Protesters at the Brady Road landfill south of Winnipeg. Photo by Anne-Charlotte Carignan/SRC. The City of Winnipeg is poised to secure an injunction enabling police to remove the families and loved ones of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and Two-Spirit people (MMIWG2S) from their ongoing blockade of the main
Continue readingAuthor: James Wilt
Canadian Dimension: Imperialism is inscribed in the very DNA of capitalism
Labourers at a garment factory in Bac Giang province, Vietnam, 2015. Photo by Nguyen Huy Kham. Contemporary imperialism can be a difficult concept to grasp. Part of this is undoubtedly intentional, with its beneficiaries relegating imperialism—like colonialism and racism—to a previous era that has since been transcended. But another aspect
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Yes, city councils can cut the police budget
A Winnipeg police cruiser sits parked near a church on Cumberland Street. Photo by Dave Shaver/Flickr. Winnipeg is in the midst of another uninspiring municipal election. But unlike previous rounds, a handful of mayoral and council candidates have actually dared to discuss the ever-growing crisis of the Winnipeg Police Service
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Making the invisible visible: an interview with Megan Linton about the harms of the institutional system, COVID-19, and disability justice
A ward at the Manitoba School for Mental Defectives, later named the Manitoba Developmental Centre. In the 1960s and 1970s, children as young as six were admitted to the centre. Image courtesy the Archives of Manitoba. Invisible Institutions is one of the most important podcasts of recent years. Through extraordinary
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: The case for smashing Big Alcohol and reclaiming working class joy
The monopolized nature of the global alcohol industry is a public health nightmare, writes James Wilt in his new book about the links between the booze industry and capitalism. Photo by Sérgio Alves Santos/Unsplash. The following is an excerpt from James Wilt’s new book, Drinking Up the Revolution: How to
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Fighting for a world beyond war
Anti-war activists protest outside of CANSEC, North America’s largest weapons fair, in Ottawa on June 1, 2022. Photo courtesy of World Beyond War. World Beyond War is a vital force in the global anti-war struggle, helping organize campaigns against military bases, the arms trade, and imperialist trade shows. Canadian Dimension
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Paris Marx: Improving the world is a political project, not a technological one
Paris Marx is a socialist writer and host of the left wing tech podcast Tech Won’t Save Us. Photo supplied. Paris Marx is one of the leading authorities on all things “tech.” As host of the award-winning Tech Won’t Save Us podcast and author the upcoming Verso book Road to
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Transcending the ‘imperial mode of living’
The ‘Imperial Mode of Living’ implies that “people’s everyday practices, including individual and societal orientations, as well as identities, rely heavily on the unlimited appropriation of resources.” Photo from Flickr. In a giant overcorrection from the anti-consumerism era of No Logo and Adbusters, much of the “climate left” in the
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Transit is the new frontline of the war on the unhoused
People sleep with their belongings in the City Hall bus shelter at the corner of Main Street and William Avenue in Winnipeg. Photo by Lyle Stafford. On June 9, Winnipeg’s public works committee voted to remove the glass, seating, and doors from two bus shelters outside Kildonan Place mall as
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Filibustering death-dealing ableism
ACORN Ottawa members protest changes to the definition of disability under the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP), July 2019. Photo by Juwairiya Kembo. Disability Filibuster was created by Catherine Frazee and Gabrielle Peters in March 2021 in response to the passage of Bill C-7, a piece of federal legislation which
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: In an era of climate collapse, Canada is doubling down on military spending
Canada is earmarking billions for defence over the next five years as part of its newly announced budget. This will cause annual military spending to double by the late-2020s. Photo courtesy Canadian Forces/Flickr. The latest federal budget is out and despite all the media bluster about new progressive housing policy—which
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Property destruction: a legitimate response to colonialism and climate chaos?
Damaged heavy equipment following an alleged attack on the Coastal GasLink pipeline facility on Wet’suwet’en territory near Houston, British Columbia, February 17, 2022. Handout photo courtesy BC RCMP. In the early hours of Thursday, February 17, a group of approximately 20 people allegedly attacked a Coastal GasLink (CGL) construction site
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Fighting for transit in a world on fire
Vincent Puhakka, a supporter of the transit advocacy group TTCriders, canvassing commuters at Warden Station, calling for better funding of the TTC. Photo by Justin Greaves/Metroland. Canadian leaders have been flaunting their climate plans in the lead-up to COP26, proudly boasting of policies like higher carbon pricing, clean energy standards,
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Making the world big enough for all of us: A review of Max Ajl’s ‘A People’s Green New Deal’
In his new, eminently readable work, researcher and postdoctoral fellow Max Ajl systematically dismantles ruling class and ostensibly progressive visions for a Green New Deal. A People’s Green New Deal Max Ajl Pluto Press, 2021 For several unfortunate years of my life, I was what might be termed a leftist
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: How to blow up a movement: Andreas Malm’s new book dreams of sabotage but ignores consequences
Andreas Malm’s latest book calls for rapid escalation by the global climate movement into the realm of sabotage and property destruction. Image by Canadian Dimension, adapted from a photo by Mike Benna/Unsplash. How to Blow Up a Pipeline Andreas Malm Verso, 2021 Andreas Malm’s latest book—his second in less than
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: How inquests into police violence entrench the oppressive institutions of settler colonial society
Protesters at Queen’s Park in Toronto, June 6, 2020. Photo by Michael Swan/Flickr. On January 28, the Independent Investigation Unit (IIU) of Manitoba announced that the Winnipeg Police officer who shot and killed 16-year-old Eishia Hudson in April 2020 would not be charged. The IIU, headed up by former Crown
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Manitoba’s new ‘critical infrastructure’ bill will try to suppress protest and curb Indigenous sovereignty
Activists and land defenders protest in downtown Winnipeg. Photo by Alexander Decebal-Cuza/The Manitoban. Amidst the ongoing chaos of COVID-19, Manitoba’s Progressive Conservatives are attempting to ram through a bill that will criminalize protests at so-called “critical infrastructure” sites such as roads and railways. This proposed legislation is in clear response
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Andreas Malm’s new pamphlet on climate, corona, and communism fails to ignite
Corona, Climate, Chronic Emergency: War Communism in the Twenty-First Century Andreas Malm Verso, 2020 One of the left’s richest traditions is the polemical pamphlet written amidst crisis. Who can forget the November 1917 postscript to Lenin’s State and Revolution, where he admitted that he hadn’t finished the final chapter of
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: ‘They won’t even give him Tylenol’: An interview with the spouse of a COVID-positive prisoner in Manitoba’s Headingley jail
Headingley Correctional Centre, a provincial jail on the western edge of Winnipeg, is among the sites hardest hit by the pandemic. As of Friday, October 30, the jail had 69 confirmed cases—mostly prisoners along with a handful of staff. Photo courtesy the Winnipeg Free Press. Manitoba is facing catastrophic levels
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: ‘They stand behind the inhumane treatment my father endured’: An interview with the daughter of Richard Kakish, killed by Winnipeg Police in 2017
44-year-old Richard Kakish passed away after an incident involving the Winnipeg Police in August 2017. Richard died after being kicked and repeatedly punched by officers during an arrest. Photo supplied by Richard’s family. The Winnipeg Police Service (WPS) has been under near-constant criticism over the last year for numerous incidents
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