About fricken time the Liberals and NDP came to an agreement to stop the never-ending short election cycle. This should have happened last year. Now let’s get some movement on electoral reform, the #ClimateCrisis, and reconciliation, among many other files the parties can agree on. The Greens are also likely
Continue readingTag: democracy
Accidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Alexandra Hutzler reports that even a majority of Americans seeing mask mandates lifted aren’t prepared to buy the line that it’s safe to stop taking basic precautions – particularly given the likelihood that the amount of one’s initial exposure has a substantial impact
Continue readingNorthern Currents –: The truckers convoy promotes social harm, not “mandating freedom.”
The organizers of the covid convoy have been demanding they speak to the manager of Canada. While they claim to fight for freedom and “vaccine choice,” this couldn’t be further from the truth. What all the elements within the spectrum of supporters of the convoy have in common is the
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: The Limits of Toleration and Compromise in A Representative Democracy (Canadian “Freedom” Convoys)- Tim Abray
I agree with Tim’s analysis of what is going on in Ottawa and in Alberta. People are circumventing the ways that make a functioning democracy work, and it should be a serious concern to everyone. “It has been said, often, during this crisis that you can’t live in downtown
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Plague Update: Stupidity With Brain, Not Of Brain
I went to the protest of Scott Moe’s government at the Legislature today. Simultaneously down the blocked-off street there was a #FluTruxKlan protest by the anti-waxxers, and over by the lake a few people attending the skating rink for a Frost party. I went up to the dwindling crowd about
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Plague Update: #FluTruxKlan rally loses $9M from GoFundMe, and sued for $10M more
GoFundMe has frozen further donations from going to the convoy organizers. This was at the request of the Mayor of Ottawa, among other authorities becoming desperate to end the blockade peacefully. GoFundMe announces freeze of the fascists’ funding: GoFundMe supports peaceful protests and we believe that was the intention of
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Plague Convoy Gets Support From Premier and O’Toole
Canada’s capital is occupied by white supremacist, anti-vax protesters who’ve urinated on the National War Memorial, stood on the Unknown Soldier’s tomb, flown Nazi and Confederate flags, and even desecrated a statue of Terry Fox. Yesterday, the Premier of Saskatchewan released a letter supporting these protesters, and his message went
Continue readingNorthern Currents –: Abolish public transit fares – for social justice and climate change
Public transit is much more than getting from point A to point B. It is implicitly linked to broader societal issues like climate change and social justice. Eliminating user fares would be a great first step in the right direction.
Continue readingThings Are Good: The Insurrection Index Exists to Defend American Democracy
The Insurrection Index launches today to defend democracy in the United States from internal attacks on democratic institutions. The focus of the initiative is clearly in response to, and all about, the failed coup and insurrection attempt that happened on this day last year. Multiple organizations joined together to create
Continue readingA Puff of Absurdity: Chomsky’s Lessons from 2021
Yanis Varoufakis spoke to Noam Chomsky, at DiEM25, about what 2021 has taught us. In a nutshell: the wealthy puts profits over people to their own detriment (e.g. patent rights over vaccines, which provoked mutations) and will only help with climate change if they can profit without taking risks. We
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Joe Biden’s Summit for Democracy—a timely effort
As a passionate believer in democracy, I feel compelled to comment on the recent democracy summit called to order by President Biden. Cynicism about the summit is thick on the ground. Not least because democracy in Biden’s own country has become so corrupted by wealth, gerrymandering and a flawed constitution
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: The rise and rise of petrofascism
Saskatchewan is more than a Petrostate, it’s governed by Petrofascists. Surviving C21 By Julian Cribb* A new world superpower is arising. One that is unelected, borderless, controls most governments and, increasingly, employs the familiar tools of repression and deception to attain its goals. In Australia, the US and Britain, young
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Miquel Oliu-Barton et al. study the effects of different government approaches to COVID-19 – and find that elimination strategies have produced far superior outcomes to attempts to live with uncontrolled community spread. And Andre Picard begs us to stop repeating our mistakes in
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: Solidarity brings success at Cargill
If there is one thing workers in today’s precariat job market need to achieve both democracy in their workplace and a shot at a middle class life style, it’s solidarity, i.e. unionization. A fine illustration of this is recent collective bargaining at the the Cargill beef-processing plant in High River,
Continue readingNorthern Currents : While the state arrests land defenders and the press, a new report highlights government apathy toward climate change
An all-to-familiar juxtaposition has arisen with the recent arrests of Indigenous land defenders and journalists by the RCMP. On the one hand, we have politicians like Justin Trudeau and John Horgan insisting on the importance of climate change and that we must act now. On the other, these same politicians
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: Death throes of democracy
We will wake up to the realization we the voters no longer have the ability to shape our governing bodies through elections. The slippage is abundantly clear already. Big Money has run off with our governing bodies…
Continue readingIN-SIGHTS: Dysfunctional duopoly
Far from being “broken,” our political system is doing precisely what it’s designed to do. It wasn’t built to deliver results in the public interest or to foster policy innovation, nor does it demand accountability for failure to do so. Instead, most of the rules that shape day-to-day behavior and
Continue readingViews from the Beltline: The problem of Councillor Chu
Sean Chu is the councillor for Calgary’s Ward 4. He was re-elected for his third term in the recent civic election. It now appears that Councillor Chu has a skeleton in his closet. In 1997, when he was a 34-year-old police officer, he faced allegations involving a 16-year-old girl. He
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: What side are you on? And are you sure?
I have always been, and always will be, on the side of the anti-fascists and anti-authoritarians. At present, in 2021, that represents about 30% of the people. That may sound like a small minority, until you realize that represents more than 500 million people in the Western world, in North
Continue readingNorthern Currents : Will elections ever save us? No, but a strong Labour movement will.
Giving Labour more power within the capitalist system should be seen as a win for the Left, especially after decades of neo-liberal decay. If we are to progress as a society, building worker’s power within a strong intersectional, labour, and Indigenous coalition would be a great starting point. Change only
Continue reading