G20
After G20 & "Not"-gate, Ruth Ellen Brosseau barely registers on Scandal-o-meter™
Newly elected NDP MP Ruth Ellen Brosseau, who is suddenly embroiled in one of the smallest political scandals ever recorded, would do well to learn the prevailing lesson of our most recent electoral proceedings, namely that even widely covered scandals do not have a major impact on polling results.
As Middle East citizens reclaim their countries, democracy weakens at home
In Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, even Italy, citizens are rising up, risking their lives to protest their corrupt governments. Egyptians, in a historical event, have proven they can be successful in overthrowing years of dictatorial leadership. Canadians were mostly cheering along (though our government wasn’t), but’s hard to put ourselves in their place—Canada, flawed though it… More »
Postcard from London: Students fight school fees—and the police
Almost five months to the day and I’m just now realizing that I didn’t learn my lesson from the G20. Sure, I found out first had the power and importance of community organization and activism; and I was forced to come to terms with the tragic ease with which our government could abuse our fundamental… More »
Friday FTW! G20 Legal Defence Fund boosted by Klein, Workman, Chaves, Lal
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association has been hosting a public hearing into last summer’s G20 protests and the police response to them, and if you’ve been following the testimony being given there, things sound pretty grim. The CCLA has been doing amazing work live-tweeting the proceedings and the stories that people have to tell are… More »
Wednesday WTF: G20 cops armed themselves with hipster DSLR cameras
Last week we learned that the federal government spent $107,749.52 on Nikon DSLR D300s for the G20. For those of you who, like me five minutes ago, don’t know anything about photography let me tell you all you need to know about the D300s: it’s a really good camera. You can check out the reviews… More »
U.S., U.K. move to stem "conflict minerals" in Congo, while Canada undermines reform
As I type this, I am complicit in the funding of rape and war. You probably are too–sitting on your laptop, listening to your mp3 player, texting on your smartphone–even if you don’t know it. But that could all change with the passing of Barack Obama’s sweeping financial reform legislation by Congress in July. While… More »
Wednesday WTF: Conrad Black bails to Palm Beach; Byron Sonne bides behind bars
Descriptions of Conrad Black in news stories about his arrest, conviction, subsequent time served in jail, and now his bail hearing, often liken him to some sort of greasy mammal, who has “wriggled free” after “swindling” the public out of $6 million. News of Black’s bail-granting in Chicago broke on Monday, overshadowing the results of… More »
Why Omar Khadr's case is a constitutional crisis for us all
It’s time for a little refresher course in Canadian civil society: Canada’s formal political dependence on Britain came to an end in 1982 with Pierre Trudeau’s Canada Act. The Act led to the patriation of the Canadian Constitution–you know, that old document that outlines the vibrant democratic system of government we so proudly employ in… More »
Toronto's G20 weekend in 7 Tweets
Thousands of people who experienced the G20 summit weekend in Toronto have their own individual stories—some of them terrifying, we’ll have some from our own correspondents soon—and Twitter was one of the main ways that the narrative was shaped. Lots of people took their smartphones into the streets to document the protests and the police… More »
The 5 most important photos from the G20 Summit in Toronto
Jonas Naimark took one of the most striking photos from Sunday, showing the demonstrators and bystanders hemmed in by riot police at the corner of Queen and Spadina. This is just a small portion of the image; click to see the remarkable full-size photo on Naimark’s website. One of the most notorious images from Saturday… More »
