Mélenchon, US Bombings, Christie Blatchford & more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List April 9 - 16

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 9 - April 16. It is generally in order of the date of the article's release.

1) Is There Any Accountability for Canadian Columnists? A response to Christie Blatchford's astonishing column about a sex assault survivor

Mandi Gray, Robson Crim Legal Blog

On March 15, 2017, the National Post published an opinion piece titled “Mandi Gray’s Astonishing Remark at Sex Assault Appeal Hearing: It’s Not Worth It” by Christie Blatchford. Blatchford’s commentary solidifies why sexual assault is often unreported, especially if the perpetrator is in a position of power.

Read the full article.

2) Leftist candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon shakes up France's presidential race

Agence France-Presse, The Guardian

The French Communist-backed presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon is closing in on the frontrunners Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen, according to new polls.

Read the full article.

3) Migrants from west Africa being ‘sold in Libyan slave markets’

Emma Graham-Harrison, The Guardian

West African migrants are being bought and sold openly in modern-day slave markets in Libya, survivors have told a UN agency helping them return home.

Read the full article.

4) Great Barrier Reef at 'terminal stage': scientists despair at latest coral bleaching data

Christopher Knaus and Nick Evershed, The Guardian

'Last year was bad enough, this is a disaster,’ says one expert as Australia Research Council finds fresh damage across 8,000km

Read the full article.

5) Alberta Catholic high school under fire for pro-life presentation comparing abortion to Holocaust

Emily Mertz. Global News

A Catholic high school in Red Deer is being criticized for a pro-life presentation to students that compared abortion to the Holocaust.

The presentation in March by Red Deer and Area Pro Life was recorded by a student at École Secondaire Notre Dame High School during a mandatory Grade 10-12 religion class.

Read the full article.

6) Sean Spicer: ‘Hitler didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons’

David Edwards, Raw Story

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer asserted on Tuesday that Adolf Hitler had never used “chemical weapons.”

Read the full article.

7) The Latest San Bernardino Shooting Reveals A Far More Common Form Of Terror

 Melissa Jeltsen, The Huffington Post

When news of an active shooter inside an elementary school broke on Monday morning, it triggered panic and alarm. For residents of San Bernardino, California, a community still reeling from the trauma of a terrorist attack that killed 14 people less than two years ago, it was as though a fresh wound had been ripped wide open.

But as the details of the shooting emerged, it became clear that what took place inside that classroom was driven by domestic violence, not ideology. The story police told was as American as apple pie: A rage-filled man taking his wife’s life.

Read the full article.

8) France is angry. The left must show Europe that bigotry is not the answer

Owen Jones, The Guardian

The radical left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon is surging in the presidential election, challenging far-right xenophobia and the complacency of the centre

Read the full article.

9) More than 100 UN peacekeepers ran a child sex ring in Haiti. None were ever jailed

Paisley Dodds, The Toronto Star

“Imagine if the UN was going to the United States and raping children and bringing cholera,” said one lawyer in Haiti, where UN peacekeepers face hundreds of allegations of child sex crimes.

Read the full article.

10) Police oversight isn’t broken, it was built this way

Desmond Cole, The Toronto Star

Police oversight in Ontario isn’t broken — it is designed to protect police from accountability, and in that sense it’s working just fine.

After years of public discontent, the provincial government recently launched a comprehensive review of three police oversight bodies. The Special Investigations Unit, which looks into any death, serious injury, or allegation of sexual assault involving police, is the agency most tied to public trust, and therefore the one most in need of an overhaul.

Read the full article.

11) Trump's Massive Bomb and Syrian Strike Both Deadly Propaganda Events

The Real News Network

Vijay Prashad and Paul Jay ask if the US "mother of all bombs" dropped on Afghanistan and the missile attack on a Syrian airbase, are PR events to show Trump and the US military will "fight without restraint" and "take on Russia"

Read the full transcript.

12) Top 10 books about the Russian Revolution

Tariq Ali, The Guardian

A century after the Bolsheviks seized power for communism, Tariq Ali chooses some of the best books about an uprising that changed the world forever.

Read the full article.

13) The strike that challenged a giant and won

Socialist Worker

April 13 marks the one-year anniversary of the start of a nationwide strike at Verizon that won important gains for Verizon workers. Danny Katch talked to Dominic Renda, a call center worker and member of Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 1105, and Amy Muldoon, a technician and shop steward in CWA Local 1106, about their memories of the strike, and some of the lessons it can hold for workers and others fighting to defend their rights under the Trump presidency.

Read the full article.

14) Rachel Notley warns caucus members not to campaign for B.C. NDP

The Canadian Press

Alberta's NDP premier has a message for anyone in her government who is thinking of going to British Columbia to campaign for the New Democrats in that province's election: Think again.

Read the full article.

15) Leftist Candidate Surges in French Presidential Election

Nika Knight, Common Dreams

In a surprising twist in the French presidential election, leftist candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon is surging in the polls, raising the possibility of a run-off vote between the pro-worker and pro-immigrant candidate and his far-right rival Marine Le Pen.

Read the full article.

16) When Nazi Ghosts Come Back to Life

Murray Dobbin, Counterpunch

The irrational has begun to dominate our politics as if the American virus has stealthily moved north to infect our national narratives. It reflects itself in various ways but it seems that war – old wars, current wars and future wars – have gripped the minds of our political elite and their courtiers in the media. Most problematic is Chrystia Freeland whose well-documented hostility towards Russia raises questions about her suitability for the Foreign Affairs post. She got off almost scot free for blatantly lying about her Nazi grandfather. Justin Trudeau lost his reason regarding the US missile attack on Syria and we were subjected to an extra-heavy dose of non-sense about Vimy Ridge with Trudeau opining that ‘this was Canada at its best.’.

Read the full article.

17) 'It felt like the heavens were falling': Afghans reel from Moab impact

Sune Engel Rasmussen, The Guardian

Locals describe the moment the ‘mother of all bombs’ was dropped, as critics question the wisdom of deploying the weapon.

Read the full article.

18) The US media makes a moral case for the Syria strike. That's dangerous

Gregory Shupak, Middle East Eye

When the US accused the Syrian government of carrying out a chemical attack in Khan Sheikhoun and then bombed Syria's Shayrat air base, the secular priesthood in the US media praised the supposed morality of the US air strikes.

Read the full article.

Also, on April 13th a debate was held in Toronto around the idea of a Basic Income.

"The idea of a Universal Basic Income (UBI) has been championed by both progressives and conservatives. Not everyone on the left, however, is behind the idea. Is the UBI a means of redistributing wealth, attacking poverty and protecting workers from technological displacement? Or will basic income serve to advance an agenda of austerity and privatization? This important debate features two speakers speaking in favour of the left support for Basic Income and two against."

Socialist Project posted a video of the entire debate which you can watch here.

See also: Syria, Trump, the JDL & more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List April 2 - April 9

See also: Canada 150, Saskatchewan Austerity, the Ottawa Police & more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List March 26 - April 2

Netanyahu, Children of Men, Cheetahs & more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List December 25 - January 1

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 December 25 - January 1. It is in order of date of the article's release.

1)  Future Shock

Abraham Riesman, Vulture

On Christmas day, 2006, a curious twist on the Nativity debuted in a handful of movie theaters. Directed and co-written by Mexican auteur Alfonso Cuarón, Children of Men told the story of (decade-old spoiler alert) a near-future dystopia in which women are inexplicably unable to have babies — a state of affairs upended by the advent of a miraculous pregnancy. The film is set in the deteriorating cities and countryside of southeastern England — vividly rendered with alarming realism and minimal use of sci-fi futurism — amid geopolitical chaos that has led to a massive refugee crisis, which has in turn led an immigrant-fearing and authoritarian U.K. to close its borders to outsiders who seek its shores. Terrorist attacks in European capitals are just routine items in the news crawl. The world stands on the brink, and no one has any clear idea of what can be done. The film, in hindsight, seems like a documentary about a future that, in 2016, finally arrived.

Read the full article.

2) Suburban Sprawl: An Enemy of the Left Part 4: The Great Toronto Toll Debate

Yves Engler, Dissident Voices 

Suburban sprawl is an enemy of the Left and progressives should support efforts to discourage it, including tolls.

In opposing tolls on Toronto’s Gardiner Expressway and Don Valley Parkway, a number of leftists cite political strategy. They argue the tolls will elicit a rightist populist backlash and alienate potential supporters.

Read the full article.

3) Quebec City guide to help integrate newcomers derided as insulting, infantilizing

Ingrid Peritz, The Globe and Mail

Immigrants who settle in Quebec City are being offered a new guide to explain local customs, and the authors spare no detail in telling the newcomers how to fit in – for example, refrain from committing incest, wash with soap and use underarm deodorant to “control perspiration and bad odours.”

Read the full article.

4) Cheetahs heading towards extinction as population crashes

Matt McGrath, BBC News

The sleek, speedy cheetah is rapidly heading towards extinction according to a new study into declining numbers.

Read the full article.

5) The UN Settlements Vote: Netanyahu Is Dragging Israel Into the Abyss

Haaretz Editorial Board

As Israel’s diplomatic defeat at the UN Security Council becomes clearer, it’s equally clear why Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stubbornly insists on being foreign minister as well. Netanyahu doesn’t want anyone interfering as he destroys diplomatic relations with the countries, some friendly to Israel, that “dared” to vote for the resolution declaring the settlements illegal. The burial of the Foreign Ministry and the abandonment of diplomacy turns out to be part of a broad and dangerous plan to disengage from international law and stop playing by its rules.


Read the full article.

6) Complaint about Toronto police officer sent back to same division for investigation

Wendy Gillis,  Toronto Star

Suzanne Tinglin thought she was fulfilling her civic duty when she walked into her local police station in Toronto’s northwest corner last summer.

The registered nurse and York University instructor had received several voicemail messages from an officer requesting that she come to 23 Division to speak about an investigation at Humber College, where she goes to the gym. He gave few details, but Tinglin assumed she was needed to help solve a crime.

Read the full article.

7) The Reason for Israel’s Hysterical Response to the UN Security Council Resolution

Yousef Munayyer, The Nation

Since last week, we have seen a unique sequence of events, some unprecedented and others less so, that have brought the Palestine-Israel issue back to the fore. Last Friday, the United States abstained at the United Nations Security Council on Resolution 2334, thereby allowing it to pass when the 14 other members of the council voted for it.

Read the full article.

8) Most Low-Wage Workers in the United States Are Women, Study Finds

Claire Landsbaum, The Cut

The gender wage gap hasn’t closed significantly since 2007, and a new report from Oxfam America and the Institute for Women’s Policy Research highlights one of the reasons why. According to the report, of the 23.5 million people working low-wage jobs in the United States, 19 million are women. What’s more, demand for low-wage workers is expected to increase as time goes on, meaning more and more women — a disproportionate number of whom are immigrants and women of color — will be called to fill those roles. As long as women are pushed into low-wage jobs, the gender gap is unlikely to budge.

Read the full article.

9) Premier Brad Wall hints at wage rollbacks as province faces ballooning deficit

Jennifer Graham, The Canadian Press

Public sector workers in Saskatchewan will be asked to help tackle the province’s $1 billion deficit in the coming year, potentially through wage rollbacks or layoffs.

Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall said wages make up 60 per cent of government spending and everything has to be on the table when it comes to filling the huge hole in the budget.

Read the full article.

10) Dad DIES 10 months after Job Centre bosses told his doctor not to write any more sick notes

John Ferguson, The Mirror

A seriously ill dad died just 10 months after Department for Work and Pensions bosses advised his GP not to write any more sick notes for him.

James Harrison had been declared “fit for work” and should not get medical certificates, the letter said.

Read the full article.

11) The Globe and Mail has officially published Canada's worst headline of 2016

Press Progress

"Lynching?"

Nope, you didn't wake up in an alternate reality – this is a real headline that ran in the Globe and Mail on December 29, 2016:

Read the full article.

12) Boyden: ‘I discovered a gold mine’ on James Bay

Lenny Shish

Amid the controversy of Joseph Boyden’s Indigenous ancestry, or lack thereof, I cannot help but look back on how he presented my hometown and people in the novel that won him the Giller Prize in 2008 — and the lack of recognition he has given to the community directly.

Read the full article.

13) Correcting Christie Blatchford

Canadaland

Christie Blatchford wrote a column, published Friday in the National Post, excoriating UBC for cancelling an appearance by John Furlong at a fundraising event.

The university had received a complaint asserting that Furlong shouldn’t be given a platform to speak at UBC, because he’s been accused of abusing Aboriginal children when he was a teacher at Immaculata Elementary School in Burns Lake, B.C. You can read about those allegations in an article by freelance journalist Laura Robinson in the Georgia Straight. You can read more in CANADALAND’s coverage, too.

Read the full article.

See also: Car Culture, the CIA, Pope Francis & more -- The Left Chapter Holiday Reading List December 18 - 25

See also: Climate Change, Porn Culture, Tolls & more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List December 11 - 18

Christie Blatchford hits new low with joke piece about alleged evil 'political correctness' that apparently happened somewhere

Oh the humanity!

In case you missed it, that always reliable journalist Christie Blatchford wrote a piece in the National Post yesterday that purports to show the just how evil and egregious the forces of political correctness and liberalism have become in schools.


It seems, according to Blatchford's article, "A teacher at a posh private school in British Columbia was fired last month after making an innocuous comment about abortion to his Grade 12 law class."

Supposedly this all happened after he said during a class as an example:

“I find abortion to be wrong,” he said, as another illustration of this gap, “but the law is often different from our personal opinions.”
That was it, the teacher said. “It was just a quick exemplar, nothing more. And we moved on.”

But far from "moving on" apparently an unidentified female student said she was "triggered" by his comments and this led to a serious of terrible and nefarious doings by school administrators that resulted in the poor fellow being railroaded and tossed out of a job.

"“Such is the cost of a small misstep in a crushingly politically correct world,” he said sorrowfully."

Awful.

According to Blatchford:

What happened to the teacher over the ensuing few days sounds like something out of the Cultural Revolution in Mao’s China, where people were subjected to what were known as ideological struggle sessions, forced to “confess” to various imagined sins before large crowds, and roundly denounced.

That is pretty amazing hyperbole.

If you really want to find out what allegedly happened next, you can, of course read the article.

But you might also first want to ask, what school?

Or, what teacher?

Or, what student?

Because nowhere, at any point, anywhere in this article are any of them identified.

The title really should have been "Unidentified teacher allegedly fired from unidentified school after unverified alleged accusations from an unidentified student".

While the use of anonymous sources (and the source here apparently requested anonymity) in journalism is a time honoured tradition important to democracy, the revelations that flow from this are normally aimed at known and named institutions or public figures in power.

Watergate may have come from the (at the time) anonymous "Deep Throat" but everyone knew what and who it was about.

Here it is not just the 'source' that is anonymous but the supposed instigating student as well as the school. This, of course, allows Blatchford to give only one side of the story, entirely as related by the 'source', without having to either seek comment from the school or student (and she makes no indication at all that she tried) or having to face any consequences if his version of what happened turns out to be balderdash for all anyone knows.

Blatchford then blows this alleged incident up as some kind of outrageous example of creeping totalitarianism that has broader implications. This despite the facts listed above and that she herself admits in the first paragraph that this is also a "posh" private school that can, therefore, set whatever rules it wants (even if the story the man tells is accurate, which we have zero way of knowing) meaning it would really only be an indication of what happens at this school. And what happens at this school is presumably what the well-to-do parents dishing out the alleged $30,000 a year tuition to send their kids there want.

It has no implications at all, even if true -- and really who can say given the lack of any actually identified 'perpetrators' -- for any school anywhere else at all.

But again, we have no way of discerning if anything here is real unless at least the school is given a chance to respond. Or the student if they want to allow themselves to be identified.

And conveniently the whole alleged story can be told with far fewer legal implications by telling it this way.

Neat trick that.

Here is the thing, if the source is anonymous and you won't name the school or seek to get their side and the student's side of the story you are publishing his account and opinion of what allegedly happened and not a news story. Blatchford has written a piece where there is no accountability at all for the accusations he is allegedly making against some alleged school with an alleged student who all allegedly did what he claims they did.

None.

Zero.

This is not journalism and this piece should never have been run.

But while not very journalistic, I suppose it is clever when your "article" has a pretty overt agenda.

And a very reactionary one at that.

Editor's Note: Subsequent to the publication of this piece, Blatchford released a second piece that does identify the school and attempt to corroborate the allegations made in her first piece, though now with a somewhat different angle. You can read all the details in  Posh Vancouver school places staff under gag order after teacher fired