From vilification to criminalization
Pro-Palestine demonstration in downtown Toronto, January 21, 2024. Photo by John Pinel Donoghue. It has become almost routine for people who express solidarity with the struggle of the Palestinian people…
John Clarke
Gaza and the fault lines of empire
A Palestinian child stands among the ruins of a destroyed building in Gaza. Photo courtesy the United Nations/Flickr. Shortly after the news broke of the United Nations General Assembly’s December…
Confessions of a hatemonger
Pro-Palestine rally in Melbourne, Australia, May 22, 2021. Photo by Matt Hrkac/Flickr. The recently deposed British Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, has claimed that those participating in the massive protests taking…
Ontario NDP’s expulsion of Sarah Jama is a flagrant betrayal
Sarah Jama and Ontario NDP leader Marit Stiles. Photo courtesy Marit Stiles/X. There can be few on the left in Canada who remain unaware of the vile treatment of Sarah…
Doug Ford’s failed grab for the Greenbelt
Ontario Premier Doug Ford. Photo from Facebook. As a right-wing conservative, Doug Ford has some things in common with Margaret Thatcher, but with a very significant difference: while Thatcher could…
The changing climate of class struggle
Wildfire smoke from Canada consumes New York City, June 7, 2023. Photo by Anthony Quintano/Flickr. Two very different developments in the last year, each affecting the lives of workers in…
Cheers for Chow must be accompanied by vigilance
Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow greets council, July 12, 2023. Photo from Twitter. The election of Olivia Chow as mayor of Toronto has captured attention across Canada. The largest city in…
The Socialist Register on the state and the transition to socialism
“Let’s consolidate the victory of socialism.” Artwork by Konstantin Vyalov, 1932. Image courtesy Ogiz-IzoGiz. At the invitation of the Socialist Project, I recently wrote a review of the 59th annual…
Inciting anti-Chinese hatred
Photo courtesy China Photos/Getty Images The Trudeau government has moved to expel Chinese diplomat Zhao Wei on the grounds that he has been involved in targeting members of Conservative MP…
Fossil fuel capitalism rewards John Horgan
Former BC Premier John Horgan. Photo courtesy the Province of British Columbia/Flickr. When former BC premier and NDP leader John Horgan announced that he is joining the board of a…
Combatting the ruinous greed of the developers
Condo towers in Toronto. Photo courtesy PARTISANS Projects/Flickr. Last November, Gaétan Héroux and I wrote an article for Canadian Dimension on an emerging struggle to prevent the construction of a…
The life and death struggle for public health care
Of the many manifestations of societal crisis we face in these harsh and uncertain times, the threat to public health care systems is among the most serious. The defence of…
The foreign home buyer as scapegoat
On January 1, the Prohibition on the Purchase of Residential Property by Non-Canadians Act became law. This initiative by the Trudeau Liberals will have the effect of preventing businesses and…
Doug Ford’s trashing of the Greenbelt
Changes to Ontario’s Greenbelt Act are in the works that would remove 7,400 acres of protected land and hand them over to developers. Photo courtesy Greenbelt.ca. In Toronto, even though…
The security state’s double standards
Members of the so-called ‘Trucker Convoy’ drive towards the Alberta legislature from Acheson, just west of Edmonton. Photo by Naomi McKinney/Unsplash. The institutions of law enforcement and security in Canada…
Putting royalty to rest
“The Funeral Ceremony of Her Royal Highness the Princess Charlotte of Wales and Saxe Coburg,” by Thomas Sunderland (1818). Image courtesy the National Portrait Gallery/Wikimedia Commons. It was hardly surprising…
Sweatships on troubled waters
Symphony of the Seas, an Oasis-class cruise ship owned and operated by Royal Caribbean International. It was the largest cruise ship in the world by gross tonnage when built in…
The political death of the ‘moderate’ Tory
Conservative leadership candidate Pierre Poilievre walks with James Topp, a former army reservist and key figure of the far-right so-called trucker convoy. Photo courtesy Pierre Poilievre/Twitter. There was much alarm…
The need to raise social assistance rates is a workers’ issue
Protesters picket MPP Donna Skelly’s office over the government’s planned changes to social assistance programs. Photo by John Rennison/Hamilton Spectator. Discussions of Canada’s network of sub-poverty social assistance systems very…
The Ontario election: Hopes and realities
Ontario Premier Doug Ford. Cartoon by Chris Chuckry. There’s some doubt over who first suggested that if elections could change anything they’d be made illegal. While it is certainly an…