As I suspected, after yesterday’s Star story about the Toronto District School Board’s outrageous demand for $3.6 million to release work order information related to the costs incurred in their exclusive contract with Jimmy Hazel’s maintenance and construction skilled trades council, the board is singing a different tune today: The
Continue readingAuthor: Lorne
Politics and its Discontents: How Much Is The Lowest Price Guarantee Worth?
Despite years of repeated denials, I think there are few who doubt that Walmart is anti-union. Stories abound of the pressure the giant corporation applies anytime someone within the employee ranks tries to start a move toward union certification, including termination of the troublesome individuals and even store closures. Because
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: TDSB To Star: It’s Gonna Cost You To See My Hand
The Toronto Star, after conducting an excoriating investigative series on the fiscal incompetence of the Toronto District School Board in its very costly arrangement with Jimmy Hazel’s Maintenance and Construction Skilled Trades Council, has learned the price of getting the complete picture of that incompetence: $3.6 million. That’s how much
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Power of the Consumer
According to this email I received, forwarded by a friend of mine, we have quite a bit of power. At a minimum, the following should give us pause as we go about our consumer lives: This is TRULY worth reading and considering….. A physics teacher in high school once told
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: An Easy Way To Gauge The Moral Fiber Of Canadian Politicians
Ask them for their stand on the indefensible export of asbestos. Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Why?
Because sometimes we need a larger perspective: Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Monsanto Sued By Migrant Workers Over Labor, Housing Conditions
It seems the bigger they are, the more intent corporations are on squeezing everything they can out of workers, doesn’t it? H/t GMWatch and Sandra Harris Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: More on Rob Ford
I hope that I can be forgiven for what might appear to some as either an unhealthy obsession with Toronto’s chief magistrate or an Ontario-centric regional preoccupation. It’s just that I continue to be fascinated by the fact that Canada’s largest city is led by someone so manifestly unsuited for
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Chris Hedges On Contemporary Journalism
H/t Disinformation for this: Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: "We Need Justice"
So says a young Hispanic boy in the following video, a followup of the police brutality in Anaheim I posted about yesterday: Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Success Story Rob Ford and Other Reactionaries Won’t Like
Those who see issues in simplistic and absolutist terms will not care to even acknowledge the existence of this letter from a Star reader. It speaks to something that neo-conservatives are loathe to acknowledge, the fact that we live in a society where interdependence and co-operation rather than selfish and
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Another Home Run for Ibbitson
In his quest to become the top scorer in the Harper admiration society and ensure a much-coveted seat in the Red Chamber, John Ibbiston scores another home run in yet one more of his sycophantic endorsements of dear leader in today’s Globe. Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Police Brutality In Anaheim
Can there be any justification for firing non-lethal weapons on unarmed people, including women and children? H/t Sandra Harris Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Concern For The Collective
For whatever reason, I am one of those people with a deeply ingrained sense of fair play that recognizes we are more than simply individuals ‘doing our own thing’ in isolation and with no regard to others; I happily acknowledge that we are part of a larger agglomeration that we
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Another Reason To Be Cynical About The MSM
The implications of this are truly and deeply frightening. Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Victory To Celebrate
I have expressed more than once in this blog my opinion that the Harper regime aims to make Canadians feel powerless and disenfranchised, thereby facilitating the government’s efforts to remake Canada in its own calloused corporatist image. Once in a while, however, a victory comes along to remind us that
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Making Political Hay
Well, you have to hand it to them. The Harper regime never forgoes an opportunity to exploit tragedy: In an interview airing on CBC’s Power & Politics on Friday, Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said “clearly the recent rash of gun crime in Toronto is connected to criminal gun
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Excessive Force Or Standard Police Operating Procedure?
You decide. Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: ‘Sheriff’ Ford ‘Clarifies’ His Statements
I wonder if there is anyone within the Rob Ford administration with the courage to tell him to just keep his mouth shut for the sake of Toronto’s rapidly-waning reputation? Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: On The Harper Regime’s Lawlessness
Once again, Star readers come through with their perceptive indictments of the Harper regime’s contempt for both the rule of law and democracy: Re: Ottawa’s misrule of law, Opinion July 17 Professor Audrey Macklin’s piece on Ottawa’s disrespect for the law points to a culture of justice by vendetta and
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