Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Paul Theroux comments on the gall of corporations who move jobs to the cheapest, least-safe jurisdictions possible while trumpeting their own supposed contributions to the countries they leave behind. And Wilma Liebman sees more progressive labour legislation as one of the keys to
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Accidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood highlights how the Trans-Pacific Partnership will do little but strengthen the hand of the corporate sector against citizens. Duncan Cameron notes that even in the face of a full-court press for ever more stringent corporate controls, there’s plenty of well-justified
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On uncosted liabilities
So even from the sketchy details made public so far, and even leaving aside the more general harm done by limiting government action and entrenching corporate monopolies, the Trans-Pacific Partnership will cost Canada: $4.3 billion in compensation to dairy, chicken and egg farmers Up to 20,000 lost jobs in the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Joseph Heath discusses how the Volkswagen emission cheating scandal fits into a particular type of corporate culture: (W)hen the Deepwater Horizon tragedy occurred, or now the VW scandal, it was hardly surprising to people who follow these things. Certain industries essentially harbour and reproducing
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Ian Welsh writes that the Harper Cons have destroyed Canada’s historic economic balance by scrapping the parts of the manufacturing sector which previously provided a buffer against low resource prices. And Bruce Campbell compares Canada’s record on climate change to Norway’s, and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your weekend reading. – Alex Himelfarb highlights the vicious circle the Harper Cons have created and driven when it comes to public services: Today’s austerity is not a response to fiscal crisis. The 2012 budget demonstrated that it’s about redefining the purpose of government, about dismantling, brick
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On distinguishing factors
The common personalities and strategies by tired right-wing governments are leading to some comparisons between the ongoing Canadian campaign and the UK’s election earlier this year. But even as we treat David Cameron’s re-election as an important warning, let’s note that there’s a rather crucial difference between the two. In
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – The Equality Trust reminds us that economic inequality leads to harmful health consequences even for the lucky few at the top of the income scale. And Matt Bruenig observes that a basic income would provide workers with far more scope to avoid employer
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on how we should call out the Cons’ bigotry surrounding the niqab for its own ill intent as well as for its effect of distracting from more substantive election issues. For further reading…– The Supreme Court of Canada’s decision confirming that the niqab is a matter of religious freedom
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Rosemary Barton discusses why it’s in Canada’s best interest on the global stage to work on building strong multilateral institutions (including the UN) rather than counting on bluster to make a difference. But Gus van Harten notes that we’re instead signing onto
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Armine Yalnizyan sees the Volkswagen emissions test cheating as a classic example of the dangers of relying on business to do anything toward the social good without facing strong and effectively-enforced regulations. And George Monbiot describes just a few of the preposterous new
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Assorted content to start your week. – Robert Reich writes that the most important source of growing inequality in the U.S. is a political system torqued to further enrich those who already had the most: The underlying problem, then, is not just globalization and technological changes that have made most
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Jennifer Wells writes about the drastic difference in pay between CEOs and everybody else. And Henry Farrell interviews Lauren Rivera about the advantage privileged children have in being able to rely on parents’ social networks and funding rather than needing to learn
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Burning question
Even leaving aside the past politicians who we’d expect to be mentioned in an election, the Cons’ ultra-long, ultra-nasty campaign has managed to drag three of the top ten Greatest Canadians into the political muck. So who has Frederick Banting in the pool?
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Yonatan Strauch and Thomas Homer-Dixon discuss how the Cons’ economic plans involve betting against our planet. And David Macdonald notes that the supposed reward for prioritizing oil profits over a sustainable future is to stagnate at recession-level employment rates. – James Bagnall documents
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Readiness!!!
Ladies and gentlemen, the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada: Sitting in his riding office in Montreal, Cotler says he didn’t like C-51, despite ultimately voting for it. The Liberals, he says, supported C-51 largely out of political considerations. “The party voted against the multilateral mission [against ISIS]. Then
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Angella MacEwen comments on the fight for universal child care, along with the lessons we can learn from Quebec’s experience. And Claire Cain Miller notes that inequality in the workplace extends to benefits as well as wages – with child care included alongside
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Lies and the lying liars who tell them
Ideally, this would be the end of the story when it comes to Stephen Harper’s callous and desperate attempt to claim the Terry Fox Foundation’s reputation for his own. But there’s reason for serious doubt that will happen – and indeed the Cons may end up treating the story as
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Jim Stanford discusses how the Trans-Pacific Partnership is renegotiating NAFTA – and taking away what little Canada salvaged in that deal. And Jared Bernstein highlights the TPP’s impact on prescription drug costs. – Rick Smith rightly challenges the effort some people have
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Kevin Carmichael compares the federal parties’ promises to help parents and concludes the NDP’s child care plan to hold far more social and economic benefit, while Natascia Lypny likewise finds that parents are more interested in actual affordable child-care spaces than tax baubles.
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