This list covers the week of December 25 - January 1. It is in order of date of the article's release.
1) Future Shock
Abraham Riesman, Vulture
On Christmas day, 2006, a curious twist on the Nativity debuted in a handful of movie theaters. Directed and co-written by Mexican auteur Alfonso Cuarón, Children of Men told the story of (decade-old spoiler alert) a near-future dystopia in which women are inexplicably unable to have babies — a state of affairs upended by the advent of a miraculous pregnancy. The film is set in the deteriorating cities and countryside of southeastern England — vividly rendered with alarming realism and minimal use of sci-fi futurism — amid geopolitical chaos that has led to a massive refugee crisis, which has in turn led an immigrant-fearing and authoritarian U.K. to close its borders to outsiders who seek its shores. Terrorist attacks in European capitals are just routine items in the news crawl. The world stands on the brink, and no one has any clear idea of what can be done. The film, in hindsight, seems like a documentary about a future that, in 2016, finally arrived.
Read the full article.
2) Suburban Sprawl: An Enemy of the Left Part 4: The Great Toronto Toll Debate
Yves Engler, Dissident Voices
Suburban sprawl is an enemy of the Left and progressives should support efforts to discourage it, including tolls.
In opposing tolls on Toronto’s Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway, a number of leftists cite political strategy. They argue the tolls will elicit a rightist populist backlash and alienate potential supporters.
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3) Quebec City guide to help integrate newcomers derided as insulting, infantilizing
Ingrid Peritz, The Globe and Mail
Immigrants who settle in Quebec City are being offered a new guide to explain local customs, and the authors spare no detail in telling the newcomers how to fit in – for example, refrain from committing incest, wash with soap and use underarm deodorant to “control perspiration and bad odours.”
Read the full article.
4) Cheetahs heading towards extinction as population crashes
Matt McGrath, BBC News
The sleek, speedy cheetah is rapidly heading towards extinction according to a new study into declining numbers.
Read the full article.
5) The UN Settlements Vote: Netanyahu Is Dragging Israel Into the Abyss
Haaretz Editorial Board
As Israel’s diplomatic defeat at the UN Security Council becomes clearer, it’s equally clear why Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stubbornly insists on being foreign minister as well. Netanyahu doesn’t want anyone interfering as he destroys diplomatic relations with the countries, some friendly to Israel, that “dared” to vote for the resolution declaring the settlements illegal. The burial of the Foreign Ministry and the abandonment of diplomacy turns out to be part of a broad and dangerous plan to disengage from international law and stop playing by its rules.
Read the full article.
6) Complaint about Toronto police officer sent back to same division for investigation
Wendy Gillis, Toronto Star
Suzanne Tinglin thought she was fulfilling her civic duty when she walked into her local police station in Toronto’s northwest corner last summer.
The registered nurse and York University instructor had received several voicemail messages from an officer requesting that she come to 23 Division to speak about an investigation at Humber College, where she goes to the gym. He gave few details, but Tinglin assumed she was needed to help solve a crime.
Read the full article.
7) The Reason for Israel’s Hysterical Response to the UN Security Council Resolution
Yousef Munayyer, The Nation
Since last week, we have seen a unique sequence of events, some unprecedented and others less so, that have brought the Palestine-Israel issue back to the fore. Last Friday, the United States abstained at the United Nations Security Council on Resolution 2334, thereby allowing it to pass when the 14 other members of the council voted for it.
Read the full article.
8) Most Low-Wage Workers in the United States Are Women, Study Finds
Claire Landsbaum, The Cut
The gender wage gap hasn’t closed significantly since 2007, and a new report from Oxfam America and the Institute for Women’s Policy Research highlights one of the reasons why. According to the report, of the 23.5 million people working low-wage jobs in the United States, 19 million are women. What’s more, demand for low-wage workers is expected to increase as time goes on, meaning more and more women — a disproportionate number of whom are immigrants and women of color — will be called to fill those roles. As long as women are pushed into low-wage jobs, the gender gap is unlikely to budge.
Read the full article.
9) Premier Brad Wall hints at wage rollbacks as province faces ballooning deficit
Jennifer Graham, The Canadian Press
Public sector workers in Saskatchewan will be asked to help tackle the province’s $1 billion deficit in the coming year, potentially through wage rollbacks or layoffs.
Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall said wages make up 60 per cent of government spending and everything has to be on the table when it comes to filling the huge hole in the budget.
Read the full article.
10) Dad DIES 10 months after Job Centre bosses told his doctor not to write any more sick notes
John Ferguson, The Mirror
A seriously ill dad died just 10 months after Department for Work and Pensions bosses advised his GP not to write any more sick notes for him.
James Harrison had been declared “fit for work” and should not get medical certificates, the letter said.
Read the full article.
11) The Globe and Mail has officially published Canada's worst headline of 2016
Press Progress
"Lynching?"
Nope, you didn't wake up in an alternate reality – this is a real headline that ran in the Globe and Mail on December 29, 2016:
Read the full article.
12) Boyden: ‘I discovered a gold mine’ on James Bay
Lenny Shish
Amid the controversy of Joseph Boyden’s Indigenous ancestry, or lack thereof, I cannot help but look back on how he presented my hometown and people in the novel that won him the Giller Prize in 2008 — and the lack of recognition he has given to the community directly.
Read the full article.
13) Correcting Christie Blatchford
Canadaland
Christie Blatchford wrote a column, published Friday in the National Post, excoriating UBC for cancelling an appearance by John Furlong at a fundraising event.
The university had received a complaint asserting that Furlong shouldn’t be given a platform to speak at UBC, because he’s been accused of abusing Aboriginal children when he was a teacher at Immaculata Elementary School in Burns Lake, B.C. You can read about those allegations in an article by freelance journalist Laura Robinson in the Georgia Straight. You can read more in CANADALAND’s coverage, too.
Read the full article.
See also: Car Culture, the CIA, Pope Francis & more -- The Left Chapter Holiday Reading List December 18 - 25
See also: Climate Change, Porn Culture, Tolls & more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List December 11 - 18
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