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The end of progressive neoliberalism in Canada
Elections highlight differences. Justin Trudeau and Pierre Poilievre already seem like opposites, and once the federal election campaign heats up, they will look even further apart. But after election day, magnified differences fade away. A Poilievre government would undoubtedly bring change, but also considerable continuity in critical areas.
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The insanity of spending two percent of GDP on the military
Instead of prioritizing the unhoused and undoctored, and responding to the mounting climate challenge, the government of Justin Trudeau recently committed to a massive boost in military spending. As Yves Engler writes, the security of Canadians would be better served by allocating resources to housing, health, and mitigating the climate crisis.
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First Nations and allies resist proposed radioactive waste repository
Indigenous communities have always been at the forefront of struggles against the nuclear industry on Turtle Island. The current battles against nuclear waste disposal in northwestern Ontario are no different. If Canada is to have a just transition away from fossil fuels, then it cannot be based on nuclear power.
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Renewable transition or global US empire? You can’t have both
Fossil fuels did not require a world ruled by a single dominant power, nor will renewables guarantee a radically egalitarian future. But the American empire as it exists requires global dependence on fossil fuels to maintain its position. Powerful parts of the US state, including the military, clearly understand this. It’s long past time the rest of us caught up.
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Canada’s militarization of the Arctic threatens Indigenous communities and the climate
Defence Minister Bill Blair and Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly were recently in Nunavut to promote Canada’s new defence policy update. The policy change will expand the military presence of NORAD and NATO in the Arctic. This costly, carbon-intensive plan to militarize the region poses a grave threat both to Inuit communities and to the climate.
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Less can mean more: Reducing energy consumption to manage the climate crisis
We need to contend with the intersections of capitalism, patriarchy, colonialism, racism, and democracy, and raise fundamental questions about whether what has been called the “imperial mode of living” is the best and only way to live, especially since the privileged way of life in the Global North comes at the expense of other people elsewhere in the world and at the cost of our planet.
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Militarism is the carbon bomb we can no longer ignore
The modern anti-war movement is gaining steam once again in the context of Israel’s genocidal assault on Gaza. Yet, for its part the climate movement has largely ignored a growing body of evidence showing that militarism is, as sociologist Prof Kenneth Gould describes, “the single most ecologically destructive human endeavour.” Now is the time for that to change.
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Why we should swing post-carbon tax talk left
If the carbon tax is a dead corpse that keeps on dying, let’s make livelier offers. The transition to a sustainable energy system should have been rooted in class from the start. Let’s stop playing rhetorical tricks on ourselves, and fill the political void with actionable proposals. Along the way, we might even heal social wounds as well as environmental ones.
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Fighting climate change: Beyond Canada’s carbon tax
Climate change is the most visible, most threatening expression of a larger, planetary ecological crisis. Our approach must be commensurate with the structural challenge that crisis poses to the way society is organized if we are to halt and reverse the ecological catastrophe toward which we are now hurtling—and which is fueled by our dependency on fossil fuels.
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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.’