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Liberalism and the spectre of inverted totalitarianism
The US is using what remains of its strength to try to restore its global position. This aggressive drive is fueled by its long history of wars which helped to recast American society into one managed by corporations and the state. What is paradoxical is that its imperial ideology happens to be not fascism but a form of liberalism refitted for rationalizing military and political expansion.
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Canadian aid for Cuba? 35 national and regional organizations support it
Cuba desperately needs food and medical aid now. It also deserves an end to the longest-standing embargo in modern times. Canada can play a major role in promoting both outcomes. By doing so it will provide desperately needed humanitarian assistance, but will also enhance its own role in the region where Cuba plays an outsized role. The ball is now in the court of Ministers Joly and Sajjan.
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Belgorod raid: Why are Russian neo-Nazis fighting Putin?
The attacks on Belgorod provide some tactical advantages to Ukraine. On the other hand, they enable the Russian authorities to paint Ukraine as a “terrorist state” and strengthen Moscow’s propaganda narrative that Kyiv is in league with neo-Nazis. Rather than weakening support in Russia for the war, these attacks may therefore have the opposite effect.
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Understanding the RCMP’s role in residential schooling
On May 23, 2023 the Royal Canadian Mounted Police celebrated its 150th anniversary and kicked off a series of #RCMP150 initiatives. To counter the uncritical mythologizing of the Mounties we are seeing—from the prime minister to the RCMP itself—the National RCMP Research Council has created a new website to share truths about the force.
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Why the conspiracy theory about Trump and Russia won’t go away
There is no report, investigation or new revelation, including the recent release of Special Counsel John Durham’s “Report on Matters Related to Intelligence Activities and Investigations Arising Out of the 2016 Presidential Campaigns” that will implode the myth that Russia was responsible for the election of Donald Trump. Myths are impervious to facts. They fulfill an emotional yearning.
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Sabotage in the time of the Anthropocene
Scott Stoneman reviews the recently released film adaptation of How to Blow Up a Pipeline and lays bare the through lines between the movie and its source material that is garnering attention for its endorsement of industrial sabotage. As Stoneman writes, the film’s conclusion does not present a clear-cut victory; it is more like a morally-ambiguous hedging.
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‘Decoupling’ from China means more Canadian exploitation of Latin America, Africa
When it comes to critical minerals, Canada and the US are dead set on replacing China’s supply with reserves elsewhere, namely Latin America and Africa. And given the exploitative way that mining firms function, “decoupling” means more exploitation, more undermining of state sovereignty, and more conflict with those who oppose selling out their mining industries to foreign capital.
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Inciting anti-Chinese hatred
We must do all we can to counter the climate of war fervour being incited as rivalry intensifies, writes CD columnist John Clarke. The current anti-Chinese campaign has some very powerful backers and it is being pursued relentlessly. It is ugly, toxic and reactionary to the core and we need to build a united opposition to challenge and defeat it.
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Legalized immorality: the scapegoating of Hassan Diab
The fate of Dr. Hassan Diab is being determined by scapegoating and by an absolutist moral belief that law is engraved in stone. This undeveloped form of morality reduces justice to rules in which the state’s role is limited to examining compliance with the law. In Dr. Diab’s case, appeals were rejected and ultimately blamed for preventing the efficient processing of his extradition.
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Blame landlords for Canada’s skyrocketing rents
With five million renters competing for two million purpose-built rental units, Canada’s rental housing market is a sellers-market. But the problem goes well beyond supply and demand. As rent and housing prices have inflated, this dynamic has given a base to massive rental housing monopolies across Canada’s cities.