Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Paul Krugman points out how the U.S.’ corporate elites are agitating to make sure that any economic recovery helps only those at the top, rather than reaching most workers in the form of wage increases: Suddenly, it seems as if all the serious
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Wise Law Blog: Blurred Lines – Privacy and the Work/Personal Computer
BY ANA KRALJEVIC, LAWYER, WISE LAW OFFICEIn today’s computer age, almost all of our actions, from banking to online shopping to private communications with loved ones can be accessed and viewed with just a few clicks and single successful password attempt. And while this naturally raises security concerns regarding privacy in
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, questioning the Saskatchewan Party’s belief that meeting the province’s constitutional duty to provide correctional centre inmates with the basic necessities of life isn’t a “core” government function. For further reading:– CTV reports on the label the Sask Party has applied to correctional food services (and the resulting privatization process)
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – George Monbiot criticizes the UK Cons’ latest effort to outlaw any form of individual action or expression which might intrude upon the corporate bubble: The existing rules are bad enough. Introduced by the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act, antisocial behaviour orders (asbos)
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Robert Reich laments the indecency of gross inequality (and the economic policies designed to exacerbate it): (F)or more than three decades we’ve been going backwards. It’s far more difficult today for a child from a poor family to become a middle-class or wealthy
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – The Economist discusses research by Miles Corak and others on intergenerational inequality. And interestingly, other studies seem to suggest Corak has actually underestimated the barriers to social mobility: THE “Great Gatsby curve” is the name Alan Krueger, an economic adviser to Barack
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Speech From The Throne
As expected, yesterday's Speech From The Throne was a mixed bag of feel good items and attempts to set political traps for future governments. As expected Harper starts off by trying to brag about his economic record: Last year’s deficit was less than forecast. Our Government will balance the budget
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Debbie Chachra discusses why an effective government is a necessary element of civilization – and why charity can’t fill in the gap: Taxes aren’t the only way to pay for civilization, of course: community groups, charities, and churches also contribute. But I
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: On Vancouver Island, Women Still Get a Taste of Frontier Justice
If you’re going to run afoul of the law on Vancouver Island, you had better hope and pray you’re not female. If a man is arrested in Victoria and goes before the court and his case is adjourned for a few days for a bail hearing, he arrives at the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Thomas Walkom writes that yesterday’s minor tinkering aside, the goal of the Cons’ temporary foreign worker program is still to drive down Canadian wages. And Miles Corak argues that the resulting distortion of employment markets shouldn’t be any more acceptable to a libertarian
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Yves Engler highlights the two-tiered justice system exacerbated by the Harper Cons, as anybody with a sufficient level of privilege avoids any punishment for wrongdoing: One law for the rulers and another for the rest of us — wasn’t that supposed to
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
This and that to end your Saturday. – Bill Curry breaks the news of the Cons’ next round of public service slashing – with Canada Revenue Agency employees whose work far more than pays for itself once more looming as one of the main targets of a government determined to
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Jeremy Hammond: Aaron Swartz & the Criminalization of Digital Dissent
It is not the “crimes” Aaron (Swartz) may have committed that made him a target of federal prosecution, but his ideas – elaborated in his “Guerrilla Open Access Manifesto” – that the government has found so dangerous. By Jeremy Hammond – #18729-424 | Metropolitan Correctional Center, Feb. 20, 2013: The tragic
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Human Rights Watch report confirms sexist and racist violence endured by Aboriginal women
By Canadian Association of Sexual Assault Centres | Feb. 18, 2013: “This (Human Rights Watch) report confirms frontline evidence of sexist and racist violence endured by Aboriginal women. Frontline centers have recorded and protested this violence over many years,” says Lee Lakeman for CASAC. Since 2001 CASAC has been focusing particular attention on
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Yves Engler discusses the importance of a “social wage” – and how the minimum standard of living we’re prepared to tolerate affects the well-being of all kinds of workers: These attacks against the poor and unemployed should be opposed by anyone who
Continue readingCanadian ProgressiveCanadian Progressive: Rolling Stone: Inside The FBI Plot Against Occupy
On this one year anniversary of the Occupy Canada movement, here’s a magnificent piece of reporting by Rolling Stone‘s Sabrina Rubin Erdely, on how the United States government “turned five stoner misfits into the world’s most hapless terrorist cell.” Five Occupy Cleveland activists “who had grown disenchanted with the Occupy movement, which they considered
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your Sunday reading. – Jason Warick reports on how the Cons’ decison to gut federal environmental assessments will have a particularly acute effect on Saskatchewan: The federal government has cancelled nearly 700 environmental assessments in Saskatchewan for oil wells and pipelines, sewage lagoons, hydro projects, a major
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – On the anniversary of Jack Layton’s death, Tim Harper points out how far the NDP has come in just a year, while Brian Topp highlights where the party still needs to go: (W)hat to do about the federal government’s crisis of relevance? Recent
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: What Republican Texas Said About Harper’s Crime Bill C-10
In this video, the CBC News reported from Texas where even tough-on-crime Republicans told Canada not to follow America’s failed path of mandatory sentences and massive prison expansion, which cost them billions and drove crime rates up. The report warned about the consequences of this un-Canadian and vindictive criminal justice
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Friday reading. – Michael Harris neatly sums up the Harper Cons’ legacy: In many ways, the Harper legacy will come down to this: how much can he get away with? Incumbency furnishes a speedy getaway car. From a legislative perspective, Harper might as well be King
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