From Kanehsatà:ke to Palestine
In the summer of 1990, Ellen Gabriel (Katsi’tsakwas) was chosen by the People of the Longhouse and her community of Kanehsatà:ke to be their spokesperson during the infamous “Oka Crisis,”…
reviews
Ta-Nehisi Coates, Palestine, and a message of resistance
Israeli checkpoint at the entrance of Shuhada Street in Hebron, Palestine. Photo by Mehdi Chebil. The Message Ta-Nehisi Coates One World, 2024 In East Jerusalem, roughly a ...
Jurassic Park: Some Thoughts About the Franchise Part 2
Charles Darwin knew the score. In Chapter 11 of his famous and brilliant book, The Origin of Species, published in 1859, he wrote, “We can clearly understand why a species…
Jurassic Park: Some Thoughts About the Franchise Part 1
There’s one particular scene in the first Jurassic Park movie, about twenty minutes in, when Dr. Alan Grant and Dr. Ellie Sattler see the dinosaurs walking wild in the open…
Can’t find a terrorist suspect? Just make one
John Nuttall and Amanda “Ana” Korody were targeted and entrapped by undercover officers of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. Manufacturing the Threat Dir...
Inside the imperial holding pen
Migrants are guided by Mexican authorities through the Ceibo border crossing between Guatemala and Mexico on January 19, 2020. Photo by Jair Cabrera Torres/AP. Inside Siglo XXI: Locked Up Inside…
The spy who kept notes
A Communist for the RCMP: The Uncovered Story of a Social Movement Informant Dennis Gruending Between the Lines, 2024 Frank Hadesbeck tried and failed to write his ...
How Canada’s cultural lobby only serves corporate greed
Photo by Dominic Smith/Flickr Canada vs California: How Ottawa took on Netflix and the streaming giants Howard Law Lorimer, 2024 It has long been said that history is writt...
Wide world of … sports?
There’s a little sports spectacle, something about a cup that belongs to some guy named Stanley, that has been taking up most of the oxygen in the sports universe lately.…
What is socialism, anyway?
Detail of “Man at the Crossroads” (1933), a fresco by Mexican painter Diego Rivera, showing Leon Trotsky, Friedrich Engels, and Karl Marx. Photo from Wikimedia Commons. Socialism: A Very Short…
Your must not see films of 2023
As a lifelong fan and even, dare I say, a student of movies, at this time of year I like to peruse the ‘best of’ lists from movie critics, looking…
Ed Broadbent: Canada’s most iconic social democrat?
Ed Broadbent, now 87, was the first NDP leader widely regarded by the Canadian public as a possible prime minister. Photo by Jeff Goode/Toronto Star Archives. Seeking Social Democracy: Seven…
How ‘Cannibal Capitalism’ is devouring the planet
Smoke from wildfires in Canada engulfs New York City, June 2023. Photo by Anthony Quintano/Wikimedia Commons. Cannibal Capitalism: How our System is Devouring Democracy, Care, and the Planet—and What We…
Poverty in Britain: From feudalism to neoliberal capitalism
“The Payment of the Tithes (The tax-collector),” by Pieter Breughel the Younger, between 1617 and 1622. Image courtesy Bonhams/Wikimedia Commons. Scoundrels and Shirkers: Capitalism and Poverty in Britain Jim Silver…
Winnipeg, 1919: How understanding the past is a product of the present
Demonstrators protest the trials of the Winnipeg General Strike leaders. Photo courtesy National Archives of Canada. For a Better World: The Winnipeg General Strike and the Workers’ Revolt Edited by…
Sabotage in the time of the Anthropocene
How to Blow Up a Pipeline Directed by Daniel Goldhaber Chrono, 2023 “Strategic pacifism is sanitized history… it is a guide of scant use for a movement with mighty obstacles.”…
Making sense of the senseless war in Ukraine
Soviet-era monument in Riga, Latvia, which was splashed with the colours of the Ukraine flag the day after Russia invaded in February 2022. Photo by Kārlis Dambrāns/ Flickr. War in…
The Indigenous fight to stop uranium mining in Canada’s North
The cover image for I Will Live for Both of Us, featuring Joan Scottie. Photo courtesy University of Manitoba Press. I Will Live for Both of Us: A History of…
Compassion in an age of anxiety and disillusionment
The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness and Healing in a Toxic Culture Gabor Maté with Daniel Maté Knopf Canada, 2022 Published in September 2022, Canadian physician and author Gabor Maté’s…
New book shows why Indigenous leadership must be at the heart of Canada’s just transition
The End of This World: Climate Justice in So-Called Canada Angele Alook, Emily Eaton, David Gray-Donald, Joël Laforest, Crystal Lameman and Bronwen Tucker Between the Lines, 2023 When new oil…