Spreading Like Wildfire
It’s an old phrase that has taken on a new meaning in the Anthropocene epoch. Wildfires that sweep vast regions, year after year, sometimes spreading at such speed that they…
February 2021
Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Andre Noel reports on the growing push among medical professionals for a COVID-zero strategy, while Zach Goudie points out how people can reduce…
A Little Easier
Yesterday, the G7 nations held a virtual summit. Susan Delacourt writes: It was only 14 or so months ago that Justin Trudeau, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President…
They’re pissing on Ted’s legacy.
Did you know that a company that started business with giving cheap FM radios to all the advertising agencies in Toronto is today worth billions? The company was the brain…
Despite giving UCP a hard time, Critical Infrastructure Defence Act no threat to defiant pastor and his COVID-sceptical flock
Small groups of supporters of James Coates, the temporarily jailed pastor of an Edmonton-area church who has been defiantly refusing to obey Alberta’s COVID-19 restrictions, protested in front of the…
Romance novels by Julia Quinn top independent bookshops’ fiction bestseller list for week, of course, of Feb. 14
Here are the lists of the top 10 fiction and non-fiction titles sold by independent booksellers in Alberta during the week ended Sunday, Feb. 14, 2021. The last day of…
The Amazing Mars Landing of the Rover Perseverance
I am frequently accused of having my head in the clouds, which isn't true. I'm just smarter than those who say that, and they're jealous eh? But yesterday I must…
Alberta business proposes more taxes
We don’t generally think of proposals for more taxes coming from the business community but that’s exactly what happened in Alberta this week. The Business Council of Alberta has issued…
Musical interlude
Hum – Waves
Economic justice and the limits of the Charter
Queen Elizabeth II signs Canada’s constitutional proclamation in Ottawa on April 17, 1982 as Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau looks on. The Charter of Rights and Freedoms has become an…
Setting a Bad Example at the Conservative Campus Club
We live in dangerous times and after everything we saw play out in the United States in December and January, I would have thought that would have been pretty clear.…
Setting a Bad Example at the Conservative Campus Club
We live in dangerous times and after everything we saw play out in the United States in December and January, I would have thought that would have been pretty clear.…
We’re In a Pandemic, the Worst In a Century. People Are Hurting. Governments Struggle to Help. Even Our Banks are Struggling…
If you’re a small business owner, you’re probably in trouble. If you work for that small business owner or the hundreds of thousands of others, your job may be gone…
This is Our New Normal and, No, We’re Not Prepared For It.
While all eyes are on Texas, the foibles of Ted Cruz, etc. there’s scant mention of the heatwave over Greenland in the 24 hr. darkness of the Arctic winter. Greenland…
When I’m sixty-five …
In life, there are a number of milestone birthdays. When you turn 13, you’re no longer a child, but you can continue to be childish for a few years. Turning…
Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Matt Karp writes about the connection between heavily polarized politics, and the concentration of wealth in the hands of people whose interests are…
The Big Lie Migrates
Texans are freezing and in the dark — because the state’s power grid has failed catastrophically. Paul Krugman writes: The underlying story of what happened in Texas appears to be…
Beware Benevolent Business.
Business is not often built on benevolence. And no matter how badly business leaders think the government has screwed things up, Canada is not ready for fascism. Yet, Perrin Beatty,…
Organizing in the face of crisis
NHS workers march for fair pay, London, August 2020. Photo by Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona/Unsplash. After nearly three decades as an organizer with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP), I now…
Ntl Caregivers Day: The Power of Words
February 19th is National Caregivers Day in the USA. For the occasion, I began to think about words that hold power when we say them and words that hold power…