Editorials

2013 resembles Life of Pi

Jan 072013

We all live in peril, surrounded by monsters of ignorance and ideology.

by Ish Theilheimer

The Life of Pi — the Canadian bestselling novel turned 3-D movie smash — offers a preview of what 2013 offers. Narrator Pi Patel is a smart and interpid shipwreck survivor who tells an incredible but strangely plausible story of coexisting for months at sea, in a lifeboat also occupied by a Bengal tiger.

A lot of us feel like Pi right about now. We know we're living with wild forces ready to eat us alive. We're going to have to be as clever as Pi says he was to survive.

US law shields gun makers from liability

Dec 182012

Editorials

Faces of the children who died in Newton, CN, at Sandy Hook School

Repeal would let victims sue gun makers out of business.

by Penney Kome

On December 14, a man armed with several guns smashed a window and entered an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut — where he promptly started shooting. By the time he finished, six adults were dead and 20 young children were dead or dying.

On the very same day, another man entered an elementary school in China, armed with a knife, and attacked young children there. By the time he was restrained, 23 children had been wounded – two severely – but none died.

Marooned in a blizzard of lies over F-35 fiasco

Dec 172012

Editorials

Harperites have a chance to do something right, despite themselves.

by Ish Theilheimer

The long night of the Harper majority has many depths and few heights. Among the monsters of the deep, in the closing week of Parliament before its six-week break, the Conservatives rammed through anti-union legislation (C-377). The week before, they passed an omnibus budget implementation bill that threw in far-reaching changes to the environmental protetion of navigable waters.

Paper dolls demonstrate to end child poverty

Dec 132012

Editorials

Alberta's Child Well Being Initiative uses dolls to show how many kids go hungry.

by Penney Kome

At first glance, the photo looks like a quilt competition, with chains of women standing on the legislature steps, holding large brightly coloured sheets ruffling in the breeze. Ruffling? Yes, the quilts’ stripes are rows of paper dolls, and in Edmonton’s frigid blasts, anything not glued flat tends to ripple loose.

Each doll represents a child, a child whose hands and feet are often cold in the winter, whose middle often feels hollow, whose head often aches from hunger, who knows not where the next meal or the next bed will come from. “The night before we delivered the paper dolls,” said Carolyn Pogue, “there were 21 guests in our church’s Inn from the Cold basement dormitory. Fourteen of them were children.”

NL and SK set to index minimum wage

Dec 102012

Editorials

Give BC a Raise -- Raised fist on streamer background

Union activists find ways to refute right wing scare stories.

by Ish Theilheimer

Union activists in Saskatchewan and Newfoundland have won something that will benefit all workers — recommendations from legislative committees to index provincial minimum wages, so they increase, every year, with living costs. Now, they are preparing for a tsunami of opposition from right-wing pressure groups.

Fukushima after the meltdowns

Dec 102012

Editorials

Nuclear reactor accidents leave residents stranded in radioactive zone.

by Penney Kome

Getting news from Japan has been difficult since the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear reactor meltdowns. The early December Ending the Nuclear Age conference in Chicago was fortunate to hear from three people very familiar with Japan: Akiko Yoshida from Friends of the Earth Japan; Dr Norma Field of Chicago, whose mother was Japanese and who visits Japan regularly; and Setsuko Thurlow, a survivor of Hiroshima.

Akiko Yoshida brought photos, videos, charts and hard-to-find news about how the residents of Fukushima are faring. Her presentations refuted the widespread notion that the people of Japan are too submissive and obedient to attend protest demonstrations.

Ontario teachers poised to strike

Dec 032012

Editorials

Leaderless Liberals stuck with results of contract-breaking Bill 115.

by Ish Theilheimer

Public school teachers and education workers in Ontario are headed for an explosive showdown with the provincial government, talking strike for the first time since the Mike Harris 1990s. The Liberal government, or at least what's left of it, is talking tough — despite having built its image on suppport for public education and teachers. Are you confused yet? You're not alone.

Defending robocalls: mendacity marches on

Nov 262012

Editorials

Why are there no protests outside Elections Canada?

by Ish Theilheimer

Never mind riots, Canadians have yet to witness so much as a polite protest against election fraud at the downtown Ottawa offices of Elections Canada and anyone who cares about democracy in Canada must wonder why not.

Getting a handle on the latest Israel-Gaza conflict

Nov 192012

Editorials

Context shows negotiation, not bombardment, only way to peace.

by Ish Theilheimer

Many Canadian progressives (like me) are confused about the Middle East — like the current exchange of missiles between Israel and Hamas, in Gaza. News accounts vary wildly, according to the tilt of the news organization. Major media in Canada tend to be pro-Israel, while the biases of other international sources are difficult to discern. And, frankly, language complicates keeping track of all the strange names, place names and complex histories involved in every story.

Move over, Clash of Civilizations

Nov 172012

Editorials

The Intercultural Dialogue Institute just wants to talk.

by Penney Kome

Ten Alberta politicians spoke at the mid-afternoon launch of the Calgary Intercultural Dialogue Institute’s new office and meeting space. An hour later, two MLAs were still holding court in the rug and tapestry-lined sitting room just off the main office: veteran Conservative MLA Wayne Cao, and a relative newcomer, Manmeet Bhullar, Minister for Service Alberta.

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