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The lord of chaos
Many of the apologists for the war in Iraq seek to justify their support by arguing that “mistakes” were made, that if, for example, the Iraqi army was not disbanded, the occupation would have worked. They insist that our intentions were honorable. They ignore the hubris and lies that led to the war, the misguided belief that the US could be the sole major power in a unipolar world.
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Google has made our online lives easier, but we may all be about to become a victim of its success
Publishers have complained that by posting links to their news stories, along with their headlines and a snippet of their content, Google is stealing from them. It sounds crazy to anyone who knows how the Internet works, but newspaper publishers have considerable power over public opinion, and they have framed their relationship with Google as that of victim and robber.
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MPs pushing the Online News Act don’t know how the Internet works
The Trudeau government’s attempt to ram through the Online News Act has been a series of cringe-worthy blunders, none more telling than Monday’s technical difficulties. But doubts over whether Ottawa really knows what it is doing in trying to regulate the Internet keep on growing and will not be alleviated by the technical problems which washed out a day’s hearings.
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Official enemies and the media’s double standard on anonymous sources
The Globe and Mail applies a double standard to anonymous sources: journalistic scepticism and balance are warranted only when grave allegations are levelled by anonymous sources against a Western state. When allegations of that nature are levelled by anonymous sources against an official enemy of the West, scepticism and balance are tossed out the window.
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Protests in Cuba vs. Peru: a case study in Canadian hypocrisy
If the Cuban government had reacted to July 11 with anywhere near the violence that the Peruvian government has administered, the media and government responses would have been swift and unforgiving. Because a loyal ally in Lima is doing the repression, however, Ottawa allows them to continue killing without the slightest condemnation.
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Postmedia shoots more hostages to keep debt payments flowing to New Jersey hedge fund
New Jersey’s largest newspaper chain shot another dozen Canadian hostages last week as the end game of its northern extortion scheme grows ever closer. If the federal government doesn’t allow Postmedia Network and the rest of the country’s press to start taking money from the pockets of Google and Facebook soon, more of the country’s captive newspapers could get whacked.
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Ruling in Rogers-Shaw deal shows reform of Competition Act is badly needed
Does the Competition Bureau have a hope of stopping Rogers from swallowing Shaw and creating a nationwide cable monopoly? Probably not, but that’s just the point, and it’s a point the bureau itself has been trying to make for years. Its enabling Competition Act is not just unfit for purpose, it was seemingly designed to actually prevent competition.
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The myth of Google and Facebook’s online advertising ‘monopoly’
Now that newspapers are moving to online publication, they are crying foul because they are finally having to compete on a level playing field. They have even now prevailed upon Ottawa to pass Bill C-18, the Online News Act, which would force Google and Facebook to pay a portion of their revenues to newspapers. Something just doesn’t smell right here.
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Why did the Ottawa Citizen publish Holocaust revisionism?
On the second night of Hanukkah, the Postmedia-owned Ottawa Citizen published a crude piece of gross Holocaust revisionism from a Ukrainian nationalist academic. This comes during a year that has been a boon for rehabilitating Nazi collaborators and neo-Nazis as a result of Russia’s criminal invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
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How to fund journalism in Canada if Google, Facebook won’t
Canada has been described as “three telcos in a trenchcoat” for the inordinate power they wield. They control all of the private TV networks, as Bell owns CTV, Rogers owns City, and Global is owned by the Shaw Family Living Trust. Giving back some of their monopoly profits to benefit Canadians is the second-last idea they want to hear. The first? Free public wifi.