How Will Dion Justify This?
Given the ongoing contention surrounding Canada's decision to sell $15 billion worth of armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia, one wonders what sort of dance moves Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion…
human rights
Party City’s PR problem illustrates the need to be anticipatory about promoting tolerance
PHOTOS: The ugly message as relayed by mainstream media, in this case the CBC. Below: Shelley Bramhoff Sikorski’s original Facebook post. Party City is a huge chain of party supply…
dispatches from ola 2016, part 2: libraries and prisons
I've had a longstanding interest in prison libraries, and was happy to meet another librarian-friend who shares this. But I was very pleasantly surprised at the large turnout for the…
Saturday Afternoon Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading.- Robert Atkinson discusses the need for corporate tax policy to encourage economic development rather than profit-taking and share inflation. And Jim Hightower notes that…
New column day
Here, on the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal's decision (PDF) finding that the failure to provide equal child services for First Nations is a human rights breach which requires federal action…
David Suzuki: Environmental rights are human rights
Today, "half of all Canadians live in places with unacceptable air pollution," most because we're not doing enough to protect "environmental rights," which are human rights, argues David Suzuki. The…
Omar Khadr: The Last Post and the Happy Ending
In the last nine years I wrote more than 100 posts about the case of Omar Khadr, because I considered it one of the most shameful episodes in modern Canadian…
Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading.- Errol Mendes points out that any commitment to securing human rights in our foreign policy is currently limited by the lack of any systematic…
You say "glib", I say "callous and dehumanizing". Let’s just call the whole thing off.
Sadly, even a modicum of criticism of Brad Wall on Saskatchewan's editorial pages is all too rare. But while the Star-Phoenix offers at least that much, is there any doubt…
On priorities
I've written before about the Saskatchewan Party's assumption that actually meeting the basic needs of inmates wasn't a core function of the provincial correctional system.Well, the choice to turn food…
Canadians Speak Out About Saudi Arabia
While our new government would, I'm sure, dearly love to change the channel on the indefensible arms deal with Saudi Arabia that I have been recently writing about, it is…
Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week.- John O'Farrell argues that a basic income provides a needed starting point for innovation and entrepreneurship by people who don't enjoy the advantage of…
Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading.- Justin Fox explores why it took the economic field in general (with some noteworthy exceptions) decades to start dealing with burgeoning inequality. And…
A Brief for Equality
Photo by ANGELOUX Liberal critics of economic inequality are willing to say that it’s wrong for the richest 1% of households in the U.S. to own 42% of the nation’s…
COP21 falls short in addressing climate change for the South Pacific Islands
Research done for the Pacific Peoples Partnership, Victoria BC Vulnerability in the South Pacific Islands The South Pacific Islands are one of the most vulnerable areas in the world to…
Recommendations from the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
Today, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada released its Final Report on the human rights violations perpetrated through the aboriginal residential school policy. Here are a few of the…
why i write for rights and how you can too #write4rights
Tomorrow, December 10, is Human Rights Day. The date commemorates the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights on December 10, 1948, the first document of its kind.Every year…
The Paris Attacks In Contex
Propaganda, hysteria, ultra-violence and imperialism, as usual “A people unaware of its myths is likely to continue living by them.” – Richard Slotkin I have been too horrified by the…
Police Wife: The Secret Epidemic of Police Domestic Violence
Domestic violence takes place in up to a staggering 40 percent of law enforcement families, but police departments mostly ignore the problem or let it slide, write ex-police wife Susanna…