As blogs coordinator at rabble.ca, I get to read the best writing we have to offer and I get to read it every day. The blogs section can be by turn now humorous and irreverent, now thoughtful and nuanced. At year’s end I get to include my favourite pieces from the last year that have floated around in my mind for many months, refusing to leave. Chief among those is last year’s Blogs and Books intern Christina Turner‘s wordperfect review of Joseph Boyden’s The Orenda, and its problematic triumph at Canada Reads.
(I also get the opportunity to humbly repost my favourite article that I wrote in 2014. I figure it’s okay if I use the word “humbly” and remind people that Stevie Van Zandt always played Bruce Springsteen records on his radio show.)
Blogs are often where the grist of election cycles are turned into fine flour — as evidenced by Toby Sanger‘s exposé of Tim Hudak’s catastrophic jobs plan that was thankfully never implemented. Likewise, Michael Laxer offers his critique of Olivia Chow’s disappointing mayoral campaign in Toronto.
This section is also uniquely equipped to respond quickly to breaking news — as we read from Nora Loreto‘s gorgeous and compassionate response to the Ottawa Shootings, or the various and evolving analyses of the Jian Ghomeshi sexual assault scandal, starting with Meghan Murphy‘s skepticism at Ghomeshi’s now-discredited “consent” narrative.
They can also offer individualized, meditative contemplations on political and cultural topics. It’s here where a blog offers its most powerful tonic to the bland stenography of power that is mainstream news. Veteran journalist and prolific blogger David Climenhaga does this day in and day out, but included here is his caution and needful remedy to the canonization of the late Conservative Finance Minister Jim Flaherty seen in the corporate news. We also see this expert analysis in Pamela Palmater‘s eviscerating and unrelenting take-down of Harper’s racist, colonialist and just plain bad law, the so-called First Nations Financial Transparency Act.
As one of the most diverse spaces in Canadian media, the rabble.ca blog section is also a space where marginalized voices can speak their truth to power. New to rabble in 2014, Samantha Nock is a young Métis woman who in this selection describes the radical self-love that needs to be at the centre of Indigenous resistance in Turtle Island. Veteran migrant activist Syed Hussan is also included with his powerful mediation on the bureaucratic and spiritual morass that is the permanent residency system in Canada.
Finally, the architecture of the blogs section also allows for the quick organization and release of a special series — and 2014 witnessed two excellent specimens. First, Harperism author Donald Gutstein‘s eye-opening series “Follow the Money” on corporate donorship in Canada. Second, University of Saskatchewan professors Howard Woodhouse and Sandy Ervin‘s examination of corporate power and money in our public universities.
Happy holiday reading from the blogs section of rabble.ca!
The best rabble.ca blog posts of 2014
1. Christine Turner (bound but not gagged) — The Orenda won Canada Reads and I feel weird about it. — March 7
Further reading: Mel Watkins, Francis Pegahmagabow: Marksman of the First World War
2. Michael Stewart, Harper’s Franklin ‘discovery’; Or, did anyone ask the Inuit? — September 9
Further reading: Sinking to the bottom: The wreck of the Stephen Harper, by Christopher Majka, When they that go down to the sea in ships are up to no good!, David Climenhaga
3. Toby Sanger, (Progressive Economics), How Tim Hudak’s job cuts would affect Ontario communities — May 23
Further reading: Sid Ryan, This labour campaign stopped Tim Hudak. Next is Stephen Harper; Michael Laxer, Twilight: Hudak, Horwath, Wynne and Ontario’s reactionary political farce
4. Michael Laxer, Losing Toronto: How Olivia Chow and the left may be giving away an election — August 29
5. Nora Loreto, Watching the dust settle in love and solidarity with one another — October 22
Further reading: Parliament Hill shootings do not ‘change everything,’ Elizabeth May. Ottawa aftermath: Navigating the dustcloud of words, John Baglow.
6. Meghan Murphy, Jian Ghomeshi’s ‘consent’ defence shows why ‘consent’ isn’t good enough — October 27
Further reading: Joanne Wright, Jian Ghomeshi: The good soldier?; John Miller, Jian Ghomeshi’s public relations disaster.
7. David Climenhaga, Don’t airbrush Jim Flaherty’s record because of sympathy for his family — April 14
Further reading: Armine Yalnizyan, Ideology and luck: Jim Flaherty’s legacy as Canada’s Finance Minister
8. Pamela Palmater, Stephen Harper and the myth of the crooked Indian — November 26
Further reading: Nora Loreto, Faux transparency and the First Nations Financial Transparency Act;
9. Samantha Nock, Anchored by love, fuelled by anger: Indigenous women’s resistance — August 20
10. Syed Hussan, I got my permanent residency, and it’s complicated. — February 24
11. Donald Gutstein, Follow the Money, Part 1 — The Weston Family, March 25
12. Sandy Ervin and Howard Woodhouse (Campus Notes), How to make USask ‘The People’s University’ once again, June 11 (Public School, Corporate profits)
Michael Stewart is rabble.ca’s blogs coordinator.