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Monday, October 30, 2017

The Eleventh Hour: Defeat the New Fascist Threat! -- Gus Hall, CPUSA 1964

Vintage Leftist Leaflet Project

See the end of this post for details on the project.

Leaflet: The Eleventh Hour: Defeat the New Fascist Threat! -- Gus Hall, CPUSA 1964

This leaflet, written by American Communist leader Gus Hall (who we saw in a previous leaflet and who was later to run with Angela Davis on the CPUSA presidential ticket) is quite interesting in today's context.

It examines very old questions confronting the left when faced by a serious electoral threat from the far right. In this case the threat was from the Republican candidacy of Barry Goldwater in 1964.

(click on scans to enlarge)














When The Left Chapter began part of what I wanted to do on the blog was to show and highlight vintage public leftist election/political leaflets and booklets. While many of these have been offered with commentary to date, a very large collection of hundreds of them from several different sources remains and to preserve these often quite rare documents we will be posting them on a regular (almost daily) basis now often without or with minimal commentary so that people may have access to them as quickly as possible as an historical resource. 

While these will all be leaflets from a variety of different leftist viewpoints and countries, they are being posted as an historical/study resource and the views or opinions expressed in them do not necessarily reflect the views of this blog or blogger.

All of these posts (as well as posts made to date) will be listed on the page: Vintage Communist/Socialist Leaflets (which is still being updated with past posts).

If you have any public, vintage leaflets or booklets you would like to contribute to this project please contact us via theleftchapter@outlook.com

Sunday, October 29, 2017

Ginger Jentzen, Pope Francis, Podemos and more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List October 22-29

This week's list of articles, news items and opinion pieces that I see as must reads if you are looking for a roundup that should be of interest to The Left Chapter readers.

This list covers the week of  October 22-29. It is generally in order of the date of the article's release.

1) A Toronto imam was accused of hate-preaching against Jews. But that wasn’t the whole story

Jennifer Yang, The Toronto Star

Ayman Elkasrawy’s controversial prayers sparked outrage and condemnation from many, including members of his own faith. In the aftermath, he reached out to the Jewish community to educate himself and learn from his mistakes. Still, a key question remained unanswered: did he really say what he was accused of saying?

Read the full article.

2) Sexual Harassment is Old News for Women in Trades

tradeswomn musings

In the wake of harassment allegations against sexual predators including movie moguls and our president, tradeswomen applaud women who are telling their stories and rising up against this outrage.


Women in male-dominated occupations have been fighting this fight for as long as we can remember. We’ve been on the front lines of the feminist movement for decades defending our sisters, supporting legislation to protect women against sexual harassment and helping employers and unions see their responsibility on this issue. We and our fight have been invisible except to each other. Every female construction worker has experienced harassment and all of us can say #Metoo.

Read the full article.

3) CAMI Strike 2017: After Another Setback Can Unifor Move On?

Herman Rosenfeld, The Socialist Project Bullet

A four-week strike at the CAMI assembly plant, that began on September 17th, ended on October 16th. Members of Unifor Local 88 voted 86% in favour of the tentative agreement bargained with the stand-alone GM plant. Located in Ingersoll, Ontario, close to London, it is a former joint venture between Suzuki and GM. CAMI assembles hot-selling Chevrolet Equinox crossover vehicles.

Read the full article.

4) Why did Masuma Khan’s post invite censure from Dalhousie if free speech is so vaunted?

Shree Paradkar, The Toronto Star

Dalhousie University is facing scrutiny for investigating a student leader's polarizing social media comments as a group of law professors and a civil liberties group accuse the university of censoring political speech.

Read the full article.

5) Please turn up the volume on the #MeToo outrage

Susan G. Cole, NOW Magazine

Don’t buy the argument that smaller abuses aren’t harmful – there is a spectrum of abuse, and it has to be acknowledged.

Read the full article.

6) Quebec Gov't To Keep Crucifix Despite Banning Niqabi Women From Public Transit

Huffington Post

A crucifix that is prominently displayed in the room where members of the Quebec national assembly hold their regular sittings is staying put.

Read the full article.

7) Catholic school sex-ed plan as advertised won't ever be taught, premier says

The Canadian Press

Alberta Premier Rachel Notley says an alternative sex education curriculum being crafted by Catholic school officials will never be taught if it arrives as previously advertised.

Read the full article.

8) Labour leaders rally at Union Station to demand transit services be kept in public hands

Muriel Draaisma, CBC News

A handful of labour leaders launched a campaign at Toronto's Union Station on Tuesday morning to stop what they say is the privatization of public transit projects.

Read the full article.

9) James Toback: 200 more women allege harassment by director, reports LA Times

Gwilym Mumford, The Guardian

Julianne Moore among new accusers as paper says it has received hundreds of stories of unwanted sexual attention from Toback, who has denied earlier allegations.

Read the full article.

10) Fashion must now move on from female exploitation – and Terry Richardson

Namalee Bolle, The Guardian

The Harvey Weinstein scandal has triggered a wave of allegations, revelations and even confessions, via the #metoo campaign, across media and entertainment. I’m not the only one working in the fashion business wondering whether this will finally signal the end of our own disgraceful “hush hush” culture surrounding harassment.

Read the full article.

11) Woody Allen Keeps Telling Us Who He Is. Women Should Listen.

Kali Holloway / AlterNet

Someone should invent a word for that moment when you realize an artist you love is a terrible person. The term could be used to succinctly describe the painful transition between before and after, that fracture in time separating carefree consumption from morally weighted knowledge. It would define the general discomfort of watching Last Tango in Paris versus the full-on horror of learning Bernardo Bertolucci and Marlon Brando conspired to commit verité sexual assault against Maria Schneider to get an authentically humiliating take. It would sum up the sudden creepiness that emanates from Cliff Huxtable with awareness that serial sexual abuser Bill Cosby is actually ensconced in that sweater. It’s the disturbing realization that sexually predatory thug Harvey Weinstein was involved in so many iconic films and incidents of sexual harassment dating back decades, it casts a shadow over an entire industry. Or the insight that R. Kelly—who will never face charges because this country doesn’t believe black women can truly be victims, as Weinstein also proved—was genuinely trying to sell us all on age-of-consent laws being useless.

Read the full article.

12) 'I will never not speak out again': Cindy McCormick killed in murder-suicide, says friend

Bobbi-Jean MacKinnon, CBC News

As Jennifer Gordon struggles to cope with the slaying of her best friend, Saint John dentist Cindy McCormick, in Alberta last weekend, she has made a promise to herself.


"I will never not speak out again," she said. "I will never stay silent."

Read the full article.

13) Revealed: oil giants pay billions less tax in Canada than abroad

Martin Lukacs, The Guardian

Canada taxes its oil and gas companies at a fraction of the rate they are taxed abroad, including by countries ranked among the world’s most corrupt, according to an analysis of public data by the Guardian.

Read the full article.

14) MINNEAPOLIS CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATE IS A SOCIALIST WHO GETS THINGS DONE

Zaid Jilani, The Intercept

A Group of about 20 Minneapolis residents huddled outside a downtown building on a recent Friday, some wearing T-shirts emblazoned with messages, like “Tax the Rich” and “Minneapolis Needs a Political Revolution.”

Read the full article.

15) A Harvey Weinstein Moment for the Restaurant Industry?

Jen Agg, The New Yorker

In September of 2015, I organized a conference in Toronto to discuss gender inequality in the restaurant world. Titled Kitchen Bitches: Smashing the Patriarchy One Plate at a Time, the conference was the first of its kind, and it came in the wake of several instances of women in the Toronto restaurant industry speaking out about the discrimination and harassment they’d faced.

Read the full article.

16) Ontario makes it illegal to protest outside and near abortion clinics

The Canadian Press

It will soon be illegal to protest outside and near abortion clinics in Ontario.


The legislature passed a bill Wednesday to create zones around the eight clinics in the province of between 50 and 150 metres in which anti-abortion protests, advising a person not to get an abortion, and intimidation or interfering with a woman's ability to access the services will be banned.

Read the full article.

17) Quebec police officers accused of trading money and drugs for sex with aboriginal women placed on leave

Postmedia News

Police officers trading money and cocaine for sex, a missing persons case that collected dust for months, and allegations of wanton cruelty against vulnerable women.


These are what indigenous people say they have encountered first-hand in their dealings with the Sûreté du Québec in the remote mining city of Val d’Or.

Read the full article.

18) Social media brings Pakistan's persecuted women rare justice after the violence

Farhad Mirza and Sophie Hemery, The Guardian

Sarah Gill, Suman Ali – aka Acid Survivor – and Khadija Siddiqi represent a growing movement using the internet to demand justice for the shocking crimes they have suffered. Will it trigger long-awaited change in Pakistan?

Read the full article.

19) Why deny the Ukrainian Nazi connection?

David Pugliese, Ottawa Citizen

The Russian Embassy in Ottawa has created quite the controversy with its latest tweets about Nazi monuments in Canada.

Read the full article.

20) Podemos Leader Pablo Iglesias Calls Catalan Independence Illegal

Left Voice

The repression of October 1 may be small compared to the immense repression that Rajoy could bring down on the Catalan people as a result of this independence vote and concrete move to separate from the Spanish State. Iglesias turns his back on those workers and students who are in the streets celebrating right now, and who may tomorrow be in the streets facing the Spanish police. All progressives must position themselves in opposition to Article 155 and against the repression of the Spanish State. Podemos must put its immense political weight on the side of the workers and youth instead of leaving the Catalan people isolated to face off against the Spanish State and its imperialist backers. They must call for a huge movement against Article 155, against repression, and against a possible occupation of Catalonia by the Spanish armed forces.

Read the full article.

21) The war against Pope Francis

Andrew Brown, The Guardian

Pope Francis is one of the most hated men in the world today. Those who hate him most are not atheists, or protestants, or Muslims, but some of his own followers. Outside the church he is hugely popular as a figure of almost ostentatious modesty and humility. From the moment that Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio became pope in 2013, his gestures caught the world’s imagination: the new pope drove a Fiat, carried his own bags and settled his own bills in hotels; he asked, of gay people, “Who am I to judge?” and washed the feet of Muslim women refugees.

Read the full article.

22) Marital rape myths have no place in Canadian law

Jennifer Koshan, Melanie Randall and Elizabeth Sheehy, The Globe and Mail

Since 1983, it has been a crime in Canada to sexually assault one's spouse. Yet marital rape too often remains effectively decriminalized, as shown in a recent Ontario decision. In R. v. H.E., an Ottawa man was acquitted of sexually assaulting his wife. Justice Robert J. Smith found that "the accused probably had sex with his wife on many occasions without her specific consent, as both he and she believed that he had the right to do so." With respect to the incident that led to criminal charges, however, the complainant testified she had told the accused to stop several times, and the judge found her to be credible. It is difficult to see how the accused could have honestly believed that his wife was consenting in these circumstances. It appears the accused was acquitted because he did not understand the law of consent, despite the fact that ignorance of the law is no defence.

Read the full article.

23) Judges failing women again on sex assault cases

Vicky Mochama, The Toronto Star

Companies and institutions will have to reckon with how they have created environments for predators to thrive but is the criminal justice system is ready for this change?

Read the full article.

24) 'An insult to women': Roman Polanski retrospective causes outrage

Agence France-Presse, The Guardian

French feminists have voiced outrage over a planned retrospective of the films of director Roman Polanski, who has been accused of several sexual assaults, calling it “an insult” to women following the Harvey Weinstein scandal.

Read the full article.

25) How Terry Richardson created porn ‘chic’ and moulded the look of an era

Richard Benson, The Guardian

The photographer, now ostracised by the fashion industry after many allegations of sexual harassment, shaped an aesthetic of exploitation.

Read the full article.

26) Iceland's centre-left opposition takes narrow majority in parliament

France 24

Icelanders, angry over a string of political scandals, ousted the centre-right government in an election that could pave the way for a young charismatic opposition leader to form a left-leaning coalition, final vote counts showed on Sunday.

Read the full article.

While this piece is from before the period covered, it is important and we are including it as we missed it before:

27) POLICE REPORTEDLY CLAIM A BROOKLYN TEEN CONSENTED TO SEX IN CUSTODY. THAT’S IMPOSSIBLE.

Natasha Lennard, The Intercept

On September 28, attorney Michael David filed notice of a claim against the New York Police Department, the City of New York, and two unnamed police officers, referred to as John and Jim Doe. These plainclothes cops, alleged the claim, “brutally sexually assaulted and raped” his 18-year-old female client. David told me that within a day, he needed to amend the claim: The officers had been identified by police in the press as Brooklyn South narcotics detectives Richard Hall and Edward Martins.

Read the full article.

See also: Bill 62, Harvey Weinstein, Climate Change and more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List October 15 - 22

See also: Harvey Weinstein, Sidney Crosby, Cuba and more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List October 8-15

Saturday, October 28, 2017

The Professions -- A Soviet Socialist Realist Art Portfolio for Children

Published in Moscow in 1983 this folder of Soviet socialist realist art was actually aimed at children. It was a portfolio of works by various artists that portrayed working people in the USSR farming, building subways, engaged in construction, sorting fish etc.

All of the art reproductions were fairly large at 8 by 11 inches and came with extensive text in Russian on the back about the piece. Unfortunately we have no translations for this text, but we have translated the names of the paintings. The folder originally came with 16 pieces of which we have 12 and the cover art.

The art here is truly compelling and interesting in terms of the professions that they chose to include. It is also not overly idealized but rather shows the important role that its subjects play and the nature of what they do.

Standouts to me are the deeply atmospheric take on Steelworkers in their foundry, the look at Uzbek women engaged in gold embroidery, the more idealized portrait of workers connecting tunnels of the Kharkiv Metro and the slightly surrealist piece of the artist as worker painting the day-to-day of port life.

What also comes through is the centrality of the worker in the Soviet cultural and social narrative.

(Click on images)


Caspian Fisheries


Artist and Port


Construction of the Kharkiv Metro


New District of Leningrad


Task Force


Trailer


Waiting for the Brigade


Metro Construction Workers


Gold Gems of Bukhara


Steelworker Brigade


The First Kilometers


"Harness the Horses"





Thursday, October 26, 2017

Halloween Fun w. Spooky Sundaes, Witch's Brew and more - Vintage Cookbook #TBT

Vintage Cookbook: Halloween Fun, Judy Owens with illustrations by Kathryn Cole and Terry Brooks

Publication Details: Scholastic, 1971

Halloween Fun is a terrific, illustrated, and, indeed, very fun "how-to" book aimed at kids that was published in 1971. It was, of course, all about organizing the best possible Halloween night party for all your friends.

As such it included sections on decorations, costumes and games, and party foods. The food ideas, needless-to-say, were all Halloween themed and are very cute with names like Spooky Sundaes and Witch's Brew.

What really stands out among all the tips and ideas are the wonderful illustrations by Kathryn Cole and Terry Brooks. When these are combined with ideas like "Giggle Juice" the book is sure to bring a smile to any face.

Here we look at some of the food ideas as well as a few of the illustrations and tips.

Watch out for the ghosts and goblins and have a happy and safe Halloween!

(Click on images to enlarge) 













Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Simmered Beef in Gravy



This easy and tasty recipe uses a small "cheat" to create a beef dish that has been simmered in gravy until very tender and is then served over egg noodles, fettuccine, rice or even a toasted baguette.

Ingredients: 

2 lb. cubed stewing beef
4 cloves minced garlic
1 medium chopped onion
2 teaspoons cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons mustard powder
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
4 cups/900 ml. beef stock
1 packet powdered beef or brown gravy mix
chopped fresh parsley
sea salt to taste

To begin, heat some olive oil in a large and deep saucepan. Add the beef, onion and garlic and saute for around 3-5 minutes or until the beef cubes are browned. While browning them, season with the sea salt, mustard powder and cayenne pepper.

Once the beef has been browned add the beef stock. You want the stock to just cover the beef. For 2 lbs. this is generally going to take around 4 cups/900 ml. of stock. Then add the soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce and the packet of dry gravy mix. Stir until the mix is dissolved.

Bring the stock to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, for 1 1/2 to 2 hours or until beef is tender. If you feel the gravy is reducing too much for your liking, you can add a small amount of water or beef stock as required.

After the beef has finished simmering, serve with the gravy atop a bed of egg noodles, fettuccine (as pictured above) or rice. It is nice to sprinkle some chopped fresh parsley over top once you have plated it. It can also be served as an open faced "hot beef" sandwich on top of toasted baguette halves.

Simple and delicious.

Enjoy.

See also: West Indian Style Beef Short Ribs and Potato

See also: Beef Roast with an Onion Jus

Tuesday, October 24, 2017

The Afghanistan Crisis - Imperialist Threat to Peace and Socialism - The African Communist 1980

Vintage Leftist Leaflet Project

See the end of this post for details on the project.

Leaflet: The Afghanistan Crisis - Imperialist Threat to Peace and Socialism - The African Communist 1980

We have already looked at a couple of leaflets (Onward March of Afghan Revolution and On the 20th Founding Anniversary of the PDPA) related to the Saur Revolution in Afghanistan. This one is a statement taken from a 1980 issue of the African Communist quarterly. 

The leaflet looks at the Soviet intervention in support of the Afghan revolution from a very different perspective than the one we are used to in North America. It also notes that the Afghan PDPA government was trying to modernize Afghan society -- fighting illiteracy, working towards women's equality rights, redistributing land and other essential reforms -- in the face of a CIA and US financed campaign of imperialist destabilization that backed deeply reactionary and obscurantist forces that would go on to form groups like the Taliban.

We all know how that turned out.

Two noteworthy passages:
Babrak Karmal stressed that the objectives of the revolutionary council were not to introduce socialism, for which the basis did not yet exist because of the backwardness of the country, but to strengthen the social and political foundations of Afghanistan and ultimately secure the victory of the anti-feudal, democratic, anti-imperialist and anti-exploiting forces. The new government, Karmal said, would strive to end poverty, disease, backwardness, illiteracy, and ignorance, unemployment, and national and social oppression. 

and:
Everywhere America is to be found on the side of reaction and against the forces of liberation, though everywhere she claims to be defending "freedom" and "democracy".
Some things have yet to change. 

(Click on scans to enlarge)












When The Left Chapter began part of what I wanted to do on the blog was to show and highlight vintage public leftist election/political leaflets and booklets. While many of these have been offered with commentary to date, a very large collection of hundreds of them from several different sources remains and to preserve these often quite rare documents we will be posting them on a regular (almost daily) basis now often without or with minimal commentary so that people may have access to them as quickly as possible as an historical resource. 

While these will all be leaflets from a variety of different leftist viewpoints and countries, they are being posted as an historical/study resource and the views or opinions expressed in them do not necessarily reflect the views of this blog or blogger.

All of these posts (as well as posts made to date) will be listed on the page: Vintage Communist/Socialist Leaflets (which is still being updated with past posts).

If you have any public, vintage leaflets or booklets you would like to contribute to this project please contact us via theleftchapter@outlook.com

Sunday, October 22, 2017

Bill 62, Harvey Weinstein, Climate Change and more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List October 15 - 22


This week's list of articles, news items and opinion pieces that I see as must reads if you are looking for a roundup that should be of interest to The Left Chapter readers.




This list covers the week of  October 15-22. It is generally in order of the date of the article's release.

1) Time to make the link between abuse and film content

Kate Hardie, The Guardian

Many creative men have come out since the Weinstein allegations, making it clear that they do not agree with sexual abuse. I wasn’t aware there was any doubt that sexual abuse was a bad thing, but it’s good to have it clarified. (Forgive the sarcasm. It’s been a long week.) But so far, very few have been brave enough to start a conversation about the subtler, yet no less urgent, subject of the content of their own work, to examine their own record regarding the treatment and the representation of women. The focus is quite rightly on the horrendous sexual abuse that Weinstein is alleged to have committed. But to focus on that alone is to miss the point that the portrayal of women – of their lives, their feelings, their sexuality and their bodies – is nearly always decided upon and filtered through male eyes. Nearly every actress will tell you about scripts that included scenes of female nudity that seem to have no apparent reason for being there and that are often degrading.

Read the full article.

2) Colin Kaepernick filing grievance for collusion against NFL owners

Evan Grossman, New York Daily News

Colin Kaepernick is prepared to fight.


The exiled QB filed a collusion complaint against NFL owners, according to multiple reports. Kaepernick filed the complaint outside of the NFLPA, according to ABC News.

Read the full article.

3) Maduro's Socialist Party Wins Venezuela's Regional Polls

teleSUR

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said it was the highest turnout in 15 years - more than 10 million people voted.

Read the full article.

4) Trump fighting court order over release of all documents related to sexual assault allegations

Clark Mindock, The Independent

A woman who says Donald Trump groped her is attempting to get all documents from the President’s 2016 campaign that mention sexual assault.

Read the full article.

5) It’s not just one monster. ‘Me too’ reveals the ubiquity of sexual assault

Suzanne Moore, The Guardian

Me too may be another hashtag. With good intentions. But this time it is showing the ubiquity of sexual assault. “If all women who have been sexually harassed or assaulted wrote ‘Me too’ as a status, we might give everyone a sense of the magnitude of the problem,” said the actor Alyssa Milano. Well, now it’s there all over social media if you choose to see it. Women saying “me too”, often describing their first sexual assault, some when they were not yet 12.

Read the full article.

6) Kevin Smith to donate all of his future residuals from Weinstein-made movies to Women in Film

Derek Lawrence, Entertainment Weekly

Kevin Smith recognizes that his career will forever be linked to Harvey Weinstein, the man whose two previous companies — Miramax and The Weinstein Company — have produced the filmmaker’s most notable projects. So, in the wake of the recent sexual misconduct allegations leveled at the disgraced Hollywood mogul, Smith has decided to donate all of his future residuals from Weinstein-connected projects to Women In Film, a non-profit organization advocating for progress and gender parity in the industry.

Read the full article.

7) 'This is a really big deal': Canada natural gas emissions far worse than feared

Ashifa Kassan, The Guardian

Alberta’s oil and gas industry – Canada’s largest producer of fossil fuel resources – could be emitting 25 to 50% more methane than previously believed, new research has suggested.

Read the full article.

8) Canada’s Ongoing Complicity with Exploitive Extraction Schemes

Niko Block, Socialist Project Bullet

On June 15, 1841, the newly established Legislative Council of the Province of Canada – a body of twenty-four appointed lawmakers – was gathered in its chamber in Kingston. Its speaker, a businessman and nationalist named Austin Cuvilliers, began the day’s proceedings by reminding his peers of their mandate: “Many subjects of deep importance to the future welfare of the Province demand your early attention,” he said, but the most important of them “is the adoption of measures for developing the resources of the Province. The rapid settlement of the country, the value of every man’s property within it, the advancement of his future fortunes are deeply affected by this question.”

Read the full article.

9) Socialist Ginger Jentzen is the greatest city council fundraiser in Minneapolis history

MikeMullen, City Pages

Ginger Jentzen's opponents are hardly surprised.


Asked if they wanted to discuss their campaign's fundraising, in light of one candidate's claim that they were raising money at historic levels, neither Steve Fletcher (DFL) or Samantha Pree-Stinson (Green Party) had to ask which of their opponents was pulling in all that money.

Read the full article.

10) I Got Shut Down While Trying to Report on the Louis C.K. Rumors

Megan Koester, Vice

A couple of years ago, I traveled to a comedy festival in the hopes of asking comedians like Dave Chappelle, Kevin Hart, and T.J. Miller what they'd heard about Louis C.K. It did not go well.

Read the full article.

11) Sears managers, execs will still pocket big cash bonuses even though retailer is closing

Sophia Harris, CBC News

Sears Canada will pay a final $2.8 million in retention bonuses to 36 head office staff, even though the retailer's restructuring efforts failed and the company is closing its doors.

Read the full article.

12) Theresa May confirms she won't give money to fit tower blocks with sprinklers

Rob Merrick, The Independent

Theresa May has confirmed there will be no Government cash to fit sprinklers in tower blocks, triggering accusations she has broken a promise made after the Grenfell Tower tragedy.

Read the full article.

13) The Case for Free Public Transit

Tricia Wood, Torontoist

Metrolinx recently announced a program to discount TTC fare for those transferring from the GO Transit system. (Other TTC riders and those transferring from other systems get nothing.) It’s a little gift that will cost about $18 million, but in the greater scheme of things, it’s a pretty weak gesture.

Read the full article.

14) The blood on George W Bush's hands will never dry. Don't glorify this man

Ross Barkin, The Guardian

For liberals across the spectrum, the temptation is real to lionize George W Bush now. Donald Trump is our child-king, slobbering over the country and embarrassing us all. He is parody made real, a lackey for rightwing billionaires everywhere. It’s not hard to find a talking head on the left who will say he is, without question, the worst president America has ever had.

Read the full article.

15) Calls flood Montreal police hotline for victims of sexual misconduct

 Kalina Laframboise, CBC News 

One day after setting up a temporary hotline for complainants of sexual assault and harassment, Montreal police say the calls are pouring in.

Read the full article.

16) O’Reilly Settled New Harassment Claim, Then Fox Renewed His Contract

Emily Steel and Michael Schmidt, The New York Times

Last January, six months after Fox News ousted its chairman amid a sexual harassment scandal, the network’s top-rated host at the time, Bill O’Reilly, struck a $32 million agreement with a longtime network analyst to settle new sexual harassment allegations, according to two people briefed on the matter — an extraordinarily large amount for such cases.

Read the full article.

17) Quebec’s Bill 62 declares war on sunglasses

Chantal Hebert, The Toronto Star

Somewhere in the Quebec government’s legal department, a team of lawyers is bracing to argue in court in what may be the not-too-distant future that the wearing of dark sunglasses puts the safety of the province’s public transit system at risk. Ditto presumably in the case of local libraries and city parks.

Read the full article.

18) I Am Disgusted By Trudeau's Response To Quebec's Racist Law

Warren Kinsella, Huffington Post

Either you believe people have an inalienable right to peacefully express their deepest religious views, or you don't.

Read the full article.

19) Jagmeet Singh hopeful Quebec's controversial Bill 62 will be overturned

Catharine Tunney, CBC News

Federal NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh says he's "completely opposed" to Quebec's new and controversial law that would effectively force Muslim women who wear a niqab or burka to uncover their faces to use or provide public services, but he's confident the legislation will be challenged.

Read the full article.

20) Montreal protesters don surgical masks, scarves over new face-covering law

Sean Henry & Jillian Kestler-D'Amours, CBC News

Protesters wearing surgical masks and scarves over their faces lined up Friday along a Montreal bus route to rally against a new law that would force anyone using public services, including Muslim women wearing a niqab or burka, to uncover their faces.

Read the full article.

21) Bill 62 is a racist, sexist, disgraceful law

Allison Hanes, Montreal Gazette

What better way to show how ridiculous it is to try to legislate the dress of the tiny fraction of Muslim women who wear the full face veil than to target all face coverings? Outlaw the balaclava and the bandana, put the kibosh on the cagoule and the cache-cou, let Quebecers get frostbite in the name of fairness — and that will teach the xenophobes the pointlessness and offensiveness of trying to regulate what people wear, whatever the reason.

Unfortunately, it is not a bad joke.

Read the full article.

See also: Harvey Weinstein, Sidney Crosby, Cuba and more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List October 8-15

See also: Las Vegas, Catalonia, Harvey Weinstein and more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List October 1-8