Corvin Russell

Why I'm voting Liberal for the first time ever (but should vote Green)

Corvin Russell — Thu, 12 Jun 2014 18:44:13 +0000

Please help rabble.ca stop Harper's election fraud plan. Become a monthly supporter.

We cannot be complacent about the Stasification of our societies

Corvin Russell — Tue, 17 Sep 2013 05:09:30 +0000

Stop Canada's cultural genocide at Barriere Lake

Cathryn Atkinson — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 20:02:38 +0000

Monday, December 13, 2010

Canada and Quebec are waging a war of attrition on the Algonquins of Barriere Lake, a few hours north of Ottawa. Today we came to Ottawa to show our anger and disgust at this treatment.

Canada and Quebec are waging a war of attrition on a small band of 500 Algonquin Indians a few hours north of Ottawa. Today, this war has reached a critical juncture: its outcome will be a judgment on whether Canada is able to share the land with First Nations while respecting their right to maintain their cultures and determine their own destinies, or whether Canada can only offer resilient Aboriginal cultures a menu of assimilation, dependency, and cultural death.

Parliament to vote on Tory motion against free speech

Corvin Russell — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 08:17:40 +0000

This year marks the sixth anniversary of Israeli Apartheid Week. Started as a small event at the University of Toronto, the annual week of educational events has grown to include over 40 cities around the world, and has played a major role in building a global anti-apartheid movement. As a result of its success, some university administrations in Ontario have stepped up repression of student activists who organize IAW.

No more silence: why showing up today is important. Rally for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women

Corvin Russell — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 14:57:44 +0000

Friends,

Many of you know that for the last 18 years, February 14 has been set aside as a day to remember and honour the thousands of Aboriginal women who have been murdered or gone missing in Canada. According to NWAC 520 Aboriginal women are known to have gone missing or been murdered since 1980.

In Native communities across Canada, people know women who have disappeared - daughters, sisters, mothers, and friends. No one knows what has happened to them. Many other women are known to have been murdered. The deaths and disappearances of these women eat at the hearts of all who love them.

Right wingers line up to offer shopworn advice on Indian policy; Fraser Institute fellow advising Gitxsan Treaty Office

Corvin Russell — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 06:52:08 +0000

I thought it was weird last fall when, out of the blue, the National Post ran an editorial heaping praise on a discussion paper put out by the Gitxsan Treaty Office. My reaction at the time: clearly the right wing knows whose interests this proposal serves.

Toronto Star botches apology to columnist

Corvin Russell — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 05:43:08 +0000

The Toronto Star's Public Editor, Kathy English, still doesn't get it. English, who has come under intense fire this week from right and left in the blogosphere and in letters to the Star, last week rushed to judgment with a poorly researched column in which she attacked Star journalist Antonia Zerbisias.

NDP brings white fest to Halifax

Corvin Russell — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:47:39 +0000

The federal NDP continues its quest for irrelevance. 7 out of 7 featured speakers at the convention are white; 6 of them are men. Check out this page. 9 out of 9 headshots are of white people. For that matter 18 out of the 18 people pictured on this page are white. Seriously?

The Obama-crazedness is also weird. Sorry, much as I don't like Obama, his campaign was not made out of tech how-tos. Who is the NDP's Obama?

Egale Canada honours the architect of Mike Harris's Common Sense Revolution

Corvin Russell — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 21:24:06 +0000

Egale Canada, a national organization whose mission is to "advance equality and justice for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and trans-identified people and their families," is presenting its first ever leadership award to Jaime Watt, one of the main architects of Mike Harris's "Common Sense Revolution". Watt is also Egale's benefactor and landlord: his consulting firm, Navigator, donates office space to Egale.

What can explain this decision, other than turpitude or stupidity on Egale's part?

Obama team finds creative ways to prolong the economic crisis

Corvin Russell — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 21:57:49 +0000

The Obama administration is standing by its "cash for trash" Public-Private Investment Plan, the latest attempt to disguise its reincarnation of the Bush administration's tax dollar giveaway to Wall Street. Under this scheme, the US government pays private "investors" to buy rotten assets from banks at highly inflated, artificial prices: the government subsidizes 90% of the purchase price of assets; but if the private buyer pays too much for the assets, the buyer can walk away and the government only gets the actual resale value of the assets. In other words, it's a one-way sure-loss bet in which the taxpayer pays private investors to get rich.

This is not a crisis of capitalism

Corvin Russell — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 06:52:15 +0000

To recapitulate an argument I made earlier. The economic and financial crisis is not (yet) a crisis of capitalism. By that I mean there are policy choices that could save liberal-democratic capitalism from the present crisis, although this would require a turn left to social democratic compromise: nationalizing some of the banks, shutting down insolvent banks, and permanently nationalizing, in part, the utility function of banking; and funding a full-scale green industrial strategy to retrofit every home and produce green transport, green energy capacity, and new infrastructure.

Socialist solutions are the only way out of the economic crisis

Corvin Russell — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 01:36:49 +0000

I'm not talking about what Republicans are calling socialism. I'm talking about nationalising General Motors, or all of the big three, and permanently socialising the "utility" portion of the banking system, to start with. General Motors has now lost more money than it has made in its entire history. All of the big three are likely to go down, surviving only on a drip feed of public money.

Imagine if we had a left-wing party...

Corvin Russell — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 06:58:34 +0000

We are in the midst of the greatest economic crisis since the 1930s. Yet our one supposed left-wing party has not taken the opportunity to raise questions about the nature of our economic system and how it could be more democratic. Let's face it, the NDP is no longer even a social democratic party. It's a liberal party slightly to the left (on most issues) of the Liberal Party. No one at the top of the party has a vision or commitment to alternative economics, building an activist cadre, or building an oppositional common sense that is deep, intelligent, and widespread.

Leaked memo: Harper government plans backdoor restructuring of First Nations governance

Corvin Russell — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 23:50:27 +0000

APTN broke a story about the Harper government's secret plans to bring in First Nations governance reform.

From the days of Jean Chretien's White Paper in 1969, federal governments have dreamed of completing the process of colonization and assimilation by making Aboriginal rights disappear through a strategy of deceit: denying Aboriginal rights in the name of "giving" Canada's Indigenous peoples the "same" rights as other Canadians.

How much should bank executives be paid?

Corvin Russell — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 06:54:12 +0000

The Obama administration's proposal to cap executive pay at banks receiving federal bailout money at $500,000 has sparked an ongoing debate in the pages of the Financial Times.

In response to the claim that high pay is necessary for the banking sector to attract the "best and brightest," one letter writer makes the obvious point that "money may not attract the “best” but merely the greediest... Is there any evidence that the multi-million dollar bonuses paid out in the past years succeeded in attracting the “best”?"