2023 marks the fifteenth year that I have participated in Amnesty Interntional’s Write for Rights. Fifteen years ago, I chose one case, one person. I wrote to officials about them, and wrote to them as well. I upped the ante a bit more every year, until the year (date unknown!)
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Accidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Kat Eschner interviews John Peters about the growing inequality in wealth, income and influence. And Scott Martin offers a reminder not to conflate the gross disparity in pay between CEOs and workers with anything that’s actually been earned. – Mitchell Thompson discusses how
Continue readingwmtc: wondering what to do with all that privilege and surplus good luck? try #write4rights 2020
Here we are in the middle of a global pandemic, and I feel (to paraphrase my favourite baseball player) like the luckiest person on the face of the earth.* I’m healthy, my partner is healthy, and no one in our extended families has gotten covid. Thanks to my union, and
Continue readingwmtc: write for rights 2019 #write4rights
Today, December 10, is Human Rights Day. The date commemorates the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10, 1948, the first document of its kind. Every year on December 10, Amnesty International holds a global letter-writing event: Write For Rights (in Canada). Hundreds of thousands of
Continue readingwmtc: write for rights 2019 #write4rights
Today, December 10, is Human Rights Day. The date commemorates the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10, 1948, the first document of its kind. Every year on December 10, Amnesty International holds a global letter-writing event: Write For Rights (in Canada). Hundreds of thousands of
Continue readingwmtc: toni morrison on good and evil in literature
Graphic viaStudents Exploring Inequality in Canada For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by stories of forgiveness and redemption. I believe endlessly in the human capacity for redemption, and that belief that has only been strengthened as I’ve seen more of the world. The stories that
Continue readingwmtc: toni morrison on good and evil in literature
Graphic viaStudents Exploring Inequality in Canada For as long as I can remember, I have been fascinated by stories of forgiveness and redemption. I believe endlessly in the human capacity for redemption, and that belief that has only been strengthened as I’ve seen more of the world. The stories that
Continue readingwmtc: a petition to exonerate ethel rosenberg
Of all the outrageously unjust moments in United States history – and dog knows there are many to choose from – the execution of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg holds a special place in my political underpinnings. It was an event I learned about early on, o…
Continue readingwmtc: amnesty international urgent action network, writing for rights all year round
I knew working full-time would mean cutting back on activism. What time I can squeeze out, I’m investing in my own union, where I have much to contribute and feel I can really make a difference. I still belong to the War Resisters Support Campaign, of course, but it’s been
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Emotionally Loaded
Okay, Paul Bernardo is a sociopath. This should not come as a big surprise to anyone who followed the investigation and trial that eventually put him in prison. That he has managed to convince a woman that he is a “good man” comes as little or no surprise. Sociopaths are
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Could Stephen Harper Bring Back the Death Penalty?
I've always thought that capital punishment was one of the things that prevented the United States from being a truly great country. Along with racism, religious bigotry, and the culture of guns and violence.And this only prove my point. Because no nation that executes people, in that manner or any other,
Continue readingwmtc: october 10: world day against the death penalty
Al Jazeera Today is World Day Against the Death Penalty. Al Jazeera has a fascinating infographic about the use of the death penalty worldwide, as far as can be known from on available evidence. It is my fervent hope that the more people learn about the unjust, political, and often arbitrary use
Continue readingwmtc: what i’m reading: clarence darrow, attorney for the damned, by john a. farrell
I last wrote about Clarence Darrow in early 2012, after reading a piece by one of my favourite New Yorker writers, Jill Lepore. Two new biographies of Darrow had been published, and Lepore wrote a tribute to the great defender, and mused on the state of North American labour movement.
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: U.S. States Jonesing for Drugs
Georgia is said to be rushing to put down condemned prisoners before it’s stock of execution drugs expires on March 1. Georgia is just one of several states that find the supply of drugs needed for lethal injections drying up. Some states are even said to be hitting the black
Continue readingwmtc: there is no justice in murder
First we read about the horrific gang rape, with spectators. Then we learn that the victim has died. Then, on top of all that, we hear authorities may seek the death penalty for the perpetrators. I was heartened by the demonstrations and the vigils. Until I read that people are
Continue readingwmtc: early dispatches from movie season: graffiti mystery, legal murder
I can’t believe how much I’m loving having access to US Netflix through our Roku device. For the price of a new router and some easy-to-follow instructions, my leisure time has been hugely improved. This is close to what I’ve always wanted for TV and movies: true on-demand viewing. Among
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Cons and the Prison State
Remember when Vic Toews claimed that even though Bill C-10 will swell our overcrowded jails to the bursting point, the Cons wouldn't have to build any new prisons? Toews opened his speech to the Economic Club of Canada in Ottawa by saying he wanted to dispel "egregious myths" and "blatant
Continue readingwmtc: canadian citizen faces imminent execution in iran
In case you haven’t done so already, please read and sign this petition from Amnesty International, about Canadian Hamid Ghassemi-Shall. It’s a terrible story, and we may not be able to save Ghassemi-Shall’s life, but we can try. Please read and sign.
Continue readingwmtc: montana board says canadian man should die. harper government does nothing.
Five years have passed since Stockwell Day, then Minister of Public Safety, announced that the Harper Government would not intervene to help save the life of Ronald Allen Smith. Smith is a Canadian citizen on death row in the US state of Montana. The Harper Government later backpedaled, saying it
Continue readingThe Equivocator: Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s Speech in Support of the Abolition of Capital Punishment (House of Commons, June 15th, 1976.)
“I am sure that very few of us consciously contemplated, when we decided to run for public office, that we would find ourselves playing a decisive role in the resolution of a question as awesome as that of life and death. Yet, here we are, with all our individual limitations,
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