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Chris Hedges: Joe Biden’s parting gift to America will be Christian fascism
A second Trump term will not be like the first. It will be about vengeance against the institutions that targeted Trump: the press, the courts, the intelligence agencies, disloyal Republicans, and the Democratic Party. Our imperial presidency, if Donald Trump returns to power, will shift effortlessly into a dictatorship that emasculates the legislative and judicial branches.
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J.B. McLachlan revisited
History does not allow for a great deal in the way of direct instructions, but it is capable of identifying the times and places where people disturbed the complacencies of their time. In doing so, they brought about changes that were necessary but never inevitable. These struggles did not fully succeed, but their influence continues to be felt, and this too is one of McLachlan’s legacies.
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Freedom for Boris Kagarlitsky
There is a clear reason for this crackdown on the Russian left. The heavy toll of the war gives rise to growing discontent among the mass of working people. The poor pay for this massacre with their lives and wellbeing, and opposition to war is consistently highest among the poorest. The left has the message and resolve to expose the connection between imperialist war and human suffering.
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A moral crossroads for the West
If Netanyahu is facing his Rubicon, the West has finally arrived at its own moral crossroads. After months of uncritical support for Israel’s assault on Gaza and weeks of equivocation as the magnitude of its inhumanity has become undeniable, there is still time to draw back from the abyss and defend the post-war order whose highest legal authority is the ICJ.
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Open letter: Stop manipulating sexual assault
In its current war against the people of Gaza, the Israeli government has chosen to weaponize the issue of sexual violence for political gain. This statement will be delivered to Israeli officials who have mounted a public crusade manipulating this issue to both legitimize—and divert attention from—their campaign of ethnic cleansing.
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Prospects for Canadian pharmacare
Until February 2024, Canada did not have a pharmacare program. Earlier federal interest in a universal drug program seemed to be fading, ostensibly on cost grounds. Just in time, the Trudeau government announced a rather weak and diluted pharmacare proposal a few days before the deadline to save the supply-and-confidence agreement between the Liberals and NDP.
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Mulroney: Not all good
Much deserved praise has been heaped on Brian Mulroney’s legacy, but the universal lauding of NAFTA misses the mark. Mulroney made major contributions by pushing Washington to cut acid rain wafting across the border, was key to fixing the ozone layer in the Montréal protocol and took international leadership in helping end apartheid in South Africa.
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Green Québec: a whiter shade of pale
While not a market-worshipper of Danielle Smith’s ilk, Québec Premier François Legault has a vision of the province that still revolves around a profit-driven market economy with growth-oriented goals. For an increasingly large body of environmental opinion, however, the very nature of such an economy undermines efforts to ‘save the planet.’
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The Online News Act has been like MAiD for emerging media in Canada
Big Media in Canada, which are ruthlessly squeezing every last loonie out of our once-profitable news media, used their remaining political influence to shake down the digital giants with the Online News Act in hopes of cashing in big on the runaway success of the platforms. In the process, they have put Canada’s emerging online media and niche publications in the emergency ward.
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Direct action confronts Canada-Israel arms trade
For a country currently grappling with its own legacies of genocide and colonialism, direct actions like the one in Peterborough help to expose how the values of setter-colonial states are not so different, and emphasize the urgent need for decolonization at home and abroad. Respect for international law, and an end to military violence, should be a priority for us all.