national day for truth and reconciliation: bearing witness, finding meaning
On September 30, many Canadians will have the day off in honour of a new holiday: National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. The holiday was created in response to the…
history
what i’m reading: you could look it up: the reference shelf from ancient babylon to wikipedia
This must be the book-nerd-iest post ever, and unless books are your profession, possibly the biggest book geek-out you’ll ever read. And I’m proud to bring it to you. You…
How Should We Judge Historical Figures
Should historical figures be judged by the best things they have done or the worst. Should they be judged by the standards of today or of their time. Should some…
a childhood book and a dream for humanity: in henry’s backyard (1948)
When I was a child, my family had a book called In Henry’s Backyard. My siblings and I read it repeatedly. The book tells the story of a man who…
Montaigne on Ice Cream
No, Michel de Montaigne did not write about ice cream. I just used his name to entice you into this musing. But given the wide variety of topics he did write…
what i’m reading: the heartbeat of wounded knee: native america from 1890 to the present
The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee is a fascinating nonfiction. Part hidden history, part contemporary journalism, plus a dash of personal memoir, this ambitious book offers a new perspective on the…
"at your library" in the north island eagle: the library celebrates national indigenous people’s month
Still catching up on posting my columns. The recent horrific discovery in Kamloops of the remains of 215 Indigenous children, buried in an unmarked mass grave, brought home the horrors…
Who To Trust: The Short Answer
Who to trust? That is always a perennial question, and particularly now, when not only government, corporations, politicians and corporate and state media have repeatedly been shown to have lied,…
Tearing down colonial statues is making history, not erasing it
While confederate statues get bashed down in the south, Canada’s own architects of genocide and apartheid have also come to a crumbling demise. Statues of John A MacDonald and Egerton…
thoughts on not celebrating canada day #cancelcanadaday
If it wasn’t clear why we should not be celebrating Canada Day this year, by now it should be. Three days after the discovery of 215 skeletons of children were…
what i’m reading: the cold millions by jess walter
There is an accepted wisdom that socialism and communism failed, and capitalism prevailed, because the former is bad, and the latter is good. That humankind rejected socialism and embraced capitalism,…
Greed is . . . not-so-good
On Tumblr, the kids are calling it “late-stage capitalism.”* Unlike other late-stage diseases – syphilis springs to mind — there is still hope for saving… Continue ReadingGreed is . .…
bearing witness: 215 tiny skeletons speak to us. canadians must listen.
The discovery, last week, of the remains of 215 children on the site of a former Indian Residential School has sent shock waves through Canada, especially through this province, where…
Pride
June is Pride month, a time when we recognise some of the glorious human diversity in the world. We celebrate being able to be openly who we are, and specifically,…
The New Renaissance
There is a renaissance emerging now across humanity, as well as a paradigm shift in science; and a spiritual awakening is occurring, along with a political and cultural awakening. How…
what i’m reading: the skin we’re in by desmond cole
Alternative title: It Happens in Canada, Too. Desmond Cole’s book, The Skin We’re In: A Year of Black Resistance and Power may be a difficult book for white Canadians to…
what i’m reading: sometimes you have to lie: the life and times of louise fitzhugh, renegade author of harriet the spy
Until very recently, I didn’t know anything about Louise Fitzhugh and had not thought about her at all. Of course, as a child I read and loved Harriet the Spy,…
what i’m reading: the sword and the shield: the revolutionary lives of malcolm x and martin luther king jr.
When I read a review of The Sword and The Shield: the Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr., I knew it was a book I’d been…
Conspiracy Theory Revisited
We should remember that the cult of authority, the cult of obedience, and the cult of conformity, are profoundly anti-intellectual, anti-science, anti-empirical, and anti-democratic, as well as extremely dangerous. And…
On Puritan-Capitalism: Money As The Measure Of All Things
The mechanistic materialist world view, which the West, beginning with Europe, adopted a mere 400 years ago, and then exported through economic, financial, military and cultural colonialism and neocolonialism to…