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If I could shake Harper's hand, this is what I'd tell him.
BY GERRY CAPLAN
DECEMBER 15, 2014
We now have the election-ready Mr. Harper -- not only a "trained economist" into whose good hands Canadians can entrust their material well-being, but a bold, outspoken international statesman who stands up to bullies and speaks truth to power. If you don't believe me, ask his horde of zealous flacks.
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Time for Action on Violence Against Women
We deserve a government that values of all of its citizens.
By Doreen Nicoll
Published December 09, 2014
Enough already! Are you feeling like I am? Overwhelmed by the never ending media coverage of stories about rape culture on university and college campuses? How about workplace sexual harassment? Another woman returning to her abusive husband only to be killed before he committed suicide?
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Time for Action on Violence Against Women
We deserve a government that values of all of its citizens.
By Doreen Nicoll
Published December 09, 2014
Enough already! Are you feeling like I am? Overwhelmed by the never ending media coverage of stories about rape culture on university and college campuses? How about workplace sexual harassment? Another woman returning to her abusive husband only to be killed before he committed suicide?
Read more
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Stephen Lewis roars once more in takedown of Stephen Harper government: Tim Harper, The Star Nov 24, 2014
Canada and its politics, the former Ontario NDP leader says, are in free fall.
Lewis told the Symons Lecture on the future of confederation:
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Canada losing friends over climate change: Carol Goar The Star November 22, 2014
Prime Minister Stephen Harper returns from two weeks in Asia looking increasingly isolated on climate change.
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Stephen Lewis roars once more in takedown of Stephen Harper government: Tim Harper, The Star Nov 24, 2014
Canada and its politics, the former Ontario NDP leader says, are in free fall.
Lewis told the Symons Lecture on the future of confederation:
- Canada’s world standing is in free fall.
- The Harper government’s contempt for Parliament and its traditions has degraded political life and fostered voter cynicism.
- Its attitude to aboriginals is not paternalistic, it is racist.
- Harper’s refusal to join the rest of the world and move toward renewable energy sources is endangering future generations and contributing to a looming planetary meltdown.
- Civil society and the ideas it fosters have been slapped down and censored, subverting democratic norms.
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Canada losing friends over climate change: Carol Goar The Star November 22, 2014
Prime Minister Stephen Harper returns from two weeks in Asia looking increasingly isolated on climate change.
Stephen Harper is running out of places to hide on the environment.
The prime minister tucked himself behind the United States for seven years, promising to move in lockstep with Canada’s powerful neighbour and biggest trading partner on climate change. But President Barack Obama has leapt out in front him, determined to use his second term to leave a positive legacy on climate change.
The prime minister tucked himself behind the United States for seven years, promising to move in lockstep with Canada’s powerful neighbour and biggest trading partner on climate change. But President Barack Obama has leapt out in front him, determined to use his second term to leave a positive legacy on climate change.
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Conservative cyberlaws threaten privacy rights: Star Editorial November 23, 2014
Cyberspace has its mean streets, and the police need up-to-date tools to track down the bad actors who prowl them. But we shouldn’t have to surrender our privacy to nail the bad guys.
Conservative cyberlaws threaten privacy rights: Star Editorial November 23, 2014
Cyberspace has its mean streets, and the police need up-to-date tools to track down the bad actors who prowl them. But we shouldn’t have to surrender our privacy to nail the bad guys.
Parliament is currently considering two key pieces of legislation: Bill C-13, the Protecting Canadians from Online Crime Act, a.k.a. the cyberbullying law; and S-4, the Digital Privacy Act. While elements of each bill are good, other aspects needlessly erode privacy rights.
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The Star November 12, 2014
The pro-Conservative ads are on the radio. The pro-Conservative visuals are on TV.
The federal election isn’t slated until next October. Yet still . . . .
To watch Prime Minister Stephen Harper is to see a politician in full campaign mode. Harper’s actions are always political. But these days they are political with a new intensity.
The Star November 12, 2014
Stephen Harper uses terror threat to tee up for election: Walkom
The pro-Conservative ads are on the radio. The pro-Conservative visuals are on TV.
The federal election isn’t slated until next October. Yet still . . . .
To watch Prime Minister Stephen Harper is to see a politician in full campaign mode. Harper’s actions are always political. But these days they are political with a new intensity.
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LAWRENCE MARTIN
For Harper, a bad day at the bookstore
Special to The Globe and Mail Published Tuesday, Oct. 21 2014
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LAWRENCE MARTIN
For Harper, a bad day at the bookstore
Special to The Globe and Mail Published Tuesday, Oct. 21 2014
Party of One is a differently styled indictment. It’s a searing, heavily sourced dissection of Mr. Harper’s “anti-democratic” methods. Former Commons speaker Peter Milliken tells Mr. Harris: “Harper can’t go much further without making the institution dysfunctional … In fact, [the House] will have to be returned to its former state by someone if we are to have a democracy.”
Read the whole article here.
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Author Michael Harris’s new book is a take down of Stephen Harper
Party of One by Michael Harris argues that Prime Minister Stephen Harper is destroying Parliament and Canada’s reputation in the world.
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Author Michael Harris’s new book is a take down of Stephen Harper
Party of One by Michael Harris argues that Prime Minister Stephen Harper is destroying Parliament and Canada’s reputation in the world.
By the time author Michael Harris nears the end of his magisterial review of the strife and times of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, it is as if he felt the need of a shower.
Almost 500 pages of Party of One: Stephen Harper and Canada’s Radical Makeover have by then been devoted to chronicling the Harper government’s bullying, abuse, duplicity, betrayal, affinity for crooks, public shaming of individuals, diminishment of democratic institutions.
Almost 500 pages of Party of One: Stephen Harper and Canada’s Radical Makeover have by then been devoted to chronicling the Harper government’s bullying, abuse, duplicity, betrayal, affinity for crooks, public shaming of individuals, diminishment of democratic institutions.
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Feminism is mainstream, not a cult by Heather Mallick
Canadian feminism is a mainstream movement, not a cult, and it's time feminists invited more women in.
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Feminism is mainstream, not a cult by Heather Mallick
Canadian feminism is a mainstream movement, not a cult, and it's time feminists invited more women in.
Thanks to the Harper majority, women’s rights are scorned in Canada. If you’re in New Brunswick and P.E.I., you do not have the right to abortion. There is no national system of child care. Cases of doctors refusing to prescribe birth control are popping up. The brutal treatment of women in the RCMP is a national scandal. And the list goes on.
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Time was when we had to wait weeks, even months for each new abuse of power by the Harper government. Now they arrive by the day, sometimes two and three at a time. Of late we’ve been treated to ...
Stephen Harper hasn’t advanced any evidence for a claim that he had to rebuff an improper lobbying bid by the Chief Justice to block a Supreme Court appointment.
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une 10, 2014
Andrew Coyne: We once had to wait weeks for a new Harper abuse of power. Now we’re getting them two or three a day
Time was when we had to wait weeks, even months for each new abuse of power by the Harper government. Now they arrive by the day, sometimes two and three at a time. Of late we’ve been treated to ...
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Stephen Harper should not impugn integrity of Chief Justice Beverley McLachlin: Star Editorial May 6, 2014
Stephen Harper hasn’t advanced any evidence for a claim that he had to rebuff an improper lobbying bid by the Chief Justice to block a Supreme Court appointment.
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Fraser, who co-chairs an advisory board created by chief electoral officer Marc Mayrand last fall, told The Canadian Press she believes Bill C-23, if allowed to pass without significant amendments, would constitute an attack on Canada's democracy.
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CBC April 3
Fair Elections Act: Ex-watchdog Sheila Fraser slams bill as attack on democracy
Sheila Fraser, the former auditor general who became a virtual folk hero for exposing the sponsorship scandal, is training her sights on what she sees as a new abuse by the federal government: its controversial overhaul of Canada's election laws.Fraser, who co-chairs an advisory board created by chief electoral officer Marc Mayrand last fall, told The Canadian Press she believes Bill C-23, if allowed to pass without significant amendments, would constitute an attack on Canada's democracy.
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The Star Editorial March 31, 2014
‘Fair Elections Act’ needs overhaul: Editorial
The more Canadians look the less they like Bill C-23, the Conservative government’s Fair Elections Act.
A government caught in a voting scandal is in no position to ram fundamental changes in Canada’s election rules through Parliament. That is what Democratic Reform Minister Pierre Poilievre is seeking to do. Since he tabled his sweeping Fair Elections Act eight weeks ago, the misgivings of legal and constitutional experts have hardened into outright opposition.
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The Star Editorial March 31, 2014
‘Fair Elections Act’ needs overhaul: Editorial
The more Canadians look the less they like Bill C-23, the Conservative government’s Fair Elections Act.
A government caught in a voting scandal is in no position to ram fundamental changes in Canada’s election rules through Parliament. That is what Democratic Reform Minister Pierre Poilievre is seeking to do. Since he tabled his sweeping Fair Elections Act eight weeks ago, the misgivings of legal and constitutional experts have hardened into outright opposition.
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Ottawa Citizen March 22. 2014
Op-Ed: The war on experts
In modern democratic states, the public service is one of the most important sources for non-partisan information and advice.
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Ottawa Citizen March 22. 2014
Op-Ed: The war on experts
In modern democratic states, the public service is one of the most important sources for non-partisan information and advice.
By barring Elections Canada officials from speaking to Canadians about democracy, the Fair Elections Act (C-23) continues a pattern in which successive government actions have eroded space for, and support of, non-partisan yet politically relevant expertise in Canadian political discourse.
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Harper's mobs, oaths and long-term austerity plan
On the path "Stephen Harper has chosen for us."
Warren Bell
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Harper's mobs, oaths and long-term austerity plan
On the path "Stephen Harper has chosen for us."
Warren Bell
Environmental economist William Rees describes the Conservative governments policies as “climate change homicide."
Ian Brown called the Conservative government “the most hands-on, centrally controlled federal government in living memory” .
Struck by this, one commentator characterized the Prime Minister in an essay “The Early Warning Signs of Fascism”.
Ian Brown called the Conservative government “the most hands-on, centrally controlled federal government in living memory” .
Struck by this, one commentator characterized the Prime Minister in an essay “The Early Warning Signs of Fascism”.
Read More
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An open letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the
Parliament of Canada:!
We the undersigned — over 150 professors at Canadian
universities who study the principles and institutions of
constitutional democracy — believe that the Fair Elections Act
(Bill C-23), if passed, would damage the institution at the
heart of our country’s democracy: voting in federal
elections. We urge the Government to heed calls for wider
consultation in vetting this Bill. While we agree that our
electoral system needs some reforms, this Bill contains
proposals that would seriously damage the fairness and
transparency of federal elections and diminish Canadians’
political participation. Beyond our specific concerns about the
Bill’s provisions (see below), we are alarmed at the lack of due
process in drafting the Bill and in rushing it through
Parliament. We see no justification for introducing legislation
of such pivotal importance to our democracy without
significant consultation with Elections Canada, opposition
parties, and the public at large.
Read More
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March 19, 2014
Scholars denounce Conservatives’ proposed Fair Elections Act
JOSH WINGROVE
The Conservative government’s Fair Elections Act threatens Canada’s global reputation as a “guardian of democracy and human rights,” a group of international researchers says.
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An open letter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the
Parliament of Canada:!
We the undersigned — over 150 professors at Canadian
universities who study the principles and institutions of
constitutional democracy — believe that the Fair Elections Act
(Bill C-23), if passed, would damage the institution at the
heart of our country’s democracy: voting in federal
elections. We urge the Government to heed calls for wider
consultation in vetting this Bill. While we agree that our
electoral system needs some reforms, this Bill contains
proposals that would seriously damage the fairness and
transparency of federal elections and diminish Canadians’
political participation. Beyond our specific concerns about the
Bill’s provisions (see below), we are alarmed at the lack of due
process in drafting the Bill and in rushing it through
Parliament. We see no justification for introducing legislation
of such pivotal importance to our democracy without
significant consultation with Elections Canada, opposition
parties, and the public at large.
Read More
March 19, 2014
Scholars denounce Conservatives’ proposed Fair Elections Act
JOSH WINGROVE
Read More
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The Economist March 5, 2014
What’s gone wrong with democracy
Democracy was the most successful political idea of the 20th century. Why has it run into trouble, and what can be done to revive it?
Read More
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February 24, 2014
Why Trudeau doesn’t have to sell his ideas
by Lawrence Martin
The Economist March 5, 2014
What’s gone wrong with democracy
Democracy was the most successful political idea of the 20th century. Why has it run into trouble, and what can be done to revive it?
Read More
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February 24, 2014
Why Trudeau doesn’t have to sell his ideas
by Lawrence Martin
Justin Trudeau has to do something about his sense of humour. Though he made clear he was just kibbitzing, the spat over his hockey joke about Vladimir Putin and the Ukraine created a commotion he didn’t need. It took away from his showing at the Liberal Party convention which was given high grades from media pundits and other observers. Where he scored was not on policy but rather on style and tone.
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Canadian libricide: Tories torch and dump centuries of priceless, irreplaceable environmental archives
Back in 2012, when Canada's Harper government announced that it would close down national archive sites around the country, they promised that anything that was discarded or sold would be digitized first. But only an insignificant fraction of the archives got scanned, and much of it was simply sent to landfill or burned.
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Canadian libricide: Tories torch and dump centuries of priceless, irreplaceable environmental archives
Back in 2012, when Canada's Harper government announced that it would close down national archive sites around the country, they promised that anything that was discarded or sold would be digitized first. But only an insignificant fraction of the archives got scanned, and much of it was simply sent to landfill or burned.
Read more.
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November 25, 2013
Why Stephen Harper should step down: Walkom
There are good reasons for Stephen Harper to declare victory and announce he’s stepping down. The Senate scandal is just one.
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On Senate scandal, the buck stops with Stephen Harper: Brent Rathgeber November 25, 2013
The Prime Minister's Office is so insular it seems to actually believe the RCMP affidavit released last week exonerates Prime Minister Harper.
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November 25, 2013
Why Stephen Harper should step down: Walkom
There are good reasons for Stephen Harper to declare victory and announce he’s stepping down. The Senate scandal is just one.
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On Senate scandal, the buck stops with Stephen Harper: Brent Rathgeber November 25, 2013
The Prime Minister's Office is so insular it seems to actually believe the RCMP affidavit released last week exonerates Prime Minister Harper.
Read the column.
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The Star Oct 30, 2013
Tory convention agenda bodes badly for Canada
Amid the Senate scandal, few will be paying attention to this week's Conservative Party convention. Too bad - it holds clues about where Canada's going.
Forget the Senate scandal — it’s the economy, stupid: Walkom Star Oct 30
Stephen Harper will almost certainly survive Mike Duffy. But can he survive an economic slump that just won’t go away?
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The Star Oct 30, 2013
Tory convention agenda bodes badly for Canada
Amid the Senate scandal, few will be paying attention to this week's Conservative Party convention. Too bad - it holds clues about where Canada's going.
By: Jonathan Sas
The Conservative Party will kick off its biennial convention Thursday. With the media microscope focused squarely on the Senate scandal and the frayed integrity of the Prime Minister’s Office, Canadians aren’t likely to pay much attention to what transpires on the convention floor.
They ought to. The policy resolutions that pass provide as good an indication as any of how Prime Minister Stephen Harper will go about deflecting the heat and shoring up support for his government among the party’s base.
The Conservative Party will kick off its biennial convention Thursday. With the media microscope focused squarely on the Senate scandal and the frayed integrity of the Prime Minister’s Office, Canadians aren’t likely to pay much attention to what transpires on the convention floor.
They ought to. The policy resolutions that pass provide as good an indication as any of how Prime Minister Stephen Harper will go about deflecting the heat and shoring up support for his government among the party’s base.
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Forget the Senate scandal — it’s the economy, stupid: Walkom Star Oct 30
Stephen Harper will almost certainly survive Mike Duffy. But can he survive an economic slump that just won’t go away?
Read on
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Star Editorial October 30, 2013
Sordid Senate scandal leaves Harper government integrity on the ropes: Editorial
Stephen Harper promised integrity, transparency and accountability. But there’s scant evidence of that in the tawdry Senate expenses scandal.
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Star Editorial October 30, 2013
Sordid Senate scandal leaves Harper government integrity on the ropes: Editorial
Stephen Harper promised integrity, transparency and accountability. But there’s scant evidence of that in the tawdry Senate expenses scandal.
Read it all.
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Tyee October 16, 2013
Imagine a Throne Speech for the 99 Per cent
Stop Harper page on 'stepping into our power' as more than consumers.
By Brigette DePape
During the last throne speech, I held up a Stop Harper sign in Parliament. I'm no longer working in Parliament, but calling all pages -- I've got paint and red paper if you want it!
This year's throne speech tried to position the Conservative government as good for "everyday Canadians". But in reality the Conservative agenda has benefited Canada's richest, not the middle or lower classes.
Read more
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Torstar chair attacks federal Conservatives
John. Honderich says the federal Conservatives have gone to unprecedented lengths to control the news agenda
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Tyee October 16, 2013
Imagine a Throne Speech for the 99 Per cent
Stop Harper page on 'stepping into our power' as more than consumers.
By Brigette DePape
During the last throne speech, I held up a Stop Harper sign in Parliament. I'm no longer working in Parliament, but calling all pages -- I've got paint and red paper if you want it!
This year's throne speech tried to position the Conservative government as good for "everyday Canadians". But in reality the Conservative agenda has benefited Canada's richest, not the middle or lower classes.
Read more
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Torstar chair attacks federal Conservatives
John. Honderich says the federal Conservatives have gone to unprecedented lengths to control the news agenda
By: Ashante Infantry Published on Thu Oct 03 2013
The federal Conservatives have gone to unprecedented lengths to control the news agenda, says Torstar Corporation Chair John Honderich.
“What the Harper government has done to restrain the flow of information and hold press conferences is simply outrageous,” he told a group of Ryerson University MBA students on Wednesday.
The class had invited Honderich to address their second annual lecture series held at Ryerson’s Ted Rogers School of Management.
The federal Conservatives have gone to unprecedented lengths to control the news agenda, says Torstar Corporation Chair John Honderich.
“What the Harper government has done to restrain the flow of information and hold press conferences is simply outrageous,” he told a group of Ryerson University MBA students on Wednesday.
The class had invited Honderich to address their second annual lecture series held at Ryerson’s Ted Rogers School of Management.
Read More here.
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Climate science settled – Earth is warming, climate stability is a thing of the past, and humans are responsible
On Saturday, September 28th, 2013
The Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, all 900 pages – will be officially tabled on Monday. Meanwhile, the key chapters and the Summary for Policy Makers were released on Friday.
In response, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said, “The heat is on. We must act.”
US Secretary of State John Kerry said, “This is yet another wakeup call: Those who deny the science or choose excuses over action are playing with fire …. the response must be all hands on deck. It’s not about one country making a demand of another. It’s the science itself, demanding action from all of us.”
Read more
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Globe and Mail March 17, 2012 (Updated Sept 2013)
The play's the thing by IAN BROWN
Here’s an idea for a drama: A playwright writes a play about a famously controlling prime minister with a reputation for punishing people who cross him, only to have the play refused by producers who fear being punished by the famously controlling prime minister.
Read more.
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The Star September 9, 2013
The new Canadian passport is pure Harperlandia
by Heather Mallick
Canada is increasingly becoming unrecognizable to me. I don’t mean this just in an abstract sense, when I read about shameful things like Ottawa trying to avoid taking in refugees who have been tortured, because they require extra medical care. Foreigners who wake up weeping, with bone chips floating around their spinal cords, I hear you, Stephen Harper, these people are costly.
No, I mean Canada is literally foreign. Alert reader Martin Foster had emailed me about the details of our new passport, and I hadn’t believed him. But he is right.
Read More
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Climate science settled – Earth is warming, climate stability is a thing of the past, and humans are responsible
On Saturday, September 28th, 2013
The Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, all 900 pages – will be officially tabled on Monday. Meanwhile, the key chapters and the Summary for Policy Makers were released on Friday.
In response, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said, “The heat is on. We must act.”
US Secretary of State John Kerry said, “This is yet another wakeup call: Those who deny the science or choose excuses over action are playing with fire …. the response must be all hands on deck. It’s not about one country making a demand of another. It’s the science itself, demanding action from all of us.”
Read more
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Globe and Mail March 17, 2012 (Updated Sept 2013)
The play's the thing by IAN BROWN
Here’s an idea for a drama: A playwright writes a play about a famously controlling prime minister with a reputation for punishing people who cross him, only to have the play refused by producers who fear being punished by the famously controlling prime minister.
Read more.
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The Star September 9, 2013
The new Canadian passport is pure Harperlandia
by Heather Mallick
Canada is increasingly becoming unrecognizable to me. I don’t mean this just in an abstract sense, when I read about shameful things like Ottawa trying to avoid taking in refugees who have been tortured, because they require extra medical care. Foreigners who wake up weeping, with bone chips floating around their spinal cords, I hear you, Stephen Harper, these people are costly.
No, I mean Canada is literally foreign. Alert reader Martin Foster had emailed me about the details of our new passport, and I hadn’t believed him. But he is right.
Read More
