Privatizing education in BC has been largely subtle and hidden. Absurd conflicts like this below [Restricted Vancouver playground access sparks angry exchange between [PRIVATE!] school principal, parent] help the general public see what’s actually been going on for a long time with private schools. Mine mine mine mine mine mine
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Politics, Re-Spun: Being a Better Ally: #IWD
Click me; it’s good for you! International Women’s Day is a check-in point for me: I try to take stock of what has improved or worsened since last year. Doing so helps me be a better ally. Our soul as a nation has suffered this past year. It has suffered
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Looking for Heroes?
I’ve been watching The Book of Negroes this week. I have no words. I only recognize justice, integrity, brutality, acknowledgement, witnessing, story telling and a myriad of other foggy responses. It’s easy to also ponder qualities of heroes. Then I read this from earlier this week, and nodded. Do you
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: But Will Harper’s C-51 Save Us From Mad Cow? No!
Harper’s terrorist legislation doesn’t protect us from the REAL menace! #RejectFear Stephen Harper’s Anti-Terror Bill C-51 needs to be expanded to give CSIS the authority to thwart the mad cow threat and beef up Farmland Security. via The Bovine Threat – YouTube. November 14, 2010 Harper + Aung San Suu
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Stephen Harper: Racist AND a Hypocrite!
Just WHO should be covering up? I recall once that Stephen Harper believed in championing religious freedom. Except for people he doesn’t like. Now he’s appealing a federal court ruling allowing people to exercise their religious freedom by becoming citizens while not publicly removing their niqab. But why, you ask?
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Ever Wonder How the 1% Talks to Each Other? Shhh. Listen!
It’s not a secret language, it’s a style, an effervescence. A whimsicality. It’s like how people stand when they’re shopping in Tiffany’s. You feel me? Read on about a new luxury property on Georgia in downtown Vancouver [emphasis is mine]: The Penthouse Upstairs, in the 48th-floor penthouse, it is a
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: The So-Called Transit Referendum: Don’t Be Duped!
By Emily Griffiths The Transit referendum “Yes” campaign has been asserting itself all over Facebook, Twitter, neighbourhood news boxes, and I can’t help but ask myself, Since when is increasing a flat tax a leftist thing to do? Oh! The word “transit” has been attached to the newest proposed consumer
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: You Deserve Better Wages and Benefits
Right wingers want to pay no tax. It’s hard to bleat about that in public without sounding like the greedy, selfish people they are. Instead, they say that public sector workers are paid too much, and that we should privatize everything. THAT way, governments get to starve themselves to the
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Yet Another Logistical Solution to Homelessness
So, Utah has been eradicating homelessness by giving people homes. The bonus is that it’s easier and cheaper to provide social services to people when their housing needs are met. From Amsterdam, we see yet another logistical solution for emergency housing while we have a national dialogue on a national
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: How to Excuse Your Child from the Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA)
Well, it’s that time again: Foundation Skills Assessment in BC. There are so many things wrong with the FSA tests. I won’t go into them here, but you can read about many of them in these places: Foundation Skills Assessment: Another Dirty Trick The BCTF on the FSAs. And so
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Who Cares About Fixing Poverty in BC?
Well, it’s the Poverty Reduction Coalition! One of their many activities is to send recommendations to the government when the government deigns to ask people for their ideas. The Finance Committee is an all-party committee of the legislature, so the government usually ignores their recommendations. As citizens, we need to
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Which BC Corporations Would YOU Like to Euthanize?
Oh, what a list it would be! Enbridge? Kinder Morgan [the zombie child of Enron]? Imperial Metals [fanciful producers of the Mount Polley Mine disaster]? Other companies that treat workers badly like IKEA or Rocky Mountain Railtours? Capitalism is all about worshiping Frankencorporations that are immortal, legally a human being,
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Why the Police Don’t Know Why People Don’t Trust Them
Laval police delete controversial photo from social media | Montreal Gazette. This is why the police don’t know why people don’t trust them. That, and killing First Nations youth, people of colour, immigrants and the mentally ill. Laval police delete controversial photo from social media | Montreal Gazette. Now, contrast
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Shhh, The Bold Revolution Has Started
We live in tumultuous times: Ferguson and other non-indictments of white police who murdered people of colour ISIL and other extremism Stephen Harper’s continued assault on democracy and embrace of soft fascism [has he had CRA audit YOUR favourite progressive group yet?] Accusations against Jian Ghomeshi Accusations against Bill Cosby
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Imagine, Re-Imagine the Strawberries
i’m imagining it again tonight the mosaic tiles in strawberry fields in my ether in the intersection of idealist moonbeams and #BlackLivesMatter marchers swirling under the Manhatten hum [or is it a pulse?] feeling the tranquility of the mosaic despite being just steps from the Dakota. i didn’t know then
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Even Capitalists Are Starting to See the Zombies in the Tarsands!
What kind of oil investments become zombies with cheap oil? [Shhh, it’s the Solstice today, but don’t tell the carbon energy sector!] Extracting and burning oil, gas and coal [the carbon criminals destroying our climate] is a bad move. Capitalists, zombies themselves seeking to maximize shareholder wealth at the expense
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Alberta Government Begins to Sunset Oil Production
Edmonton’s Eastgate: What are those cylinders in the background? This week, as an early Christmas present to the province, the world and future generations, the Alberta government has begun the process of completely ending oil, coal and gas production in the province within a generation. Citing its historic mismanagement of
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Confusing People with a Die-In in a Mall?
Shoppers didn’t quite know what to make of the whole thing. via Protesters Bring West London To Standstill In Solidarity With Eric Garner And Michael Brown – BuzzFeed News. I can see their faces, up on that top floor. Looking down. Confused. Concerned. Or…moved to silence? Were they unsure of
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Entitlements? What About Understanding UNentitlements?
Punishing irony. OK, I’m fine admitting it. I focus on entitlements a lot. I’m often trying to encourage people to examine our unexamined entitlements: race, age, economic class, gender, sexuality, etc. But one way to understand entitlements is to understand how unentitlements work. I’m guilty of overlooking this. Until today.
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Ferguson?
If there’s anything you can learn from Ferguson this morning, it’s that we need to check our race- and class-based social, political and economic entitlements. It’s the least we can do this morning. "If racism is something you're sick of hearing about, imagine how exhausting it must be living it
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