Search results for “site/human rights”

  • Manitoba’s Climate & Green Plan

    Catastrophic Failure of Leadership Last week, the Manitoba government announced it would amend Bill 16, the “Climate and Green Plan,” to eliminate its flat $25/tonne carbon tax, leaving it essentially empty of any real action on climate change. Just a few days later, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)—the…

  • For Some, Arrogance is Bliss

    This fall, Margaret Wente discovered people under 40. Woot! Okay, that’s not entirely fair. Given her years of pontificating on topics like the environment, public schools, and the glass ceiling, it’s inevitable that sooner or later she manages, even accidentally, to quote or refer to someone under 40. But an…

  • From the ground up: Building a successful Early Learning and Child Care System in Nova Scotia

    The Nova Scotia government has announced that it will introduce a new free pre-primary program for children turning four by the end of December 2017. While there are many reasons to be concerned about the implementation of this program, the good news is that the government is investing in the…

  • February 2004: Poisoning the Environment — Free

    Polluters are supposed to pay clean-up costs–but they don’t What is remarkable about the latest environmental law decision from the Supreme Court of Canada is not how ecologically enlightened the Court is (since a series of previous cases had already demonstrated the Justices’ “green” wisdom), but rather the breadth of…

  • Polling on taxes – response to a critic

    On November 29, the CCPA released an opinion research study led by myself and Randy Galawan called Beyond the 1%: What British Columbians think about taxes, inequality and public services. The study involved an extensive online survey (poll) of a broad sample of British Columbians, conducted by Environics Research, and…

  • Cui Bono?

    Who benefits from government actions? Our corporate rulers Lucius Cassius, a consul whom the people of ancient Rome revered as a wise and honest judge, was often required to adjudicate disputes involving the laws or policies of the Senate. Time and again, his first question was “Cui bono?” which can…

  • Your Brain on Capitalism

    At least as far back as Sokrates, people have speculated on the relationship between psychology and politics. In the 20th century, Wilhelm Reich, Erich Fromm and members of the Frankfurt School (such as Herbert Marcuse) pioneered discussion about how individual dispositions affect one’s social and political ideologies. On the other…

  • The Infinite Economic Growth Myth

    Profit maximization now a fatal corporate priority While on my summer vacation, I try to isolate myself for a few weeks from the worsening global troubles that beset us all. But this year, try as I might to lose myself in light-reading thrillers and fantasies, worrisome news from the real…

  • Love and spreadsheets

    One of the most important revelations of my life came to me not when I was diagnosed with cancer three years ago. (From this I have learned one thing: cancer sucks.) No, revelation came to me in a moment, two decades ago, when I had backed myself into a very…

  • The Attack on Organics

    Anti-organics study funded by Cargill and other corporations Food issues have been much in the news recently, but I want to focus on what can only be called an attempt to trash organic food and organic farming – an attempt that, as we shall see, fits into a larger agenda.…

  • CCPA-BC presentation to the BC Labour Relations Code Review Panel

    Download 1.49 MB 10 pages This submission was made to a BC government appointed panel to share the CCPA-BC’s recommendations regarding policy measures to strengthen the labour relations code to improve fairness in a changing workplace, including the importance of protecting workplace rights in both employment standards and the rights provided…

  • Equality is the Core Value of Democracy

    Stop backsliding, put Canada back on road to equality There has never been a better time in recent history when the core democratic value of equality can be seen as both an ethical and practical option. Governments in advanced democracies around the world have been forced by the current prolonged…