Now Here's A Budget That Makes Sense

Although largely shut out of the public discussion on government budgets, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has released its alternative to the upcoming federal budget. While the Harper government is fixated on massive cuts that will only produce more unemployment, this budget contains some eminently practical ways to help restore fiscal health while at the same time benefiting the majority of Canadians, not simply the minority who are now so advantaged by the neoliberalism of our current political masters.

The Courage of the Few, The Cowardice of the Many

This story of how a Syrian refugee risked his life to post and smuggle video of atrocities to the West should make us all feel just a bit ashamed as so many of us seem to treat our democracy so lightly.

More G20 Police Brutality Justice Pending

One of the Toronto police officers identified in the G20 beating of Adam Nobody has now been identified in another incident occurring the same weekend.

Const. Oliver Simpson's employer, the Toronto Police Services Board, is being sued by Nikos Kapetaneas and Caitlin Morgan for the injuries they sustained at the hands (or rather, the feet) of the overzealous officer in an area at Queens Park that had been designated an official protest zone.

As far as I can determine, both Toronto Police Chief bill Blair and Premier Dalton McGuimnty still stand by their men.

You can read the full story here.

Hot Off The Presses!

I trust this needs no explanation.

An Epochal Moment in Toryland

While there has been a long and sustained objection to Canada's planned purchase of F-35 jets, today marks the first time that the Harper regime has, even for a moment, taken its head out of the clouds.

Associate Defence Minister Julian (the dour and humourless) Fantino has raised the possibility of abandoning the purchase of the troubled jets.

Of course, I won't be so crass as to suggest that this is in any way a diversionary maneuver, despite the bad odor both the Tories in general and Fantino in particular have been experiencing of late.

I'll let more astute observers do that.

Tuesday Recommended Robocall Reading

Both Lawrence Martin and Linda McQuaig have columns well-worth reading today on government misdeeds both present and past.

McQuaig suggests that it is only our national modesty that prevents us from likening the voter suppression crimes to Watergate, while Martin chronicles misdoings of the past and concludes that what the Harper regime is suspected of is much more serious than anything the Liberals ever did.

Toronto Too Frightening A Venue For War-Mongerer

Suggested twenty-first century update for that old grade-school primer: See Dick Run