Category: News

Solidarity with posties! Why you should be supporting your postal workers…

It’s on! The Canadian Union of Postal Workers has officially embarked on a series of rotating strikes throughout Canada. The strike, the first in almost 15 years, began Thursday night in Winnipeg. It then continued on to Hamilton, Ontario on Friday and then to Montreal Sunday night. The strike will hit another Canadian city every few days indefinitely until an agreement with the Canada Post Corporation (CPC) is made.

The reasons for the strike concern major issues associated with the corporation’s…

The War on Drugs is Lost

On June 17, 1971 United States President Richard Nixon officially launched the “War on Drugs”. Forty years later the American government alone has spent between one and two and a half trillion dollars to combat drug users, dealers and manufacturers. Millions of otherwise innocent people have been incarcerated as a result…

When You’ve Got to Go

It wasn’t all that long ago that we needed to use an outhouse to do our business. Even my mom remembers using newspaper instead of toilet paper in the 50s because it wasn’t a common household item at the time. Living in rural Ghana during the summer of 2007 brought me back in time to Montreal’s pre-indoor toilet era. My compound had one communal latrine (a tiny closet of a room with a hole in the ground and…

Netanyahu: Not a Man for Peace

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made it abundantly clear last week in his speech to the American Congress that he has no desire to negotiate for peace. Although Bibi’s talk drew several standing ovations in front of American lawmakers, few were smiling back in Palestine or Israel. In his speech Netanyahu quickly dismissed virtually all key Palestinian demands for peace. He first shunned…

Want to get slutty this weekend? Go to the SlutWalk, MTL style

So, you think a Saturday night in downtown Montreal is a guaranteed paradise for the hottest sluts in town? This weekend, you’re seriously mistaken. The real action’s going to be at Parc de la Paix (on the corner of Rene Levesque and St. Laurent) on Sunday afternoon from 2-5pm for Montreal’s very first SlutWalk. Slutwalk Montreal promises to be far better…

NDP shadow cabinet ready for prime time

Today Jack Layton announced the composition of the shadow cabinet that will take on the Conservatives when Parliament resumes on June 2. For those who don’t obsessively follow politics, a shadow cabinet is the group of MPs who will serve as critics to the government’s ministers. A critic is tasked with holding their government counterpart to account, and is the main voice of opposition on issues relating to the ministry for which they are responsible. For the first time in their history the NDP are the Official Opposition, and the government in waiting for the next four years…

Achtung! Germany getting greener beyond doors of Klimahaus museum

When Bob Geldof opened the world’s first climate change museum in northern Germany two years ago, he was surprised by two guests, a man from Niger and a man from Samoa whose countries feature prominently in The Journey, the main exhibit at the Klimahaus. Geldof, a well-known human rights activist and music producer, spoke about water, from rising sea levels to desertification, and how these global warming problems will lead to climate migration. People like Foua from Samoa and Ibrahim from Niger would be forced to abandon their homes and homelands because their island is being flooded or there simply isn’t enough water available to survive where their people have lived for centuries…

On Israel: Obama is Right and Wrong

Last Thursday, US President Barack Obama gave a stirring speech on the “Arab Spring” and America’s policies toward it. Unfortunately the only part of it that made headlines was his comment calling for any peace deal between Israel and Palestine to be based on the 1967 borders. His annotations angered Zionists, Republicans, right wing Jews and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. What Obama said however was nothing new; negotiations based on the lines of 1967…

Rapture regrets and accomplishments

If you’re reading this, you’re a godless heathen who has been left behind. I’m either at the top of Mount Royal with enough provisions to last me a few days or out looting. After all, I did say I’d attend post-raputure looting on Facebook and we all know to say one is “attending” something on Facebook is a sacred trust. Yes, the rapture happened yesterday at 6pm eastern, according to various people online and some guy who already predicted it would happen once before and that’s good enough evidence for me to write this post in advance and head to the hills. While I’m sure the next seven years of planetary destruction…