The other day I wrote about the fact that statistic show serious crime in Canada to be at a 40-year-low. Despite this, of course, the Harper Government is marching headlong in its pursuit of measures to combat crime, including, of course, the building …
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Politics and its Discontents: The Star: Police Strip Searches On The Rise
As reported in today’s Toronto Star, “Toronto police strip searched roughly 60 per cent of the people they arrested in 2010, compared to 32 per cent 10 years ago, according to police statistics.”Given recent high profile incidents of this practice, som…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Canada’s crime rate at lowest level in almost 40 years: StatsCan
Thus reads the headline in a story posted online by The Globe and Mail.Amongst the latest Statistics Canada findings, the following facts are worth noting:There were 554 homicides in 2010, down 56 from the year before. The decline in the homicide rate …
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Police Facial Recognition Skills Continue To Decline
Whether it is a food, air, or water-borne virus, or a strange and hitherto undocumented brain condition, there is no question that police facial recognition skills are declining, calling into question their ability to accurately testify in criminal cas…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Thought On A Hot Evening
Confined as I have been to the house today and tonight thanks to the heat and humidity, I thought I would make a brief posting. I’ve been writing recently about the importance of critical thinking skills. Following is a link to a National Post piece …
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Some Insights On Rupert Murdoch’s Troubles
My friend Gary, who has developed quite a talent for epistolary irony, sent me an email this morning on the Murdoch appearance yesterday before the British Parliament. With his permission, I am posting it here:Hi Lorne: I was pleased to see and hear t…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: More Evidence Of Bill Blair’s Failed Leadership
The ‘offer no apologies and accept no responsibility’ head of the Toronto Police Services, Chief Bill Blair, has another facet of failed leadership to answer for. According to a report in The Toronto Star, a U of T student has documented at least eigh…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Once More, The SIU Cannot Fulfill Its Mandate
In what I can only construe as inept or complicit leadership at the top, the Toronto Police Service, thanks to massive obstructionism amongst the rank and file, has once again thwarted the SIU in fulfilling its mandate to properly and effectively inves…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Late Afternoon Thought On The Murdoch Scandal
I just read a post by The Disaffected Lib discussing the mounting number of resignations resulting from the Rupert Murdoch scandal. Both the Commissioner and Assistant Commissioner of the Metropolitan London Police (Scotland Yard) have resigned becaus…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: An Ethical Dilemma – One Posible Answer
Yesterday I posed a hypothetical ethical dilemma sent to me by my son; briefly, it outlined a situation where a friend would be attacked by a bear, his injuries not known, but they could range from life-threatening to superficial. The only way to save …
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: An Ethical Dilemma
Although the following might seem rather tangential to what I usually discuss on this blog, an email recently sent to me by my son is, I think, highly relevant for a number of reasons, which I will discuss tomorrow.Here is the ethical dilemma:Think of …
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Ever-Increasing Importance Of Alternative Media
After reading Rick Salutin’s column yesterday about the very real limitations of Canadian journalism even when juxtaposed against the scandal engulfing Rupert Murdoch’s publishing empire, I had the opportunity to read a story from rabble.ca that confi…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Rick Salutin on Rupert Murdoch
For those exulting in the ongoing misfortunes of Rupert Murdoch (and I readily and enthusiastically admit to being one of them), Rick Salutin has a thoughtful column in today’s Star warning us that we really have little room for self-righteousness when…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Tory Lite – McGuinty and Public Sector Cuts
Dalton McGuinty, the Ontario Premier who, as I mentioned in previous posts, will not be receiving my support in the October election over his shameless disavowal of any responsibility for the police abuses during last year’s G20 Summit, has often been …
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: How The Harper Government Defines Efficiency At The CBC
While it will likely come as no surprise to many, the Harper Government has within its sights the CBC, the sometimes irksome public broadcaster that the right-wing so often loves to hate. As reported online in today’s Globe, the Heritage Minister, Jam…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Critical Thinking: Do We Get The Kind Of Political Leadership We Deserve?
In many ways, I suspect that we get exactly the kind of political representation that we deserve. A population that is either largely disengaged from the political process or lacking in fundamental critical thinking skills invites our elected represen…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Netweeper Inc. – A Canadian Company That Facilitates Internet Censorship Abroad
In an age when regulation of shoddy business practices seems to be rapidly eroding, the ethos today being that anything that inhibits growth is bad, it may not come as a surprise that both the Federal and the Ontario Provincial Governments are complici…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The State of Journalism
Thanks to Dr. Dawg for posting this link to an essay by Kai Nagata, who writes about why he recently quit his job as a reporter for CTV. His observations about the current state of television journalism are instructive, and will be of interest to anyon…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Unions – Part Two
Thanks to fellow-blogger Orwell for providing this link to the Australian version of the video I wrote about yesterday:Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: What Have Unions Done For Us?
I just came across the following video on You Tube. Although directed toward an American audience, its message is completely applicable to Canada as well. Enjoy!Recommend this Post
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