It’s a crisp, foggy November Saturday morning in the south side of the city. Seventeen people sit in the large open area at the back end of an organic fair trade coffee shop run by a workers’ co-op inspired by the Mondragon movement in Spain. Meet-ups like this are quite
Continue readingTag: Colonialism
Politics, Re-Spun: Day One, Post-Mandela
Today is the first day of our world after the Nelson Mandela era. We don’t need to canonize him or consider any messiah characteristics, but we should stop today and reflect on what kind of Mandela legacy we want to carry forward. Here are a few ideas to consider. Chances
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Are We Good Allies to First Nations?
This is what solidarity looks like; make sure it’s authentic! Lots of us care about deepening relationships with and social/economic/political justice for first peoples. It’s hard to come in, though, sometimes as a person from an oppressor or settler class. But there is a good checklist to make sure we’re
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Does Racism Motivate Harper’s Aboriginal Education Funding Stance?
The Prime Minister’s slow clap. It could be racism. It could be concern that over time too many first nations citizens may get too educated and start demanding more in terms of inter-national justice. Or… It could be just that he thinks keeping government spending down is good for his
Continue readingMelissa Fong: Why am I not allowed to have a personality?
Why am I not allowed to have a personality? He smiles at me, “Hey girl, where are you from?” I reply, “Vancouver… Canada.” I’m partly hopeful this will be the end of the interaction… but it has happened so many times that I can see his demise. Why do I
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Chemical Weapons in Syria? Merely a Pretext [Iran, Shhh.]
” It’s the Economy, Stupid.” [Or oil, or gas, or energy…] If you think you know why Syria is happening [and happening NOW], you’re probably missing a number of the elements at play. Don’t expect western governments or the corporate media to enumerate these. Sure, chemical weapons are horrible, but
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: New Prime Minister Tells Canadians- No War With Syria
What should military service actually be for? Wouldn’t it be amazing if Canada were Canada again? Wouldn’t it be even better if Canada would step up and be a better Canada than we had ever been in the past? Wouldn’t it be just spectacular if we could step up and
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: MexAmeriCanada? We Are Not Thinking Creatively Enough
MexAmeriCanada doesn’t have to be our future. I think I’m guilty of being a bit slow and uncreative. The bogeyman of deep integration, North American Union, the United States-ification of Canada, the United States OF Canada, and Canada becoming states #51-60 plus three more protectorates is just too simplistic. We
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: The Occupy Movement Vs. Maquiladoras
Workplace justice: a pipe dream, or something to build solidarity to fight for? I had the distinct, and creepy, pleasure of sitting in front of a group of fellows yesterday in, ironically, the cheap seats at the Seattle Mariners game. They were discussing business. One fellow, who of course may
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: MexAmeriCanada, Version 2013
Welcome to the United States of MexAmeriCanada. Represent! I was just thinking a few days ago how I haven’t used the MexAmeriCanada tag for a while. Did I cause this to happen, in some cosmic kind of way? In the old days it was Canadian Liberal Prime Minister Paul Martin
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Is Harper’s Canada a “Genocide”-Free Zone?
The CMHR: a “genocide”-free zone. Genocide is a pretty serious word. It invokes the Holocaust, Pol Pot, Rwanda and some other high profile human eradication attempts. But Canada, being Canada these days, is loathe to admit that it had any part in any kind of genocide. No. Not us. We’re
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Why We Must #HonourTheApology to Residential School Survivors [#INM]
I don’t know why we still have to do this kind of thing, but here goes. The federal government “apologized” to survivors of residential schools 5 years ago. It is clearly quite empty, considering how much neglect, abuse, victimization and racism has spewed forth from Stephen Harper’s government since then.
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: In Canada, hungry aboriginal kids, adults used as nutritional experiment subjects
In Canada, hungry aboriginal kids and adults were used as unwitting subjects of nutritional experiments by Canadian government bureaucrats during and after World War II, The Canadian Press reported Tuesday. The post In Canada, hungry aboriginal kids, adults used as nutritional experiment subjects appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Canada Day +1, Our Quiet Genocide
A banner drop during last night’s Canada Day celebration in Toronto’s Mel Lastman Square. (Photo: IdleNoMore.ca) Canadians are so nice. We have such a happy, positive self-concept. This makes it quite hard to address the quiet genocide of first peoples that our nation has conducted for centuries. What is genocide?
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Idle No More Canada Day statement: This is stolen Native land
by: Idle No More | Press Release: Photo: Idle No More Activists with No More Silence and Idle No More unveil surprise banner at Canada Day celebration in Toronto, call attention to Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women July 1, 2013 – North York—At this evening’s Canada celebration at Mel Lastman Square, a
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Idle No More And Indigenous Uprisings Guarantee A Sustainable Future
by: Kristin Moe | Article originally published by Yes! Magazine: Idle No More protest on Parliament Hill, Ottawa. Dec 2012 (Photo: Obert Madondo) There’s a remote part of northern Alberta where the Lubicon Cree have lived, it is said, since time immemorial. The Cree called the vast, pine-covered region niyanan askiy, “our
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: The Most Racist Thing I Have Ever Seen Published
Educate First Nations to be modern citizens Don Olsen, The Daily News Published: Wednesday, March 27, 2013 via Educate First Nations to be modern citizens. This is the most racist thing I have ever seen published. The Nanaimo Daily News published a document either as an editorial or a letter
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Rising rhetoric of a new “yellow peril”
The 1921 “Ethnic Outreach” Campaign(Courtesy Past Tense Vancouver) The complaints are familiar – “Asian immigrants are taking our jobs,” “Asian immigrants are buying our property and keeping us out.” Instead of being complaints found in the Richmond Review’s letters-to-the-editor section, however, these are the complaints that were found in a
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Rachel Corrie’s parents speak on 10th anniversary of her death (VIDEO)
By: Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive: Rachel Corrie, a US peace activist, was killed by an Israeli bulldozer in the Gaza Strip as she tried to block the demolition of a Palestinian home. Her parents, Craig and Cindy, speak on the 10th anniversary of the killing of their daughter. WATCH: This
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Inconvenient Truths for White Men
Men, especially white men, sleep too easily at night while women earn 70 per cent of what we do. Secretly, I think we’d prefer to not have to talk about this much. Sure, March 8 and December 6 are days we set aside for reflecting on this, but, most likely,
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