Rudolph Giuliani was once a man of substance. A man of integrity. He served as the U.S. Associate Attorney General from 1981 to 1983 and as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York from 1983 to 1989. In the latter role, he led the 1980s federal prosecution
Continue readingAuthor: Bill Longstaff
Views from the Beltline: Poland comes in from the cold
It’s all up and down with democracy these days as right-wing populists, some bordering on fascism, come and go. The most prominent case, of course, was our great neighbour to the south electing Donald Trump and then trading him in for one of the best and most progressive presidents in
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: COP28 and the great transition
Maybe it took an oilman to do it. When Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber of the United Arab Emirates was appointed President of the UN Climate Change 2023 Conference (COP28), environmentalists threw up their hands in despair. Al Jaber was also head of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company. And the
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: The morality of tyrants
I have long been intrigued at how men who inflict torture and murder on their fellow human beings can consider themselves moral leaders. History is replete with authoritarians of various hues who fit the mould. One who exemplifies the type at the moment is Russia’s very own Vladimir Putin. One
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: December 10—Human Rights Day
It doesn’t seem to have attracted the attention it deserves but 2023 is the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Declaration “is a milestone document in the history of human rights. Drafted by representatives with different legal and cultural backgrounds from all regions of the world,
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Chinese at the border
Perhaps the most famous border in the world is the one along the Rio Grande that separates Mexico from the United States. It is almost certainly the most popular. U.S. Border Patrol agents encountered over 200,000 migrants attempting to enter the country last November alone. About two-thirds were apprehended and
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: The cost of emissions just went up
With gorgeous blue prairie skies all too often transformed into smoky shrouds, we have just experienced a summer that brought climate change home. We are aware of the fires, the floods, the storms, the droughts, the heat waves, the rising sea levels, the effects on our health, but what’s the
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Why teach history?
Some Republican-led American states are changing how students in their public schools are taught civics. The new standards focus on patriotism, Christianity and anti-communism. Hands-on activities, such as debating current events, are to be discouraged in order to preclude teachers imposing their own ideas. The goal is to instil pride
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Premier of Alberta or premier of the oil industry?
Alberta’s Premier Danielle Smith has made her stand. Her loins girded by her Sovereignty Act, she will strike a blow against the federal government’s proposed Clean Electric Regulations (CER). On Monday her government tabled a resolution in the Alberta legislature that instructs governments and provincial entities to ignore the regulations
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Swedes take on Tesla
The world’s richest man is not amused. Elon Musk, CEO and biggest shareholder of automaker Tesla, is annoyed at a series of strikes against his company. He calls them “insane.” He has simply encountered a culture which takes workplace democracy seriously. When Tesla set up in Sweden, Musk attempted to
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Taming plastics
What would we do without plastics? Perhaps the greatest material humanity ever invented. They are used for everything from furniture to DVDs to heart valves to wind turbines, widely used in practically every sphere of life. One wonders how the medical profession ever functioned without them. Or how you and
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Between the sea and the Jordan …
Being an admirer of U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, I read with interest a recent column of his in The New York Times about the Palestine situation. One thing that particularly caught my attention was his reference to a phrase in the original platform of Likud, the political party led by
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Are Canadians surrendering to climate change?
Maybe federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is on to something. He shows little interest in the overarching issue of the day—climate change—while trashing the carbon tax, a key instrument in dealing with it. And the popularity of his party continues to grow. The Conservatives now lead the Liberals by 11
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: C-58, a victory for workplace democracy
People have fought for rights in their workplaces as long as there have been workplaces. The first labour strike in recorded history took place in Egypt in the reign of Ramesses III (1184-1153 BC) when tomb-builders at a site in Western Thebes, frustrated at delays in receiving their wages, laid
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: The two-state fallacy
The Hamas attack on Jewish settlers in Israel has evoked a cascade of sympathy around the world, for the victims and for Israelis and Jews generally, and rightly so. How could it not? But there are exceptions. One group of Israelis that deserves no sympathy is Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Catherine Tait’s vigorous defence of the CBC and good journalism
Conservatives on the House of Commons Heritage Committee are upset with the CBC for its newsroom’s longstanding practice of not referring to attacks by non-state groups or their perpetrators as “terrorism” or “terrorists.” When the president and CEO of the CBC, Catherine Tait, appeared before the committee this week, they took
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Can unions restore a stable America?
A stable US is important to all of us. A very imperfect democracy but nonetheless by far the most important, it is the central pillar of global liberty. Recently that pillar has been looking shaky. The election of the neo-fascist Donald Trump in 2016 and the threat of his return
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Public health and corporate iniquity
Forty-one states and the District of Columbia have sued Meta, owner of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger, accusing it of using features that hook children to its platforms even as it claims its sites are safe for young people. According to Phil Weiser, Colorado’s attorney general, “Just like Big Tobacco
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: A Gaza-Canadian analogy
Reading about the circumstances of the Palestinians in Gaza, I was reminded of a piece of our own history: the infamous pass system. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Indians of Western Canada signed treaties with the Canadian government yielding control over their territories. They believed they
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: A loss for illiberalism, a gain for democracy
Generations of Communism is not the best training for democracy. So perhaps we shouldn’t have expected that when the Soviet Union collapsed under its own dead weight, the countries that emerged would quickly become functioning democracies. Actually some have done very well, others not so much. Russia and Belarus, riddled
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