I was a little surprised at the Nobel Peace Prize awards for 2011. I had felt sure the winners would include a leader from Egypt’s Arab Spring revolt, the Arab Spring being the major peaceful achievement of the year and Egypt being the most prominent e…
Continue readingAuthor: Bill Longstaff
Pembina comments on the federal environment commissioner’s report
I intended to comment on the October Report of the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development, offering as it did yet another disappointing, if not depressing, account of the federal government’s climate change efforts. However, a pres…
Continue readingLoss of party subsidy is loss for democracy
Democracy is about political equality. To be democratic, a political system must in essence belong to all the people equally, and if it is to belong to all the people equally, all the people must fund it equally. One person/one dollar may not be as imp…
Continue readingCities—the provincial option
The possibility of Toronto becoming a province has popped up in the news again. The idea has floated around for years, supported by a variety of civic thinkers including the urban guru Jane Jacobs.The idea has considerable merit and not only for Toront…
Continue readingAt least read the bloody book
We in Christendom have a history of “Christians” using religion to justify violence of all kinds, from war to burning people at the stake. Indeed, exploiting one of history’s gentlest prophets to justify violence is one of the more intriguing themes of…
Continue readingCIA undermines aid agencies
That the CIA does sleazy stuff is hardly new. Perhaps we shouldn’t have been surprised then that they exploited children to help track Osama bin Laden.In order to confirm his presence in Abbottabad, they sought DNA samples from the residents of what th…
Continue readingPalestine and the churlish U.S. veto
It seems so little to ask. A people, already recognized as a nation by most other nations, requests full membership in the UN. It should be a shoo-in. Palestine is recognized by 65 per cent of the world’s states representing 75 per cent of the world’s …
Continue readingBritish cooking a hit in Berlin
Black is white, down is up, and British cooking is popular in Berlin. It’s true! Berlin has seen the opening of a spate of cafes and bars featuring British food.East London, a cafe recently established in the trendy Kreuzberg district, serves scotch eg…
Continue readingBarack Obama, the world’s leading assassin, and his private army
Within the U.S. military is another military, a secret military. Not secret in its existence—although even that can be shadowy—but secret in its operations. Except when it scores a public relations coup, such as the mafia-style execution of Osama b…
Continue readingThe best voting system for Canada
We have seen four provincial referendums recently offering alternatives to the First Past the Post (FPTP) voting system and all failed to bring about change. A major reason for the failures may very well be the systems offered.In B.C., a citizens’ as…
Continue readingDemocracy week Sept 12-18
The United Nations has declared September 15th the International Day of Democracy. Fair Vote Canada is expanding the day to Democracy Week, September 12th to the 18th. The week, according to Fair Vote’s website, is all about “participating, celebrating…
Continue readingBarbie dolls are killing Chinese workers
Harmless, Barbie dolls are not. They are, in fact, responsible for exploitation, misery, and even death for thousands of innocents. According to the human rights group Students and Scholars Against Corporate Misbehaviour (SACOM), a Sturdy Products fact…
Continue readingSweden: hIgh taxes and highly competitive
The daily press, diligently promoting the interests of its corporate owners, continually insists that taxes must be kept low to ensure Canada’s economy is competitive. This refrain is dutifully chorused by conservative politicians. It is not, however, …
Continue readingAmericans pissed at politicians, particularly at the GOP
This has been a summer of discontent in American politics. According to The Pew Research Center, 79 per cent of the U.S. public are dissatisfied with the way things are going in their country and even more are frustrated or angry with their federal go…
Continue readingFukushima—radiation damage that just won’t quit
I admit to a love-hate relationship with nuclear power. One day I am all for it because of the large amounts of relatively green power it can provide. I wonder if we can seriously reduce our dependence on fossil fuels without it. And then an incident l…
Continue readingBusting the union-busting bills
Anti-union legislation has been all the rage in the U.S. following last November’s election of a number of right-wing governors. Most notorious is Wisconsin’s Scott Walker, infamous for his polarizing union law that strips most public employees of thei…
Continue readingGoldman Sachs boss lawyers up
Will justice ever be done? This is a question U.S Investors have been asking about the recent financial crisis. Specifically, they have queried why no criminal charges have been laid against Goldman Sachs or any other investment bank whose greed and r…
Continue readingBritain’s class struggle and the proclivity to riot
The British lower classes, like those elsewhere, have for a very long time expressed their grievances with riot against the established order, going back to the Poor riot of 1196, and including the Spitalfield and Gordon riots of the 18th century, the …
Continue readingPeter MacKay, "royal" privilege, and the unelected Senate
Canadians can hardly escape the “royal” connection. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, the Royal Canadian Mint, the Royal Ontario Museum … the list is endless. To say nothing of the royal visage staring out at us from our…
Continue readingDavid Cameron, former Bullingdon bully, criticizes rioters
It is always such a challenge to divorce the class angle from British affairs. Two of the most vociferous critics of the recent rioters in London and other cities have been Prime Minister David Cameron and London mayor Boris Johnson. As it turns out, t…
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