Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Garfield Mahood and Brian Iler discuss the challenge facing charities as compared to the special treatment of businesses in trying to advocate as to public policy: (T)he solutions to many of society’s problems do not need more research and the criticism-free public education
Continue readingTag: free speech
Accidental Deliberations: On opportunism
Shorter Harper Cons: In our language, the word for “crisis” is the same as the word for “opportunity to trash civil rights”.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Paul Kershaw examines political parties’ child care plans past and present, and finds the NDP’s new proposal to achieve better results at a lower cost. The Star’s editorial board weighs in on the desperate need for an improved child care system, while PressProgress
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Alex Hunsberger argues that the Good Jobs Summit reflected a gap between labour strategies aimed merely at trying to take a slightly larger cut of a corporate-owned system, and those which actually propose and fight for something better: The most useful and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On universal freedoms
I won’t wade too far into the sudden discussion of political advertising raised by the Cons’ plans to change copyright law to favour political advertising, as Michael Geist has largely captured the most important points. But I will raise one quibble with Geist which hints at a more reasonable legal
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Bill Maher offers some simple math and important observations about inequality: – And Gary Engler proposes ten ways to build a better economic system. – Vanessa Brcic points out that corporatized medicine is as unethical as it is inefficient. And Garry Patterson
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Robert Reich proposes that the best way to address corporate criminality is to make sure that those responsible go to jail – rather than simply being able to pay a fine out of corporate coffers and pretend nothing ever happened. – And
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, following up on the Robert Buckingham saga at the University of Saskatchewan by asking whether tenured university professors should be the only workers who have any hope of being able to discuss issues of public importance without fearing for their jobs. For further reading…– Buckingham’s story is told here,
Continue readingThe Cracked Crystal Ball II: Oh The Irony: Mark Steyn
So, in the wake of Donald Sterling being unceremoniously dumped from any association with the NBA, we have Mark Steyn running to his defence. Even so, it is disturbing to see (as Bill Quick put it) “the use of a man’s property be taken from him because of the way
Continue readingAlberta Diary: With free expression under assault in Alberta, where’s ‘free speech advocate’ Ezra Levant?
So-called free-speech advocate and celebrity commentator Ezra Levant. Below: Free-speech opponent Alison Redford, Canada’s answer to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, shown below her; that Voltaire guy; nearly forgotten Tory political strategist Stephen Carter. Where’s Ezra Levant now that we need him? Mr. Levant, after all, is frequently billed as Canada’s
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Now Here’s An Interesting Idea
At a time when workers’ rights are under constant attack, dangerous, Draconian, Orwellian and unconstitutional measures have been passed in Alberta that not only strip away the arbitration rights of public servants, but also limit their freedom of speech. First, to the ‘less contentious’ of the two bills recently passed
Continue readingTerahertz: So are atheists being censored in Vancouver?
Last week I meant to add a note that the Centre for Inquiry Canada has issued a press release about the fact that Pattison Outdoor Advertising had rejected their fairly inoffensive new billboard campaign in Vancouver. A pretty slick ad that’s pretty hard to find fault with. I’ll skip over
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Who gets muzzled next by unconstitutional Redford Government laws? Environmentalists?
Deputy Premier Thomas Lukaszuk, in motorcycle sidecar, gives the order to go after a pesky trade unionist’s blog. But look out! Alison Redford’s Alberta Thought Police may already have their eyes on you! Actual Redford cabinet ministers may not appear exactly as illustrated. Then again, new uniforms for cabinet and
Continue readingTerahertz: The first rule of comedy: Aim up
Last night in Vancouver comedian Ian Harris came to town as part of his “Critical & Thinking” Tour. The show has been promoted by the BC Humanist Association and other skeptical groups, so naturally many of my friends in town went to the event. From the reports, it sounds like
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: The Beast #nlpoli
This week, people across Canada who are interested in the public right to access government information mark a thing called Right to Know Week. It’s a time to “raise awareness of an individual’s right to access government information, while promoting freedom of information as essential to both democracy and good
Continue readingParliamANT Hill: PM’s Tour Ends With Chinese Reporter Being Hauled Away By RCMP
Inspired by this headline: http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/08/23/harper-tour-chinese-reporter_n_3806307.html?1377288176&ncid=edlinkusaolp00000008
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Alice Walker Disinvited By Top US University Over Israel Criticism
The University of Michigan has disinvited Pulitzer-prize winning African-American author Alice Walker as punishment for her progressive views on Israel. The post Alice Walker Disinvited By Top US University Over Israel Criticism appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive | News & Analysis: World Press Freedom Day celebration to highlight free expression in tough times
By: Canadian Committee for World Press Freedom | Press Release: OTTAWA, April 2, 2013 – On May 3, 2013, editors, writers, politicians and policymakers from across Canada will celebrate freedom of expression and its champions during a luncheon at the Ottawa Convention Centre. The lunch and awards ceremony mark UNESCO-designated World Press Freedom Day and will
Continue readingThe Ranting Canadian: Young woman arrested for posting photo of graffitti online
Young woman arrested for posting photo of graffitti online: According to CBC News: A 20-year-old woman has been accused of criminal harassment and intimidation against a high-ranking Montreal police officer after she posted a photo of anti-police graffiti online. … Pawluck insists that she’s done nothing wrong and the actions
Continue readingArt Threat: Weiwei-isms: the Coles Notes of an infamous Chinese dissident
A magnitude 8.0 earthquake shook through Wenchuan County in Sichuan province of the People’s Republic of China on May 12, 2008. Official figures listed 69,197 dead, including 5,335 children, mostly killed as a result of shoddy school construction — a horrible tragedy, particularly due to China’s one-child policy, that caught
Continue reading