This weekend I attended Tragedy of the Market: From Crisis to Commons community gathering in Vancouver and Burnaby, sponsored by these groups and people. The basic premise is not so much that capitalism is broken, and we just need to fix it, but that neoliberal market fundamentalism is inherently broken
Continue readingTag: Poverty
knitnut.net: Salvation Army goes on strike
Sixty unionized workers at the Salvation Army Booth Centre went on strike at 3:00 pm today. The Booth Centre provides emergency shelter and food to homeless men in Ottawa. PSAC Local 73100 members are demanding a wage increase which would bring them up to parity with their counterparts at the
Continue readingRed Tory v.3.0.3: Faking Poverty
Jagrup Brar, NDP MLA for the Vancouver-area riding of Surrey Fleetwood today embarked on his vow to spend one month living on the paltry $610 that single (ostensibly “employable”) people currently receive from the province on welfare, responding to a challenge by a coalition of social groups that wants the
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: A Happy Birthday for Haiti
So I’ve just turned 45. What a sweet age! Instead of asking people to only bring a quirky 45rpm record to my party next month, I’d rather give people an opportunity to donate money to the Canadian Red Cross for Haitian earthquake relief. As many of you know, the case
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Stephen Harper and the War on the Unemployed
You don’t have to be a weatherman, or an economist, to know that a cold wind is blowing in Harperland, and that a recession could be just around the corner. So what are the Cons doing? Answer: Planning to cut corporate taxes even more, and taxing our paycheques. Canadians will
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Parliament in Review: November 3, 2011
Thursday, November 3 saw another day devoted largely to the Cons’ seat reallocation bill and associated motion to shut down debate. But perhaps more important was a stark set of contrasts on the economy which the Cons now seem to be trying to undo. The Big Issue Peter Julian and
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Parliament in Review: November 1, 2011
Yes, a couple of the Cons’ more odious bills have already made their way into law. But let’s at least resume a look back at the arguments they so flippantly ignored in pushing through their first set of legislation – with the November 1 debate on the gun registry offering
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Book Review: Suffled How it Gush: A North American Anarchist in the Balkans
“I think Hannah Arendt did say somewhere in The Origins of Totalitarianism that the thesis of the modern state is: ‘Everyone should die.’” –Suffled How it Gush (pg. 74) I have joked with my partner that I have a certain amount of angst regarding my future as any sort of
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Occupy #Attawapiskat, Phase Two
Clearly, the people living in Attawapiskat are existing in a crisis that represents Canada’s dysfunctional relationship with the first peoples. How can we truly “fix” Attawapiskat? By fixing the underlying broken relationship. Occupying #Attawapiskat in Twitter two weeks ago was a great start to engaging in serious improvements. Phase two
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Stephen Maher points out the type of government that we’ve come to count on under the ultra-controlling Harper political model: This presidentialization of the Canadian system is worrying, not because of some fetishistic attachment to the trappings of Parliament, but because it
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Let’s Occupy #Attawapiskat in Twitter on December 7
I wrote a piece the other day on Attawapiskat, and how it enrages me. Not just the case in those communities, but how it’s representative of Canada’s largely racist relationship with first nations and, frankly, all “disposable” people. This, by the way, is an amazing piece with essential information about
Continue reading350 or bust: Youth To World’s Politicians: It’s Time To Buy Back Our Future
Here is another post from Ani, a member of the Canadian Youth Delegation representing Manitoba at the Durban climate conference, will be a regular guest blogger during COP17 in Durban. Ani works as a Public Education and Outreach Coordinator for Climate Change Connection, a project of the Manitoba Eco-Network. To
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Oh, Canada? Our Home and Racist Land
Canadians’ racist neglect of our first people’s seems unshakable. We had Davis Inlet, and we didn’t wake up to any systemic problems. That was just a one off? And now Attawapiskat? Perhaps it was just a tragedy of homelessness that happened in the last few weeks, so we couldn’t expect
Continue readingShame on us: 600,000 Canadian kids live in poverty
I wonder what happened to the pledge to eliminate child poverty by the year 2000? While the goal of eliminating child poverty was likely never achievable, it isn’t unfair to expect that at least we could have made some significant gains to that end. Instead while the percentage of children
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Parliament In Review: October 28, 2011
Friday, October 28 saw another day largely dedicated to debate on the gun registry, with plenty more key points by the opposition met with the Cons’ usual wall of refusal to consider anything other than total annihilation. The Big IssueThe line of the day goes to Rosane Dore Lefebvre, questioning
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Housing in the Northwest Territories
Last week, I was in Yellowknife, where I released results of new research on affordable housing in the Northwest Territories (NWT). The research project was sponsored by the Social Economy Research Network of Northern Canada, and was a collaboration with the Centre for Northern Families. Research findings include the following:
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Evening Links
Assorted content for your evening reading. – Mitchell Anderson wonders whether weeding out corporate psychopathy might be the key to a more equal and sustainable economy. – But judging from the crumbs being tossed at Ontario’s poor (in the wake of gigantic corporate tax cuts), the problem looks to extend
Continue readingCut the Crap Christy!
Our unelected Premier of BC, Christy Clark, can’t figure out why the Occupy Movement insists on persisting in their efforts. From ctvbc yesterday, Government lawyers have already filed an injunction against Occupy Vancouver protesters, who moved Monday from city property onto provincial land – and Premier Christy Clark says demonstrators
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Linda McQuaig points out how the Occupy movement has at least started to shift the terms of our political debate: Rather than hanging out at malls or zoning out on Facebook, these young people have endured real hardship in the Canadian near-winter
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Liveblog – BC Civic Election Returms
BC Civic Election Returns Share the Love: Twitter del.icio.us email RSS Facebook Google Bookmarks Digg LinkedIn StumbleUpon Technorati Yahoo! Buzz No Related Posts
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