What a capital idea! (Pun fully intended.) Critics of the free trade talks with Europe are urging provinces to ensure any negotiated deal gets a full public airing before it is formally signed. Critics are appealing to the provinces because with every trade deal that has been considered at the
Continue readingAuthor: pogge
Peace, order and good government, eh?: Friday night blues blogging
Like so many blues musicians, Larry Garner is from Louisiana — he was born in New Orleans and grew up in Baton Rouge. Here he is performing Buster. One of the interesting things about music festivals like the Crossroads series is the way it bring musicians together who might not
Continue readingPeace, order and good government, eh?: A bunker-style session
Colin Freeze has a piece in the Globe and Mail reporting on an unprecedented session of the Supreme Court of Canada scheduled to take place on Oct. 11th of this year. The hearing will take place in a secure, undisclosed location and will involve lawyers who have been sworn to
Continue readingPeace, order and good government, eh?: A group effort
A year ago last March, I took Vic Toews to task for granting CSIS the authority to trade in information derived from torture. In that post, I described a scenario in which the torture of one, possibily innocent, person of interest could easily lead to the torture of additional, possibly
Continue readingPeace, order and good government, eh?: What Alison Said
Alison at Creekside on the appointment of Pierre Poilievre as Minister of State for Democratic Reform: Poilievre’s appointment is about a coming battle over election reform and robocalls. It’s been sixteen months since the Cons promised to bring in a bill addressing Mayrand’s proposed reforms to prevent a repeat of
Continue readingPeace, order and good government, eh?: Now he tells us
A tip of the hat to impolitical for alerting me to this from a couple of days ago: Bob Rae has joined the National Advisory Board of Fair Vote Canada. “Canadians need to know that their votes will really count. This means moving beyond our first past the post system”,
Continue readingPeace, order and good government, eh?: Friday night blues blogging
This is Keb’ Mo’ covering Robert Johnson’s Kind Hearted Woman Blues. It seems like a good place to start (h/t to Moose at Classic Blues Videos). Tab Benoit hails from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. He writes a lot of his own songs and I believe One Foot in the Bayou is
Continue readingPeace, order and good government, eh?: Friday night blues blogging
Outside Woman Blues was originally recorded in 1929 by Blind Joe Reynolds. This is Doyle Bramhall II at one of the Crossroads festivals (where they really seem to have a thing for double drummers). This is John Hammond performing at a concert staged as a tribute to the Mississippi Sheiks,
Continue readingPeace, order and good government, eh?: Would Scott Brison care to comment?
Conservatives fail to take human rights seriously in Canada-Colombia deal For the second year in a row, the Conservative government has failed to live up to its moral obligation to analyze the impact of the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (CCOFTA) on human rights. The reporting obligation, embedded as a side
Continue readingPeace, order and good government, eh?: Friday night blues blogging
According to Janiva Magness, this is a true story: The Devil is an Angel Too. This is the second piece I’ve posted from this session, whatever it is. There doesn’t seem to be a very big crowd but it certainly looks like the musicians are enjoying themselves. We go all
Continue readingPeace, order and good government, eh?: Friday night blues blogging
I’m opening with the big band this evening. But I’m closing with Buddy Guy so it should work out. This is Roomful of Blues with Jambalaya. I Won’t Cry was written by Janiva Magness, the lead vocalist, and Dave Darling, the guitar player. New music! As promised, here’s Buddy Guy
Continue readingPeace, order and good government, eh?: The rewards of blogging
I get one of these four times a year without fail. This one is to mark the summer solstice. You can click on the image to see the full size original in pdf (in a new window). Thanks, Theo, as always.
Continue readingPeace, order and good government, eh?: Friday night blues blogging
Good evening. This is the Heritage Blues Orchestra with Get Right Church. This is what happens when you let Jeff Beck into the White House. It’s a slow instrumental called Brush with the Blues. (Is it me or does the First Lady looked a bit bored?) So we’ve gone from
Continue readingPeace, order and good government, eh?: That didn’t take long
June 10, 2013: Defence Minister Peter MacKay says Canada’s own secretive online and phone metadata surveillance program is “prohibited” from looking at the information of Canadians and is directed at monitoring foreign threats. June 13, 2013: Declassified records show the defence minister quietly issued new instructions to Canada’s electronic eavesdropping
Continue readingPeace, order and good government, eh?: Holding CSEC to account isn’t enough to protect our rights
Open Media, with support from Leadnow, has begun a campaign to demand answers from the Harper government about exactly what kind of information our national signals intelligence agency is gathering about us. While it’s certainly worth trying to get answers to Open Media’s questions, let’s not lull ourselves into thinking
Continue readingPeace, order and good government, eh?: Friday night blues blogging
If you enjoyed the Son Seals performance I posted a few weeks ago, you might like this one too. This is On My Knees, taken from a TV performance in the eighties. Here’s a slow blues by the James Cotton Blues Band. It’s called Easy Lovin’ (and comes with a
Continue readingPeace, order and good government, eh?: Friday night blues blogging
It’s Friday. Have some tunes. This is Jim Byrnes, with Steve Dawson on guitar, performing a Hank Williams song called Honky Tonk Blues. This is billed as Kenny Neal and the Neal Brothers Blues Band but the second harp player and, I’m pretty sure, one of the guitar players are
Continue readingPeace, order and good government, eh?: Who are we trying to impress?
Canada ends all trade with Iran citing ‘grave and sincere concern’ over nuclear program Canada ended all trade with Iran on Wednesday, citing “grave and sincere concern” over the Islamic republic’s nuclear program and its failure to engage in meaningful negotiations. The ban on all imports and exports to and
Continue readingPeace, order and good government, eh?: Friday night blues blogging
This is Kelly Joe Phelps in a recording studio in Vancouver performing The Holy Spirit Flood. There’s some pretty intricate fingerpicking here. How did I not know about the Heritage Blues Orchestra until now? The song is Joliet Bound. And for a rowdy finish, here’s the Asylum Street Spankers with
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