While Canadians stay home, corporate lobbyists are working overtime to siphon off federal cash This morning my son and I tied twine to the four corners of a plastic bag. We taped the string to a dead battery and threw it off the porch. A parachute! That bought my partner and me an hour to […]
The “greatest generation” endured WWII. Now it’s our turn to defend them – and our health care system During World War II most Canadians were not on the front lines, like health care workers are today. Instead, people supported the fight against fascism from home. Today, as COVID-19 preys on our elders and vulnerable neighbours, […]
Indigenous solidarity is part of a powerful three-pronged strategy to stop fossil fuel expansion Long after the last pipeline has been dug up and recycled, Wet’suwet’en people will decide what happens on their lands through their own chosen system of governance. Chiefs’ names like Na’moks, Lho’imggin and Gisday’wa will be handed down in the feast […]
Like Idle No More in 2013, the battle for Wet’suwet’en land has set events in motion no government can control “Nonviolent direct action seeks to create such a crisis and foster such a tension that a community which has constantly refused to negotiate is forced to confront the issue.” Martin Luther King Jr. wrote those […]
Trudeau’s centrist cabinet on the track of no return There’s an old song from the popular folk-rock album Working Man’s Dead about the infamous train conductor Casey Jones. As Trudeau’s new cabinet was sworn in at Rideau Hall, the lyrics wormed their way into my brain. The song retells the story of how an engineer […]
The spirit Canada needs to fight climate change is missing in action On September 10, 1939, Canada officially declared war on Germany. The vote to support that declaration occurred in Parliament two weeks earlier. It could not have been easy. The Canadian economy was only just recovering from the Great Depression. There had been no […]
Federal Court of Appeal tosses out cases on climate, orcas and Charter rights of youth In a rare public decision, the Federal Court of Appeal announced that six Indigenous groups can challenge Ottawa’s second approval of the Trans Mountain pipeline and oil tanker expansion. At the same time, it dismissed applications from two First Nations, […]
Photo credit: Andrew Forget How long will Canadians sit back and take what the “War Room” is dishing? Over the last couple of years, the tension over how to manage fossil fuel-induced climate change within provinces and states in North America has reached a boiling point. The petro-identity Conservatives have constructed for themselves faces an […]