Critical Thinking – Yes. Fear Mongering – No.
Last week I wrote a post critical of Rex Murphy's CBC opinion about how the Syrian refugee situation should be handled by Justin Trudeau. At first blush, his view that…
Lorne
Star Readers Respond To Toronto Police Thuggery
Whether justice will ever be achieved in the terrible death of Rodrigo Gonsalez or the vicious beating of Santokh Bola remains an open question. However, given some compelling video evidence,…
Chrystia Freeland Challenges Bill Maher’s Islamophobia
While Bill Maher likes to present his views as reasonable and moderate, he clearly fails to recognize the inflammatory nature of his remarks. Chrystia Freeland tries to point out they…
Media Manipulation: Astroturfers And Propagandists
I have frequently written on this blog about the importance of critical thinking; it is truly the only way that we can navigate through the thickets of information with which…
Time To Reject Magical Thinking
Canadians, along with the West in general, have been fed a neoliberal diet of propaganda and policy for so long that far too many have succumbed to magical thinking, the…
Rex Murphy On Canada’s Refugee Plans
While I am hardly dismissive of those who are expressing concerns about the speed with which the Liberal government is planning to bring in Syrian refugees, those concerns, I believe,…
UPDATE: A Police Or An Occupation Force?
Last night, the CBC reported on the case of Rodrigo Gonzalez, the subject of yesterday's post and the latest to die at the hands of Toronto Police. while the report…
A Police Or An Occupation Force?
While I realize there is an element of hyperbole in the title of this post, I cannot help but think that for many vulnerable people, the Toronto Police might be…
“There’s always a context in which these things take place.”
So says Toronto police spokesman and perennial apologist Mark Pugash about the beating administered by the police to Santokh Bola, a victim of what the authorities admit was a ‘mistaken…
On Prudent Spending
Now that the former fiscal masters of the universe, a.k.a. the Harper government, has left us with a structural deficit that will mean $3 billion to $5 billion in each…
They Shame Us All
Canadians like to regard themselves as fair-minded people. It is for precisely that reason that we need to denounce strongly those who attempt to subvert those values by hateful speech…
On Keeping Perspective
With the cacophony of voices calling for Canada to continue to “Bomb, Baby, Bomb.” and Canadian miscreants retaliating against Muslims by setting fires to mosques, it is crucial for voices…
Collective Amnesia
In the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks, it seems that the world is about to embark on even greater military intervention in the Middle East, intervention that will undoubtedly…
An Encouraging Sign Amidst The Terror
While the right seems hell-bent on exploiting the Paris massacre, it is heartening to see that some of the people most affected, the French, are demonstrating that they won’t be…
Where Is Justice To Be Found?
For Adam Nobody, the answer appears to be ‘nowhere.’ Last week retired judge Lee Ferrier ruled at a police disciplinary tribunal that Toronto police Const. Babak Andalib-Goortani should lose five…
Cowardly And Indefensible
As cowardly, indefensible and savage as the terrorist attacks on Paris were, equally so is the response of the right-wing, eager to score points by exploiting that massacre for its…
On The Importance Of Political Renewal
I’d like to share with you a comment made on a previous post dealing with the self-delusion the Conservative Party seems to be engaged in as they lurch toward ‘renewal.’…
Some Surprising Findings
Whether it is due to what has been called The Francis Effect or the increasingly severe weather that so many parts of the world are experiencing, a recent study finds…
A Sordid Story
While it is yet too early to tell how the new Trudeau government will handle the environmental and climate change file, early indications are promising. Minster Catherine McKenna has said…
Conservative Self-Delusion
These days I find I have little desire to think, let alone write, about the Harper regime. Despite the fact that we lived so long under its oppressive and toxic…