So apparently the rich are an oppressed minority now. Last month, in what is thought to have become the most widely read letter to the editor ever published by The Wall Street Journal, venture capitalist and former News Corp board member Tom Perkins writes, “I would call attention to the
Continue readingTag: Equality
Melissa Fong: ‘Women Get Paid Exactly What They’re Worth’: Fox New wants women to accept pickle juice
Equal pay is not special treatment, it is correcting for the inequalities born out of patriarchy.
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Equality without Justice is Bunk.
We’ve legislated equality. We’re done now right? Wrong Answer Binky; legislating equality is just the first tiny step, because equality has many parts to it, including justice and fairness. Illustrated below: We’ll be heading in the right direction when women do not have to deal with garbage like this: In
Continue readingThe Political Road Map: Why Sochi 2014 is My Generations 1972 Summit Series
I was not around in 1972 to experience the dramatic and intense summit series between Canada and the Soviet Union, however I have read a lot about the event and heard many stories from hockey fanatics who had the pleasure of experiencing it live. The Summit Series was an immensely
Continue readingThings Are Good: Blackfish Documentary Hurts SeaWorld
SeaWorld is an entertainment company that has large aquatic mammals in captivity performing tricks for humans. Their entertainment shows look impressive, but what goes on behind the scenes is rather scary. The good news is that in 2013 this aquatic animal abuse got mainstream attention. In Canada, the Toronto Star
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Just How Lazy ARE Indigenous People, Anyway?
It’s a trick question. And let’s not forget how many of us are told we are inherently lazy because we are native. Hard to shake that. via Twitter / apihtawikosisan: And let’s not forget how many …. And if you want to read one person’s analysis of destructive, racist stereotypes,
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Ending Homelessness: Easy If You Simply Care
If we are a caring society. If we acknowledge that there are a myriad of reasons why a community’s homeless population is homeless. If we thought we should invest our tax dollars and take advantage of good research, good experience, good pilot projects and professionals to address homelessness and other
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Fried Squirrels
It’s a crisp, foggy November Saturday morning in the south side of the city. Seventeen people sit in the large open area at the back end of an organic fair trade coffee shop run by a workers’ co-op inspired by the Mondragon movement in Spain. Meet-ups like this are quite
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: The Secret Weapon: Self-Esteem
It’s Monday. Have you contributed positively to a young girl’s self esteem yet today? If not, here is some inspiration and a place to get better resourced! “As a child, I never heard one woman say to me: ‘I love my body.’ Not my mother, my elder sister, my best
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: IKEA: Swedish for Discrimination Against Workers
Values, discrimination, the Swedish way: all these ideas are in the mix as stakeholders of IKEA’s treatment of workers express how they feel about IKEA’s plan to break its union in Richmond, BC. We’ve been writing about this new front line in Canada’s war against workers for months now. But
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Day One, Post-Mandela
Today is the first day of our world after the Nelson Mandela era. We don’t need to canonize him or consider any messiah characteristics, but we should stop today and reflect on what kind of Mandela legacy we want to carry forward. Here are a few ideas to consider. Chances
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Why the Rich Want You to Hate Your Union
Greed is a powerful thing. It motivates the greedy to convince workers that they should hate any efforts to make their work better and reduce the level of abuse and oppression they suffer. If you’d like a list of why they want us to hate our unions, click through to
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Stop Saying Tax “Haven” and Tax “Burden”
The finance minister and his tax evasion buddy. The latest nonsense of the hyper-rich 1% and their political compradors has reminded us once again, that the rich hide their money from government to avoid paying taxes…because they’re rich and can get their way. Part of how they do that is
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Does Racism Motivate Harper’s Aboriginal Education Funding Stance?
The Prime Minister’s slow clap. It could be racism. It could be concern that over time too many first nations citizens may get too educated and start demanding more in terms of inter-national justice. Or… It could be just that he thinks keeping government spending down is good for his
Continue readingThings Are Good: Fairphone – A Phone Built With Social Values
Fairphone is a new phone built in an ethical way using (mostly) ethically sound sources. It’s a reaction to the ongoing problems with electronics manufactures who get minerals from conflict regions (think blood diamonds) and places with no labour protection. Until Fairphone, there was no way to get a phone
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading. – Nick Pearce offers an interesting discussion of conception of equality that should be placed at the core of social-democratic thinking – with one goal in particular standing out as demanding further attention: (S)social democrats would be more self-consciously political in pursuit of their
Continue readingThings Are Good: Economists: Reduce Time Spent Working
Since roughly the end of the 70s productivity at workplaces has increased yet wages have stagnated (except for the top 1%) meaning that we are relatively worse off than before. All one has to do is look at the graph below to get the basic idea of this global issue.
Continue readingImpolitical: Restore our anthem politics
I support the “Restore our Anthem” initiative to replace the words “in all thy sons command” to the gender neutral “in all of us command.” The reactions early on to this latest initiative in the letters to the editor sections of the National Post and Globe were fairly supportive, sometimes
Continue readingImpolitical: Restore our anthem politics
I support the “Restore our Anthem” initiative to replace the words “in all thy sons command” to the gender neutral “in all of us command.” The reactions early on to this latest initiative in the letters to the editor sections of the National Post and Globe were fairly supportive, sometimes
Continue readingImpolitical: Restore our anthem politics
I support the “Restore our Anthem” initiative to replace the words “in all thy sons command” to the gender neutral “in all of us command.”
The reactions early on to this latest initiative in the letters to the editor sections of the National Post and Globe were fairly supportive, sometimes a little silly but definitely not reflective of a major backlash of the variety that was seen in 2010 following the Harper government’s effort to take this step.
The Harper Throne Speech of early 2010 came following Harper’s second prorogation of Parliament, both viewed as illegitimate. The second was to avoid accountability on Afghanistan and torture allegations. Harper’s second prorogation was lengthy and provoked large street demonstrations that many of us attended. Harper justified that prorogation with the claim that he needed to “recalibrate” his government’s agenda. Yet what he brought forth, proposals such as Seniors Day and the national anthem lyric changes, wasn’t viewed as substantive enough to have shut down Parliament for the sake of his “recalibration.” This may have had something to do with the disapproval of the proposed lyric changes to the anthem expressed at that time. That and the Olympics buzz.
And who wants the Prime Minister, who is widely viewed as the lone gun leader of this government, re-writing the words of the national anthem in any event? Better that it come from a popular movement to test the waters and let support build. That’s what this new initiative is doing.
Flash forward to today, a political point. Peggy Nash’s office responded earlier today to someone I know on the anthem change with this email:
From:
Date: October 9, 2013 at 3:07:30 PM EDT
To:
Subject: RE: Attention: This issue is important to me as a CanadianThank you for contacting our office to share your opinion on our national anthem. We welcome the debate, and as NDP leader Tom Mulcair has said, we feel that the anthem can always be improved.
Unfortunately, under the Conservatives gender equality in Canada has significantly eroded. They shut down Status of Women Canada offices, weakened its mandate and flatly ignored the Pay Equity Task Force’s recommendations to promote fairness in Canadian workplaces. They also made no improvement to programs that can best support women’s equality—such as affordable child care, Employment Insurance, home care for loved ones and affordable housing.
Once again, thank you for your sharing your view on gender inclusive language in the national anthem. New Democrats will continue to support and push for gender equality.
Peggy Nash
Member of Parliament – Députée | Parkdale – High Park (emphasis added)
Except, that is not what Tom Mulcair said at all. He did not leave any doors open to improve the words of the anthem:
“We seem to have agreed on the English and French versions as they are and I think that’s probably a good thing.”
I searched but could not find any modification of the Mulcair statement in any subsequent comments by him.
2013 is not 2010. And this movement to change the words comes from a multi-partisan group of individuals who seek to garner support. They should be encouraged to do so by those who care about gender equality.
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