I never reprint other people’s writings, no matter how good – but I will make an exception for this. This article is a true must-read. Please, take the time to read it. Then act. Good morning America. It’s time for a new day. Kudos and warm thanks to Jill Dalton
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Accidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Stephen Maher follows up on this week’s Supreme Court ruling on Etobicoke Centre by pointing out where we should be most worried about our electoral system: Fraudulent voting is far from the biggest problem facing our democracy. Disengagement is. Voting rates are declining
Continue readingSong of the Watermelon: An Open Letter to Stephen Harper Regarding Senate Reform
Dear Prime Minister Stephen Harper: I am writing today in response to reports that you will seek a Supreme Court reference on the constitutionality of your proposals for Senate reform. In a way, I can understand this. You would like clarity on a politically tricky issue, one that would otherwise
Continue readingCanadian Progressive World: The day Canada’s white supremacists saluted Stephen Harper
So far, Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s ideology-inspired of project of social and political engineering expresses itself most eloquently as the Conservatives’ egregious assault on civil liberties, the metamorphosis of Canada into a petro-state, and militarization of both Canadian society and foreign policy. We’re yet to acknowledge how this project oppresses
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Why Boy Scouts of America is allowed to discriminate: Comparing US and Canadian human rights laws
I recently expressed outrage over the Boy Scouts of America’s decision to continue banning members who were LGBT or atheists/agnostics. Ideally, groups like BSoA would be able to figure out for themselves that this homophobic and discriminatory policy is not acceptable. But there is also a legal question as to
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: The Difference In Popularity Between NDP & Its Principles
How could the Conservatives or the Liberals weaken the New Democratic Party? Show Canadians what New Democrats stand for, the end of capitalism. Because both Conservatives and Liberals have for so long ignored the NDP’s first principle, socialism, it may seem like an exaggeration to ordinary Canadians that the orange
Continue readingbastard.logic: Happy 30th Anniversary, Canadian Charter of Rights & Freedoms
According to Louise Arbour, Canada’s internationally renowned & universally lauded Charter of Rights & Freedoms (HBD, eh?) “has transformed a country obsessed with the federal-provincial division of powers and enabled it to address its diversity in a substantive, principled way.” Gee. No wonder Harpercon insurrectionists can’t stand the fucking thing.
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: On unnecessarily codifying specific freedoms such as the freedom of religion
Should there be explicit protection for the freedom of religion in the founding documents of society? This question may at first seem to be an obvious ‘yes’ since almost everyone – including most atheists such as myself – consider it to be abundantly clear that people should have the freedom
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: The Undemocratic Conservative Coalition
There is only one federal party in Canada that calls for the creation of a coalition. Of the four major political organizations, there is only one that has in its constitution as one of its founding principles the responsibility to develop such a union. It isn’t the Green Party, it
Continue readingThe Scott Ross: Does Stephen Harper Support Coalitions?
If coalitions are undemocratic and a threat to Canada, why hasn’t this strong stable Conservative majority government done anything to make sure they don’t ravage our nation? Simple, Stephen Harper supports coalitions. Just over three years ago Stephen Harper and members of his party said coalitions were a threat to
Continue readingCalgaryLiberal: Liberal Convention 2012: The Need For Open Primaries
In 2011 I was on the convention floor in Calgary, Alberta, advocating for the same change that is in front of the federal Liberals today (see constitution document here [PDF]). I spoke of openness, inclusion, the need for a new force in politics, and the empowerment that an open primary
Continue readingA BCer in Toronto: 36 proposed Liberal constitutional amendments dissected and explained
Happy New Year to all; I hope you enjoyed the holidays. EspeciallyChristmas. I won’t say I’m resolving toblog more this year but I will try, and I’m sure I definitely will be in thenext few weeks as we head into the 2012 Liberal Biennial convention in Ottawa,beginning January 12th. I’m
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Occupy Wall Street: The emerging global pro-democracy movement, where it stands, what it means, and where we go from here
The Occupy Wall Street movement, which has already become a global grassroots populist pro-democracy movement, if we have eyes to see, has clearly already won a broad and growing base of support. What is needed now, I believe, is to further clarify and…
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Occupy Wall St. – Letters to friends and family, and an overview of what is unfolding now
What is happening is momentus. It could go wrong, it could fizzle out, or it could be co-opted, but at present, by all I can see, it is hopeful: here are a few letters I sent to friends and family on the subject, that aimed to clarify and also to empow…
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: Let us make one thing perfectly clear
Ontario is parliamentary democracy, albeit within it’s own constitutional jurisdiction. As such it is the Ontario legislature that determines who will be in the government and form the Cabinet. As in all parliamentary democracies a government is legiti…
Continue readingLetter to federal MP Matthew Kellway (Beaches-East York).
Dear Mr. Kellway,I am writing to you as resident of Beaches-East York to express my concerns regarding the government’s Bill C-32, An Act to Amend the Copyright Act. While this Bill does make for some reasonable reforms, it contains two serious flaws.F…
Continue readingTHE FIFTH COLUMN: Thinking It Through Brings Clarity
So what is an atheist who believes in a single secular public school system supposed to think about noon hour Muslim prayers in public schools.The answer should be simple but first let us look at the context.In the province of Ontario there are two pub…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading.
– Gerald Caplan rightly asks what media outlets think they have to gain by promoting anti-Muslim bigotry:
The goal of the Muslim-haters is surely clear enough. By lumping all Muslims together as terrorists, b…
Things Are Good: Iceland Turns to the People for Constitutional Reform
Iceland is a fantastic place that the rest of the world can learn from. They get 99% of their energy from geothermal power and have perhaps the most open government the world has ever seen. Recently they turned to the power of social media to rewrite their constitution!
In many ways then, the new Iceland constitution […]
Death By Trolley: Is Obama a Fauxgressive – a Fake Progressive, or Simply a Non-Progressive?
Is Barack Obama a fake progressive (fauxgressive), or simply a non-progressive?
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