks and services — the things that let everyone flourish. This bill is giving the province statutory authority to seize the entire Toronto Islands if it wants. Ford promises he'll only use what's needed; the law says otherwise. Next move: he's designating the site a "special economic zone" under Bill 5, which lets the province override certain laws to fast-track the expansion. The justification is a claimed $8.5 billion in annual economic benefit by 2050 — a number neither the province nor the Toronto Port Authority has produced a single study to support. What the fuck is happening? The protest against Doug Ford, "Doug Ford Must Go" is taking place Saturday May 30 at 11am in Queen's Park. Make your voice heard.

Tenants are building citywide power in Toronto. While Ford is grabbing islands, he's also been grabbing rent control. The Toronto Tenant Union formed in April out of the door-knocking army that helped beat back last fall's Bill 60 — the act that gutted tenant protections and tried to end rent control. The Grind's David Gray-Donald sat down with TTU co-chairs Sharlene Henry and Bruno Dobrusin, who knocked on roughly 20,000 doors with nearly 500 volunteers, in Toronto and out into Peterborough, Oshawa, and Barrie. The pitch is simple: everyone should have a union at home, the way they should have one at work. Now they're backing tenants in two Scarborough buildings owned by Barney River. With a municipal election on October 26, Henry's message to candidates: tenants are nearly 50 per cent of the city. When push comes to shove, whose side are you on? Join the TTU here.

Next on our bookshelf: Nathan J. Robinson reviews Bernie for Burlington in Current Affairs this week — Dan Chiasson's new 600-page biography of Sanders' first act, when in 1981 he became the country's only socialist mayor by ten votes, just as Reagan was sweeping the country. The parallels to Mamdani are striking: an upstart socialist underestimated by a complacent establishment Democrat, a Brooklyn-born organizer who built unlikely coalitions, a campaign that refused to lecture voters about Marx and instead promised to make their daily lives better. Sanders served four terms, kept the Burlington waterfront public, started a community land trust that's still housing people, took on the utilities and the hospital, and was reelected by overwhelming margins. He also pulled punches the activist left wanted him to throw. Worth picking up if you want to know how the left wins city hall and what to do once it's there. Feel the Bern.

Soundtrack: Jungle's new single "The Wave" is out, the lead from their fifth album Sunshine (releases August 14). The band that gave you "Back on 74" doing what they do best. Put it on, go outside. Enjoy the sun.

Solidarity forever,

The internet is cooked.