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 May 15
Health Minister Tyler Shandro, Alberta Health Services president Verna Yiu and Ernst & Young spokesperson John Bethel at the release of the AHS review report on February 3. Image: Government of Alberta
COVID-19 proves Ernst & Young was out to lunch when it recommended privatizing two public long-term care providers
David J. Climenhaga | If ever there was a time to recognize that privatization of health-care services, in particular public-sector long-term care, is a bad idea, the current pandemic is that moment.
Blog - Alberta Diary May 15
Image: Dricker94/Flickr
Why won't Ottawa do anything to rein in equine identity theft?
David J. Climenhaga | Twitter users were quick to point out to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation's Aaron Wudrick that any horse hoping to defraud Ottawa of CERB funds would need a valid social insurance number.
Blog - rabble.ca's staff blog May 14
rabble.ca's new labour beat reporter, Chelsea Nash. Image: rabble.ca
Meet rabble.ca's labour reporter: Chelsea Nash
rabble staff | We're thrilled to announce that Chelsea Nash will be joining the rabble.ca team as our labour beat reporter for 2020.
Blog - Taking Sides May 14
Image: engin akyurt/Unsplash
Pandemic of mistrust
Philip Lee | A recent Angus Reid poll showed that 48 per cent of Canadians do not trust the news media to provide accurate information about COVID-19.
Blog - Alberta Diary May 14
Jason Kenney with Jack Mintz in 2015. Image: Jason Kenney/Twitter
Right-wing neoliberals are softening up Albertans for austerity on steroids
David J. Climenhaga | University of Calgary Professor Jack Mintz, appointed in March to lead Jason Kenney's "emergency economic panel," has joined other right-wing commentators in calling for public-sector rollbacks.
Blog - Brent Patterson May 14
Land defender Freda Huson. Image: Unist'ot'en Camp/Video Screenshot/YouTube
Canada's bid for UN Security Council seat connected to Indigenous land defence struggle
Brent Patterson | Does the Trudeau government want a seat on the Security Council enough to follow a resolution from the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination?
Blog - Alberta Diary May 13
Cypress-Medicine Hat United Conservative Party MLA Drew Barnes. Image: David J. Climenhaga
United Conservative MLA promotes call for 20 per cent pay cut for public employees
David J. Climenhaga | The timing of Cypress-Medicine Hat MLA Drew Barnes's tweet was especially bad, since public-sector workers are currently on the front lines battling the COVID-19 pandemic.
Blog - The Journalism Doctor May 13
Image: Howard Lake/Flickr
Ottawa dithers while local newspapers die
John Miller | The federal government promised $595 million to support Canadian newspapers 18 months ago, but so far that program has not paid out any funds to struggling publishers.
Blog - The Views Expressed May 13
Image: marke1996/Flickr
Conservatives are weaponizing the COVID-19 pandemic to promote nationalism
Nicholas Erwin-Longstaff | As things stand, we face a future where we are asked to choose between a nationalist right and a liberal centre. The left must present a compelling and plausible alternative to these paths.
Blog - David Suzuki May 12
An Asian giant hornet, photographed by the Washington State Department of Agriculture on February 7, 2020. Image: Washington State Department of Agriculture/Flickr
Do 'murder hornets' pose a serious buzzkill?
David Suzuki | While the fear factor in the hornet story has drawn our attention to hornets and honeybees, most people don't know a honeybee, hornet or wasp from the more than 800 species of wild bees in Canada.
Blog - Alberta Diary May 12
An oil sands plant in Fort McMurray, Alberta, in 2012. Image: kris krüg​/Flickr
The oilsands' other dirty little secret: Canadians hardly own them
David J. Climenhaga | A new report finds that the 'big five' oil sands producers shipped $8 billion to their mostly foreign shareholders in the first three quarters of 2019.
Blog - The Views Expressed May 11
A streetcar passes through a suburb of Stockholm, Sweden. Image: La Citta Vita/Flickr
As pandemic restrictions ease, Canada should replace its capitalist system with a Scandinavian-style alternative
Ed Finn | We cannot afford to return to a business-as-usual economic model that kills many, impoverishes millions and fuels global warming.
Blog - Alberta Diary May 11
A doctor participating in a protest calling for a faster response to the spread of COVID-19 in the homeless shelter system. Image: michael_swan/Flickr
Coronavirus has U.S. physicians eyeing politics -- will COVID-19 and the UCP's war on doctors spur the same thing here?
David J. Climenhaga | Jason Kenney's UCP has chosen the pandemic as an opportunity for an assault on physician pay and an ugly attack on the Alberta Medical Association.
Blog - Brent Patterson May 8
Anti-war protesters during one of the first Mother's Days in history. Image: bravenewfoundation/Video Screenshot/YouTube
Reclaiming Mother's Day as a day to oppose war and injustice
Brent Patterson | This Mother's Day let us recall the radical origins of the day and the women who proclaimed it to be a day to challenge war and militarism.
Blog - Alberta Diary May 8
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney at a COVID-19 briefing, May 7, 2020. Image: Screenshot of Government of Alberta video/YouTube
Jason Kenney calls Elizabeth May, Yves-François Blanchet 'un-Canadian,' accuses them of 'blaming the victim'
David J. Climenhaga | The Bloc Québécois leader said oil "is never coming back" while the former Green party leader stated "oil is dead." The Alberta premier called those remarks 'divisive.'
Blog - The Views Expressed May 7
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gives a public address on the COVID-19 crisis on March 16, 2020. Image: CanadianPM/Video Screenshot/Twitter
Justin Trudeau should lift Canada's economic sanctions now
Ken Stone | Trudeau cannot ignore the damage he is doing to the efforts to fight the novel coronavirus in 20 of the world's poorest countries by maintaining sanctions.
Blog - Alberta Diary May 7
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney at a press briefing on May 7, 2020. Image: Chris Schwarz/Government of Alberta/Flickr
Jason Kenney is Canada's least popular premier -- some caveats may apply
David J. Climenhaga | Kenney has an approval rating of 44 per cent, and a disapproval rating of 48 per cent, the only premier in a recent poll with a higher disapproval rating than approval rating.
Blog - The Views Expressed May 7
Image: klimkin/Pixabay
COVID-19 highlights the need to switch to a community-living care model
Fiona Whittington-Walsh | Everyone has the right to live in a community setting receiving whatever levels of support they might need. After 150 years, it is time to end the institutional model.
Blog - Viewpoint: Reproductive Justice May 7
Image: Bokskapet/Pixabay
The rights of pregnant people have been threatened during COVID-19
Tina S. Beier | Some hospitals have denied support persons during labour for any patient suspected of having COVID-19, and home births have been suspended in Nova Scotia.
Blog - The Views Expressed May 6
Image: cat's_101/Flickr
Ramadan, Passover and Easter: time for hope in the age of uncertainty
Abdul Nakua | Faith communities should focus on promoting inclusion, sharing wisdom, and building robust coalitions and cross-sectorial collaborations that address the inadequacies of the economy.
Blog - Alberta Diary May 6
The scene in the lunchroom of the JBS slaughterhouse in Brooks, Alberta. Image: Screenshot of JBS Canada video/YouTube
Maybe it's time for Ottawa to use its power to close those meat-packing plants until their owners fix their COVID-19 mess
David J. Climenhaga | Ottawa has the power if it chooses to use it. It has regulatory jurisdiction over any meat-packing plant that sells meat outside its province of origin.
Blog - The Views Expressed May 5
Image: Stock Catalog/Flickr
Jason Kenney and the pharmaceutical pipeline
Adam R. Houston | The Access to Drugs in Exceptional Circumstances pathway allows a jurisdiction to temporarily import a drug or vaccine not approved by Health Canada, but approved in the U.S., the E.U. or Switzerland.
Blog - David Suzuki May 5
Wolves - Discovery Center in West Yellowstone in 2009. Image: Shawn Kinkade/Flickr
Giving nature a chance improves our chances of well-being
David Suzuki | Whether it's conservation or rewilding, we know that when we give nature a chance, it bounces back. Because we're part of nature and rely on everything it provides, that's to our benefit.
Blog - Alberta Diary May 5
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney provides an update from Edmonton on Thursday, April 30, 2020, on COVID-19. Image: Alberta Newsroom/Flickr
Is the huge gap in COVID-19 cases between Edmonton and Calgary bad luck or bad management?
David J. Climenhaga | When health-care professionals have been able to call the shots, Albertans seem to have mostly fared OK. But where Conservative politicians have been involved, the results are disastrous.
Blog - The Views Expressed May 4
John Roberts of Fox News at a budget town hall for Congressman David Schweikert at the Goelet A.C. Beuf Community Center in Phoenix, Arizona in 2013. Image: Gage Skidmore/Flickr
The Canadian Broadcast Hall of Fame should revoke the honour it bestowed upon Fox News personality John Roberts
Matthew Hays | Fox News has been accused of toxifying public discourse for many years, and now faces a lawsuit for spreading misinformation about COVID-19. Roberts lends a false veneer of credibility to the network.
Blog - Brent Patterson May 4
Armed RCMP officer trespasses on unceded Wet'suwet'en territory in October 2019. Image: Unist'ot'en Camp/Video Screenshot/Twitter
Ban on assault weapons welcome, but more needs to be done
Brent Patterson | While the Trudeau government's ban on military-grade weapons in Canada is needed, it should extend to this country's increasing arms export industry as well.
Blog - KAIROS Witness May 4
Workers at the Coastal GasLink project site on unceded Wet'suwet'en land on April 1, 2020. Image: Unist'ot'en Camp/Video Screenshot/Twitter
Large-scale resource extraction exacerbates the threat of COVID-19 across the American hemisphere
Chrystal Désilets, Gabriela Jiménez, Beth Lorimer | The grave threat posed by COVID-19 across the American hemisphere, especially to Indigenous peoples, is exacerbated by extractivism.
Blog - Alberta Diary May 4
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at Friday's announcement of the ban of 1,500 makes of military-style rifles (Image: CanadianPM/Twitter).
Alberta's statement on Ottawa's gun ban illustrates how little the rule of law really matters to Conservatives
David J. Climenhaga | Since neither low oil prices nor COVID-19 are going away any time soon, at least Ottawa's ban on assault-style firearms gives Alberta Premier Jason Kenney something to talk about.
Blog - Raluca Bejan May 4
Migrant farmworkers in southern Quebec in 2014. Image: BEVNorton/Flickr
New Brunswick debate on migrant workers leaves a lot to be desired
Raluca Bejan | Either migrant workers should have access to permanent residency so they can benefit from the same rights as the resident population, or the TFW program should be scrapped altogether.
Blog - rabble.ca's staff blog May 1
Thanks for participating in rabble's 2020 vegan challenge!
rabble staff | Thank you to everyone who participated in the challenge from the comfort of your own kitchens.

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