Nazanin Afshin-Jam MacKay Said Canada Should Bring Omar Khadr Home
Surely this has got to be the ultimate Tale of Two Nazanins. Better still, Of Denial And The Tale of Two Nazanin Afshin-Jam MacKays. The brand new wife of Conservative…
Canadian Politics
B.C.’s pipeline bargaining position stirs Alberta outrage, but makes political sense
Alberta Premier Alison Redford, left, negotiates with B.C. Premier Christy Clark, holding carrot, as seen by the Alberta media. Actual neo-conservative Western Canadian politicians may not appear exactly as illustrated.…
Statistics Canada: Crime rate reached its lowest level in 40 years in 2011
The evidence on the crime rate in Canada is out! Statistics Canada reported yesterday that rate of crimes reported to Canadian police forces across the country reached its lowest level…
As goes California, so goes the nation!
The Beach Boys, now, and, below, then. Below them, Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, then and now. As goes California, so goes Canada? As goes California, so goes the nation –…
B.C. Bitumen Busters! Who ya gonna call? Greg Selinger?
Alberta and British Columbia Sheriffs see who can stomp the highest at the increasingly tense inter-provincial border near the disputed town of Field. B.C. and Alberta peace officers, of course,…
Why Boy Scouts of America is allowed to discriminate: Comparing US and Canadian human rights laws
I recently expressed outrage over the Boy Scouts of America’s decision to continue banning members who were LGBT or atheists/agnostics. Ideally, groups like BSoA would be able to figure out…
The tide is perhaps turning in favor of the environment.
There are encouraging signs that groups and even politicians you wouldn’t normally think of as being pro-Environment are perhaps balking to Stephen Harper and the Conservative government’s obsession with resources…
David Merner and the Conversation the Liberal Party Needs to Have
David Merner (left) and Alberta Liberal Party president Todd Van Vliet (right.) “It’s funny, I thought I would be running as a pro-business, pro-environment West-coast Liberal but it looks like…
Understanding Harper’s Evangelical Mission
harpersmiles300px.jpg This post originally appeared in The Tyee, and is re-published with permission. Any Canadian listening to the news these days might well conclude that the Republican extremists or some…
A Defence of Regularized Public Policy Referendum
I think Governments should consult with the people. The amount of public involvement with our federal democracy is essentially voting in a general election once every four years. We call…
Global Warming: Most Of Us Say Catastrophe, Big Oil Says Opportunity
I’m back from a short canoe trip on a small lake just an hour’s drive from our house. The weather was warm & dry, the conversation lively, the food delicious…
Why Omar Khadr’s psychology does not matter
This post is a quick update to my previous post ‘Why Omar Khadr still matters‘ in response to a CBC article that contrasts the views of two psychologists who studied…
It’s semi-official… the Enbridge Northern Gateway project is kaput!
Enbridge Inc., as seen and described by the U.S. National Transportation Board. Below: Federal Opposition Leader Thomas Mulcair, Alberta Opposition Leader Danielle Smith and B.C. Opposition Leader Christie Clark. No!…
Rick Salutin on Democracy, Parties, and Electoral Reform
“Democracy,” as Winston Churchill famously stated, “is the worst form of Government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time.” Somewhat less famously, he also…
Memo to Vic Toews
The gun violence in Toronto at a party that tragically ended up with 2 people being dead and being possibly gang-related did not occur because gang members saw that judges…
Yes Minister MacKay! Perfesser Dave explains the French role in the War of 1812
One of our heroic French allies, armed with a bassoon, holds off a Russian soldier near Niagara on the Lake some time during the War of 1812 with the Russians…
Preston Manning is no saint, as secretive Carleton University scheme illustrates
Preston Manning and his then-protégé Stephen Harper back in the day. Below: Mr. Manning as he now appears (United Church Observer photo): Alberta premier E.C. Manning, Preston Manning’s father; Mr.…
No shock here on the Conservative foot-dragging on Omar Khadr
A column in the Star today about how the Canadian government has been doing nothing to live up to its agreement it made with the US and Omar Khadr’s lawyers…
Why Omar Khadr still matters
A decade after a wounded Omar Khadr, a then fifteen year old Canadian citizen, decided to lob a fatal grenade in the middle of a firefight in Afghanistan, Ottawa is…
Does Bizarre Bethune brouhaha signal ideological rift within Harper Conservatives?
Communist physician Norman Bethune, left, and a comrade from the Red Chinese Army speak with Canadian Treasury Board President Tony Clement, right, in a vignette as imagined by Sun News…