la CLASSE It’s Not About The Money!! (Part1)
Broad coalition of the Association for a student union solidarity (CLASS) has offered a few ideas to eliminate tuition in Quebec by 2016. They say they have a plan to…
Education
Re: Huffington Post & the Quebec Spring (Again!)
I had previously been under the impression that the Huffington Post was a generally a left-liberal sort of enterprise. However, it appears that one does not win a Pulitzer these…
MIT and Harvard to Launch Full Free Courses Online
This is a really cool way to bring post-secondary education to more people via the internet. Harvard and MIT are launching a new initiative built upon MIT’s expertise in online…
“Differentiation:” The à-la-carte Way to Hire More Course Instructors
I’ve written before about attempts in Canada to create more separation between university teaching, on the one hand, and university research, on the other. In 2009, I wrote this opinion…
Good Thing It’s ^Not Pollution, Eh?
– Research and Innovation Centre at UofRegina; site of “clean energy” investment by Shell and other fine fossil fuel financiers. One of the more ridiculous logical fallacies that climate change…
Dan Savage and Some High School Kids
Dan Savage is talking to some high school age kids at a conference about journalism. When the subject turns to homosexuality in the bible a bunch of them walk out.…
Quebec Tuition: Between a Rock and Hard Place?
In the context of student protests over Quebec tuition fees, my friend Luan Ngo has just written a very informative blog post on Quebec’s fiscal situation. While I encourage readers…
The Quebec Student Protests: ‘Going International’
A recent article by Stefani Forster, of the Canadian Press, suggests that the Quebec student protests may be starting a larger social movement outside of Quebec. According to the article:…
Quebec Students: “Faire Leur Juste Part”
Simon Tremblay-Pepin, an emerging social policy scholar, has recently blogged here (in French) about Quebec tuition fees. He points out that, when one adjusts for inflation, Quebec tuition fees are…
Montreal Calling: On the “Quebec Spring” & its Enemies
Carrément dans le rouge. Just a quick memo to Canada’s vocal, reactionary minority (with vast over-representation on online forums and comments sections): the students in Quebec do not care that…
Discussing Quebec Student Protests on Talk Radio
Last Friday, I blogged here about the Quebec student protests. Subsequently, I was invited to appear on 580 CFRA News Talk Radio, with hosts Rob Snow and Lowell Green. I…
Public service announcement
If you are a high school student in the Alta Vista or Canterbury areas in Ottawa, this might be of interest to you! CANTERBURY COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION’S ANNUAL SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM…
Morton’s Fork, Alberta
In the politics of Alberta, Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg vision has been bastardized to become “government of business, by business, for business.” In the April 23 election, voters can re-elect a…
Rex Murphy’s Naive Take on the Quebec Student Protests
On CBC’s The National last night, Rex Murphy weighed in on Quebec’s student protests; the transcript can be found here, and the three-minute video here. He calls the protests “short…
When a University Recruits Abroad, Who’s in Charge?
A few years ago, I wrote an opinion piece on “pathway colleges”—i.e. private companies that recruit students from other countries and then ‘bridge’ them into Canadian universities by providing pre-university…
$30K+ Liberal donations involve Charles Jago
True intermediary needs impartiality, Editorial Peace Arch News, April 11, 2012 “Wherever one stands on the current teachers’ dispute, it must be recognized that it is crucial for all sides…
The Politics of Education
After I retired from teaching, my first blog was devoted to matters of education, including the institutional politics that frequently deform it. Now, more than five years into retirement, I…