I’m happy the Globe and Mail is not responsible for defining words for us all. In the poll below, on its website tonight, we see them create a false choice about students wearing shirts at school that declare religious beliefs: freedom of religion versus secular public schools. Secular public schools
Continue readingAuthor: Stephen Elliott-Buckley
Politics, Re-Spun: Let’s Have an End to People Dying at Work
Ben Isitt is a Victoria city councillor, historian, professor, lawyer and optimist. Rarely have I been so moved by an account of the struggle working people have in the face of this new world order of anti-worker 1%ism. We are so effectively trained to accept the balance of power is
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Shaw Cable’s Dismissive, Dodging Customer Service
Shaw, the Corporation If you are a lower mainland Shaw Cable customer you may have noticed a quite vague notification of a $5 [plus HST] bill increase coming in June. It is followed by a great deal of vague advertising fluff indicating that something awesome was about to happen, but
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Deconstructing the Wildrose Effect
So what happened in Alberta’s election yesterday, other than people telling pollsters that they want change, then chickening out when it came time to mark an X. The Politics, Re-spun crew deconstructs the Wildrose effect here: Are you surprised that the Wildrose Party did not win? No. Discontent polls well,
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Challenging Homophobic NHL Fans
Having spent some time recently examining the NHL’s and NHLPA’s collective negligence about headshots, I was inspired to address the homophobia that surrounds hockey fandom last night. Sure the Canucks lost, but before that, someone called them a bunch of faggles in Twitterland. How did that all go down, and
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Vic Toews’ Prison Shock Doctrine Recipe
Closing prisons from the 19th century is surely a good idea, but I have no faith that the Conservative Party cares to replace them with anything progressive based on research from any time since the 19th century. So here’s a Canadian prison Shock Doctrine perfect storm: The Conservatives [Reform Party]
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Musqueam Midden Burial Site Compromise
It’s very interesting to see the work that has gone into a possible compromise to deal with the competing demands around the Musqueam midden burial site. See below. Several weeks ago there was quite a contentious debate about what to do with the site from the Musqueam perspective and from
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Boycott the National Headshot League (#NHL)
Before I get into my increasingly radical antipathy towards the NHL and NHLPA and their callous disregard for brain injury risks, I’d like you to spend a few moments watching this gratuitous display of intent to injure at a bantam hockey game in Kelowna last month involving teenagers. It will
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: NDP Leadership Convention Liveblog
Welcome to the Politics, Re-Spun NDP Leadership Convention Liveblog. Two of our embedded Politics, Re-Spun crew in the convention, Anna and Laura are in Twitter as well as on the liveblog. They’ll be uploading content from the convention as well, so watch for that. So join us here to share
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Why I’m Voting for Nathan Cullen
Nathan Cullen has my vote. Let me begin by saying that we are at an historical moment in Canadian history. We are being besieged by an increasingly draconian corporatist, neo-conservative and neoliberal Conservative Party government which is far worse than Mulroney’s free trade corporatist “Progressive” Conservatives from a generation ago. This government is an
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Stop the Condo Development on the Musqueam Burial Site
What kind of racist government issues a permit for a condo developer to bulldoze a Musqueum burial site? BC’s government. I visited c̓əsnaʔəm, the 1338 SW Marine Drive site this morning and had a chance to talk with some of the demonstrators. I learned a number of important points in
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Politics, Re-Spun on The Rational on Co-op Radio, March 12 Lineup
Politics, Re-Spun is on The Rational on Coop Radio on Monday, March 12, 2012 from 6pm to 7pm with an intriguing lineup! Listen live online or at 102.7fm in the Vancouver area. Here’s the lineup: 1. Dylan Penner will talk with Stephen Elliott-Buckley about the Canadian Boat for Gaza: why,
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Politics, Re-Spun and The Rational Celebrate IWD Early, with Audience Participation
Politics, Re-Spun and The Rational will celebrate International Women’s Day early on Coop Radio on Monday, March 5, 2012 from 6pm to 7pm with an all-women show! Loren Spagnuolo will have a piece celebrating Sesemiya Tracy Williams. The rest of the show will be devoted to a panel of Politics,
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Harper Spends $90k of Our Money/Day to Spin Us on His Cuts
The Harper government is paying consultant Deloitte Inc. almost $90,000 a day for advice on how to manage the cuts. via Harper personally approved $22,000 tab for visiting bureaucrats – The Globe and Mail. I am flabbergasted to read this entire article about money Harper personally signed off on to
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Yas A., Kagan Goh and Carmen Aguirre: Monday at 6pm on COOP Radio
Monday night at 6pm on The Rational on COOP Radio [livestreamed], 102.7fm in/around Vancouver: Yas A with another instalment on Italian political song writers. Alnoor Gova interviews Kagan Goh and Imtiaz Popat about the world television premier of their documentary Stolen Memories on Sunday, March 4th at 9pm on OMNI
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Revitalizing COPE Vancouver, Right Now.
Today is the first day of the rest of COPE Vancouver’s life. Today is the day where the new executive needs to make its first priority revitalizing the party by building unity around progressive principles and policies, and moving past pettiness. If it cannot get past the factionism, it simply
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Politics, Re-Spun on COOP Radio Tonight at 6pm
Tonight at 6pm [East Vancouver time], Politics, Re-Spun teams up with The Rational on COOP Radio with an analog radio show at 102.7fm in Vancouver, which will be streaming live at COOPRadio.org and interactively in a multimedia liveblog here below. Here is what we’ve got tonight: 1. Tia Everitt interviewing
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Liveblogging Today’s NDP Leaders Debate
Today’s NDP leadership debate lands in Quebec. I’m using 14 criteria to evaluate who I’ll be voting for. Let me know if you have suggestions for improved criteria. 2012.02.12 NDP Leaders Debate February 2, 2012 — NDP Leaders, By the Numbers and the Intangibles (0) August 27, 2011 — Liveblog
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: NDP Leaders, By the Numbers and the Intangibles
There are some interesting dynamics going on with the NDP leadership race that we can track with numbers, see way below. And while numbers tell some stories, they don’t necessarily track intangible criteria of leadership qualities like these, which I would perhaps suggest in this order: intelligence progressive vision: social,
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: My Canada Does Not Include Militarizing Canada Day
I have a great deal of respect for Canadian Forces personnel. I have generally disagreed with virtually every one of their foreign deployments in my lifetime, but that is a criticism I make of our political leaders who order our forces to go here and there. I support our troops
Continue reading