This week, the Charlie Hebdo tragedy is still fresh in our collective consciousness. But lest we continuously ride the #JeSuisCharlie bandwagon, let’s pick our battles a little more scrupulously. Nora Loreto reminds us that the free speech we are fighting for isn’t always universal, and that progressives should thus use their activist gusto wisely.
Disappointments abound this week. In what is possibly the most frustrating new ever, infamous right-wing British tabloid The Sun deceived the public into thinking that they would stop printing topless photos of women on their pseudo-pornographic Page Three in response to an international social media campaign, only to go on and print a spiteful “correction” featuring — what else? — a topless woman. Meghan Murphy on why they suck.
In more unforeseen disappointments, the Liberals pulled a switcheroo this week and voted for Bill C-13, the anti-privacy bill that allows legal immunity for telecom companies to hand over our private information, after making a bunch of noise against it. Eva Prkachin chastises them here.
Elsewhere in Ottawa, the multi-million dollar National Monument to Victims of Communism is scheduled for completion this fall. The monument pays tribute to the estimated 100 million “victims” that were “killed” by communism. If this overblown statement seems fishy, that’s because it is. Scott Vrooman tells us why communism — the political ideology — didn’t kill anyone as it is not a conscious being, and how totalitarian regimes can use any ideology to justify tyranny.
Who do you probably not want to be right now? Dr. Bashar al-Ja’afari, Syrian Ambassador to the UN. Eva Bartlett talks to Dr. Ja’afari about the public relations nightmare on his hands.
Speaking of PR nightmares, remember when UOttawa suspended its entire hockey time after some were accusing of brutally gang raping another student? Well, the boys are back, and they’re pissed. They’ve filed a class-action lawsuit against the school, demanding $6 million in damages. Lucia Lorenzi asks what the real price is for sexual assault, and points to — even still — the lack of discourse still surrounding the victims.
In a small and rare victory for animal rights activists, the Crown has dropped the mischief charges against six animal rights activists who blockaded the entrance to a Toronto slaughterhouse last November. John Bonnar discusses that story.
Finally, the CBC is once again facing controversy. The latest comes from a monumental exposé published by Canadaland, charging that correspondent Amanda Lang attempted to sabotage a story produced by the CBC about abuses committed by the Royal Bank of Canada in the temporary foreign workers program. Lang, who has ties to the RBC, argued that the company was simply outsourcing and had not committed any wrongdoing. Bruce Livesey, who has previously worked at the CBC, traces the troubled network’s metamorphosis into just another textbook corporation. Syed Hussan, meanwhile, argues that the ensuing media coverage pits Canadians against low-income immigrant workers, and that we need to reframe the conversation.
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