Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Lana Payne rightly criticizes the World Bank for trying to push discredited and inhumane trickle-down economics as a substitute for viable economic development. – Gary Younge calls for some much-needed recognition of the toxic masculinity behind so many mass killings. And Nora Loreto
Continue readingTag: First Nations
The Common Sense Canadian: Constitutional expert debunks “National Interest” argument for Kinder Morgan pipeline
Alberta Premier Rachel Notley and Canadian PM Justin Trudeau (Photo: Premier of Alberta/Flickr) Read this April 13 Desmog Canada article on lawyer Jack Woodward’s view that the “National Interest” – often cited as a basis for forcing through the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion pipeline – doesn’t trump Aboriginal rights enshrined
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Sean Farrell reports on a new OECD study recommending the application of inheritance taxes to reduce wealth inequality. – And Harry Quilter-Pinner discusses Finland’s confirmation that the obvious solution to homelessness – providing housing to people who need it – is also the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on Canada’s failure to live up to our self-image as a generous and compassionate country – and the reality that we have plenty of fiscal capacity to close the gap. For further reading…– The abstract for the JAMA article referenced in the column is here, and has already been
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Evening Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Andre Picard notes that contrary to our self-image, Canada actually lags behind international peers in health and social spending. And PressProgress points out the same conclusion in new OECD research. – Andrew Mitrovica writes that Doug Ford’s ascendancy in Ontario politics suggests that
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Jim Stanford discusses what can be done to make international terms of trade serve the public, rather than merely offering multinational corporations control over all participants: Acknowledging that globalisation produces losers as well as winners, allows us to imagine policies to moderate the
Continue readingIn-Sights: Questions
With which group will Justin Trudeau identify? This one? Or, this one? It was sponsored by subsidized fossil fuel and extractive industries and held on the edge of Vancouver’s inner harbour, one of the places in British Columbia and Washington put at greater risk if dilbit shipments increase. Credit: Bob
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Noortje Uphoff writes about the long-term effects of growing up in poverty and the resulting stress on a child: Our childhood affects our health across the course of our lives. Stress, it seems, is a major contributor. While a life lived with
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – The New York Times’ editorial board comments on the predictable flow of the Trump tax cuts toward primarily the few who already had more wealth than they could possibly put to productive use. And Tom Parkin discusses Jagmeet Singh’s expectation that Canadians
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: On Energy & First Nations, politicians want to have their cake and eat it too
Jonathan Ramos cartoon Canada can fight climate change and build more climate-ravaging pipelines. First Nations’ rights should be respected – just not at the expense of these pipelines, dams and other major projects they oppose. Got it? It’s hard to fathom, but these are the positions of our provincial and federal leaders.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Thomas Edsall discusses the difficulties in trying to address wealth inequality through a money-infused electoral system: Five years ago, for example, Adam Bonica, a political scientist at Stanford, published “Why Hasn’t Democracy Slowed Rising Inequality?” Economic theory, he wrote, holds that “inequality should
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Colten Boushie and the Ghastly Silence of the Cons
It's now been several days since an all-white jury found a white farmer in Saskatchewan not guilty of anything in the killing of Colten Boushie.And since then there have been demonstrations of sorrow and anger all over this country.So I was really glad to see that Boushie's grief stricken family
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Robert Jago comments on an all-white jury’s acquittal of Gerald Stanley for the shooting death of Colten Boushie. Shree Paradkar notes that the issue of non-representative juries is far from a new one. Scott Gilmore recognizes that Boushie’s death and its aftermath
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Killing of Colten Boushie and the Bigots in Saskatchewan
APTN News A young indigenous man out for a joy ride with his friends. An old white farmer with a gun collection large enough to equip a small army.A gun that goes off "accidentally" and an "accidental bullet" that hits Colten Boushie in the back of the head.An all-white jury
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Ed Finn reminds us that Canada has ample resources to bring about positive social change – just as long as we start taxing the wealthy fairly, including by collecting taxes owed on money currently being stashed offshore. – Pierre Fortin reviews the effects
Continue readingAlberta Politics: Why Alberta’s NDP would likely prefer a Liberal government in Victoria and B.C.’s NDP just might prefer the UCP in Edmonton
PHOTOS: Yoga enthusiasts on the lawn of the B.C. Legislature in Victoria, probably focusing the energy of the cosmos to make Alberta’s bitumen go away. Below: The Alberta Legislature in Edmonton at about the same time of year. There’s nobody on the lawn because it’s too darned cold. Below the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Brent Patterson rightly worries about the prospect that Justin Trudeau will choose to emulate Donald Trump’s anti-social agenda (just as he’s too often done with Stephen Harper’s): At the time of last year’s federal budget, Finance Minister Bill Morneau commented he would
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on how Donald Trump is just one of far too many politicians trying to undercut needed counterbalances in the media, political systems and civil society. For further reading…– Rem Reider’s story offers a few examples of Trump’s attacks on the press.– Althia Raj reported on Bill Morneau’s complaints about
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Maia Szalavitz writes that the atmosphere of competition and status signalling which prevails in unequal societies is directly connected to increased homicide rates: While on the surface, the disputes that triggered these deaths seem trivial – each involved apparently small disagreements and a
Continue readingIn-Sights: Be opinionated, first be informed
In response to my earlier post about crime statistics, a person using the name “Harald” submitted this comment: Try not to forget that the NDP brought casinos to BC, and most of the casinos in BC were built under the NDP. Then there was the scandal with Glen Clark and
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