Canada’s “Feminist” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (Part One)Even…


Karina Gould


Marie-Claude Bibeau


Mary Ng


Jody Wilson-Raybould


Catherine McKenna


Chrystia Freeland


Maryam Monsef


Bardish Chagger


Jane Philpott


Judy Foote

Canada’s “Feminist” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (Part One)

Even though the Liberal MPs elected weren’t anywhere close to gender parity in Parliament in 2015, about a quarter of LPC MPs being women, there was a big todo made about Mr Trudeau’s choice of a cabinet that was half male & half female.  

The Prime Minister has gotten a lot of ink about his gender parity cabinet, and his insistence that he is a feminist.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is pictured above with female Cabinet Ministers:

  • The Honourable Karina Gould, 
    Minister of Democratic Institutions
    January 10, 2017 – Present
  • The Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau
    Minister of International Development
    November 4, 2015 – Present
  • The Honourable Mary F.Y. Ng
    Minister of Small Business and Export Promotion
    July 18, 2018 – Present
  • The Honourable Jody Wilson-Raybould
    Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada
    Nov 4, 2015 – Jan 14, 2019
    Minister of Veterans Affairs
    January 14, 2019 – Present
    Associate Minister of National Defence
    January 14, 2019 – Present
  • The Honourable Catherine McKenna
    Minister of Environment and Climate Change
    November 4, 2015 – Present
  • The Honourable Chrystia Freeland
    Minister of Foreign Affairs
    January 10, 2017 – Present
  • The Honourable Maryam Monsef
    Minister of Democratic Institutions
    November 4, 2015 – January 10, 2017
    Minister of Status of Women
    January 10, 2017 – Present
  • The Honourable Bardish Chagger
    Minister of Small Business and Tourism
    November 4, 2015–July 18, 2018
    Leader of the Government in the House of Commons
    August 19, 2016 – Present
  • The Honourable Jane Philpott
    Minister of Health
    November 4, 2015 – August 28, 2017
    Minister of Indigenous Services
    August 28, 2017 – January 14, 2019
    President of the Treasury Board
    January 2019 – Present
  • The Honourable Judy Foote
    Receiver General for Canada
    November 4, 2015 – August 24, 2017
    Minister of Public Services and Procurement and Accessibility[b]
    November 4, 2015 – August 24, 2017

Canada’s “Feminist” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (Part One)Even…


Karina Gould


Marie-Claude Bibeau


Mary Ng


Jody Wilson-Raybould


Catherine McKenna


Chrystia Freeland


Maryam Monsef


Bardish Chagger


Jane Philpott


Judy Foote

Canada’s “Feminist” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (Part One)

Even though the Liberal MPs elected weren’t anywhere close to gender parity in Parliament in 2015, about a quarter of LPC MPs being women, there was a big todo made about Mr Trudeau’s choice of a cabinet that was half male & half female.  

The Prime Minister has gotten a lot of ink about his gender parity cabinet, and his insistence that he is a feminist.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is pictured above with female Cabinet Ministers:

  • The Honourable Karina Gould, 
    Minister of Democratic Institutions
    January 10, 2017 – Present
  • The Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau
    Minister of International Development
    November 4, 2015 – Present
  • The Honourable Mary F.Y. Ng
    Minister of Small Business and Export Promotion
    July 18, 2018 – Present
  • The Honourable Jody Wilson-Raybould
    Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada
    Nov 4, 2015 – Jan 14, 2019
    Minister of Veterans Affairs
    January 14, 2019 – Present
    Associate Minister of National Defence
    January 14, 2019 – Present
  • The Honourable Catherine McKenna
    Minister of Environment and Climate Change
    November 4, 2015 – Present
  • The Honourable Chrystia Freeland
    Minister of Foreign Affairs
    January 10, 2017 – Present
  • The Honourable Maryam Monsef
    Minister of Democratic Institutions
    November 4, 2015 – January 10, 2017
    Minister of Status of Women
    January 10, 2017 – Present
  • The Honourable Bardish Chagger
    Minister of Small Business and Tourism
    November 4, 2015–July 18, 2018
    Leader of the Government in the House of Commons
    August 19, 2016 – Present
  • The Honourable Jane Philpott
    Minister of Health
    November 4, 2015 – August 28, 2017
    Minister of Indigenous Services
    August 28, 2017 – January 14, 2019
    President of the Treasury Board
    January 2019 – Present
  • The Honourable Judy Foote
    Receiver General for Canada
    November 4, 2015 – August 24, 2017
    Minister of Public Services and Procurement and Accessibility[b]
    November 4, 2015 – August 24, 2017

Amazon just bought mesh wifi company Eero. Oh, great.

mostlysignssomeportents:

We have an Eero system in our house; it does really good and reliable wifi distribution, including to my office in the garage. And it was nice to have a piece of home electronics that was neither from one of the great data-sucking companies like Google, nor from the control-freak companies like Apple – and also not from a no-name white-label re-badger or a giant shitty telco switch company whose consumer products arm is an afterthought.

Now Eero is to become a part of Amazon, and Amazon explains that the idea is to help the company become better at dominating the Internet of Shit, which means that it’s going to go way up on both the surveillance and control-freak league tables, and take Eero with it. The company promises that it’s not going to revise Eero’s (exemplary) privacy policy – but this is the same company that promised it would drop Audible’s DRM 11 years ago and not only hasn’t done so, it also won’t answer questions about why it hasn’t.

And as Dieter Bohn writes in The Verge, there’s more than one way to spy on your with an Eero – it doesn’t have to monitor your traffic, it could enumerate the devices, and/or look at flows of data rather than content, and/or connect Eero data to the many other data-streams that Amazon sucks out of your life.

It’s just a minor annoyance – yet another device I’m going to be in the market to replace with something that has no Alexa support or support for any other company’s surveillance/silo strategy – but it’s also a good candidate for this month’s poster child for trustbusting. Companies should not be able to grow by buying up nascent competitors. This does not produce a good outcome for consumers, nor for markets. It corrodes our politics and limits our imaginations. It deters the right kind of entrepreneurs (those who want to grow by serving customers) and encourages the wrong kind (growth through providing missing puzzle-pieces to already-bloated giants).

https://boingboing.net/2019/02/12/resistance-is-futile.html

We have this crazy idea that infinite growth is possible in a finite universe.  

Perhaps the biggest tragedy of the Internet generation tech world (after eroding personal privacy on the road to an Orwellian dystopia) is the idea that start ups exist to be bought by some monster company.  

This isn’t a sometime thing: it is *the* business model of today.

Imagine that: coming up with a cool tech idea or invention, scratching up a prototype, putting it all together in your garage on your own dime or finding some seed money… not to develop a viable business to carry on doing what its doing for decades, but to deliver a fast return on the investment so its bought up by one of the digital giants, to be developed or, more likely to be crated up and stashed in a Raiders Of The Lost Ark style warehouse so it doesn’t mess with the monster company’s business plans.

And here’s the thing: each of those monster companies— whose tentacles are stretching across the world— has but one goal: to become *the* digital monopoly. We might realize some short term gains when they go head to head in this modern day battle of the titans, but once there’s a single winner left standing, it will be game over for us.  

The only real way to stop any of this would be for governments to rein it in.  Unfortunately the “free world” is dominated by the shortsighted governments that have no comprehension of the big picture, and few if any elected Representatives that even understand technology, so they effectively allow these companies experts to dictate the laws that are supposed to regulate them, and helping these corporate sociopaths grow “to big to fail.”  

Canada should not be supporting a military coup in Venezuela


[guest post by Michael Nabert]

Venezuela’s electoral system has been widely praised. Until, of course, it became convenient for foreign powers to proclaim a result invalid.

Forbes: Venezuela’s Election System Holds Up As A Model For The World

Nicolás Maduro’s government actually requested that the UN send election observers to monitor the election and ensure a fair and honest vote. It was the faction that Canada and the US now support who opposed having UN observers present.

Reuters: Venezuela opposition asks U.N. not to send observers to May vote

Backing a coup in Venezuela is a violation of international law.  Ask yourself how you would feel if a foreign nation proclaimed that they would decide for you who runs your country and ignore the results of your own elections.

Democracy Now: Former U.N. Expert: The U.S. Is Violating International Law by Attempting a Coup in Venezuela

For the sake of the Venezuelan people, the region, and for the principle of national sovereignty, these international actors should instead support negotiations between the Venezuelan government and its opponents.

The following open letter—signed by 70 scholars on Latin America, political science, and history as well as filmmakers, civil society leaders, and other experts—was issued on Thursday, January 24, 2019 in opposition to ongoing intervention by the United States in Venezuela.

The United States government must cease interfering in Venezuela’s internal politics, especially for the purpose of overthrowing the country’s government. Actions by the Trump administration and its allies in the hemisphere are almost certain to make the situation in Venezuela worse, leading to unnecessary human suffering, violence, and instability.

Venezuela’s political polarization is not new; the country has long been divided along racial and socioeconomic lines. But the polarization has deepened in recent years. This is partly due to US support for an opposition strategy aimed at removing the government of Nicolás Maduro through extra-electoral means. While the opposition has been divided on this strategy, US support has backed hardline opposition sectors in their goal of ousting the Maduro government through often violent protests, a military coup d’etat, or other avenues that sidestep the ballot box.

“Actions by the Trump administration and its allies in the hemisphere are almost certain to make the situation in Venezuela worse, leading to unnecessary human suffering, violence, and instability.”

Under the Trump administration, aggressive rhetoric against the Venezuelan government has ratcheted up to a more extreme and threatening level, with Trump administration officials talking of “military action” and condemning Venezuela, along with Cuba and Nicaragua, as part of a “troika of tyranny.” Problems resulting from Venezuelan government policy have been worsened  by US economic sanctions, illegal under the Organization of American States and the United Nations ― as well as US law and other international treaties and conventions. These sanctions have cut off the means by which the Venezuelan government could escape from its economic recession, while causing a dramatic falloff in oil production and worsening the economic crisis, and causing many people to die because they can’t get access to life-saving medicines. Meanwhile, the US and other governments continue to blame the Venezuelan government ― solely ― for the economic damage, even that caused by the US sanctions.

Now the US and its allies, including Organization of American States (OAS) Secretary General Luis Almagro and Brazil’s far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, have pushed Venezuela to the precipice. By recognizing National Assembly President Juan Guaido as the new president of Venezuela ― something illegal under the OAS Charter ― the Trump administration has sharply accelerated Venezuela’s political crisis in the hopes of dividing the Venezuelan military and further polarizing the populace, forcing them to choose sides. The obvious, and sometimes stated goal, is to force Maduro out via a coup d’etat.

The reality is that despite hyperinflation, shortages, and a deep depression, Venezuela remains a politically polarized country. The US and its allies must cease encouraging violence by pushing for violent, extralegal regime change. If the Trump administration and its allies continue to pursue their reckless course in Venezuela, the most likely result will be bloodshed, chaos, and instability. The US should have learned something from its regime change ventures in Iraq, Syria, Libya, and its long, violent history of sponsoring regime change in Latin America.

Neither side in Venezuela can simply vanquish the other. The military, for example, has at least 235,000 frontline members, and there are at least 1.6 million in militias. Many of these people will fight, not only on the basis of a belief in national sovereignty that is widely held in Latin America ― in the face of what increasingly appears to be a US-led intervention ― but also to protect themselves from likely repression if the opposition topples the government by force.

In such situations, the only solution is a negotiated settlement, as has happened in the past in Latin American countries when politically polarized societies were unable to resolve their differences through elections. There have been efforts, such as those led by the Vatican in the fall of 2016, that had potential, but they received no support from Washington and its allies who favored regime change. This strategy must change if there is to be any viable solution to the ongoing crisis in Venezuela.

For the sake of the Venezuelan people, the region, and for the principle of national sovereignty, these international actors should instead support negotiations between the Venezuelan government and its opponents that will allow the country to finally emerge from its political and economic crisis.

Signed:

Noam Chomsky, Professor Emeritus, MIT and Laureate Professor, University of Arizona
Laura Carlsen, Director, Americas Program, Center for International Policy
Greg Grandin, Professor of History, New York University
Miguel Tinker Salas, Professor of Latin American History and Chicano/a Latino/a Studies at Pomona College
Sujatha Fernandes, Professor of Political Economy and Sociology, University of Sydney
Steve Ellner, Associate Managing Editor of Latin American Perspectives
Alfred de Zayas, former UN Independent Expert on the Promotion of a Democratic and Equitable International Order and only UN rapporteur to have visited Venezuela in 21 years
Boots Riley, Writer/Director of Sorry to Bother You, Musician
John Pilger, Journalist & Film-Maker
Mark Weisbrot, Co-Director, Center for Economic and Policy Research
Jared Abbott, PhD Candidate, Department of Government, Harvard University
Dr. Tim Anderson, Director, Centre for Counter Hegemonic Studies
Elisabeth Armstrong, Professor of the Study of Women and Gender, Smith College
Alexander Aviña, PhD, Associate Professor of History, Arizona State University
Marc Becker, Professor of History, Truman State University
Medea Benjamin, Cofounder, CODEPINK
Phyllis Bennis, Program Director, New Internationalism, Institute for Policy Studies
Dr. Robert E. Birt, Professor of Philosophy, Bowie State University
Aviva Chomsky, Professor of History, Salem State University
James Cohen, University of Paris 3 Sorbonne Nouvelle
Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera, Associate Professor, George Mason University
Benjamin Dangl, PhD, Editor of Toward Freedom
Dr. Francisco Dominguez, Faculty of Professional and Social Sciences, Middlesex University, UK
Alex Dupuy, John E. Andrus Professor of Sociology Emeritus, Wesleyan University
Jodie Evans, Cofounder, CODEPINK
Vanessa Freije, Assistant Professor of International Studies, University of Washington
Gavin Fridell, Canada Research Chair and Associate Professor in International Development Studies, St. Mary’s University
Evelyn Gonzalez, Counselor, Montgomery College
Jeffrey L. Gould, Rudy Professor of History, Indiana University
Bret Gustafson, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Washington University in St. Louis
Peter Hallward, Professor of Philosophy, Kingston University
John L. Hammond, Professor of Sociology, CUNY
Mark Healey, Associate Professor of History, University of Connecticut
Gabriel Hetland, Assistant Professor of Latin American, Caribbean and U.S. Latino Studies, University of Albany
Forrest Hylton, Associate Professor of History, Universidad Nacional de Colombia-Medellín
Daniel James, Bernardo Mendel Chair of Latin American History
Chuck Kaufman, National Co-Coordinator, Alliance for Global Justice
Daniel Kovalik, Adjunct Professor of Law, University of Pittsburgh
Winnie Lem, Professor, International Development Studies, Trent University
Dr. Gilberto López y Rivas, Professor-Researcher, National University of Anthropology and History, Morelos, Mexico
Mary Ann Mahony, Professor of History, Central Connecticut State University
Jorge Mancini, Vice President, Foundation for Latin American Integration (FILA)
Luís Martin-Cabrera, Associate Professor of Literature and Latin American Studies, University of California San Diego
Teresa A. Meade, Florence B. Sherwood Professor of History and Culture, Union College
Frederick Mills, Professor of Philosophy, Bowie State University
Stephen Morris, Professor of Political Science and International Relations, Middle Tennessee State University
Liisa L. North, Professor Emeritus, York University
Paul Ortiz, Associate Professor of History, University of Florida
Christian Parenti, Associate Professor, Department of Economics, John Jay College CUNY
Nicole Phillips, Law Professor at the Université de la Foundation Dr. Aristide Faculté des Sciences Juridiques et Politiques and Adjunct Law Professor at the University of California Hastings College of the Law
Beatrice Pita, Lecturer, Department of Literature, University of California San Diego
Margaret Power, Professor of History, Illinois Institute of Technology
Vijay Prashad, Editor, The TriContinental
Eleanora Quijada Cervoni FHEA, Staff Education Facilitator & EFS Mentor, Centre for Higher Education, Learning & Teaching at The Australian National University
Walter Riley, Attorney and Activist
William I. Robinson, Professor of Sociology, University of California, Santa Barbara
Mary Roldan, Dorothy Epstein Professor of Latin American History, Hunter College/ CUNY Graduate Center
Karin Rosemblatt, Professor of History, University of Maryland
Emir Sader, Professor of Sociology, University of the State of Rio de Janeiro
Rosaura Sanchez, Professor of Latin American Literature and Chicano Literature, University of California, San Diego
T.M. Scruggs Jr., Professor Emeritus, University of Iowa
Victor Silverman, Professor of History, Pomona College
Brad Simpson, Associate Professor of History, University of Connecticut
Jeb Sprague, Lecturer, University of Virginia
Kent Spriggs, International human rights lawyer
Christy Thornton, Assistant Professor of History, Johns Hopkins University
Sinclair S. Thomson, Associate Professor of History, New York University
Steven Topik, Professor of History, University of California, Irvine
Stephen Volk, Professor of History Emeritus, Oberlin College
Kirsten Weld, John. L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Social Sciences, Department of History, Harvard University
Kevin Young, Assistant Professor of History, University of Massachusetts Amherst
Patricio Zamorano, Academic of Latin American Studies; Executive Director, InfoAmericas

Common Dreams:  Open Letter by Over 70 Scholars and Experts Condemns US-Backed Coup Attempt in Venezuela
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 License

For context, we can look at all of the other relevant examples of this sort of thing in the region, which have harmed democracy and cost many thousands of lives just to support corporate imperialism. Pretending that this time will be different is ludicrous.

I highly recommend making time to watch John Pilger’s excellent documentary about decades of US assaults on democracy in South America, “The War on Democracy” which can be watched for free on Vimeo here:  https://vimeo.com/16724719

By restricting Venezuelans in Canada from casting their votes through the Venezuelan embassy, the Canadian government effectively deemed Venezuelan elections fraudulent before they even took place. This is not how international law works.

Venezuelan Analysis: Who Needs Elections? Ask the US About the Government Your Country Should Have

Guatemala’s President, Jimmy Morales, dismantled a United Nations anti-corruption group and barred its head from entering the country.

Honduras’s President, Juan Orlando Hernandez, took power in 2014 after a dubious election and violent crackdown on dissent, then ignored his country’s constitution to win re-election in 2017.

Brazil’s new President, Jair Bolsonaro, has not only publicly attacked women, gay people, immigrants and people of colour, he has also expressed support for torture and his country’s military dictatorship.

“Colombia has witnessed the execution of 120 human-rights leaders in the past two years.

Is Ms. Freeland promoting democracy in those countries?

Globe and Mail: Canada’s leadership on Venezuela is misguided, misdirected – and a mistake

 

a horizontal border of red graphic maple leaves

Read more:
TruthDig: The U.S. Is Orchestrating a Venezuelan Coup in Plain Sight
National Post: NDP leader Jagmeet Singh sows confusion on ‘sensitive’ Venezuela issue, contradicting party line
Green Party of Canada:  Statement on the Situation in Venezuela

Our Water Our Future

Our Water Our Future

This is not a Green Party event, but will be interesting for anyone concerned about water protection and the environment. WRGreens will have an information table at this event!

Our Water | Our Future | no Bill 66 Doug Ford’s government for the developershas introduced a new disturbing piece of legislation. Bill 66 would allow developers to bypass important environmental protections and land use controls established under other…

View On WordPress

Our Water Our Future

Our Water Our Future

This is not a Green Party event, but will be interesting for anyone concerned about water protection and the environment. WRGreens will have an information table at this event!

Our Water | Our Future | no Bill 66 Doug Ford’s government for the developershas introduced a new disturbing piece of legislation. Bill 66 would allow developers to bypass important environmental protections and land use controls established under other…

View On WordPress

2019 Candidate Nominations #KitCen #Wloo

Last week’s WRGreens PreNomination Social was a fabulous success.

WRGreens will be holding 2 nomination meetings.  The first will be a combined meeting for Kitchener Centre and Waterloo.  Today—Monday February 4th, 2019—  is the last day to join the Green Party and be eligible  to vote to choose which of these nominees will be the 2019 Green Party Candidate!

This is the lineup of 2019 GPC nominees for Kitchener Centre:

an Graham, Bob Jonkman, Mike Morrice
2019 Kitchener Centre Candidate Nominees: Ian Graham, Bob Jonkman, Mike Morrice
candidates talk to WRGreens voters
Ian Graham, Bob Jonkman and Mike Morrice discuss green issues at the WRGreens PreNomination Social

And here are the GPC candidate nominees for Waterloo.

Robert Reid and Kirsten Wright
2019 Waterloo Candidate Nominees: Robert Reid and Kirsten Wright
candidate nominees talk with potential GPC voters
Robert Reid and Kirsten Wright discuss green issues at the WRGreens PreNomination Social

Over the next month, each of the nominees will be asked to tell you a little bit about themselves here. We’ll also be publishing videos for each on the WRGreens YouTube page.

The Candidate Nomination will take place on Wednesday, March 6, 2019 at 7:00pm – 8:30pm.

You must live in the riding and attend the nomination meeting in person to vote.

You can register on the Eventbright page here:
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/green-party-nominations-for-waterloo-and-kitchener-centre-tickets-54805128615

or on Facebook here:
https://www.facebook.com/events/497935980731834/

Don’t forget: today is the last day to join the Green Party of Canada to choose the 2019 Kitchener Centre and Waterloo candidates!

Video and audio from my closing keynote at Friday’s Grand Re-Opening of the Public Domain

mostlysignssomeportents:

image

On Friday, hundreds of us gathered at the Internet Archive, at the invitation of Creative Commons, to celebrate the Grand Re-Opening of the Public Domain, just weeks after the first works entered the American public domain in twenty years.

I had the honor of delivering the closing keynote, after a roster of astounding speakers. It was a big challenge and I was pretty nervous, but on reviewing the saved livestream, I’m pretty proud of how it turned out.

Proud enough that I’ve ripped the audio and posted it to my podcast feed; the video for the keynote is on the Archive and mirrored to Youtube.

The whole event’s livestream is also online, and boy do I recommend it.

https://boingboing.net/2019/01/27/locke-as-thinkfluencer.html