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The State of Manitoba’s Activist Left
Canadian PoliticsThe Manitoba Progressive Conservatives under premier Brian Pallister have been implementing harsh austerity since their 2016 landslide victory, imposing emergency room and clinic closures, wage freezes, significant budget cuts, job cuts, harsh anti-labour legislation and more. Yet responses from the left have been largely muted and ineffective. Anyone who would suggest otherwise is lying to themselves.
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The Two-State Solution: An Autopsy
Middle EastThe two-state solution died because Netanyahu and successive Israeli governments were determined to kill it, and those who could have prevented its demise lacked the resolve and moral courage to do so. America failed in the mission it thought itself uniquely qualified to accomplish because it failed to understand that the diplomatic objective of a great power, and particularly the world’s greatest power, should not be peace, a goal that Netanyahu dishonestly embraced, but justice.
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Canada’s Dirty $20-Billion Pipeline Bailout
Canadian PoliticsLet’s parse the fantastic numbers, because they will affect all of us. And the bill for taxpayers won’t be $4.5 billion as Morneau claims, but much closer to $20 billion, says economist Robyn Allan. The $4.5-billion purchase price only buys a leaking 65-year-old pipeline, an aging tanker farm not built to withstand earthquakes, and a port facility as well as engineering plans and permits for the twinning of a high-risk expansion project.
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How can the resistance of the Venezuelan people and Maduro’s government be explained?
Latin America and the CaribbeanEconomic war, sabotage, low oil prices, international sanctions, and political violence. Any president prior to the arrival of Hugo Chávez to the Miraflores Presidential Palace would have succumbed in just a few days faced with an attack such as that experienced by the government of Nicolás Maduro. However, the Venezuelan people are still standing and supporting the leaders of the Bolivarian Revolution. How can this heroic resistance be explained?
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Kinder Morgan bailout to cost north of $15 billion
Canadian PoliticsFinance Minister Bill Morneau announced on May 29 that the Government of Canada will buy the existing Trans Mountain pipeline system from Kinder Morgan at a price of $4.5 billion. When asked about the cost to build the expansion, Mr. Morneau refused to explain that $4.5 billion simply buys Ottawa the rights to what exists today
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Why Venezuela’s Election Matters—It Was Under Siege by U.S., Canadian and EU Influence
Latin America and the CaribbeanThe election is over. Predictably, the United States and Canada will increase their sanctions regime. The Lima Group ambassadors are home getting their instructions. They will likely downgrade diplomatic relations with Venezuela. None of this is a surprise. It is what they had already announced. They did not wait to see how the elections went. Isolation of Venezuela is their strategy.
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Who is your oppressor?
Human RightsIt’s hard to pinpoint when the bifurcation of all of society into either oppressor or oppressed was first articulated. Hegel noted that “[t]he Catholics had been in the position of oppressors, and the Protestants of the oppressed.” But one could safely argue that many spiritual holy men, from the Buddha to Jesus, have relied on these categories in one way or another to deliver their indictments of the world.
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New Democratic Party MPs Should Withdraw from Canada-Israel Interparliamentary Group
Canadian PoliticsGarrison and Rankin must immediately withdraw from the Canada–Israel Interparliamentary Group. If the NDP MPs refuse to disassociate themselves from the pro-Israel lobby organization, party leader Jagmeet Singh should replace them as (respectively) NDP defence and justice critics. Israel’s slaughter in Gaza should lead to an end of the NDP’s anti-Palestinian past.
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The Ontario Election isn’t about Deficits, and that’s a good thing
Canadian PoliticsHow big is your deficit? This Ontario election, no one seems to care. There is more and more light sneaking through the widening cracks in Canada’s austerity consensus. Hopefully, it will shine not only on the latest vote-buying scandal or bout of red-baiting but hit upon some of the big questions of economic policy. Here, the relevant question is not “how big is your deficit,” but “who will it benefit?” Or, put most expansively, “how are you going to transform the economy?”
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Maduro’s Win: A Bright Spot in Dark Times
Latin America and the CaribbeanSadly, Americans are still focused on condemning the governments of other countries when ours remains the greatest purveyor of violence in the world. If we could overcome our own pessimism and self-absorption we would find that a people’s resistance is possible. We should look to Venezuela for guidance. For once, there is good news. Will Americans of all stripes continue to grumble or will we use Venezuela as a source of inspiration and hope in these dark times?
