Originally posted on Back of the Book – Imagine buying a house, and being locked out of the basement. That’s what digital locks do too. If you’ve been following Canadian politics, particularly the new Copyright Act (Canada’s DMCA) Bill C-11, you’ve heard of “digital locks”. A digital lock, or Digital
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Saskboy's Abandoned Stuff: ConCalls: Democracy Retired
“Ex-justice department bureaucrat named federal elections commissioner as major investigations continue” It’s one of those announcements where the appropriate response is probably to weep for lost opportunities. Nothing gets done spending time in the fetal position though, so we’ll have to make the most of the less than ideal situation.
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The Timid Squeek of Democracy
Let us sent out a big thanks to the Ontario Swing Voters that brought us this monstrosity known as the Harper Majority Government. The Omnibus bill is the latest poke at the mouldering corpse that is Canadian Politics. Debate? Defence of ideas? Compromise? Not happening in our House of Commons.
Continue readingIlluminated By Street Lamps: Draft Chow 2014
Photograph by/Photo par Montrealais. UPDATE (Sept. 27, 2012) Olivia appears to be willing to consider the idea of running for mayor!At least, she’s not ruling it out! “We’ll see what happens down the road,” she said, when asked again by the Toronto Star if she is willing to run for
Continue readingsomecanuckchick dot com: Fixed Election Date #FAIL
WTF does not even begin to convey my complete and utter shock and disgust… Today, in the House of Commons, during Question Period, the interim leader of the Liberal Party of Canada asked the Prime Minister about Canada’s fixed election date (known as #elxn42 to the #cdnpoli Twitterati), the legislation
Continue readingDrive-by Planet: Rio+20: ‘Fossil of the Day’ award for obstructionist Canada
At the Durban Climate Change Conference last year and now at the Earth Summit in Rio, Canada has been handed “Fossil of the Day” awards in recognition of its burgeoning reputation as a global leader in environmental obstructionism – not to mention its active role as trasher of environmental protections.
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: With new NDP shadow cabinet, Mulcair plots Harper’s 2015 defeat
Last week’s 24-hour House of Commons vote on Stephen Harper‘s draconian budget Bill C-38, the “Growth and Long-Term Prosperity Act”, ended in a dramatic fashion. The New Democratic Party (NDP), the Official Opposition, concluded the vote with a spontaneous: Deux mille quinze! Deux mille quinze! Deux mille quinze! chant. That’s French
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: Hypocrisy on Free Speech and “Protecting Freedom.”
On June 6th (the same night that the trans human rights Bill C-279 advanced to committee) Conservative MP for Westlock – St. Paul, Brian Storseth’s Private Member’s Bill C-304, An Act to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act (protecting freedom), passed Third Reading in the House of Commons, and advanced
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: Google Exposes Harper Government’s Growing Internet Censorship Appetites
In a report released late Sunday, Google tells us Canada has joined the ranks of countries aggressively stepping up efforts to censor online political dissent through “censorship requests” to the giant search engine. Passport Canada authorities asked Google to block public access to “a YouTube video of a Canadian citizen
Continue readingPaul S. Graham: Video: Stop Cuts to Refugee Health Care in Canada
Winnipeg, June 18, 2012: Opposition to the Harper government’s plan to cut health care for refugees is gaining momentum across Canada. Joining in a National Day of Action Against Refugee Health Cuts, about 500 Winnipeggers rallied at The Forks to hear from health care professionals and newcomers to Canada about
Continue readingThe War of 1812—a non-Canadian event
That Mr. Harper and his colleagues are all gung-ho about the War of 1812, and spending millions on commemorating it, is hardly surprising. Reactionaries seem to have a thing about war. Perhaps it appeals to their need for simplicity, for seeing issues in black and white, us and them, and
Continue readingFrom Orangutan: English language sources still few, far between, and flawed
As I remain astounded by both the lack of English language coverage of the Quebec student movement and the erroneous and misguided quality of the English language reports that do exist, I am becoming more convinced that the only way to understand the big picture of the situation is to have enough
Continue readingFrom Orangutan: English language sources still few, far between, and flawed
As I remain astounded by both the lack of English language coverage of the Quebec student movement and the erroneous and misguided quality of the English language reports that do exist, I am becoming more convinced that the only way to understand the big picture of the situation is to have enough
Continue readingFrom Orangutan: English language sources still few, far between, and flawed
As I remain astounded by both the lack of English language coverage of the Quebec student movement and the erroneous and misguided quality of the English language reports that do exist, I am becoming more convinced that the only way to understand the big picture of the situation is to have enough French knowledge to be able to access French language media. Practically speaking, there are simply more francophone journalists out there producing a diversity of works from varying perspectives, which is always a good thing to have when attempting to understand any historical event.
BUT, that said, I am thrilled that at least anglophones have the volunteer initiative, Translating the printemps érable (or Translating the Maple Spring), which continues to churn out translations of selected French language media for the noble purpose of better informing the English-reading public. Meanwhile, I am still maintaining my own running list of works in English that fairly portray the current situation in Quebec, so please check it out to add more dimensions to your understanding of what is really going on. Remember, mainstream journalism is sometimes not a representation of what is real, but rather a vehicle with which organizations make lots of money. Somewhere along the way, the pursuit of capitalism trumped that of truth. Sadly these days, we really need to pose not just one, but several questions about all the “news” we read. Otherwise, as with politics, there is a good chance we are being manipulated for reasons that have nothing to do with being accurately informed.
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Free Post-Secondary Education Makes Money
Free post-secondary education would increase incomes, and income taxes would not just recover the initial cost to government but would actually generate additional public revenue. This paper from the Canadian Centre of Policy Alternatives compares incomes from higher education and the subsequent increased government revenue from income taxes, and finds
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: Harper’s Canada “Making Up Terror Identities”
In Stephen Harper’s Canada, we’re all potential terror threats. Until proven otherwise. So suggests a recent study by Queens University’s Jeffrey Monaghan and Kevin Walby, published in the journal Policing and Society. Welcome to Multi Issue Extremism (MIE), Canada’s new classification of so-called domestic terror threats. We saw it coming.
Continue readingDriving The Porcelain Bus: NDP Rise To 37%, Conservatives Drop To 30%
Since Tom Mulcair was chosen to lead the party back in March, the NDP has maintained a strong support across Canada, which has continued to grow. The opposite is true for the Conservatives. Their support has been steadily dropping. Canadians are becoming more aware of the scandals plaguing them. And
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Nature’s Environment Is Man
Facing an unprecedented environmental crisis a world summit like no other was called. “We have to do something, we can’t let our environment just die.” A member of the Dirt delegation said with the driest of throats. Other representatives of the world’s nature lined the large circular table. Tree’s foreign
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Ideology Involves Action
Efficiency has no allegiances and your beliefs are meaningless if you do nothing about them. These are two messages for the federal Liberals in Canada and they come from Tea Party supporter and Arizona Congressman David Schweikert (video below) “How do you teach people that a movement isn’t sitting around
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Arguments For Free Post-Secondary Education
1. Free post-secondary education is a student loan that the country takes out and gets more money back than it ever put in. The government will receive more money from income taxes on the resulting increased salaries and wages of graduates than it spent on the initial investment for free
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