Dunkirk, Venezuela, Israel, Baltimore & more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List July 30 - August 6

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

Jordan Edwards, Uber, Bernie Sanders and more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List April 30 - May 7

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 April 30 - May 7. It is generally in order of the date of the article's release.

1) Black Lives Matter Toronto wants police officers out of GTA schools

Chris Glover, CBC News

Black Lives Matter Toronto wants to eliminate the School Resource Officer Program, which stations uniformed officers in Toronto-area schools, as part of six changes targeting anti-black racism in the education system.

See the full article. 

2) Bernie Sanders and The Entire US Senate Unanimously Endorse Israel’s Occupation

Hussain, Eoinhiggans.com

In a move that confirmed the bipartisan support the US political class offers towards Israel, all 100 Senators signed a letter decrying the UN’s supposed unfair treatment towards Israel.

Read the full article. 

3) Silent as the grave: Edmonton police refusal to name homicide victims a wilful misreading of FOIP

Paula Simons, Edmonton Journal

Up until this January, it was standard practice for the Edmonton Police Service to release the names of all homicide victims.

But in January, there was a troubling change in policy. So far this year, we’ve had 17 confirmed homicides. Of those 17 cases, police refused to release the dead person’s identity in eight of them. Six of those cases were domestic homicides. That’s particularly problematic, given the high rate of family violence in Edmonton. And it feels so arbitrary. Sometimes police release the name, and sometimes they don’t — with little apparent rhyme or reason.

Read the full article.

4) Edmonton judge relied on rape 'myths and stereotypes,' Crown argues

 Janice Johnston, CBC News

An Edmonton superior court judge has been accused of relying on rape "myths and stereotypes" to acquit a 55-year-old man of sexually assaulting his stepdaughter.

Read the full article.

5) The alt-right hates women as much as it hates people of colour

Matthew N Lyons, The Guardian

One hundred days on from Donald Trump entering the White House with its help, what will the alt-right do next? The small, loosely organised movement, which has helped to revitalise far-right politics in the United States, has made skilful use of internet activism and has a receptive ear in Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon, who as former head of Breitbart News once proclaimed his network “the platform of the alt-right”. More than shaping White House policy, however, the alt-right’s greatest impact may come from its efforts to shift the political culture.

Read the full article.

6) Barack Obama's $400,000 speaking fees reveal what few want to admit

Steven W Thrasher, The Guardian

The reason many of us have been critical of Barack Obama’s outrageous $400,000 speaking fee is that it robs us of a fantasy: that sooner or later, the first black president was going to use his considerable powers, in or out of office, to help the economic ravages of the poor, who are disproportionately black.

Read the full article.

7) How Canada's 1st Women's Shelters Saved Women From Their Husbands

Laura Kane, The Canadian Press

Jan knew she had to leave.

It was 1973 and her husband spent most days drinking and seething with rage.

One afternoon, he smacked her on the back of the head, knocking her to the floor and nearly cracking her skull on a wall.

Read the full article.

8) Sandy Hook father Leonard Pozner on death threats: ‘I never imagined I’d have to fight for my child’s legacy’

Hadley Freeman, The Guardian

Noah Pozner was reluctant to go to school that day. A mischievous little boy, who had celebrated his sixth birthday three weeks earlier, he stayed in bed too long and dragged his feet getting ready. “I said to him: ‘Come on, Noah, we gotta get moving,” his father, Leonard (also known as Lenny) recalls, having thought about the morning of 14 December 2012 so often he can almost talk about it mechanically. But the drive was fun: Noah, his twin sister, Arielle, and older sister, Sophia, listened to Gangnam Style, one of Noah’s favourite songs. Noah always sat in the back seat and Leonard tickled his ankle as he drove along. At school, Noah jumped out, his backpack in one hand, his jacket in the other. He was wearing a Batman shirt and Spider-Man trainers. “I said: ‘I love you, have a great day,’ and that was the last thing I ever said to him,” says Pozner. After all, he adds, “Not even Batman could have stopped an AR-15.”

Read the full article.

9) Colin Kaepernick donates custom made suits to parolees looking for jobs

Harry Lyles Jr., SBNation

Colin Kaepernick still hasn’t signed a contract with an NFL team this offseason, but he’s been plenty busy with charitable work.

Read the full article.

10) Family demands answers after daughter handcuffed by Surrey RCMP

Tina Lovgreen, CBC News

The parents of a teenage girl are demanding an apology from Surrey RCMP, after their daughter was handcuffed and taken to the ground in what they say is a case of mistaken identity.

Read the full article.

11) “Things are serious”: Update on the French Presidential Election

Stefan Kipfer, Socialist Project

C'est grave,” (things are serious) said the monsieur who sells me the papers every morning. A resident of Mantes-la-Jolie (a working class town at the western edge of the Paris region), he laments a lack of clarity on the dangers of the Front National (FN) not only among colleagues and neighbours but also parties and politicians.

Read the full article.

12) Jackson, Mississippi, Just Nominated Radical Activist Chokwe Antar Lumumba to Be the Next Mayor

John Nichols, The Nation

When Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, NAACP president Cornell Williams Brooks, and actor Danny Glover joined thousands of Mississippians in marching for labor rights two months ago, economic and social justice activist Chokwe Antar Lumumba was in the thick of it. “I stand for workers’ rights,” Lumumba said, as the marchers converged on a Nissan plant where workers have been organizing for union protections. “[The] struggle does not cease and so we’re constantly in the battle of how we create self-determined lives for people. And we believe in human rights for human beings and you cannot support human rights if you’re not prepared to support workers’ rights. And so, we live in a world where you have so many with so little and so few with so much. And so, we’re trying to change that dynamic right here [in Mississippi]—we want to change the order of the world.”

Read the full article.

13) Racial profiling occurs at Ontario airports, malls, and schools, report says

Wendy Gillis and Jennifer Yang, The Toronto Star

Racial profiling is alive and well in Ontario, according to a new survey by the province’s human rights commission — with more than 1,500 Ontarians reporting experiences of being racially profiled not just by police, but also at their workplaces, schools, hospitals and shopping malls.

Read the full article.

14) Jordan Edwards' family consumed by terror, grief after police kill 15-year-old boy

Shaun King, New York Daily News

"Our teenage sons can't sleep at night. They are either sleeping in the bed with us or sleeping with all the lights on. When they fall asleep they are having night terrors of seeing their brother murdered right there in front of them."

Read the full article.

15) Justice for Jordan Edwards’ family means more than locking up his killer

Shaun King, New York Daily News

On Saturday, Charmaine and Odell Edwards buried their baby boy. In a private funeral for friends and family, through tears, sobs and wails, loved ones recounted their memories of a young man who was universally loved by all.

Read the full article.

16) AS UBER PROBES SEXUAL HARASSMENT AT ITS OFFICES, IT OVERLOOKS HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF FEMALE DRIVERS

Avi Asher-Schapiro, The Intercept

IN 2012, SHORTLY AFTER Uber started operating in Los Angeles, Rachel Galindo bought a new car and signed up as a driver. She had worked as a journeyman carpenter, but contractors who used to hire her stopped calling after she transitioned her gender. Driving for Uber, Galindo hoped to avoid transphobia — after all, the company’s own billboards made the tantalizing promise: “Be your own boss.”

The harassment began almost immediately.

Read the full article.

17) I choose activism for Black liberation

Desmond Cole, Cole's Notes

This week I met with Andrew Philips, the Toronto Star’s editorial page editor, who has essentially served as my boss at the newspaper. Phillips called me in regarding my political disruption of the April 20 meeting of the Toronto Police Services Board. Phillips said this action had violated the Star’s rules on journalism and activism. He didn’t discipline me or cite any consequence for my actions—Phillips said he just wanted me to know what the Star’s rules are.

Read the full article.

18) Journalists should only become the news if they are white: Toronto Star Public Editor

Luke Gordon Field, The Beaverton

It has long been the policy of the Toronto Star that black journalists not take public stands on public issues or become the news. By exercising his right to free speech and protest in a public forum on police discrimination Mr. Cole put himself in a firestorm of controversy that upwards of one blog and our newspaper were writing about. This was unacceptable to the editorial board of the Toronto Star and, as the public editor they trot out to cover their asses at times like these, I concur with their decision.

Read the full article.

19) Desmond Cole's decision to leave the Toronto Star suggests a double standard on activism

John Miller, Rabble

This is a tale of two columnists, and how they were treated very differently by Canada's largest newspaper.
All they have in common is that neither is still writing there.

Read the full article.

20) There are diseases hidden in ice and they are waking up

Jasmin Fox-Skelly, BBC News

Long-dormant bacteria and viruses, trapped in ice and permafrost for centuries, are reviving as Earth's climate warms.

Read the full article.

21) Nader Rips Sanders and Democrats for Putting Single-Payer on Back Burner

Russell Mokhiber, Counterpunch

Last month, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vermont) promised single payer activists that he would introduce his single payer bill in the Senate within the next couple of weeks.

Now, according to Sanders’ staff, it’s not going to happen.

Read the full article.

22) The great climate silence: we are on the edge of the abyss but we ignore it

Clive Hamilton, The Guardian

After 200,000 years of modern humans on a 4.5 billion-year-old Earth, we have arrived at new point in history: the Anthropocene. The change has come upon us with disorienting speed. It is the kind of shift that typically takes two or three or four generations to sink in.

Our best scientists tell us insistently that a calamity is unfolding, that the life-support systems of the Earth are being damaged in ways that threaten our survival. Yet in the face of these facts we carry on as usual.

Read the full article.

There is also an article from the last period that we missed at the time that is worth including in this round-up:

23) Losing my religion for equality

Jimmy Carter, The Age

Women and girls have been discriminated against for too long in a twisted interpretation of the word of God.

Read the full article.

See also: Carding, Streaming, Police in Pride and more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List April 23 - 30

See also: The British and French Elections, The West Wing and more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List April 16 - 23

Chrystia Freeland, the NDP Leadership Race & more -- February and March on The Left Chapter in review

February and March saw 45 posts published on The Left Chapter. In terms of hits this period saw the highest number, again, for any two month period in our history. This is the fifth consecutive two month period to set a record!

Thanks very much to all our readers and contributors.


Many of the posts related to the NDP's leadership race either made this list or came very, very close. The Left Chapter is actively seeking different perspectives on the race including from supporters of the various candidates. If you are interested, see the end of this post for details on submitting a piece.

Without any further ado the top six posts from the two months, in terms of hits, are:

1) Liberal Minister Chrystia Freeland should resign for celebrating her grandfather's Nazi past

The sins of the mother or father, grandmother or grandfather, should never be held against the child...unless they then appear to lie about and celebrate those sins.

Read More!

2) Niki Ashton is the leader the NDP and Canada needs

Guest Editorial by Robert McCarthy

My name is Robert McCarthy from Sudbury, Ontario and I am supporting Niki Ashton to become the next leader of the New Democratic Party of Canada. Like myself, Niki is a proud Democratic Socialist. She is the candidate that I most identify with. Her vision includes free tuition and student debt forgiveness, opposing pipelines where they infringe on Indigenous rights and endanger the environment, and the expansion of public healthcare to include dental care, pharmacare and access to mental health services for all Canadians. These policies are perfectly in line with what I believe.

Read More!

3) We don't need a populist left, post-identity politics left or 'alt left' to fight the rise of the far right, we just need a left

Have you heard the news?

The "left" is "out of touch" with the pulse of what is going on in the United States and North America more broadly because insert left academic or commentator/insert left publication says this must be true due to Trump's victory in the US Presidential race.

Read More! 

4) Sid Ryan hits all the right leftist notes in a powerful video that leaves us asking why he is not running

Sid Ryan, the seemingly divisive former leader of the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL), has been flirting with the idea of running for the leadership of the NDP for a few months now.

Read More! 

5) University of Calgary Conservatives plan to mark International Women's Day with a men's rights movie

The University of Calgary Conservative Party club has decided to team up with the campus Wildrose Party club to honour International Women's Day...by screening a movie praising the noxious anti-feminist Men's Rights extremist movement.

Seriously.

Read More!

6) The backlash against Niki Ashton from anti-Black Lives Matter commentators is what is really off base

Are people really attacking Niki Ashton for taking down a meme due to an objection from Black Lives Matter Vancouver? Apparently, in yet another example of misplaced and wasted outrage serving a right-wing narrative about the chimera of "political correctness", they are!

Read More!

The top food related post for the period was Homestyle Pork Chops in Onion Gravy

Over the coming weeks The Left Chapter is interested in getting different perspectives on the NDP leadership race including from those both inside and outside of the party, from partisans of various candidates (perhaps explaining why), from critics of the race or those who think supporting any of them is perhaps a mistake, from those who would like to see a candidate who has yet to emerge, analysis of the candidates from an objective left perspective, etc.

If you have perspectives about the NDP leadership race specifically that you would like to share in blog/article/editorial form please contact us via theleftchapter@outlook.com

Do you have a left point-of-view or opinion, event or petition, a recipe or a story you want to share?

Send them to The Left Chapter via theleftchapter@outlook.com!

See also: CAFE, Molson Coors Boycott, Road Tolls & more -- December and January on The Left Chapter in review

See also: Canadian Labour, Trump, McMaster & more -- October and November on The Left Chapter in review

The backlash against Niki Ashton from anti-Black Lives Matter commentators is what is really off base

Are people really attacking Niki Ashton for taking down a meme due to an objection from Black Lives Matter Vancouver? Apparently, in yet another example of misplaced and wasted outrage serving a right-wing narrative about the chimera of "political correctness", they are! 



Ashton has said that she regards the Black Lives Matter movement as an inspiration and an example, and, in that context, when there was an objection made to something her campaign had done by activists in Black Lives Matter Vancouver she acted as one who really meant this would and showed respect by simply deleting the meme instead of trying to dispute their sentiments or pick a fight about it.

This seems pretty logical and reasonable to me and all the sighs and raised eyebrows on the left are a bit puzzling. I expect that from the right, but her desire to show solidarity does not strike me as something worthy of taking the time and effort to critique even if you do not fully agree with it.

I mean seriously, I just don't get it. She has publicly stated she wants to be an ally to the BLM movement, so why would she not reflect this by listening to what they have to say?

What, exactly, is anyone on the left objecting to?

This is a non-issue and was totally up to her and her campaign. What principle is allegedly at stake or has been violated by her campaign's decision?

I think she should be proud of being willing to put the views of others ahead of her own minor campaign slogans, which is all this was. We are not even talking about policies or platform questions, simply a meme.

At any rate, she was then pilloried not just by some lefties who should really know better, but also by all the usual "anti-politically correct" folks on social media in idiotically over-the-top ways. In my books though, if Men's Rights apologist hacks like Robyn Urback are making fun of you, then you were almost certainly right to do what you did.

Remember that, as always, so many of those quick to get on a bandwagon like this also felt that Pride Toronto was wrong to ultimately support the BLM Toronto demand of keeping the police out of the Pride parade. They simply oppose the BLM activists and their movement and tactics altogether and usually deny that the reality of systemic racism and that the concerns and demands that flow out of this movement are in anyway valid. They are looking to do this as part of a broader campaign of making the concerns of racialized communities and activists appear frivolous.

It is simply a bonus if some lefties play along.

Ashton dealt with objections raised by a BLM group in a respectful and reasonable way. This does not deserve criticism but rather praise and manufacturing an "issue" out of it is a textbook example of trying to portray making an effort to be receptive and open as a weakness and a 'capitulation' when it is really a strength and a sign of commitment to her own self-proclaimed ideals.

Good for Niki Ashton.

See also: You cannot 'discriminate' against the police. They are agents of discrimination.

See also: Black Lives Matter is right -- The police are the oppressor

Black Lives Matter, Right Sector, Canadian Labour & more -- 2016 on The Left Chapter in review

2016 saw 236 posts of various kinds on The Left Chapter. Expanding on a great first year in 2015, 2016 saw record numbers of hits and readers month-after-month as the year progressed.

I want to thank all of our readers and contributors very much for their feedback, support, criticisms and engagement. I look forward to what 2017 has in store.

The year had many posts that came very, very close to making this list including posts about the Canadian Labour Congress and the Liberals, McMaster and neo-Nazis, Pam Anderson and pornography, the Left and road tolls, Colin Kaepernick and a very popular post about "Strongest", an vintage Soviet children's story.

We also had contributions from other writers that were widely read and shared, such as Simon Dougherty's trenchant look at Trudeau and "Elbowgate", Jesse Zimmerman's take on how "The Blairites and NDP leadership share the same contempt for their party members", Natalie Lochwin's powerful exploration of her past as an anti-abortion activist, or 11 year old Julia Laxer's poem on why we should remember the fallen on Remembrance Day.

Thank you so much to everyone who contributed this year and I look forward to seeing what interesting viewpoints and arguments we see next year!

(Remember that if you have a left point-of-view or opinion, a recipe or a story you want to share or if you want to share a petition/appeal or upcoming event you can send them to The Left Chapter via theleftchapter@outlook.com!)

Here, without further ado, are the top ten posts (in terms of hits) on The Left Chapter in 2016:

1) Black Lives Matter is right -- The police are the oppressor

You know, it is always appalling to see some oblivious white idiot walking around with the horrifically racist Cleveland Indians logo on their chest or on some sign of some kind.

I did not see this specific idiot in the picture, but saw another entitled white idiot, strolling down the platform of the Go Station after a Jays-Indians game this year with this disgraceful caricature on the front of her jersey.

Read the full article.

2) What is far-right organization Right Sector doing marching in Toronto's Ukrainian Festival Parade?

Toronto's Ukrainian Festival is an annual celebration of Ukrainian culture and food that takes place on Bloor St. W. and that draws large crowds looking to enjoy some traditional song and dance, perogies and all the other things that get people out to festivals. The organizers say it is the world's largest such festival.

Read the full article.

3) Just what is going on with Canada's labour movement leadership?

The last few weeks have seen a series of what are seemingly truly perplexing moves and actions by some of the country's most important labour leaders.

Read the full article.

4) Canada Post's 'problems' are driven by the neo-liberal assault on public services

The "problems" facing Canada Post are entirely ideological.

Canada's politicians and media have bought into a long-term project driven by right-wing notions of society and the economy that seeks to re-frame public services as "businesses" that should be run "efficiently" along the lines allegedly followed by the private sector. 

Read the full article.

5) Viral photo of North Dakota Pipeline Protest is 100% FAKE. Stop sharing it.

A photo is going viral on Facebook that purports to show the Standing Rock Pipeline protest in North Dakota.

Read the full article.

6) NDP inhibits internal democracy with steep leadership race entry fee

Excited about the possibilities that the upcoming NDP leadership race might allow?

Wondering if an insurgent campaign might arise and if an outsider or unexpected candidate might lead to something akin to what happened with Corbyn in the Labour Party?

Read the full article.

7) Stop sharing the refugees vs. seniors internet myths!

Have you seen this Facebook post circulating around?

Sadly and depressingly it has been shared more than 44,000 times as of this posting.

Old myths along these lines have been around for a long time and have been repeatedly disproved and shown to be false or totally misleading.

Read the full article.

8) The wages of liberalism is Trump

After a generation of retreat that saw its abandoning of the welfare state and of any meaningful advocacy for working people and much of the middle class in the United States, it can now truly be said that the wages of liberalism is Trump.

Read the full article.

9) It's Not Over -- Bernie Sanders releases campaign ad unlike any you have ever seen

Yesterday, the Bernie Sanders campaign for the Democratic Presidential nomination released a campaign ad unlike any you have ever seen.

Read the full article.

10) Obama, Trudeau & Clinton -- Feeling good about the lies of liberalism

Do you remember this moment?

That time when newly minted President Obama was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for absolutely nothing other than having won an election in the wake of the George Bush apparent catastrophe and for having given nice speeches about "hope", closing down Guantanamo and supposedly taking the US in a new direction that would be a departure from the death dealing of the past.

So how did that all work out?

Read the full article.

See also: Racist Memes, Andrew Coyne, the NDP's Disaster & more! -- The Top Ten Posts and the year on The Left Chapter in review

See also: Canadian Labour, Trump, McMaster & more -- October and November on The Left Chapter in review

The NFL, Landlord Licensing, Žižek & more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List October 30 - November 6

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 30-November 6. It is in order of date of the article's  release.



1) Twenty-First Century Victorians

Jason Tebbe, Jacobin

The word Victorian tends to evoke old-fashioned ideas: women confined in corsets, strict gender roles, and a prudishness about all things sexual. In a world where conspicuous consumerism and self-expression rule, these nineteenth-century notions of self-restraint and self-denial seem hopelessly outdated.

But the Victorian ethos is not dead, not by a long shot.

Read the full article.

2) NFL ratings are down because racists despise black men who are truly free 

Shaun King, New York Daily News

NFL ratings are down. And they aren’t down by a fraction of a percent, but are down by double digit percentages. For a product that is essentially the same as it was last year, or the previous years, such a rapid decline is shocking. Ratings for “Monday Night Football” are down a staggering 24%. The decline for “Sunday Night Football” is 19% and “Thursday Night Football” is right behind them with an 18% decline.

Read the full article

3) State of disrepair: tenant survey bolsters call for landlord licensing

Laurie Monsebraaten, Toronto Star

Cockroaches and bedbugs, poor ventilation and mold, faulty elevators and lack of heat in the winter.

These are among the most common problems faced by Toronto tenants, according to a new survey being released Tuesday.

Read the full article

4) The 'Drunk Teacher' saga is a cautionary tale for the social media age

CBC Radio

Until last week, if you'd googled the name "Klara Bowman," the search would have come back with a series of stories about a drunk teacher who was fired from her job in Tacoma, Washington.

That was before a columnist with The News Tribune in Tacoma decided to uncover Klara Bowman's full story.

Read the full article

5) Canadian media giant apologizes to Independent Jewish Voices Canada

IJVC

Dear Friend,

I am very pleased to present the following Vancouver Sun statement along with an Independent Jewish Voices Canada (IJV) Op-Ed and member Corey Levine's letter printed in their newspaper, and posted on their website and the websites of the Ottawa Citizen and the Calgary Herald. We encourage you to add your comments on their websites.

Read the full article

6) Instead of blaming Black Lives Matter for police getting killed, conservatives should look in the mirror 

Shaun King, New York Daily News

Something truly terrible happened Wednesday morning.

Two police officers in Iowa, Justin Martin and Tony Beminio, were shot and killed. Police described each successive shooting as an ambush that each officer never saw coming. Like most officers, these men had adoring families and a network of friends and colleagues who are absolutely devastated by this loss.

Read the full article

7)  The Sweetest Escape: The Chicago Cubs Win the World Series

Dave Zirin, The Nation

There are no words. If the greatest predictor of the future is the past, why would anyone think that the Chicago Cubs would win the World Series in our lifetime? They hadn’t won a title since 1908. They hadn’t even appeared in the Series since 1945, before Jackie Robinson broke the damn color line. This is a team with every possible resource, rooted in a major market, managed by future Hall of Famer Joe Maddon and stocked with players chosen by the man who brought a World Series title to Boston, “The Curse-Breaker,” Theo Epstein. And yet even with all of these rational indicators, baseball fans know that this is an irrational sport.

Read the full article

8) 7 Reasons So Many Guys Don’t Understand Sexual Consent

David Wong, Cracked

The following sentence applies regardless of when you read this: A famous man has recently been accused of doing sexual things to a woman (or many women) without consent. At the time of this writing, it was a politician's "groping" scandal but next time it'll be unwanted dick pics a powerful man sent to an intern, or the spreading of hacked photos of some actress, or a famous athlete getting sued by a woman whose accusations didn't get anywhere with the police. And, in fact, I bet there isn't a single female reading this who hasn't been the victim of that sort of thing.

Well, here's something you should know: I was taught from birth that this behavior is exactly what women want.

Read the full article

9) Homeless speak out about harsh treatment by police

Laurie Monsabraaten, Toronto Star

After visiting a friend at a downtown hospital last month, Toby Nicol stopped on his way out to make a call from a courtesy phone. Suddenly he was surrounded by four burly hospital security guards who demanded to know what he was doing.

“Before I knew it, they had handcuffed me and called police,” said Nicol, 35, a peer leader at St. Stephen’s Community House, which works with homeless and marginally-housed people in Toronto’s downtown core.

Read the full article

10) Enbridge making Toronto Hydro privatization pitch

David Rider, Toronto Star

Calgary-based energy giant Enbridge Inc. is making a Toronto Hydro privatization pitch even before city council has decided to debate selling a chunk of the utility.

Enbridge’s “unsolicited proposal” is part of an uptick in pro- and anti-privatization lobbying reminiscent of the battle before council rejected a downtown waterfront casino proposal in 2013.

Read the full article

11) New ad campaign takes aim at racist Toronto

Derek Flack, Blog TO

A new ad campaign on Toronto bus shelters confronts anti-black racism head-on with a series of posters that challenge viewers to question their potential racial bias. Part of a campaign commissioned by the Ontario Council of Agencies Serving Immigrants (OCASI) and the City of Toronto carried out by the firm Public Inc. the series is titled Toronto for All.

Read the full article

12) From Farce to Tragedy: Žižek Endorses Trump

Ian Steinman, Left Voice

In an interview published yesterday the famous philosopher, and Left Forum keynote speaker, Slavoj Zizek seriously (and not merely ironically, as he has done before) declared that if he was voting in the American elections he would vote for Trump. The victory of Trump, despite Trump being absolutely "disgusting", according to Zizek would trigger a "big awakening". It would cause a fundamental shock to the American political system and force realignments, the emergence of new political phenomenon.

Read the full article

13) At Least 40 Women Have Accused Bill Clinton or Donald Trump of Sexual Assault

Doug Johnson Hatlem, Counterpunch 

No, Bill Clinton is not just accused of consensual affairs. Yes, he and Hillary Clinton are a team. She has been a regular part of attacking Bill’s victims, has worn the mantle of his supposed successes, and has promised that he will have a key place in running the economy in her administration.

Read the full article

14) How ‘sex work’ killed the victim

Raquel Sanchez, Feminist Current

The girls want to learn — that much is clear. If there is one message that comes across from Al Jazeera’s article, “Educating girls in South Sudan,” (sponsored by the International Women’s Media Foundation) and written by photographer Sara Hylton, is that the girls from the Unity State of South Sudan want to pursue their education.

Read the full article

15) The German model is producing hell on earth!

Dr. Kraus, Trauma and Prostitution Blog

Thank you for inviting me here to Vancouver. Thank you to all the organizations that have made this possible, especially Suzanne Jay, who invited me and organized everything.

Prostitution has always been legal in Germany, except a short period of time in the early 20th century.[1] Germany instituted a law in 2002 that tried to make out of prostitution a job as any other. The politicians thought, that it wasn´t prostitution itself that was the problem, but the discrimination of the women by the society and the lack of rights they had. Considering the problem from this perspective, they wanted to strengthen the women as best as possible. (They said): Prostitution should not be seen any more as something “against the good morals“, but as a job. For now on, the women were considered as workers, “sex workers.” And if they are workers, they should have the same rights as any other worker that run a business or is employed somewhere, like having a social security or if their rights are not respected, they should have the right to enforce a claim by legal action. The state didn´t want to put any regulations concerning the sex practices. They said that nobody can say how people should have sex. As they run a business, they are also allowed to make publicity for it. So the new law cancelled the restriction of promoting prostitution.

Read the full article

16) 'This city sees itself in Standing Rock': Climate advocate says dozens of Winnipeggers travelling to protest

CBC News

Dozens of Winnipeggers are preparing to make a cross-border drive to Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota, where they will join protesters there in the fight against the Dakota Access Pipeline.

On Friday, supporters packed into a West End church to drum up support and solidarity for Standing Rock and the Winnipeggers going there.

Read the full article

17) Public sector union hired ‘union avoidance’ lawyer

Martin Regg Cohn, Toronto Star

If you’re a big union having trouble with your own small union representing support staff at headquarters, who ya gonna call?

Union busters?

Surely not. Law firms don’t normally advertise themselves in such stark terms (and never mind copyright infringement with the Ghostbusters movie franchise).

Read the full article

See also: Adam Capay, the ONDP, the US Greens & more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List: October 23-30

Black Lives Matter, Canada Post, Tory Austerity & more -- June and July on The Left Chapter in review

June and July saw 43 posts of various kinds on The Left Chapter.

Overall the numbers were the strongest of any two month period for the blog so far and many of the articles that did not make this round-up's list would have easily made those of a few months or a year ago.


In fact, Black Lives Matter is right -- The police are the oppressor was our most read piece so far this year and among the top three in The Left Chapter history!

Thanks to all our readers and contributors.

Here are the top seven posts in terms of hits:

1) Black Lives Matter is right -- The police are the oppressor

You know, it is always appalling to see some oblivious white idiot walking around with the horrifically racist Cleveland Indians logo on their chest or on some sign of some kind.

I did not see this specific idiot in the picture, but saw another entitled white idiot, strolling down the platform of the Go Station after a Jays-Indians game this year with this disgraceful caricature on the front of her jersey.

Read More!

2) Canada Post's 'problems' are driven by the neo-liberal assault on public services

The "problems" facing Canada Post are entirely ideological.


Canada's politicians and media have bought into a long-term project driven by right-wing notions of society and the economy that seeks to re-frame public services as "businesses" that should be run "efficiently" along the lines allegedly followed by the private sector.

Read More!


3) Full austerity jacket -- The gloves come off in Tory's Toronto

With Toronto City Council's reaffirmation of its commitment to the staggeringly wasteful $3.2 billion one-stop Scarborough subway extension while also backing Mayor John Tory's plan to force all city departments and agencies to slash 2.6% in spending, the gloves have truly come off in Tory's austerity Toronto.

Read More!

4) You cannot 'discriminate' against the police. They are agents of discrimination.

One of the most depressing realities to be made clear by the entire backlash to the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protest at the Toronto Pride Parade this past weekend is just how many white people are simply clueless as to the continuing day-to-day actuality of systemic racism in our society.

Read More!

5) The new TTC youth fare rules are a revolting attack on children

The TTC and its sad Toronto City Councillor overlords have come up with a brilliant idea -- children as young as 6 will need to have cards to get free transit, children between 10 and 12 will have to have photo ID that they will have to pay for to ride for "free" and adolescents will have to display ID, even when they are OBVIOUSLY teenagers, to get a measly dollar off the fare.

Read More!

6) Rejecting the lesser evil -- Why you should not buy into mainstream narratives about voting

As the upstart and surprising Bernie Sanders campaign appears, sadly, to have lost to corporate Democrat Hillary Clinton (who I have noted in the past in anything but a left candidate), the calls for leftists and progressives in the United States to rally around her Presidential candidacy to "stop Trump" are getting louder and louder.

Read More!

7) The Blairites and NDP leadership share the same contempt for their party members

By Jesse Zimmerman

Across the Pond...

The past few weeks have been, to say the very least, intense in the UK.  As most of us know, following the Brexit vote, Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has been facing a challenge against his leadership by key Members of Parliament, blaming Corbyn for the result of the EU referendum.  This is absurd, and it has been demonstrated that Corbyn is not responsible for the LEAVE vote winning.  Of course, for Blairites and New Labour, facts have never mattered.

Read More!

Although published prior to the period the post Strongest?: Teaching Children About the Power of the People - A Vintage Soviet Children's Story got so many hits in June due to a reddit thread that it would have been second on this list had it been posted in June! It gets an honourable mention instead.

This month's top "food" post overall, and one of the most read we have ever published, was The beers of Muskoka Brewery -- Canada's first 'living wage' brewery, while the top food post that was specifically a recipe was BBQed Rainbow Trout with Herbs-de-Provence & Garlic Butter.

Do you have a left point-of-view or opinion, a recipe or a story you want to share?


Send them to The Left Chapter via theleftchapter@outlook.com!

See also: NDP "Democracy", Ontario Liberal Injustices, Etobicoke Thrift Shops & more -- April and May on The Left Chapter in review

See also: Bernie Sanders, the Ghomeshi Verdict, the Calgary Police & more - February and March on The Left Chapter in review

Tory Austerity, TTC Inanity, Black Lives Matter, Bike Licensing & more -- The Left Chapter Toronto City Politics Journal V

Since our last Toronto civic politics journal the city has seen the reaffirmation of the outrageously wasteful Scarborough one-stop subway plan, the consolidation of Mayor Tory's austerity agenda and a truly, deeply awful decision by the TTC board to start requiring photo IDs for children as young as ten!

These were looked at in depth in two pieces on The Left Chapter:

Full austerity jacket -- The gloves come off in Tory's Toronto

The new TTC youth fare rules are a revolting attack on children

Black Lives Matter

A completely peaceful and relatively brief protest by Black Lives Matter Toronto at the Pride parade led to a tidal wave of often racist backlash against the group and what were perfectly reasonable and appropriate actions to secure a set of laudable goals, including calling for an end to police floats in future.

Janaya Khan of BLMTO responded to the backlash: BLACK LIVES MATTER TORONTO CO-FOUNDER RESPONDS TO PRIDE ACTION CRITICISM

A public anti-racism meeting with Premier Wynee and Mayor Tory in the wake of the protest saw frustration with both officials and:

But it was Tory, Toronto's blue blood mayor, who got roasted. His expressions ranged from discomfort, disinterest, and at times, irritation. One woman accused Tory of "piggybacking" on Wynne's event, before calling him "a coward," for refusing to meet with BLM in April. With his best deflection, he took the mic and said he was invited by Wynne and the provincial government. She also reminded him, to everyone's satisfaction, that he once said that white privilege doesn't exist. Near the end of the night, writer Desmond Cole questioned Tory's whereabouts when Black Lives Matter sat in front of police headquarters for two weeks in the cold. It was one of the only moments of the night that Tory got up and admitted fault. 

"I should have been there," he said.

A truly offensive motion that would have seen council affirm its support for police participation in the Pride parade put forth by Councillor Di Ciano was, happily, withdrawn by him prior to being debated. 

Two pieces on The Left Chapter also looked at the protest and its aftermath:

Black Lives Matter is right -- The police are the oppressor

You cannot 'discriminate' against the police. They are agents of discrimination.

Metrolinx Takes on the City

Metrolinx has decided to take legal action over a plan by the city to allow the building of townhouses by a railway yard in Etobicoke -- a decision that was taken against the advice of the city's own planners!

We looked already at some of the back story around this, including Ward 5 Councillor Justin Di Ciano's uncomfortably close relationship with the developers who stand to benefit from council's decision.

The entire episode displays yet again that Tory's (who voted in favour of allowing the development) claims that he would be running an "evidence based" administration were total nonsense.

Suburban Councillors to Resurrect Stupid Bike Licensing Idea

Two suburban Etobcioke Councillors, Ward 3's Stephen Holyday and -- you guessed it! -- Ward 5's Justin Di Ciano, are trying to resurrect the truly idiotic idea of bike licensing as a "revenue tool" for the city.

Remember that this is in a city that dispensed with the Vehicle Registration Fee directed at cars.

Toronto is easily one of the most car friendly cities in North America already, so why not bring in a bunch of bureaucratic nonsense that would be certain to get people to leave their bikes in the garage and get into their cars to go to the corner store instead?

This will also be very helpful in efforts to curb climate change which, as we all know, is caused by all those folks doing the socially and environmentally responsible thing by riding bikes. Right?

The proposal is unlikely to go anywhere, but it is sad that any Councillor would even consider it -- though not at all a shock that it would be these two leading lights who did.

Other News

Integrity Commissioner finds Coun. Mark Grimes had 'improper' relationship with developers

Toronto council approves 3 supervised injection sites

A reminder as well that on July 25 there will be a City Council and two TDSB by-elections.

See you in two weeks!

See also: Peel Police State, Scarborough Subway, By-elections & People's Choice 2018 - Left Chapter Toronto City Politics Journal IV

See also: Toronto and Peel's 'finest', TTC Scarborough subway shame & more -- Left Chapter Toronto City Politics Journal III

You cannot 'discriminate' against the police. They are agents of discrimination.

One of the most depressing realities to be made clear by the entire backlash to the Black Lives Matter (BLM) protest at the Toronto Pride Parade this past weekend is just how many white people are simply clueless as to the continuing day-to-day actuality of systemic racism in our society.

As always seems to be the case when racialized and marginalized communities stand up for their rights in any visible way whatsoever, an endless stream of facile and specious narratives arise based around logically false equivalencies or simple stupidities which are used as a cover for what amounts to racism

One might note that the BLM protest was entirely peaceful and stopped the Pride parade for all of 30 minutes. Based on some of the reaction you would have thought it was a terrorist attack!

I already wrote about some of the absurd and offensive responses from the usual reactionary suspects like the odious Margaret Wente and the Toronto Sun's in-house political simpleton  Joe Warmington.

BLM Toronto co-founder Janaya Khan wrote powerfully and movingly of how BLM in Toronto is very much a part of the broader LGBT movement which is what made the time and place of their action totally appropriate. as well as about the awful and viciously racist backlash they faced,.

Khan also pointed briefly to one of the most absurd narratives to flow out of the whole affair -- that being the notion that preventing a police float from being in the march would somehow be "exclusionary" or "discriminatory".

The high school logic class false sanctimony at play here runs along the sad old liberal lines of "Pride is supposed to inclusive and not letting the police march is not inclusive" which sounds good if you forget we are in a society with a history and a legacy of racism and if you somehow pretend the police are a group that can be discriminated against.

Which they cannot be. It is even more stupid than the usual cries of "reverse racism" or moronic nonsense like trying to claim that anti-Islamic bigotry is not racist because "Islam is not a race".

Gay cops can write all the plaintive letters they want, but the police are not a racialized or marginalized group or even a social group at all that can be "discriminated" against anymore than dentists or engineers can be "discriminated" against. The entire construct of attempting to claim this is idiotic.

The police are the paid, armed wing of the state, along with the military. As the paid, armed wing of a racist and colonialist, homophobic and misogynist society historically the police have reflected this in their practice.

They have both historically and in the here-and-now been racist, colonialist, homophobic and misogynist.

That they have been forced to include (and they were forced, make no mistake) members of groups that have suffered under the yoke of these systemic injustices changes nothing. That specific officers may not be racist also changes nothing, in the same way that specific white people not being racist changes nothing about systemic racism.

Just as "All Lives Matter" is obliviously racist as a slogan, "Blue Lives Matter" is even more so.

There are no lives that matter more to the state than "blue lives" as is clearly seen across North America as time-after-time obvious and egregious cases of racist or other murders or brutalization by police officers go almost entirely unpunished. Any type of action against or conviction of police officers in even the most obscene instances are almost unheard of.

In fact, as we just saw in the wake of the G20 Toronto police riot, the police can violate the civil rights of thousands of people publicly and openly with almost no consequence at all.

And everyone knows this so lets cut the bullshit.

The police have served to enforce discrimination and inequality and they have far from turned the page on this with their members, chiefs and officers continuing to support and extol practices like carding that have been demonstrated to be racist.

Until the police unions, membership and leadership have actually disavowed these ugly and vile practices and demonstrated that they are actually committed to a non-discriminatory kind of policing (and I am not convinced that this is necessarily possible at this moment in history) it is an affront to those groups that they actively oppress daily to think that the police should be partying it up in parades without some who see the actuality of the jackboot questioning this.

When people talk about the virtue of inclusion, if they actually mean what they say the police are an obstacle to that goal and a very active one.

Instead of decrying and being enraged by non-violent protests by Black Lives Matter, why not stand in solidarity with them in the face of actually violent, often deadly and overtly discriminatory actions by the police and demand societal redress and justice for this?

I think we all know the answer as to why so many white people get so up-in-arms about the former but say nothing at all about the latter.

I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a "more convenient season." - Martin Luther King "Letter from a Birmingham Jail"

See also: Black Lives Matter is right -- The police are the oppressor

See also: Part of the problem: Talking about systemic oppression