Despite the best efforts of the ever-secretive Harper cabal, details about the CETA deal are finally emerging thanks to leaked portions of the text. And has been long-predicted, those details are not encouraging when it comes to Canadian sovereignty in general, and local sourcing of construction contracts, goods and services
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Politics and its Discontents: Slamming Harper Secrecy
The Toronto Star recently revealed the following: Health Canada is keeping secret the vast majority of the drug reviews it conducts despite a clear promise from the federal minister to publish this critical safety information. Only 24 of 152 drug reviews completed last year by Health Canada are being considered
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Refusing To Become What The Harper Government Wants Us To Be
While Stephen Harper’s trip to Israel is receiving wide domestic media coverage, coverage that I have been studiously avoiding out of deference to my at-times delicate sensibilities and constitution, the following Harper encomium strikes me as both chillingly ironic and hypocritical: Israel is the only country in the Middle East
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Who Do You Trust?
Two seeming unrelated stories, both connected by one pernicious element: unwarranted government secrecy. In this morning’s Hamilton Spectator is the sad tale of Marit McKenzie, an 18-year-old Calgarian who died after taking an anti-acne drug known as Diane-35. Often prescribed off-label as a birth-control pill, the drug’s side effects can
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Shh! Don’t Ask!
I have to confess to feeling a small measure of guilt each time I reproduce someone else’s words with little editorializing on my part. Yet my ego is sufficiently robust to be able to acknowledge the fact that there are many others with views that merit space in this blog,
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Harper Refuses To Release Taxpayer-Funded Study On Pensions
The conclusion the cynic would draw (that’s me) is that the report suggests no need for the changes Harper has made in the OAS. H/t Brandon Laraby Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: What Is Harper Hiding In The Pacific Trade Deal Negotiations?
Given the Harper government’s flagrant contempt for democracy and the Canadian people, I think we should all be worried by the implications in this story and this one regarding ongoing secret Pacific Trade Deal negotiations. Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Tory Revenge on Page
Well, that didn’t take long. Recommend this Post
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: A Good Environment For Mushrooms, Not Democracy
Government policy conducted in secrecy, as I suggested in my last post, is difficult for the critical thinker to evaluate; that task is made even more arduous when it is hidden within an omnibus bill, as is the case with the reforms to Employment Insurance eligibility. However, one piece of
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Just a Coincidence?
Surely there can be no other explanation for the fact that at the same time that Human Resources Minister Diane Finley has announced new rules for those claiming E.I. benefits, her department has cut off the flow of some key employment data that the public has a right to. Now
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Congratulations To The Harper Government
May the Prime Minister and his party enablers wear this award with distinction! P.S. Check out some of the readers’ comments on the site as well. Recommend this Post
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