“I affirm that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Queen of Canada, Her Heirs and Successors, and that I will faithfully observe the laws of Canada and fulfil my duties as a Canadian citizen.” Just kidding. Of course I don’t. This is,
Continue readingTag: Citizenship
wmtc: jason kenney gets his wish: the anglicising of canadian citizenship
In some of the best work I’ve ever done for this blog, I compared “Discover Canada,” the Harper Government’s new Citizenship Guide, to its predecessor, “A Look at Canada,” which was published by several Liberal governments. The results were eye-opening. Based on my analysis of the booklets, I concluded that
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: Canada’s “Refugee Exclusion Act” Clears Commons
What a sad day for Canadian politics! All day today, millions of us were entranced by the epic beginning of the struggle against Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s draconian Budget Bill C-38. In the meantime, the Conservatives used their majority advantage in the House of Commons to pass Immigration minister Jason
Continue readingwmtc: u.s. continues to target its own citizens at the border… which is 100 miles wide
This story — A Montreal university student was detained at the U.S. border, held for several hours, interrogated, had his personal belongings searched and saw his computer confiscated for more than a week. What caught the authorities’ attention? His doctoral research on Islamic studies, he says. In a case that
Continue readingwmtc: jason kenney kills dream of canadian immigration for 280,000 people
Anyone who follows Canadian immigration had to see this coming, although I admit I didn’t think they’d do it in one fell swoop. Just as they have done with refugee claimants, the Harper GovernmentTM created a backlog of immigration applicants… then they got rid of it. More than 280,000 people
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Israel Bans Palestinians From Living With Spouses
“Marriages between Jews and citizens of German or kindred blood are forbidden. Marriages concluded in defiance of this law are void, even if, for the purpose of evading this law, they were concluded abroad.” – Nuremburg Laws, September 15 1935, Germany In the United States by the late 1960s all
Continue readingLaw is Cool: Islamophobia in Canada: A Primer
by Fathima Cader and Sumayya Kassamali Ten years after September 11, 2001, the term “Islamophobia,” once largely obscure, has become all but inevitable when discussing contemporary politics. As Al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden became household names, Western fear of the world’s 1.5 billion Muslims has also grown. Canada has been
Continue readingOccupy Ottawa: A Whistleblower’s Open Letter to the Citizens of Canada
Prime Minister’s Office Tries to Silence Pipeline Critics; Labels Environmental Group “Enemy of the Government of Canada” and “Enemy of the people of Canada.” My name is Andrew Frank. I grew up in a small …Read More
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: The Liberal Identity
The Liberal Party lost the last election not because they didn’t know what they stood for, but because they stopped looking. After the last election many party officials, pundits and members of the public claimed the Liberals lost because they didn’t stand for anything, that Liberals didn’t even know who
Continue readingCanadian Progressive World: Americans: Hell no, corporations are NOT people
For more than half of Americans, corporations aren’t people. It’s that simple. And they shouldn’t enjoy the same constitutional rights as people. That’s according to a study conducted by Legal Progress, a policy program of …Read More
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Leadership 2012 Roundup
Yes, we’re at the point in the campaign where we can’t go a couple of days without plenty of developments – even in the absence of formal debates or other major events. So let’s take a look at how the week ended on the campaign trail. – Niki Ashton received
Continue readingCowboys for Social Responsibility: Thomas Mulcair: He didn’t choose France for you
Thomas Mulcair is French by choice. It’s not terribly difficult to predict the sort of response that a political attack machine could run with this untimely revelation. We’ve seen it all before. A little over five years ago, New Democrats were quick to join the base nativist attacks on Stéphane
Continue readingFiscal demonization of @OccupyTO continues on CTV | #classwarfare
Like clockwork, the corporate media are swinging into action. Or perhaps like robots. Either way, the narrative is being reinforced and amplified. Just now on CTV a “news” report is pegging the cost of Occupy at something over $714,000. Police, EMS, landscaping, etc. Cue the manufactured resentment and the divide-and-conquer
Continue readingwmtc: memo to jason kenney: that’s not how multiculturalism works
Another take on Jason Kenney’s bigotry, by Andrew Potter of the Ottawa Citizen. It would be a lot easier to debate the tough cases of Canadian multiculturalism if people understood how the system actually works. That includes everyone from taxi drivers and barbers to those who spend their time trolling
Continue readingwmtc: citizenship ceremonies now include islamophobia
Last week I learned citizenship ceremonies now include militarism. This week I learn they also include Islamophobia. I’m grateful I became a citizen before this hateful bullshit started. Face veils banned for citizenship oaths The government is placing a ban on face coverings such as niqabs for people swearing their
Continue readingwmtc: the militarization of canadian life continues: citizenship ceremonies now include soldiers
I mentioned this yesterday in my post about the Canadian Peace Alliance’s Peace & Prosperity not War & Austerity campaign, but it deserves special emphasis. In April 2010, I wrote about the Conservative government’s new citizenship guide. This is a booklet sent to all residents of Canada who have applied
Continue readingwmtc: peace & prosperity, not war & austerity: help the canadian peace alliance fight the harper military agenda
Amid the deluge of fundraising appeals that arrive via email and paper mail this time of year, the letter from the Canadian Peace Alliance stood out for me. Under the “Canada First Defence Strategy,” Harper plans to spend $480 billion on the military, open up eight new Canadian military bases,
Continue readingThe Sun’s effect on our national conversation is obvious, but what about the Globe?
It’s a straightforward question: what are people talking about? What’s capturing their attention and imaginations? Public conversation. Nothing gives you a better sense of a community or a society than gauging what people are talking about. (24/7 on Ki…
Continue readingPample the Moose: New Directions in Political History – Post-Conference Observations
Last week, I attended a great conference on Canadian political history, held at York University (full disclosure, I was one of the organizers). About a hundred participants discussed a truly dazzling array of topics, ranging from the new citizenship g…
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