First of all, it’s not a boycott. It’s a strike. And a wildcat strike to boot. When the players on the Milwaukee Bucks chose not to play in the NBA playoffs — joined by their baseball counterparts, the Brewers, with other teams quickly following — they became part of a tradition
Continue readingTag: human rights
wmtc: the deadliest organized-crime and terrorist enterprise in the history of humanity: the catholic church
In the entire history of human beings on this planet, has there ever been a criminal enterprise more devastating — to as many people, over as long a period of time — as the Catholic Church? The largest empires of the world — Roman, Spanish, Dutch, British, American — lasted
Continue readingwmtc: wmtc "what i’m reading" posts to celebrate black august 2020
I thought Black August was something newly created by Black Lives Matter, but it turns out it has existed since the 1970s. I’m sorry I haven’t heard about it sooner, and I thank the Movement for Black Lives for bringing it to my attention. Black August commemorates the rich history
Continue readingwmtc: what i’m reading: how to be an antiracist by ibram x. kendi
How To Be An Antiracist is an important, powerful, thought-provoking book. With unflinching precision, Ibram X. Kendi defines the roots of racism and explains how we can work to eliminate it. The structure of the book is disarming: the explanatory chapters are interwoven with the story of Kendi’s personal journey
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Female Genital Mutilation in Canada and the Limits to Criminalization
Female genital mutilation (FGM) is a harmful, and at times life-threatening, practice that violates the human rights of girls and women. Photo by Meeri Koutaniemi. COVID-19 has disrupted the global efforts to end the practice of female genital mutilation, or FGM, an internationally recognised form of violence against women and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Assorted content to start your week. – John Nichols writes about Pramila Jayapal’s recognition that mass unemployment is a policy choice – and her plan for wage supports to make sure workers aren’t left without needed income. Nicole Aschoff discusses how profiteers have been taking advantage of programs set up
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: “Unprecedented” – Reality vs Delusion
Every year a tragic event happens. 300,000 to 500,000 people die globally of the flu. Most are very old, very ill, or immune compromised. In 2020 fewer people have died of a novel coronavirus (a new form within the cold and flu family of viruses) than from previous years typical
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: The Pandemic’s Unflattering Glare: How the Crisis Is Affecting Care Workers and Prisoners
A prisoner inside the Hamilton-Wentworth Detention Centre (also known as Barton Jail) tested positive for COVID-19 in late-March. Photo courtesy of the Hamilton Spectator. Multiple and concurrent disasters are unfolding in pockets all across North America connected to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic. We understand this particularly in medical
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Abolishing the police is the only reasonable response to Winnipeg Police killings
Winnipeggers gathered in the cold outside of the Winnipeg Police Headquarters in early March to demand justice after a police shooting left Machuar Madut, 43, dead. Photo by Quincy Houdayer/The Manitoban. On the afternoon of Wednesday, April 8, Winnipeg Police officers shot and killed Eishia Hudson, a 16-year-old Indigenous girl.
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Defining a Space for Resistance: Countering the Disempowering Effects of Social Distancing
A floor sticker recommending social distancing at a London Drugs store in Vancouver. Photo from Flickr. In the midst of the disorienting crisis that is COVID-19, “social distancing” has taken hold as a political imperative and public health mantra in Canada and around the world. The pragmatism of this policy
Continue readingwmtc: 10 things on my mind about covid-19
1. Wealthy urbanites are fleeing to their second homes — buying out grocery stores, expecting personal shoppers and home delivery, swelling vacation towns’ size to summer proportions. This is the epitome of the egocentric, classist arrogance that often pervades the United States. 2. In India, a planned lockdown of more
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Why Concordia got it so wrong with eviction of student residents during COVID-19
In the late morning of Wednesday, March 18, many of the approximately 800 students living in residence at Concordia University in Montréal received an email from Lauren Farley, Director of Residences, informing them that they would be evicted in four days, on Sunday, March 22. The email did not even
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Morality in an Amoral World
An Italian family on lockdown in Turin looks on the bright side. Photo courtesy of the World Economic Forum. A crisis is a mirror. It shows us—if we have the courage to see—who we are as individuals and as a society. The self-congratulatory poses of governments, politicians, and state institutions
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Cuba’s Contribution to Combatting COVID-19
COVID-19 surged in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late December 2019 and by January 2020 it had hit Hubei province like a tidal wave, swirling over China and rippling out overseas. The Chinese state rolled into action to combat the spread and care for those infected. Among the 30
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: Importing From China: A Virus? Or A Totalitarian Model Of Elite Control?
Someone prescient once said, “Those who would sacrifice a little freedom for a little security, deserve neither, and will lose both.” We would do well to remember those words now. And we are most definitely in the process of losing both, as we speak. But maybe we aspire to be
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: The Left Must Fight the IHRA Definition of Antisemitism
Man blows a shofar at a rally in London against anti-Semitism in the UK Labour Party. Photo by Getty Images. Bill 168, the Combating Antisemitism Act, was introduced in the Ontario Legislature last December by Tory MPP Will Bouma. On February 27, it was approved on second reading by a
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Neither Cure nor Prevention, but Sheer Punishment
A protester against Eurovision 2019 being held in Israel. Photo by Corinna Kern/Reuters. Anti-Semitism is a grave matter; its mere utterance conjures unspeakable horrors – atrocities typically tied to the Holocaust, but also to the longstanding racist persecution of Jews in Europe. Widely known in Western culture, invoked with immeasurable
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: My review of Robert Clark’s book on Canada’s prisons
Robert Clark has written a very good book about Canada’s prison system. Mr. Clark worked from 1980 until 2009 in seven different federal prisons, all located in Ontario. The book is a compilation of personal accounts based on the author’s various assignments. Since prisons can be a pipeline into homelessness,
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Statement: Montreal academics against police brutality and right-wing Hindu nationalism in India
Protests are being held across India against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), with the opposition accusing the government of furthering a hidden agenda to target Muslims. Photo by PTI. The BJP government of Narendra Modi has been pushing an agenda to turn India into a Hindu State. The last straw
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: BDS as a way of resistance
Israeli West Bank barrier, Bethlehem. Photo by Magnus Höij (Flickr). Before I left the open-air prison that is Gaza for the first time eight years ago on my first speaking tour in Europe, I was naïve to think people around the world would protest for our freedom. I thought every
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