The message from Anonymous to Public Safety Minister Vic Toews was chillingly simple: scrap C-30 (the perversely titled Protection of Children Act designed to enable the government access to the IP addresses of the nation without so much as a court order) or else they will continue with even more scandalous revelations about the minister’s checkered personal life being made public. On February, 22nd, they released another video through YouTube where they revealed more details about Toews’ mistress…
Month: February 2012
Reflections on the Student Strike: How We Devalued Our Education While Raising Tuition
Access to free education ought to be a fundamental human right. Across Canada, students have almost free public education up to the end of the secondary cycle, with some provinces offering subsidized options for post-secondary studies. Because we are a consumerist nation…
Passing Gas
Something smells in our democracies. We the people control our government, we all own our public land, but the resources found on that land get sold to whomever the government decides to offer contracts to (without our permission). The end result is that multi-national oil conglomerates rake in hundreds of billions of dollars while the average North American family winds up paying an average $4200 a year on gasoline…
Eco-Terrorists and Pedophiles – Welcome to the New Canada!
According to our Conservative Government, members of other Canadian political parties are pedophiles and environmentalists are terrorists…welcome to the new Canada. As unbelievable as it sounds, Public Safety Canada listed environmentalists among other “issue-based domestic extremists” that could pose a threat to Canadians…
Flag Day Reflections on Idealism and Avoiding World War III
On the surface it may seem like this planet’s current crop of ‘influential’ political leaders is deliberately trying to sabotage voluntary, collaborative societal evolution by placing draconian restrictions on freedom of doubt, freedom of criticism, freedom of assembly and expression, let alone the freedom to openly question, dissent and oppose the status quo. All over the world…
Politics, Economics and Automobiles
was the headline of Mitt Romney’s 2008 New York Times article describing his views on the then-troubled American auto industry. “If General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye.”…
We’re Not Clients and Our Transit System Isn’t a Store
Call me passenger, traveller, transit system user, citizen even, just please don’t call me a client. I’m not. Just like the Société de transport de Montréal (STM) isn’t a business, or at least it shouldn’t see itself as one. It’s a public utility that does need to charge a fee to function. It also should balance its books, but it should not be run like a for profit corporation…
Free Trade with US and Canada Means Busier Days for Port Buenaventura and Colombian Workers
The 5000 port workers who move 1200 containers of cargo per day are not the only contributors to the portside throng. There are truck drivers, stevedores, private security hired by companies and government agents who are in place to check area regulated by the Port Authority for narcotics and smuggling…
Spanish Judge Garzon Subject of Kafkaesque Trial
People love to invoke the name of Franz Kafka for the slightest fucking absurdity in their lives. Example: I waited in line at the post office for an hour. Then I was told by the clerk that I would have to put my own envelope in the mailbox! WHAT A KAFKAESQUE TWIST OF FATE! In truth, very few situations in our humdrum daily lives would actually make good material for one of this Czech/German/Jewish writer’s novels or short stories…
UN-Dependable
When the United Nations was created back in 1945, it was supposed to succeed where the League of Nations had failed. While there has been some success since the war of wars, there have also been countless failures. In part because of inaction (Sudan), apathy (Rwanda) and the inability to enforce international law (USA, Israel, Palestine). Last week we saw another failure…