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By Greg Fingas, on April 26, 2013, at 9:40 am Assorted content to end your week.
- Sadly (if perhaps unsurprisingly), the Trudeau Libs’ vote with the Harper Cons against civil rights has received relatively little notice compared to the two parties’ attack ad posturing. But there’s still plenty worth reading on the subject – including another post from pogge, a discussion led by David Ball, and Michael Harris’ assessment as to the likely targets of Con-fueled hysteria in the years to come: (W)ith S-7 the law of the land, some dark possibilities present themselves in this country.
The federal government already has established five Integrated National Security Enforcement Teams (Read more…)
By Greg Fingas, on February 24, 2013, at 10:29 am That and that for your Sunday reading.
- Alex Himelfarb weighs in against gratuitous austerity by pointing out the dishonest cycle of excuses used to push destructive policy: (T)he consequences of cuts are increasingly visible, first for the most vulnerable: aboriginal communities struggling to meet basic needs, higher tuitions and student debt, refugees who cannot get needed medicine, more unemployed Canadians thrown onto inadequate welfare because they cannot access insurance. Some consequences will play out more slowly: weaker environmental regulations, cuts to education and science, neglect of crumbling infrastructure, eroding public services will all make our economy less competitive, less
. . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
By Greg Fingas, on February 14, 2013, at 8:51 am This and that for your Thursday reading.
- Marc Lee and Iglika Ivanova offer up a framework for a more progressive and fairer tax system.
- Andrew Hanon looks behind the Fraser Institute’s labour-bashing and finds that what it’s really criticizing is fair pay for women in the public sector.
- Fern Brady notes that conservatives have succeeded in pitting exactly the people with the greatest need for social assistance against each other – with the result being that far too few people are questioning whether cuts serve any useful purpose in the first place: Logically, I’d expect those on
. . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
By Greg Fingas, on December 21, 2012, at 8:50 am Assorted content to end your week.
- Jim Stanford is the latest to point out that the Cons see accountability and transparency solely as punishments to be inflicted on their perceived enemies, not as values to be applied to their own decision-making: Following Mr. Hiebert’s logic, any organization in society that benefits from a tax expenditure (no matter how indirect) should be required to post similarly detailed and intrusive financial and expenditure data on a government website. Here is the current listing of federal tax expenditures. Every organization connected to any expenditure listed in that catalogue (whether the personal, corporate,
. . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
By Greg Fingas, on December 20, 2012, at 8:35 am This and that for your Thursday reading.
- Thomas Walkom discusses the meaning of the Ontario Libs’ attempt to take collective bargaining rights away from teachers in the context of the wider labour movement: The union movement is one of the last remnants of the great postwar pact between labour, capital and government.
That pact provided Canadians with things they still value, from medicare to public pension plans. Good wages in union shops kept pay high, even in workplaces that weren’t organized. Unions agitated for and won better health and safety laws that covered all.
True, union rules made it
. . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
By Greg Fingas, on December 14, 2012, at 8:47 am Assorted content for your Friday reading.
- Paul Dechene interviews Marc Spooner about Saskatchewan residents left behind in the province’s boom: One way that our growing income gap can be hand-waved away is by pointing to the fact that every other province that goes through an economic boom faces this.
Perhaps it’s just a natural result of us going through a transitional phase?
Spooner doesn’t find that argument compelling.
“That implies a very non-responsive government,” he says. “Can we not learn from our neighbours in the west? Can we not see what happened in Alberta and be forward-looking and do
. . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
By Greg Fingas, on December 11, 2012, at 8:57 am This and that for your Tuesday reading.
- John Cameron highlights the importance of liberal arts education – as well as the fact that only a few people (who happen to nicely coincide with the Wall government’s base) stand to benefit from a citizenry with less of a tendency toward critical thinking: But anyone who can think critically – a liberal arts value, ironically enough – can see that there’s way more to this issue than simply a matter of that right-wing bugaboo, the Bloated Bureaucratic Salary. There’s issues of university transparency (Why is the public and university community dealing
. . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
By Greg Fingas, on December 7, 2012, at 8:45 am Assorted content to end your week.
- Steven Hoffman highlights the Cons’ utter refusal to recognize that foreign aid – as defined by global treaties – doesn’t mean the same thing as corporate giveaways: Reports and commentary on Canada’s new foreign aid policy reveal the extent to which international development means different things to different people. Some see it as public charity, others as the way a country projects its values to the world. Still others, including International Co-operation Minister Julian Fantino, argue that it’s “a part of Canadian foreign policy” and the fulfilment of “a duty and a responsibility
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By Greg Fingas, on November 9, 2012, at 8:32 am Assorted content to end your week.- Rick Salutin offers an important take on the U.S. election by pointing out that the Occupy movement and its focus on inequality laid the groundwork for Barack Obama’s re-election:The aftermath to the bailouts was the… . . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
By Greg Fingas, on October 19, 2012, at 9:34 am Assorted content for your Friday reading.
- In writing recently about employer efforts to intimidate workers into backing corporate-friendly candidates, I figured that the best examples we’d see would come from individual corporate magnates – as the candidates themselves would surely be smart enough not to state publicly that they support having employers dictate their employees’ votes. But Mitt Romney has proven me wrong.
- Meanwhile, pogge rightly questions the reality-challenged spin about “union bosses” somehow exercising any power beyond that which workers have democratically voted to authorize. And Timothy Noah comments on the need to start reinforcing the labour
. . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
By Greg Fingas, on October 15, 2012, at 9:58 am Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading.
- Barrie McKenna discusses the cost of public-private partnerships: Disturbing new research highlights some serious flaws in how governments tally the benefits of public-private partnerships versus conventional projects. Too little is known about how these contracts work, who benefits and who pays.
This week, public-private partnerships will take centre stage when the House of Commons operations committee resumes a series of hearings on P3s, stacked with witnesses who like them.
A P3 works essentially like leasing a car or TV, rather than paying cash up front. At the end of the day, governments pay
. . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
By Greg Fingas, on October 10, 2012, at 9:17 am Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.
- No, the aftershocks of an e. coli outbreak which has unfortunately given both Canadians and export markets reason for concern about the safety of some of our major food sources aren’t about to end simply because the Cons are again pretending everything’s fine. And the president of the union local representing XL Foods workers points out one of the major steps needed to ensure problems aren’t allowed to fester due to managerial neglect: Under the UFCW’s collective agreement, O’Halloran said, line workers can inform a supervisor only if they spot a safety issue,
. . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
By Greg Fingas, on September 30, 2012, at 6:12 pm Assorted content to end your weekend.
- For those wondering where progressive leaders are going with their policy proposals, the last week offered a couple of noteworthy examples. At home, Tom Mulcair’s Canadian Club speech commented on the importance of real roles for the government and the public in making economic decisions: A thriving private sector will, thankfully, always be at the heart of our national economy, and the engine of our economic growth.
But there’s also a commonsense role for government to play in building the fairer, more prosperous Canada that we all want.
There’s a commonsense role for
. . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
By Greg Fingas, on September 27, 2012, at 9:46 am This and that for your Thursday reading.
- The CCPA’s Christopher Schenk offers up a detailed response to the Sask Party’s attacks on workers, featuring this conclusion: In a period of widening inequality restrictive labour laws are blatantly unnecessary and regressive. Indeed, their consideration is shocking when one considers that 34% of the workforce has neither full-time work nor job security, but occupies jobs that are termed contingent or precarious, including casual employment, irregular part time work, contract work, temporary work and self employment… This growing percentage of the workforce, which generally receives low pay and no benefits, needs an
. . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
By Greg Fingas, on September 19, 2012, at 12:09 pm Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.
- Tim Harper weighs in on the Cons’ latest campaign of coordinated lies, and notes that the NDP looks to have learned one important lesson in how to respond: The NDP may be here at the federal level for the first time, but they appear to have learned the first lesson when dodging such volleys — respond.
No charge is too ridiculous or over-the-top to be ignored.
The term Swiftboating entered the North American political lexicon because John Kerry took a holiday in 2004 rather than respond to Vietnam Swiftboat vets who questioned his
. . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
By Greg Fingas, on September 13, 2012, at 9:46 am Here, on the importance of substance over spin in politics – and the counterproductive effect of dedicating a party’s resources to the opposite effect.
For further reading…- As I’ve previously noted, the observations of Allan Gregg and Winslow Wheeler are here and here respectively.- Joe Klein discussed the impact of Bill Clinton’s DNC speech.- pogge nicely sums up my take on Tom Mulcair’s choice to trust in the Cons when it comes to Iran rather than mounting a meaningful defence of diplomacy, while Justine Hunter reports on Adrian Dix’ statement that he’s cutting down his policy
. . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: New column day
By Greg Fingas, on August 29, 2012, at 10:04 am Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.
- Kady points out that despite the Cons’ best efforts to stonewall, the Robocon investigation in Guelph looks to have locked in on the source of their fraudulent robocalls. And while it’s indeed somewhat concerning that Elections Canada hasn’t reached anywhere near the same depth of investigation when it comes to the other 234 ridings where voters have reported questionable calls, a solid case aimed at an individual who took steps to cover his tracks may be just the opening needed to get at the party’s wider scheme.
- pogge duly slams Jim Flaherty’s
. . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
By Greg Fingas, on August 18, 2012, at 12:06 pm Assorted content for your weekend reading.
- Toby Sanger discusses how wealthy Canadians – especially in the financial sector – are making more and more use of offshore tax havens to avoid paying their fair share: The latest Statistics Canada figures show 24% of Canadian direct investment overseas in 2011 went to the top twelve tax havens, up from 10% in 1987. In fact, tax havens of the Barbados, Cayman Islands, Ireland, Luxembourg and Bermuda were five of the top eight national destinations of total Canadian investment abroad, with the US, UK and Australia the only countries not considered tax
. . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
By Greg Fingas, on August 10, 2012, at 9:46 am Assorted content to end your week.
- pogge offers up the definitive response to the Cons’ attempt to encourage a sell-off of First Nations reserve land: When you look past the paternalistic argument that the only way First Nations communities can possibly thrive is to be more like us, this is what’s left: …businesses that want to unlock the economic potential of reserves, from real estate development to forestry and mining, need the legal certainty that a property regime makes possible.
In this context, “unlock the economic potential” looks very much like a euphemism for “streamline the regulatory and tax
. . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
By Greg Fingas, on August 3, 2012, at 9:47 am Miscellaneous material to end your week.
- Tim Harper suggests that the Cons are running out of options to try to push the Gateway pipeline on a thoroughly-opposed public in British Columbia. But in keeping with the Cons’ general view of the world as nothing but a public relations problem to be shouted down for financial gain, James Moore and Gwyn Morgan are sure they have the answer: more high-priced spin from Enbridge and other tar-sands operators. And pogge rightly notes that part of the anti-environment strategy figures to include an effort to paint all environmental activism and advocacy as
. . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
By Greg Fingas, on July 20, 2012, at 9:54 am Assorted content to end your week.
- Sid Ryan takes on the Harper/Hudak double-team effort to prevent workers from having any voice in our political direction: (T)here can be little doubt that what really offends Hudak is the fact that union members pool their resources to participate in municipal, provincial and federal elections. When voters pulled the rug out from under Hudak’s 2011 electoral campaign, he blamed Harris-weary union members for campaigning against him and running television ads to expose his agenda.
It is no coincidence that Hudak released his 20 page attack on basic workers’ rights immediately after an
. . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
By Greg Fingas, on June 18, 2012, at 10:44 am Miscellaneous material to start your week.
- Tom Korski nicely captures the essence of the Cons’ omnibus attack on the environment (along with anything that stands in the way of a cheap and dirty buck): C-38 is a gift for oil and gas lobbyists.
It repeals 20 years of environmental case law; it eliminates some 90 per cent of all federal environmental assessments, by one estimate; it tilts the rules for industry where studies are unavoidable; it deliberately fails to define “significant effect” of industrial projects. Might that be, say, a tailings pond in a lake? An open pit mine
. . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
By Greg Fingas, on June 16, 2012, at 11:28 am Assorted content for your weekend reading.
- Bruce Johnstone and the Star-Phoenix editorial board both join the voices decrying the Cons’ decision to throw parliamentary democracy under their omnibus budget bill. And Gerald Caplan points out the Harper Cons’ more general tendency to silence dissenting views: (T)here’s little doubt the government was deliberately crippling many of Canada’s best and brightest, including many groups who upheld the country’s good reputation abroad that the Harper government was cavalierly undermining. In any event, the groups weren’t targeted because of their actual achievements, which were often exemplary.
Something entirely different was going on here.
. . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
By Greg Fingas, on June 2, 2012, at 6:42 pm This and that to end your Saturday.
- Andrew Jackson comments on how a premature push for austerity has driven the global economy to the brink of more disaster – as slashing intended to summon the confidence fairies has instead led businesses to reasonably conclude it’s not worth trying to grow. And Trish Hennessy adds some numbers on the victims of austerity.
- Tim de Chant posts on how inequality within a city can generally be seen from space through a simple look at which neighbourhoods have the most trees.
- While I haven’t kept up as much with Robocon
. . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
By Greg Fingas, on May 23, 2012, at 12:14 pm Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.
- Brian Topp weighs in on Canada’s history of raw resource exploitation that should offer a lesson for anybody interested in learning. And pogge points out why Thomas Mulcair is right to dig his heels in, while Frances Russell observes that Mulcair is just plain right.
- Meanwhile, this may be the most appalling example yet of the Cons combining a short-sighted obsession with the export of raw resources with an utter unwillingness to do anything about climate change: Although greenhouse gas emissions from the oilsands have more than tripled since 1990, according to
. . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
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