Remembering the ‘year of the Irish’
Statues placed at Toronto’s Ireland Park to represent the arrival of the Irish famine migrants on the city’s waterfront in 1847. Designed by Irish sculptor Rowan Gillespie, they were modelled…
human rights
what i’m reading: operation paperclip: the secret intelligence program that brought nazi scientists to america
Many years ago, I wrote about how the label conspiracy theory is used to shut down inquiry and squelch the questioning of authority: two words, part one, two words part…
what i’m reading: operation paperclip: the secret intelligence program that brought nazi scientists to america
Many years ago, I wrote about how the label conspiracy theory is used to shut down inquiry and squelch the questioning of authority: two words, part one, two words part…
Gaza Stories
“Gaza – Stories of Grief, Resilience and Hope” was hosted by the Canadian Palestinian Association of Manitoba and Independent Jewish Voices Winnipeg at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in…
Trans enters the culture wars
Pierre Poilievre states that biological men should not be allowed to compete in women’s sports. I agree. But then I’m not aware of any biological men attempting to compete in…
The morality of tyrants
I have long been intrigued at how men who inflict torture and murder on their fellow human beings can consider themselves moral leaders. History is replete with authoritarians of various…
December 10—Human Rights Day
It doesn’t seem to have attracted the attention it deserves but 2023 is the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Declaration “is a milestone document in…
Further Reflections On Nationalism
I would emphasize there are better and worse forms of nationalism, but stress that nationalist political-economic policies can be highly beneficial for the people, as opposed to neoliberalism, globalism or…
write for rights 2023: my fifteenth year #w4r2023
2023 marks the fifteenth year that I have participated in Amnesty Interntional's Write for Rights.Fifteen years ago, I chose one case, one person. I wrote to officials about them, and…
write for rights 2023: my fifteenth year #w4r2023
2023 marks the fifteenth year that I have participated in Amnesty Interntional’s Write for Rights. Fifteen years ago, I chose one case, one person. I wrote to officials about them,…
from the archives: my journey to palestinian solidarity and the myth of the self-hating jew (a three-part story)
This seems like a good time to re-post this three-part series. It remains one of the best pieces I’ve written. Part one, my Jewish identity: my journey to palestinian solidarity…
The Collapse Of The West: Chapter One: The Global Tectonic Shift
By J. Todd Ring Preface: I wrote this essay in January of 2020, then the covid crisis hit, and it was shelved for over a year. The macro-scale patterns have…
a genocide is happening right now and nations are doing nothing to stop it
Right now the State of Israel is committing genocide against the people of Gaza. Many humans around the globe are horrified, grieving, raging. But people with the power to stop…
Winnipeggers mark the 50th anniversary of the Chilean coup
On September 11, 1973, Popular Unity Government of Salvador Allende was overthrown in a violent coup d’état carried out by the Chilean military with the backing of the government of…
A Winnipeg Vigil for Palestine
On August 12, 2023, supporters of Palestinian liberation in Winnipeg held a vigil across from the Israeli Folklorama Pavilion to raise awareness of the suffering of Palestinians under Israeli occupation.
Affirmative action—race or socioeconomics?
The US Supreme Court recently struck down race-based affirmative action as a basis for college admissions. Americans are now busy entertaining new ideas about how to account for historical disadvantage…
in which an email reminds me to resurrect a very old post: join athena to change amazon
Do you support Athena? Athena is a broad coalition of people and organizations who seek to change Amazon’s practices through a variety of tools and tactics, including from the inside.…
A Lesson For All Of Us
Some ‘religious’ people will undoubtedly find this teaching from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez hard to accept. Republicans have good reason to fear this woman, because her ability to cut through their BS…
Republican trans phobia
People generally like to keep things simple. Black and white, right and wrong, men and women. But of course things generally aren’t all that simple. More often than not there…
Africa’s anti-gay madness—the Christian connection
Uganda recently passed an anti-gay law described by United Nations human rights chief Volker Türk as “probably among the worst of its kind in the world.” Anyone engaging in gay…