Year: 2011

Corporate sponsored animal abuse for a good cause

“Rednecks are a dyin’ breed ya know,” a sweaty, fat man in a white cowboy hat called ‘Cousin’ explained to me, as he aggressively scrubbed the last of the ­bean sauce off of the bottom of a pot, “except here in Calgary, they flourish!” His entire body laughed. He knew I was a rookie.

Before the Stampede I hadn’t thought much about Calgary really. I knew what most native Montrealers know about the city. I knew it was where Steven Harper lived and that oil and gas money built the tallest buildings and greased the economy. I’d heard about the Stampede of course, people in South Africa have heard about the Stampede, but aside from casually tuning in to…

Religious moderation and Ghana’s quiet war

As fundamentalist Christians and fundamentalist Muslims unite to attempt to “get rid of these people in the society,” a statement both ugly in composition and in sentiment, the small and mostly silent homosexual community in Ghana finds itself on the brink of persecution. It is for this reason, that while I still maintain that violence is not the property of any single group of people, I must admit that if religion is not a necessary cause for violence and oppression, it is at the very least a sufficient one…

Quebec Politics for Dummies: L’Affaire Turmel and the Media

No surprise that the Conservatives would pick up smearing the leader of the Official Opposition where they left off with Iggy. What appalls me, if it does not surprise me, is that the national media, with nary an exception, would gleefully follow them down the rabbit hole. They did so for two reasons: complete ignorance of Quebec and how our politics work, and a desperate flailing to cut down the NDP and their new leader for the egregious crime of being Socially Progressive while Popular (SPP)…

Shale gas industry shoots for social media revamp, critics not convinced

Canada’s shale gas industry is turning to social media for a cure to its tattered public image in Quebec, according to the Canadian Press. The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) has contracted the services of social media company Parta Dialogue to create forumschiste.com, a website billed as a place to discuss issues and share information about shale gas. With the official launch of the website set for Tuesday, one of the industry’s most vocal critics, the Association Québecoise de Lutte Contre la Pollution Atmosphérique (AQLPA) is already calling into question the motives of the effort. “Is this looking at environmental questions or is this damage control?” said Kim Cornelissen of the AQLPA in a phone interview…

The 27 Club: Does Winehouse Deserve such Exclusive Company?

Seeing as how I’m on vacation this week, I thought I would take a step away from the world of politics for once and write about my second passion; music. When I saw on the news last week that Amy Winehouse had passed away, the first thought that ran through my slumbering brain was, who gives a shit? Unfortunately, hardly a second had passed before they announced she had passed away at the age of twenty-seven, turning my thoughts of “who gives a shit?” to just “oh shit!” I knew right away that this troubled woman…

Like we’ve done one thousand times before: FTB’s 1000th post

I’d like to interrupt our regularly scheduled flow of news, arts and culture coverage and commentary to bring you an important announcement. Well, maybe not so important for you, to be honest, but for us here at FTB it’s kind of a mini-milestone. You see, the post which you are reading is the thousandth to appear on this site. Think about that for a second. We’re a small group. No one’s being paid, from administrators and editors to writers and photographers, we’re doing this because we love it. We’ve all got other things going on in our lives and have other ways to pay the bills. Despite this, in roughly two years’ time, we’ve managed to produce 1000 pieces of content…

The Enemy Within II: A Waco End-Game Scenario

I’ve been fascinated by the Siege at Waco and the Branch Davidians since I was eight years old and watched the tragic events unfold nearly-live on CNN in 1993. Admittedly, I was not as aware of the grave implications of the raid, stand-off and siege back then as I am today. Waco, in my eyes, is a catastrophe so epic it deserves to stay fresh in the minds of any concerned citizen living in a modern democratic nation. I think it would be too glib to call it an isolated event, and even if the threat from doomsday cults is generally a bit of a rarity, the lessons from the Waco Siege have broad implications, especially in regards to the responsibilities of modern media and the potential for State intervention therein…

A Modest Proposal for the City of Toronto (VIDEO)

Sometimes, there’s a little bit of Jonathan Swift in all of us. Mary Hynes is no different. Last week, this feisty senior living in North York, Ontario had some modest suggestions for Toronto Mayor Rob Ford and his plans to make serious budget cuts, affecting the city’s services, most notably the public library system. She got the opportunity to deliver her comments to the mayor in person at the Executive Committee’s Core Service Review panel…

Arts and politics: the power of the arts community to shape our politics…

Ever heard of the anti-Harper protest song “You have a choice?” Me neither. Shame really. I checked it out the other day on Youtube (produced by AAVAZ, the global non-profit organization) and apart from the music, which, as is so often the case with these well-intentioned but unwieldy artistic collaborations (e.g. We are the world) is rather confused – note to producers for future reference: bagpipe solos never make a good intro to a pop song! – the message on the threat of climate change deserves to be heard…

Jack will be back, and the NDP will be just fine…

On Monday afternoon Jack Layton, leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada, took to the stage at a nationally televised press conference and announced that tests had discovered a new cancer, different from the Prostate cancer which had dogged him in the lead-up to this spring’s election. Looking pale and gaunt and speaking in an almost unrecognizable voice, he announced that he would be taking a leave of absence from his duties as leader, pegging the resumption of Parliament in September as his target date to return. He spoke of the tremendous support…