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
Year: 2012
The Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) Problem
The occupy movement was fairly successful at bringing to light the massive influence that corporations have over our governments, the internet and our daily lives. If only they could see what was going on in San Diego, California. Cloaked in secrecy, negotiations are taking place between 600 industry advisers and non-elected trade representatives to engineer an international agreement called the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP).
Oda’s career epitomised Harper government’s lack of accountability
It does seem like Oda was never really on top of her files or fully in control of her own ministry. Then again, apart from a handful of ministers, none of these “servants of the crown” seems to be able to escape the tight leash Harper has imposed on them. They would do well to remember that the term “responsible government” in Canada means that they are accountable to the Parliament and not to the Prime Minister
Oreos show their true colours
Is there really anything so wrong with the Pride-cookie, as my previous article would make it seem? No, there isn’t. The difference is in whether queer rights are being used to sell a controversial product or whether the motive is to affirm the existence of a marginalized group, as it is with Kraft…
Water water everywhere
Maybe the state of water in Canada is better than a decade ago, but the folks at the Sustainable Water Management Division – now semi-defunct – say Canada needs a water charter, possibly because safe water could be considered a human right
Moving Day: Don’t leave anyone behind!
Every year in Quebec, as the July 1st moving day approaches, thousands of animals are left behind, as their human parents feel obliged to move […]
Quebec court rejects emergency injunction against Bill 78
Quebec Superior Court Chief Justice François Rolland on Wednesday rejected a motion filed by Quebec’s student associations asking for an emergency injunction against certain elements of Quebec’s contentious Bill 78. In a twenty-one page decision released late Wednesday afternoon, Rolland found that the students case had the “appearance of right”, but failed to meet the two other criteria for this type of emergency injunction, namely “irreparable prejudice” and “balance of inconvenience”.
Mind the Gap
In the 1942 classic Casablanca, a scene early in the film pits Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart) against Nazi Major Heinrich Strasser in a test of Blaine’s cynical neutrality. Strasser asks Blaine if he can imagine the German army in New York, to which Blaine cooly answers: “Well there are certain sections of New York, Major, that I wouldn’t advise you to try to invade.” The same could now be said of Montreal, only instead of territorial New Yorkers, German Panzer divisions would have to navigate the Montreal’s rapidly eroding streets…
On Queers Against Israeli Apartheid & Pinkwashing
A queer group that labels itself with a contentious term—apartheid—that then can’t explain to the general public why queer people have anything to do with it, is destined to fail. And this is unfortunate, because they do have important ideas—criticizing ‘pinkwashing’ being the most important
The Wrong Shade of Green
Earth Summit 2012: World powers are too preoccupied with austerity and corporate growth to care about environmental sustainability