In 2014 in Canada, we have had several incidents involving people attacking various institutions and symbols of government. Consider the following list: January: “GG” Plans an attack on a Veteran’s Affairs office in Calgary June: Justin Bourque shoots 3 RCMP Officers in New Brunswick October: Martin Rouleau hits and kills
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The Cracked Crystal Ball II: No. Just No.
As I had expected, the first steps in the Harper Government’s overreaching reaction to this week’s events in Ottawa are starting to surface. Introducing Harper’s Thought Police: Sources suggest the government is likely to bring in new hate speech legislation that would make it illegal to claim terrorist acts
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: The Closer You Look …
The closer one looks at the ISIS thing, the more it starts looking like a sectarian war in the Middle East. Yesterday in the Globe and Mail, Robert Fowler very nicely articulated the problem with short term solutions to the mess in Iraq, and today I spotted a really interesting
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: So, We’re Going To War…
It comes as no surprise that Harper is all hot and bothered about jumping into the quagmire that is the Middle East. He wanted to commit Canada to invading Iraq back when Shrub and his gang of morons were gearing up to invade in 2003. Canadians should be more than
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: No, It’s Not "Short Sighted"
I’ve seen stories popping up recently where Justin Trudeau is being criticized for refusing to engage with Sun Media. The issue is that Sun Media has allowed people like Levant to run amok. Of course, they’re going to play the taunting card. What Levant’s tirade demonstrated was that Sun
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: ISIS, IS or ISIL … Whatever It’s Called This Week
It comes as no surprise that Harper is in a great hurry to commit Canada to a shooting war in Iraq/Afghanistan/Syria. Make no mistake, “military advisors” is a euphemism. Harper is committing troops to a shooting war that frankly we have no business involving ourselves in. I remember saying back
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Institutional Racism In Conservative Ideology
This post has been evolving for quite a long time. However, in the last few days, a series of pieces have been published which bring together several threads of thought that I have been exploring for the last several years. There has long been a degree of bigotry and
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: The Militarization Of Canada’s Police
Much has been said recently about the "militarization" of America's police forces. For those of us who live in Canada, let us not be fooled into complacency. The National Post has an article about the same damn, dumb thing happening in Canada. Read more »
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Ferguson Is The Symptom, Not The Disease
Events in Ferguson, MO this past week have been deeply disturbing, if not downright distressing. I don’t particularly need to recount them in any detail. Precisely what happened, and who thought what is no longer even relevant. In the public perception, a white police officer has gunned down an unarmed
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Harper’s Gambit
With his numbers sinking in the most recent polls, Harper appears to be moving to bring out his rear guard actions to sustain his grip on power. There are several pieces to this discussion: (1) Foreign Affairs Between fomenting a shooting war with Russia in the Ukraine, a stance on
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: An Open Letter To Margaret Wente
Dear Ms. Wente, I thought that as a journalist you were supposed to do some research before you go writing stories. In the case of your August 2, 2014 column in The Globe and Mail, it is painfully obvious that you haven't even bothered to try. As a child, Lindsay
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: A Call For Change In Business
It wasn’t so long ago that businesses recognized people at their local levels as having something to contribute. That individual employees have a meaning greater than the “bottom line”. That was before the Internet and globalization. In 1990, as a new graduate from University, I started working for what was
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Oppression is Never a Successful Strategy
I’m getting sick of waking up every morning to the latest news of the atrocities going on in Israel and the Gaza Strip. The list of grievances held by each side is miles and generations long, and quite frankly I don’t think either has any claim to the moral high
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Radical Feminism Versus Reality
The New Yorker decided to publish an exposé about the ongoing war of words between Transsexual Exclusionary Radical Feminists (TERFs) and transsexuals. Sadly, the author spent most of their time talking about what TERFs have written about transsexuals and failed entirely to present the transsexual side of the discussion in
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Confusing Freedom With Imposition
Canada’s “Association For Reformed Political Action” came to my attention this past week. Just from the name, you can tell that this is one of the groups that is seeking to turn Canada into a theocracy much like the far right is currently doing in the United States. I decided
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Think That Mass Spying Doesn’t Affect You?
Go Read. It is not just the spying, but the records and how they are shared which is the real problem. The Harper Government wants people to be afraid. If they screw up a few people’s lives in the process, that’s just so much the better for their agenda.
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: When Is A Policy A Non-Policy?
When it involves the Catholic Independent Schools of Vancouver Archdiocese making a policy on "accommodating" transgender students. At first glance, this almost seems like a reasonable document. There are lots of "The schools shall do this" and "shall provide that" statements, and it almost looks as though they made reasonably
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Harper Tries To Foment A Crisis
Harper has taken a surprising number of losing cases to the Supreme Court of Canada. Most, if not all, were obviously places where the government’s position is one that is in direct contradiction with the Constitution of Canada. Even a relative neophyte in Constitutional law in Canada can spot that,
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Spendaphobe? Give Us A Break
So, according to Rob and Doug Ford, Rob isn’t a homophobe, he’s a spendaphobe. Rob Ford’s own actions related to pride in the not so distant past (refusing to attend, trying to stop the city from flying the pride flag for example) speak quite clearly to where he stands with
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Reference Cases Are Not The Problem
Over at iPolitics, James Matkin and Clive Cocking are busy moaning about how the Supreme Court “kills innovative legislation” in the form of “reference cases”. The basic thesis of their argument is that we need to take away from the Supreme Court of Canada the ability to hear “reference cases”.
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