Rabble.ca

Today the HarperCons stepped into the [cesspool / polluted waters] tarsands issue to announce a water monitoring project which will take 3 years and $50 million to fully implement. the regina mom agrees with Halifax NDP MP Megan Leslie; this is a PR stunt.

read more

In this edition of Needs No Introduction, Mike Luff, Diana Gibson and Maude Barlow share their thoughts and observations on the current state of health care in Canada and where we might be going. 

“The decision announced today that U.S. Caterpillar Corporation will close its Electro-Motive plant in London instead of negotiating with the Canadian Autoworkers Union requires an immediate response from the Canadian and Ontario governments.” That statement from Dave Coles, President of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP).

 “This decision is a slap in the face to Canada which gave Electro-Motive tax breaks to protect jobs,” continues Coles. 

read more

The First Nation community of Attawapiskat is in dire need of housing supplies to help repair their existing homes. OPSEU is part of Design Points North, a group heading up to Attawapiskat on Saturday, February 4 with a transport truck to deliver a Mongolian yurt -- the same yurt that stood in St. James Park during Occupy Toronto. There is room on the truck and they need your help to fill it up with useful items requested by the band. You can make a donation here.  Follow this space on rabble.ca over the next week as Laurie Miller travels to Attawapiskat by truck.

read more

We treated them like royalty.

We rolled out the tax-cut red carpet.

In fact our Prime Minister made a special stop at the London, Ontario Electro-Motive (EMD) plant in 2008, touting the $5 million in tax cuts we gave EMD.

It was all part of the "tax cuts create jobs" rhetoric that Canadian politicians rhyme off by rote.

And EMD, part of the American industrial giant Caterpillar, has been revelling in financial glory.

read more

Kids ask questions. Sometimes adults feel inadequate if they don't have ready answers.  But when I became a teacher, I learned quickly that there's nothing wrong with saying, "I don't know." Teaching children how to learn is more useful than feeding them facts.

Many parents, though, believe they must appear infallible in the eyes of their children. A U.K. survey found that some moms and dads fear questions such as "Why is the sky blue?" and "Why is the moon out during the day?" Math and science queries were the biggest stumpers.

read more

Hassan Diab, a Canadian citizen and former University of Ottawa professor, faces the possibility of life imprisonment in France for his alleged role in a 1980 Paris bombing that killed four people. Diab's finger and palm prints do not match those of the suspect, nor does his handwriting. The suspect's physical description is unlike what Diab looked like in 1980, and Diab denies being in France and emphatically condemns the bombing. He's being sought based on secret intelligence, the source of which even French officials are unaware, that may have been extracted under torture. Nevertheless, Canada's draconian Extradition Act may provide legal grounds for Canada to send Diab to France to stand trial.

read more

Recent polls suggest that public opinion of Canada's oil sands is becoming increasingly polarized. You are either for the wholesale exploitation of the resource at any cost, or a cold turkey shutdown, at any cost.

However, many Canadians are still on the fence.

In the public debate, all of the usual suspects have blood on their hands, myself included. I've done my share of fighting as a communications strategist for environmental groups over the years. It's a job that has paid my bills, and because I've always believed in free speech, I never had concerns about the work.

Enemy of the state

read more

Canadians deserve to know the truth about what was said between the Prime Minister's Office and Tides Canada CEO, Ross McMillan.

Some of you may be familiar with my story as a whistleblower. For those who aren't, here's the Coles Notes version: My name is Andrew Frank, and last week I was fired from ForestEthics Canada, a charitable project of Tides Canada, an environmental charity.

I was fired because I gave Tides Canada CEO, Ross McMillan, the "heads up" that I was going to swear an affidavit, and go public with a story that the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) had threatened his charity and labelled ForestEthics an "Enemy of the Government of Canada" and an "Enemy of the People of Canada."

read more

The Shafia case is so unsettling that it seems to unleash the search for a single key to explain it. Then you could toss away other keys that don't work, and even lock the door to a recurrence. But I don't think that's the way to go.

For instance, people ask: Was it about honour killing or domestic violence? Yet honour killings are domestic violence. You lose something in understanding if you discard either category. And domestic violence is a case of violence in general. The same holds when you try to decide if the murders are social, cultural or religious. Religion and culture are social. Why choose?

read more

In her August, October, and December rabble blog posts, Meghan Murphy asks why sex workers and our allies don't want to engage in "genuine discourse" with her and other abolitionists. It might surprise her, but there is an answer to that question.

read more

An often-acrimonious divide exists between feminists who call for the abolition of sex work and feminists who favour its decriminalization. As a former exotic dancer who is strongly "pro-decrim" based on the evidence, feminist principles, and listening to sex workers, I'm disturbed by what I see as wrongheaded ideology from abolitionist feminists.

read more

Well, it's the beginning of a new month, but the end of the week and we all know what that means! It's time for another rabble.ca blog roundup!

This week Canadian campuses saw protest from all corners of the country for accessible education, Harper's transphobic policies began to rear their ugly, ugly heads and the NDP continued their quest for new leadership amongst many competent candidates.

The roundup is bursting at the seams as always this week with excellent opinions, coverage and photos (!) from rabble.ca's lovely list of bloggers. As always, enjoy.

read more

More than one story emanating from Ottawa yesterday revealed the casual relationship between the Harper Conservatives and the truth, not to mention the special role Sun News Network plays in helping the party manufacture "facts" for public consumption.

It's tempting to dismiss both as unintentionally hilarious -- as indeed, in their way, they are -- but the issues underlying, as it were, are serious.

read more

The 15th edition of the jhr Rights Report examines the ICC and chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo's case against several high-profile politicians in Kenya and the United Nations-backed trial of Liberia's Charles Taylor at the Hague.

read more

Happy Black History Month! Start your February off right by checking out the anti-racist tools, history and workshops on the Activist Toolkit. The tools featured this week are tried and true methods of organizing to take your campaign through the month and beyond.

read more

Canada is an ocean nation. Our motto, A Mari Usque Ad Mare, means "from sea to sea." Eight of 10 provinces and all three territories -- home to 86 per cent of the Canadian population -- are adjacent to salt water. Our coastline is more than 200,000 kilometres long, said to be the longest in the world. Our oceans cover some seven million square kilometres, seven-tenths the size of our landmass. We are an ocean nation. But we are failing our oceans.

read more

Academic conferences don't usually muster public attention, but in 2009 the organizers of the blandly titled Israel/Palestine: Mapping Models of Statehood and Paths to Peace found themselves at the center of a media shit storm fuelled by the hysterical rhetoric of pro-Israel community groups and their supporters in the media. This reaction culminated in an unprecedented move by Conservative Minister of State Gary Goodyear to threaten the funding of Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) -- an arms-length agency created by an act of parliament -- if it did not commit itself to a review of the funding it had already awarded by an independent peer-review process.

read more