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September-October 2015

Tories in review: Immigration

And last in our Tories in Review series, Nathaniel Basen examines immigration policies, the closing of Canada's borders and the removal of basic rights

Nathaniel Basen

IT’S FROM BEHIND THE PLEXIGLAS BARRIER of the visitor’s cubicle that I wait for Glory Anawa. I’m at the Immigration Holding Centre in Toronto—or, as Anawa and her two-year-old son Alpha have called it since February 2013, home. In front of me, etched in the glass separating visitor and prisoner, is that same word, HOME, […] More »
September-October 2015

Tories in review: aboriginal rights

Ninth in our Tories in Review series, we look at Stephen Harper's track record on Aboriginal rights

This Magazine Staff

IN 2007, after just over one year in power, Stephen Harper’s federal Conservatives dealt a major blow to Canada’s aboriginals—the first of many. That year, the United Nations adopted the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, a non-binding international agreement designed to define worldwide human rights standards for Indigenous peoples. Canada, along with the […] More »
September-October 2015

Tories in review: balanced budget

Deconstructing the myth of the balanced budget

Nathaniel Basen

THERE IS NO REASON for the federal budget to be balanced at any particular time, argues Jim Stanford, an economist at Unifor and author of Economics for Everyone. The cartwheels necessary to balance Canada’s federal budget, he maintains, actually ensure slower growth and smaller future surpluses. It could, in short, harm the economy—not boost it. […] More »
September-October 2015

Tories in review: LGBTQ rights

Today in our Tories in Review series, Larkin Schmiedl looks at nine years of attacks on LGBTQ rights in Canada

Larkin Schmiedl

OVER THE PAST SIX YEARS, Stephen Harper’s Conservative government has—surprisingly—become an outspoken champion of gay rights worldwide. In 2009, Harper arranged a private meeting with Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni to urge him to drop a controversial law that would imprison homosexuals for life. In 2011, Immigration Minister John Baird not only launched a pilot program […] More »
September-October 2015

Tories in review: disabilities

We examine Stephen Harper and friends' track record on disability rights. Hint: It's not great

This Magazine Staff

IN 2007, the federal government signed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Ratified in the House of Commons several years later in 2010, the convention recognizes the rights, dignity, and worth of those with disabilities, while providing a framework for a high-quality, equitable life. This is all great stuff—and yet, the […] More »
September-October 2015

Tories in review: environment

Larkin Schmiedl examines Stephen Harper and the Conservative Party's dismal environmental track record, full of broken promises and missed opportunities for a greener Canada

Larkin Schmiedl

WHEN IT COMES TO THE ENVIRONMENT, Stephen Harper doesn’t have a hidden agenda—he’s always been upfront about his healthy-industry-over-healthy-Earth policies. In 2006, for instance, in his first speech outside Canada after he was elected as prime minister, he called Canada an “emerging energy superpower,” suggesting his intention to expand oil sands production. “And that has […] More »
September-October 2015

Tories in review: Information and transparency

Sam Juric examines the Conservative's battle to curb Canadians' access to information and the scary fight to create a transparency-free government

Sam Juric

HERE ARE JUST A FEW of the things that keep James Turk up at night: Unapologetic fear mongering; trampling over fundamental civil rights; limiting access to information; an invasive gaze cast over Canadians protesting in public, leading to their arrest; an iron fist that limits Canadians’ ability to move freely across borders; the introduction of […] More »
September-October 2015

Tories in review: The North

We ask: Does Stephen Harper's professed love for Canada's North runs any deeper than his annual photo op tour?

Rhiannon Russell

THERE ISN’T MUCH OF A GROWING SEASON in Old Crow, the Yukon’s northernmost community. Yet a vegetable garden has flourished there for the past three years, thanks to the efforts of the Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation and funding, in part, from the territorial government. In June, residents planted cauliflower, garlic, kale, cabbage, onions, potatoes, lettuce, […] More »
September-October 2015

Tories in review: Islamophobia

In our new issue, we examine how 10 key Canadian issues have fared after nearly a decade of Conservative leadership. First up: Hana Shafi on how Islamophobia has festered in the past nine years under Stephen Harper

Hana Shafi

SIX YEARS AGO, then 16-year-old Urooba Jamal was walking home from school in Surrey, B.C. with her two friends, one of whom was wearing hijab. Suddenly, she felt something hit her leg. It was a rock. Then came another and another—more whizzed past her. The culprits were a group of boys, likely no older than […] More »
September-October 2015

Tories in review

On newsstands now: Our Sept/Oct 2015 issue! Introducing our Tories in Review issue

This Magazine Staff

With the upcoming election, Canada is set to take a different path—if we want it to. But to what new direction? To answer that question, we first decided to look back over the past nine years of Conservative Canada. While we didn’t have space to examine every aspect of policy (which could, in itself, fill […] More »

Thought this election was crazy? Just wait until the next one

nick taylor-vaisey

It was only a few years ago that elections in Canada were mostly predictable. For a few solid years, we could bet on Liberals, and some NDP candidates, sweeping the country’s biggest cities. We knew the Conservatives would sweep Alberta, take most of Saskatchewan and dominate much of British Columbia. In Quebec, the Bloc Québécois […] More »