Photo from Public Domain This summer marks the 70th anniversary of the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS). When it was established in 1948, the NHS was the world’s first universal healthcare system. It quickly became a beacon of what a decommodified public service could be: open to all, free
Continue readingTag: human rights
Accidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on the need for Canada to give effect to a right to housing in both law and policy – and the Libs’ continued reticence in doing so. For further reading…– The open letter from the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness and other groups and individuals calling for a right
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Is Canada Standing Up for Human Rights in Saudi Arabia?
Given how the world works, I find it hard to believe that Canada is taking a principled stand on human rights in Saudi Arabia. Western democracies certainly try to own the rhetoric when it comes to democracy, peace, and freedom – but their realpolitik is quite similar to the nations
Continue readingMontreal Simon: The Saudi Assault and the Silence of the Traitors
It's been almost two days since the perfumed prince of the barbarous kingdom of Saudi Arabia, launched an insane assault on Canada for having had the nerve to stand up for human rights.But strangely enough Con leader Andrew Scheer has yet to stand up for Canada, or say a word about the
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Hassan Diab: Nothing Less Than a Public Inquiry Will Do
Photo by RFI He has been compared to Alfred Dreyfus, the iconic 19th-century French victim of false accusation and racism. The entire spectrum of the Canadian press has covered his unfolding story since its inception in 2007. His return to Canada from France in January 2018 was breaking news. An
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: End Immigration Detention: An Open Letter
On June 27, 2018, a coalition of over 2000 Canadian healthcare organizations and healthcare providers, including doctors, nurses, social workers, psychologists and midwives have signed on to an open letter, calling on the Canadian government to take the following four actions immediately: End child detention and family separation in Canada.
Continue readingwmtc: from the archives: for millions of american women, roe is already history
With the resignation of US Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, it is very likely that Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, will be overturned. I’m getting frustrated by the spate of stories about how abortion will now be illegal — with no mention of how Roe has
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Andray Domise discusses both the U.S.’ choice to be an intentionally safe destination for refugees, and Canada’s complicity in validating that choice and other policies of dehumanization rather than speaking out against even such obvious abuses as the imprisonment of children. And the
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Who is your oppressor?
Photo by Dimitri Svetsikas It’s hard to pinpoint when the bifurcation of all of society into either oppressor or oppressed was first articulated. Hegel noted in 1802 that “[t]he Catholics had been in the position of oppressors, and the Protestants of the oppressed.” But one could safely argue that many
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Evening Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Ian Millhiser writes that the Republican majority on the U.S.’ Supreme Court is restoring the robber baron era: The conceit of Gorsuch’s Epic Systems opinion is that workers and their bosses sit down like equal bargaining partners to hash out their terms of employment.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: The Vriend Case has been closed for 20 years, but the Alberta political story continues
PHOTOS: The front page of the Toronto Globe and Mail on the day after the Supreme Court’s historic ruling in the Vriend case. Below: A screenshot of Delwin Vriend taken from a recent CBC video; the late Ralph Klein, premier of Alberta (Photo: Chuck Szmurlo, Wikimedia Commons); Jason Kenney, circa
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: BDS Movement Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize
Photo from Public Domain Norwegian parliamentarian Bjørnar Moxnes has officially nominated the BDS movement for Palestinian rights for a Nobel Peace Prize. He did so with the support of his party, the progressive Rødt (Red) Party, explaining why BDS “should be supported without reservation by all democratically-minded people and states.”
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – David Brady, Ryan Finnigan and Sabine Hubgen challenge the claim that there’s any relationship between single motherhood and poverty. And Doug Saunders writes that there’s an opening for progressive movements to take back the theme of family values which obviously bear no
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Statement on Anniversary of Quebec Mosque Shooting
Photo by Sonia Aslam The terrible murder of six Muslim men of Quebec City, one year ago today, demands that we Quebecers speak out about what kind of society we want for all. These men are: Mamadou Tanou Barry, accountant, married and father of three children; Ibrahima Barry, computer technician,
Continue readingcentre of the universe: Keep ’em separated
Recently the Government of Canada included on its summer student funding program a check box that asks whether the business (non-profit/agency/charity/etc.) applying for federal tax funding complies with Canadian law. Normally, that’s not a problem. Normally, if you apply for federal funding, you’re all, hells yes we comply with federal
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Justice for Hassan Diab and the Unbearable Banality of Evil
Photo by Tony Caldwell Great joy and relief came with the news this January 12th that French investigative judges issued an “order of final release” for Dr. Hassan Diab from a French maximum security prison. Dr. Diab, a sociology professor and Canadian citizen, was charged with bombing the Rue Copernic
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Tom Parkin duly slams the Libs for a “middle class” tax message being used to sell a giveaway to the rich: Here’s the blunt facts: the tax cut by Finance Minister Bill Morneau gives $0 to anyone earning under about $45,000. Then
Continue readingwmtc: why i write for rights and how you can too… redux #write4rights
Trying to compose my annual Write For Rights post, I thought I would recycle a good one from 2014… only to learn I had already recycled it in 2015! And here it is again — slightly edited, with new cases linked below. Tomorrow, December 10, is Human Rights Day. The
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Race, class, & The Revolt of the Black Athlete
“I sit with Kaepernick” poster in Brooklyn • Photo from MassAppeal.com Next year marks the 50th anniversary of Dr. Harry Edwards’s classic of activist scholarship, The Revolt of the Black Athlete. Edwards is the architect of the 1968 Olympic Project for Human Rights, a campaign remembered most for the famed
Continue readingDented Blue Mercedes: Free Speech, When The “Debate” is You (and You’re Not Invited)
Shout: “Help, I’m being silenced!” There’s a duplicitous game of sleight-of-hand that is taking place in discussions about freedom of speech in academia and the public square. Here’s how it works: at first, a person fishes for controversy by saying several things that they know will offend people. If this
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