Worker Bashing 101
For those people on your Christmas list who think you’re full of hot air when you complain that there has been a concerted attack on workers in the last few decades, here are a few examples of demonizing rhetoric to introduce them to, courtesy of Adrian MacNair: We don’t need no stinkin’ unions | National [...]
A Back-To-School Wishlist for Society
Simply, two things. Let’s make sure our public school system recognizes two things: Our children are priceless individuals with immense capacity to excel, not standardized, interchangeable commodities who can be warehoused in assembly line learning factories. Thinking matters, not just filling up heads with data. A week before the new school year starts is a [...]
Politics, Re-Spun on Coop Radio, 8.16.10: The HST, Tamil Ship, Haiti…
Last night it was Imtiaz Popat and I on “The Rational” talking about the HST, HST petition oddities, recall of MLAs, a fall legislative session, the BC Conservatives and the NDP on the HST, a new BC Liberal leader, Kim Campbell and Rita Johnson, a fall federal election, direct democracy, Vic Toews being an immigrant [...]
The Tamils’ Gift: Some Needed National Values Exploration
I think one of the key issues in all my questions about the Tamil ship the other day is what kind of Canada do we want. Are we really open to visitors, immigrants, refugees? If there is a federal election this fall, the G20, the long-form census and how we ought to treat “visitors” like [...]
The Queen, G20 Abuses and Canada’s Future
It has been a couple weeks and I still can’t get this out of my head. I was going to write something quite venomous on Canada Day about the queen’s characterization of Canada, but decided to let it slide. But I can’t: The Queen said she has witnessed more than half of Canada’s national history [...]
Minority Governments in Ottawa and Victoria
Politicians who only seek power are easier to spot in an era of minority parliaments. Working from the reasonably solid premise that majority governments are inherently tyrannical, I prefer as merely a marginal improvement: minority governments. They’re no ProRep, but at the very least, they force more cooperation, though I use the term loosely. We’re [...]
Libby Davies, Israel, Spin and Chill
Hot on the heals of “The Thing About Israel” from the other day, I see a campaign against Libby Davies because of a video of her comments at a rally and the spin around it. Today I despin and respin aspects of the event. I found out about the Libby Davies YouTube video the other [...]
BC Premier’s Office Spends as Much as Watchdogs
I want a government that is transparent and accountable to citizens: taxation WITH representation. I want a culture of openness and commitment to public service, that the citizens are the politicians’ employers. It’s hard to see that happening when the public bodies that hold political mechanisms to account have just barely as much money to work with than, say, the premier’s office.
The Thing About Israel
OK, here’s the thing about Israel, OK, one thing: there is no greater concentration of political spin in all of human history than around the issues relating to Israel. And the spin has the [likely intended] consequence of creating a chill factor to keep people from trying to reasonably discuss issues on any side of [...]
Internalizing “What Cynicism Costs Us”
Contending with decaying morale and cynicism is difficult. It’s taken me almost a week to be able to read this article and reflect on it enough to absorb it. But I’m there now. It’s been a good process. Here’s what I’ve got: Those of us whose passionate engagement helped elect Obama haven’t stepped up to [...]
Teddy Bear Catapults and Corporate Overlords
Creative resistance to global corporate overlords and their comprador governments will hopefully move to a new level next month during the G8/G20 meetings in Ontario. I know the stakes are high as at least one group [or agent provocateur] has asserted its tone with the RBC firebombing. I’m reading of rebel clowns, watching a video [...]
A Race to the Bottom on Truck Emissions?
Harmonizing anything with the United States risks a race to the bottom. Have we done it again with truck emissions? Canada and the U.S. will set common standards for regulating greenhouse gas emissions from heavy-duty vehicles, Environment Minister Jim Prentice announced today. via Prentice: Canada, US will align regulations on truck emissions :: The Hook. [...]
Our Civil Demand: From Petty to Profound
In thinking about pettiness in the political arena, it’s easy to see it show up in the daily headlines. But what we really need are people who catalyze our culture to places of greatness and even just the expectation of greatness. CNN showed Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech from August 1963 on [...]
Liveblogging the BC Ombudsperson’s Presentation on Seniors’ Care
This afternoon BC Ombudsperson Kim Carter will be speaking to at the BC Health Coaltion’s Seniors’ Forum in Burnaby. She released her interim report in December 2009 called “The Best of Care: Getting It Right for Seniors in British Columbia (Part 1)”. We expect her final report before summer sets in. Her talk starts at [...]
The Government is Storing Your Baby’s DNA: Did You Know/Consent?
New law may create largest DNA database in Canada Recent revelations that B.C.’s health authorities are secretly storing and testing children’s DNA without parental consent, combined with provisions of Bill 11 that allow B.C.’s Minister of Health to gather information like these DNA records without notice or consent, have resulted in a call from the [...]
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