That Was Predictable
Way back in 2003 when the United States invaded Iraq (long before the Afghanistan mess had been anything close to resolved), I remember having a conversation in which I said…
foreign affairs
Harper: A Decade In And He Still Doesn’t Get It
Stephen Harper has been in power for the high side of a decade. That’s a long time. Most Prime Ministers by this point in their careers have figured out that…
Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Brian and Karen Foster question why steadily improving productivity has led to increasing stratification rather than better lives for a large number of…
Akaash Maharaj: Gold Medal Hypocrisy at the Sochi Winter Olympics – Toronto Star
Nothing in Sochi did more to honour and advance the Olympic ideals than the worldwide fight for equality unleashed by Russia’s infamous homophobic law. My post-Olympic analysis in the Toronto…
It’s About Recognizing The Realities
Over at Huffington Post, one of their columnists, JJ McCullough, is pontificating on Harper’s trip to Israel. In the comments, we find HP blogger Mitch Wolfe making the following daft…
Harper’s New Anti-Semitism
Few things make me angrier than the propensity of the far right to twist things. In today’s speech to Israel’s Knesset, we find this lovely little gem: “A state, based…
Harper Is A Boy In Short Pants On Foreign Policy
When it comes to matters of Foreign Policy, Harper is neither subtle or particularly smart. As with all things in Harper’s world, it’s all about partisan position and absolutes. Yesterday’s…
Akaash Maharaj – News: Corruption Declared a Crime Against Humanity
Reuters reports on our efforts at the United Nations: There are some forms of corruption so grave, whose effects on human life, human rights, and human welfare are so catastrophic,…
Akaash Maharaj – News: Corruption Declared a Crime Against Humanity
Reuters reports on our efforts at the United Nations: There are some forms of corruption so grave, whose effects on human life, human rights, and human welfare are so catastrophic,…
Akaash Maharaj – Huffington Post: The True Cost of Political Corruption
Every year, political corruption kills 140 000 children across the world, by depriving them of food, water, and medical care. My GOPAC parliamentary colleagues and I are at the United…
Akaash Maharaj: The Summit of Caribbean Parliamentarians
My address to the Summit of Caribbean Parliamentarians in Trinidad: Apartheid gave us some of colonialism’s worst crimes, yet the choice of people of conscience to stand against Apartheid gave…
Akaash Maharaj: Fighting a Crime Against Humanity
My Huffington Post article: Political corruption kills 140 000 children annually, by depriving them of medical care, food, and water. Yet, far too often, the perpetrators of the most outrageous…
More on Baird and Iran
People, even the media who watch such things, seem mystified by the Harper Government(tm) stance on Iran. It’s no big surprise, really. When I took this blog out from under…
When Logic Does Not Factor Into Policy
Yesterday, Canada’s Minister for the Status of Women spoke on the recent decision for Canada to restrict funding related to War Rape and Forced Marriage victims to organizations and programs…
What Was That About "Not Re-Opening the Abortion Debate"?
Since 2006, Harper has repeatedly “refused” to open the abortion debate in Canada … or at least so he claims. But then again, there’s the old saw about “actions speak…
Harper, The UN and Aboriginal Issues
Once again, we find The Harper Government (which, I am more and more convinced is not a Canadian government), squabbling over the UN’s initiatives to review Canada’s treatment of our…
New column day
Here, on how Canada’s federal privacy law actually prohibits our own federal government from conducting secret surveillance (so long as it’s actually followed) – as well as how little that…
Akaash Maharaj: A Witness to Triumphs and Terrors
My article in the Huffington Post: Recently, work took me to Istanbul to meet with the Syrian resistance. We discussed options for the international community to help bring an end…
ICAO Won’t Relocate, But Not Because of Harper Government Diplomacy
Until yesterday, I suspect very few Canadian outside of the airlines industry actually knew that the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the UN organization which promotes regulation of international air…
#mtlqc13 Priority Resolution – International Affairs
The NDP’s position on trade policy has of course been a hot-button issue both inside and outside the party – making it the area I’d see needing some discussion in…