Recent Bullets
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Quebec’s October Crisis, 1970
What Today’s Left Learned From Ottawa’s Turn to Repression Fifty years ago this month, the federal government, invoking the War Measures Act – its first use in peacetime – occupied Quebec with 12,000 troops, arrested almost 500 citizens without a warrant, and carried out 36,000 police searches of homes, organizations and publications. Of the 497 trade … Keep reading »
No Short-Term Remedy to Iran’s Economic Challenges
Iran’s economy has never been more vulnerable and fragile. Last month, President Hassan Rouhani complained that the United States has been waging “economic warfare” against Iran by slapping sanctions on the country’s energy, finance, banking, industrial, and shipping sectors. In a bid to isolate Iran further, amputate the remaining ties between its financial institutions and … Keep reading »
Universal Basic Income Is Not the Answer
A Leftist Case for Social Investment Is a guaranteed liveable universal basic income (UBI) the right solution for current economic woes? Or does it make more sense to re-invest back into public institutions and social services? In August, Winnipeg Centre MP Leah Gazan proposed extending the CERB (Canada Emergency Response Benefit) into a permanent UBI. Motion-46 … Keep reading »
Boeing: A New Report, An Old Story
Item 1. A major tobacco company had to deal with regulators in the Czech Republic. The regulators were demanding that rather alarming health hazard signs be put on cigarette packs. The tobacco company argued that, really, tobacco was not that dangerous but, even if it did kill people, it would be wise for the government … Keep reading »
Will Escaping Americans Test Canada’s Capacity for Sympathy?
When Donald Trump was elected in 2016, I started hearing from American friends that they were thinking of migrating to Canada. Sensing that most of them didn’t really mean it, I would joke in response that we would “build a wall and make you pay for it.” And I sometimes reminded them that Canada had … Keep reading »
The Events of October 1970: From Yesterday to Today
In 1970, the national question and the social question were merged (especially in Montreal). The big “bosses” were English. The overwhelmingly francophone working class was exploited as well as oppressed and vice versa. Language on signs and in the workplace, and the names of companies, were predominantly in English. A petty-bourgeois “Quiet Revolution” (1960-1966) was … Keep reading »
The Electric Car Comes to Oakville
A Closer Look at a Feel-Good Story Major auto bargaining has long been one of the most-hyped events in Canada’s labour calendar; historically rich in drama and closely watched for shifts in the flow of class conflict. Opening the latest round this summer, Jerry Dias, the head of Unifor, worked again to rev up interest in … Keep reading »