Politics in Canada

Just out yesterday.

On Monday, Rob Ford, the mayor of Toronto the largest city in Canada, referred to Sarah Thomson as “not playing with a full deck.” His words. His ugly, hurtful words. What the Hell?

We all know this is a euphemism for having some sort of mental illness. Does he understand what he said and what it means? I doubt it. I doubt he even has given it thought. He’s not the most sensitive man in the country.

“Not playing with a full deck.” Just one of many phrases and idioms that are like pepper spray in the English language.

“The elevator works but doesn’t go up to the top floor.”

“The lights are on but no one’s home.”

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10th ANNUAL INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 4 PEACE!
March 16-18, 2013
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Marking a Decade of the War and Occupation in Iraq
Marking 12 years of the New Era of War & Occupation
Marking a Decade of Film Festival For Peace in Canada

*** Featuring special guest ALANIS OBOMSAWIN, distinguished Indigenous documentary filmmaker ***

Twitter was buzzing last night after comments by former Harper top advisor and campaign manager Tom Flanagan about child pornography. In response to a question, Flanagan said Wednesday: 

On the child pornography issue, since that was brought up... I don't look at these pictures. The closest I ever came to it ... it's a long story but I got put on the mailing list of the National Man Boy Love Association and I started getting their mailings for a couple of years, so that's about the closest I ever came to child pornography, so it is a real issue of personal liberty, to what extent we put people in jail for doing something in which they do not harm another person... 

The Globe and Mail has the story -- but note they've closed the comments section. All the more reason to discuss this here. 

A health care executive who Prime Minister Stephen Harper once appointed to oversee the national spy agency is now a wanted man.

This week I decided to look at whether supporters of various political parties had different news consumption patterns and compare them to undecided voters. To do this I'm going back to the Canadian Election Study 2011 data. Obviously, things may have changed since then, but this is the most current raw data source I have for this question. 

The first question I thought I'd look at is how much time people spent consuming news (Question 81 in the Post Election Survey(PES)) broken down by party self-identification.

Charts and the rest of the post can be found here. 

The Red Chamber is a lovely old room, in a most central location. What should be done with it?

(Note that this topic is in Banter, not Canadian Politics)

J/k not for gross incompetence or neglect of Aboriginal Peoples! 'Cause he wrote this one letter that one time.

Hunger Strike Helps Expose Deficient Conditions and Mistreatment at Central North Correctional Centre
For Immediate Release: Feb 9th, 2013  
Issued by the Support Committee for David Cedeño

Original blog post here

In 2008, Stephen Harper promised "a new relationship between Aboriginal peoples and other Canadians."

In 2009, he stated that Canada had "no history of colonialism."

Former rabble blogger and lapsed babbler, Corvin Russell is joining us to discuss the groundswell of social protest in Canada and abroad @ 2pm EST.

Corvin, a long-time ally of indigenous struggles across Canada, will be talking about the transformative potential of #IdleNoMore and other similar struggles for Aboriginal rights, and their impact on broader social struggles. He can also answer any questions on the People's Social Forum which took place last weekend.

For some background, see Ethan Cox's column on PSF here.