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 July 30 - August 6. It is generally in order of the date of the article's release.
1) Right-Wing Colombia Leader Calls for Military Coup in Venezuela
Telesur
Former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe urged the Venezuelan military to rebel against the democratically-elected government.
Read the full article.
2) The Rise and Fall of the “Freest Little City in Texas”
James McCandless, Texas Observer
How a libertarian experiment in city government fell apart over taxes, debt and some very angry people.
Read the full article.
3) 'Great unfairness': 2 more sex assault cases where victims were jailed to ensure their court testimony
Janice Johnston · CBC News
A victim 8 months pregnant was jailed the night before she was to testify.
Read the full article.
4) Petition: Canada, Hands Off Venezuela!
Venezuela Solidarity
Dear Minister Freeland,
I am outraged by the position the Trudeau government has taken with regard to the escalating conflict in Venezuela. Once again the government has condemned Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, expressing serious concerns over the government’s plan for a Constituent Assembly, saying it’s “contrary to Venezuela’s Constitution”. This is not only a flagrant interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign nation but is also factually incorrect. Article 347 and 348 of the Bolivarian Constitution clearly outlines its legitimacy and establishes the president’s right to convoke a National Constituent Assembly.
Read and sign the petition
5) What Mainstream Media Got Wrong About Venezuela's Constituent Assembly Vote
Carla Gonzalez, Telesur
Venezuelans voted Sunday for representatives of the National Constituent Assembly, amid what the government has called a targeted media campaign to destabilize the country and destroy its sovereignty.
International media outlets rushed to discredit the vote, sharing grossly misrepresentative accounts of the historic electoral process.
Read the full article.
6) Why the lack of Indian and African faces in Dunkirk matters
Sunny Singh, The Guardian
What a surprise that Nigel Farage has endorsed the new fantasy-disguised-as-historical war film, Dunkirk. Christopher Nolan’s movie is an inadvertently timely, thinly veiled Brexiteer fantasy in which plucky Britons heroically retreat from the dangerous shores of Europe. Most importantly, it pushes the narrative that it was Britain as it exists today – and not the one with a global empire – that stood alone against the “European peril”.
Read the full article.
7) Dunkirk, the War and the Amnesia of the Empire
Yasmin Khan, The New York Times
Two and a half million soldiers drawn from Britain’s empire in South Asia fought in World War II. But they are missing from many British commemorations and accounts of the war — an absence reinforced by Christopher Nolan’s new film “Dunkirk,” which does not feature any of the Indian soldiers who were present at the battle.
Read the full article.
8) Independent Jewish Voices Ranks NDP Candidates on their positions around Israel/Palestine
Independent Jewish Voices - Canada (IJV) and Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East (CJPME) recently questioned the four NDP Leadership candidates prior to the start of online voting on September 18th, 2017.
Read the full article.
9) The Unbearable Whiteness of CBC’s Reporting of the Blue Jays Beer Can Tosser
Erin Kobayashi, The Torontoist
The CBC devotes 5,000 words to the redemption of one white man, but completely erases the racism hurled at POC players during the same baseball game.
Read the full article.
10) Baltimore drops dozens of cases after video appears to show police officers planting evidence
Jacey Fortin, The Toronto Star
State attorneys are dismissing dozens of cases in Baltimore after reviewing a video that appears to show a police officer planting evidence at a crime scene while two other officers look on.
Read the full article.
11) Andrew Loku inquest provides eye-popping glimpse into police mindset
Alok Mukherjee, Now Magazine
Inquiry into the police shooting death of another Black man in crisis raises uncomfortable questions about racial bias and the weak systems of accountability that are in place when police get it wrong.
Read the full article.
12) Why are women with disabilities being given help to die, instead of help to live?
Carmela Hutchison, Rabble
People with disabilities and their caregivers are at risk for being made to say yes to medical assistance in dying when they don't want to.
Read the full article.
13) This anti-abortion hijacking of Black Lives Matter is cynical and offensive
Elizabeth Nelson, The Guardian
Both Lives Matter has got away with a misleading ad. But using the language of human rights can’t hide its true agenda: subjugating Northern Ireland’s women.
Read the full article.
14) First Nations women had 800% more overdoses: 'horrific' crisis' new B.C. data
David P. Ball, Metro Vancouver
The statistics are as shocking as the "horrific" crisis they measure, British Columbia's new mental health minister, Judy Darcy, warned Thursday.
Read the full article.
15) Ontario women to get free access to abortion pill starting Aug. 10
Meagan Fitzpatrick, CBC News
The Ontario government says it is giving women in the province more choice over their reproductive health by covering the cost of Mifegymiso, commonly referred to as an abortion pill, starting on Aug.10.
Read the full article.
16) Joseph Boyden Won’t Find Indigenous Identity In A Test Tube Of Spit
Robert Jago, Canadaland
In anticipation of a fall book tour for his new novel, Seven Matches, Joseph Boyden is back in the pages of Maclean’s magazine with an article restating his claim of First Nations ancestry, and anchoring that in the results of a DNA test.
Read the full article.
17) The Lost Cause Rides Again
Ta-Nehisi Coates, The Atlantic
HBO’s prospective series Confederate will offer an alternative history of post-Civil War America. It will ask the question, according to co-creator David Benioff, “What would the world have looked like … if the South had won?” A swirl of virtual protests and op-eds have greeted this proposed premise. In response, HBO has expressed “great respect” for its critics but also said it hopes that they will “reserve judgment until there is something to see.”
Read the full article.
18) Galen Weston Knows Paying a Living Wage is Bad for Capitalism
Tannara Yelland, The Torontoist
Galen Weston Jr., the mild-mannered, bespectacled grocery-store magnate you may recognize from President’s Choice commercials, is a thoroughly Canadian one-percenter. He is thoroughly Canadian in the sense that he isn’t flashy or grandiose like Richard Branson, and he doesn’t tout the benefits of vampirism or plot to destroy the free press, à la real-life super villain Peter Thiel. He is thoroughly of the one percent in the sense that his family is worth somewhere in the ballpark of $9 billion, he himself earned at least $5 million last year, and, despite that generous—one might even say obscene—level of wealth, he remains staunchly opposed to paying his employees enough money to live on.
Read the full article.
19) A perfect storm: homelessness, mental health, criminal law and no shelter beds
Sarah Shartal, The Toronto Star
This summer growing numbers of my clients in Toronto have stayed in jail because there were not shelter beds. Even Seaton House has put in cots. In one of the richest cities in the world we are keeping people in jail before trial because we cannot provide them a bed in a warehouse as their address.
Read the full article.
20) Facebook Apologizes To Black Activist For Censorship
NewsOne Staff
Activist and writer Ijeoma Oluo says her account was suspended for calling out racism.
Read the full article.
21) This is what really happens when prostitution is decriminalised
Julie Bindel, The Independent
The application form for opening a brothel in New Zealand is just two pages long: three pages shorter than the form needed to adopt a dog or cat from Battersea Dogs & Cats Home.
Read the full article.
22) Netanyahu's Looming Fall Is No Cause for Celebration
Gideon Levy, Haaretz
King Bibi’s departure is a necessary step, but by no means enough. Only a revolution in thinking will generate change in Israel.
Read the full article.
See also: Toronto Police, Star Trek, Omar Khadr & more -- The Left Chapter Weekly Reading List July 23 - 30
See also: Police Brutality, Thunder Bay, Ryerson & more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List July 16 - 23
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