If Stephen Harper has his way, mandatory, warrantless, universal internet surveillance will be the norm in Canada. Once upon a time, I would have thought that statement was hyperbole; now it is the simple truth. If you already know about this, please s…
Continue readingAuthor: laura k
wmtc: toronto public library update with great videos
The winners of the My Library Matters to Me contest – offering a walking tour and lunch with the likes of Margaret Atwood, Michael Ondaatje and other prominent Toronto authors – have been posted: You can read them here.The organizers received more than…
Continue readingwmtc: straight goods, advertising and propaganda
In case you missed it last week, my post on advertising and propaganda is running on Straight Goods. If you haven’t seen it, I hope you’ll give it a read. Comments best posted on the original thread.
Continue readingwmtc: back to school
My classes resume today, my third year of four, fifth term of eight. I’ve been dreading this for weeks, but for the past few days, the dread has been overwhelming. I’m halfway done with the program, but for some reason, the start of this school year fe…
Continue readingwmtc: this just in: racism in the u.s. now less obvious
Landmark Civil Rights Act Made Racism Slightly Less Overt (Season 1: Ep 3 on IFC)
Continue readingwmtc: wrongly convicted man to be executed, please click to help
My opposition to the death penalty is absolute. I have always opposed capital punishment, but reading Helen Prejean’s Dead Man Walking moved me from an opposition with certain conditional exceptions to an absolute position. The more I learned about cap…
Continue readingwmtc: honeyboy edwards, 1915-2011
Honeyboy Edwards died two weeks ago, just shy of his 96th birthday. He was the last survivor of the first generation of Delta bluesmen. Born David Edwards to parents who were sharecroppers on a cotton plantation, for nearly 80 years Honeyboy played his…
Continue readingwmtc: 9.11.11: an anti-remembrance
Ten years on. Ten years of Islamophobia, endless war, the open rationalization of torture and massacre. Ten years of surveillance, insidiously creeping police state, witch hunts, shredding of personal freedoms. Nine years of torture, medical experiment…
Continue readingwmtc: most insane nation on earth bars entry to mentally ill canadians
This story is disturbing on so many levels! Why are health records of some Canadians being given to the US Department of Homeland Security??? Read it here: Canadians with mental illnesses denied U.S. entry.In this story, Stanley Stylianos, program mana…
Continue readingwmtc: desmogblog: open letter to oprah winfrey on so-called ethical oil and women’s rights
Unlike many of my peers, I truly do respect and in many ways admire Oprah Winfrey. She’s used her massive popularity and celebrity to raise awareness of difficult issues, not just feel-good reunions or uncontroversial medical research, but issues of eq…
Continue readingwmtc: tar sands pipeline arrests now total 1253: naomi klein among them
In case you missed it, this past Monday, September 5, Canadian author Naomi Klein became one of the more than 1,200 people to be arrested at the White House this summer, as part of the ongoing protest of the proposed Keystone XL tar sands pipeline. You…
Continue readingwmtc: it’s not about the money money money: all out september 26 at toronto city hall
Things you can to do save public services in Toronto:1. Watch this amazing video!* 2. Share the video with everyone you know.3. If you live in the GTA, come to City Hall on Monday, September 26, 2011 for the Rally to Save Toronto. Rally begins at 5:30,…
Continue readingwmtc: war is peace, freedom is slavery, and bp is listening: more tales of corporate propaganda
You all know how I feel about advertising. Usually it’s not the ads themselves that drive me nuts, but their massive proliferation: that everything in our field of vision and seemingly every moment of our time is filled with corporate logos and catch-p…
Continue readingwmtc: what happens to a child who is hungry?
What happens to a child who is hungry?And here’s what I learned: being hungry makes me slow, stupid, and clumsy.It took me about four or five days of not being able to get enough solid food down my throat to come up with the glaringly obvious idea of g…
Continue readingwmtc: update on ontario mega-quarry: environmental review to go forward, battle continues
The Council of Canadians has an update on the mega-quarry that the Highland Companies (owned by a US hedge fund) tried to sneak into Ontario’s Melancthon Township. You’ll recall that this company posed as a potato farming operation in order to quietly …
Continue readingwmtc: kenney’s canada: paralyzed woman to lose independence if caregivers are deported
Just another story of more undeserving immigrants trying to sneak into the promised land. This one is a particularly sneaky ploy. Here’s how you do it.First, emigrate to Canada, a process that takes a minimum of two years, often twice that or longer. T…
Continue readingwmtc: impact of rising tuition (and the liberal provincial govt) on ontario families
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has released the results of a study on the impact of rising tuition fees in Ontario. The study shows that in 1990, a middle-income family in Ontario could earn the equivalent of four years of tuition fees in …
Continue readingwmtc: torontonians, please do your part to close down puppy mills
In September, Toronto Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker will reintroduce a motion to ban the for-profit sale of dogs and cats in Toronto pet stores and flea markets. These retail outlets are notorious for selling animals bred in puppy mills. The conditio…
Continue readingwmtc: mcquaig: lewis’s masterful eulogy a stirring reminder that we will not go quietly
Linda McQuaig’s appraisal of Stephen Lewis’s beautiful eulogy of Jack Layton is worth reading.It will probably be a while before a Canadian prime minister again offers a state funeral to someone on the left.Of course, there aren’t many political lead…
Continue readingwmtc: canada and u.s.: join to speak out against tar sands pipeline
Environmental activists in the US see an opportunity for real action against the tar sands pipeline. Since the oil-friendly and environment-hating Harper government won’t listen to us on this issue, we owe it to North America to do whatever we can to t…
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