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Ariella Elema 🍁

@ariellaelema.bsky.social
245 followers 320 following 419 posts

Reference archivist, legal historian, medievalist. She/her. Knows more than is healthy about the history of trial by combat.

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Ariella Elema 🍁 @ariellaelema.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
This is an interesting report, both for the conclusions and for the process that reached them.
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Ariella Elema 🍁 @ariellaelema.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
It looks like Bill C-3 is swamping some American archives too. Thousands of Americans trying to flee the US. www.cbc.ca/news/politic...
cbc.ca
Canada changed its citizenship rules. Now U.S. archives are getting flooded with requests | CBC News
CBC News has learned that Canada's change to its citizenship law to recognize the citizenship by descent of 'lost Canadians' is having an unintended consequence south of the border — creating backlogs...
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Dr. Jen Irwin @drjenirwin.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Why is everyone sicker these days? ‘Relative to adults reporting no SARS-CoV-2 infections, those reporting two or more had significantly greater odds of being diagnosed with a new condition’ Gov of Canada, Sept 2026 www.canada.ca/en/public-he...
canada.ca
Associations between self-reported SARS-CoV-2 infections and the diagnosis of new health conditions - Canada.ca
Exploratory analyses examining associations between SARS-CoV-2 infections and newly diagnosed health conditions
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Adam Taves @ataves.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Voilà, Canada's national library catalogue, has flipped to Lake America. Things move fast in networked systems. canada.on.worldcat.org/search?query...
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Ariella Elema 🍁 @ariellaelema.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
Not a cell phone to be seen, but maybe a few teeth on the ground.
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Amrk @amrk.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
The traditional move in this situation is of course to name the street in Ottawa where the US embassy is Renee Good Avenue
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Ariella Elema 🍁 @ariellaelema.bsky.social · 30/08/2026
Doug the Thug will never do it, but we can dream.
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Francesca Bouaoun @francescabouaoun.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
📍 Toronto Archives Exhibit open today! | Let’s Build a Collective Memory of Chinatown www.toronto.ca/city-governm... #Toronto
Restaurant blueprints and photographs on exhibit on a wall. Miniature model of Pearl Court Restaurant. A grid of archival inages Chinatowns in Toronto on display. Booklet “CO-ZINING MEMORIES IN CHINATOWN: A CREATIVE ZINE TO SHARE MEMORIES AND IMAGINE THE FUTURE TOGETHER”.
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Ted McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
missing context for stories like these is that Canadian universities are in a crisis of their own -- including McGill, which recently laid dozens of staff and faculty off this isn't about Canada's enthusiasm for bettering the human condition; it's about poaching stars while casualizing the rest
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Ted McCormick @tedmccormick.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
while Canada isn't currently run by a party whose one big idea is shooting itself in the balls until the world gives in, it has long had a tendency to be a holodeck for American visions of what America would be like if only the right people were in charge, and that has very little to do with reality
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Ariella Elema 🍁 @ariellaelema.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Reminder to Canadian Bluesky: DSA Democrats are not your friends.
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Corey Hogan 🇨🇦 @coreyhogan.ca · 19/02/2025
After once again spending way too much time at the grocery story trying to decipher Product of Canada from Made in Canada from other non-covered claims and regularly googling ownership of companies, I have a suggestion. 🧵 (1/4)
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Tarnjit Parmar @tarnjitparmar.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
PM Carney outlines last minute demands by the US last night. 1) Changes to the scope of tariffs on Canadian auto content 2) Restricting Canada’s ability to have trade deals with other countries 3) Restrict Canada's protections of language, culture 'and in effect, our sovereignty’
cbc.ca
Carney says trade deal became untenable when U.S. 'asked too much and offered too little' | CBC News
Prime Minister Mark Carney told his negotiators to walk away from the table after the Trump administration introduced late unacceptable demands on culture, autos and sovereignty that, when taken in co...
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Krista D Ball is Canada's Spooky Potato @kristadb1.bsky.social · 22/08/2026
To Americans apologizing to random Canadians today: 1. Write down three things you care about in your local community. 2. Find groups dedicated to that cause. 3. Check their website/FB, etc. 4. Determine how you can best help them with their current needs. 5. Go make a difference locally.
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I wish ill on ___ @monicarooney.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
#TorontoHenge #Toronto Toronto Henge is on, weather permitting, until Sunday
The CN Tower and downtown buildings at sunrise. Taken over the train tracks with a GO train pulling in. The sun sits just over the horizon in the gap in buildings over the train tracks.
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Ariella Elema 🍁 @ariellaelema.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
For my 13th birthday party, I invented a murder mystery called Who Assassinated George [H.W.] Bush? My preteen girl friends came to my place in character dressed as Mikhail Gorbachev, Saddam Hussein, Muammar Ghaddafi, Manuel Noriega, and a radicalized American broccoli farmer. It was a blast.
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Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Jacob Bell, a Medieval historian, said he worried about how to discuss Joan of Arc, who was burned at the stake for, among other reasons, cross-dressing. Mr. Creighton’s memo about gender exempts biographical details of historically significant figures. Still, any references must be “purely incidental,” according to the April memo.
Dr. Bell removed two weeks of study about Viking men and women. He said Viking mythological poems often featured gender-changing gods like Loki and Odin, material he no longer felt comfortable teaching.
When asked about Dr. Bell’s case, Mr. Creighton suggested that professors not make pre-emptive decisions and rather submit materials to the university system for review.
Dr. Bell went a different route. He believes that future Texas Tech students will be “unprepared to deal with normal people in the world that they’re going to interact with.” He recently accepted a new job, at a public university on the East Coast.
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Maria Drutska @mariadrutska.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
📚 RUSSIA HAS DEFEATED the book market of my childhood. Let me tell you about a place you’ve never heard of. Petrivka. A book market in Kyiv, now called Pochaina metro. Before the internet existed for us, it was simply where you went for books...
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Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 15/08/2026
These gloves don't cause neuromuscular incapacitation the way that a taser does. In fact, they only work when applied directly to bare skin. These aren't made for apprehending anyone. These have one and only one use: causing extreme pain to already-restrained captives. In plain language: torture.
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Ariella Elema 🍁 @ariellaelema.bsky.social · 15/08/2026
Bear in the chair! Why is there a three-storey bronze statue of a grizzly bear in an Abraham Lincoln pose in a chair with fasces? 🤷‍♀️ It seemed like a good idea at the time?
A view up a grassy hill to a small park surrounded by tall buildings. In the park is a massive statue of a bear in a chair.
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Ariella Elema 🍁 @ariellaelema.bsky.social · 13/08/2026
😬 Really not cool.
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Kenneth F. Duggan 🇨🇦 @kfduggan.bsky.social · 11/08/2026
1) Did he die in 1304 (and at that siege in 1304!) or sometime in the fourteenth century? 2) Is the injury not also consistent with a fall from the top of a castle? (Context: I work on deodands and people who fall from, say, the top of church towers have extreme, widespread skeletal damage).
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Ariella Elema 🍁 @ariellaelema.bsky.social · 04/08/2026
Interesting thread. You can’t separate the economy from the environment.
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Ariella Elema 🍁 @ariellaelema.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Angry buckler blemmye!
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New-Cleckit Dominie @ncdominie.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
This is just to say I have OCRed the text thet was in tne arch:ve and whicb yov were prabaldy seamhing for "breahtast" Fargme ms fheg mem debo:w5 sb ?mccf mmb 5c oc1b
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Ariella Elema 🍁 @ariellaelema.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
Looking at this map and thinking about how some parts of this city have such a stark contrast between the densely treed neighbourhoods and the ones with hardly any trees.
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Dick Zoutman @dickzoutman.bsky.social · 27/07/2026
This 👇🏽 is terrific news! Now we need to replicate this across all of Ontario and Canada!!
ospe.on.ca
A Major Win for Indoor Air Quality: Toronto's Board of Health Moves to Adopt Stronger Ventilation Standards
The Ontario Society of Professional Engineers celebrates a major win for indoor air quality with stronger ventilation standards in Toronto.
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Catherine McKenna @cathmckenna.bsky.social · 25/07/2026
The right decision!
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Toronto Archives @torontoarchives.cityof.toronto.ca · 23/07/2026
Look at all those towers popping up downtown! This postcard from 1930 or shortly thereafter features three buildings that had just been completed: the Royal York Hotel, the old Toronto Star Building (the white one in the centre), and the Bank of Commerce. ow.ly/UAsz50Zp5Me
A hand-coloured photo of the Toronto skyline seen from Toronto Harbour, with blue water and a pair of sailboats in the foreground. A caption at the bottom reads, "Skyline as seen from Bay, Toronto, Canada." A caption at the top of the image reads, "Photo by Courtesy - Toronto Convention and Tourist Association." Larry Becker Collection, Series 330, File 44, Item 1.
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Sonja Boon @storiedselves.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Canadian arts and culture folks: the federal government has launched a (methodologically flawed) survey on "the Cultural Sector's readiness for Artificial Intelligence". If you're ready to resist or refuse genAI, here's your chance to let them know. pch.research-recherche.ca/f/s.aspx?lan...
pch.research-recherche.ca
National Survey on the Cultural Sector’s Readiness for Artificial Intelligence
Powered by SimpleSurvey.com | Build and manage your own online survey, voting, form and panel management applications.
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Ariella Elema 🍁 @ariellaelema.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Evening on an alien planet. That’s no moon.
A pink sun, still well above the horizon, shines wanly on the smoky landscape of midtown Toronto.
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Ariella Elema 🍁 @ariellaelema.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
See also: bsky.app/profile/bakk...
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Glyn Bowerman @glynbowerman.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
What the Carneys of the world ignore is even the business case for slashing environmental protections doesn’t work. I work for a small business. We won’t get foot traffic until the smoke clears. No one will buy a coffee, sit on the patio, anything. This hurts business, it’s bad for the economy.
A view of College Street and an empty patio, covered in a smoky haze
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Luke LeBrun @lukelebrun.ca · 15/07/2026
These photos of FNs community members fleeing their homes by boat are genuinely apocalyptic (Photo via Wayne Wastaken of Collins, Ontario, who says his “hometown is gone”) www.facebook.com/share/r/1ArN...
Photo via Wayne Wastaken

Fire clouds over Collins, Ontario as community members flee their homes by boat
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Ariella Elema 🍁 @ariellaelema.bsky.social · 01/07/2026
🧵
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Adam Schwarz @adamjschwarz.bsky.social · 25/06/2026
French Resistance fighter and historian Marc Bloch, murdered by the Gestapo in 1944, is inducted into Panthéon in Paris.
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ℳatt @matttomic.bsky.social · 22/06/2026
The moderators of the AskCanada subreddit were so sick of posts that were like "American here, I come in peace, we're so ashamed of Trump, please adopt us, do you still like me Y/N" that they posted a new rule with what I thought was a very well-expressed sentiment
Moratoriums on specific topics
The moderation team recognizes that recent developments and ongoing events in the United States have generated significant concern and frustration for many Americans. However, we ask that users be mindful that r/AskCanada is a Canadian focused space, and that discussion here is intended to center Canadian perspectives, experiences, and questions.

Posts asking about:

US states joining Canada

Americans receiving refugee or asylum status in Canada

Canadians providing assistance, shelter, or advocacy for Americans

Apologies, self positioning, or “one of the good ones” statements directed at Canadians

are not permitted and will be removed.

Canada is not a backup plan for the United States, nor does it exist to mitigate or absorb the consequences of US political or social failures. Responsibility for addressing these issues rests with the United States and should be addressed through its own domestic processes and institutions.

Thank you to all users for your understanding and cooperation as we enforce these rules going forward.
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Nome @nome.bsky.social · 13/06/2026
Given how many little "big animals on wheels" we've had from all over the world, I think the prehistoric equivalent of "Truck Kid" might be "Ox Kid." (Ukraine, Crete, Maharashtra, Anatolia)
A small clay ox, with long horns and stripes, on clay wheels.A small clay ox, with wooden wheels, on a museum display.A bronze buffalo on wheels in a museum.Two bronze oxen pulling a cart on wheels.
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Ariella Elema 🍁 @ariellaelema.bsky.social · 10/06/2026
Surely the feds don’t imagine that this Toronto airport consultation is a representative poll? I think the strategy for opponents of expansion here is to stuff the comment sections with negative keywords, so as to “win” the AI summary. tc.canada.ca/en/corporate...
tc.canada.ca
Public consultation on the future of Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport
Consultation collecting feedback on the future of Billy Bishop Toronto City Airport
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Ariella Elema 🍁 @ariellaelema.bsky.social · 06/06/2026
You can vigify the language! Be vigent! Vigendous, even.
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dread & circuses ♥️🖤🤍💚 @likeapen.bsky.social · 04/06/2026
Hello someone I know is doing a survey on sentiments re AI in museums & archives - relevant whether you work in the field or just like going to museums forms.gle/MUcvs9oGStUU...
forms.gle
General Sentiment Surrounding AI Usage in Museums and Archives
Please give your thoughts on Generative AI (such as Sora, ChatGPT, Claude, etc.) usage in museums, archives, and other cultural heritage sites. Survey will be about 5 minutes. Survey is anonymous.
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Mario Damen @mariodamen.bsky.social · 02/06/2026
Job alert! Postdoc position in late medieval history and literature @uvahumanities.bsky.social in #Amsterdam. Come and work with us on chivalric literature and tournament culture in the project ‘Vivre le mythe'. #medievalsky #skystorians www.academictransfer.com/nl/jobs/3614...
werkenbij.uva.nl
Vacancy — Postdoctoral researcher in late medieval history and literature
<p>The Department of History, European Studies and Religious Studies (GER) has a vacancy for a postdoctoral research position for three years, 1.0 FTE. This position is part of the research project ‘V...
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Ariella Elema 🍁 @ariellaelema.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
You look fabulous tonight, Midtown.
A neon streak of sunset over Toronto’s Midtown. Below the horizon, there are small twinkly lights among the trees.
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Dr. M.R. Geldof FRHistS @drviolence.bsky.social · 24/05/2026
This is a cliché of historians, that we write in footnotes but it really works this way. By analogy, citations aren't just a foundation, they are the principle building material, it's what you frame in the rooms with, and put under the floors, and seal up the roof with. /9
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Adam Gurri @adamgurri.liberalcurrents.com · 23/05/2026
Today @cameroncorduroy.bsky.social writes a normal, dryly analytical, definitely normal essay for us, which you should read for your edification
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Ariella Elema 🍁 @ariellaelema.bsky.social · 14/05/2026
It turns out that some AI transcription software is not, in fact, doing straight transcriptions of historical documents. Historians beware! 🧵
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FuzzyWuzzy in Toronto🇨🇦 @fuzzywuzzyto.bsky.social · 12/05/2026
AI note takers approved by the Ontario government for physician use are riddled with errors. 60% (SIXTY FUCKIN' PERCENT) recorded a different drug than what was prescribed. 9 (NINE) of the 20 approved AI scribes fabricated information. www.thetrillium.ca/news/health/...
thetrillium.ca
Most Ontario-approved medical AI scribes erred in tests: auditor general
Province weighted ‘accuracy’ at 4%; ‘presence in Ontario’ at 30% in procurement scoring, report finds
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Ariella Elema 🍁 @ariellaelema.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
The feeling that the lights are slowly going out one by one.
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Denise Dewald, MD @denisedewald.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
“Droplet transmission” is a figment of the imagination of people from 100 years ago who did not understand aerosol chemistry and physics. All respiratory infections are transmitted by aerosols. Yes, it is really that simple. See my pinned post for a tutorial.
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Ariella Elema 🍁 @ariellaelema.bsky.social · 06/05/2026
By the time you’ve been dead for 80 years, chances are everything you ever said or wrote will be thrown in the garbage or scrambled by bit rot. The only surviving information about you will probably be this form. Think of how happy your descendants will be if you got the long form!
The outside if a 2026 Canadian census form.
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