Manitoba declares state of emergency
The Manitoba government is declaring a provincial state of emergency to take effect at noon today; requesting Canadian Forces support; and establishing a unified command centre near Portage la Prairie to assist with liaison efforts with the affected communities, Premier Greg Selinger announced today. This will allow emergency...
Canada’s failure to uphold the human rights of Indigenous peoples in its approval of Northern Gateway
BC Assembly of First Nations, First Nations Summit, Union of BC Indian Chiefs, Amnesty International Canada, Canadian Friends Service Committee (Quakers), Chiefs of Ontario, Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations, Grand Council of the Crees (Eeyou Istchee), Indigenous Rights Centre, Indigenous World Association, and KAIROS:...
Wynne’s Win, and the Agony of Right-Wing Pundits
While I realize it is churlish to take so much pleasure in the whining and wingeing of the usually arrogant right-wing pundits, I just can`t help myself. This gaggle of ideological nut bars rarely get angry at the fact that most governments in this country have been doing their duty in dismantling the democratic, activist...
First Nations Going to Court United Against Enbridge’s Northern Gateway Project
Today, we unequivocally reject the Harper Government’s decision to approve the Enbridge Northern Gateway tanker and pipelines project and First Nations will immediately go to court to vigorously pursue all lawful means to stop the Enbridge project. We have governed our lands, in accordance to our Indigenous laws, since time...
Stephen Harper’s ‘Strategic’ Path to Ruin
The federal government--that is, Stephen Harper--is expected to announce its long anticipated decision on Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline sometime in June. The decision could well determine whether or not the Conservatives can win the 2015 election. The momentum of opposition to the pipeline — and perhaps more importantly...
When it Comes to Political Ideas, How Big is ‘Big’?
The notion of ‘big ideas’ periodically raises its head in Canadian politics and I recently criticized the NDP for taking a good idea – a national day of action – and wasting it in on, well, small ideas. Specifically I suggested that the party’s focus on excessive interest rates and other charges effectively redefined citizens...
What's really at stake in the Ukraine?
It’s difficult to know which is the more disturbing aspect of the crisis in Ukraine. Is it the deliberate obfuscation of the truth by Western leaders like Stephen Harper (and their complicit media)? Or is it the truth itself — the casual acceptance by the West of an illegal, coup-installed regime in Kyiv populated by neo-Nazis...
COMMENT: The War on the Poor
The conservative movement in the US and Canada is maintained by the CIA and a legion of “think tanks” mainly funded by the oil industry.[1] To their purposes, they support the myth of a “communist” conspiracy in order to wage war on the poor, to eliminate obstacles to the further accumulation of wealth by the rich. Communism,...
Has Big Oil Hijacked democracy?
Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power. Benito Mussolini With the announcement by the B.C. Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) of formal complaints against the RCMP and Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) for illegally spying on environmental groups...
Judge Chides Harper Government's 'paternalistic, self serving, arbitrary and disrespectful' approach to First Nations
On January 17, 2014, Justice Patrick Smith of the Specific Claims Tribunal issued his decision in Aundeck Omni Kaning v. Canada, finding that Canada's unilateral, take-it-or-Ieave-it approach to the resolution of specific claims represents a blatant refusal to negotiate and undermines the Honour of the Crown in its dealings...
