Scrouge Hospital told to start talking to Lakeridge about capital planning
Robert Biron quietly came into the Central East LHIN board meeting and sat as a spectator. The CEO of the Scarborough Hospital silently left the room again after the LHIN…
January 2014
Europe looks to coal to reduce electricity prices
One year after The Economist signalled an ”unwelcomed coal renaissance”, Bloomberg News reported Jan. 6 that Europe’s lust for lower energy prices was reviving lignite mining for coal-fired generation in…
Gnawing questions
There are few more convincing illustrations of the mean-spirited and brutalizing ethos of neoliberalism than bans on feeding the homeless, such as those introduced recently in US cities. Here in…
Does Fort Mac Look Like Hiroshima?
Neil Young said many provocative things about the oilsands, but the one that became a lightning rod for criticism was this: “The fact is, Fort McMurray looks like Hiroshima”.* He…
Happy Things
It is freezing cold outside here, and I couldn’t get my car to start so I wasn’t able to help out a book sale I was hoping to help out…
The greening of Noam Chomsky: a conversation
This interview was held in Montréal in October 2013 and has been edited for length and readability. Canadian Dimension: There’s a tremendous amount of evidence accumulating about the gravity of…
Stephen Harper’s newest fan? Sarah Palin.
Makes perfect sense. The Conservative press must be delirious and distraught at the same time. If I was in the Opposition, this is the fish I’d hook for campaigning. Sarah…
44-Thousand Years of Warming in Just Two Centuries
We’re learning all sorts of things from the disappearing Arctic ice. Scientists have figured out that it’s warmer in the Arctic today than it has been for 44-thousand years. How…
State Dept’s Keystone XL Contractor, ERM Group, Also OK’d Controversial Pebble Mine in Alaska
A DeSmogBlog investigation has revealed Environmental Resources Management Inc. (ERM Group) — the contractor performing the U.S. State Department’s environmental review for the northern half of TransCanada’s Keystone XL tar…
Geoscientist’s report undermines BC Government’s LNG figures
photo: Tina Lovgreen / BCIT Commons Read this Jan. 22 story from The Globe and Mail’s Mark Hume on a new report from esteemed geoscientist David Hughes which suggests the…
Jan. 22: The history of ugliness..
(This blog also appears daily on the web as a column in La Presse Libre de Moncton Free Press. I regret to say that the site also carries other blogs…
Is this news story antii-Semitic?
Well, using Harper’s definition of anti-Semitism, it is anti-Semitic to single out this delegation for criticism. So, no one say anything about the homophobes and Islamaphobes and loons who are…
Grip of giant banks on the economy stronger than ever
Reblogged from Systemic Disorder: “Too big to fail” banks are bigger than ever. Holding the global economy hostage, extracting profits from every aspect of human activity and remaining well above…
If every Norwegian’s a millionaire, why’s Alberta in hock?
Feeling poor? A recent news item showed that Norway’s massive pot of petroleum money, now totaling CA$909.364 billion, has made every citizen a millionaire in Norwegian kroner. That works out…
Pushing for transparency in Canada’s telecom industry
This morning, privacy advocates including your own OpenMedia.ca, sent public letters to major Canadian telecom firms demanding greater transparency on whether they share our private, sensitive information with government agencies.…
Capitalism—an irrational system in an age of climate change
Capitalism is generally recognized as having one great strength. That, of course, is as a creator of wealth. Aided by the remarkable advance of technology (some would say inspired and…
Not incarcerating convict despite sentence inadequate and increased on appeal
R. v. Smickle, 2014 ONCA 49: This court has, on occasion, declined to re-incarcerate a respondent even though the sentence imposed at trial was manifestly inadequate. Sometimes after identifying the…