QUNFUZ: A crucial moment in Egypt
Today is crucial and could go very badly. The Egyptian gangster regime and its backers have clearly decided to use maximum force to end the popular challenge. At 12.34 this morning, Egypt’s entire internet service was closed down – the largest shutdown in history. Mobile phone services have also been suspended, and al-Jazeera has been taken off […]
Why tax cuts make us weak
I don’t think I have ever re-cycled a column before but the whole question of tax cuts and all the issues it involves never really changes. In November, 2007, I wrote a column for the Tyee and rabble focusing on Conservative finance Minister Jim Flaherty’s five year tax cut plan. This up-coming cut to corporate […]
Mish Ayazeenu: We don't want him
Egypt’s anti-regime protests are unprecedented in size, frequency and ferocity. In Shubra, Dokki, Mohandaseen and Bulaq, Cairenes chanted ash-sha’ab yureed isqaat an-nizam, or The People Want the Fall of the Regime, and braved tear gas and baton-wielding thugs in the central Tahrir Square. Alexandria, Tanta, Suez, and the labour stronghold of Mahalla al-Kubra have also demonstrated. A […]
Environment becomes priority for the City of Grand Forks
The growing pressure to address environmental concerns in the Grand Forks area led city council to increase the mandate of their air quality committee to become the new environment committee tackling air, water and climate change.Chaired by Councillor Chris Moslin, the new committee held its inaugural meeting last week. Twenty-one people came out to the meeting […]
INTERVIEW: Yves Engler on the Myth of Canada's role as global peacekeeper
Speaking in Castlegar and Nelson this coming weekend is a budding new critic of Canadian Foreign policy, Yves Engler, author of The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy, and Canada and Israel: Building Apartheid. Engler is already receiving positive reviews from Naomi Klein, William Blum and Noam Chomsky, who says “We bear responsibility for what […]
ATAMANENKO: A year in review, part two
This past year, my staff and I had the privilege of assisting constituents faced with federal bureaucratic problems – unfair treatment, misinterpretations or just plain despair at not seeing any hope in their particular plight. For the most part, I find the federal public service is exceptionally professional, knowledgeable and helpful, and should not be […]
Take heart, Laila--and other bloggers!
One of the best BC blogs, in my opinion, is done by Laila Yuile: I’m Laila Yuile and This Is How I See It. She has broken real news, taken on the powers that be, and opened up some great discussions on many, many topics of interest and importance to British Columbians. And her […]
Twitter blocked in Egypt as demonstrations continue
By Almira Al Hussaini Egypt has just upped its war on the Internet, and cut access to mobile phone communications, in areas where thousands of protesters are reportedly gathering in today’s Day of Revolution. The aim seems to be an attempt to control the flood of protesters and strangle the movement. Demonstrations have sprung across the […]
City services gone to pot
If you think Castlegar city council has gone down the drain, you may be right – there’s a lot of toilet talk happening at City Hall. For once, however, politics aren’t the inspiration for the bathroom humour. Actual toilets are instead. This, after Monday night’s regular council meeting saw a report recommending the extension of […]
Clinton-era policy kept Tucson gunman out of FBI’s background-check database
By Marian Wang in ProPublica. As we noted in the wake of the deadly shooting in Tucson, the FBI’s background-check database—intended to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and the mentally ill—didn’t prevent Jared Loughner from obtaining a weapon [1] because he hasn’t been declared mentally unfit by a court or been committed […]