Nathan Borror
The gushing coverage of last week’s Justin Trudeau-Barack Obama “bromance” in Washington, DC, had one former Canadian visitor to the White House scratching her head.
When Cabbagetown-born Ca…
Continue readingNathan Borror
The gushing coverage of last week’s Justin Trudeau-Barack Obama “bromance” in Washington, DC, had one former Canadian visitor to the White House scratching her head.
When Cabbagetown-born Ca…
Continue readingPhoto by Keith Bacongco For many in the Global North, certain countries only appear on our radar screens as discount winter vacation hotspots. Other times, when natural disaster strikes, these countries serve as empathy-building backdrops to raise millions for charities that, after skimming some off the top, may distribute some
Continue readingImage from Public Domain Efforts to get people to vote, complete with ballot-box selfies, loomed large on social media, but when casting a ballot is treated as the noblest thing you can do in a democracy, it accommodates a status quo of incredibly narrow choices. While federal election #elxn42 featured
Continue readingPhoto by Mstyslav Chernov As thousands continue fleeing war and persecution in a desperate attempt to find safety in Europe and North America, media and NGOs alike have improperly termed the daily stories of suffering, heartbreak and death at sea a “refugee crisis.” Such language improperly places blame on those
Continue readingPhoto by Khadr family When torture survivor Omar Khadr was granted bail last week, the Harper government actually did something logical: it argued in an emergency hearing that releasing someone who, since the age of 15, has never known life outside of the world’s worst detention facilities, would cause irreparable
Continue readingPhoto from Public Domain A recent run-of-the-mill telemarketing call from one of Canada’s largest credit companies took on a threatening tone. Who knew that owning a credit card whose purchases produced redeemable points for free groceries also entailed an insidious tradeoff that invaded our privacy and left a chilling aftertaste?
Continue readingGuantánamo Diary Mohamedou Ould Slahi Little, Brown and Company Following December’s release of the U.S. Senate report on American complicity in torture, Prime Minister Stephen Harper quickly declared, “It has nothing to do whatsoever with the government of Canada.” Despite the CIA’s close relationship with Canadian state security agencies, as
Continue readingOutlaw art made by a person with paranoid schizophrenia. • Artwork by Thomas Zapata Last Friday, viewers of the CBC’s flagship news program, The National, could be forgiven for thinking they were back in the Leave it to Beaver 1950s. Indeed, they ran a saccharine story that would have done
Continue readingPhoto by Saffron Blaze When the RCMP announced an Ottawa anti-terrorism arrest last week, the timing could not have been better for a federal government that appears to thrive on national security hysteria. After all, Prime Minister Harper, positioning himself as a wartime leader protecting Canadians from terrorists, had just
Continue readingPhoto from Public Domain I often find it hard to feel empathy for Prime Minister Stephen Harper. But when I saw the grim picture of him talking on the phone following the end of his confinement in the locked down House of Commons yesterday, I sensed in him a vulnerability
Continue readingHassan Diab is a mild-mannered Ottawa university professor with a passion for history and culinary skills that surely the French would appreciate. In fact, the French government has invested much energy to have Diab brought to Paris, but not for his vegetarian kebbah. Rather, Dr. Diab is sought for questioning
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