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…
John Clarke
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…
Canada’s spiralling cost of living crisis
Photo by Andrei Tselichtchev/Dreamstime As we purportedly emerge from the pandemic, one of the immediate challenges that confronts us is a global cost of living crisis. There has been a…
The far-right’s dangerous political momentum
A protester waves an anti-Trudeau flag during the Freedom Convoy occupation in downtown Ottawa, February 2022. Photo courtesy Caroline Marsh/The Rover. As state power is reluctantly and belatedly deployed against…
Canada’s militant working class history
Pickets at the Moncton Hospital during the New Brunswick public sector general strike in June 1992. Photo from Provincial Solidarities: A History of the New Brunswick Federation of Labour by…
The dangerous rise of the anti-vax far-right
Anti-vax sticker in Vienna during a rally against vaccine mandates, November 20, 2021. Photo by Ivan Radic/Flickr. As the pandemic has spread across the globe, the far-right has been at…
British Columbia floods reveal our system’s skewed priorities
Flooding in British Columbia last week caused extensive damage in the Lower Mainland of the province, including along major roadways like Highway 11, pictured here. Photo courtesy BC Ministry of…
Sorry, Justin Trudeau: There is no equivalence between the extreme right and the extreme left
A billboard featuring the portrait of People’s Party of Canada (PPC) leader Maxime Bernier and its message “Say NO to Mass Immigration” in Toronto, August 25, 2019. Photo from Twitter.…
Policing the poor
Toronto Police assemble to confront protesters guarding homeless encampments in Trinity-Bellwoods Park in the west end of the city, June 22, 2021. Photo by Martin Reis/Twitter. Recently, we have seen…
A left perspective on vaccine passports
If coercive measures are taken by the state to try and increase levels of vaccination, what approach should the left take, asks CD columnist John Clarke. Photo from Shutterstock. As…
Danger signs on the road to a post-pandemic future
A post-pandemic austerity regime, coupled with the intensifying climate crisis, will demand new and bold forms of organizing, writes CD columnist John Clarke. Photo by Santiago Sito/Flickr. In my April…
Hounding Toronto’s homeless
A homeless camp in Toronto’s Trinity Bellwoods Park was cleared out by police on June 22, 2021, after protestors and residents were removed from the area. Photo by Hector Vasquez.…
Free speech on Palestine: Time to push back
At least 10,000 people rallied in Melbourne, Australia to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people in the face of ongoing attacks and aggression from the Israeli government, May 15,…
Defending the left case against basic income
A MakePovertyHistory march attended by an estimated 200,000 people before a G8 Summit in Edinburgh, Scotland, July 2, 2005. Photo by Bruno Vincent. Canadian Dimension recently ran two important contributions…
A post-pandemic social peace accord?
There is no golden age of reciprocity ahead, writes John Clarke. The capitalist system is in crisis and a capacity to rebound and broker peace deals is lacking. Still image…
The class struggle and geopolitics
If we are to develop a clear and consistent form of international solidarity, we must be ready to face the contradictions and complications of the global context in which working…
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…