It doesn’t take a cynic to realize that justice can be anything other than even-handed. We all know, for example, that there is a disproportionate percentage of people populating North American jails who are from the underclass, both white and non-white. The ability to ‘buy’ justice by engaging high-priced counsel
Continue readingTag: the toronto star
Politics and its Discontents: Harper and Medical Marijuana
As my policy-analyst son has made abundantly clear to me, government policy formulation does not take place in a vacuum. Much time and deliberation goes into the devising of new policies or the revising of old ones. Like the butterfly effect, every change or innovation brings with it both anticipated
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Why Chris Spence Must Be Fired
It is hardly an insight to observe that ours is a world that bears witness to institutional and organizational failures on a massive scale. Those bodies that should be there to promote and protect the public good have proven far more adept at promoting and protecting their own interests instead.
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: What Happens When The ‘Top’ Educator Plagiarizes?
Probably nothing, if your name is Chris Spence and you are the Director of the Education for the Toronto District School Board. A shocking story in this morning’s Star reveals that the highly-paid functionary plagiarized great gobs of an article he recently ‘wrote’ for the paper on the importance of
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Finger-Pointing 2.0
Well, there can be little doubt that both The Toronto District School Board and the Ontario Ministry of Education have fully embraced the digital age. Finger-pointing abounds on both sides. In the ongoing saga that I think could best be described as a clash between Jimmy Hazel’s union muscle (and
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: To Read, Perchance To Think
Shakespeare purists will perhaps forgive my titular, out-of-context paraphrasing of a famous line from Hamlet, but it occurred to me yesterday and today as I read two fine essays published in The Toronto Star. The first, by former Globe writer Michael Valpy (strange how that ‘newspaper of record’ has either
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Industry ‘Self-Regulation’
In a world rife with the environmental, economic and social consequences of unfettered capitalism, the term ‘industry self-regulation’ has always struck me as little more than a oxymoron. Examples abound of what happens when government regulatory agencies enter into what turn out to be Faustian bargains with the corporate sector,
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: An Insatiable Appetite
I couldn’t think of a single hole to punch in this letter-writer’s logic, but then, of course, I am not part of the 1%: Re: Bonuses at Canadian banks hit $10.3B on record profit, Dec. 11 Canada’s Big Five banks combined to report $7.8 billion in profits in the third
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Oh Lord, Spare Me From The Overly Earnest
For someone like me, who strives not to be crushed by the many cruel absurdities the world has to offer, a sense of humour is a key survival mechanism. In that, I suspect I am hardly unique. And yet there are those among us, many striving to accomplish some real
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: ”Twere to consider too curiously, to consider so.’
The title of my post today, taken from Act Five of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, occurs in a graveyard. Hamlet begins musing on what may become of one’s earthly remains, as even those of the most exalted in life, once their remains have fully decayed, may wind up as little more than
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Thomas Walkom Today
The union movement is one of the last remnants of the great postwar pact between labour, capital and government. That pact provided Canadians with things they still value, from medicare to public pension plans. Good wages in union shops kept pay high, even in workplaces that weren’t organized. Unions agitated
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The MacKay Mission
I really have nothing new to add to the sad spectacle of ministerial incompetence epitomized by Defense Minister Peter MacKay, whose ongoing mission and primary responsibilibilty seems to be never admitting to error or apologizing. However, the Star’s Tim Harper does have some thoughts on the reasons for his intransigence
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Lesson From Egypt
The other day I wrote a post contrasting the fervent engagement of the Egyptian people as they pursue their demands for a representative democracy, contrasting that passion with our own seeming indifference to the deficits we face here at home. This morning’s Star has published a letter from James Quinn,
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Unions After Bill C-377
In my favorite Shakespearian play, Hamlet, there is a scene wherein his erstwhile friends, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, explain that an acting company that used to enjoy great popularity has fallen on hard times. Thanks to a new craze in which troupes of child actors have become the rage, and “are
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Canadian Success Story
Many years ago, campaigns urging people to ‘Buy Canadian’ abounded. A point of pride with many, patronizing our domestic suppliers of goods and services, although more difficult than in earlier times thanks to the corporate pursuit of ever-higher profits at the expense of domestic jobs, is still possible. Today’s Star
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: On Polarized Politics
Well aware that the universe does not revolve around the City of Toronto, which is within an hour’s drive of my abode, I rarely write posts that pertain to it. I make an infrequent exception today because of a greater truth that the risible antics of i…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: The Perilous State of Democracy in Canada
Over the past year I have written several posts on the woeful state of democratic participation in Canada, a state I am convinced is at least in significant part due to the debasement of our traditions engineered by the Harper regime. Contempt of Par…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Sad Spectacle
“This comes down to left-wing politics. The left wing wants me out of here and they’ll do anything in their power. I’m going to fight tooth and nail to hold on to my job. If they do for some reason get me out I’ll be running right back. As soon…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Heather Mallick On Alberta and Tory Hysteria
Given its abundance of tar, I’m betting that some Harperites, along with a generous helping of Albertans (often one and the same) would like to apply a liberal dose of bitumen and feathers to columnist Heather Mallick in light of her column today. Enti…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Some Questions Leadership Aspirants Need To Answer
I have recently written some posts bemoaning the paucity of policy undergirding the campaigns of those who would become the next leader of the Liberal Party, both on the provincial (Ontario) and federal level. Substituting for substance are tired br…
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