While I have written about her a couple of time in the past, the ordeal of Lucene Charles is not yet over. Because she failed to complete the paperwork to achieve permanent residency status when she married a Canadian 15 years ago, the St. Vincent native, the mother of four
Continue readingAuthor: Lorne
Politics and its Discontents: Advice From the World’s Richest Woman
Wow! Sounds like this Australian lady really made it ‘the hard way’. Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Dalton McGuinty: A Man Running Or On The Run?
I have to admit, I find the imagery extraordinarily pleasing. Like a man on trial for criminal offences entering the courthouse via an underground passage to avoid the media glare, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty stole through the back door during a Wednesday evening stop at the campaign headquarters of Liberal
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: And Yet Another Threat To Beleaguered America
Folks, I merely report these things, as bizarre a commentary they are about our beleaguered American ‘friends.’ I do not make them up. H/t Salon Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Heather Mallick On The Insidious Nature Of Poverty
The older I get, the less patience I have with government that preaches an austerity that has a disproportionate impact on the poor. Of the right-wing rhetoric and mythology that all one has to do is to work hard to succeed, so evident in last week’s Republican convention, I have
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Thursday’s Ontario Byelections
Compelling reasons to hope that Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty does not secure his majority government via Thursday’s byelections: The Ornge scandal, and his refusal to appear before the Legislative committee to explain his role in it. The $180 million taxpayers are on the hook for because McGuinty cancelled the gas-fired
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Yet Another Threat To America!
Judging by the discernment levels of many Americans, I guess this dire warning by washed-up action hero Chuck Norris and his wife about the threat to America posed by Obama’s re-election will galvanize people: Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Another Thing Americans Have To Worry About
Think how much worse things could be if guns killed people. But as we all know, thanks to the reassurance offered by the NRA, guns don’t kill people; people kill people. Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Propaganda From Vic Toews
There are two letters of particular note in this morning’s edition of The Toronto Star, one a propaganda piece from our much beleaguered Minister of Public Safety, Vic Toews, the other from Ron Charach, who seems to possess a certain perspicacity in his assessment of the Conservative government. I am
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Reminder From Homeland Security
The following video could be a source of real amusement were it not an ample testament to the paranoia of our friends to the south. Also a useful tool for inhibiting any sense of community, I would think. And I’m sure that the fact that almost all of the ‘terrorists’
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Labour Day Reminder
On this Labour Day, as we reflect on the current dire situation facing many in the workforce, it might be useful to spend a little time with this video in which Allan Greg Gregg talks to journalist Chris Hedges about his book, The Death of the Liberal Class, which exams
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Why Fair Taxation Is Crucial
Now here is something everyone who wants to be well-informed should watch. Part of TVO’s Big Ideas series, it is a talk entitled How Did Taxes Become a Bad Word? by Alex Himelfarb, Director of the Glendon School of Public and International Affairs at York University, former Clerk of the
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Folly of Corporate Tax Cuts
Part of the orthodoxy of right-wing ideology is that corporate tax-cuts are an unalloyed benefit to the economy. The argument goes that the lower the tax regime, the more jobs that are created. While that ideology has been proven patently false in Canada, for those seeking some well-reasoned arguments the
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: What Do Politics And Education Have In Common?
With apologies for writing yet another post about education, I cannot escape the conviction that with the seamier side of education, with its sometimes immoral and concealed actions, its use of ‘spin’ and its willingness to overlook or minimize wrongdoing when it suits its purposes, there are many parallels with
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: An Update On Lynden Dorval, A Teacher With Integrity
A few months ago I wrote a post about Lynden Dorval, the Edmonton physics teacher who was been suspended for giving zeroes on uncompleted assignments or exams in contravention of his school’s (Poss Sheppard High School) ‘no-zero’ policy that was designed to avoid discouraging students. The public outcry of support
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Fact-Checkers Be Damned
It would be comforting to think that the disdain for facts apparent in the current U.S. Presidential campaign ads were confined to that country. Unfortunately, experience with the Harper propaganda machine suggests otherwise. H/t Ryan McGreal Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Sage Observation
Paul Kahnert of Markham has an uncommonly apt observation in this morning’s Star, one that I’m sure the ideologues leading us both federally and provincially will choose to ignore: Re: Canada’s idle threat, Business Aug. 25 It’s time to reverse corporate tax cuts. David Olive’s article was proof positive that
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Is Oil Our Economic Salvation?
Interesting, isn’t it, that despite the propaganda coming out of both Alberta and the Prime Minister’s Office about oil being the economic engine and saviour of Canada, that our Western friends are finding themselves experiencing some economic malaise? Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: McGuinty’s Craven Manipulations Continue
There is no evidence of a slow-down in the craven practices of Ontario’s slickster premier, Dalton McGuinty. With some uncertainty over whether his gambit to buy his way to a majority government by bribing Liz Witmer to vacate her seat to become head of the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board,
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Retired Administrator Sets The Record Straight
As he tries to appear tough for the upcoming byelections, Ontario’s self-proclaimed Education Premier, Dalton McGuinty, has been indulging in the kind of demagoguery that is an affront to critical thinkers everywhere. I was therefore pleased to read this article by Tom Roden, a retired vice-principal, attempting to puncture some
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