Mainstream Media Catches Up to Sixth Estate
Over the weekend I made what I thought was a fairly astute point about the silliness of the wave of recent press coverage praising the “subtle Quebec voter” for electing…
Sixth Estate
Authoritarian Immigration Fraud Crackdown Wins Awards from Negligent Media
Ottawa’s crackdown on residency fraud is a timely reminder that a Canadian passport is something to be earned. That’s the general tenure of the positive media coverage the Harper regime…
Why was the Iran Embassy Closed?
When Peter MacKay’s outspoken wife Nazanin Afshin-jam announced in July that Canada should shut down the Iranian embassy in Ottawa, on the nebulous charge that it was using cultural events…
National Post Finds Evidence of Electoral Conspiracy in Quebec
Seriously. They did. It’s all in this week’s column from Conrad Black — and let me just say how pleased I am that at least one of our major newspapers…
Harper Regime’s Senate Doublespeak Continues; So Does Sixth Estate Patronage List
The Conservative regime’s continued hypocrisy on the matter of Senate reform continued today when Stephen Harper, an avowed advocate of elections for Senators and a former critic of governments appointing…
Media Bias: Ottawa Citizen Leans to the Right
For the last two springs, I’ve run a Media Bias study which consists of counting up the op-ed contributors to the major newspapers and identifying their links to progressive, conservative,…
Toronto Sun: Our Sexist Religion is Good, Theirs is Bad
The Gideons have a strange knack for inciting controversy, and they’ve done it again. Ontario pundits are in a tizzy over a new human rights case filed by an atheist…
Rights & Democracy Down the Memory Hole?
Does anyone know if there’s an archived website for the former Rights & Democracy organization? http://www.dd-rd.ca seems to have gone offline, and the Harper regime shuttered the organization this summer.…
How to Decide Whether Public-Sector Employeers Are Overpaid
Recently I took a Globe & Mail columnist to task for arguing that Ontario’s public school teachers are overpaid. As a humble blogger I hardly expect a response from such…
At What Point Would a Public-Sector Salary NOT Be Too High?
A good newspaper retains columnists that you strongly disagree with. Even when it seems like the incessant blather they produce ought to be embarrassing. That’s how democracy works. I get…
CBC Promotes Myth of the Liberal Media
Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind seeing a Conservative politician writing a column for CBC. Even if he is a creationist. But I’m dismayed to see, once again, a…
Harper Regime May See Quebec EI Demands as Opportunity, Not Problem
When the Parti Quebecois announced that one of their strategies as a new government — if they ever form one — would be to provoke a fight with the federal…
Globe & Mail Endorses Mitt Romney for President… Why?
After recently promising that Sixth Estate was back, I disappeared for a few days after all, which was terribly rude of me, I know. My feeble excuse is that getting…
Silly Season Over, Sixth Estate Returns
My, my, it’s been an interesting August, hasn’t it? I took a vacation from Sixth Estate to get married. A highly accomplished Sun News reporter decided that although my “patronage…
The Northern Gateway Pipeline and the New National Energy Program
Many years ago now, a young Stephen Harper angrily threw out his Liberal Party membership and, after a few years of wandering in the western wilderness, emerged as a leading…
An Open Letter to David Akin
This letter is for journalist David Akin, whose work is uncommonly good but who also takes issue with me. First of all, yes, Sixth Estate is anonymous. (Technically, because people…
Competition Bureau (Not) Tough on Crime: Government Voids Rule of Law
It’s a comparatively minor case, but for those who are hoping Canada’s various white-collar crime units will protect us from lawbreakers, this doesn’t exactly bode well: Corporate Research Group… pleaded…
Race-Baiting, National Post Style
The National Post has an interesting article arguing that over the past couple of years CSIS has been monitoring relationships between the First Nations and the government of China. The…
Petro-State Politics Threaten Democracy, Sovereignty, Common Sense
Another day, another Canadian oil company swallowed up by its foreign competitors. Oh well, right? Here’s a fun fact from history: Stephen Harper used to be a Liberal activist, even…
Defection from Harper Office to Air Canada is Latest Evidence of Revolving Door at Top of Government
The media is understandably perturbed that Stephen Harper’s deputy chief of staff, Derek Vanstone, has been hired as a new executive and lobbyist by Air Canada. Vanstone and Air Canada…