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By Graeme Decarie, on March 10, 2014, at 11:34 am ….on the op ed page, columnist Steve Malloy, brave little lad that he is, bares his chest to the rocks and arrows of enraged hockey fans. He’s fed up with the “constant fuss” about hockey.
Damn right. It’s becoming a national embarrassment.
Nobody objects to any fans enjoying their favourite spectator sports. But the frenzy this country can go into over a hockey game suggests a stunning level of immaturity. There is nothing peculiarly Canadian about playing hockey. It doesn’t tell us anything about the Canadian “character” (if there is one.) It does not develop leadership or individualism or (Read more…)
By Peter Lowry, on March 10, 2014, at 10:47 am The last serious attempt in Ontario at changing how people vote was brought forward by the McGuinty Liberal government in 2007. It was a foolish and ill-conceived attempt to put a foot in the door for a form of proportional voting. Ontario voters gave the idea the brush-off in the referendum that year. It lost by close to two to one.
Yet, to their credit, there are still people who keep pushing for change. It would certainly help their cause if they had more cogent arguments for their ideas. What we all agree on is that democracy is not perfect. (Read more…)
By Greg Fingas, on March 10, 2014, at 10:09 am Miscellaneous material to start your week.
- Matthew O’Brien is the latest to pick up on the connection between pre-transfer income equality, redistribution and sustainable economic growth: Redistribution overall helps, and at least doesn’t harm, growth spells. That’s because the positive effects of less inequality add to or offset the negligible, or negative, effects of redistribution itself. When redistribution is in the bottom 75 percent, these positive effects are the only ones, and growth lasts longer. And when redistribution is in the top 25 percent, these positive effects make up for the negative ones from taxing-and-transferring so much—it’s a statistically (Read more…)
By doug rogers, on March 10, 2014, at 10:04 am 10 Ways to Bring Zen Mindfulness Into Your Home.
A rare repost. Pretty much the rules I try to live by. Clean your bowl. Eat when hungry. Sleep when tired.
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By Obert Madondo, on March 10, 2014, at 9:40 am by: Obert Madondo
A student member of the University of Ottawa’s board of governors says the university’s response to recent report sexual violence against women is not enough.
Anaïs Elboujdaini, a political science student who spearheads the Independent Initiative Against Rape Culture, proposes eight measures against rape culture on campus and in society.
The measures include “Immediate up-to-implement mandatory training, in the form of credit courses for all members of the university community regarding discrimination and sexual harassment (including a section on rape culture) as prescribed under the Ontario Act” and “The organization of a day of public debate and (Read more…)
By Rachel, Law Clerk, on March 10, 2014, at 9:35 am Here are the leading legal headlines from Wise Law on Twitter for Monday, March 10, 2014: Michigan Supreme Court demands tougher sanctions against ‘hardly working’ judge Bill regulating unpaid internships passes first reading at Queen’s Park – Varsity Scarborough courthouse crown attorney charged with assault after lawyers’ pub fight – Toronto Star S.C. prosecutors balk at being told they have to be honest Criminal cases plunge across Toronto – Toronto Star Would a Super Bowl Commercial Profit a Law Firm? Courts may be lenient with Lev Tahor: Lawyer | Ontario | News | Toronto Sun Opinion: How the Supreme (Read more…) . . . → Read More: Wise Law Blog: 140 Law – Legal Headlines for Monday, March 10, 2014
By Ian Chadwick, on March 10, 2014, at 9:09 am Been at it again this month. Bread making, I mean. You knew that from the image, right? Several efforts so far this month and March isn’t even half-way through its course. Winter remains firmly entrenched here, and spring – or any time without a thick layer of snow – looks far away. So it’s a […]
By Steve Horn, on March 10, 2014, at 9:00 am The recent March 6 House Energy & Commerce Subcommittee on Energy and Power hearing titled “Benefits of and Challenges to Energy Access in the 21st Century: Fuel Supply and Infrastructure” never had over 100 online viewers watching the livestream at any point in time. And it unfolded in an essentially empty room.
But the poor attendance record had no relation to the gravity of the facts presented by testifiers. Among other things, one presenter revealed 36 percent of the gas by-product from oil obtained via hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) in North Dakota’s Bakken Shale basin was flared off (Read more…)
By John Klein, on March 10, 2014, at 8:59 am Vic Toews becoming a freaking judge was the most predicted patronage appointment since Harper put Duffy into the Senate, and we know how well that turned out.
It looks terrible. The bench should not be used as a retirement home for burnt out politicians. That’s what the Senate is for, and certain consular offices.
By Owen Gray, on March 10, 2014, at 8:47 am Robert Reich writes that, in the three decades after World War II, the United States created the largest middle class the world has ever seen:
During those years the earnings of the typical American worker doubled, just as the size of the American economy doubled. (Over the last thirty years, by contrast, the size of the economy doubled again but the earnings of the typical American went nowhere.)
In that earlier period, more than a third of all workers belonged to a trade union — giving average workers the bargaining power necessary to get a large and growing (Read more…)
By Warren, on March 10, 2014, at 8:36 am Says it all. We need someone who can drive Mayor Crackhead out of office, I’d say, and we need that someone soon.
By Michal Rozworski, on March 10, 2014, at 8:17 am I wrote a piece on the very recent proposal to increase the minimum wage in British Columbia that was published over the weekend in The Tyee:
The B.C. Federation of Labour has just proposed to increase the minimum wage in British Columbia to $13 per hour. In short, it’s about time. With this proposal, B.C. joins the minimum wage debate that has erupted across North America. The debate is much needed: poverty wages have no place in today’s economy.
In the United States, the lowest-paid, most precarious workers stood up and demanded a higher minimum wage at (Read more…)
By brian gibb, on March 10, 2014, at 8:17 am You have to admit that when it comes to maintaining their stranglehold on political power in Quebec, the two major parties, the PLQ (the Quebec Liberal Party) and the PQ (the Parti Québécois) can be very ingenious.
They need to be. Revelations at the Charbonneau Commission indicate that both parties have benefited enormously from illegal financial contributions from private companies in the construction industry. Estimates have it that about 80% of the donations to the PLQ and the PQ were illegal.
Too bad the extent of the illegal funding has yet to be established, which explains why we are having (Read more…)
By James C Morton, on March 10, 2014, at 8:13 am
By The Arbourist, on March 10, 2014, at 8:01 am Funny and scary all at the same time.
Filed under: Humour Tagged: Fox News, Jon Stewart, The Daily Show
By Simon, on March 10, 2014, at 6:37 am
Well they're not pretty, but they are fanatics, they'll do anything for their deranged leader.Dark and dirty things that have turned our country into a horror show.But don't bother asking how much Stephen Harper pays his grubby PMO gang, his little monsters. Because that's a state secret. Read more »
By Edward Hollett, on March 10, 2014, at 6:00 am [Includes Hamlet update]
If David Cochrane’s sources are right, Danny Breen won’t be running for the Conservatives in Virginia Waters after all.
That means that unless the Conservatives come up with an amazing and currently unknown candidate, they will likely not only lose the upcoming by-election but run the risk of coming in third place behind the New Democrats.
Breen has impeccable Conservative credentials. He’s already well-known having done the impossible: been a strong, solid, and visible performer on St. John’s city council without succumbing to the drama-queen antics of some of his colleagues.
(Read more…)
By Stephen Elliott-Buckley, on March 10, 2014, at 4:00 am Do the math. Please.
For a great long time, I’ve been talking about how we must dump the oil, gas, fracking, tankers, pipelines, coal…all the carbon-based energy systems because of climate breakdown [aka climate change, aka global warming, aka the greenhouse effect]. We need to transform our society to a post-carbon energy infrastructure.
The lie that there are billions in government revenue and 90 gazillion jobs just waiting for us all (sigh) is so incredibly compelling. But if you look at some data, like…facts, you might find some startling surprises that indicate that you’ve been swallowed whole by the carbon-based (Read more…)
By Andrew Walsh, on March 10, 2014, at 2:14 am
Telecom expert Michael Geist is not impressed with the CRTC’s consultation on our digital future – and he has some advice for CRTC Chair Blais. The consultation may be biased toward Big Telecom interests – but we can fix this, by speaking out using our handy guide at https://openmedia.ca/choicebook – there are just days to go, so make sure your voice is heard right now.
read more
By David Climenhaga, on March 10, 2014, at 1:19 am Impressionable English Canadian youngsters tune in to SNN for sinister ideological conditioning by RWN (right-wing nuts) on the staff of the PMO-favoured network. Below: PKP and his now-ex wife (NXW), grabbed from the Internet; SNN broadcaster Ezra Levant.
Oh, H-E-double-hockey-sticks, PKP wants another D-I-V-O-R-C-E!
This time, having just given his common-law wife of a decade the old heave-ho, it’s from us!
And I don’t know about you, but this smells a bit like C-O-N-S-P-I-R-A-C-Y.
Let me explain…
PKP for those of you who live in the ROC and are therefore wondering WTF is Pierre Karl Péladeau, who until recently (Read more…)
By Andrew Walsh, on March 10, 2014, at 12:32 am
Finally! It looks like the government’s long-awaited digital economy strategy is coming soon. They’ve only been promising us this since 2010. Do you think this strategy will finally bring Canada up to speed with our global counterparts?
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By Simon, on March 10, 2014, at 12:09 am
Well it wasn't a total surprise, but it was still a stunning sight. Pauline Marois and her new star candidate Pierre-Karl Péladeau Pierre-Karl Péladeau, controlling shareholder of the Quebecor media empire, on Sunday announced he will run for the Parti Québécois, saying his top motivation is to make Quebec independent. “My joining the Parti Québécois is tied to my most intimate and profound values and that is to say I want Quebec to become a country,” he told supporters in the riding of St-Jérôme, just north of Montreal, where he will be running in the April 7 provincial election.Read more »
By Jay Cables, on March 9, 2014, at 11:37 pm
A leaked phone call between Estonian foreign minister, Urmas Paet, and EU foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, surfaced last week. It includes the suggestion that some party connected with the opposition – the current coalition in power in Kiev – was behind the lethal sniper attacks in Independence Square that killed scores of people.
Paet refers to a doctor who worked with those who had been shot by snipers in Independence Square… “Olga” by name. Russian media has identified her as Olga Bogomolets, chief coordinator of medical aid at the earlier main protest camp in Independence Square.
Paet to Ashton: (Read more…)
By daveberta, on March 9, 2014, at 11:26 pm TweetEdmonton-Centre Conservative Member of Parliament Laurie Hawn has decided to retire when the next election is called, according to the latest column by the Edmonton Sun’s Lorne Gunter. The retired Air Force lieutenant-colonel first entered politics in 2004, running unsuccessfully against Liberal MP and Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan. Mr. Hawn defeated Ms. McLellan in a re-match in 2006 and […]
By Obert Madondo, on March 9, 2014, at 10:25 pm by: Obert Madondo
Via: Rabble.ca
March 8, 2014
International Women’s Day
We stand with Anne-Marie Roy. We’ve been there too.
As women who have held elected positions at our college or university students’ union, we write in solidarity with Anne-Marie Roy, the President of the Student Federation of the University of Ottawa (SFUO). Anne-Marie was recently the target of sexually violent comments made by several men who held elected positions at the University of Ottawa. Several of these men initially threatened to sue Anne-Marie if she was not quiet about the disgusting comments.
Anne-Marie has bravely chosen to not (Read more…)
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cartoon life: 10 Ways to Bring Zen Mindfulness Into Your Home
10 Ways to Bring Zen Mindfulness Into Your Home.
A rare repost. Pretty much the rules I try to live by. Clean your bowl. Eat when hungry. Sleep when tired.
Filed under: comment