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Search results for: “site/human rights”
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Fast Facts: Black Lives Matter in Canada, as well
It is not too soon to express the view that the police killing of Machuar Madut, 43 year old father of three, living with mental health issues, and facing possible eviction – was unjustifiable and unnecessary. I am unwilling to entertain the notion that Machuar Madut’s death was sad but…
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War Radio and the Militarization of Canadian Culture
“The deformed human mind is the ultimate doomsday weapon.” I was reminded of this chilling warning from the late British historian E.P. Thompson, while listening to Rex Murphy’s Cross-Country Checkup on CBC Radio on November 20. Murphy was interviewing Terry Glavin, a B.C. author, about Glavin’s latest book, one endorsing Canada’s so-called…
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Out of water?
As deadline looms, thousands of BC groundwater users risk losing access to water, but not most water bottling, fracking and mining companies In February 2018, the head of a little-known Surrey-based company asked the BC government for a licence to withdraw 864 cubic metres of water per day from a…
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NAFTA Investor Rights Plus
An Analysis of the Draft Investment Chapter of the FTAA Download 121.45 KB
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The Latin American Revolution (Part VI)
Public health care planned for all of Latin America [Editor’s Note: The first half of this article, which is about Latin American integration, was published in the June Monitor. It dealt with the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR), the Bank of the South, and PetroAmerica, the petroleum company of…
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Ten questions about the CETA
After weeks of rumours, it’s now official: the CETA talks have produced an “agreement-in-principle”. This proposed treaty is about far more than simply trade. It is a constitutional-style document that affects patent protection for drugs, foreign investor rights, local government purchasing, public interest regulation and many other matters that are…
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Housing crunch continues in Manitoba
Across Canada, housing prices slowed down in 2013, but in Manitoba, there are no signs of the housing crunch abating. Last month, the average house price in Winnipeg surpassed $300,000 for the first time ever, according to new data from the Canadian Real Estate Association. Good news if you are…
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From Charity to Entitlement
Look to history for best way to end persistent poverty I recently heard a caller to a radio talk-show complain about poor people turning to government for assistance to survive. He suggested that community efforts, such as food banks and charity, should suffice. And from his grave, Dickens groaned. One…
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Fast Facts: Proposed parental control of schools remains baffling
First published in the Winnipeg Free Press April 23, 2021 A teacher hands a child his report card in the morning, and intervenes in a child’s bullying in the afternoon — a few hours later, their parents tell the principal if that teacher’s career should continue. Bill 64 creates that…
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Fast Facts: The Education Property Tax Rebate
Do we seniors really need it? This commentary was also published in the Winnipeg Free Press on Oct 17, 2013. The opposition’s unproductive filibuster of the provincial 2013 budget increase in the PST has left many aspects of the budget undebated. One is its failure to provide for improvement in…
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Ignorance and Slurs: Indigenous Election Coverage
Every election, there are important reminders of the ignorance and racism Indigenous people face each day in Canada. The ignorance is quite literal. Entire election campaigns go by where the media mostly ignores First Nations, Inuit or Métis peoples. Take clean water for example. Trouble with the water supply in…
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September 2008: The Decline of Collectivity
Triumph of individualism a defeat for society as a whole A few years ago, former Alberta Premier Peter Lougheed astonished us by denouncing what he called “the decline of collectivity” in Canada. “We are becoming increasingly Americanized,” he warned, “and this imposes an un-Canadian individualism on our ethic.” Coming from…