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Canada’s response to Sudanese humanitarian crisis reflects systemic racism
How many more lives will be lost as a small Sudanese diaspora struggles to bring attention to a crisis that has paralyzed Africa’s third-largest country? And how much longer will a crisis be widely recognized as tragic, brutal and heartbreaking—but ultimately disregarded in practice as just another African war?
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A common language: Critical metals and Québec’s clientelist relationship with France
Québec’s ambitious strategy for regional development across the entire lifespan of rechargeable batteries proposes real benefits in a challenging transition away from fossil fuels and dependence on conflict resources, but at what cost? As the meeting between Attal and Legault shows, Québec’s future is being shaped to cater to big capital.
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Wholesale privatization, false solutions
Critics agree that the CAQ’s reforms have politicized health care, treating it more and more as just another market sector rather than a social good. As Lital Khaikin outlines, ‘entrepreneurial solutionism’ is transforming health care in Québec into a commodity to be exploited by venture capitalists and made available differentially to those who can afford it.
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Despair is the currency of massacre
The neglect of Palestine’s humanitarian crisis and the continuity of Israeli apartheid in the immediate aftermath of 9-11, and the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, has never been more urgent. The inability to address the racist and classist policies of repressive states is only adding fodder to reactive extremism and eroding ideological diversity in anti-imperialist resistance.
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Québec public sector workers are ready for a general strike
Fed up with the deterioration of public services under the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government, thousands took to the streets of Montréal on September 23 to demand fair pay, improved benefits, and better working conditions while unions negotiated new collective agreements with the province. Journalist Lital Khaikin provides our latest labour update.
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Compassion in an age of anxiety and disillusionment
Canadian physician and author Gabor Maté’s new book, The Myth of Normal, is a rich examination of the conditions that lead to individual illness and the cultural normalization of stress, alienation, and disenfranchisement. The book questions and dismantles notions of ‘normalcy,’ interrogating the factors behind the rise of what Maté calls trauma-related illnesses.
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“The voice of Indigenous peoples is the real voice of nature”
Millions of dollars in funding for biodiversity preservation, conservation projects, and “nature-based solutions” have been announced at COP15 by states and philanthropic foundations alike. Yet as business delegates emphasized changing consumer behaviour as a critical condition of meeting lofty targets, a sliver of the market driving energy demand reflects a convoluted picture.
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Who watches the watchers?
With automated systems already trained on inaccurate data—Russia as the trial ground—“publisher classification” systems for analyzing, reporting, targeting and removing dissenting voices, accounts and publications set a dangerous precedent for tracking and blacklisting voices that challenge Canadian foreign policy online with accusations of “fake news.”
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Amnesia and fragmentation in the narrative of Israel’s occupation of Palestine
Apartheid lives long after headlines have declared one or another victory, and discomfited politicians praise this or that ceasefire. But the fragmented nature of mainstream media coverage serves Israel’s narrative well, distracting from the unbroken continuity of the Nakba and Israeli apartheid, and making it difficult for the Canadian public to grasp the magnitude of Israel’s battering of human dignity.
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Land grabs for rare earth metals continue outside the South American Lithium Triangle
Mongolia has long been one of Canada’s closest partners in Asia as a source of strategic metals and minerals, while occupying a fulcrum point between Southeast Asia, Russia and the Middle East. Yet, little light has been shed on the bleak implications of the increasing demand for lithium, and other strategic resources found across Central Asia that are essential to the energy transition.