March 10, 2010
Counting the Vancouver 2010 Olympics’ broken promises
One of Pivot Legal Society's Red Tents on the streets of Vancouver during the 2010 Winter Olympics. Photo by The Blackbird. The five-ring circus has rolled out of Vancouver, but the tents are still up. Hundreds of red tents, which became as much a symbol of our 2010 Games as those maple leaf mittens, won’t be coming down until we get our housing legacy. That’s the pledge of Pivot Legal Society,... [More >>]
March 8, 2010
Canadian military quietly preps for longer Afghan mission
Canada’s troops are supposed to leave Afghanistan in 2011. As the conflict drags on and the death toll rises, the Canadian government and military plan for the next decade of war—this time with Canadian jets dropping the bombs On Monday, November 3, 2008, while on patrol in Afghanistan, near the village of Wech Baghtu in the district of Shah Wali Kot in Kandahar province, international and... [More >>]
March 2, 2010
How to bring democracy back to Alberta
There’s voter apathy and then there’s Alberta. In the 2008 provincial election, a mere 41 percent of eligible voters came out. The provincial Conservative government went on to claim a historic 11th straight victory, a win that Athabasca University history professor Alvin Finkel believes was the result of Albertans not believing that there’s a viable alternative to the Tories. So this past June,... [More >>]
March 1, 2010
Supervised injection sites work—but the feds still don’t get it
The evidence in favour of safe-injection sites is overwhelming, but the federal government appears determined to shut Insite down. Despite ongoing efforts by the Harper government to shut it down, Insite, the Vancouver-based supervised-injection site, is alive and thriving, with over 10,000 registered users and around 800 daily visitors. To Mark Townsend, an Insite representative, it’s a success... [More >>]
February 26, 2010
When Canada flouts its own aid promises, we fail Haitians—again
This editorial appears in the March-April 2010 issue of This, which will be in subscribers‘ mailboxes and on newsstands next week. Haitians awaiting relif supplies in Port au Prince, January 15, 2010. The earthquake that devastated Haiti on the afternoon of January 12, 2010, viscerally illustrated the need for responsible, long-term, sustainable development. For many thousands of Haitians, poverty... [More >>]
February 12, 2010
The Olympics reveals our priorities as a nation. The news isn’t good.
Jacques Rogge's bank of Olympic televisions (artist's impression). When Jacques Rogge, president of the International Olympic Committee, checks into his Vancouver hotel suite a few weeks from now, he will find (as he flops, exhausted, no doubt, from the strain of private jet travel) a “video wall,” paid for by the citizens of British Columbia. The bank of televisions are a requirement of... [More >>]
February 11, 2010
Four world records Canada should be ashamed to hold
Google Earth detail showing part of the Athabasca tar sands mining operation. The tar sands is both the most carbon- and capital-intensive project on earth. Photo via Flickr user Skytruth. Nothing brings out patriotic pride like the Olympics. But before we get busy reading about gold medals and new heights of athletic glory, let’s take a few moments to reflect on a few shameful Canadian records that... [More >>]
January 19, 2010
A modest proposal: turn all Aboriginal lands into the 11th province
Historic treaty boundaries between Canada and Aboriginal peoples. Not representative of any proposed outline for an Aboriginal province; vast areas of Canada have never been formally surrendered or ceded by Aboriginal peoples. Courtesy Ministry of Natural Resources. Click to Enlarge The Royal Proclamation of 1763 included a clause prohibiting British colonists from purchasing “Lands of the Indians,”... [More >>]
January 18, 2010
Olympic Countdown: B.C. teachers fight Games’ classroom hype
Vancouver 2010 Anti-Olympic mascot Bitey the Bedbug. Photo by Lotus Johnson. [This post has been amended, see note below] They were told to wear red and white, to cheer loudly and smile. They were handed little Canadian flags and instructed to wave them with gusto. “This is an opportunity of a lifetime,” they were told. Some 540 students at L’École Victor Brodeur in Esquimalt, B.C., where my... [More >>]
January 15, 2010
Olympic Countdown: Quick guide to Vancouver 2010 protest do’s and don’ts
Why yes, officer, I can hand out this leaflet. Maybe. It’s no doubt that clashes between protesters and police will end up being the big story of the 2010 Olympics. There are new bylaws on the books, the usual International Olympic Committee rules, our own Canadian Charter rights, and official statements from the Vancouver Police Department—and they all contradict each other. So, how do you know... [More >>]
