This week @ rabble.ca: African refugees: Highlighting a forgotten and excluded people
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- Published on Friday, 19 February 2016 13:15
- Written by editor
18 Feb 2016
Hey rabble readers!
Justin Trudeau has a lot of promises to keep, that's for sure. Some of them are great. But many more don't go far enough. How can we separate the good from the bad? Or keep the pressure on to make sure they deliver -- to do more when they make good and respond when they don't? rabble has the answers. Soon we'll unveil our Liberal Promise Watch series to do all this and more. But we need your help to get it off the ground. Chip in a few bucks here to make it happen.
With corporate media concentration at its most intense we need independent media coverage of the Liberals more than ever. Add to that the fact that straight-up silly vanity projects like Ezra Levant's The Rebel are now able to freely masquerade as serious news outlets. This does not bode well for media democracy in Canada. This frightening development underlines the importance of growing the resources and strength of independent, non-profit, progressive media in Canada.
If you need another reason to support rabble, well, just imagine how isolated you would feel if it weren't for independent media's existence. We would truly feel lost, atomized, fully at the mercy of neoliberalism's relentless ability to promote aggressive individualism. That's the gist of Murray Dobbin's argument in his latest anti-corporate media musings -- a must-read if you haven't read it already.
The Constructing Change podcast has returned! We're excited to welcome back the audio extension of our Lynn Williams Activist Toolkit. On this episode, we feature a conversation with Activist Toolkit coordinator Maya Bhullar, looking back at 2015 and what needs to be done to continue to undo the damage of the Harper regime. Listen to it here.
The web is a revolutionary social tool that should be used to shape the kind of society we want to live in. But that's not where things are headed. The Internet could end up largely in the hands of powerful Big Telecom and repressive governments. Does it really have to be that way? Heck no! Sunday March 6 at 6:30 p.m. at the Vancouver Public Library, join leading media reform theorists Robert McChesney and John Nichols to discuss how to avoid a "citizen-less democracy" and to talk about their new book People Get Ready: The Fight against a Jobless Economy, and raise some much-needed funds for our friends at OpenMedia. For more details and to RSVP go here.
Let's make 2016 a leap year... for climate justice! That's right. This year is the year we need to make a significant difference and this is your chance to join in the next phase of the Leap Manifesto. Events like this one are being held right now in every corner of the country and all over the world. Find out where, when and even start your own. It's all happening on the new Leap Year website here.
This week's top news
Vancouver transit's Compass card system poses privacy concerns
Vancouver Translink's new Compass card payment system presents privacy concerns as it tracks detailed information of a transit user's time and location.
By Alyse Kotyk
Canada's minimum income experiment and the fight against poverty
In part three of rabble's minimum wage series, labour reporter Teuila Fuatai investigates the case for a guaranteed minimum income in Canada.
By Teuila Fuatai
Hundreds march to remember murdered and missing women in Vancouver
The 26th Annual Women's Memorial March took place on February 14 to remember women in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside who have gone missing or have been murdered.
By Alyse Kotyk
Internet-only content could drastically limit Canada's cultural policy options
Today's post examines the possibility that new policy innovations might also be stymied by the TPP, further limiting Canadian cultural policy.
By Michael Geist
NDP must connect with social movements to prevent history from repeating
For the NDP to become the real champion of the left, the party will have to finally reform its relationship with social movements.
By Sarah Beuhler, Tristan Markle
This week's top blogs
Scalia was a fierce U.S. nationalist but had Canadian connections
You might be surprised to learn what the late justice thought about the direct election of senators and how little he knew about Canada.
By Karl Nerenberg
Go figure! Ezra Levant, Pied Piper of right-wing nonsense, has mainstream media singing his tune!
Despite what you've read, the fight in which the Alberta government has become embroiled has nothing to do with muzzling journalists. It's about which ones have privileged access.
By David J. Climenhaga
B.C. can't survive four more years of Christy Clark
As people celebrate the victories of the Lower Mainland byelections, it's a good reminder that we aren't too far away from the next provincial elections.
By Sarah Miller
Day 12: Jian Ghomeshi reminded me of being molested while crowdsurfing
As former CBC host Jian Ghomeshi goes to trial for four counts of sexual assault this month, Canada is forced to confront attitudes about sex, consent, and the validity of victims' stories.
By Svea Vikander
Pam Palmater: Honour the treaties, keep the promises
Pam Palmater's eloquent advocacy for rights of Indigenous people combines fierce intelligence and knowledge of native law and tradition with the warmth and generosity of Idle No More. Hear her voice.
By Christopher Majka
Politics, policies, and shifting cultural attitudes: This week in blogs
Bernie Sanders, Indigenous child care and sexual harassment, oh my! This week, our bloggers tackle some of the most pressing issues of our time.
By Jen Halsall
This week's top columns
The box and the iPhone: A cautionary tale
The year was 1888 and the Kodak Camera was born. Now 128 years later, it is instructive to consider that photographic device, and its progeny.
By Wayne MacPhail
The God that fails: C-51, review committees and the dangers of window dressing
Instead of questioning the mandates and core practices of secretive, unaccountable security agencies, efforts are underway to save the system by putting up some nice-looking window dressing.
By Matthew Behrens
Canada's monetary policy: Capital flows while Team Trudeau sleeps
The falling dollar is what drives Canadian economic policy today. This may come as news to Canadians, because it has not been announced by the Trudeau government.
By Duncan Cameron
The incredible, irrepressible and witty Nellie McClung
January 28, 2016 was the 100th anniversary of women's right to vote in Manitoba. That date was a day to celebrate the sheer determination of women's suffrage to make gains for Canadian women.
By Retiree Matters, Sonja Alton
Are you on the terrorism blacklist? Maybe, but you can't do anything about it.
Last week, a private terrorism blacklist called World-Check was brought to light, raising questions about who is being targeted in its database, and why.
By Monia Mazigh
MORE FROM...
Naomi Klein, Linda McQuaig, Rick Salutin, Duncan Cameron, Wayne MacPhail, Murray Dobbin and others! Read columns...
JOIN rabble.ca.: Put your money where your mouse is!
This week's top podcasts
A human history of the Ottawa River Watershed
A look at the role of the Ottawa River in the history of the Algonquin Nation, with Peter Di Gangi.
By Victoria Fenner
The Bear Clan: An Indigenous approach to safety and well-being in Winnipeg
James Favel, Jesse Leigh, and Larry Morrissette talk about the work of Winnipeg's Bear Clan Patrol.
By Scott Neigh
The Constructing Change podcast returns!
Harper is gone, but there is more work to be done to rebuild our country. Hear how rabble.ca's Activist Toolkit helps us all do that.
By Maya Bhullar
Darn socks!
Darning vs. buying more stuff.
By Kelly Okamura
This week's top rabbletv
Not Rex: On the Flint Michigan water crisis
The Flint water crisis is right up there with some of the most egregious crimes of capitalism.
By Humberto DaSilva
This week's top books
'Between the Cracks She Fell' explores urban landscapes and the ghosts that haunt us
Are you looking for an adventure story with a lively heroine and industrial urban backdrop? 'Between the Cracks She Fell' blends mystery and exploration in this fascinating read.
By Sarah Hipworth
In this issue
Upcoming events
VancouverAfrican refugees: Highlighting a forgotten and excluded people
The refugee crisis continues to unfold. Tens of thousands of people are crossing the Mediterranean or reaching Europe by land in the Middle East. But we've also noticed something missing.
By Institute for the Humanities at Simon Fraser University
OttawaMax Blumenthal: The 51 Day War - Ruin and Resistance in Gaza
A best-selling author reports on Israel's brutal assault on Gaza in July 2014.
By Octopus Books
HalifaxExpedition for the Earth: Iceland 2016
Join the Nature Trust on Wednesday, February 24th for our second Expedition for the Earth: Iceland 2016 information session.
By Nova Scotia Nature Trust
This week's top in cahoots
A federal plan to tackle poverty and inequality
The fight to eliminate poverty and inequality is far from over and Justin Trudeau's election proposals are inadequate to accomplishing the task. This CCPA paper is a real poverty reduction plan.
By Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
Devastating hospital cuts and flawed process for health reform consultation
Ontario is heading into its ninth straight year of real-dollar cuts to public hospitals' global budgets. This is the longest stretch of hospital cuts since the inception of public health care.
By Ontario Health Coalition
Budget stimulus and EI
Federal research shows that EI is the single most powerful tool the government has to stabilize the economy, reducing both GDP and job losses by up to 14 per cent in the wake of recessions.
By Unifor
Active babble topics
Remembering Viola Desmond: A clicktivist moment!
By sherpa-finn
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia dead at age 79
By NorthReport
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Support our work
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This week's top tool
Know the facts: Missing and murdered women
Native Women's Association of Canada's eye-opening factsheet.
Poll
How should emerging forms of media be treated by governments?
On Tuesday, Rachel Notley and the Alberta NDP caused a media frenzy when they banned correspondents from The Rebel, a website run by former Sun News correspondent and pundit Ezra Levant.
On Wednesday, the Alberta NDP reversed its decision and announced it will not ban any media outlet while a review of its policies are underway.
The situation has caused considerable discussion about censorship, free speech and Canadian media, specifically traditional versus new media and the role of government since this practice is commonplace across all levels of government.
How should emerging forms of media be treated by governments?
Choices That policy is dated: they're journalists! They should get the same access as everyone else. Government needs to take their lead from journalists, press councils and other organizations, and not determine who is and who is not a journalist. If a blogger is present in good faith, and abides by the same rules as other journalists, they should be invited in. Depends: if we're talking about Ezra Levant, this has more to do with his conduct than any questions of journalistic integrity. I'm not sure. None of the above.Forward to a friend
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