The student strike in Quebec does not look to be ending anytime soon. While a tentative agreement was struck on May 6, following a 22-hour negotiation between the students and the Quebec government, it will likely be annulled after the 150,000 students around the province vote this week. If the agreement is passed, it would […] More »

Back in the 1960s, a group of high-minded northern and southern Canadians had a collective revelation: if the North ever wanted to succeed, it desperately needed a university. Toronto-based lawyer and retired Air Force general Richard Rohmer spearheaded the idea, first lobbying locals and politicians, and later penning a draft for a bricks-and-mortar institution. While […] More »

Long regarded as the enemy of literacy, comic books and graphic novels are increasingly useful as a way of improving reading skills among otherwise reluctant students, young and old On a cold mid-February afternoon under overcast skies, a school bell rings. The halls of Toronto’s Agnes Macphail Public School flood with children dressed in puffy […] More »

The moment I met the Catalyst Centre folks, I was intrigued. They seemed to get that social justice is not just a question of publicizing critical information: Building movements takes something more, and these folks seemed to have a handle on what that “something” is. Catalyst carries on a rich heritage in popular education—one that […] More »

That Catholic schools do not always look positively upon homosexuality may not come as a great surprise, given their collective track record. But in the past week, two news stories have brought new and unique anti-gay measures taken at Catholic schools to light. First, officials at Missisauga’s St. Joseph’s Catholic  Secondary School allegedly restricted students’ use of […] More »

It was the sort of sectarian self-destruction that’s sadly all too common in left-wing movements. After winning strong majorities on Vancouver City Council, the school board, and the park board in 2002, the Coalition of Progressive Electors alliance split in two just a couple of years later. This paved the way for the right to […] More »

Nggrfg. For most people, the title of Vancouver actor and playwright Berend McKenzie’s play is nearly unsayable. But for McKenzie, naming his one-man play after the two slurs that plagued his childhood is the best way to understand and neutralize hatred. Audiences seem to agree: his play was a hit at the Edmonton and Vancouver […] More »

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 »

Last week thousands of British students descended on London’s Conservative Party headquarters to protest drastic increases in tuition fees. Despite protestations from Liberal-Democrat leader Nick Clegg, the changing fee structure will make education much more costly—potentially three times more costly—for all students. Proponents of the fee hikes trotted out the usual lines about parental support, reasonable […] More »

Compiled by Kevin Philipupillai and Simon Wallace Parliament resumes today.  Over the next few weeks we’re going to hear a lot about the gun registry and the census and the economy and the economy and the economy.  Often overlooked are the small, less flashy, things that parliamentarians do. Like propose private member’s bills, legislation that individual MPs […] More »

Wind energy ought to be a shoo-in. Yes, the infrastructure costs a lot of money but the fuel is free and plentiful, turbines produce no emissions, and no mountaintops need to be removed. And unlike nuclear power, no long-term radioactive waste needs to be stored for millennia. Yet, bizarrely, small groups of committed neighbourhood activists […] More »