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 readingTag: Society
Politics, 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 readingProgressive Proselytizing: Black Friday: Searching for community in a consumer world
Can’t Black Friday, one of the most consumer centered days on the calendar, just be about consumerism? Sure, on Boxing Day we can pretend it is really about lofty ideals of family and the great Judeo-Christian ethic opposed to a mad fury to acquire as much stuff as cheaply as possible.
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
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Equality and Education
We live in a society that now ostensibly accepts equality and egalitarianism as a normative moral basis for our society. Not just the founding principles of classical liberalism with equal rights to speech, association, religion, and the like, but a…
Continue readingExponential Book: Copying time
I got the idea for this (silly) blog post from my primary, inexhaustible source of inspiration, but I swear, I have been thinking about doing a blog post on handwriting for a while. I hardly use my fountain pens these days — heck I hardly hand wr…
Continue readingCanadian Progressive World: Occupy Ottawa Pays Tribute to Late Vancouver Occupier Ashlie Gough
(Originally Published on Occupy Ottawa website) The Occupy Ottawa Movement observed a moment of silence before its General Assembly last night to commemorate the death of Vancouver Occupier, Ashlie Gough. The 23-year-old Victoria native died …Rea…
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Social Media, Part II: The Value of Social Media
Like it or hate it, social media is now a potent force in society that is legitimately changing the way people interact with information, with news and politics, with each other, and ultimately with the world. In part one of this series, I considered …
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Social Media, Part I: Information Flows
It is truly an empowering experience to live at at time with our neary effortless access to unprecedented amounts of information. More than just this, however, we are able to be multilaterally engaged with the information we receive as we can also infl…
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Terror in Sarajevo? Islam in Bosnia & the Rejection of Extremism
It is not customary to begin a discussion about terrorism with a joke but, given the context, I think it appropriate. How else, after all, is one to deal with the idiocy of this recent attack on the US Embassy in Sarajevo? Mujo and Suljo are the two stock characters of Bosnian humour: a sort […]
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Wall Street protests, Obama, and changing the political conversation
In some ways it is not appropriate to give too much undue attention to the current Wall Street protests in New York that are spreading around the US and into Canada. Doing so deemphasizes the very large amount of consistent and meaningful citizen acti…
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Farcical Aquatic Ceremonies: Canadian “Democracy” and (not) You!
So, Ontario, Canada’s most unbearably self-righteous Province, just concluded another one of those spiffy “election” things everyone is getting so worked up over these days. As of this writing, it’s still not entirely clear just how low the voter turnout was but it seems to be definitely below 50%—the lowest in Provincial history. The McGuinty Liberals […]
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Occupy the Church, Occupy Together
Christians. Church. God. Jesus. Occupy. What do these words mean to you? For many, the connotations are negative. Personal experiences with judgemental, rigid, frozen people who identify themselves as Christians have left a bitter taste in their mouths. Memories of being harangued, condescended to and lectured linger long after their encounter. Media and political examples […]
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Why I Am Going to Attend Occupy Vancouver
I am white, middle class, educated and, by all accounts, an extremely fortunate woman. I live in Canada where my parents’ (sometimes life-threatening) health issues are covered by a provincial medical plan. My water and air are clean, and food is plentiful. My husband and I are employed. I am not desperate, but I am […]
Continue readingThe whole Truth
Belief: 1. The mental act, condition, or habit of placing trust or confidence in a person or thing; faith. 2. Mental acceptance or conviction in the truth or actuality of something. 3. Something believed or accepted as true; especially, a particular te…
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: My asymmetric stance towards Islam
If I was a Saudi Arabian – and if I was brave enough – my central focus on Islam may be to try and moderate its social practice. I would probably fight for a women having the right to drive, emphasize the peaceful and charitable aspects of the Quran an…
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Defending the Burqa
The Netherlands is the next country in the domino chain, following France and Belgium, in which it is likely they will ban the burqa in all public places. There are many arguments against such a ban that fall very much in line with typical liberal val…
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: Abortions are not always a big deal
When it comes to abortion, I sometimes feel the pro-choice side of the argument gives up half the argument to the pro-life side by agreeing to the framing that abortion is actually a weighty decision.
For some people, of course, it is a weighty decis…
Continue readingProgressive Proselytizing: The Words We Use For People Who Do Not Believe In God(s)
Agnostic, Athiest, (strong and weak), secularist, naturalist, humanist, non-believer, pantheist, positivist; the list of terms used to describe people who do not believe in the existence of a deity is quite large. Words, and what they connote, matter a…
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Harper Snubs UN General Assembly–Why?
What kind of Canada has a prime minister who does not speak at the UN General Assembly? Stephen Harper’s Canada. But why? CBC journalist David Common tweeted yesterday about Harper skipping the UN this year: #UN schedule says #Canada PM Harper not speaking at this year’s General Assembly via Twitter / @davidcommon: #UN schedule says […]
Continue reading