Canada has a racism problem and the fact so many Canadians think we don't is a part of it

Perhaps after an election where Justin Trudeau was exposed for having worn blackface on several occasions and yet not only was not forced to resign as Liberal leader but was ultimately reelected as Prime Minster (albeit with a minority) it should not come as a surprise that "49 per cent of Canadians don't think racism is a serious problem in the country".

This according to an Ipsos poll released December 21 that also found 44 per cent disagreed with the firing of Don Cherry and 40 per cent think "white Canadians are under threat from immigration".

The same week that nearly half of Canadians patted themselves on the back and, no doubt, embraced the illusion that they are more socially evolved than Americans, saw an Indigenous "Winnipeg couple told they 'look like' thieves, asked to leave Winnipeg craft store", a woman in Nova Scotia talked of being "subjected to racist remarks" in a Tim Hortons and of how "Being brown is definitely a burden in a small, mostly white rural town," and the RCMP was revealed to have talked of “sterilizing the site”  referring to the planned arrests of Indigenous protesters in Wet’suwet’en late last year as if they were vermin.

None of this is at all unusual.

A report in Ontario in 2017 found:

The constant and unwarranted scrutiny of store clerks, police and public servants leaves many racialized and Indigenous people in Ontario feeling mistrustful and unsafe, according to a new report from the Ontario Human Rights Commission...
...It concludes that "racial profiling is a daily reality that damages communities and undermines trust in public institutions."

Earlier in December an Indigenous man in Winnipeg said that "he was racially profiled after several shopping trips at a Winnipeg grocery store" which led a former Superstore security guard to come forward and reveal that "'9 times out of 10' the shoppers that employees ask security to monitor are Indigenous".

Also in December in Montreal "Indigenous women denounce(d) ‘devastating’ random street checks" by police after a report revealed that they "experienced street checks 11 times more than caucasian women."

This same report also found that:

...black and Indigenous people in Montreal were four times more likely to be subject to street checks by police than white people were. Arab people were two times more likely.
Indigenous Peoples also appear to be increasingly targeted: while they were two times more likely to be stopped in 2014, the report shows, they became six times more likely in 2017. 

Despite the overwhelming evidence that this study provided, just like Canadians generally the Montreal police were in total denial. Police spokesman Andre Durocher when asked "whether police engage in racial profiling" replied “No.”

In March of 2019 a report:

...on racial profiling by Halifax-area police found black people were street checked at a rate six times higher than white people in Halifax.
The independent report found that in Halifax, the odds of being stopped for a street check were highest for black men, followed by Arab males and black females.

In December, 2018 the Ontario Human Rights Commission released a report that showed:

Between 2013 and 2017, a Black person was nearly 20 times more likely than a White person to be involved in a fatal shooting by the Toronto Police.
Despite representing only 8.8% of Toronto’s population, Black people made up approximately 30% of police use-of-force cases that resulted in serious injury or death, 60% of deadly encounters with Toronto Police, and 70% of fatal police shootings.

It revealed “serious use of force in interactions where there was a lack of legal basis for police stops and/or detentions of Black civilians in the first place, and inappropriate or unjustified searches of Black civilians.” and that despite "repeated claims by Toronto police of changes and improvements in interactions with Black communities, the picture is not much different when information from this period is compared to 2000-2006."

All of this is just the tip of the iceberg with countless other studies and investigations having revealed the same issues with deep, abiding systemic racism and colonialism across the country.

This is not news, of course, to activists and community members. Lindell Smith, a Black City Councillor in Halifax noted of the report about his city:

"As a member of the African Nova Scotian community, I certainly do not need Dr. Wortley's report to tell me that for decades the community has felt that there is anti-black bias, and racial profiling when policing black communities."

Earlier in December, 2019 an Environics poll:

...found that Canadians were more likely to view racial discrimination as the attitudes and actions of individuals, not a systemic issue embedded in Canadian institutions.  Two-thirds of respondents said people from all races have the same opportunities to succeed in life.

Toronto activist and writer Desmond Cole responded by stating:

That is a fantasy...Unsurprisingly, a lot of Canadians are in denial that racism is a systemic thing.
That is why we are still where we are today. That’s why I have to write a book about this topic,” said Cole, who wrote the forthcoming “The Skin We’re In,” about racism in Canada. “It’s not just a few people’s nasty or racist, bigoted opinions. It’s not just Don Cherry spouting off on Coach’s Corner. It’s us not getting jobs. It’s us being kicked out of the education system. It’s us being disproportionately the victims of violence. Until that stops, do all the studies we want to. Those are the real issues.”

“Before you can tackle a problem, you need to recognize it exists” Alain Babineau "formerly with the RCMP and now with the Center for Research-Action on Race Relations" said of the refusal of Montreal police to admit that racial profiling by the force actually occurred.

This lack of recognition of the devastating and violent reality of systemic racism in Canada, unfortunately, extends far beyond just the police. And that is profoundly troubling and disturbing.

Bolsonaro Inauguration, Zambian Socialist Party, Cuba & more -- The Week in News, Opinion and Videos December 23 - 30

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


This list covers the week of December 23 - 30.


1) Socialism strives to ensure all citizens lead dignified lives, says Singoyi

Issac Zulu, The Mast

SOCIALIST Party political assistant to the general secretary Kachingwe Singoyi says capitalism does not favour interests of workers.

2) Indigenous Nation Blocks TransCanada Pipeline with New Checkpoint

The Real News Network 

When TransCanada attempts to deliver a Canadian court injunction against a decade-old Wet’suwet’en checkpoint, they run into a second checkpoint instead. The Wet’suwet’en people have never signed treaties with Canada or sold their lands, a fact confirmed by Canada’s Supreme Court in 1997 in a landmark case known as Delgamuukw.

On Christmas day 1837, Africans and Native Americans who formed Florida’s Seminole Nation defeated a vastly superior U.S. invading army. This alliance of Seminole warriors resisted a forced relocation to a reservation out west as well as a forced return of Africans back to slavery.


The battle was one of many in the Seminole Wars, which were the longest and most expensive (both in human and monetary terms) Indian Wars in United States history. The victory of the Christmas Day freedom fighters was an early example of successful multiracial resistance against colonialism and racism. (Via Telesur Facebook) 

3) Israel: Netanyahu's Coalition Collapses, Early Elections Called

Telesur

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu's much boasted about coalition failed and a new election has been called for April.

4) Migrant boy dies in U.S. custody; Trump vows shutdown will last until border wall is funded

 Lenny Bernstein, Philip Rucker and Robert Moore, The Washington Post 

An 8-year-old Guatemalan child detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection died at a hospital in New Mexico, the agency reported Tuesday, the second migrant child to die in government custody this month.

5) Dec. 26, 1862: Mass Execution of Dakota Indians

Zinn Education Project

On Dec. 26, 1862, 38 Dakota Indians were executed by the U.S. government during the U.S. Dakota War of 1862 (also known as the Sioux Uprising, Dakota Uprising).

6) ‘Stronger’ communists mark 50th year with vow to resist Duterte’s tyranny

Llanesca T. Panti, GMA News

On its 50th anniversary, the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) on Wednesday has vowed to soldier on in resisting President Rodrigo Duterte's policy of fascist terror, saying that their troops can't be defeated by the military.

7) It’s time of renewal, says M’membe

Chambwa Moonga, The Mast

THE Socialist Party (Zambia) has urged the working class and the poor to find comfort in Christmas’ spirit of sharing and solidarity.

8) CPI celebrates 93rd foundation day at Himayat Nagar

The Hans India

The Communist Party of India (CPI) has completed 93 years. Its leaders celebrated the occasion here at Makdhum Bhavan on Wednesday. Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy participated in the celebrations as chief guest. Telangana state CPI leaders Chada Venkat Reddy, CPI state secretary and other party leaders were also present on the occasion. Speaking on the occasion, Sudhakar Reddy explained the circumstances when the party was formed during the British rule. He said that the party was formed to fight against the British imperialism. He recalled the sacrifices of many Communist freedom fighters. He also noted the role of the party in Telangana Armed Struggle.

9) The Real Face of Justin Trudeau

Ramzy Baroud, The Socialist Project Bullet 

Trudeau and his government will certainly be judged by future generations, as his predecessors were judged for their past sins, for choosing, despite the passage of time, to stand on the wrong side of history.

10) “For the Humblest of the Zambian People, There is No Other Alternative to Socialism”

People's Dispatch

Peoples Dispatch, along with the media team of the Socialist Party of Zambia, spoke to Dr. Fred M’membe about the struggle for socialism in Zambia, and across the African continent

11) An inconvenient truth: the enduring popularity of socialism in the post-Soviet states

Gavin Mendel-Gleason, Morning Star 

TWO decades of polling by the Levada Centre, a Russian NGO, show that the majority of people in Russia regret the downfall of the USSR. It is mainly economic and social reasons that fuel this regret. This year, positive sentiment towards the Soviet Union has hit a 14-year-high.

12) LDA candidates face intimidation, torture

Sadiqur Rahman, New Age Bangladesh 

Left Democratic Alliance on Friday expressed deep dissatisfaction and resentment about the ‘non-congenial atmosphere’ for 11th national polls.

13) Opposition announces boycott of the inauguration of the elected President of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro

MNA

The Workers' Party (PT), which ruled Brazil between 2003 and 2016, the Socialist and Freedom Party and the Communist Party announced today that they will boycott the inauguration of the new Brazilian President, Jair Bolsonaro.

14) Brazil: Mexico's AMLO Won't Attend Bolsonaro's Inauguration

Telesur 

Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has declined to attend the inauguration of Brazil’s far-right future President Jair Bolsonaro, and is sending Agriculture Secretary Victor Manuel Villalobos instead.

15) Cuba Celebrates 60 Years Since Key Revolutionary Victory

Telesur

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel remembered Saturday the key revolutionary victory of Santa Clara when rebel forces led by then commander Ernesto “Che” Guevara derailed an armored train carrying dictator Fulgencio Batista’s troops.

Two years ago, on December 28, 2016, Toronto police officer Michael Theriault and his brother Christian attacked Dafonte Miller, then 19 years old, with a metal pipe. Police in Toronto and Durham conspired to cover up the crime, and charged Dafonte with assault. - Read Desmond Cole's full Facebook post

16) Year In Review 2018: A grim year for Toronto's poor

Peter Biesterfeld, NOW Magazine 

Now under Doug Ford, the poor are facing overt class warfare.

17) Ahead of inauguration day, Brazilian media braces for Bolsonaro

 Andrew Downie, CPJ 

Long before one of their photographers was harassed on election night in Brazil, the editors at Fortaleza newspaper O Povo were meeting with their readers and staff to discuss the increasingly polarized environment and how to deal with it.

See also: India, Hungary and Lebanon Protests, Cuba's Constitution, Ontario Austerity and more -- The Week in News, Opinion and Videos December 16 - 23

See also: Minassian's Misogynist Attack, Courage to Leap, James Laxer & more -- 2018 on The Left Chapter in review

Bill 148 and Fighting Austerity in Ontario, Climate Change, Sankara & more -- The Week in News, Opinion and Videos October 14 - 21

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

This list covers the week of October 14 - 21.


1) Faith Goldy said neo-Nazis have “well-thought-out ideas” – Conrad Black says her opinions are not offensive

North 99

In a radio interview clip circulating on Twitter, National Post columnist and convicted criminal Conrad Black defended white supremacist Faith Goldy, saying her opinions were “not be offensive to any ethnic or religious group”.

2) The Bolsonaro effect: what now for Brazil?

Orlando Hill, Counterfire 

As Brazil's elections progress to the second round, Orlando Hill examines the prospects for the left in defeating the presidential candidacy of the far right Jair Bolsonaro.

3) The Tories are destroying our schools, we need a socialist education policy

Judy Cox, Counterfire

The campaign against school funding cuts has attracted a lot of attention, but a socialist education policy can do much more than solve the funding crisis argues Judy Cox.

4) Thomas Sankara Revolutionized Burkina Faso

Telesur

Burkina Faso president Thomas Sankara was a feminist Marxist Pan-Africanist revolutionary leader who was assassinated in a coup d'etat four short years after he took power.

WHEN THE PEOPLE STAND UP, IMPERIALISM TREMBLES!

Read: Thomas Sankara's address to the United Nations General Assembly, October 4, 1984
Via Communist Party of Canada on Facebook

5) MILITARY OFFICIALS AREN’T SUPPOSED TO ASSOCIATE WITH HATE GROUPS. SO WHY ARE THESE GENERALS SPEAKING AT FRANK GAFFNEY’S CONFAB?

Murtaza Hussain and Eli Clifton, The Intercept

OVER THE PAST decade, the Center for Security Policy has emerged as one of the most notoriously bigoted and conspiratorial think tanks in Washington, D.C. Under its founder and president, Frank Gaffney, the organization regularly found itself in the news for promoting anti-Muslim conspiracies — including farcically paranoid ones. Yet, unlike similar organizations that remain on the political fringes, the Center for Security Policy is remarkably close to the halls of power — not just to President Donald Trump, for whom Gaffney was an informal adviser during the campaign, but also to the traditional power brokers of the defense establishment.

6) Police spies infiltrated UK leftwing groups for decades

Rob Evans, The Guardian 

Exclusive: database shows 124 green, anti-racist and other groups spied on by undercover police

7) Craig Kielburger Founded WE To Fight Child Labour. Now The WE Brand Promotes Products Made By Children.

Jaren Kerr, Canadaland

A CANADALAND investigation reveals that WE is connected to no fewer than three companies known to use child and slave labour in their supply chain.

8) 'It was like hell': California hotel workers break their silence on abuse

Michael Sainato, The Guardian 

Just outside of Los Angeles in Ranchos Palos Verdes, the Terranea Resort boasts fine dining, a golf course, scenic beachfront views, and accommodations ranging from luxury guest rooms to private, secluded villas. While it may be a paradise for guests, resort workers claim they are subjected to a culture that has enabled sexual harassment and sexual assault.

9) Repealing Bill 148 will hurt women

Hassan Yussuff, The Toronto Star

It’s time for Ontario Premier Doug Ford and his team to read the fine print in Bill 148.

MRA Logic

Via Capitalism Kills on Facebook

10) Trouble brewing: climate change to cause 'dramatic' beer shortages

Damian Carrington, The Guardian

Trouble is brewing for the world’s beer drinkers, with climate change set to cause “dramatic” price spikes and supply shortages, according to new research.

11) Colin Kaepernick sounds the alarm against a re-emerging evil

Richard Williams, The Guardian

Former quarterback’s stand is a reminder the injustice highlighted by raised fists 50 years ago has not gone away.

(Related: Black Power Olympic Salute for Justice: 50 Years Ago Today in Mexico)

12) Why Don’t ‘Good Men’ Believe Women?

Soraya Chemaly, Medium

Philosopher Kate Manne has described this tendency toward disparate concern for men as “himpathy.” It depends primarily on two ideas: that masculinity is more important than what women are saying; and that women cannot be believed or trusted.

13) Ford government disbands Liberals’ expert panel to end violence against women

Molly Hayes and Laura Stone, The Globe and Mail

Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government has pulled the plug on an expert panel to end violence against women that was established under the Liberals to provide strategic advice on policies.

14) Protesters urge Ford to keep worker protections, minimum wage bump in place

Sara Mojtehedzadeh, The Toronto Star

Protesters rallied across the province Monday urging Premier Doug Ford not to scrap new worker protections after he pledged earlier this month to repeal the law giving Ontarians two paid sick days, equal pay for equal work and a minimum wage bump.

15) Dennis Hof is dead, but his legacy lives on through those who advocate to legalize prostitution

Meghan Murphy, Feminist Current

So-called leftists and feminists who promote the legalization of prostitution are nothing more than capitalists and misogynists in disguise. And while Dennis Hof may be dead, these “progressives” are carrying on his legacy.

16) Making misandry a hate crime will embolden abusive men

Jessica Eaton, The Guardian

While misogyny has centuries of research, evidence, statistics, law and legislation, oppression, death and suffering behind it, misandry is harder to pinpoint. Some people even ask the question: “Does misandry exist?”

17) CANADA'S MOST PROMINENT BLACK ACTIVIST IS FIGHTING DOUG FORD. HE ALSO HAS A MESSAGE FOR WHITE LIBERALS.

Brian J. Barth, Pacific Standard Magazine

At the center of Canada's burgeoning black resistance movement is journalist-turned-activist Desmond Cole. The 36-year-old Torontonian was a popular columnist at the Toronto Star, Canada's second-largest daily newspaper, until May of 2017, when he abruptly severed ties, saying that the paper's publisher had complained that Cole was "writing about race too often." But recent events in the Great White North suggest that race isn't being written about enough.

18) Canada Post union issues strike notice; workers could begin rotating strikes Monday

The Canadian Press

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers says it has given strike notice to Canada Post that workers could walk off the job as early as next week.

19) Trump Threatens To Withdraw Honduras Aid Over Approaching Migrant Caravan

Sara Boboltz, HuffPost US

President Donald Trump on Tuesday issued a threat to Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez: Somehow recall a mass caravan of mostly Honduran migrants bound for the United States or watch American aid dry up.

20) Man told to stop recording violent takedown gets apology from Toronto police sergeant

Jasmin Seputis, CBC News

A Toronto man who was ordered by police to stop shooting video of a violent takedown in January of 2017, and was told he was "going to get AIDS" if he didn't move back, received an apology Tuesday from an officer at a disciplinary hearing.

21) Praise the Workers, Not Amazon

Jonathan Rosenblum, Socialist Project Bullet 

"Power concedes nothing without a demand,” abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass declared 161 years ago.

22) Elizabeth Warren Falls for Trump’s Trap—and Promotes Insidious Ideas About Race and DNA

Masha Gessen, The New Yorker

Warren ended up providing one of the clearest examples yet of how Trumpian rhetoric shifts the political conversation. The woman who is hoping to become the most progressive Democratic nominee in generations is not merely letting herself get jerked around by a Trumpian taunt. She is also reinforcing one of the most insidious ways in which Americans talk about race: as though it were a measurable biological category, one that, in some cases, can be determined by a single drop of blood. Genetic-test evidence is circular: if everyone who claims to be X has a particular genetic marker, then everyone with the marker is likely to be X. This would be flawed reasoning in any area, but what makes it bad science is that it reinforces the belief in the existence of X—in this case, race as a biological category. Warren’s video will hardly convince a Trump voter, who will see only a woman who feels that she has to prove something. Trump himself has already walked back his promise of a million-dollar charity donation. Warren, meanwhile, has allowed herself to be dragged into a conversation based on an outdated, harmful concept of racial blood—one that promotes the pernicious idea of biological differences among people—and she has pulled her supporters right along with her.

23) Law to stop bad-faith evictions not working, lawyers and tenants say

Natalie Nanowski, CBC News

Robyn Lemire was compensated a month's rent when she was evicted from her Corktown condo this summer. That seemed fair, until she found out that her landlord's wife didn't move in like she was supposed to.

24) Women in the U.S. Can Now Get Safe Abortions by Mail

Olga Khazan, The Atlantic

The founder of a global abortion-pill provider that has never shipped to the U.S. has quietly started a new service for Americans.

25) Doug Ford will end new domestic abuse leave work rules – and these universities are part of a group that made it happen

North 99

Some of Ontario’s most influential universities and colleges are members of a business lobby group calling for the full repeal of Bill 148, which includes laws designed to protect domestic abuse victims and prevent employers from forcing sexist dress codes on women.

26) The Other Side: Brazil Soccer Fans Repudiate Bolsonaro

Telesur

In the context of Brazil’s 2018 presidential election, the country has seen the emergence of several groupings of soccer fans who have linked themselves to #EleNao movement to reject the possibility of Jair Bolsonaro --leader of the Social Liberal Party-- who, according to polls, looks to win the second round of voting which will be held on October 28th.

27) Africa's Oldest Animal Reserve is Under Threat from Oil Mine

Telesur

With the court date just weeks away, activists are going head-to-head with South Africa’s mining company, Petmin Corporate, whose oil mine borders Africa’s oldest animal reservation.

28) It’s Time We Dispel The Myth Of ‘Progressive’ Liberalism In Ontario

Carlo Fanelli, Socialist Project Bullet 

There is an emerging orthodoxy, rooted more in fiction than fact, that the 15-year regime of the Ontario Liberals somehow swung the ideological and policy spectrum sharply to the left. But this is a gross misinterpretation of actual history. While the Liberals did indeed implement a hodgepodge of policies that might selectively register as ‘progressive’, their time in power was never about a wholesale repudiation of the Conservative’s Common Sense Revolution but rather about deepening and extending it in ways that were more palatable to a public increasingly fed up with the uncompromising and aggressive style of their Conservative predecessors. In other words, it was continuity, not change, that defined the Liberals’ time in power.

29) CHANGING THE EQUATION: ANTI-AUSTERITY ORGANIZING IN ONTARIO

Dave McKee, People's Voice

John Clarke is a well-known figure in the political left in Ontario, and across Canada. As he gets ready to retire, later this year, from 30 years as organizer for the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP), Dave McKee interviewed John about the development, opportunities, and challenges of the anti-poverty organizing and the working class movement in Ontario.

30) Grassy Narrows leader Steve Fobister dead at 66

David Bruser, The Toronto Star

When Steve Fobister came to protest outside the Legislature in 2014, the former fishing guide and chief came with his tent and an ultimatum.

31) Threatening letter that says ‘this isn’t a reserve’ prompts Alberta family to move

 Phil Heidenreich, Global News

A wife and mother of three pre-teen children says her family is moving from their St. Albert, Alta., condo because they don’t feel safe after receiving a racist and threatening letter.


Jeremy Corbyn | Pinochet Arrest

20 years today, Chilean neo-liberal dictator Augusto Pinochet was arrested in London for crimes against humanity.

Guess which British MP did more than any other - on the streets, with the press, in court and in Parliament, to support and show solidarity, as always, with the victims of injustice?

This is a collection of unedited news footage after the Law Lords ruled against Pinochet's impunity. This was a campaign of many months duration, before the Blair government did the "centrist" thing of letting the dictator off in a deal with the Chilean government.

#JC4PM! We need this humanity at the heart of government!

32) Massively Expand Public Transport Now

International Transport Workers' Federation, The Socialist Project Bullet

As a global union federation representing over 20 million transport workers in 145 countries worldwide, the ITF is proud to be leading a programme for Our Public Transport. We recognise that if we act NOW, there is still a chance of stopping dangerous climate change. Expanding public transport is an essential part of the fight to bring down greenhouse gas emissions and address climate change. Bold policies are needed, adapted to specific national and city contexts.

33) Police officers in the US were charged with more than 400 rapes over a 9-year period

Eliott C. McLaughlin, CNN

A police officer in Prince George County, Maryland, was charged this week with raping a woman during a traffic stop. He's pleaded not guilty, but it's a disturbing headline -- even more disturbing when you consider there are hundreds more like him.

34) 'Largest living thing,' an 80,000-year-old Utah forest, is dying, scientists warn

Christopher Carbone, Fox News

An ancient forest in Utah considered to be the largest single living thing in the world is dying, according to scientists.

35) Seventy Years of the New York Times Describing Saudi Royals as Reformers

 Abdullah Al-Arian, Jadaliyya

In honor of Thomas Friedman's latest love letter to the ruling dynasty in Saudi Arabia, here is seventy years worth of the New York Times describing the royal family as reformers.

36) Facebook Blocks Trailer of Film on Palestinian Women's Role in the First Intifada

Oded Yaron, Haaretz 

Facebook only lifted its ban on the advertisement of the documentary after Haaretz contacted the company, which told distributors it would not allow 'advertising that includes derogatory or sensational content'.

37) Black British history: A study in erasure

Paula Akpan, Al Jazeera 

Black people are a part of the fabric of Britain, yet pupils are not taught the full story of Black history in schools.

38) Top EU Court Blocks Polish Supreme Court Law Forcing Judges To Retire

Vanessa Romo, NPR

The European Union's highest court on Friday ordered Poland to reverse a law leading to the removal of nearly a third of the nation's Supreme Court judges, and to reinstate those who were dismissed.

39) Another Candidate for Jason Kenney’s UCP is Now Under Fire for an Anti-Muslim Facebook Rant

Press Progress

Another nomination candidate for Jason Kenney’s United Conservative Party is facing scrutiny after an anti-Muslim Facebook rant surfaced Friday.

40) Donald Trump, Lumpen Capitalist

Samuel Farber, Jacobin

The most important thing about Donald Trump isn’t his psychological condition — it’s that he’s a capitalist. And a particular kind of capitalist at that: a lumpen capitalist.

See also: Bolsonaro, White Supremacists and the UCP, Oscar Romero & more -- The Week in News, Opinion and Videos October 7 - 14

Toronto Police, Star Trek, Omar Khadr & more -- The Left Chapter Weekly Reading List July 23 - 30

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 23 - 30. It is generally in order of the date of the article's release.

1) ‘Make It So’: ‘Star Trek’ and Its Debt to Revolutionary Socialism

A.M. Gittlitz, The New York Times

H. G. Wells’s foundational work of political science fiction, “The Time Machine,” predicted a future in which a small utopia of sprightly elites is kept running by a subclass that lives below the ground and is reduced to bestial violence. This prediction, carried to a horrifically logical extent, represented the intense wealth disparity of the Victorian England in which Wells wrote the novel. Judging from the major political narratives of the fictions of our era, films like “The Hunger Games,” “Elysium” and “Snowpiercer,” the certainty of a future rendered increasingly barbarous by class division remains essentially the same.

Read the full article.

2) Man tied to $1K reward for videos of Muslim students praying charged with hate crime

Shanifa Nasser, CBC News

Peel Regional Police have charged a Mississauga, Ont., man, who earlier this year posted a YouTube video offering a $1,000 reward for recordings of Muslim students during prayer, with a hate crime in connection with "numerous incidents reported to police."

Read the full article. 

3) U.S. army medic has no regrets about saving Omar Khadr's life

Colin Perkel, The Canadian Press

For years the battle-hardened and decorated American veteran wrestled with his conscience, with whether he'd done the right thing in saving the life of Omar Khadr, seen by many as a terrorist who profited from his crimes.

Read the full article.

4) Get ready — Toronto’s next wave of Black voices will be more urgent, strident and radical.

Royson James, Toronto Star

For Black citizens, the city just doesn’t feel like home anymore and nothing is being done to change that.

Read the full article.

5) Dislike of Khadr settlement does not entitle critics to disregard law or facts

Michael Spratt, Canadian Lawyer Magazine

Omar Khadr is a polarizing figure. To some, Khadr is a child soldier who was brainwashed by his parents and then abandoned by the Canadian government in the notorious and illegal Guantanamo Bay detention camp in Cuba. To others, Khadr is a terrorist deserving of no sympathy.

Read the full article.

6) What the last few years in Toronto tell us about our police

Shree Paradkar, The Toronto Star

The institution of police is not a good system with a few bad apples. It’s a rotten system with a few good eggs.

Read the full article.

7) Democratic senators are edging away from a bill that would criminalize boycotts of Israel

Ryan Grim, The Intercept

The lead author of the controversial Israel Anti-Boycott Act, Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, is open to amending the legislation to address concerns raised by the American Civil Liberties Union, he told The Intercept Monday evening.

Read the full article.

8) Family in ‘shock’ after permanent residency denied by Immigration Canada due to daughter’s disability

Andrew Russell and Brian Hill, Global News

In the small Manitoba community of Waterhen, population 169, Jon and Karissa Warkentin are fighting for the right to stay in Canada and run their business.

Read the full article.

9) Macron was never the saviour of the centre – his approval ratings show just how unpopular neoliberal politics really are

Matthew Turner, The Independent

A mere 16 per cent of Macron voters picked his political programme as the main reason behind their vote, so why are we so surprised that the more the public see of Macron and his politics without the spectre of Marine Le Pen, the more they begin to resent him?

Read the full article.

10) 46 homeless people have died in Toronto so far this year

Kenyon Wallace & Mary Ormsby, The Toronto Star

“Some very, very young people died and that’s not normal” says street nurse Cathy Crowe of information revealed by city’s expanded tracking system.

Read the full article.

11) Workers at 2nd Winnipeg Tim Hortons vote to unionize

The Canadian Press

15 people at Lombard Avenue location vote in union, Workers United Canada Council says.

Read the full article.

12) John McCain is far more consistently bad than you've been led to believe; here are his greatest hits

Mehdi Hasan, The Intercept

What sort of person takes a break from taxpayer-funded cancer treatment and flies 2,000 miles to cast a vote that could result in 22 million people losing their health insurance and tens of thousands of them also losing their lives, then makes a big speech about how messed up the whole process is?

Read the full article.

13) 700 baggage handlers, ground crew workers go on strike at Pearson airport

CBC News

Roughly 700 ground crew workers at Toronto's Pearson airport walked off the job Thursday night after voting to strike during the busy travel season of summer holidays.

Read the full article.

14) Desmond Cole Police Board Protest Facebook Post

Yesterday I was arrested for speaking at a public meeting. The Toronto Police Services Board met yesterday for the first time since we learned about Dafonte Miller, a Black teenager who was attacked and badly beaten by Toronto police officer Michael Theriault and his brother Christian Theriault. The police board did not want any public discussion about this officer, so the issue was not on yesterday's meeting agenda.

Read the full post.

15) Stepping to Conclusions: The Truth Behind "Stairgate"

Shelley Carroll, City Councillor Newsletter

I spent a week up north with my family last week while "Stairgate" held the attention of every media outlet in Toronto, beginning with the Toronto Sun. You might be tired of it, but please indulge me. I need to vent a little.

Read the full article.

16) Zoë and the Trolls

Noreen Malone, NY Magazine

One day in 2014, the video-game designer Zoë Quinn decided to make herself a cyborg. And so, this being the modern world, she simply ordered a kit from the internet that would allow her, via a large sterilized syringe that she plunged into the webbing between her left thumb and index finger, to implant a microchip the size of a Tic Tac under her skin.

Read the full article.

17) Trump-style vitriol infecting Alberta politics

Jim Storrie, The Edmonton Journal

I work in politics, so I’ve received my share of threats.
But I never thought I’d get one from my own MP.

Read the full article.

18) How We Make Black Girls Grow Up Too Fast

Tressie McMillan Cottom, The New York Times

It was over a plate of ribs at my aunt’s dining room table when I learned that being a woman is about what men are allowed to do to you. I was 15 years old. Mike Tyson was the most famous boxer in the world.

Read the full article.

19) From the Enlightenment to the Dark Ages: How “new atheism” slid into the alt-right

Phil Torres, Salon

A movement supposedly committed to science and reason has decayed into racism, misogyny and intolerance. I'm done.

Read the full article.

20) 'You failed': Missing and murdered inquiry commissioners confronted at AFN meeting

Tim Fontaine, CBC News

There were some heated moments on day two of the Assembly of First Nations gathering in Regina when the talks turned to the National Inquiry Into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

Read the full article.

21) What happens when our government is overrun with toxic white masculinity

Shaun King, New York Daily News

When 63 million people voted to elect Donald Trump as the President of the United States, it opened up the floodgates for toxic white masculinity in America. We saw it coming, but we are just now fully experiencing the consequences and they are deeply disturbing.

Read the full article.

22) Palestinians, B’nai Brith and Canada’s New Democratic Party

Tony Hall, Canadian Dimension

Like many NATO countries, Canada has suffered from an impoverishment of free and open debate when it comes to the issue of relations with the Israeli government and the Palestinian people. In country after country the Israeli lobby dominates not only governing parties but opposition parties as well.

Read the full article.

23) Strange Fruit: Venezuela has an Opposition that Nobody Should Support

Chris Gilbert, Venezuela Analysis

Bolivarian University Professor Chris Gilbert addresses the racism and white supremacy of the Venezuelan opposition in light of recent lynchings against Black and Brown Venezuelans accused of being "Chavistas" or "thieves" by opposition militants. The most emblematic of these cases was the public lynching of Afro-Venezuelan Orlando Figuera on May 20. Figuera was stabbed six times, doused in gasoline, and burned alive by opposition protesters in the eastern Caracas neighborhood of Altamira. He died in hospital ten days later. Other prominent cases include that of Danny Subero, Pedro Josue Carrillo, as well as a pair of youths in Lara state.

Read the full article.

This important article that we missed is from before the period covered:

24) Who Is Killing American Women? Their Husbands And Boyfriends, CDC Confirms.

Melissa Jeltsen, The Huffington Post

Most murders of American women involve domestic violence, according to a report released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Thursday.

Read the full article.

See also: Police Brutality, Thunder Bay, Ryerson & more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List July 16 - 23

See also: Venezuela, Omar Khadr, Climate Change & more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List July 9 - 16

Cultural Appropriation, the UK, Brazil, Venezuela and more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List May 14 - 21

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 May 14 - May 21. It is generally in order of the date of the article's release.

1) Labour climbs to highest poll rating since start of election campaign

Niamh McIntyre, The Independent

Labour have climbed to 32 per cent in two new polls, the party's highest rating for 180 days.

Significantly, this is higher than the vote share Labour received in the 2015 general election, when Ed Miliband won over 31.2 per cent of voters.  

Read the full article.

2) It’s now clear what Corbynism represents – so what does the centre do next?

Paul Mason, The Guardian

The leak of Labour’s manifesto last week was accompanied by so much political white noise that its true significance was missed. In the Blair and Brown era, the “clause V” meeting was a filter whereby any radical proposals that slipped through the party conference could be jettisoned from the manifesto. But Jeremy Corbyn turned the filter inside out: he used the meeting to make party policy on a scale, and with a rapidity, no annual conference has achieved since he took office. Labour pledged not just to reverse cuts to public services; it pledged itself to a universalist concept of the welfare state, including a Nordic-style childcare system. It pledged to renationalise railways, energy companies and the postal service. And it adopted the philosophy of taxing wealth, not just the incomes of companies and high earners, to pay for it.

Read the full article.

3) Former Toronto Star columnist Michele Landsberg calls out paper's bosses for Desmond Cole "blunder"

Michele Landsberg, NOW Magazine

In pushing out Cole, the paper has dishonoured the work of its pioneering reporters who had documented the harms of police carding – and lost its strongest voice on race issues, writes Landsberg

Read the full article.

4) Forced into pornography: Japan moves to stop women being coerced into sex films

Justin McCurry, The Guardian

Reports of women tricked into X-rated appearances has prompted authorities to confront the booming porn industry.

Read the full article.

5) Do black female writers feel valued in Canadian media?

 Vicky Mochama, Metro News

When Desmond Cole left the Toronto Star he wondered if black writers, particularly women, will be able to thrive in Canadian media. Vicky Mochama asked some.

Read the full article.

6) ‘I Want My Disability Living Allowance Back!’ Voter Cathy Rips Into Theresa May Over Tory Benefit Cuts

Paul Waugh, The Huffington Post

Theresa May has been subjected to a tongue-lashing by a voter complaining about Tory cuts to disability benefits.

Read the full article.

7) Credit union employees say high-pressure sales targets turn 'members' into 'marks'

Erica Johnson, CBC News

Dozens of employees from credit unions across the country tell Go Public they feel the same pressure as bank employees to meet high sales targets, often to the detriment of their members.

Read the full article.

8) Jonathan Kay Is Going to Be Just Fine

Sarah Hagi, Vice

He left The Walrus this weekend over the appropriation controversy, but he’s not going to leave Canadian media anytime soon.

Read the full article.

9) What cultural appropriation is, and why you should care

Shree Paradkar, The Toronto Star

The first time I came across appropriation was when I came face to face with Gwen Stefani. It was 1997, and the white pop star with the bindi was in Bangalore, taking questions from reporters before her concert.

The bindi didn’t bother me too much. I thought it just meant India had arrived in the West — and, to my own colonial mindset, this was a good thing. But her condescension toward the reporters left me uneasy. Could she respect a cultural symbol if she didn’t respect the people?

Read the full article.

10) On Cultural Appropriation, Canadians Are Hypocrites

Robert Jago, The Walrus

Citizens of this country believe in the value of protecting one’s culture—except when it comes to Indigenous people.

Read the full article.

11) Cue the eye rolls: this is a piece about cultural appropriation

 Jessica Deer, CBC News

When a handful of editors and senior staff in Canadian media took to Twitter last week to seemingly mock Indigenous peoples' concerns with cultural appropriation, it was discouraging for many like myself who are a) Indigenous, b) trying to make a living in the demanding media field and c) have seen the negative effects of appropriation through a variety of forms.

Read the full article.

12) If The Cultural Appropriation Prize Is A Joke, We Are The Punchline

Asam Ahmad, The Huffington Post

Noting the tendency of Canadians to retort, "At least we're not like Americans!", when faced with evidence of Canada's racist treatment of black and racialized people and the ongoing structural oppression of indigenous life, Junot Diaz recently noted that such a proclamation is akin to saying "At least I'm not like my murdering cousin!" --- meaning the United States. It might be very well and good that we are not like our murdering cousin down south, but how does that do anything to make us more accountable to our own shit?

Read the full article.

13) This is what emboldened white supremacists look like

Douglas Williams, The Guardian

It was a scene out of the darkest days of the civil rights movement. A couple of dozen white supremacists rallied around a statue of Robert E Lee, a Confederate army general, in Virginia, carrying torches and chanting: “You will not replace us.”
But this was no black-and-white newsreel, relaying the horrors of a time long since past. This grotesque scene played out on Saturday, at a rally headlined by the white supremacist Richard Spencer.

Read the full article.

14) Nova Scotia NDP platform unapologetically embraces deficit spending

 Jean Laroche, CBC News

Party is promising almost $1B in extra spending in first mandate alone.

Read the full article.

15) Canadian journalism group calls for public inquiry after journalists arrested in Hamilton

Nick Westoll, Global News

As journalists cover breaking news, a working relationship with emergency services personnel is essential in order to keep residents informed of incidents that impact families, neighbourhoods and communities.

Read the full article.

16) The everlasting effects of homophobia and why it's not just gay people that suffer

Ryan E. Thompson, CBC Life

I am a man. In September of 2015 I married another man. Something I never thought possible in my youth. Something I never thought I would allow myself to do for one simple reason: homophobia – internalized to the Nth degree. Declaring my love and kissing a man in public, in front of my family… was my worst fear for a time. The moment I publicly said "I do" was a personal triumph, putting aside decades of hiding, fear and self consciousness in the name of love. I had done it. I had overcome my big gay demons for good.

Read the full article.

17) Ensure safe access for all to the Morgentaler clinic in Ottawa.

Petition, Change.org

WHEREAS all people in Ontario are entitled to access to health care, including abortion services;
AND WHEREAS all people who use the Ontario health care system, and who provide services for it, should be treated with courtesy and with respect for their dignity and privacy;
We the undersigned, petition the City of Ottawa to:
1) Ensure that the Ottawa Police are enforcing by-law 2001-260 in order to ensure the safety and protect the rights of clinic services providers, doctors, and patients.

2) Provide financial grants to the Morgentaler clinic in order to assist with court costs associated with fighting for a necessary bubble injunction.

Sign the petition.

18) Toronto Council Gearing Up For Another Battle Over Pride Funding

Alex Verman, Torontoist

Straight politicians keep trying to dictate to Pride who should be welcome at the parade.

Read the full article.

19) Major Decisions Face Québec Solidaire at its Forthcoming Congress

Richard Fidler, The Bullet

Quebec's broad party of the left, Québec solidaire (QS), will open a four-day congress on May 19 in Montréal – the 12th congress in its 11-year history. The delegates face a challenging agenda. It includes the final stage of adoption of the party's detailed program, a process begun eight years ago; discussion of possible alliances with other parties and some social movements including a proposed fusion with another pro-independence party, Option nationale; and renewal of the party's top leadership.

Read the full article.

20) A Union of Pimps and Johns

Julie Bindel, Truthdig

During a trip to Cambodia in the summer of 2015 I came across a well-funded NGO that purported to run the largest union of “sex workers” in Southeast Asia. In Phnom Penh, I had arranged to meet a group of women who were, I was told, members of the “sex workers” union that had been founded by the Women’s Network for Unity (WNU). The WNU, which received funding by the Open Society Foundation, a multibillion-dollar fund set up by the investor George Soros, has a clear pro-prostitution agenda.

Read the full article.

21) There is no way to save the inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women from its fatal flaws

Pamela Palmater, Rabble

It looks like those who advocated for the long-awaited national inquiry into murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls will be waiting a little while longer.

Read the full article.

22) Seattle's Socialist Councilwoman encourages Seahawks to sign Kaepernick

Seattle’s socialist City Councilwoman Kshama Sawant sent a letter to Seahawks coach Pete Carroll and owner Paul Allen encouraging them to sign San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick.

Read the full article.

23) Black man will spend six years in Georgia prison despite jury finding him 'not guilty'

Niamh McIntyre, The Independent 

A black man who was found not guilty of armed robbery will still serve up to seven years behind bars after a judge ruled he had breached the rules of his probation sentence for another crime.

Read the full article.

24) As Brazil Faces Crisis, IMF Suggests Neoliberal Austerity

Telesur

The International Monetary Fund, IMF, urged Brazil to maintain austerity measures in a report released Friday, one day after scandal-ridden and unelected President Michel Temer refused to step down in the face of widespread strikes and protests.

Read the full article.

25) Arctic stronghold of world’s seeds flooded after permafrost melts

Damian Carrington, The Guardian

It was designed as an impregnable deep-freeze to protect the world’s most precious seeds from any global disaster and ensure humanity’s food supply forever. But the Global Seed Vault, buried in a mountain deep inside the Arctic circle, has been breached after global warming produced extraordinary temperatures over the winter, sending meltwater gushing into the entrance tunnel.

Read the full article.

26) The Strategy Behind Washington’s Destabilization Of Venezuela

 Eric Draitser, Mint Press News

Venezuela represents everything that the U.S. opposes in the region: socialism, anti-imperialism, economic independence via energy exports and a viable ally for China, Russia, Iran and other countries that oppose the hegemonic designs of Washington.

Read the full article.

27) Murder In The Mediterranean – The Perils Of Fishing In Gaza

Ian Berman, Mint Press News

On Al Nakba Day of all days, the Israeli Navy killed another Palestinian fisherman, Muhammad Majid Bakr.  The second in this year alone.  The Israeli Navy claims Bakr’s fishing trawler responded neither to their calls, nor warning shots, after deviating “from the designated fishing zone in the northern Gaza Strip.”

Read the full article.

28) Nunavut's Food Insecurity Is 'Far Greater' Than The Rest Of Canada: Report


Maham Abedi, The Huffington Post

Food insecurity in Nunavut needs "remedial action," according to a new report.

Read the full article.

Also, while from a period previous to this one, the powerful and moving article is being included in this roundup as well:

29) My Mother Wasn't Trash

Joshua Wilkey, This Appalachia Life

My mother died the day she turned 55.
 This Sunday will be my first Mother's Day without her, but nearly a year after she died, I still find it impossible to be heartbroken over her passing. As I wrote in her obituary, she suffered from both mental and physical illness for much of her life. However, despite her struggles, she selflessly loved and supported those who meant the most to her. In so many ways, she loved those who society deemed outcast and unloveable, and through her relentless love of others, her relationship with God was readily apparent. While I miss her dearly, it would be selfish of me to wish that she were still alive and suffering rather than at peace.

Read the full article.

See also: Corbyn, Cultural Appropriation, Colombia and more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List May 7 - May 14

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

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