My facebook feed went crazy last night with my Vancouver friends posting about a stolen sandwich board. Why is this important? Context: Save-on-Meats is kind of an iconic butcher in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. A long time retailer that had mixed reviews has now invested some capital into their business and,
Continue readingTag: Poverty
Politics and its Discontents: A Graphic Depiction of Unfettered Capitalism
The true believers in unfettered capitalism will not like this video: H/t Alex Himelfarb Recommend this Post
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Elizabeth May urges MPs to vote for the NDP’s housing Bill C-400
By: Green Party of Canada (Press Release) | Feb. 27, 2013: OTTAWA – Green Leader and Member of Parliament for Saanich-Gulf Islands Elizabeth May will vote in favour of Bill C-400 this evening and urges her fellow MPs to do the same. Bill C-400, the Act to ensure secure, adequate, accessible and affordable
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Boost the Minimum Wage, Boost the Economy
A version of this article appeared today in the Globe and Mail’s Economy Lab. (This version includes references to the debate plus charts and graphs from data specially tabulated from Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey. The data don’t include the self-employed.) President Obama put the idea of raising the minimum
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Friday reading. – Zoe Williams questions when being poor became grounds for deliberate discrimination and ritual public humiliation (h/t to Mound of Sound): What I cannot help noticing is a failure of normal human respect for the people at the bottom of the heap – Tuesday’s
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Marc Lee and Iglika Ivanova offer up a framework for a more progressive and fairer tax system. – Andrew Hanon looks behind the Fraser Institute’s labour-bashing and finds that what it’s really criticizing is fair pay for women in the public sector.
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Canada failing to close the income inequality gap
by Conference Board of Canada | Feb. 4, 2013: OTTAWA – Canada has been unable to reverse the rise in income inequality – and poverty rates – that occurred in the 1990s. Low rankings on these social equity measures mar an otherwise solid “B” grade in The Conference of Canada’s Society report card, released today. Canada places
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your Monday morning reading. – Sixth Estate is the latest to weigh in on Statistics Canada’s findings about inequality: Progressive taxes are based on the idea that the more money you earn, the more you spend on unnecessary luxuries. Poor people therefore have very low tax rates
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Foundation Skills Assessment: Another Dirty Trick
By Rachel Goodine The FSAs, or Foundation Skills Assessment tests, administered annually in British Columbia since 2000 to students in grades 4 and 7, are once again under way. They began on January 14 and will continue until February 22, 2013. In the meantime, the debate is on. For many,
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – James Galbraith compares the mindless drones carrying an increasing share of the U.S.’ military load, and those serving to try to attack social programs in the name of illusory deficit reduction. But sadly, Galbraith misses one of the most important similarities: in
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: In 2012, richest 100 billionaires earned enough to end global poverty 4 times over: Oxfam
by Oxfam International | Jan 19, 2013 Leaders must aim to bring down global inequality at least to 1990 levels An explosion in extreme wealth and income is exacerbating inequality and hindering the world’s ability to tackle poverty, Oxfam warned today in a briefing published ahead of the World Economic Forum
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Cornel West Is Upset Obama Was Sworn In On Martin Luther King’s Bible
Dr. Cornel West, America’s most provocative public intellectual, progressive and champion for racial justice, explains why he’s upset that President Barack Obama was sworn in on Martin Luther King’s bible. He questions the first black president’s commitment to the values the slain anti-war civil rights leader stood for, including: peace, truth and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Erika Shaker rightly tears into the special brand of FAIPOF demanding that First Nations protesters focus solely on their own community leaders rather than recognizing broader and more systematic inequality: Much is being made of Chief Spence’s Escalade (although I’m unsure if she
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Sunday reading. – Joseph Stiglitz discusses how the U.S.’ extreme inequality is limiting its prospects for economic recovery: There are all kinds of excuses for inequality. Some say it’s beyond our control, pointing to market forces like globalization, trade liberalization, the technological revolution, the “rise of
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: What If We Treated Harper Like We Treated Haiti’s Aristide?
Supporters of former Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide chant and display signs outside the courthouse in Port au Prince on Wednesday, Jan. 9. When they learned that the prosecutor, Lucmane Delille, had gone to Aristide’s home to question him, a river of tens if not hundreds of thousands of people marched
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Attawapiskat Audit is Merely a Distraction
Green Party leader Elizabeth May published a well-thought out and clear article on Wednesday, breaking down the reasons why the ongoing media banter about Attiwapiskat fund mismanagement and Chief Theresa Spence are merely distractions from an ongoing legacy of government failure to protect indigenous people and the environment. Twitter and
Continue readingeaves.ca: Til Debt Do Us Part: Reality Television and Poverty
I’m traveling for business and that means several things. Most predictably it means come the evening, I’m getting on a tread mill to exercise. I’m in Edmonton. It’s cold. Like -24C (-11F) cold. For whatever reason, while running the TV in front of me brings up Til Death Do Us Part a sort of
Continue readingLarry Hubich's Blog: Idle No More – Priscilla Settee and Sheelah McLean
This video of Priscilla Settee and Sheelah McLean talking about Idle No More is accompanied by a Making the Links – Community Radio indepth interview with them broadcasting tomorrow night at 6 pm (Wed. Jan 9, 2013) on CFCR.ca – CFCR 90.5 FM on th…
Continue readingLarry Hubich's Blog: Idle No More – Priscilla Settee and Sheelah McLean
This video of Priscilla Settee and Sheelah McLean talking about Idle No More is accompanied by a Making the Links – Community Radio indepth interview with them broadcasting tomorrow night at 6 pm (Wed. Jan 9, 2013) on CFCR.ca – CFCR 90.5 FM on the dial or Channel 820 at Sasktel
Continue readingPaul S. Graham: Manitoba’s shocking poverty rate
A poverty “shoe-down” at the Manitoba Legislature Jan. 4, 2013: Demonstrators calling for an increase in rental rates for income assistance recipients, left dozens of pairs of shoes on the steps of the Manitoba Legislature. Photo: Paul S. Graham Make Poverty History Manitoba rallied at the Manitoba Legislature on Friday
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