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Chris Hedges: What happened to Canada? It used to be the country we would flee to if life in the United States became unpalatable. No nuclear weapons. No huge military-industrial complex. Universal health care. Funding for the arts. A good record on the environment. But that was the old Canada. I was in Montreal on Friday and Saturday and saw the familiar and disturbing tentacles of the security and surveillance state. Canada has withdrawn from the Kyoto Accords so it can dig up the Alberta tar sands in an orgy of environmental degradation. It carried out the largest mass arrests of demonstrators in Canadian history at 2010’s G-8 and G-20 meetings, rounding up more than 1,000 people. It sends undercover police into indigenous communities and activist groups and is handing out stiff prison terms to dissenters. And Canada’s Prime Minister Stephen Harper is a diminished version of George W. Bush. He champions the rabid right wing in Israel, bows to the whims of global financiers and is a

No go on the threaded comments. First of all, it only indents once. That's a good space-saver, but kind of defeats the purpose of using the threaded format. Second, as Allan points out, threading makes it more difficult to scan through a comment thread to read only the newest comments. And finally, the new comment style added justified text and a narrow line height, which look bad. Hopefully reverting back to the original style of commenting will change that, too. On we go.

Blogger now supports threading commenting, which (mostly) alleviates the need to quote the person you're responding to or use @soandso. It also helps distinguish between comments responding to other comments and those responding to the post itself. I've also upgraded to the new Blogger interface, which is similar to the new Gmail interface. It's taking some getting used to, but there are lots of nice features. So let's try threaded comments! What should we talk about?

I've been holding on to this email from Leadnow.ca, hoping to write a scathing post... but this is too important to wait until I have time. In case you haven't seen it, I'll re-run the email in its entirety. No one who has been following Canadian politics for the last few years could be surprised by the tactics of the Harper Government TM , but we mustn't grow so jaded that we simply let this pass without comment or protest. Please read, click through to send a letter to the Prime Minister, and spread the word. This week, we learned that the Harper Government is using closed-door intimidation tactics against Canadian charities. They’re trying to silence groups that question our government’s plans to push the Enbridge western pipeline and supertankers project through overwhelming local opposition, and recklessly expand the tar sands at all costs. A whistleblower just revealed that the Prime Minister’s Office threatened to revoke the charitable status of Tides Canada if

There are two principal reasons why the U.S. presidential election doesn't matter. Corporate money's death grip on both parties is one. Election fraud is the other. Long-time readers of wmtc may recall a time when I was fairly obsessed with U.S. elections - not with the results, but with the veracity and validity of the elections themselves. A quick scroll through the wmtc category "election fraud" will give you an idea. The 2000 and 2004 presidential elections were both fraudulent. This has been proven beyond any reasonable doubt. There were tremendous "irregularities" (lovely euphemism there) in the 2006 and 2010 midterm elections. In 2008, there was rampant vote suppression and obstruction, voter-list purging, and outright vote theft, but apparently Obama's election watchdogs over-rode enough of it so that the person who got the most votes actually won the election. At least we think so; there's no way to be certain. (For an interesting discussi

Occasionally a bit of slime seeps from the sewer of the Republican primaries into my oxygen, and I feel the need to share the smell. When a public figure says that a pregnancy from rape is a silver lining sent from god, as Rick Santorum did, and that person is a bona fide presidential candidate... well, it's disgusting, and it's dangerous, and it has to be mentioned. I enjoyed reading this exposé of Newt Gingrich's hypocrisy - or at least some of his hypocrisy, as an exhaustive exposé would fill a book. Generally, though, I'm paying as much attention to the 2012 circus as I did to the 2008 circus. That would be none. Chris Hedges explains why this is, and what USians should be doing instead. Turn off your televisions. Ignore the Newt-Mitt-Rick-Barack reality show. It is as relevant to your life as the gossip on “Jersey Shore.” The real debate, the debate raised by the Occupy movement about inequality, corporate malfeasance, the destruction of the ecosystem, and the s

Capitalism, in its current form, no longer fits the world around us. When a high priest of Davos says this, I can't help but wonder. Has the idea reached a tipping point? Harper may have " unveiled his grand plans to reshape Canada " - come on, Globe and Mail, he's been unveiling that for five years - but he hasn't been elected Prime Minister for Life. Klaus Schwab, the Chairman of the Davos World Economic Forum, Capitalism Central, publicly voices doubts about the future of global capitalism. Stephen Harper may have plans, but the future is always unknown. More Schwab: How sustainable is it and at what cost to the environment? How are the gains distributed? What has become of the family and community fabric, as well as of our culture and heritage? The time has come to embrace a much more holistic, inclusive and qualitative approach to economic development. Are 'sustainable' and 'inclusive' merely buzzwords? But why bother? He's not running for

Ah, here's the real New York. This one's much closer to the mark. To be honest, these are not limited to native New Yorkers (except "I grew up in..."), but to anyone who lived in the City during the 1970s or 1980s. I would replace yoga studios with nail salons , but "that used to be..." is a staple of that town. "I remember when this place was a...." earns you a merit badge towards your Real New Yorker ID. And muggings and dead people on the subway, but no masturbators? What's up with that? Many thanks to johngoldfine!

Clarence Darrow was one of my earliest heroes. I first encountered Darrow in the guise of Spencer Tracy, who portrayed the lawyer in the 1960 movie "Inherit the Wind" . Darrow famously defended John Scopes, who tried to teach evolution in a Tennessee public school. His courtroom opponent was William Jennings Bryan , portrayed in the same movie by Frederic March. (In "Inherit the Wind," as was typical in those days, names were fictionalized. Darrow was called Henry Drummond and Bryan was called Matthew Harrison Brady. "Inherit the Wind" was originally a play, written by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee, who also wrote the screenplay. It has been adapted for film several times.) Some years later, as a young teenager exploring ideas of atheism and agnosticism, I came upon this. I don't believe in God because I don't believe in Mother Goose. - Clarence Darrow A simple statement, maybe even simplistic, but it spurred a lot of thought for me. I want

Community meetings, rallies, emergency mobilizations, and a five-hour Council meeting ended with the Peel Regional Council voting not to close 12 publicly-funded daycare centres - yet. The Council voted unanimously to stop the rush to closure and instead set up a task force to explore the options. According to this story in the Star , the current daycare arrangement serves 800 children. Fewer than half of those are subsidized, and 4,000 children on the waiting list to get in. The answer is simple. Don't cut public services: expand them. Roll back the corporate tax cuts, require everyone to pay their fair share. It's not that difficult to figure out. Daycare > prisons. Education > military.

Why you always have to ask, who is sponsoring this exhibit/ad/study/media. And why tax dollars should support the arts, humanities and sciences: because if we don't, they will. (Emphasis added.) The Canada Science and Technology Museum faced pressure from a corporate sponsor to change its portrayal of the oilsands in a new energy exhibit , the museum’s former vice-president confirms. Randall Brooks said both Imperial Oil and the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers felt the exhibit was too critical of the oilsands. Brooks was still vice-president at the time but retired last year. “They certainly were pushing for a positive portrayal of the oilsands,” he said Tuesday. The Imperial Oil Foundation gave $600,000 over six years for the show called “Energy: Power to Choose.” Brooks said industry representatives made up a large part of an advisory committee of about 25 people overseeing the exhibit’s preparation. It reported directly to the museum’s CEO, Denise Amyot. “One of the

If only the Harper Government TM weren't determined to waste our tax dollars on prison-building and useless mandatory sentencing, while telling us we can't afford to maintain decent spending levels for universal health insurance. If only they cared about facts. New poll results show the public is abandoning a stubborn belief that crime is on the rise, bringing public opinion into alignment with a 20-year trend of declining crime rates. The long-standing disconnect between public fears and reality has confounded criminologists and fuelled federal get-tough policies. However, the Environics Focus Canada poll - obtained by The Globe and Mail and scheduled for release Thursday - shakes conventional wisdom even more by finding growing support for the use of crime prevention rather than punishment. "This doesn't mean that people want to lay off criminals," said Keith Neuman, executive director of the Environics Institute. "But what people would like to see is more

Tomorrow, Peel Region Councillors will vote on whether to end publicly financed, union-staffed daycare services in Mississauga and Brampton. A report from an audit by KPMG - released only days ago - recommended closing five daycare centres in Brampton and seven in Mississauga. In less than a week, Councillors are putting this to a vote. What's the rush? Why are the Councillors avoiding input from the people whose lives would be affected by the closures? Closing these 12 daycare centres would eliminate around 800 child care spaces and almost 300 jobs. The goal is supposedly saving the Region money, but as we've seen time and again, these supposed savings rarely, if ever, materialize. Since hearing about this report, parents in the area have been understandably worried, even panicked. The don't know how or where they'll be able to arrange dependable care for their children during working hours. If Region contracts are awarded to private day-care companies, daycare costs a

A few weeks ago, I learned that my new Conservative MP, Wladyslaw Lizon, brought to the attention of Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Jason Kenney the shock and horror of a woman wearing a veil during a citizenship ceremony. Mr. Kenney, equally horrified (and similarly Islamophobic), issued a directive that forces women to choose between their personal comfort and becoming Canadian citizens. ( My response is here ; scroll down.) Now the Member of Parliament for Mississauga-East Cooksville again displays how much he understands and respects the people in his culturally diverse riding. He sent out a survey asking, among other things, about the languages spoken in constituents' households. Choices included English, Polish, Arabic, Mandarin, Italian, Greek - and Indian. Indian? What language would that be? This letter to the Mississauga News pinpoints the problem. I’m keenly interested to know who in Mississauga East-Cooksville MP Wladyslaw Lizon’s office is responsible for

On a recommendation from a friend, I watched Harry Belafonte interviewed by Charlie Rose in New York City. Belafonte - musician, actor, social-justice activist, radical - is a joy to hear, and his life story is a march through history. Here's one terrific thing I learned. Belafonte was still searching for his musical niche, finding the place where his music would match his heart. He went to the Village Vanguard to see Woody Guthrie, and that set him on his true life path. A few weeks later, he saw Leadbelly, and the whole thing was confirmed. Belafonte went to the Library of Congress and to hear and absorb everything he could about folk music and the activist music tradition. I wasn't aware of a connection between Belafonte and Woody (except in the metaphorical sense, the connection every activist musician has to Woody Guthrie). That was very cool. If you're interested in Belafonte (or, for that matter, in US history, African-American history, theatre history, civil rights.

Ten years, and still the concentration camp at Guantánamo Bay remains open. Ten years, and still 150 human beings remain imprisoned without charges, without trial. There have been deaths from torture , and cover-ups . There have been medical experiments . Child prisoners have come of age. Prisoners have been quietly released. And still... 150 human beings, still held, without charges, without trial, without access to the world. Amnesty: On January 11, 2002 , in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the first detainees were transferred to the US naval base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Since then, the detention facility there has made the world’s news headlines for the shocking human rights concerns associated with it - including arbitrary detention, secret detention, torture and other ill-treatment, renditions, and unfair trials. Ten years on more than 150 detainees remain at Guantánamo Bay. The majority are in indefinite detention without charge or trial. Those who have been charged face unf

If you're interested in taking part in some activism against the US military and in support of Bradley Manning - without leaving the comfort of home - go here as soon as possible. The Bradley Manning Support Network is trying to get one of most egregious charges against Manning, "Aiding the Enemy," dropped. It may not work, but it will remind his jailers that the world is watching. This is a few days old but it's still needed. Go here for details and see comments for more phone numbers.

Matthis Chiroux, veteran and war resister, on the "urination video" and similar war porn: To some, mostly the weavers and backers of war policy, it seems again that ‘a few bad apples’ have acted on their own within the military, and will be brought to justice in accordance with domestic military law. To others, such as myself and the majority of veterans I associate with, the barbarity of these images is synonymous with our experiences within a military at war. No crime our brothers and sisters commit really surprises us anymore, but confirms to us our nation’s brutal history, of which for a time we became a part, and offers us a reminder that nothing’s really changed. Read it here: Is US Military Addicted to War Porn?

I love this town!

This seems like a good time to mention: Tala is now on Twitter . She saw Pooh Bear was doing it and she wanted in. Because Tala's mommy needs new ways to waste time.

From HSI Canada: Humane Society International has just secured the biggest reduction in animal testing requirements in history! Our science team has been hard at work for more than two years, negotiating with companies, government authorities and elected officials in Brussels for major changes to European testing requirements for pesticides and biocides -- among the most heavily animal-tested products in existence. And what we've achieved is unprecedented. Until now, dozens of different animal-poisoning tests have been required by law before a pesticide is approved for sale. In some cases, more than 13,000 animals are killed for a single new pesticide ingredient. But together, we’ve made great strides toward convincing European authorities to say goodbye to outdated animal tests and to take up the very latest animal replacement and reduction alternatives. Going forward: • Twelve-month dog-poisoning studies: gone. • Lethal dose skin, inhalation and injection tests on rabbits and oth

I needed to get a job as a library page in order to be "in the system" at the Mississauga Library. Job openings rarely, if ever, go external. Since after I earn my degree, I want to work as a librarian in Mississauga, and I was advised by several people that a page job is the way in. So this was a career move, a necessity. I never imagined I would love the job - but I do! As I've mentioned, I work in the Children's Department of the Central Library, a large, vibrant room with programs, games, computers, reference material, and books galore for kids up to about age 12 and their caregivers. Last night while I was shelving books, I made a mental list of why I'm enjoying the job so much. Here are 10 reasons I love being a children's library page. 1. Kids who love to read and are excited about books. 2. Parents and grandparents who care enough to take their kids to the library, and understand the value of reading. 3. Families who spend the evening at the library in

If Rob Ford and Stephen Harper are both unhappy, this must be a good day! Yesterday the voices of reason on the Toronto City Council united to defeat Rob Ford 's most dangerous budget cuts. There will still be cutbacks, and layoffs, and there is still a fight. But note this: Public sentiment was key to moving some councillors behind Colle’s motion. Thousands of emails clogged their inboxes, almost 13,000 Torontonians filled out surveys on which services they cherish and hundreds of people made deputations to various committee meanings, including two that went all night. And today President Obama has denied the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, effectively killing the pipeline for now . Keystone can reapply for another permit, but it will be an uphill battle. Stephen Harper has already expressed his " profound disappointment ," so we know it's good news! Obama covered his tracks by blaming Republicans for an arbitrary deadline, but the real credit goes to massive

What's going on SOPA Why it's wrong

Rob Ford might be losing weight , but Toronto is losing vital public services and good jobs - if the mayor and his friends on City Council have their way. If you live, work, or go to school in Toronto, come out to defend your city. WHEN: Tuesday, January 17, 5:30 pm WHERE: Toronto City Hall, Nathan Phillips Square WHY: Toronto is a vibrant, liveable city and we want it to stay that way

Girl, whispering so quietly I could barely hear her: Excuse me. Um, do you work here? Um... um... do you know where I can find books about diaries of wimpy kids? Ten minutes later, a boy: Do you have Diary of a Wimpy Kid? Not five minutes after that, another boy: Do you have any Diary of a Wimpy Kid books? Within 15 minutes, five kids asked me about Diary of a Wimpy Kid . They had all just seen the movie, although I'm not sure where. The Mississauga Central Library shows free movies every Thursday night, but that wasn't it. Maybe in school? Anyway, there was a huge run on Wimpy Kid. Several kids were re-directed to Dork Diaries . * * * * Here's something I saw at the library. Shelving books about Machu Picchu, I stumbled on a title about MRTA, also known as Shining Path. Surprised, I looked through it and discovered it was part of a series called "Inside The World's Most Infamous Terrorist Organizations" , put out by Rosen Publishing. I wrote a few titles for

I have a little meta-reflection on writing my recent post about the walled-off internet . These thoughts are not specific to the topic; it could have been anything. As it happens, writing that post brought up some truisms about the writing process - one negative and one positive. Perhaps they are familiar to you. The first is that old bugaboo that haunts many a creative effort: The Perfect Is the Enemy of the Good. In this case a related pitfall was also at work: There's No Such Thing as Definitive. I had wanted to write this post for months. I keep a short list of topics I'm trying to get to, and some ideas will stay on the list for weeks or months, especially if they're not timely or pegged to an event. This idea - called "walled-off internet" on my scraps of paper - stayed on the list for ages. The longer it sat there, the more difficult it became to write. I started to feel as if I had to gather every scrap of evidence, research every corner, become a minor ex

It has come to my attention that certain fundamental religious people believe that the death of Christopher Hitchens, who had advanced cancer, vindicates their beliefs and proves that Hitchens' atheism was wrong. This is quite strange, and quite hilarious, and also quite wrong. Let's review. What happens to atheists with advanced, terminal cancer? They die. What happens to religious people with advanced, terminal cancer? They die. What happens to all people, always? They die. I hope this has cleared things up for you.

Last summer, Allan and I had plans to meet a friend for dinner, and I Googled the restaurant to get the address and details. The place came up in Google right away, but I couldn't get to the website. After trying a few times, I realized the restaurant no longer had a website: it only had a Facebook page. I was at work, and can't access Facebook from my workplace. This was the first time I had seen a company abandon a website in favour of a Facebook page. Since then, I've run into it a handful of times, especially with individual people's public pages. Where various people - writers, designers, techies, small business owners - would have once had a website where people could browse samples of their work and get general contact information, many have now moved to Facebook-only. This is heading in exactly the wrong direction. I understand why companies want to be on Facebook; that's a no-brainer. So many people use Facebook that tapping into it as a marketing tool is n

"So long, good Canadian jobs!" Electro-Motive, a subsidiary of Caterpillar Inc., a huge US company, has locked out 465 workers from its London, Ontario plant. The company has offered a take-it-or-leave-it contract that includes a pay cut of more than 50 percent : from a good middle-class wage of $35 per hour to a substandard $16.50 per hour. The new contract would also devastate benefits and pensions - while the company has reaped billions in profit and a 20 percent increase in production over the past year. And what a surprise, the company has connections to the Harper Government TM . “This is a dispute between a private company and the union and we don't comment on the actions of private companies,” Harper spokesman Carl Vallée responded Wednesday in an email. The Prime Minister showed no such reticence on Mar. 19, 2008 when he visited the Electro-Motive plant to showcase a $5-million federal tax break for buyers of the diesel locomotive-maker's wares and a wider $

Found on G+, thanks to S.

I was driving around Mississauga listening to Bob Dylan's Live 1975, The Rolling Thunder Revue , a great live album, when I realized that the narrator of "Romance In Durango" dies at the end of the song. Or does he? The song seems to fall into a small subcategory of ballads - story-songs, not slow songs by rock bands - sung in the first person, and when the story ends, the narrator dies. It turns out he's been singing the song from beyond the grave. The most famous song like this must be " El Paso ," written and originally recorded by country-western singer Marty Robbins. I heard this song a lot as a child, and like most songs I learned at a young age, some of the lyrics are locked in my head, especially the famous opening lines. Out in the West Texas town of El Paso I fell in love with a Mexican girl Night-time would find me in Rosa's cantina Music would play and Felina would whirl So listening to one of Dylan's stories of the old West and lovers ri

Shorter wmtc: Quebec in winter: the weather is cold, the people are warm, the food is good. I loved all of it, and I especially loved traveling with my sweetie. Driving home, we were on smaller country routes in Vermont and New York State for a good two hours before crossing into Ontario and hitting the 401. That was a nice change. We passed through some Mohawk territory, in the region of New York known as the North Country, near Massena and the Thousand Islands. A cool sign on the side of a building: "DICK'S COUNTRY STORE AND MUSIC OASIS - Groceries - Gas - Guns - Guitars." Next time we pass that place, we'll stop in. One bad sign in front of a roadhouse: "BURGER'S AND FRIES". Not frie's, however. Just winging it, I guess. * * * * Emailing with friend and commenter Amy, I realized that I may sometimes give mistaken impressions about my travels. I've kept a travel journal for every trip I've taken since 1982, when NN and I traveled through Eu

This week, the movie "The Iron Lady" opens, a big-budget biopic starring Meryl Streep as former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. No technical or directorial skills, nor the inevitable genius of Streep's performance, could justify my seeing this movie. Its very existence as a myth-making celebration of a dangerous, war-mongering, ideologue is anathema to me. Margaret Thatcher destroyed the public sector in the United Kingdom, privatising and deregulating transportation, energy, housing, banking, and other major sectors. She gutted the national healthcare system and public education. She broke unions, because working people were not important to her scheme, but the creation of a millionaire class was. Thatcher engineered a huge transfer of wealth from the public to the private sector, creating income inequality unprecedented in UK history to that point. She created unemployment, poverty, and despair. Thatcher destroyed industry and heavy manufacturing while privileging