The question of which side carried out the 2014 Maidan massacre is central to understanding the “bloodiest and most controversial hours of European conflict since the end of the Cold War,” and the main tipping point in the escalating conflict between the West and Russia over Ukraine. According to Ivan Katchanovski, the origins of the conflict are often misrepresented, omitted or even covered-up.

NATO’s proponents often claim it’s a democratic force, but in Canada’s case the alliance highlights the hollowness of our democracy. A healthy polity requires vigorous debate on important issues, but no major party opposes this country’s membership in the military alliance. In fact, the social democratic NDP leadership has gone to great lengths to block members from expressing themselves on NATO.

Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals want to form a government in Germany but are unable to come up with a program that would at least point in the direction of fixing the most pressing social and ecological issues. They are heading towards a lame-duck government that will reinforce the strange brew of widespread recognition of urgently needed change and a fear of change that was reflected in the outgoing Merkel government.

Instead of playing the game by the Liberals’ rules, the NDP should be straight with its voters: get us to 40 seats and we’ll get you a fairer tax system, a green economy, and electoral reform on top of it all. What’s more, an NDP blocking minority would change Canadian politics for good, as it has the potential of transforming its political culture, making it more democratic and collaborative.

Expressing solidarity with the US and Europe, Canada has joined in sanctions against Belarus, citing its concern for human rights and democracy. But sanctions that hurt the economy are unlikely to win hearts and minds. On the contrary, they are almost certain to create misery for people in the targeted country. Since sanctions have failed repeatedly to achieve their intended results, what purpose do they really serve?

While opposing Nord Stream 2, the United States is itself importing more and more Russian oil. Meanwhile, Russia has become the third largest exporter of oil to the US, after Canada and Mexico. Sentiments against the pipeline remain high in the US, Ukraine and Poland. Affirming their sovereignty, Germany and other European countries plan to finish the pipeline. Despite the brinkmanship, the project moves ahead.

Ken Loach is one of Britain’s most revered and successful filmmakers who has demonstrated a lifelong commitment to social justice. The character assassination campaign against him is being pursued by propagandists who have shown a consistent willingness to turn a blind eye to human rights abuses while using the charge of anti-Semitism as a cudgel to silence critics of Israeli apartheid.

In December of last year, COVID-19 took the life of one of Canada’s most widely respected public intellectuals, Leo Panitch. Leo was a researcher, teacher and author whose work had a profound impact on the thinking of democratic socialists around the world. One of the countries in which Leo took a passionate interest, and in which he exercised considerable influence among leftists, was Greece.

For more than a decade, the Russian economic and political system has ceased to develop. Most of the population is barely surviving. We need to prepare ourselves for a transformation, to set to work wherever we find people who are ready for constructive joint action in the trade unions, in organizations of teachers and medical staff, in social movements. This is what we, the members of the Russian left, are seeking to do.

The saga of US actions against the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project—a system of offshore natural gas pipelines running under the Baltic Sea from Russia to Germany—reads like a John le Carré novel. In spite of the desire of Germany and other European allies to have it built and even though it is nearly completed, the US persists in thwarting the project. Canada is also against it. Why?