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Canada and Ukraine: the careful suppression of a shameful history
Peter McFarlane’s Family Ties is a remarkable book on a period of history—the Second World War, before and after—that continues to haunt us. It is also a powerful antidote to Canadian amnesia and especially to the attempts to rewrite the history of that war to justify the warmongering provocations of Washington, Ottawa, London, Paris and other NATO countries.
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Sawmilling turncoats
Canada currently fulfills around 25 percent of American lumber demand, a drop from 35 percent in the 1990s. That number shrinks every time a Canadian sawmill gets dismantled and shipped to the US. It gets smaller every time a Canadian company transfers its made-in-Canada technology, financial earnings, and supermill know-how down south, too.
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Think tank pushes more bad ideas to help ‘fix’ Canada’s news media
Most think tanks are inherently conservative because they are funded by rich people who don’t like paying taxes and instead donate that money to foundations which in turn fund a range of favoured charities. Think tanks that churn out pseudo-scholarly research designed to influence government policy and regulation, or lack thereof, are a favourite recipient.
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Taking housing policy solutions to their failure point
For urban planner and professor Carolyn Whitzman, the tactics that allow tenants to challenge rent increases, resist evictions, and improve their living conditions have only a marginal place in the equation for social change. In the world of Home Truths, her new book, those who have been adversely impacted by the housing crisis are given no opportunity to fight back.
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Inching closer to an uneasy peace in Ukraine
The Trump peace plan goes some way towards squaring the circle by providing some guarantees to both sides, albeit far fewer than both would like. As such it is a reasonable compromise and a good starting point for further talks. There will be some hard diplomatic work ahead, but at least the long process of negotiation is finally about to start.
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Trump’s Abraham Accords incited Hamas attack
Donald Trump’s failed 2020 Abraham Accords led directly to the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel. This agreement, initially signed by Israel, the US, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, was ostensibly designed to “recognize the importance of maintaining and strengthening peace in the Middle East and around the world based on mutual understanding and coexistence.”
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The attack on democratic rights
As we see in the case of ongoing efforts to criminalize disruptive forms of climate protests, establishment thinking is embracing the idea that stricter limits must be set on the freedoms that have been conceded by liberal democracies. You can object to the destructive conduct of fossil fuel companies, but if you challenge their operations you will be treated as a terrorist.
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Guantánamo redux
The human rights situation in Cuba is bad, and about to get worse. Prisoners will be denied basic constitutional rights and reports of abuse and torture will surface. No, we are not talking about treatment of dissidents opposed to the revolutionary government—but rather to the victims of US foreign policy in the tropical gulag of Guantánamo.
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Hard times are here
People like me and my family members who work in the construction and restaurant industries are canaries in the coal mine of the economy. New condo starts have been down for some time, which is an early indicator of a real estate slump—but rents remain high. Recession is here already, for some folks. Like me. What are we going to do about it?
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Will Poilievre’s pro-Trump past boost an ailing Liberal Party?
Poilievre had an easy time running against an unpopular incumbent he could use as a dart board for empty right-wing labels like “woke” or “authoritarian socialist.” But running against an out-of-control Trump administration that has its eyes on Canadian resources and the ideological sympathy of a large part of the national conservative movement? That has proven much harder for him.