One of the many things that makes me uncomfortable with the way our laws work is the abundance and acceptance of confidentiality rules. I’m thinking about things like clauses in employment contracts that prohibit the employee from talking with their coworkers about how much they earn. This allows employers to
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Another Step to Take: is there such a thing as a neutral education system?
I love it when similar or related ideas appear in several parts of my life at once. There’s been a number of things that come together to make me think again about education and the question of whether an education system can be neutral. I write about this as someone
Continue readingAnother Step to Take: Interacting with those we disagree with
What do you do with people you don’t agree with? Do you agree to keep quiet about the topics you disagree on? Do you cut them out of your life? Or keep them in your life but with a mental note not to take seriously any of their opinions? Do
Continue readingAnother Step to Take: my thoughts on Paved With Good Intentions: Canada’s development NGOs from idealism to imperialism
I’m getting ready to return the book Paved With Good Intentions: Canada’s development NGOs from idealism to imperialism by Kikolas Barry-Shaw and Dru Oja Jay back to the friend who lent it to me, but I want to make a few notes about ideas I found interesting. I know a different friend who
Continue readingAnother Step to Take: Tears for Nanertak – a children’s book about climate change
I received in the mail an absolutely stunning hard covered picture book to review. It is called Tears for Nanertak and it is written and illustrated by Skip Hofstrand. As I look through it I can imagine myself wandering the halls of an art gallery admiring an arctic exhibit. The
Continue readingAnother Step to Take: Thoughts on a City Council Meeting
I went yesterday to a city council meeting. I was there with just over 30 people to watch the passing of a motion to have our city council request that the provincial government reverse the cuts to the Community Start Up and Maintenance Benefit. So the part I was there
Continue readingAnother Step to Take: Personal Responsibility in the Age of Unlimited Choices
Have you ever heard of “cafeteria religion”? The term refers to the idea of people treating religion like a buffet table where they can pick and choose what parts they want rather than accept someone else’s menu. It is an idea I’ve had trouble with for a while. On one
Continue readingAnother Step to Take: safety, efficiency, cost of human lives and work
My children watched part of Back to the Future III a few days ago and afterwards expressed surprise at the amount of walking on train tracks that happens in the show. “Isn’t that dangerous?” they asked and I fumbled to explain how the absolute risk wasn’t that high but that
Continue readingThings Are Good: A Better Approach Than Zero Tolerance in Schools
A school in Walla Walla was essentially a dumping ground for all the students deemed to have behavioural problems and their explosion rate was through the roof. This all changed when a principal ditched the atrocious zero tolerance policy that the school was using (many schools in North America punish
Continue readingThings Are Good: Talking About Cities With People Who Don’t Live in One
When it comes to talking about the divide between urban and non-urban living there’s more differences than just who lives in a more sustainable community. People living in non-urban areas just don’t understand the positive urban living that is being espoused, and in fact, can take insult to how pro-urban
Continue readingPolitics Canada: Liberals need an aggressive communications strategy
The only way to stop the Conservative attack machine is to hit it back, hard. This means creating an attack ad that will register with viewers, something that the Liberals have not been very effective at. While it is good to see the quick response from Rae, it will probably
Continue readingPolygonic: La France Forte, or Why You Desperately Need Sarko Standing On the Beach
The French presidential campaign is kicking into high gear, and Nicolas Sarkozy has one key message for his ungrateful people: vote him back in, and he promises to spend his second term standing on the beach, like a magnificant granite Colossus, liquifying overseas demons with the sheer power of his
Continue readingChallenging the Commonplace: Why Not a Metered Internet?
The headline of the Globe and Mail article asks the question, Why Not a Metered Internet?
The argument that follows defends the big telecoms in terms of market forces: for example, the cost of infrastructure building.
Here’s a different answer to the…
Continue readingChallenging the Commonplace: Why Not a Metered Internet?
The headline of the Globe and Mail article asks the question, Why Not a Metered Internet? The argument that follows defends the big telecoms in terms of market forces: for example, the cost of infrastructure building. Here’s a different answer to the question: with a metered Internet we would have
Continue readingChallenging the Commonplace: Why Not a Metered Internet?
The headline of the Globe and Mail article asks the question, Why Not a Metered Internet? The argument that follows defends the big telecoms in terms of market forces: for example, the cost of infrastructure building. Here’s a different answer to the question: with a metered Internet we would have
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