J. Paul Morrison

If Washington Can't Fix It, Can We Do It Ourselves? (on AlterNet)

2012-03-08T15:07:00.001-05:00

Sara Robinson of AlterNet interviews Alan Durning, the guiding force behind Seattle’s influential Sightline Institute:

If Washington Can't Fix It, Can We Do It Ourselves?.

Go: The game to beat all games (in The Economist)

2012-03-08T13:30:00.001-05:00

Full article: Go: The game to beat all games | The Economist.

Fascinating article on the history, past and present, of the centuries-old game of Go - at least 2,500 years old!

In 2014, corn biofuel is out, wood biofuel is in (Grist)

2012-03-08T12:14:00.001-05:00

"If cellulosic ethanol can succeed commercially, though, ethanol could come from the corn stalks of the corn that American farmers are already growing to turn into high fructose corn syrup, for instance. It’s not perfect, but if the country’s going to pursue ethanol, this is the best way to do it."

Full article: In 2014, corn biofuel is out, wood biofuel is in.

Thomas Walkom: Toronto’s last-ditch attempt to soften Canada-EU free trade deal (in The Toronto Star)

2012-03-08T11:46:00.001-05:00

"At issue is the proposed Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, a pet project of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

"Like most modern trade agreements, this proposal is less about freeing trade and more about limiting the ability of governments to regulate global business.

"But unlike Canada’s original free trade pacts with the United States, the Canada-European deal requires immediate buy-in from the provinces. ...

"Usually, provinces get a pass when free trade is under discussion. This time, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty deserves to have his feet put to the fire."

Full article: Canada News: Walkom: Toronto’s last-ditch attempt to soften Canada-EU free trade deal.

Why Obama Is Wrong About Natural Gas (Jeff Goodell in Rolling Stone)

2012-03-07T14:38:00.000-05:00

"... rather than being a "bridge fuel" to the future, as many natural gas boosters like to call it, natural gas may turn out to be, as climate blogger Joe Romm puts it, a 'bridge fuel to nowhere.' Obama, of course, is never going to say that. But a little less wide-eyed boosterism would be welcome."

Full article: Why Obama Is Wrong About Natural Gas.

A prehistoric worm, with a primitive backbone, is Canada’s contribution to the human family tree (in The Toronto Star)

2012-03-06T21:00:00.000-05:00

A prehistoric worm, with a primitive backbone, is Canada’s contribution to the human family tree.

One of the marvelous Burgess Shale fossils looks like it has moved into the main stream after all!

Martin Regg Cohn: Why Ontario won’t apologize to Alberta over the tarsands — sorry, oilsands (in The Toronto Star)

2012-03-05T10:37:00.000-05:00

"... it hurts when Alberta’s exports drive up our double-edged petrodollar and price our exports out of the market. ... My polite (if impolitic) answer, at the end of a scrum, merely pointed out that our manufacturing heartland has paid a heavy price in lost jobs. Heard of Caterpillar? ...

"When your bitumen belches carbon into the atmosphere, remember that Ontario is rapidly closing all its coal-burning power plants to reduce our pan-Canadian footprint for greenhouse gases. I don’t hear you thanking us for that. ...

"When you feel our pain, we’ll celebrate your gain."

Full article: Canada News: Cohn: Why Ontario won’t apologize to Alberta over the tarsands — sorry, oilsands.

Great letter (even if imaginary) from the Premier of Ontario to the Premier of Alberta.

Death of backyard rinks linked to climate change (in The Toronto Star)

2012-03-05T10:30:00.000-05:00

Death of backyard rinks linked to climate change.

Finally, a global warming issue that may actually mean something to Prime Minister Harper.

Heather Mallick: Reading online chops your attention span to pieces (in The Toronto Star)

2012-02-29T21:58:00.000-05:00

Heather Mallick writes about... what was she saying again?

Reading online chops your attention span to pieces.

Native girl punished for speaking her language (in The Toronto Star)

2012-02-29T09:40:00.000-05:00

Full article: World News: Native girl punished for speaking her language.

In a day and age when there is worldwide concern about the loss of languages and indigenous cultures, this is incredible! Maybe this will be a wake-up call!

Thomas Walkom: Compared to robo-scandal Vikileaks is a prank (in TheToronto Star)

2012-02-29T09:37:00.000-05:00

"... whatever one thinks of Vikileaks, it was a schoolboy prank compared to the robo-call scandal. That one goes to the heart of how we choose the people who represent us. It’s deadly serious."

Full article: Canada News: Walkom: Compared to robo-scandal Vikileaks is a prank.

Rick Salutin: From the cradles of western civilization tour (in The Toronto Star)

2012-02-24T12:27:00.000-05:00

"When I was in university, Athens and Jerusalem were served to us as the separate wellsprings of western civilization. Their status was a given, like western civ itself. I’m finding though, that it may be a bit late; the old categories don’t seem as firm. ...

"What made us picture Plato and Aristotle as Oxford dons or German philosophers? You can see Turkey from parts of Greece; it receives more African and Asian immigrants, legal and illegal, than any other EU nation and they seem at home. ...

"The last piece of my little intellectual undergrad castle to teeter might be the idea of western civ itself. I don’t mean in Gandhi’s puckish sense, who said that it — western civilization — would be a good idea. It used to seem so solid. ... it’s also a result of globalization in its economic and Internet senses. It’s easier now to see how everything human tends to interpenetrate and bleed into everything else — and harder to imagine that it ever didn’t."

Full article: From the cradles of western civilization tour.

Tyler Hamilton: Geothermal heating-cooling: Canadians are hot and cold about it (in the Toronto Star)

2012-02-22T19:24:00.000-05:00

"...the most efficient geo-exchange systems are as much as 50 per cent more efficient than the best natural gas furnaces and more than 75 per cent more efficient than oil furnaces."

Full article: Geothermal heating-cooling: Canadians are hot and cold about it.

Heather Mallick writes about Munch’s The Scream (in the Toronto Star)

2012-02-22T10:41:00.000-05:00

Elegant piece of writing by The Star's Heather Mallick.

Full article: Edvard Munch’s The Scream is an $80 million snapshot of modern screaming times.

Coal, not oilsands, the real threat to climate, study finds (in the Toronto Star)

2012-02-21T09:42:00.001-05:00

"...the paper concludes that burning all the globe’s vast coal deposits would create a 15C-degree increase in temperature. Burning all the abundant natural gas would warm the planet by more than three degrees. ...

"“This idea that we’re going to somehow run out of coal and natural gas and fossil fuels is really misplaced. We’ll run out of human ability to live on the planet long before we run out of them.

"“I have always said that the tarsands are a symptom of a very big problem. The problem is dependence on fossil fuels.”"

Full article: Canada News: Coal, not oilsands, the real threat to climate, study finds.

EcoWatch: How Do Corporations Corrupt Science?

2012-02-18T21:55:00.000-05:00

Cited by LinkedIn Green group, Feb. 17, 2012.

Full article: How Do Corporations Corrupt Science?.

EcoWatch: uniting the voice of the grassroots environment movement

Sara Robinson: New Rules for Radicals: 10 Ways To Spark Change in a Post-Occupy World

2012-02-11T13:45:00.000-05:00

"Every moment we spend focusing on How Evil They Are is a moment we are not focusing on creating the next America [and Canada] where we (and they) will all be spending the future."

Full article: New Rules for Radicals: 10 Ways To Spark Change in a Post-Occupy World | | AlterNet.

Thomas Walkom: Why Canada’s new torture-friendly policy won’t work (in the Toronto Star)

2012-02-11T13:20:00.000-05:00

"Ottawa says it is sanctioning torture only in exceptional circumstances. But to security agencies, circumstances are always exceptional."Canada News: Walkom: Why Canada’s new torture-friendly policy won’t work.

The Disaffected Lib: Okay, I Get It. Harper Needs China to Buy Bitumen So Canada Can Buy F-35s to Defend Canada Against China.

2012-02-11T13:11:00.000-05:00

I just had to repost this - thanks, Mound of Sound!

The Disaffected Lib: Okay, I Get It. Harper Needs China to Buy Bitumen So Canada Can Buy F-35s to Defend Canada Against China.

Bill Gates backs climate scientists lobbying for large-scale geoengineering (in The Guardian)

2012-02-06T11:18:00.000-05:00

Full article: Bill Gates backs climate scientists lobbying for large-scale geoengineering.

David Olive: Caterpillar likes to play hardball -- so let’s play hardball (in the Toronto Star)

2012-02-06T11:11:00.000-05:00

"At every turn in this humbling saga for Canada, Caterpillar has acted in bad faith.
...
"We pay a stiff price as the world’s biggest branch-plant economy, having to ask how our economic ambitions will play in Peoria. And Stuttgart.

And London. The one in England."

Full article: Caterpillar likes to play hardball -- so let’s play hardball.

Alzheimer’s discovery could curb spread of disease, researchers say (in the Toronto Star)

2012-02-05T09:51:00.000-05:00

"Two independent studies by teams of Columbia and Harvard researchers looked at the brains of mice and found that the degenerative brain disease begins in one small part of the brain and spreads through an abnormal protein known as tau, which is seen in Alzheimer’s-affected brains."

Full article: Alzheimer’s discovery could curb spread of disease, researchers say.

Antonia Zerbisias: Capital punishment: is the free market on its last legs? (in the Toronto Star)

2012-02-05T09:49:00.000-05:00

"When even presidential candidate Newt Gingrich suggests capitalism needs a makeover, it does seem the free-market system is in trouble."

Full article: Canada News: Capital punishment: is the free market on its last legs?.

Aerorider | Ultralight vehicle | Electric hybrid tricycle

2012-02-04T16:39:00.000-05:00

Aerorider | Ultralight vehicle | Electric hybrid tricycle.

Thanks to Antonio Bettencourt on the LinkedIn Green group for pointing this out!

Rick: Salutin: Lessons from the Shafia case (in the Toronto Star)

2012-02-04T09:54:00.001-05:00

"The premise of a multicultural society isn’t that we are “foreign” to each other but that we’re mutually accessible based on our common humanity. There are certainly differences and disputes, but these are rife within as well as between groups. It isn’t a matter of imposing “our” values on “them” based on “our” cultural or moral superiority."

Beware the simple explanations after Shafia murder verdicts.

Catherine Porter: Frances Moore Lappé’s environmental insights intoxicate the mind (in the Toronto Star)

2012-02-02T13:01:00.000-05:00

"Climate change is an opportunity. ... Lappé is a big-time environmentalist, who many food activists credit with launching the local food movement in the 1970s. Her book, Diet for a Small Planet, sold millions of copies.

"She clearly doesn’t mean “opportunity” in the Stephen Harper we-can-drill-the-Arctic way. She means climate change is a challenge that could inspire a shift in our world view.

...

"Lappé ... puts it this way: “The real crisis is we feel powerless.”"

Full article: Toronto News: Porter: Frances Moore Lappé’s environmental insights intoxicate the mind.

See also Biography of Frances Moore Lappé.

Food intolerances can be found with a blood test (in the Toronto Star)

2012-02-02T12:52:00.000-05:00

Full article: Food intolerances can be found with a blood test.

Shana Kelley’s U of T team develops a chip to detect cancer earlier (in the Toronto Star)

2012-02-02T12:51:00.000-05:00

Full article: Q&A: Shana Kelley’s U of T team develops a chip to detect cancer earlier.

Paying the rent for our use of First Nations land (in the Toronto Star)

2012-01-26T21:35:00.000-05:00

"[Canadian PM Steven Harper] is encouraging Canadians to continue believing that we are the generous benefactors of the First Nations people, but that is not true. They have been our benefactors since the days of the fur trade and we have become one of the wealthiest societies in human history.

"The bad news is that we have been left holding the bag and the profits from a 200-year-old land heist. The good news is that there is a clear path forward. To strengthen the chain between the First Nations and non-aboriginal Canadians, we must turn our gaze from the shortcomings of First Nations people onto our own."

Full article: Strengthening the chain between First Nations and non-aboriginal Canadians.

Catherine Murton Stoehr is an instructor in the department of history at Nipissing University.

Heather Mallick: iPad factory misery leads to suicides (in the Toronto Star)

2012-01-25T17:29:00.000-05:00

"If you thought robots worked through endless Chinese nights you were wrong. When human labour is as cheap as it is in China, only human labour will do.

"Only this kind of labour could produce electronic gadgets for the price we in the West like to pay. We worship the god of Cheap and Shenzhen’s millions make this possible."

Full article: iPad factory misery leads to suicides.

Coconut Oil Touted as Alzheimer's Remedy (CBN TV - Video)

2012-01-20T22:01:00.000-05:00

Coconut Oil Touted as Alzheimer's Remedy - CBN TV - Video.

This looks pretty promising. Actually Indian doctors have been saying for years that coconut oil should not be confused with other (long chain) fats, as it has a completely different effect on the body.

Here's a recent article by Dr. Carolyn Dean: Coconut Oil for Alzheimer's.

Michael Geist on why his website went dark to protest U.S. restrictions on Internet (in the Toronto Star)

2012-01-19T20:57:00.000-05:00

"Even if SOPA dies, the mounting battle over Internet restrictions seems destined to continue. In the U.S., a son-of-SOPA is bound to appear should the bill die, while in Canada the government has remained steadfast in supporting the Bill C-11 digital lock rules despite public opposition."

Full article: Michael Geist’s website went dark to protest U.S. restrictions on Internet.

Michael Geist holds the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-commerce Law at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law.

Traumatic brain injury may be treated by transplanted human stem cells (in the Toronto Star)

2012-01-19T19:40:00.000-05:00

"Using rats as well as an apparatus that simulates brain damage on human neurons, [Dr. Ping] Wu and her team of researchers identified a key molecular mechanisms through which implanted human neural stem cells aid recovery from traumatic axonal injury – which involves damage to the axons and dendrites which are the pathways for nerve communication in the brain."

Dr. Wu is a professor at the University of Texas Medical Branch.

Full article: Traumatic brain injury may be treated by transplanted human stem cells.

David Olive: Keystone, Northern Gateway pipelines raise questions that need answers before approval (in the Toronto Star)

2012-01-14T11:21:00.000-05:00

"In an ideal world, we would embrace conservation and greatly accelerated development of alternative sources of energy to make unnecessary the construction of Gateway and the even longer Keystone XL pipeline to take Athabasca crude the entire length of the U.S. to refineries on the Texas coast.

"But that won’t happen, not for decades if ever. Canadians and Americans will ultimately consent to these two projects with their combined 4,000 km of three-foot-diameter pipe at a total estimated cost of $13.6 billion. Energy security will trump the many risks.

...

"These two megaprojects raise enough disturbing questions that their advocates have resorted to scare tactics in promoting them.

...

"“In the current environment, it is easier to get a nuclear power plant approved than an oil pipeline,” complains securities analyst Stephen Paget in a recent note to investor clients.

"Given the sorry record of pipelines and the tankers they feed, that’s as it should be."

Full article: Keystone, Northern Gateway pipelines raise questions that need answers before approval.

Will Obama address climate threat in State of the Union speech?

2012-01-13T19:56:00.000-05:00

By Brad Johnson - Cross-posted from ThinkProgress Green in grist.org.

Will Obama address climate threat in State of the Union speech?.

Tim Harper: Stephen Harper won’t impose a social agenda on Canada, but he will export it (in the Toronto Star)

2012-01-13T19:49:00.000-05:00

"It appears that Harper is true to his word, he will not impose a social agenda on Canada where it won’t wash, but he will export it to other jurisdictions.

"Reopen debate, no. Export those views, yes.

"Unless, of course, the tinfoil crowd is just a little ahead of its time."

Full article: Canada News: Tim Harper: Stephen Harper won’t impose a social agenda on Canada, but he will export it.

Haroon Siddiqui: Stephen Harper apes Republican nuttiness (in the Toronto Star)

2012-01-12T10:27:00.000-05:00

"An electoral drubbing for Republicans would discredit the policies Stephen Harper took from their extremist theology."

Full article: Stephen Harper apes Republican nuttiness.

Thomas Walkom: Stephen Harper’s Northern Gateway pipeline parody (in the Toronto Star)

2012-01-11T13:31:00.000-05:00

"The federal government's depiction of environmental critics as foreign dupes would be laughable if it weren't so serious."

Full article: Canada News: Walkom: Stephen Harper’s Northern Gateway pipeline parody.

The breakfast of the future: three courses and seaweed cornflakes (in the Toronto Star)

2012-01-11T10:05:00.000-05:00

The breakfast of the future: three courses and seaweed cornflakes - Healthzone.ca.

Don Tapscott: 20 big ideas for 2012 (Reuters.com)

2012-01-11T09:55:00.000-05:00

Don Tapscott is Adjunct Professor at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto, and is the author of 14 books.

Don Tapscott | Analysis & Opinion | Reuters.com.

Buddy Roemer: GOP Pres. Candidate Who Backs Occupy, Campaign Finance Reform, Excluded from Debates (interviewed in Democracy Now!)

2012-01-06T14:13:00.000-05:00

Buddy Roemer: GOP Pres. Candidate Who Backs Occupy, Campaign Finance Reform, Excluded from Debates.

A Republican candidate who has served 4 terms in Congress, and been a state governor, excluded from Republican debates. Who would have thought it?!

David Ignatius: The endangered middle class (in the Toronto Star)

2012-01-05T10:58:00.001-05:00

David Ignatius is a columnist with the Washington Post.

"In a passage that is eerily similar to some of what appeared in Foreign Affairs in the 1930s, Fukuyama notes: “Many people currently admire the Chinese system not just for its economic record but also because it can make large, complex decisions quickly, compared with the agonizing policy paralysis that has struck both the United States and Europe in the past few years.”

"That’s a warning sign — when people look to a totalitarian state for a system that works."

Full article: The endangered middle class.

Rick Salutin: The decline of deference (in the Toronto Star)

2011-12-31T09:43:00.001-05:00

"“Could mortal lip divine/The undeveloped Freight/Of a delivered syllable/‘Twould crumble with the weight.”" (Rick Salutin quoting Emily Dickinson)

Full article: Salutin: The decline of deference.

Linda McQuaig: World’s poor pay for PM’s policies (in the Toronto Star)

2011-12-21T13:51:00.001-05:00

"Canada is still punching above its weight. But, under the animus of the Harper government, those punches are now low blows, landing on some of the most vulnerable people on the planet."

Full article: McQuaig: World’s poor pay for PM’s policies.

The Disaffected Lib: Dear North Korea. Sorry For Your Loss. Maybe We Can Help.

2011-12-19T21:37:00.000-05:00

The Disaffected Lib: Dear North Korea. Sorry For Your Loss. Maybe We Can Help.

This is priceless - thanks, Disaffected Lib, aka Mound of Sound!

Gwynne Dyer: Durban climate-change conference was an almost total failure (in straight.com)

2011-12-15T10:43:00.000-05:00

"Three years ago, while I was interviewing the director of a think tank in New Delhi, she suddenly dropped a bomb into the conversation. Her institute had been asked by the World Bank to figure out how much food production India would lose when the average global temperature was two degrees Celsius higher, she said - and the answer was 25 percent.

....

"A 25 percent loss of food production would be an almost measureless calamity for India. It now produces just enough food to feed its 1.1 billion people. If the population rises by the forecast quarter-billion in the next 20 years, and meanwhile its food production falls by 25 percent due to global warming, half a billion Indians will starve.

"India will not be able to buy its way out of the crisis by importing food, because many other countries will be experiencing similar falls in production at the same time, and the price of the limited amount of grain still reaching the international market will be prohibitive. So India should be moving heaven and earth to stop the average global temperature from reaching +2 degrees. But it isn’t."

Full article: Gwynne Dyer: Durban climate-change conference was an almost total failure.

Thomas Walkom: Canada the odd man out after Kyoto (in the Toronto Star)

2011-12-15T10:32:00.001-05:00

"Sometimes, it’s hard to figure out whether Canada’s Conservative government is venal or merely clueless." As the Star's summary says, why not both?

Full article: Canada News: Walkom: Canada the odd man out after Kyoto.

Haroon Siddiqui: Arab Islamists less scary than Republicans (in the Toronto Star)

2011-12-11T13:04:00.000-05:00

Siddiqui: Arab Islamists less scary than Republicans.

Another sensible article from the Star's Haroon Siddiqui.

David Olive: Is Durban a tipping point for the world’s admiration of Canada? (in the Toronto Star)

2011-12-08T21:58:00.000-05:00

"To be crass about it – and maybe that’s what environmentalists should do – the financial punishment we inflict on ourselves by failing to reduce emissions translates to between $21 billion and $43 billion in lost economic activity for Canada by mid-century.

"That’s the financial price we’ll pay for global warming, calculated not by NGOs but Ottawa’s own National Roundtable on the Environment and the Economy. And that estimate is based on a modest degree of global warming.

"The cost of “catastrophic” global warming – the path we’re now on, without a truly substantial reduction in greenhouse-gas emissions – could be as high as 25 per cent of Canadian GDP."

Full article: Olive: Is Durban a tipping point for the world’s admiration of Canada?.

Kepler 22-b ‘Most Earth-Like’ Planet: 10 More Potentially Habitable Planets (in the International Business Times)

2011-12-07T12:22:00.000-05:00

Kepler 22-b ‘Most Earth-Like’ Planet: 10 More Potentially Habitable Planets - International Business Times.

Now if we could only discover intelligence in Ottawa...

Global warming could be stopped by geoengineering say scientists (in the Toronto Star)

2011-12-03T12:20:00.000-05:00

World News: Global warming could be stopped by geoengineering say scientists.

The article doesn't mention the risk of some country undertaking geoengineering independently. This is definitely a concern.

Rick Salutin: Mr. 1 Per Cent meets his match (in the Toronto Star)

2011-12-02T09:41:00.001-05:00

Full article: Salutin: Mr. 1 Per Cent meets his match.

Thanks to the Star's Rick Salutin for pointing us at Tom Naylor's most recent book The Crass Struggle, in which he skewers the pretensions of the 1%. Of course, we have (had?) a wonderful example of this in the Canadian-born Baron Black of Crossharbour.

Melting permafrost called ticking time bomb (in the Toronto Star)

2011-12-02T09:33:00.001-05:00

"Scientists with the Permafrost Carbon Network warned in a Nature article released Thursday that melting permafrost, loaded with enormous amounts of toxic gasses, is a ticking time bomb that could intensify global warming.

"The group of scientists predicts that about 45 billion metric tonnes of greenhouse gasses trapped in frozen ground will slowly leech into the air by 2040 as permafrost continues to melt."

Full article: Canada News: Melting permafrost called ticking time bomb.

Deep brain stimulation gives hope to Alzheimer’s patients (in the toronto Star)

2011-12-01T21:10:00.000-05:00

"“As far as I’m concerned, I don’t have Alzheimer’s. It’s reversed,” exclaims Linton."

Full article: Deep brain stimulation gives hope to Alzheimer’s patients.

Joe Fiorito: An open letter to the Occupiers (in the Toronto Star)

2011-11-27T12:33:00.000-05:00

"You showed us that an open hand is better than a fist. You illustrated all the ways the rich have made a breakfast of the poor. You pointed an accusing finger at those who have stubbed out their dreams in the ashtrays of their hearts.

...

"Man’s capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man’s inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary. – Reinhold Niebuhr (1892- 1971)"

Full article: Toronto News: Fiorito: An open letter to the Occupiers.

Tom Kent: How to revive Canada’s dream of social democracy (in the Toronto Star)

2011-11-27T12:28:00.002-05:00

The late social policy pioneer Tom Kent writes, in an article published posthumously, about how to make social programs work in our unwieldy democracy:

How to revive Canada’s dream of social democracy.

Occupy Everywhere: Michael Moore, Naomi Klein on Next Steps for the Movement Against Corporate Power (in Democracy Now!)

2011-11-26T11:11:00.002-05:00

Discussion hosted by The Nation magazine and The New School in New York City, features Oscar-winning filmmaker and author Michael Moore; Naomi Klein, best-selling author of the "Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism"; Rinku Sen of the Applied Research Center and publisher of ColorLines; Occupy Wall Street organizer Patrick Bruner; and veteran journalist William Greider, author of "Come Home, America: The Rise and Fall (and Redeeming Promise) of Our Country."

Occupy Everywhere: Michael Moore, Naomi Klein on Next Steps for the Movement Against Corporate Power.

Michael Moore:

"So, if you’re at home and you’re watching this and you’re in some out-of-the-way place, you already own it. This is already your country. You—you have been occupied by Wall Street. Your homes have been occupied by Wall Street. Your government has been occupied by Wall Street. Your media has been occupied by Wall Street. And it’s OK for you to say, "Not anymore. Those days are over. End of story.""

Tim Harper: A winter of aboriginal agony must lead to action (in the Toronto Star)

2011-11-25T09:11:00.000-05:00

Canada News: Tim Harper: A winter of aboriginal agony must lead to action.

Rick Salutin: Non-violence is back and shaking things up (in the Toronto Star)

2011-11-25T09:09:00.001-05:00

Percy Bysshe Shelley - 1819:

"“Let a great assembly be/ Of the fearless, of the free . . . Stand ye calm and resolute,/ Like a forest close and mute,/ With folded arms and looks which are/ Weapons of unvanquished war . . . With folded arms and steady eyes,/ And little fear, and less surprise/ Look upon them as they slay/ Till their rage has died away/ Then they will return with shame/ To the place from which they came . . .”"

Salutin: Non-violence is back and shaking things up.

Weeding out corporate psychopaths (in the Toronto Star)

2011-11-24T18:55:00.000-05:00

Weeding out corporate psychopaths.

Silly photo - but food for thought!

Study finds Arctic sea ice drop greatest, longest in 1,400 years (in the Toronto Star)

2011-11-24T18:50:00.001-05:00

"“When we look at our reconstruction, we can see that the decline that has occurred in the last 50 years or so seems to be unprecedented for the last 1,450 years,” Christian Zdanowicz of the Geological Survey of Canada said Wednesday.

"“It’s difficult not to come up with the conclusion that greenhouse gases must have something to do with this,” added Zdanowicz, one of the co-authors of the report in Nature.

"“We cannot account for this decline by processes that are ‘natural.’”"

Full article: Canada News: Study finds Arctic sea ice drop greatest, longest in 1,400 years.

Catherine Porter on Occupy Toronto: They can’t evict a conversation (in the Toronto Star)

2011-11-20T12:11:00.001-05:00

"I can think of a few old ideas that fit their philosophy of the “commons”: food cooperatives; credit unions; community gardens; community kitchens; cooperative housing. Why not talk in the rests between building something permanent, rather than in between police raids?

"Plus, it’s easier to think with a hammer in your hand."

Full article: Occupy Toronto: They can’t evict a conversation.

Good advice from a caring Toronto columnist.

Tim Harper: For Conservatives, contrary positions are treasonous (in the Toronto Star)

2011-11-18T09:35:00.001-05:00

"..to hear the noise from the Conservative side of the House of Commons this week, one would think that the Halifax NDP MP and her colleague from Nickel Belt, Claude Gravelle, were treasonous subversives who should be drawn and quartered at dawn.

"Their crime?

"They went to Washington to provide a different point of view on the Keystone XL pipeline project and to tell American legislators that, contrary to the cheerleading of Stephen Harper and his cabinet, not every Canadian was a proponent of Alberta’s tar sands.

...

"... Harper’s complaints ring a tad hollow considering he used the Fox News pulpit in 2003 to accuse then-Prime Minister Jean Chrétien of hypocrisy for keeping Canada out of the George W. Bush-led invasion of Iraq.

"Then the opposition leader, he told Americans he backed the war and was speaking for “the silent majority” of Canadians."

Full article: Canada News: Tim Harper: For Conservatives, contrary positions are treasonous.

Thomas Walkom: Evictions offer honourable way out for Occupy protesters (in the Toronto Star)

2011-11-17T16:01:00.001-05:00

"[The occupiers] ... now have a chance to strengthen their fragile alliances with other organizations, such as labour unions, that are dissatisfied with inequality in Canadian life.

"More important, they can now redirect their energies toward the specific elements of Canadian political economy that encourage such inequalities — from the tax code to municipal outsourcing to the provincial welfare system to the federal government’s war on labour."

Full article: Canada News: Walkom: Evictions offer honourable way out for Occupy protesters.

3D printers manufacture objects in your home (in the Toronto Star)

2011-11-16T19:42:00.001-05:00

3D printers manufacture objects in your home.

This is mind-boggling!

Idealism in a ‘deeply cynical age’ (in the Toronto Star)

2011-11-14T09:35:00.001-05:00

The Star's Jennifer Wells interviews Jeffrey Sachs, the author of the End of Poverty, hailed to be one of the hundred most influential people, turns a critical eye to his home country, the U.S. Jeffrey Sachs calls for a return to civic virtue, compassion for others and the creation of a mindful society. He spoke with the Star by phone..

Full interview: Idealism in a ‘deeply cynical age’.

Tyler Hamilton: Time to reboot Ontario’s approach to energy conservation (in the Toronto Star)

2011-11-12T17:08:00.001-05:00

"...the only way to help Ontario ratepayers cope with rising electricity rates over the long term is to push for deep energy conservation in households across the provinces.

"And here’s the thing: it could, if done properly, barely cost anything for the province and municipalities to make such a serious conservation push."

Tyler Hamilton describes how this could happen, using an approach that is attracting interest in 26 states and Nova Scotia, but to have it happen, "[you] have to have the province, the financial institutions and the City of Toronto all sitting in the same room talking about this issue," says Tim Stoate, an associate director and investment expert at the Toronto Atmospheric Fund.

Full article: Hamilton: Time to reboot Ontario’s approach to energy conservation.

Canadian’s lucky iron fish saves lives in Cambodia (in the Toronto Star)

2011-11-12T09:23:00.001-05:00

"“You can have the best treatment in the world, but if people won’t use it, it won’t matter.”"

Full article: Canadian’s lucky iron fish saves lives in Cambodia.

Naomi Klein on Environmental Victory: Obama Delays Keystone XL Oil Pipeline Decision Until 2013 (in Democracy Now!)

2011-11-11T16:33:00.001-05:00

"'We believe that this delay will kill the pipeline,' says the Canadian author and activist Naomi Klein. 'If it doesn't, if this pipeline re-emerges after the election, people have signed pledges saying they will put their bodies on the line to stop it.'"

Full article: Naomi Klein on Environmental Victory: Obama Delays Keystone XL Oil Pipeline Decision Until 2013.

David Olive: Occupy Toronto is not the real threat to civil society (in the Toronto Star)

2011-11-11T10:21:00.001-05:00

"Certainly this is the hour of our discontent. That discontent is income inequality. The spectacular disparity between the super-affluent and the rest of us is a leading, if not root, cause of widespread ill health, stunted education opportunity, and intolerably high rates of crime and racial discrimination in our communities."

Full article: Occupy Toronto is not the real threat to civil society.

EEGs give voice to brain-injured patients, researchers find (in the Toronto Star)

2011-11-10T15:51:00.001-05:00

"...scientists are now finding that some patients in a vegetative state are conscious — and can actually communicate.

"On Wednesday, a Canadian-led group of researchers revealed a relatively simple and cost-effective way to assess the consciousness of patients at their bedside."

Full article: Toronto News: EEGs give voice to brain-injured patients, researchers find.

Olivia Ward: Pollution a threat to progress of poorest countries, says report (in the Toronto Star)

2011-11-03T09:55:00.002-04:00

"A report released Wednesday by the UN’s development program warns that unless there’s a serious global change of direction, living standards will plunge in the poorest countries by 2050, reversing decades of gradual gains.

"RELATED: The UNDP report."

World News: Pollution a threat to progress of poorest countries, says report.

Heather Mallick: Talking points for a young angry Occupy Toronto (in the Toronto Star)

2011-10-30T12:35:00.001-04:00

"The Occupy Toronto demonstrators don’t have a coherent point? How risible. Our economic system is so skewed that they have too many to articulate easily."

Mallick: Talking points for a young angry Occupy Toronto.

John Clarke and Bryan Dawe: Continental rift (in Guy McPherson's blog)

2011-10-27T10:36:00.002-04:00

The current world economic train-wreck in about 3 minutes flat - very funny, and perhaps even more relevant now! Thanks for posting it, Guy!

Continental rift – Guy McPherson's blog.

Thomas Walkom: Eurozone cure could be worse than disease (in the Toronto Star)

2011-10-27T10:19:00.002-04:00

"... in Berlin or Paris there is little sympathy for the unemployed of Madrid. They are, after all, Spanish. Not Germans or French. They are deemed to be the cause of their own troubles.

"We have seen this before. The last time was in the period after 1918 when the victorious Allies insisted that Germany and Austria bear the financial cost of World War I, a war that was deemed to be their fault alone.
...

"The dictatorship that resulted was predictable, as was the devastating global war that followed. Hard times drive people to embrace hard leaders.

...

"Don’t assume such things couldn’t happen again. Sometimes, history does repeat itself."

Full article: Canada News: Walkom: Eurozone cure could be worse than disease.

J. David Hulchansky: The 99% know all about inequality (in the Toronto Star)

2011-10-26T12:20:00.001-04:00

J. David Hulchanski is a professor of housing and community development at the University of Toronto’s Factor-Inwentash Faculty of Social Work. His research on income trends in Toronto is available at www.NeighbourhoodChange.ca.

"Toronto was a middle-income city in the 1970s: two-thirds of the city’s neighbourhoods were in the middle. The proportion of middle-income neighbourhoods has since fallen to less than a third.

...

"In nominally democratic countries, the mass of the population is recognizing that it is exploited by an empowered and emboldened kleptocracy (from the ancient Greek, rule by thieves). Instead of fair rules and regulations, instead of inclusionary and democratic policies and politics (rule of all, by all, i.e., democracy), instead of addressing injustices, we have grab-all-you-can-and-run attitudes, supported by public policy.

"Inequality is both the precursor and outcome of injustice."

Full article: The 99% know all about inequality.

Linda McQuaig: How to make inequality obsolete (in the Toronto Star)

2011-10-25T09:36:00.001-04:00

"Even Adam Smith, considered the father of capitalism, favoured higher taxes on the rich, and seemed to have people like [Canadian Finance Minister Jim] Flaherty in mind when he warned that the “disposition to admire, and almost to worship, the rich and the powerful, and to despise, or, at least to neglect persons of poor and mean condition . . . is . . . the great and most universal cause of the corruption of our moral sentiments.”"

Full article: McQuaig: How to make inequality obsolete.

Rick Salutin: Occupiers call for changing the agenda (in the Toronto Star)

2011-10-21T09:44:00.001-04:00

"What they’re saying is: Change the agenda/change the channel. Saying anything less is inadequate because you could find a small piece mistaken for the whole. But saying that much is tricky precisely because there already is an agenda in place that keeps blocking and obscuring the demand to change it!"

Full article: Salutin: Occupiers call for changing the agenda.

Jack Quarter: Confessions of a 2 percenter (in the Toronto Star)

2011-10-20T10:50:00.001-04:00

Jack Quarter is a professor and director of the Social Economy Centre, OISE, University of Toronto; his recent books include Understanding the Social Economy (University of Toronto Press), co-authored with Laurie Mook and Ann Armstrong.

"The Occupy Wall Street movement is located where it ought to be: the epicentre of the inequality mill. The problem is the system of those institutions and how they are allowed to function, not so much the individuals who populate them."

Full article: Confessions of a 2 percenter.

Jim Coyle: New Canadian Index of Wellbeing reveals how Canadians are really faring (in the Toronto Star)

2011-10-20T10:42:00.002-04:00

"The Canadian Index of Wellbeing, a dozen years in the making, is intended to do what standard economic tools such as Gross Domestic Product cannot — namely, to measure not just the economy, but how people and communities, the environment and our democracy are faring.

"Roy Romanow, former Saskatchewan premier and chair of the CIW advisory board, told the Star the project puts “scientific underpinning” to a widespread, intuitive sense that though the GDP might rise, circumstances for the majority of Canadians have not been keeping pace.

...

"The GDP — that statistical star and the defining economic indicator for more than half a century — was never intended, its inventor said, to measure “the welfare of a nation.”

"For instance, spending on tobacco, war, cleaning up man-made disasters, building prisons — hardly measures of human progress — all cause the GDP to rise. Meanwhile, caring for an ailing relative, unpaid housework, volunteer work — all obvious goods — don't show up.

...

"By comparison, the CIW takes into account the complexity and interconnectedness of human society. It offers a deeper understanding of what constitutes social and individual good. It speaks about relationships, social isolation enjoyment of life."

Full article: Toronto News: New Canadian Index of Wellbeing reveals how Canadians are really faring.

Carol Goar: Suddenly, the politicians and bankers are listening (in the Toronto Star)

2011-10-19T09:00:00.001-04:00

"It is notable that the Prime Minister has not gone as far as his finance minister or the bank governor. But he has let them get out ahead of him; that is unusual for a boss known for exercising iron control over members of his cabinet and public officials.

"Cynics dismiss the youth-led movement as leaderless, unfocused, badly organized and unlikely to have any impact. But it already has changed the conversation in Ottawa.

...

"The story is still unfolding. The demonstrations may fizzle out. They may splinter. They may turn ugly.

"Or as time goes on, they might prompt the silent majority to ask why there are many more losers than winners in the globalized, low-tax, cost-efficient economy that was supposed to boost economic growth and raise living standards."

Goar: Suddenly, the politicians and bankers are listening.

Tim Harper: PM’s big oil ‘no-brainer’ an emotional issue in U.S. (in the Toronto Star)

2011-10-19T08:58:00.001-04:00

"U.S. ambassador David Jacobson maintained Tuesday that politics will not enter into the Keystone decision.

"He actually said it with a straight face."

Full article: Canada News: Tim Harper: PM’s big oil ‘no-brainer’ an emotional issue in U.S..

Occupy Toronto protesters settle in at St. James Park (in the Toronto Star)

2011-10-16T20:02:00.001-04:00

"... Jacob, 5, took refuge from the rain, drawing a multicoloured peace sign on the ground and listening to guitar jam sessions that included songs like John Lennon’s “Imagine.”

...

"“It’s very fun,” said Jacob of the atmosphere, going on to describe what the protest is about.

"“Because people are poor and because we’ve had enough of this.”

"It was the purest message of the day."

Full article: Toronto News: Occupy Toronto protesters settle in at St. James Park.

Heather Mallick: Of all the lonely people, the loneliest (in the Toronto Star)

2011-10-15T21:15:00.000-04:00

This story is harrowing - thank you, Heather, for writing it.

Of all the lonely people, the loneliest.

Remind me to keep in touch with friends and relatives...

Carol Goar: Breaking the generational logjam (in the Toronto Star)

2011-10-14T12:36:00.001-04:00

Carol Goar takes a good look at the pros, and cons, of mandatory retirement.

Full article: Goar: Breaking the generational logjam.

Toby Sanger: Don’t just occupy Wall Street, tax it (in the Toronto Star)

2011-10-13T14:19:00.001-04:00

"... [Canadian Finance Minister Jim] Flaherty has some explaining to do: why did he push so hard and give billions in federal money for provinces to introduce the 13 per cent HST paid by individual consumers — the so-called 99 per cent — but is fighting so hard against a 0.1 per cent financial transactions tax on the financial industry?"

Toby Sanger is the economist for the Canadian Union of Public Employees. He previously worked as principal economic policy adviser for the Ontario Minister of Finance and as chief economist for the Yukon government.

Full article: Don’t just occupy Wall Street, tax it.

Heather Mallick: Being the leader of the free world is really, really hard stuff (in the Toronto Star)

2011-10-09T10:19:00.001-04:00

"What I don’t get is why he threw away his Get Out of Jail Free card — his first two years with Senate-Congressional majorities — with both hands."

Full article: Being the leader of the free world is really, really hard stuff.

Read it and weep!

Thomas Walkom: Vague yes. But don’t discount Wall St. protests (in the Toronto Star)

2011-10-07T20:18:00.001-04:00

"...There is palpable anger in the U.S. (less so in Canada).

"The ultra right-wing Tea Party movement is one result of this anger. It has pulled together deeply-seated American currents of populism, xenophobia, patriotism, individualism and racism to emerge as a powerful political force.

"It’s too early to say whether the Wall Streeters represent the nucleus of a comparable left-wing populist movement. But the elements are there."

Full article: Canada News: Walkom: Vague yes. But don’t discount Wall St. protests.

Naomi Klein: Keystone XL Oil Pipeline Controversy Shows How Wall Street Is Occupying U.S. Gov't (Reported in Democracy Now!)

2011-10-06T14:19:00.001-04:00

Award-winning Canadian journalist and author Naomi Klein discusses "the cozy relationship between the White House, the U.S. State Department that is considering the proposed pipeline, and Keystone XL lobbyists."

Naomi Klein: Keystone XL Oil Pipeline Controversy Shows How Wall Street Is Occupying U.S. Gov't.

Robert Scheer: What Do They Want? Justice (in Truthdig)

2011-10-06T14:13:00.002-04:00

"“Ultimately this is about power and greed, unchecked,” Jodie Evans [founder of Code Pink] told the Times’ Sorkin, and it is a protest that the columnist’s newspaper, along with the rest of a mainstream media that editorially enthused over the radical deregulation that unfettered Wall Street greed, should now honestly cover."

Full article: Robert Scheer: What Do They Want? Justice - Truthdig.

Chantal Hébert: Ruling reminds Tories no one above the law (in the Toronto Star)

2011-10-02T12:58:00.001-04:00

"The Insite ruling is a strong reminder to the Harper government that its law-and-order agenda is not above the law itself.

"But it is also a reprimand for Tony Clement, a minister who has very much been on the ground zero of government-driven controversies over the past few years, first over the elimination of the long-form census and more recently over G8 summit spending.

"It was Clement who launched the 2008 federal vendetta against Insite in his days as minister of health. "

Full article: Canada News: Hébert: Ruling reminds Tories no one above the law.

Rumours of the demise of democracy may be premature after all!

The Disaffected Lib: Tar Sands on Trial

2011-09-30T10:35:00.001-04:00

This is interesting! Thanks, Mound of Sound, for highlighting this ground-breaking initiative from the UK!

The Disaffected Lib: Tar Sands on Trial.

Rick Salutin: Where have all the PCs gone? (in the Toronto Star)

2011-09-30T10:31:00.001-04:00

Salutin: Where have all the PCs gone?.

Isn't it strange that the old PCs (Progressive Conservatives) are beginning to look like good guys?! Surely it was an act of supreme cynicism to drop the "progressive" from their name - not much commented on! And they are not even "conservative", as this comes from the word "conserve", and they don't seem to want to conserve anything - except power.

Climate change could cost billions a year by 2020 - Canada - CBC News

2011-09-29T12:22:00.001-04:00

Article: Climate change could cost billions a year by 2020 - CBC News.

Haroon Siddiqui: The dire prospect of living in Hudakdom (in the Toronto Star)

2011-09-29T12:15:00.001-04:00

"McGuinty won’t win charisma contests. But his bland Bill Davis persona has served Ontario well. Like Davis [premier of Ontario from 1971 to 1985], he understands that our common good lies in bringing our disparate pluralistic society together, rather than dividing us along ideological or nativist lines."

Full article: Siddiqui: The dire prospect of living in Hudakdom.

Q&A: An expert on experts tells how to spot the bad ones (in the Toronto Star)

2011-09-28T10:29:00.001-04:00

Filmmaker Josh Freed on experts: Q&A: An expert on experts tells how to spot the bad ones.

Great quote: "We’ve always had people telling us the future, be it fortunetellers or oracles reading chicken entrails. Today we’re too educated to read chicken entrails, so we go to experts. We use Power Point instead of poultry."

The art of rewiring a brain (in the Toronto Star)

2011-09-28T09:39:00.001-04:00

Article: The art of rewiring a brain.

Fascinating description of how a mature brain can rewire itself. If the pictures shown in the article are representative, I prefer the post-stroke ones to the pre-stroke ones!

Rick Salutin: Canada says ‘ready aye ready’ at the UN (in the Toronto Star)

2011-09-23T10:40:00.001-04:00

Full article: Salutin: Canada says ‘ready aye ready’ at the UN.

Great quote: "Exactly what is the point of being a country, if you don’t have your own voice?"

Jatin Nathwani: Pipeline foes miss the point (in the Toronto Star)

2011-09-23T10:32:00.001-04:00

Professor Jatin Nathwani is Ontario Research Chair in sustainable energy and executive director of the Waterloo Institute for Sustainable Energy at the University of Waterloo.

"The essential argument put forward by the environmental movement conflates the issue by emphasizing emissions at the production stage in Alberta. At the heart of the matter is consumption: the burden that we place on the environment as consumers as we drive and fly to our destinations and go about our lives with studied indifference."

Full article: Pipeline foes miss the point.

IMO he makes some good points, but there still seems to be merit in trying to block the Keystone XL pipeline.

World News: Land deals squeezing world’s poorest, Oxfam says (in the Toronto Star)

2011-09-22T21:52:00.001-04:00

Robert Fox, executive director of Oxfam Canada: “This isn’t about buying a farm somewhere. This is about buying the better part of a province.”

Full article: World News: Land deals squeezing world’s poorest, Oxfam says.