With 204 nations taking part, nothing seems to bring the world together like the Summer Olympic Games. Nowhere was that symbolism better demonstrated than during the lighting of the Olympic cauldron last Friday night. During the parade of nations, each country had a child carry out with them a “petal” that was later attached to a branch of the cauldron. When the individual petals were lit, they lifted up and came together to form one. Truly breathtaking…
Month: July 2012
Anatomy of a drought
There are already grumblings in the international media of what this could mean politically. The Arab Spring was tied to high food prices, and it’s possible there could be a second wave of global protests
Gun Control: The Essential Step No One Wants to Talk About
Last Friday, America woke up to the news of another mass shooting in Colorado. A man dressed in black body armour, helmet and gas mask open fired in a packed movie theatre in the Denver suburb of Aurora. The perpetrator lobbed smoke canisters into the crowd before open firing with an AR-15 assault rifle with a high-capacity drum clip, a twelve-gauge shot gun and two pistols. The end result…
Election call looms in Quebec: Can Charest pull off a fourth term?
This election is a volatile crap shoot, and anyone who tells you they know how it will turn out is reaching. My advice? Vote your conscience, not the lesser of two evils. Quebec is a province where anything is possible, so buckle your seat belt, because it’s going to be a wild ride
Charest green lights logging of Algonquin land
The Charest government has granted a Montreal-based forestry company permission to log on Algonquin land in Northern Quebec. The Algonquin community at Barriere Lake, however, say that they were not consulted and that the new clear-cutting logging project at Poignan Bay violates a trilateral agreement on resource co-management they signed with the province in 1991
Police brutality attention-starved
Police brutality in Montreal – especially killings at the hands of police officers – is a year-round issue, a point yesterday’s demonstration was attempting to make. The lack of sustained political pressure and media coverage is clearing the path for a controversial police brutality bill currently under debate in the Quebec National Assembly…
The Embattled English Language Media of Montreal
Quiet Mike on the the sudden disappearance of English newspapers and radio stations in Montreal
The People of the State of New York vs. Malcolm Harris
A decision handed down by the New York State Supreme Court two weeks ago regarding Twitter’s release of user information could set a precedent for court decisions in Canada
How to discuss climate change with your conservative relatives
Understanding the arguments behind climate change is important because there’s lots of misinformation out there, thanks to some very powerful interest groups. It’s also handy to have the facts down should you find yourself at a family reunion with politically divergent relatives, or if you’re trying to get someone to leave you alone at a bar…
Victorian values still reign in Canada
A modern-day witch hunt is underway in Canada. The hunted: not terrorists, but fetishists. The RCMP is investigating the conduct of one of its officers who posted pictures of himself on a fetish website. The most shocking aspect of the story is not the photos, though, but the fact that people are outraged by them