Here’s a quick lesson on the human microphone. Because voice amplification in public spaces is banned in New York, where Occupy Wall Street (#ows) began, the large crowds attending have adapted by breaking speeches into short phrases, which those near the speaker repeat loudly, then those further away, and so on, so that the words 
Tag: Canadian Politics
Politics and Entertainment: Deconstructiing the Binary Opposition of Politics and Policy in the Harper Regime
Where good politics meets good policy :Dan Gardner’s column in the citizen today. I can count on one finger “good policies” from the Harper Regime, and that finger shakes when the wind blows and twitches when I sleep. Yes, no question Harper would se…
Continue readingcentre of the universe: The Trouble with Tri….al and Error
Let me just say that I am having a *great* deal of difficulty giving a damn about the election. “What election?” You might ask. That’s about how I feel about it, to be honest. In fact, I don’t even want … Continue reading …
Continue reading350 or bust: Finally, Some Good News Out Of Ottawa: All-Party Climate Caucus Formed
Thanks in large part to the hard work of Kirsty Duncan, Liberal MP for Etobicoke North and IPCC scientist, a new House of Commons “climate change” caucus has been formed. Duncan, who championed this initiative, said “I am delighted that my co…
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: Thoughts on the long gun resgistry’s future – or its potential future incarnation
The Conservatives have decided to go even further then they previously stated in going after the destruction of the long-gun registry – now, not only will they kill it, they want to destroy all of the database of long guns collected, in order to try and prevent a future federal government from resurrecting it, or a provincial government from doing its own.
Is this surprising? Nope. The fate of the long gun registry was sealed when the Conservatives got their majority, and since they’ve gotten their majority, they’ve tended to use it to taunt their political opponents. Part of this is no doubt intended to mollify their core constituency […]
Continue readingeaves.ca: As Canada Searches for its Open Government Partnership Commitments: A Proposal
Just before its launch in New York on September 20th, the Canadian Government agreed to be a signatory of the Open Government Partnership (OGP). Composed of over 40 countries the OGP signatories are required to create a list of commitments they promise to implement. Because Canada signed on just before the deadline it has not […]
Continue readingMatthew McAskill Chisholm: RCEN Cuts: Not Just About Jobs
Canada World Youth intern, Justin Chisholm (writing for the Sierra Youth Coalition), analyzes the recent cuts to the Canadian Environmental Network. Minister of Environment Hon. Peter Kent and the federal government have severed a thirty-four year relationship with the Canadian … Continue reading →
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: Thought on the Supreme Court panel process
I didn’t get a chance to address this when it came up the last week and a bit, but I wanted to say that the MP panel that “questioned” Harper’s Supreme Court nominees seems to me to be a big waste of time and taxpayer money. It could possibly be my reaction to some of the questions that were lobbed the nominees way – not just by the government MP’s but the opposition MP’s as well – but overall, if the panel has no power in objecting to the judges and say, voting to reject them, I don’t see the point in it.
Does that mean I want […]
Continue readingwmtc: stop the insanity: oppose bill c-10
LeadNow.ca petition here.We know that Stephen Harper thinks the United States is the GNOTFOTE, but of all the things to emulate about the US, the prison-industrial complex is a particularly poor choice.* When conservatives in Texas tell you a prison st…
Continue readingMolly'sBlog: Molly’sBlog 2011-10-21 01:40:00
CANADIAN POLITICS:STOP PUBLIC HOUSING PRIVATIZATION IN ONTARIO:The following appeal is from the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP).***************Stop the Sell Off of Toronto Community Housing!STOP THE SELL OFF OF TORONTO HOUSING!Statement fro…
Continue readingThe 1 % responds: We all have lobbyists!
As the CBC bends over backwards to be fair and balanced they gave the top 1% the opportunity to respond to the Occupy Movement. I will not bother with the all the detail of the rather detail-less criticism of the … Continue reading →
Continue readingPolitics and Entertainment: Jim Stanford: Out of Equilibrium: The Implications of CETA
Out of Equilibriam from Jim Sadlemyer on Vimeo.
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Why I voted as I did in the Ontario Election
While I wrote quite a few blog posts on the 2011 Ontario Election, both generally and specifically with regards to my riding of Parkdale-Highpark, I never actually indicated precisely who I was voting for. I thus explain my reasoning here, belatedly, p…
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: You know your crime bills are way out in right field….
…when Texas conservatives/Republicans condemn it as not workable and overly expensive, and instead believe money spent on rehabilitation and such is the smarter way to go, and much more effective:
On a recent trip to Texas, an array of conservative voices told CBC News that Texas tried what Canada plans to do – and it failed…Rep. Jerry Madden, a conservative Republican who heads the Texas House Committee on Corrections…found that Texas had diverted money from treatment and probation services to building prisons. But sending people to prison was costing 10 times as much as putting them on probation, on parole, or in treatment. “It was kinda silly, what we […]
Continue readingRed Tory v.3.0.3: Can OWS Get Traction in Canada?
Tony Keller, executive fellow at the Mowat Centre at the University of Toronto (amongst other things), advances the sensible Canadian reaction to the OWS movement, arguing that many of the reforms protesters in the United States are calling for have … Continue reading →
centre of the universe: The Inevitable
You might not know this about me, but in a little under three weeks, I am going to be going to the Greater Metro Lumsden Downtown Core Community Hall to do some serious, *serious* civic duty. Hardcore civic duty. And … Continue reading →
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: The sensitivity of the Ontario election results to the Green Party vote
One of the interesting results of the Ontario general election was the collapse of the Green Party from its 2007 peak of 8% down to just over 3% in 2011. In this post I run the math on various counterfactual scenarios to see what would have happe…
Continue readingScott's DiaTribes: #Occupy Toronto pictures.
While in Toronto for the day on Saturday for our Progressive Blogger meet-up, some of us bloggers sauntered down to Bay Street to check out the Occupy Toronto “pre-protest” protest that had sprung up. There was about a crowd of 1000 there – quite a few gawkers, reporters and curious onlookers out of that bunch. There were a lot of placards and a lot of people handing stuff out. I personally got a “Free Private Bradley Manning” pamphlet – he who helped leak docum,ents to Wikileaks. Some of the stuff we saw was a bit out there. I know that because one of the bloggers down there with […]
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: If all the Occupy movement accomplishes is…
If all the Occupy movement accomplishes is to remind a public that protests and activism aren’t merely something that “fringe activists” do, and If all the Occupy movement accomplishes is to politically re-energize a public that has largely grown too apathetic to vote, and If all the Occupy movement accomplishes is to remind society that 
Dented Blue Mercedes: Hate Speech on Trial in Canada
If you lived in certain parts of Edmonton, Regina, Saskatoon, Toronto over the past decade, there’s a chance you’ve encountered or at least heard about flyers distributed by Bill Whatcott. These fliers are typically peppered with photos of naked or half-naked gay men kissing (or in at least one instance, engaging in oral sex), with 