NATO does not, and never did, ‘defend’ democracy
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A secretive alliance Canadians never voted to join that requires this country to defend faraway lands and funnel ever greater resources to warfare is typically presented by the media and politicians as a tool of democracy. Yet, very often, pro-NATO propagandists frequently ignore the alliance’s...
on Sun, 4PM
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The financialization of housing is a result of policy choices made by successive federal and provincial governments over decades. The Federal Housing Advocate points to three major policy drivers: the retreat of the welfare state in Canada; the removal of rent control and tenant protections; and...
on Jul 28
Housing is the only solution to homelessness
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When Pierre Poilievre talks about homelessness as a public safety issue he brings forward implicit and explicit solutions that simply will not work. Criminalization, forced recovery, and institutionalization will not end homelessness. These ‘solutions’ do not address the economic root of the...
on Jul 26
Delusions and paranoia in NATOland
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What does windfall spending on NATO do for Canada’s national security? As the militarization of the North proceeds against an inflated eastern threat, eroding Canadian sovereignty through Cold War aerospace programs such as NORAD, it remains difficult to portray Canada’s increasingly assertive...
on Jul 26
The insanity of spending two percent of GDP on the military
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Instead of prioritizing the unhoused and undoctored, and responding to the mounting climate challenge, the government of Justin Trudeau recently committed to a massive boost in military spending. As Yves Engler writes, the security of Canadians would be better served by allocating resources to...
on Jul 26
Canada’s whitewashing of Africa’s most ruthless regime
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Using an African country as a political and economic tool is as old as colonialism itself. If this is what Canada’s new politics are on the African continent, it is indeed retrograde. Canada should not be engaging with, or buttressing a nation that has inflicted so much harm on innocent people....
on Jul 24
Canada’s response to Sudanese humanitarian crisis reflects systemic racism
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How many more lives will be lost as a small Sudanese diaspora struggles to bring attention to a crisis that has paralyzed Africa’s third-largest country? And how much longer will a crisis be widely recognized as tragic, brutal and heartbreaking—but ultimately disregarded in practice as just...
on Jul 20
How our struggles are contained by those in power
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Different approaches are needed to counter today’s containment strategies. Governments are less likely to be moved by displays of our potential power. Huge rallies and days of action are an essential part of building movements and campaigns, but this is a period when ongoing social action and...
on Jul 20
Palestine and the fight for the soul of anti-racism
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How does activism and policy that opposes systemic racism get redefined as its exact opposite—namely antisemitism or anti-Jewish racism? How does the language of anti-racism get deployed in defense of the actions of an apartheid ethnostate? Vincent Wong on how the redefinition of racism is a...
on Jul 20
The Manitoba NDP’s quiet privatization reversals
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During the lead-up to the last Manitoba election in October 2023, the provincial NDP consistently and correctly attacked the reigning PC government for its countless privatization efforts. Yet, as James Wilt details, there are now troubling warning signs that the New Democrats are opting for...
on Jul 12
‘They attacked us after we packed up’: Calgary students speak out on police brutality
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Our encampment did not have to end in violence. Students from other institutions continue to maintain peaceful encampments on campuses across Canada. We cannot allow police impunity to embolden further acts of violence against student encampments. We demand accountability for the inexcusable...
on Jul 7
Renewable transition or global US empire? You can’t have both
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Fossil fuels did not require a world ruled by a single dominant power, nor will renewables guarantee a radically egalitarian future. But the American empire as it exists requires global dependence on fossil fuels to maintain its position. Powerful parts of the US state, including the military,...
on Jul 6
First Nations and allies resist proposed radioactive waste repository
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Indigenous communities have always been at the forefront of struggles against the nuclear industry on Turtle Island. The current battles against nuclear waste disposal in northwestern Ontario are no different. If Canada is to have a just transition away from fossil fuels, then it cannot be based...
on Jul 6
Righteous student activism and evolving anti-Palestinian reprisal in Canada
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The fight for Palestinian freedom—as well as for Canadian democracy—will be long and arduous. And it will require our collective resistance to evolving tactics of censorship. The TMU law students, and all the students setting up encampments around the world (including in Israel), have had an...
on Jul 6
Canada’s militarization of the Arctic threatens Indigenous communities and the climate
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Defence Minister Bill Blair and Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly were recently in Nunavut to promote Canada’s new defence policy update. The policy change will expand the military presence of NORAD and NATO in the Arctic. This costly, carbon-intensive plan to militarize the region poses a...
on Jul 3
Israel is stoking all-out war, and Canada is complicit
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If the Hezbollah-Israel conflict spirals out of control, Canadians must remember that their government had myriad opportunities to end its military and diplomatic support for Israel and instead promote genuine efforts for regional peace. Instead, Canada has backed Israel to the hilt, helping...
on Jul 3
Opposition to stampeding Bill C-70 through Parliament grows
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The International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group, the Canadian Association of University Teachers, the National Council of Canadian Muslims, and the BC Gurdwaras Council are among 14 groups voicing opposition to an attempt to stampede Bill C-70, the Countering Foreign Interference Act, through...
on Jun 25
Why Housing First failed in Canada
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To end homelessness we must reclaim housing from the investor class, produce homes as if they were essential goods rather than investment vehicles, and ensure that all Canadians have the resources necessary to lead dignified, comfortable lives. We can do all these things. We can restore housing...
on Jun 25
On CBC media capitulation and HonestReporting Canada
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CBC’s repeated caving to a highly biased pro-Israel advocacy group like HonestReporting Canada takes up a place within the larger context of right-wing populism on the rise in Canada today. According to a perceived bargain, CBC’s decision to appease Israel’s defenders is a trade-off for a...
on Jun 24
Why the housing crisis is not an immigration problem
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We cannot allow ourselves to be misled by property hoarders who want to blame the housing crisis on economically precarious temporary residents while they collect the rent. As Laurence Braun-Woodbury writes, this is not a population crisis; this is a commodity bubble created by investor...
on Jun 7
Open letter: Stop subsidizing genocide
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On June 4, 2024, an open letter was released by the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute and Just Peace Advocates, challenging Canada’s contributions to Palestinian dispossession. “Stop Subsidizing Genocide” is signed by Gabor Maté, Yann Martel, Linda McQuaig, Roger Waters, Monia Mazigh, Desmond...
on Jun 5
Canada needs a federal community wealth building agenda
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Instead of another subsidy for a pasta factory, our Liberal-NDP supply and confidence government should announce its intention to support a wave of local democratization projects, including the expansion of food cooperatives, worker cooperatives, various employee-ownership schemes, community...
on May 28
History contradicts claims that October 7 attacks unprovoked
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Mainstream editors claim that Israel’s ongoing Gaza campaign is completely justified by Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack. The Hamas attack killed approximately 1,200 Israelis and resulted in over 200 hostages taken and retained. Unfortunately, this “unprovoked” assault was entirely predictable...
on May 27
A lawyer’s perspective on the pro-Palestine encampments
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Liberal law purports to give everyone the right to think what they like, say what they like. Capitalism makes sure that this admirable goal can never be fully attained. John Galsworthy, writing in the The Forsyte Saga, captured this very nicely: “If a man had money, he was free in law and fact,...
on May 24
The dead end of liberal American Zionism
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Jews are going to have to make a painful reappraisal of the project that imposes a “Jewish” state in Palestine. Understanding our willful blindness and self-deception that facilitate the abuse of the non-Jews of Palestine will mean giving up the evasive palliative of pseudo-humanistic posturing...
on May 21
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It appears as though Fox Nation, a subscription-based video service and companion to Fox News Channel, is soon to present a documentary on Canada-Cuba relations, emphasizing the close ties between the Trudeau family and Fidel Castro—and in particular the theory that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau...
on May 17
Wholesale privatization, false solutions
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Critics agree that the CAQ’s reforms have politicized health care, treating it more and more as just another market sector rather than a social good. As Lital Khaikin outlines, ‘entrepreneurial solutionism’ is transforming health care in Québec into a commodity to be exploited by venture...
on May 15
Keffiyeh bans and the fragility of apartheid supporters
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Israel’s Western backers know they are losing. They know that, despite the carnage the Israeli military is unleashing on Gaza, it is not any closer to defeating Hamas. They know that Israel is quickly becoming a pariah state, and as its global reputation sinks like an anchor, it’s dragging down...
on Apr 30
How to make Canada’s $10-a-day child care program work
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More and more ECEs and care givers are leaving the sector in search of better paid work. Current early childhood education students are uncertain about their futures. Many are opting out of pursuing a career in this field altogether. Indeed, the province could be short 8,500 ECEs by 2026....
on Apr 25
Militarism is the carbon bomb we can no longer ignore
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The modern anti-war movement is gaining steam once again in the context of Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza. Yet, for its part the climate movement has largely ignored a growing body of evidence showing that militarism is, as sociologist Prof Kenneth Gould describes, “the single most...
on Apr 25
The hidden origin of the escalating Ukraine-Russia conflict
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The question of which side carried out the 2014 Maidan massacre is central to understanding the “bloodiest and most controversial hours of European conflict since the end of the Cold War,” and the main tipping point in the escalating conflict between the West and Russia over Ukraine. According...
on Apr 25
Why we should swing post-carbon tax talk left
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If the carbon tax is a dead corpse that keeps on dying, let’s make livelier offers. The transition to a sustainable energy system should have been rooted in class from the start. Let’s stop playing rhetorical tricks on ourselves, and fill the political void with actionable proposals. Along the...
on Apr 22
Non-profit news is also infected by corporate ‘pink slime’ in US
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The explosion of non-profit news in the US seen over the past decade is made up to an alarming extent of phony “pink slime” operations pushing political candidates or parties. That’s just part of the problem, however, as corporations have also set up local faux news operations to exert political...
on Apr 20
Could co-op news help save Canada’s media?
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Media co-ops and employee-owned media have been growing around the world in recent years. Majority shareholders of the leading French daily Le Monde announced last year that they would donate it to a foundation controlled by its journalists and other employees. As news media in Canada continue...
on Apr 20
Fighting the commodification of housing
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The fight over the fate of 230 Sherbourne points to the desperate need to reverse the rampant commodification of housing that has caused so much damage in Canada and internationally. For that to happen, it will be necessary to build a movement among communities under attack that can challenge...
on Apr 20
Neoliberalism is Canada’s real productivity problem
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It is rare for the Bank of Canada to say that we face a national economic emergency. But that is exactly what Deputy Governor Carolyn Rogers did on March 26. She was referring to Canada’s dismal record on labour productivity, which is indeed a major, albeit long-standing issue. Her widely...
on Apr 5
Fighting climate change: Beyond Canada’s carbon tax
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Climate change is the most visible, most threatening expression of a larger, planetary ecological crisis. Our approach must be commensurate with the structural challenge that crisis poses to the way society is organized if we are to halt and reverse the ecological catastrophe toward which we are...
on Apr 5
Zionism: the root of the crisis in Israel-Palestine
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As important as it is to bring an immediate end to the slaughter in Gaza, writes Sid Shnaid, the long-term solution to the ongoing crisis in Israel-Palestine requires that we address the root of the problem: the institutionalization of Jewish supremacy, based in Zionist ideology, upon which the...
on Apr 4
Locals pay the price of super gentrification in Mexico City
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The accelerated gentrification of two of Mexico City’s neighbourhoods, La Condesa and La Roma Norte, has caused tensions and a near-impossible living situation for local Mexicans. The already trendy neighbourhoods, accustomed to the presence of foreigners and their money, have undergone a...
on Mar 18
A moral crossroads for the West
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If Netanyahu is facing his Rubicon, the West has finally arrived at its own moral crossroads. After months of uncritical support for Israel’s assault on Gaza and weeks of equivocation as the magnitude of its inhumanity has become undeniable, there is still time to draw back from the abyss and...
on Mar 16
Green Québec: a whiter shade of pale
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While not a market-worshipper of Danielle Smith’s ilk, Québec Premier François Legault has a vision of the province that still revolves around a profit-driven market economy with growth-oriented goals. For an increasingly large body of environmental opinion, however, the very nature of such an...
on Mar 14
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Much deserved praise has been heaped on Brian Mulroney’s legacy, but the universal lauding of NAFTA misses the mark. Mulroney made major contributions by pushing Washington to cut acid rain wafting across the border, was key to fixing the ozone layer in the Montréal protocol and took...
on Mar 12
AMLO’s push for environmental reforms angers Canadian mining sector
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In the final years of his presidency, AMLO has faced opposition from Canada and the US, weathering legal challenges and diplomatic pressures from Ottawa and Washington over his efforts to increase the state’s role in his country’s energy and agriculture sectors. Likewise, Canada has vocally...
on Mar 2
Is the tide turning on Israel?
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After four months of war, some Western leaders seem finally to be waking up to the monstrosity of the horrors Israel has unleashed upon Gaza, in which our governments and civil societies—our corporations, our news organizations, our social media, our educational and cultural institutions—are...
on Mar 1
US Federal Reserve says its goal is ‘to get wages down’
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The chairman of the US Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, said his goal is “to get wages down.” In a press conference on May 4, Powell announced that the Fed would be raising interest rates by half a percentage and implementing policies aimed at reducing inflation in the US, which is at its highest...
on Feb 14
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Beside exceeding the bounds of her position, and beside interfering in the democratically-run internal affairs of a post-secondary institution, and beside capitulating to the demands of an external propaganda group, NDP MLA Selina Robinson revealed both abysmal ignorance and a fundamentally...
on Feb 7
Gaza and Canada’s refugee double standard
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The different treatment of Ukrainian and Palestinian refugees exposes a clear double standard. The Trudeau government’s response to Ukraine was swift and comprehensive. There was no cap on how many could apply and they did not need to have Canadian relatives. Ottawa eventually received 1,189,320...
on Jan 26
The apocalyptic doublethink of Poilievre’s economics
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Practically every point in Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre’s story about housing affordability and debt—captured in two recent ‘mini-documentary’ films released across his social media channels—sounds compelling until one bothers to look up the claim. When one does, however, that same...
on Jan 24
Black Press sale would increase American ownership of Canada’s news media
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Yet another Canadian community newspaper chain is going to court under our bankruptcy laws, but again it has nothing to do with it going out of business. As Marc Edge details, this time, it is more a legal power play to force its sale to largely American interests over the objections of its...
on Jan 23
Canada has gone from complicity through silence to active participation in genocide
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The international community has two paths towards normalizing shipping through the Red Sea: intervene to stop an ongoing genocide, or intervene by punishing a country already devastated by decades of Western interventionism and war in the hopes that it will force their military to disengage....
on Jan 23