As election campaigning moves into hyper-drive across Canada, politicians from across the political spectrum are pulling media tricks to win coveted votes from coast-to-coast. Music speaks to the heart across cultures and political campaigners are certainly utilizing song, often cynically, to boost spirits on the campaign trail.

While musicians in Canada continue to make waves globally for innovative sound -- Arcade Fire inspiring Montreal art rock internationally, Samian spotlighting indigenous struggles to the hip-hop world-culture is most certainly key to ongoing efforts to foster a national identity on these colonized native lands.

Omar Barghouti, a human rights activist and co-founder of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, said on a Canadian speaking tour, that he is among the most optimistic in the global BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) movement against Israeli apartheid, but is himself surprised at the rapidity of its growth.

Once upon a time, the Tom Greens of the world could walk into their local cable company office, go down the hall to the studio and make a program. As long as they kept it legal, they could say what they wanted.

Canadians like Guy Maddin, Dan Aykroyd and Mike Meyers and Tom may have given the sector the cultist alternative edge it's famous for. All got their starts on these channels, along with thousands of others currently working in Canada's broadcasting and film industries. The medium was used in its hey-day by thousands of community organizations, ethnic, political and linguistic minorities, city councils, MPs, lawyers, doctors, filmmakers, stockbrokers, bicycle clubs, schools, theatres and sports teams of every description.

Late last year, Minister of International Cooperation Bev Oda cut Canada's 30 years of association with non-profit advocacy group, KAIROS, without explanation. When pressed, Oda said that the program didn't meet CIDA's current priorities. Another less pragmatic reason surfaced later when Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism Jason Kenney explained to the audience at the Global Forum for Combating Anti-Semitism in Jerusalem: "We have articulated and implemented a zero tolerance approach to anti-semitism. What does this mean?

Is the Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Antisemitism (CPCCA) playing a dangerous game? According to its website, the CPCCA's mission is "to confront and combat the global resurgence of anti-semitism," which includes "the new fears [that] have arisen especially for those who support the State of Israel.... on some university campuses, Jewish students are being threatened and intimidated to the point that they are not able to express pro-Israel sentiments freely...." The irony is that by conflating anti-semitic prejudice and cogent political opinion, the CPCCA risks removing defences against anti-semitism.

In 2001, something rather unique came about in the wonderful world of social movements. A few thousand activists mostly from Brazil met in Porto Alegre to discuss openly, without a pre-fixed agenda, on strategies and theories to oppose neoliberal policies, and brainstorm alternatives. Thus the Forum was born ...

If you needed proof of the enduring power of television in Canada, look no further than the tens of thousands of comments submitted to the CRTC over the last month.

Canada's TV titans have been in full battle mode for our hearts and wallets since the government told the CRTC to ask "consumers" what they thought about proposed changes to the TV system. In one corner, the broadcasters are proposing that they get paid a negotiated amount from the cable and satellite companies for the carriage of their TV signals. In the opposite corner, the cable and satellite guys are proposing that the broadcasters go and get stuffed. From dueling full-page newspaper ads to cloying spots on TV and YouTube, with tweets and Facebook groups along the way, it's been hard to miss.

Former prime minister Jean Chretien has been hired on as a "senior international adviser" to Vancouver-based Ivanhoe Mines, its subsidiaries and its sister company Ivanhoe Energy.