Musical interlude
London Grammar – Lose Your Head
2021
City Council ratifies collective agreement with CUPE Local 1004
April 20 2021 Vancouver City Council has ratified the terms of a new collective agreement covering outside workers represented by CUPE Local 1004. Union members voted to accept the settlement…
Body-worn cameras and ending the public subsidization of police accountability
In just the past decade alone, cities across the United States spent in excess of $3 billion to settle police misconduct lawsuits. Illustration by Jared Rodriguez/Truthout. The second-degree murder conviction…
People are Asking. So, What Do You Think?
In recent days I’ve run into a recurring question – in telephone conversations, while getting a haircut and in a pollster’s online surveys. People, it seems, want to know when…
Kasim Ali Tirmizey reviews Fighting for a Hand to Hold, from Race & Class
Fighting for a Hand to Hold: confronting medical colonialism against Indigenous children in Canada By SAMIR SHAHEEN-HUSSAIN (Montreal: McGill-Queens University Press, 2020), 360 pp. £23.50. As I was in the…
How Doug Ford And the Con Premiers Failed Canada
He was standing in his late mother's garden. He looked terrible, wasted even. He wanted to convince people that after three days in self-isolation he was OK, and in full…
Let the Dairy Queen return
Every single morning my daughter and I walk past the site of a former Dairy Queen on Centre Street on the way to her bus stop. We often talk about…
Bolsonaro "Brewing Covid Variants, Left, Right, and Centre"
Rightwing politicians have a pretty lousy record of handling the Covid-19 pandemic. From Trump to Bolsonaro to Modi, to any number of Red State state houses and our own Kenney…
Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Michael Mechanic discusses how the promise of noblesse oblige represents nothing more than an excuse for a system designed to encourage the greedy…
India’s Peril
India closed out yesterday having logged just over 330,000 new Covid cases. One doctor told the CBC he hopes they can confine the pandemic to the cities because, once it…
It’s Getting Worse
David Brooks writes that, among Republicans, Trumpism is metastasizing: There are increasing signs that the Trumpian base is radicalizing. My Republican friends report vicious divisions in their churches and families.…
Talking Doug Ford’s Apology with Kristy Cameron
Yesterday I joined Kristy Cameron on CFRA’s “Ottawa Now” along with Lindsay Maskell & Jason Lietaer for a rare Thursday “Political Heat” panel. We talked Doug Ford’s press conference and…
Leadership Lacking.
We are not getting much provincial leadership in Canada these days. Despite liking both Andrew Furey in Newfoundland and Labrador and John Horgan of B.C., I cannot say much for…
Musings on Viruses and Evolution
One has to wonder how creationists can maintain their beliefs during a pandemic where the virus is clearly evolving to improve its ability to infect people and avoid immune system…
BC Hydro quandary
Unrestrained capital spending and needed write-offs of valueless items will result in major rate increases. But that presents a critical problem. Alternatives for consumers are steadily getting easier and less…
Canada Suspends Air Travel With India
After giving the public false assurances that our government had the Indian Covid threat under control, the feds have announced that flights from India and Pakistan will be banned for…