Hundreds of parents, teachers and students will be protesting education cuts in BC on Sunday. Families Against Cuts to Education is hosting the protests in five BC communities after yet another round of budget cuts for school boards and increased costs…
Continue readingTag: Privatization
Accidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your Saturday reading. – Lana Payne writes that we’re seeing exactly the results we should expect from Stephen Harper’s foolish choice to push money upward: A recent Globe and Mail story, using data from Statistics Canada, pointed out just how poorly the job market is doing under
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Kevin Carson discusses David Graeber’s insight into how privatization and deregulation in their present form represent the ultimate use of state power to serve special interests at the expense of the public: What mainstream American political discourse calls “deregulation” is nothing of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Simon Wren-Lewis connects the UK’s counterproductive austerity program to the lack of any wage growth. And Gary Lamphier observes that Alberta is serving as a case in point that jobs generated through public policy rigged in favour of the wealthy are no
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Vancouver’s Co-Working Co-op Stimulates Worker Empowerment
Tuesday night in the back room of The Tipper bar/bistro/restaurant on Kingsway at Victoria we are holding our Inception Meeting for a new kind of co-working space in Vancouver, one structured as a co-op. You can read about the project in The Georgia Straight piece last week, and on the
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: How Does a Politician Define Contempt?
If you’ve ever wondered how a really really bad provincial MLA explains how to define contempt for the population, you must watch this. At least twice! February 2, 2015 The So-Called Transit Referendum: Don’t Be Duped! (0) February 18, 2011 Endorsing Alnoor Gova for the Burnaby-Douglas Federal NDP (3) November
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on the need and opportunity to show some vision in our provincial budgeting and planning – even if the Wall government has no interest in bothering. For further reading…– I posted previously on the Sask Party’s habit of locking Saskatchewan into ill-advised long-term contracts which serve nobody’s interests but
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – David Vognar argues that we should push for a guaranteed annual income not only as a matter of social equity, but also as a means of building human capital. – Mike Benusic, Chantel Lutchman, Najib Safieddine and Andrew Pinto make the case
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – CBC reports on the latest research showing that Canada would save billions every year with a national pharmacare plan. And Thomas Walkom argues that politics are standing in the way of what should be a no-brainer from a policy standpoint. – Richard Gwyn
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Lydia DePillis and Jim Tankersley write that U.S. Democrats are recognizing the need for concerted pushback against the Republican’s attacks on organized labour – and rightly framing the role of unions in terms of reducing the inequality the right is so keen
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Takin’ care of business, every day and every way
“This project is not ‘run-of-river.’ It involves draining alpine lakes by levels of 60 feet in depth, diverting waterfalls and clearcutting lineal swaths for power lines and penstocks. This will permanently industrialize a local pristine fjord for the sole purpose of private profit.” I read a letter to the editor
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On unwanted obligations
Mike McKinnon reports that austerity elsewhere isn’t being applied to continued seven-figure spending on a Lean tour. But it’s particularly worth noting how that particular money pit is still drawing Saskatchewan citizens’ money even as the provincial government cries poor at every other opportunity: The Saskatchewan government’s freeze on non-essential
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Reject the Slow Motion Privatization of K-12 in BC
Privatizing education in BC has been largely subtle and hidden. Absurd conflicts like this below [Restricted Vancouver playground access sparks angry exchange between [PRIVATE!] school principal, parent] help the general public see what’s actually been going on for a long time with private schools. Mine mine mine mine mine mine
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: New column day
Here, on how the Saskatchewan Party’s manipulative consultation designed to push liquor retailing into the private sector only managed to highlight the fact that our current system is working just fine. For further reading, the consultation materials are here, including the survey results here (PDF). And even though those don’t
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: The So-Called Transit Referendum: Don’t Be Duped!
By Emily Griffiths The Transit referendum “Yes” campaign has been asserting itself all over Facebook, Twitter, neighbourhood news boxes, and I can’t help but ask myself, Since when is increasing a flat tax a leftist thing to do? Oh! The word “transit” has been attached to the newest proposed consumer
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Last chance to weigh in
While there’s always reason to be skeptical of the Wall government’s consultation processes, there’s also plenty of risk in not participating – as a lack of expressed opposition will all too likely be taken as agreement with the Saskatchewan Party’s plans. Which is to say that I’ll strongly encourage Saskatchewan
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Frances Russell writes that NAFTA and subsequent trade agreements are designed to make it difficult for democratic governments to exercise any meaningful authority. And Rowena Mason discusses how the EU-US TTIP is particularly directed toward throwing the public to corporate wolves, while Glyn
Continue readingstaffroom confidential: Standardized testing: a pillar of privatization
It’s FSA season again. Every year in British Columbia, every student in grades 4 and 7 has their regular classroom schedule put on hold for two weeks while they complete the Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA) — a collection of standardized tests mandated by the provincial government. Every student, parent, teacher
Continue readingstaffroom confidential: Standardized testing: a pillar of privatization
It’s FSA season again. Every year in British Columbia, every student in grades 4 and 7 has their regular classroom schedule put on hold for two weeks while they complete the Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA) — a collection of standardized tests manda…
Continue readingstaffroom confidential: Standardized testing: a pillar of privatization
It’s FSA season again. Every year in British Columbia, every student in grades 4 and 7 has their regular classroom schedule put on hold for two weeks while they complete the Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA) — a collection of standardized tests mandated by the provincial government. Every student, parent, teacher
Continue reading