In justifying the signing of free trade agreements with Columbia and Honduras Harper sloughed off human rights concerns by stating that one of the ancillary benefits of open trade is that it improves the conditions in these nations resulting in an impr…
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wmtc: wrongly convicted man to be executed, please click to help
My opposition to the death penalty is absolute. I have always opposed capital punishment, but reading Helen Prejean’s Dead Man Walking moved me from an opposition with certain conditional exceptions to an absolute position. The more I learned about cap…
Continue readingLarry Hubich's Blog: We have a choice – SFL Issues Campaign
Check out the newest SFL Labour Issues Campaign Booklet on the economy and the environment. (pdf): We have a choice
Continue readingwmtc: 9.11.11: an anti-remembrance
Ten years on. Ten years of Islamophobia, endless war, the open rationalization of torture and massacre. Ten years of surveillance, insidiously creeping police state, witch hunts, shredding of personal freedoms. Nine years of torture, medical experiment…
Continue readingthe reeves report: Belated Review: ‘Ethical Oil’ by Ezra Levant
Dear Ezra Levant, Oh, Ezra. High off the success of your influential book Shakedown that targets the gross injustices perpetrated by Canada’s various Human Rights Commissions, you have written a book that doesn’t so much detail why oil from Alberta is ‘ethical’ per se (as your title supposes), so much as you have written a … Continue reading »
Continue readingLarry Hubich's Blog: Saskatchewan People Set to Celebrate Labour Day – 2011
News Release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Saskatchewan People Set to Celebrate Labour Day On Monday, September 5th, people across Saskatchewan, of many backgrounds and traditions, spanning several generations, and representing a variety of occupations and …
Continue readingwmtc: what happens to a child who is hungry?
What happens to a child who is hungry?And here’s what I learned: being hungry makes me slow, stupid, and clumsy.It took me about four or five days of not being able to get enough solid food down my throat to come up with the glaringly obvious idea of g…
Continue readingTattered Sleeve: Original Song #30: One Water Fountain
One Water Fountain
Baby it’s a hot day on the porch on de Gaspé
I feel your kicking but I think we’ll be okay
They don’t want to put your daddy “in his place”
They just shout his name when he gets on base
Got some plums at the market
Got some nectarines
Those sweet strawberries from Ile dee-Orleans
The stairs are outside so I leave the fruit out there
And when the kids come down I say, “Bon-jou-were”
I smile and say, “Bon-jou-were”
Well I can’t make out what the neighbours are sayin’
But I sure like the sounds of their kids playin’
On the baseball diamonds they pretend to be Robinson
And ain’t nobody here trying to have us hung
Got some plums at the market…
I love the funny ways of these frenchie Canucks
Who give me their seat at the front of the bus
White or negro, english or french
They got but one water fountain for all thirsts to quench
Yes, white or negro, english or french
Use the same water fountain for the same thirst to quench
Got some plums at the market…
Baby it’s a hot day on the porch on de Gaspé
I feel your kicking and I know we’ll be okay
– 30 –
Continue readingTattered Sleeve: Original Song #30: One Water Fountain
One Water Fountain Baby it’s a hot day on the porch on de GaspéI feel your kicking but I think we’ll be okayThey don’t want to put your daddy “in his place”They just shout his name when he gets on base Got some plums at the marketGot some nectarinesThose sweet
Continue readingTattered Sleeve: Original Song #30: One Water Fountain
One Water Fountain Baby it’s a hot day on the porch on de GaspéI feel your kicking but I think we’ll be okayThey don’t want to put your daddy “in his place”They just shout his name when he gets on base Got some plums at the marketGot some nectarinesThose sweet
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading.
– Heather Mallick highlights the dangers of the permanent unemployment which regressive politicians around the globe are so vociferously demanding in the guise of austerity:
As we fend off a double-dip recessio…
My journey with AIDS...and more!: A letter to Canadians from the Honourable Jack Layton
August 20, 2011 Toronto, Ontario Dear Friends, Tens of thousands of Canadians have written to me in recent weeks to wish me well. I want to thank each and every one of you for your thoughtful, inspiring and often beautiful notes, cards and gifts. Your …
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: The Double Whammy of Defunding Universities
As I’ve blogged about here, federal funding for post-secondary education (PSE) in Canada is decreasing. Between 1985-1986 and 2007-2008, annual federal cash transfers to Ontario for PSE (in constant 2007 dollars) decreased from roughly $1.4 billion to just under $1 billion. (Yet, during that same period, PSE enrolment in Ontario increased by more than 60 percent). And as I’ve written about […]
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: The Racialised Impact of Tuition Fees
Mainstream policy wonks often claim that tuition fees and rising levels of student debt in Canada are relatively inconsequential. They argue that though the costs of higher education for students (and sometimes their families) are increasing, so is post-secondary enrollment, meaning that raising the cost of post-secondary education clearly doesn’t block access. While enrollment is indeed […]
Continue readingPaul S. Graham: Video: A Vigil for Harvey Sanderson
On August 3, 2011 – four days after being viciously assaulted in his Winnipeg apartment, Harvey Sanderson Junior died of his injuries. He was 27. What made this crime especially shocking was that Harvey had brittle bone disease, a condition that confined him to a wheelchair. Friends, neighbours and people who had never met him […]
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: On ‘Ritual Nick’ or ‘Pinprick’ Female Circumcision
Whenever the topic of female genital mutilation or circumcision is brought up, most people experience a poignant and visceral reaction at the mere thought of such atrocity. Almost everything to do with female circumcision is to be strongly rejected, bu…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Deep thought
Anybody who sees the need to treat Amnesty International as an “adversary” has every reason to take a much closer look at whether they’re on the right side.
Continue reading350 or bust: Dear Prime Minister Harper: Please Stop Blacklisting Environmental Artists and Scientists
Blacklisted Canadian artist Franke James is becoming a mosquito in the ears of the Harper government. Several weeks ago, I wrote about the Harper government’s interference in the European tour of Canadian environmental artist, writer, and educato…
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Stephen Harper’s Great Burro Tour
Ca…ca…ca…caramba. I see Presidente Crapper has arrived in Colombia. On what the Globe and Con is calling his “victory lap.”But I prefer to call his Great Burro Tour.Critics of free trade with Colombia who talk about human rights are rea…
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