On Policing: On Finding the Line
A mask, six feet, and being outdoors: pick any two at a time, amirite? Plus wash your hands before and after eating or touching your face. Pretty easy. So, ironically,…
June 2020
Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Mark Smolinski writes that wearing a mask to limit the spread of COVID-19 is best characterized as a sign of mutual respect. (But…
Add It All Up – the Real Costs of Covid-19
Things we know – people on holiday are also taking a holiday from Covid-19. Many of them take a break from wearing masks or social distancing. Whether gathering on some…
Saturday Photo: Fleur de lys or Iris…
We are half way through the week of summer’s first holidays around here. Quebec’s Fête nationale was last Wednesday and next Wednesday will be Canada Day. Such a strange time!…
Florida and Ontario – Why the divergence in Covid results?
Simple people like simple solutions. We’ve had it drilled into our collective little brains that the only measure to fight the novel and mostly benign coronavirus is with social distancing…
WE take care of our friends
Alex Ballingall at the Toronto Star has done outstanding work on this burgeoning scandal. (So much for your media conspiracy theories, conservative trolls.) @CANADALAND are dicks, but they did good…
Is now the time to celebrate unity in Québec?
Quebec Premier François Legault speaks at his daily media briefing. Photo by Simon Clark. Québec recently celebrated its day of national pride: la fete nationale. Once a religious holiday, since…
Globe and Mail Letter
Today’s Globe and Mail contains a letter to the editor from yours truly (second from the bottom) in response to an op-ed criticizing those who take offence at J.K. Rowling’s…
Harris’s Ghost
Mike Harris’s ghost continues to stalk the province of Ontario. Martin Regg Cohn writes: It is impossible to follow provincial politics today without fathoming the ghost of Ontario’s 22nd premier,…
Globe and Mail Letter
Today’s Globe and Mail contains a letter to the editor from yours truly (second from the bottom) in response to an op-ed criticizing those who take offence at J.K. Rowling’s…
O’Toole should cool it.
It is a pity to waste good political advice on conservatives but MP Erin O’Toole’s current hissy fit with Peter MacKay’s leadership organization could cause irreparable harm in Canadian politics.…
Kenney’s controversial speechwriter listed as CEO of federal Conservatives’ Edmonton Strathcona constituency association
Given the uproar over an article widely perceived as expressing racist sentiments by Alberta Premier Jason Kenney’s speechwriter, it will be interesting to see how the Conservative Party of Canada…
Musical interlude
Whale and the Wolf – Touch
Covid-19 And The Dream Of A Better World
It's only been about four months since Covid-19 started sickening and killing people all over Canada and the world. And who knows how many more will die in the weeks…
Will The MacKay O’Toole War Damage The Con Brand?
The Con leadership race was always going to be a sleazy affair. With two old Harperite hacks, and two social conservatives vying to be leader what else could it be?Especially…
Meng Wanzhou, Huawei and Canadian Law
Huawei booth at the Mobile World Congress 2015 Barcelona. Photo by Kārlis Dambrāns/Flickr. One of the graver risks for big-time criminals is that investigators will be able to identify them…
Time to Fundamentally Reassess Canadian Foreign Policy
Members of the Lima Group meet at the G20 summit in Osaka to discuss next steps towards an “urgent and peaceful resolution” to the crisis in Venezuela. Photo from Twitter.…
Covid Journal, June 26, 2020
Masks,. settlements and the state of non-profits in a Covid-world.
Theirs Is Not To Reason
Owen’s blog post today discusses how the world sees the United States as a nation to be shunned, one of the reasons being its entirely inept handling of the Covid-19…
Friday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Lee Stevens writes that the coronavirus pandemic has exposed longstanding weaknesses in our social safety net which have caused large amounts of avoidable…