transit
![James Laxer](http://rabble.ca/sites/rabble/files/imagecache/thumbnail/category_pictures/picture-62_0.jpg "James Laxer is regularly asked to comment on current national and global issues by the Canadian media and frequently writes columns in major newspapers and periodicals.
In 1969, he was one of the founders of the Waffle Group, Canada’s largest New Left political movement. In 1971, at the age of 29, he ran second for the national leadership of the New Democratic Party. In the mid 1970s, James Laxer was a leading crusader against the power of multi national petroleum companies. His books, speeches and television appearances helped lead to the creation of a nationally owned oil company, Petro Canada, established to counter the power of companies like Exxon in Canada.
In 1981, Laxer was appointed research director of the federal New Democratic Party. At the end of his two year term, he wrote a controversial, book length critique of the party’s economic policies, charging that they were seriously dated. The report was front page news in Canada and was debated for months in the national media.
In 1984, the National Film Board of Canada hired Laxer to be host narrator, for a series of documentaries on the changing global economy and Canada’s place in it. In preparing the series, Laxer travelled extensively in Japan, Europe and the United States. The series, entitled Reckoning, was denied broadcast by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation because it was seen as too controversial.
Instead it was broadcast by a hook up of all the English language educational networks in the country. The series was also broadcast in the United States, as well, by a large number of PBS stations. The Reckoning series has won awards in both the United States and Canada. One of its films won the blue ribbon, first prize, at the prestigious American Film and Video Festival, for best political documentary. The same film won the Atlantic
Film Festival and national Gemini Awards in Canada for best writing in an information series, awards which went to Laxer and the film’s director as co-authors.
In 1986-87, Laxer spent a year in Europe writing Decline of the Superpowers. From 1978 to 1981, he hosted a public affairs television program on TV Ontario. He regularly went to Europe to conduct interviews with leading European political and intellectual figures. In 1993 his book False God: How the Globalization Myth Has Impoverished Canada, was published by Lester Publishing. In Search of a New Left: Canadian Politics
After the Neo-Conservative Assault was published by Viking in 1996. The Undeclared War: Class Conflict in the Age of Cyber Capitalism, was published by Viking in 1998, and by Penguin Canada in 1999, in a paperback edition. Dalton Camp wrote that the Undeclared War "is an informed and cogent book on the great and growing dilemma of our time: how to preserve a free society in the face of increasing disparity and the creation of a new class society---‘a dominant class and a dominated class.’ This is stuff we need to know." Laxer’s book, Stalking the Elephant: My Discovery of America was on national best seller lists for seven weeks in the autumn of 2000. In his review of the book for the Globe and Mail, David Shribman, Pulitzer prize winning columnist for the Boston Globe, commented: "This is a book by a Canadian that can change the United States." Stalking the Elephant is to be published by The New Press in New York in September 2001. In 2003, his book, The Border: Canada, the U.S. and Dispatches from the 49th Parallel, was published by Doubleday Canada. In 2004, Douglas and McIntyre published his book Red Diaper Baby: A Boyhood in the Age of McCarthyism. This memoir of James Laxer’s childhood was the winner of the Canadian Jewish Book Award for best biography/memoir in 2005.
James Laxer is a Professor of Political Science at York University in Toronto")
Transit plans for southwest Montreal hotly debated
A proposed redesign of Lionel-Groulx metro station will create space for an additional 200 buses per day expected by city transit planners to pass through Southwest Montreal from the soon-to-be-revamped Turcot interchange and Ville-Marie expressway.
It's time for a National Transit Strategy
Canadians spend an average of 32 days going to and from work every year. Eighty-five per cent of all employees are unhappy with their commutes - that's a lot of people.
Being stuck in traffic or waiting for overcrowded buses is daily routine for millions of Canadians. It's high time we have federal leadership to cut commute times and seriously invest in public transit.
Congestion and long commutes are not just about the loss in quality of life; our mobility woes also mean billions in economic damages.
And what do the Conservatives do? Essentially nothing. As the new budget shows, they refuse any active role in getting Canadians the rapid, accessible transit that we need.
Which way forward for the transit movement in Toronto?
Mar 3 2012 - 12:00pm
Mar 3 2012 - 2:30pm
Location
Steelworkers Hall
25 Cecil Street Toronto (near College and Spadina)
Toronto, ON Canada
43° 39' 23.1192" N, 79° 23' 45.96" W
See map: Google Maps
Which Way Forward For the Transit Movement in Toronto?
Together we can build a movement to defend, expand and protect Toronto public transit against Rob Ford!
Speakers:
Fair Fare Coalition
Free and Accessible Transit Campaign
Jonah Schein (NDP urban transport critic)
Occupy TTC
Rexdale Youth TTC Challenge
Scarborough Transit Action
TTCriders
Organized by the Campaign for Free and Accessible Transit of the
Greater Toronto Workers' Assembly
contact: torontotransitforum2012@gmail.com
Contact name:
Campaign for Free and Accessible Transit of the Greater Toronto Workers' Assembly
Contact email:
International Day of Persons with Disabilities: Idling: A transit story
Dec 1 2011 - 12:00pm
Dec 1 2011 - 2:30pm
Location
Room G, Student Centre
55 Gould Street Ryerson University
Toronto, ON Canada
43° 39' 28.7604" N, 79° 22' 42.5604" W
See map: Google Maps
A documentary chronicling the lack of accessible transportation in London, Ontario and across the province. Follow Jeff on his mission to bring about the change the disabled population desperately needs by driving his wheelchair over 650km from his home in London, Ontario to the nation's capital in Ottawa.
Followed by a Q & A with Jeff Preston
This event is free
Accessibility Information: ASL Interpretation, Attendant Care, Communication Assistance, Vegan Snacks, Child friendly space
If we require additional accommodations for your participation please contact RyeACCESS at access@rsuonline.ca or 416-979-5000 ext 4504
RyeACCESS, Centre for Independent Living, DHPS, The Access Centre, Springtide Resources
Contact name:
RyeACCESS
Contact email:
Opinion: Carleton University and University of Ottawa students face harsh and unfair criticism in UPass debate
| November 25, 2011![Karl Nerenberg](http://rabble.ca/sites/rabble/files/imagecache/thumbnail/category_pictures/Karl.jpg "Karl Nerenberg joins rabble to cover news for the rest of us from Parliament Hill. Karl has been a journalist for over 25 years including eight years as the producer of the CBC show The House. He has written scripts for documentary films and long-form television reports for such shows as Le Point and Actuel on Radio Canada television and The Journal on CBC-TV. Karl also founded and, for five years, edited the magazine Federations: What's new in federalism worldwide.
Karl has been awarded a Gemini award, a Best International Documentary Series award (from "la communauté des televisions francophones"), a CBC Radio Award for Best New Series (C'est la vie) among others. As a broadcaster, Mr. Nerenberg produced and directed television series and documentaries in a wide range of genres and on a great variety of subjects -- from civil war in Central America, to the crisis in South Africa's Apartheid system.
Karl works in both English and French, and can be reached at karl@rabble.ca")
Hill Dispatches: Cooler outside, hotter inside as the spectre of another premature prorogation hangs over the House
| October 27, 2011Sustainable transport key to saving the planet
Transport of Suburbia: Beyond the Automobile Age
(EarthScan,
2009;
$65.00)
Australian transportation planner Paul Mees has good news for people who want real action on global warming -- good quality transit is within reach even in the suburbs. But they might have to participate in a revolt against something as reasonable sounding as "balanced transportation" first.
Transport of Suburbia: Beyond the Automobile Age includes a strong argument for public participation in transportation decision making. Mees claims that "citizens have a keener understanding of the need for change than transport planners, with environmental awareness particularly strong among younger residents."
Not Rex: Should public transit be free?
Should public transit be free on smog and heat alert days? What an idea. Time to get on the bus and start moving forward again.