Or, almost-seniors. Those approaching the age of 65 must be gasping for breath this morning, learning of Harper’s hint at perhaps raising the age for receiving ‘old age’ benefits to 67. More sinister are his plans for OAS and the Guaranteed Income Supplement, necessary programs for caring for those who
Continue readingMorton's Musings: Class actions and preferable procedure
Fischer v. IG Investment Management Ltd., 2012 ONCA 47 deals with when a class action will be allowed. A class action will not be allowed if there is a preferable process to vindicate class claims. The Court writes: [43] Turning to the merits of the Divisional Court's preferable procedure analysis, in my view,
Continue readingBC Ferries: The Little Private Monopoly That Couldn’t
DoNotPassGo PayThroughTheNoseForPick-UpParkingVille Robert Matas, consistently the best thing going in The Globe, BC Division, has a pretty good analysis of the Ferry’s Commisioner’s report up. Here’s his lede: BC Ferries commissioner Gord Macatee has called for a major overhaul in a review of ferry operations released earlier this week. He
Continue readingEnemygate: Harper’s divisive politics
Margaret Atwood has dubbed it ‘Enemygate’. ForestEthics whistleblower Andrew Frank accuses Harper of bullying tactics. John Bennett of the Sierra Club frets that this is “a scary time for Canadian democracy”. With the Prime Minister calling any opposition to his pet Keystone project, “enemy of the Government of Canada”, the
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Odious profits and the Enbridge pipeline
Two obvious but generally unstated details about the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline are climate change and that oil and gas companies stand to make mega-profits. An honest appraisal of the project would be something like, “yes, putting in the pipeline will facilitate even more greenhouse gas emissions from the Alberta
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Canadian Triumphalism Increasingly Bizarre
Prime Minister Harper went to Davos yesterday to sing Canada’s praises. No sooner had he finished reciting a long list of our national achievements, however, then he launched into a list of the sober, realistic, inevitable things that must be done in Canada to ensure “sustainability” in the long term.
Continue readingwmtc: ode to a hero: attorney for the damned (with thanks to jill lepore)
Clarence Darrow was one of my earliest heroes. I first encountered Darrow in the guise of Spencer Tracy, who portrayed the lawyer in the 1960 movie “Inherit the Wind”. Darrow famously defended John Scopes, who tried to teach evolution in a Tennessee public school. His courtroom opponent was William Jennings
Continue readingThings Are Good: Cargo Container Coffee
In very unsurprising news: Starbucks has opened a new coffee shop. In surprising news: that Starbucks store is made from repurposed cargo containers! With many containers scrapped at the end of an average lifespan of 20 years, the Starbucks solution served to convert a potential waste stream from the company’s
Continue readingsamupress: ebook download surges
Phenomenal, is all I have to say. Phenomenal. Honestly, I think this is great. It is far to easy to read this as though I intend irony or sarcasm, but there are people out there in the world who have freely chosen to look at my art. I think that
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: The Uneasy Relationship Between Explaining Science to Conservatives…and Explaining Conservatives Scientifically
democrat_and_republican_symbols.jpg Over the past year or more, I’ve profited from a series of conversations and exchanges with Yale’s Dan Kahan, the NSF supported researcher who has made great waves studying how our cultural values predispose us to discount certain risks (like, say, climate change). Kahan’s schematic for approaching this question—dividing
Continue readingknitnut.net: You’re only as old as other people think you look
I have new next-door-neighbours again. In the five years I’ve been here, I’ve had five different sets of people living on the other side of my east wall. The most exciting set was the 23-year-old couple with the five kids (six, now). The last set was several young men who
Continue readingRogers Communications wants to change Ontario law so it can continue ‘misleading advertising’ in peace
I love when the right and big corporations use the ‘free speech’ (or in this case, ‘freedom of expression’) argument from everything to excusing defamation and libel to putting out false claims about products. The legal battle with Rogers began in November 2010, when the bureau went to court to
Continue readingPushed to the Left and Loving It: Americans Fear Their Election Could End up Like Canada’s. I Can Help
In the upcoming election, Barack Obama will not be challenged by the Republicans, who frankly have given up on even pretending to be politicians serving the public, but by the Super PACs. Political Action Committees financed by wealthy corporations, who are tired of democracy getting in their way. Remember that
Continue readingCalgaryGrit: This Week in Alberta – Flanagan Gets Back in the Saddle
With an Alberta election on the horizon this spring, the Wildrose Alliance have brought on Tom Flanagan to manage their campaign. For those of you who have never heard of Tom Flanagan, he was a political science professor at the University of Calgary (go Dinos!), and a key Harper strategist
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Hiking the Retirement Age is the Wrong Answer to the Retirement Crisis
Raising the age of eligibility for Old Age Security/Guaranteed Income Supplement (OAS/GIS) benefits is the worst possible way to deal with the retirement income security crisis facing Canadians. Experts such as former Assistant Chief Statistician Michael Wolfson project that one half of all middle income baby boomers face a severe
Continue readingthe woodshed: What we talk about when we talk about conservatives
Never mind all the guff about Ronald Reagan. Reagan was an amiable-seeming father figure who did what his wife and her astrologer and Exxon told him to do. He regularly fell asleep in Cabinet meetings and by the end of his term didn’t know where he was half the time.Richard Nixon,
Continue readingcartoon life: ebook download surges
Phenomenal, is all I have to say. Phenomenal. Honestly, I think this is great. It is far to easy to read this as though I intend irony or sarcasm, but there are people out there in the world who have freely chosen to look at my art. I think that
Continue readingArt Threat: Reclaiming the Mainstream – Comopolitan magazine gets the alt media treatment
100 Best Sex Tips of the Year. Bigger, Better Pleasure. Shrink Your Inner Thighs! The Smile That Gets You What You Want. The Sexy Confidence Men Can’t Resist. The above are samples of headlines from just the past five issues of Cosmopolitan magazine, a periodical that touts itself as being
Continue readingThose Emergency Blues: A Small Rant from Your Friendly X-ray Tech
A note sent to me from my favourite MRT (Medical Radiation Technologist). A reminder too, that nurses aren’t the centre of the universe, even if we think we are. Some thoughts from an MRT. . . Now I know we aren’t perfect but I feel like a rant about portable
Continue readingConservative fiscal prudence (snicker)
A second Conservative government agency with staff but no function has been discovered by the tenacious Greg Weston. Readers will recall Weston’s coverage of the Canadian Employment Insurance Financing Board, which I wrote about here. Now it’s a million-dollar Public Appointments Commission Secretariat—with no Public Appointments Commission to service. The
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