“Unprecedented” – Reality vs Delusion
Every year a tragic event happens. 300,000 to 500,000 people die globally of the flu. Most are very old, very ill, or immune compromised. In 2020 fewer people have died…
human rights
The Pandemic’s Unflattering Glare: How the Crisis Is Affecting Care Workers and Prisoners
A prisoner inside the Hamilton-Wentworth Detention Centre (also known as Barton Jail) tested positive for COVID-19 in late-March. Photo courtesy of the Hamilton Spectator. Multiple and concurrent disasters are unfolding…
Abolishing the police is the only reasonable response to Winnipeg Police killings
Winnipeggers gathered in the cold outside of the Winnipeg Police Headquarters in early March to demand justice after a police shooting left Machuar Madut, 43, dead. Photo by Quincy Houdayer/The…
Defining a Space for Resistance: Countering the Disempowering Effects of Social Distancing
A floor sticker recommending social distancing at a London Drugs store in Vancouver. Photo from Flickr. In the midst of the disorienting crisis that is COVID-19, “social distancing” has taken…
10 things on my mind about covid-19
1. Wealthy urbanites are fleeing to their second homes — buying out grocery stores, expecting personal shoppers and home delivery, swelling vacation towns’ size to summer proportions. This is the…
Why Concordia got it so wrong with eviction of student residents during COVID-19
In the late morning of Wednesday, March 18, many of the approximately 800 students living in residence at Concordia University in Montréal received an email from Lauren Farley, Director of…
Morality in an Amoral World
An Italian family on lockdown in Turin looks on the bright side. Photo courtesy of the World Economic Forum. A crisis is a mirror. It shows us—if we have the…
Cuba’s Contribution to Combatting COVID-19
COVID-19 surged in the Chinese city of Wuhan in late December 2019 and by January 2020 it had hit Hubei province like a tidal wave, swirling over China and rippling…
Importing From China: A Virus? Or A Totalitarian Model Of Elite Control?
Someone prescient once said, “Those who would sacrifice a little freedom for a little security, deserve neither, and will lose both.” We would do well to remember those words now.…
The Left Must Fight the IHRA Definition of Antisemitism
Man blows a shofar at a rally in London against anti-Semitism in the UK Labour Party. Photo by Getty Images. Bill 168, the Combating Antisemitism Act, was introduced in the…
Neither Cure nor Prevention, but Sheer Punishment
A protester against Eurovision 2019 being held in Israel. Photo by Corinna Kern/Reuters. Anti-Semitism is a grave matter; its mere utterance conjures unspeakable horrors – atrocities typically tied to the…
My review of Robert Clark’s book on Canada’s prisons
Robert Clark has written a very good book about Canada’s prison system. Mr. Clark worked from 1980 until 2009 in seven different federal prisons, all located in Ontario. The book…
Statement: Montreal academics against police brutality and right-wing Hindu nationalism in India
Protests are being held across India against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), with the opposition accusing the government of furthering a hidden agenda to target Muslims. Photo by PTI. The…
BDS as a way of resistance
Israeli West Bank barrier, Bethlehem. Photo by Magnus Höij (Flickr). Before I left the open-air prison that is Gaza for the first time eight years ago on my first speaking…
what i’m reading: syria’s secret library: reading and redemption in a town under siege
Syria’s Secret Library: Reading and Redemption in a Town Under Siege is a tribute to the power of books to heal, to offer refuge, and to nourish communities. It’s also…
what i’m reading: syria’s secret library: reading and redemption in a town under siege
Syria’s Secret Library: Reading and Redemption in a Town Under Siege is a tribute to the power of books to heal, to offer refuge, and to nourish communities. It’s also…
The bad faith “debate” about trans human rights
Recently, the National Post published a discussion that I engaged in with Jonathan Kay. I participated in that because it was an opportunity to provide a counterpoint for readers who…
When poverty mattered: the Poor People’s Conference of 1971
The following is an excerpt from Paul Weinberg’s new book, When Poverty Mattered: Then and Now, released this year by Fernwood Publishing. Unknown to the people at the Toronto based…
write for rights 2019 #write4rights
Today, 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…
write for rights 2019 #write4rights
Today, 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…