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Excellent piece from the Toronto Star : Shabby Tory smears December 20, 2009 Is everyone who disagrees with Prime Minister Stephen Harper a Taliban stooge, a raving anti-Semite or a loony-left extremist? You'd think so, to hear the shabby low blows Harper and his cabinet are forever aiming at any and all who dare to criticize federal policy. In Jerusalem this past week, Citizenship Minister Jason Kenney took aim at a Christian aid agency, KAIROS, in a speech that lauded Harper's support for Israel and railed against "anti-Semitic despots, terrorists and fanatics." KAIROS's sin, in Kenney's view, was its "leadership role in the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign" against Israel. That's why the Tories "defunded" the agency, Kenney explained. (KAIROS denies favouring a boycott or disinvestment.) Kenney's attack, sadly, was anything but an exception. All through the Afghan detainee affair, the Conservatives have sought to brand ...

From James Branum, lawyer for war resisters in the US. ceives-one-month-clemency-projected-release-date-set-for-jan-16-2010/">I have good news to report. The commanding general at Fort Stewart granted Cliff Cornell a reduction of 30 days in his sentence in response to our 1105 Clemency request. This is a huge development on two counts: (1) this will now mean that Cliff will NOT have a felony on his record (since his new sentence will be of 11 months, not 1 year), which will make it much easier to gain employment and to eventually return to his beloved community of Gabriola Island, and (2) 1105 requests are rarely granted! On behalf of Cliff and those who care about him, I want to thank all of those who wrote letters on Cliff¹s behalf. I truly believe this is what made the difference. And especially want to thank the 40 or so folks who wrote from Gabriola and surrounding areas of British Columbia. Also huge thanks are due to Courage to Resist , Quaker House , the War Resisters S...

A contingent of peace activists from London, Ontario, will soon be traveling to Gaza as part of the Gaza Freedom March . Two members of the group - wmtc reader-commenter, and my friend and fellow activist, David Heap, and Wendy Goldsmith, another great peace and justice activist - will be blogging about their experiences on Rabble. You can follow David and Wendy's blog here.

Last year, I wrote about not watching the Beijing Olympics. It turns out that was a symptom of a more general condition. I can't watch the Olympics in their present form at all. For many progressive people, it's easy to get behind anti-Olympics sentiment, because sport doesn't budge the needle on their What's Important meters. It's not uncommon for progressives to disdain all sports, even to boast about their ignorance - sport seemingly the only avenue of human endeavour for which it's acceptable, even preferable, to be utterly ignorant. Those who aren't contemptuous will admit their lack of interest with a shrug. Think of Amy Goodman discussing being harassed by border guards, admitting she had no idea that Olympics were being held to Vancouver. I doubt many in the audience were too surprised. But I appreciate sport. There are sports that I love watching, there are sports that bore me, and there are many in the middle that I enjoy to some extent. Beyond t...

Everyone who feels that the problems of the world are so overwhelming that nothing can be done, and so, does nothing - everyone who wonders where to start, so never starts - everyone who confuses clicking on a Facebook group with creating change - this essay is for you. And every activist who gets tired of explaining why activism is important, but still looks for new ways to explain, this is for you, too. Derrick Jensen, in Orion , an excerpt: I want you to make the time to find what or whom you love — whether it's salmon, sturgeon, a patch of forest, survivors of domestic violence, your own indigenous tradition, migratory songbirds, coral reefs, or Appalachian mountaintops — and I want you to dig in and defend your beloved with your life, and, if necessary, with your death. I want for your actions to positively contribute to the health and defense of the planet. I want for you to figure out how to make it so the world — the real, physical world — is a better place because you wer...

The Globe and Mail says that Jim Prentice "lauds the Copenhagen pact" and wants us to do the same. The federal government wasted no time Saturday trying to take some of the sting out of criticism that it failed to play a meaningful role in global climate change talks in Denmark that produced a shaky agreement. Hours after returning home from Denmark Saturday, federal Environment Minister Jim Prentice started the job of selling the agreement to the Canadian public, calling it a significant step toward reducing global greenhouse gas emissions. I got news for you, Jim. The only people buying have already been bought and sold. The rest of us know better. The best wrap-up on Copenhagen I've seen so far is from Johann Hari, writing in The Independent (UK) . So that's it. The world's worst polluters – the people who are drastically altering the climate – gathered here in Copenhagen to announce they were going to carry on cooking, in defiance of all the scientific warn...