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Repeal of Section 13 leaves only Criminal Code to deal with hate speech
Thursday, June 14th, 2012
Jun 13 2012
The Conservatives in the House of Commons have axed the anti-hate provision of the Canadian Human Rights Act… The axing of Section 13 has been presented as a free-speech issue, which it is only in part. The real motivation for repealing it has been Islamophobia… The human rights act and the commission it spawned came into being some 40 years ago as a result of yeoman efforts by the Jewish and black communities. There was to be freedom of speech but also freedom from hate. That was going to be the Canadian way…
Tags: ideology, multiculturalism, rights
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Where are our jobs going to come from?
Thursday, April 5th, 2012
Apr 05 2012
How are we going to grow the economic pie? Where will the jobs come from?… The Harper budget did provide an answer. We go back to the future, as hewers of wood and drawers of water: Dig out as many resources as we can, extract as much oil as possible from the tarsands and lay down as many pipelines as fast as investment permits. Damn the environment and damn the pesky environmentalists… We must find new ways to grow the economy to create the jobs and the revenues we need to fend off the creeping Me-Me-ism that threatens to destroy the Canadian ethos of sharing and lead ultimately to the tribal politics of the Tea Party.
Tags: economy, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Harper’s very political religion
Sunday, January 29th, 2012
Jan 28 2012
… freedom of and from religion is a secular principle. A prime minister who promotes it should be commended, not criticized. It is also unfair to accuse Harper of advancing an evangelical Christian agenda — championing only the cause of Christian minorities abroad. His game is more nuanced… Domestic partisan Conservative considerations are being turned into Canadian foreign policy.. In the religious freedom campaign, the Tories have exploited “old country” fault lines among immigrants. Instead of minimizing such divisions here, as has been our tradition, they have fanned them.
Tags: ideology, multiculturalism, participation, rights
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Stephen Harper apes Republican nuttiness
Thursday, January 12th, 2012
Jan 11 2012
… policies that have been drawn from extremist Republican theology… • Opposing gun controls… • Cutting taxes for corporations and the rich on the discredited theory that they would create jobs. • Decrying big government while merrily milking it for pork barrelling… and splurging on big-ticket military procurement — thereby racking up deficits. • Spending billions on jails when crime rates are at a 25-year low. • Ignoring expert opinion, be it on climate change, taxation, incarceration or a scientific national census…
Tags: economy, ideology, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Happy birthday to Canadian multiculturalism
Tuesday, October 11th, 2011
Oct 08 2011
Unlike in Europe, where multiculturalism-lite was left to the whim of governments, our policy is anchored in the 1982 Charter of Rights as well as the 1988 Multiculturalism Act. No government, regardless of political stripe, is going to axe that act, let alone contemplate constitutional change. There are also positive reasons for the endurance of the policy, rooted as it is in our history… The 1867 British North America Act recognized aboriginal peoples, English-speaking Protestants and French-speaking Catholics on the basis of race, language and religion. The DNA of BNA was pluralism.
Tags: ideology, multiculturalism, rights, standard of living
Posted in Equality History | 2 Comments »
The lessons of Britain’s rainbow riots
Thursday, August 11th, 2011
August 11, 2011
In 2008, Roy McMurtry, former chief justice, wrote a report on youth crimes: “The sense of nothing to lose and no way out that roils within such youth creates an ever-present danger.” … doing the slow and painful work of creating a more equitable society is more difficult than finding scapegoats and fanning fears. Stephen Harper is building $9 billion worth of jails when the crime rate is going down. Mayor Rob Ford wants to cut funds to libraries and grassroots organizations rather than trim the bloated police payroll. And Ontario Conservative leader Tim Hudak is promising chain gangs.
Tags: crime prevention, economy, ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
Advice for Jack Layton from distinguished roster of NDP elder statesmen
Sunday, May 15th, 2011
May 15 2011
Here’s what they expect him and want him to do: • Restore civility to Parliament. • Put economic equality front and centre… • Define the NDP platform’s cap-and-trade proposal for climate change. Come to grips with a carbon tax. • Try to align Quebecers’ social democratic values more permanently with a federal, as opposed to a separatist, party. • Articulate a foreign policy that would restore Canada’s role in the world, not as a warmonger but as an advocate of peace, human rights and development. • Lead a values debate at home to help reverse the right-wing tilt of our public policy.
Tags: budget, ideology, rights, standard of living
Posted in Governance History | No Comments »
Time for a vote in the dominion of King Stephen [census]
Sunday, September 19th, 2010
Sep 19 2010
When Harper decreed that the compulsory long-form census would be voluntary, Clement reportedly objected privately but was ignored. A loyal retainer, he defended the decision publicly, hoping to ride out the summer. But there was a national outcry. The census elicits rich data, down to your neighbourhood level. It enables the public and private sectors to plan daycare centres, schools, hospitals, senior citizens’ homes, recreational facilities, businesses, highways and services for immigrants and aboriginals… Yet Harper wouldn’t budge.
Tags: ideology, participation
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Day, Clement expose Harper’s kingdom [census decision]
Thursday, August 12th, 2010
Aug 12 2010
This may be a matter of ideological faith for [Harper]… Or he is stubborn. Or authoritarian, a bully who brooks no dissent. Or he believes that backing away, even in the face of a trans-Canada revolt, is a sign of weakness… Regardless, he may have put Canada in violation of a United Nations convention. We are a signatory to the UN Statistical Commission’s 1994 Fundamental Principles of Official Statistics.
Tags: ideology, participation, rights, standard of living
Posted in Governance Debates | 1 Comment »
Our home and native – and adopted – land [diversity]
Sunday, March 14th, 2010
Mar 14 2010
Race, religion, colour and ethnicity have always defined some parts of our multiple identities (aboriginals, Catholics, Chinese, Germans, etc.). Similarly, there have always been two Canadas – urban and rural. What is different today is that most non-whites live in cities. But why should that be of greater concern than, say, the Ukrainians and Poles tilling the Prairies in earlier generations? The lament about “two Canadas” in the context of colour is misguided. Ditto the worry over “ethnic ghettoes.” Do we have “white ghettoes”?
Tags: immigration, multiculturalism
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
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