The CBC News reports that a lone protester interrupted a speech by Prime Minister Stephen Harper as he addressed an international conference on the French language in Quebec City today. The protester “began shouting and approaching the stage” before he was “grabbed by two security guards and hustled out of
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CANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: Anderson Cooper: “The Fact Is, I’m Gay”
A couple of years ago, a friend swore to me that the CNN’s Anderson Cooper was gay. And that it was a matter of time before he came out. I argued that Cooper would be gay only after he’d publicly confirmed that he was gay. The essence of the conversation
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: Council of Canadians: Today We Celebrate Canada
Below is a brief message to Canadians and other progressives around the world from Canada’s biggest progressive citizen’s organization. Founded in 1985, the Council of Canadians has members and chapters across Canada. It works “to protect Canadian independence by promoting progressive policies on fair trade, clean water, energy security, public
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: Julian Assange Rejects Police Order To Surrender (VIDEO)
On Friday, the London Metropolitan Police Service served the WikiLeaks founder with an order to leave the Ecuadorean embassy and surrender to a central London police station. In the video below, a supporter of Assange reads his defiant statement. Assange “is wanted for questioning by the Swedish authorities, but fears
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Friends in High Places
Medals for everyone! It’s good that she’s so proud of her public service that brought her the public recognition, as to be so shy as to decline to speak about it all. Neither Byrne nor the Conservative party media office responded to requests for comment. It is unclear what Byrne
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: Nuked: Robocalls Scandal Investigation And Elections Canada
Make it two surprises in one. William Corbett, the Commissioner of Canada Elections, the man who has thus handled the ongoing investigation into the robocalls scandal, resigned today. He’s been replaced by Yves Côté, a “low-key” bureaucrat. But that’s only a partial description of the individual now assuming the behemoth responsibility of
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: With new NDP shadow cabinet, Mulcair plots Harper’s 2015 defeat
Last week’s 24-hour House of Commons vote on Stephen Harper‘s draconian budget Bill C-38, the “Growth and Long-Term Prosperity Act”, ended in a dramatic fashion. The New Democratic Party (NDP), the Official Opposition, concluded the vote with a spontaneous: Deux mille quinze! Deux mille quinze! Deux mille quinze! chant. That’s French
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: What’s Old is Two Faced Again
Made In Canada hypocrisy. There’s nothing more Canadian than the Conservative Party serving up the opposite of what it said it would do earlier. You can set your watch to the opposite of whatever time they tell you it is, so long as you wait a few weeks or a
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: Google Exposes Harper Government’s Growing Internet Censorship Appetites
In a report released late Sunday, Google tells us Canada has joined the ranks of countries aggressively stepping up efforts to censor online political dissent through “censorship requests” to the giant search engine. Passport Canada authorities asked Google to block public access to “a YouTube video of a Canadian citizen
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Crispy Kids
Years ago a friend asked me to drive them to the tanning salon. I was less than thrilled by this plan, but carried it out with much grumbling. It’s not much better than driving someone to the store so they can pick up cigarettes, and it bothers me. Here’s a
Continue readingmark a rayner | scribblings, squibs & sundry monkey joys: Is it worth it?
Sometimes writing seems like a lonely, pointless, and possibly self-destructive activity. I mean, I COULD be doing other things with my time. Then you get a review like this, and it all seems worthwhile: LOL! So many times I found … Continue reading →
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: Budget Bill C-38: Canadian MPs, Citizens, Tweet Their Frustrations
For an incredible 24 hours, Canadian opposition MPs held up the passage of Stephen Harper and the Conservative government’s draconian budget Bill C-38. They forced votes on more than 800 proposed amendments to the 425-page behemoth. In the end the Conservatives torpedoed every opposition amendment, to score a dubious, dictatorship-style
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: Budget Bill C-38: Canadians Step Up Fight Against Stephen Harper
It’s the eve of the House of Commons vote on Harper’s draconian budget Bill C-38. Earlier today, the Conservatives moved to shut down debate on the legislation. NDP House Leader Nathan Cullen (pictured) promises to make the Conservatives “feel a little pain” for the arrogance and deliberate assault on
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: Canada’s “Refugee Exclusion Act” Clears Commons
What a sad day for Canadian politics! All day today, millions of us were entranced by the epic beginning of the struggle against Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s draconian Budget Bill C-38. In the meantime, the Conservatives used their majority advantage in the House of Commons to pass Immigration minister Jason
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: Vic Toews To Use Magnotta Murder Case To Revive Internet Surveillance Bill C-30
In dictatorial regimes, tyrants rule by manipulating prevailing public emotions. They use the smallest emotional opportunity to create draconian laws that take away the people’s rights and freedoms. Public Safety Minister Vic Toews has certainly learned a thing or two from this modus operandi. He wants to use Luka Rocco
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: “My place is destroyed” – Albertan
Plains Midstream Canada, wow, what an ironic name given their midstream oil leak on the plains of Alberta. I hope Plains Midschool Canada, or Plains Midlake Canada don’t operate in Regina. Gord Johnston grew up on the banks of the Red Deer River, at a place his family first settled
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: Budget Bill C-38: A Conservative Insurgency Against Harper?
Earlier this week, the NDP and other Federal opposition parties released the findings of their Canada-wide public consultations on Stephen Harper’s Budget Implementation Act, Bill C-38. Yesterday, the parties submitted 1,300 amendments to the behemoth omnibus bill. Now a new opposition front, straight out of Harper’s Conservative world, is gathering
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: ConCalls: Del Mastro Sits Down, Shuts Up
Ethical Dean should step down from being the PM’s Parliamentary secretary, and from his Ethics Committee posting. The Conservatives should continue to use Vic “The Violator” Toews, Elections Finance Act convict, to defend Del Mastro against accusations of Election Act crimes, because that’s funny stuff. It seems the Conservatives don’t
Continue readingSaskboy's Abandoned Stuff: Peregrine Falcons in Regina
I’d recently wondered what became of the falcons that were popularized on TV during my youth. There was a project in Regina, at City Hall, to help the birds come back from the brink of extinction. Manitoba is currently working on helping the birds too. I’d wondered how the birds
Continue readingCANADIAN PROGRESSIVE WORLD: Obert Madondo: Today I End My Canada Crime Bill C-10 Hunger Strike
After 85 days on a hunger strike against Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s new “Safe Streets and Communities Act” (crime Bill C10), it’s with great pleasure, gratitude and emotion that I announce the end of the protest. I’ll end the protest at 11.59pm today. I made the decision to end the
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