“That’s their business, not Canada’s”
Is Jim Carr, Minister of Screwing Up Industry talking about Bombardier or Kinder Morgan? It’s a trick question, he said that about both. Last year McParland wrote the following hilarity…
media
Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Laura Basu discusses the media’s role in accepting and perpetuating the corporatist ideology behind privatization campaigns: (R)esearch carried out by myself at…
Andrea Horwath is going to win Ontario on June 7 – that’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it!
Happy Victoria Day! I’m feeling good about my prediction that the next Premier of Ontario will be Andrea Horwath. When I made that prediction back on Feb. 27, scads of…
Call it what it is, says labour minister: successive Conservative governments denied Alberta working people their rights
CALGARY – For many years, Alberta working people were routinely denied rights other Canadians take for granted, Alberta Labour Minister Christina Gray said last weekend in a bluntly worded speech…
A Little Humour Too Much For The White House Press
The WHCD has always included a roast, so long as I can remember back to the W Bush years. Colbert’s roast of Bush is among my most favourite moments in…
Cambridge Analytica Ain’t Nuthin: Look Out For i360 and DataTrust
There are two dangers in the media howl over Trump’s computer gurus Cambridge Analytica, the data-driven psy-ops company founded by billionaire brown-shirts, the Mercer Family. The story is that Cambridge…
Reporter Was Right Before
When someone is correct multiple times about major events, it’s worth hearing what they have to say about the latest unfolding. Trump’s Presidency is crumbling, and if Americans wake up,…
Up Is Down In Moe Town
Will @CBCSask and @leaderpost and @620ckrm let the Premier continue to lie without being challenged?Does @ryanmeili or someone else have to say something first? Is there no permission to correct…
The Vriend Case has been closed for 20 years, but the Alberta political story continues
PHOTOS: The front page of the Toronto Globe and Mail on the day after the Supreme Court’s historic ruling in the Vriend case. Below: A screenshot of Delwin Vriend taken…
AlbertaPolitics.ca regrets the error … advice for young reporters from the Old Copy Editor
ILLUSTRATIONS: “And Moses lifted up his hand, and with his rod he struck the rock twice: and the water came out abundantly, and the congregation drank, and their animals also.”…
Is rural crime actually getting worse in Alberta? What we know and what we don’t
PHOTOS: Unlike these guys, real RCMP officers cost money to train, pay and outfit. When he promised many more of them to rural Alberta, Jason Kenney didn’t explain how he…
Reading as a forgotten art
Earlier this month (February, 2018), the Globe & Mail published an essay by author Michael Harris titled, “I have forgotten how to read.” In it, he recounted how he recently…
On Media Piracy and "FairPlay Canada"
This is a new development to me, but then I haven’t been following the issue of piracy all that closely for some time. The upshot is that a group of…
Crytpo-Realities
The dodos run hither and thither, depending on which way the wind blows, and what the media tells them (99% of which is confusion, illusion, propaganda or lies — aka, bullshit). But…
Honderich’s hypocrisy
In late January, the Toronto Star published a lengthy opinion piece by board chair John Honderich, titled, “We should all be very concerned by the crisis facing quality journalism.” But…
Mainstream Media and Imperial Power
John Pilger • Photo from Public Domain Emmy award-winning filmmaker John Pilger is among the most important political filmmakers of the 20th and 21st century. From Vietnam to Palestine to…
Chill the champagne! Market-fundamentalist newspaper owners primed for infusion of taxpayer cash!
PHOTOS: The Canadian newspaper industry celebrates the coming of tax subsidies from the federal government. Actual Canadian newspaper publishers may not appear exactly as illustrated – in this case, by…
The Scary Void Inside Russia-gate
Photo by Jorge Silva The foundational accusation of Russia-gate was, and remains, charges that Russian President Putin ordered the hacking of Democratic National Committee e-mails and their public dissemination through…
New column day
Here, on how Donald Trump is just one of far too many politicians trying to undercut needed counterbalances in the media, political systems and civil society. For further reading…– Rem…
Maxime Bernier should walk in other people’s shoes before he accuses anyone of racism
In the 1970s, Lincoln Alexander fought the caucus of the Progressive Conservative Party. Mr. Alexander fought them because as a Black man, he wanted to support anti-hate speech legislation. His…