Bike Lanes Improve Cities Aesthetically and Economically
There is a strong and powerful myth in North America that car drivers spend more and will always require parking. That is a myth. It turns out that nearly every…
2015
Stephen Harper, Mike Duffy, and the PMO Nightmare
Stephen Harper's PMO is one of the most sinister organizations in Canada, and one of the most secretive.No decent Canadian has ever been able to penetrate its murky darkness, or…
Questions And Answers
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/ Stephen Harper doesn’t like questions. He doesn’t take them. In Question Period, he dodges them. On tough days, he doesn’t show up. When things really get uncomfortable, he prorogues…
Back on two feet
I made my way back to the bike hire place today, wending my way down from Hackney through Shoreditch, Liverpool Street and Bishopsgate to London Bridge. I don’t know quite…
The word is “convenience” stupid!
Ontario beer drinkers are foiled again. Now the Ontario government wants to sell beer and wine in large grocery stores. It should have been easy to predict an outcome such…
140 Law: Legal Headlines for the Week of March 8, 2015
Here are the leading legal headlies from Wise Law on Twitter: Niqab controversy: Judge struck down ban without referring to charter – Politics – CBC News How the “Blurred Lines”…
IEA Reports Economy Decoupling from Dirty Energy
This is very big news! The International Energy Agency indicated in a preliminary statement that emissions of carbon dioxide from the world’s power sector accelerated less in 2014 than the…
Felix the Half A-G #nlpoli
If politicians are good at one thing, they are usually good at telling a story that serves their purpose even if it isn’t, strictly speaking, actually what happened. Last week’s…
Is Stephen Harper Fighting Terrorism or Promoting It?
As we know Stephen Harper would have us believe that the "international jihadist movement" has declared war on Canada.That there is no greater threat to our lives and our values.…
My Take On Things?
As a feral cub (a Protestant educated by Jesuits) about all I can say is that, if at least some police agency doesn’t have your prints on file, you really…
The Juncker Plan for Economic Recovery in Europe
Filed under: Uncategorized
“It’s like we’ve become House of Cards,” PC activist says of party nomination interference
“It’s like we’ve become House of Cards,” is how one Progressive Conservative Party member, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, described their party’s candidate nomination process. With a rush…
Humbling ride through the wilds of Essex
At a certain point I just fell off the back. I’d been keeping up with the three Cycling Club Hackney riders in the group that chose the longer route, albeit…
Eyewitness Greece: The SYRIZA factor in European politics
Image from Public Domain The following talk, “The Greek elections – what next? SYRIZA and the fight against austerity,” was presented to the Department of Political Economy and the Australia-Greece…
Obama’s War in our Hemisphere
Photo by María Alejandra Mora Introduction Why did Obama declare a ‘national emergency’, claim that Venezuela represents a threat to US national security and foreign policy, assume executive prerogatives and…
Laurie Blakeman Takes a Symbolic Step…in the Wrong Direction
Crikey! On Friday Liberal MLA Laurie Blakeman announced that she’ll be running as a candidate for the Liberals, the Alberta Party and the Greens in the upcoming election… …and on…
Constructive dismissal
Potter v. New Brunswick Legal Aid Services Commission, 2015 SCC 10: The test for constructive dismissal has two branches. The court must first identify an express or implied contract term…
Third Party Suspect Rule
R. v. Grant, 2015 SCC 9: Defence‑led evidence is admissible where (1) the evidence is relevant to a fact in issue, and (2) the probative value of the evidence is…
It’s all been done
The current UK election cycle seems like much of the past 20 years of Canadian politics is just being played over again. In no particular order, here’s the similarities I…