How Did We Get Here
Let me tell you a story about my early days working for the House of Commons in a non-partisan position serving all Members of Parliament and all Canadians. While we…
2023
‘Decoupling’ from China means more Canadian exploitation of Latin America, Africa
A cobalt mine in central Africa. Image by Fairphone/Flickr. Last year, Ottawa announced its first-ever Critical Minerals Strategy, a program aimed at securing and expanding the access of Canadian companies…
Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading. – Fiona Harvey reports on the World Meteorological Organization’s warnings that we’re more likely than not to breach 1.5 degrees of global warming over…
Health and homelessness
I’m writing an open access textbook on homelessness, with a focus on high-income countries. Each chapter gets uploaded to my website as it is completed. The latest chapter, on health,…
Where The Sun No Longer Shines
That would be the so-called Sunshine State, Florida, under the heavy hand of its governor and apparent presidential aspirant, Ron DeSantis. Things are becoming so repressive there that a number…
The Debt Debacle
They’re having a fight these days in Washington about paying the nation’s bills. It’s not about new bills. It’s about paying the bills that have already been put on the…
Been there, done better
Which is why some of us don't feel the need to get involved in federal politicking anymore: after you've worked for the best, everyone else is a waste of time.…
We Don’t Have to Help it Fail
Another thread by Conor Browne, bio-risk consultant specializing in Covid-19 forecasting: Since Since January 2020, a substantial part of what I do has, quite simply, been trying to tell the…
No Debutante’s Ball in Alberta.
They both showed that they had been to that rodeo before. Both challenger Rachel Notley of the new democrats (NDP) and incumbent premier (briefly) Danielle Smith of the united conservatives…
Marginalized citizens gain protection
On May 19, Canada’s Supreme Court resolved an important defamation case with six of seven judges finding against former Chilliwack school trustee Barry Neufeld. Doing so, the court further defined…
Updating the Ukraine-Russia War: the F16s are coming
Over at Balloon Juice, national security expert Adam Silverman has written a piece about the war in Ukraine every single day since Russia started their unjust and illegal war. At…
No means No: Smith and the Ethics Commissioner’s Report
Yes, I watched the debate. No, I’m not going to write about it except to say Danielle Smith’s closing comment illustrates how slick she is. Smith said, “My commitment to…
Sunday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Karl Nerenberg writes about the Parkland Institute’s research showing how privatization has undermined Alberta’s health care system. And Mitchell Thompson warns that…
The Manufactured Taboo around Covid Protections
A twitter thread by spheniscus demersus (African penguin) explains the political/public health comms fiasco and our collective denialism so nicely that I want to save it here. (It’s tidied up…
P. Poilievre is No Lawyer.
We should not be overly impressed with federal conservative leader Pierre Poilievre’s ability to come up with poisonous slurs against political opponents. They are coming to the point where he…
Weekend funnies: From being cancelled, to being wrecked by an orca
There are too many people these days who get outraged when they say something awful in a national media and then get asked to defend their views or shut up…
Pensions don’t seem to be much of an issue in this election – pension governance expert says they should be
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said she didn’t want to talk about the idea of taking Alberta out of the Canada Pension Plan and creating an Alberta pension plan until after…