Pushed to the Left and Loving It: REAL Women, Promise Keepers and the...
I Burned my Bra For This? REAL Women of Canada and the Men Behind ThemIt is a massive masculine shadow, in a hall or crowded room, lifting something indistinct up into the resonating night.ROBERT BLY,...
View ArticlePolitics and its Discontents: The Asbestos Wars – My Respone To The Position...
Given Canada's unconscionable ongoing export of death (i.e., asbestos) and given that it is back in the media spotlight thanks to the brave efforts of Michaela Keyserlingk, about whom I wrote a brief...
View ArticlePolitics and its Discontents: A Reminder to My MP
I am a great believer in holding our politicians to account. Even though they may prove to be ultimately meaningless gestures, letters to our elected representatives at the very least remind them that...
View ArticleA sticky sweet situation for Conservative MP
No, that's not a heavy metal singer. But it is just in time for Hallowe'en.If you asked Conservative MP David Sweet in 2002 what he thought of homosexuality, his answer would have been deeply negative,...
View ArticlePolitics and its Discontents: David Sweet’s Video Appearance
While Conservative M.P. David Sweet is coming under criticism after his appearance in a video honouring James Hubley, a gay teen who was bullied before his suicide, I have a different interpretation of...
View ArticleAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to end your weekend.- Of course the ongoing leadership race will do plenty to determine the NDP's future direction. But for those thinking all will be quiet in the meantime, Nycole...
View ArticlePolitics and its Discontents: There’s No Business Like Snow Business
When I was young, there used to be a polite term for B.S. We called it a snow job, and that seems as apt a description as any of the latest Harper government capitulation to the cancerous tentacles of...
View ArticlePolitics and its Discontents: A Short But Not So Sweet Letter
Here is a copy of the letter that I just fired off to my Conservative Member of Parliament, David Sweet: Dear Mr. Sweet, Although I am sure you are only too aware of the hypocrisy involved, it seems...
View ArticlePolitics and its Discontents: Gated Democracy? – Protesting The Harper...
Yesterday I got a glimpse of the kind of democratic expression that is considered acceptable under the Harper regime. It is one that I found profoundly disturbing. Almost a week ago I wrote a post...
View ArticlePolitics and its Discontents: Another Way To Fight Omnibus Bill C-38
I received the following from one of the people I was protesting with the other day near Conservative M.P. David Sweet’s constuency office. It offers yet another tool in the fight against Haper’s...
View ArticlePolitics and its Discontents: Another Failure of the Press
I had an experience yesterday that served only to deepen my cynicism about the mainstream press (The Toronto Star being the sole exception). I called The Hamilton Spectator’s Stephanie Crozier to...
View ArticlePolitics and its Discontents: Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign
A few pictures and signs from last night’s protest near Conservative M.P David Sweet’s constituency office. As in the previous protest against Bill C- 38, we were prevented from demonstrating in front...
View ArticlePolitics and its Discontents: An Independent M.P. Condemns Harper Omnibus Bill
I was just reading my weekly community paper, and my M.P., the disingenuous David Sweet, indulges in a debasement of language befitting Orwell’s 1984. For example, despite the tremendous havoc the...
View ArticlePolitics and its Discontents: Another Event That Conservative M.P. David...
For those living in my neck of the woods, the following may be of interest. Unfortunately, due to a prior commitment, I can’t attend. And, although it will come as no surprise except perhaps to the...
View ArticlePolitics and its Discontents: It’s Time To Show Some National Self-Respect
When I was a child, I was afraid of many people: my teachers, who believed in strapping and slapping us as early as Grade One, school bullies who periodically picked on me, and some of the thuggish...
View ArticlePolitics and its Discontents: My Letter To My Tory M.P.
As mentioned in my previous post, the Harper Conservatives are starting to receive ‘blowback’ as a result of their heavy-handed and undemocratic push of Bill C-38, their budget omnibus bill. Now would...
View ArticlePolitics and its Discontents: Some Inspiration From Kevin Page
There is an excellent piece in this morning’s Star by outgoing Parliamentary Budget Officer Kevin Page. In it, he talks about how his son’s death was the catalyst for his abandoning a natural desire...
View ArticlePolitics and its Discontents: Would You Hug A Terrorist?
There is no question that here in the West, we like to treat almost as an embarrassment; we sanitize it, hide it away in hospitals and palliative care units, and conduct our lives with a kind of...
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