Canada's Liberal government was right to invoke the Emergencies Act to end the winter 2022 occupation in downtown Ottawa.
Emergencies Act, right thing to do
Amnesty International, persisting for human rights
On December 12 Alex Neve, secretary general of Amnesty International Canada, spoke to a room filled with supporters in Ottawa about global human rights. The picture is sombre and disturbing but Neve said those who hold human rights dear will persist in their efforts for as long as it takes. I was in the audience... Continue Reading →
Federal Court rules on Edgar Schmidt’s whistleblower case
The Federal Court of Canada will provide a ruling on Wednesday March 2 regarding the case of Edgar Schmidt, a former Justice Department lawyer who took his employer to court for failing to do it duty. I have posted several pieces on Schmidt’s case and am providing this edited version as a backgrounder to the... Continue Reading →
Harper’s hit list, Voices-Voix says Conservatives dismantling democracy
In March 2011 I posted an article to my Pulpit and Politics blog called Harper’s Hit List. The piece contained a list of organizations whose staff had either been fired, forced out, publicly maligned, or who had resigned in protest. I did not do the original research but rather published what others had already assembled.... Continue Reading →
Security versus civil rights Debating anti-terrorism Bill C-51
There's an intense debate happening in Parliament and now in the streets over Bill C-51, which the Harper government says is needed to prevent terrorism on Canadian soil. The legislation provides sweeping new powers to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), which collects information covertly on security threats and forwards that information to the RCMP.... Continue Reading →
Physician assisted death
The Supreme Court of Canada has struck down a law that makes it a crime for physicians to assist in the death of individuals who are grievously ill. The court’s unanimous decision pleases many Canadians, alarms others and leaves religious leaders and politicians in a most delicate position. An Angus Reid poll in November 2014... Continue Reading →
Global cry of the people
Recently, I attended a Saint Paul University symposium dealing with environmental and human rights abuses committed by Canadian mining companies — with the knowledge and complicity of the federal government. The Ottawa symposium was called the Global Cry of the People: Mining Extraction and Justice, and the presenters included a range of church-based and other... Continue Reading →
2014 Peoples’ Social Forum comes to Ottawa
A Peoples’ Social Forum (PSF) which has been several years in the planning will occur at the University of Ottawa on August 21-24 and organizers are expecting thousands of people to attend. There will be more than 500 workshops and presentations, as well as assemblies and cultural activities. In a statement of purpose, which introduces... Continue Reading →
Edward Snowden’s future
Some people believe that Edward Snowden is a traitor and would haul him into a U.S. court if they could get their hands on him. However, countless others believe that Snowden, a young technician who exited the National Security Agency (NSA) with a mountain of data, is a hero in the tradition of Daniel Ellsberg,... Continue Reading →
Big Brother and spying on Tommy Douglas
In 2011, the Canadian Press reported that the RCMP security service spied on CCF-NDP icon Tommy Douglas from the 1930s until shortly before he died in 1986. But the file on Douglas represented just a tip of the proverbial iceberg, as the McDonald Commission into RCMP misbehaviour revealed that in the 1970s, the security service maintained files... Continue Reading →
Pulpit and Politics 