Lost in the revelations that are coming out about Canada allowing a foreign spy agency access to world leaders (and who else?) is the knowledge that we’re finally getting more information about what actually happened during the G20. A fuller picture is emerging that adds embarrassing details to the already long list of offences committed […] More »

I am glad This has decided to celebrate this wonderful anniversary by looking at the organizations and individuals who are pointing the way to future change. It is time to stop talking about what went wrong with the left that was so effective in the 20th century and identify the forces who are leading change […] More »

I’m sitting in a room surrounded by hundreds of people, kindred spirits, a number of whom would normally not cross paths. Chiselled-faced anchors sit side by side with journalists who have been exiled from their homes around the world. Then a series of startling images jolt me up in my seat. Footage of riot police […] More »

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. More »

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 »

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 »

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 »

Canada is no longer the Great White North—except at the boardroom table. Consider this: the population growth of racialized or non-white groups continues to outpace that of white Canadians. This has created a shift in the demographic balance of the Canadian mosaic, with our population on its way to becoming a “minority majority.” According to […] More »

Though you might reasonably condemn the modern internet for a variety of reasons—ruining attention spans, turning all public discourse into a shouting match, or insulting your sexual prowess with badly punctuated mass emails—one thing the medium could always reasonably claim was its potential for spreading truth. Decentralized and egalitarian, the web seemed to herald the […] More »

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 »

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 »