Blogs

rabble blogs are the personal pages of some of Canada's most insightful progressive activists and commentators. All opinions belong to the writer; however, writers are expected to adhere to our guidelines. We welcome new bloggers -- contact us for details.
Blog - Alberta Diary February 9
Alberta Energy Minister Sonya Savage. Image: Screenshot of Government of Alberta video
Alberta abandons plan to drop Lougheed-era coal policy -- for now
David J. Climenhaga | There are important caveats. The Kenney government left the door wide open to reviewing coal policy later and coming up with "a new, modern coal policy" when things settle down.
Blog - Indigenous Nationhood February 9
Hospital room. Image credit: Daan Stevens/Unsplash
Report exposes widespread racism in B.C. health care
Pam Palmater | A new report confirms what most Indigenous peoples already knew -- that racism against Indigenous peoples is prevalent in B.C.'s health-care system.
Blog - The Activist Toolkit Blog February 8
Police at a demonstration. Image credit: Pxhere/Creative Commons license
Grappling with police unions in the fight for justice in policing
Maya Bhullar | As we work against police violence and racism, how do we influence the actions of the police unions? How do we stop them from obstructing efforts to change police practice and create oversight?
Blog - Alberta Diary February 8
Willow Square Continuing Care Centre. Image credit: Government of Alberta/Flickr
UCP prioritizes businesses that run care homes over the workers inside them
David J. Climenhaga | Alberta has tried to spin its modest spending on COVID-19 as being for the good of all. That can be disputed. Anyway, most pandemic funding in Alberta comes from Ottawa.
Blog - Alberta Diary February 4
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney. Image credit: David J. Climenhaga
If conspiracy theories are for losers, what does this say about Kenney's UCP?
David J. Climenhaga | Why is an ostensible political winner, touted as a restoration of a successful political dynasty, acting like a party that knows in its bones it is a loser?
Blog - The Journalism Doctor February 3
Bell building, Montreal. Image credit: Jacques Meynier de Malviala/Flickr
Bell is building its profit at the public trough
John Miller | Bell Media is cutting journalism jobs while using pandemic-related labour subsidies to increase dividend payouts to its shareholders.
Blog - Alberta Diary February 3
The Straits of Mackinac near the path of Enbridge's Line 5 pipeline. Image credit: Peter K. Burian/Wikimedia Commons
After decades of inaction, Canada is forced to face problems with Line 5 pipeline
David J. Climenhaga | Instead of trying to come up with a solution, we spent years insisting the line was safe, insulted or patronized U.S. politicians who were worried about it and belligerently demanded more of the same.
Blog - David Suzuki February 3
Person holding plant. Image credit: Benjamin Combs/Unsplash
Local acts can build global impacts
David Suzuki | Working with others for the betterment of your neighbourhood, town, city, province, country or world contributes to well-being and happiness.
Blog - The Views Expressed February 1
View of rooftops in Haiti. Image: Banco Mundial América Latina y el Caribe/Flickr
Old prejudices surface in media coverage of COVID and Haiti
Yves Engler | There is a broad and deeply entrenched anti-Haitian discourse running through media reports about public health concerns linking COVID-19 and Haiti.
Blog - The Views Expressed February 1
Vigil for the victims of the terrorist attack at the Centre culturel islamique de Québec in Quebec City, January 30, 2017. Image: Adam Scotti/PMO
After January 29: Let us usher in a new era, together
Ehab Lotayef | As well as remembering the Quebec City mosque attack on January 29, 2017, we have to work to eliminate the root causes of what happened on that dark night, four years ago.
Blog - Alberta Diary February 1
Immunization in 1943 -- Canada had more vaccine production and manufacturing capacity then than now. Image credit: John Vachon/Wikimedia Commons
There's no way Conservatives are serious about fixing Canada's vaccine capacity problems
David J. Climenhaga | The minute memories of COVID-19 begin to fade, the Conservative clamour for Canadian vaccine and PPE manufacturing will disappear as quickly as a Canadian summer.
Blog - rabble.ca's staff blog January 30
Don't miss the pulse of the progressive movement
Olivia Chow | Where can you find the voices of the ordinary folks who discovered their power to challenge a workplace or a political system that has left them behind? rabble. And they need your support.
Blog - Alberta Diary January 30
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney at Friday's COVID-19 daily briefing. Image: Video screenshot/Alberta government
Alberta premier caves to business and eases COVID-19 health restrictions
David J. Climenhaga | What business wants in Alberta, business gets. Also, the Alberta inquiry goes into triple overtime.
Blog - Alberta Diary January 29
Alberta Health Minister Tyler Shandro bashes Justin Trudeau at yesterday's daily COVID briefing. Image: Screenshot of Alberta government video
Assailed for their own bungles, Alberta's UCP doubles down on bashing Trudeau
David J. Climenhaga | The Kenney government's strategic brain trust is trying hard to change the channel on a series of blunders and scandals. Bashing Justin Trudeau is the favoured tactic, and it could work.
Blog - The Views Expressed January 29
U.S. Army Soldiers with the National Guard stand outside the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., Jan. 20, 2021.Image credit: The National Guard/Flickr
Protests, not militarism, will defend democracy from right-wing extremism
Jacob Scheier | Government expansion of power is the wrong way to go about protecting democracy from those on the far right who threaten it.
Blog - Alberta Diary January 28
Across the street, at left, the building in Washington's lobbyists' quarter a few blocks north of the White House that houses Energy in Depth and the Independent Petroleum Association of America. Image: Google Street View
Energy in Depth's report to Alberta inquiry delivers unpersuasive spin
David J. Climenhaga | Sure, "Foreign Funding Targeting Canada's Energy Sector" is tendentious and needs to be taken with a grain of salt. But it's a competent work of industrial propaganda, even if it cost too much.
Blog - Alberta Diary January 27
Is this what the "Transnational Progressive Movement" has in mind for us? Image credit: Screenshot of Monte Python's "Anarcho-Syndicalist Commune" skit
Digging into the Alberta inquiry's dystopic worldview and paranoia
David J. Climenhaga | Your tax dollars at work: apparently Transnational Progressives, corporatists, and Marxists decoupled from socialism are planning to replace Western industrial capitalism with cold and misery.
Blog - Cathy Crowe's blog January 27
Wooden tiny shelter built by Khaleel Seivwright. A sign on the house says "Someone lives here, do not remove." Image credit: Jeff Bierk
Tiny homes and tiny shelters are pop-up responses to government failures
Cathy Crowe | A skilled carpenter in Toronto has simply started building shelters for people trying to survive the housing crisis, shelter shortage and COVID-19 pandemic.
Blog - David Suzuki January 27
Keystone XL construction site. Image credit: Government of Alberta/Flickr
Alberta inquiry steps into a past era's dark denial
David Suzuki | This use of tax dollars to discredit climate science is egregious, but it's peanuts compared to the more than $1.5 billion the Alberta government has invested in the Keystone XL pipeline.
Blog - A change is gonna come January 26
Bridge over Avon River, Stratford, Ontario. Image credit: Ken Lund/Flickr
Activists rally as pandemic lockdown suspends plans for Stratford glass plant
Doreen Nicoll | Stratford city council hit pause on Xinyi Canada Glass Limited's proposed $400-million glass plant in Stratford, Ontario. But the respite only lasts as long as the current pandemic lockdown.
Blog - The Views Expressed January 26
Woman holds happy face sign. Image credit: Sydney Sims/Unsplash
Beyond 'wellness': How Bell Let's Talk limits our understanding of mental illness
Andrew McEwan | It's revealing to question the Bell Let's Talk campaign's framing of mental illness, as well as its ties to a capitalist understanding of health.
Blog - A change is gonna come January 25
Image credit: National Film Board
'Martha' tells story of Holocaust survivor's courage and resilience
Doreen Nicoll | When Daniel Schubert read that one-fifth of Canadian youth don't know what the Holocaust is, he documented his grandmother's incredible journey from Auschwitz to Winnipeg.
Blog - Alberta Diary January 25
Stacked pipes awaiting installation in oil pipeline. Image credit: Loozrboy/Flickr
How much of the pipe meant to build Keystone XL is fit only for scrap?
David J. Climenhaga | Don't count on resales of unused pipe from the Keystone XL pipeline offsetting much of Alberta's "investment" in Premier Jason Kenney's $1.5-billion bad bet.
Blog - Alberta Diary January 25
NDP Energy Critic Kathleen Ganley at the Premier's Breakfast in 2016. Image credit: David J. Climenhaga
Alberta NDP to ask UCP cabinet to release risk analysis of Kenney's pipeline deal
David J. Climenhaga | Claiming he had no regrets about what he did, Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said in response to a reporter's question that "any responsible Alberta government would have made that decision."
Blog - Alberta Diary January 22
Joseph R. Biden -- when it comes to Alberta's demands, the new U.S. president can afford to laugh a little. Image credit: The White House
Jason Kenney tells Justin Trudeau to make U.S. pay off his gambling debts
David J. Climenhaga | We're lucky, in truth, that Jason Kenney's gamble didn't cost us more. He was ready, after all, to blow another $6 billion of our money on this doomed project.
Blog - The Views Expressed January 22
Israeli West Bank barrier. Image credit: Montecruz Foto/Flickr
Naming apartheid: Palestine, media coverage and the history of a term
Karen Rodman | Apartheid in Palestine was named 50 years ago by Reverend A. C. Forrest and brought up repeatedly since then. It's not a new message, but one that keeps getting shut down over and over again.
Blog - Alberta Diary January 22
Rachel Notley during the NDP leadership campaign in October 2015. Image credit: Olav Rokne, used with permission
Alberta NDP leads UCP in 2020 fundraising totals
David J. Climenhaga | These fundraising numbers, like recent polling, add to the narrative of a badly led party increasingly rejected by the public that has the potential to bedevil the UCP right up to the next election.
Blog - Alberta Diary January 21
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney at yesterday’s Keystone XL news conference. Image credit: Video still/Government of Alberta
Jason Kenney just lost the largest cash bet in Canadian history
David J. Climenhaga | Joe Biden was sworn in as the 46th president of the United States yesterday and almost the first thing he did was sign an executive order killing the Keystone XL pipeline.
Blog - The Views Expressed January 20
ICAN campaigners protest outside Australia's permanent mission to the UN at Geneva. Image credit: International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons/Flickr
UN treaty banning nuclear weapons moves forward without Canada's support
Yves Engler | Activists will mark a high this week when the UN treaty banning nuclear weapons enters into force. Why has the Trudeau government not signed the treaty?
Blog - Alberta Diary January 20
Conservative Party of Canada Leader Erin O'Toole. Image credit: Erin O'Toole/Facebook
The Conservative Party's malaise with its far-right supporters runs deeper than Derek Sloan
David J. Climenhaga | Most Canadians, one suspects, will conclude that with or without Derek Sloan, Erin O'Toole's still-Trumpified Conservative party is a poisoned chalice, from which they would be wise not to imbibe.

Pages