"Or you are abominably wicked;
You are a toad."
And after I had thought of it,
I said, "I will, then, be a toad."
- Stephen Crane -
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Dear followers,
After a lot of late night without sleep, tossing and turning in my bed consideration, I have reluctantly decided to stop tumbler-ing (is that even a word now?). I haven’t decided whether to close the blog altogether, or leave it up for you guys to browse through the archives. I’ll be sure to update you guys on my decision sometime soon. All the best to all of you, I’m sure I’ll still see you around the interwebs sometime! I’ll still be browsing some of my favourite blogs on here, though, so we’ll keep in touch etc. etc. etc.
PS: I’m going to link you guys to my newly established twitter, for a limited time, so you can follow me (if you want, no pressure, go follow me though).
That’ll be all.
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CLASSE struggle in Quebec
What began as yet another ordinary student protest against an increase in university tuition fees has finally turned into a full-fledged political battle between the Liberal government (which, in this case, has the support of a majority of Quebeckers) and a coalition of radical students and left-wing activists, with the Parti Québécois discreetly fuelling the fire – although it stopped short of embracing the student leaders’ most extravagant demands.
The student “strike” – a misnomer, since students aren’t salaried workers and are just boycotting their courses to their own detriment – has been going on for two months. Protesters, sporting their trademark red cotton squares pinned to their shirts, have occasionally blocked bridges and the harbour, as well as access to financial institutions and government buildings, bringing some disruption to downtown Montreal. There have also been episodic scenes of vandalism, to which police have responded by spraying tear gas at the demonstrators.
Even though it’s been the longest period of student unrest in Quebec history, the government hasn’t budged – again, a first. A few loud demonstrations used to be enough to make governments shelve projects for raising tuition fees that were always among the lowest in Canada.
For years, Quebec university education has been offered at bargain prices. In constant dollars, today’s students pay less to get a degree than in 1968 – and, sadly, the low tuition hasn’t resulted in an increase in graduation rates, which, in Quebec, are still in the bottom range of Canadian universities.
The Charest government’s proposal is quite reasonable. The projected hike would increase tuition by $325 annually over five years – not enough, certainly, to restrict access to students from disadvantaged families, since the province has a generous system of loans. Last week, the government offered substantial improvements to this system, but student leaders flatly rejected the offer without bothering to consult their members. (Although about a third of the student population is said to be participating in the boycott, this number is deceptive. The “strike” votes were often taken by a show of hands rather than secret ballot, and this in sparsely attended meetings.)
The government hoped the Easter holidays – and the prospect of losing a whole semester – would put a damper on the action, but the boycott movement took on new life last week, with quasi-daily demonstrations imaginatively designed to fuel the media’s insatiable need for spectacular events.
The movement has been taken over by a radical faction known as CLASSE (for Association pour une solidarité syndicale étudiante). This group calls for totally free universities, even for foreign students. So, of course, there’s no use in negotiating improvements to the loans system since, in CLASSE’s dream world, there’d be no need for loans (even financial aid by parents or spouses shouldn’t count).
How could Quebec afford such “free for all” universities? The student leaders’ solution is wonderfully simple: Make the rich pay, reduce the salaries of university administrators, forbid universities from spending money on anything else other than teaching and research, and – better yet – change the system. CLASSE’s media-savvy spokespeople recently declared that their movement was just the “avant-garde” of an anti-capitalist revolution. “It’s more than a student strike; we want it to become a struggle of the people.”
For now though, the “people” are just hoping their kids go back to class.
I’m not entirely sure how accurate this commentator’s depiction of the Quebec student protests is, especially considering that the article ignores the constant violent of the police to the protests.
Still an interesting read, though.
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Canadian banks got $114B 'bailout' during recession
Canada’s biggest banks accepted tens of billions in government funds during the recession, according to a report released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
Canada’s banking system is often lauded for being one of the world’s safest. But an analysis by CCPA senior economist David Macdonald found that Canada’s major lenders were in a far worse position during the downturn than has ever been previously believed.
Macdonald pored over data provided by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions and the big banks themselves for his report published Monday.
It says support for Canadian banks from various agencies reached $114 billion at its peak. That works out to $3,400 for every man, woman and child in Canada, and also to seven per cent of Canada’s gross domestic product in 2009.
The figure is also 10 times the size of the amount Canadian taxpayers spent on the auto industry in 2009.
“At some point during the crisis, three of Canada’s banks — CIBC, BMO, and Scotiabank — were completely under water, with government support exceeding the market value of the company,” Macdonald said. “Without government supports to fall back on, Canadian banks would have been in serious trouble.”
During October 2008 and June 2010, the banks combined to report $27 billion in profits on their balance sheets.
Yippee!
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Violent Montreal student protest nets 17 arrests
Premier calls social disruption ‘unacceptable’
Riot police used tear gas and concussion grenades on hundreds of students protesting outside Montreal’s Palais des congrès Friday, where Premier Jean Charest was speaking at a symposium on northern development.
The mayhem reached deep inside the convention centre, where Charest’s keynote speech was delayed after a group of protesters gained access to the building and confronted police guarding the meetings.
Two police officers and at least two protesters were injured in the standoff, and 17 people were arrested.
Friday’s action is the latest in Quebec’s escalating student movement against planned tuition-fee increases.
Charest admonished the students and said the social disruption is “unacceptable.”
“This is 2012, this is Quebec. We have had ministers find tanks of gas on their verandas… Molotov cocktails in front of their offices. There are ministers who have had death threats,” the premier said.
“I find it unacceptable that one student association refuses to condemn violence,” he added, singling out CLASSE, the movement’s most militant group.
Charest said debate over Quebec tuition reaches back two decades, and his government’s decision to raise fees was made over a year ago after consultation with different groups.
[…]
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CTV cuts Fashion Television
CTV has cancelled the long-running fashion series, Fashion Television, which covered runway shows and helped launch homegrown stars.
The broadcaster says production was suspended Wednesday but gave no reason for halting the series.
Host Jeanne Beker broke the news on Twitter by saying “This dream is over: After 27 glorious years, FT production ceased today.”
The weekly half-hour series roamed the globe to collect a mix of news and feature pieces touching on the worlds of fashion, photography, architecture and design.
CTV confirmed the show’s end, saying the network “remains committed to the fashion genre.”
“The iconic Jeanne Beker remains with Bell Media and the company looks forward to an exciting future with her, including the development of new projects,” CTV said Wednesday in a release.
“Bell Media remains committed to the fashion genre and will continue to grow FashionTelevisionChannel to deliver a broader appeal for viewers, advertisers, and distributors.” FashionTelevisionChannel is a digital subscriber channel owned by the same media group as CTV.
Through the show, Beker has interviewed top designers, including Stella McCartney, Marc Jacobs, Tommy Hilfiger and the late Alexander McQueen.
YOU GUYS DO NOT UNDERSTAND. MY DREAMS HAVE BEEN RIPPED FROM MY SOUL AND COMPLETELY SHATTERED TO BITS AND PIECES. I DON’T KNOW WHAT I’M GOING TO DO WITH MYSELF NOW.
Please excuse me, I’m going to crawl into the fetal position, cry and re-examine my life.
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Canadians OK with higher taxes to fight inequality
Canadians are willing to pay more taxes to help close the growing income gap and want corporations to pay higher tax rates too, according to a new poll released Tuesday.
The survey of 2000 Canadians, commissioned by the left-leaning Broadbent Institute, found that 23 per cent are “very willing” and 41 per cent are “somewhat willing” to pay slightly more tax in order to protect social programs such as health care, post-secondary education and pensions.
The Broadbent Institute, named after the NDP’s former leader Ed Broadbent, argues that protecting social programs would help reduce income inequality.
Liberal and NDP voters are the most supportive of this proposal, the results showed, but 58 per cent of Conservative voters are also in favour of it.
“This attitude toward paying slightly higher taxes is reflected equally in high-income and middle income Canadian households. It’s only their governments who are offside,” the report, the first from the newly established think tank, said.
The phone survey was conducted between March 6 and March 18. The results are considered accurate to within 2.2 per cent, 19 times out of 20.
A majority of Canadians – even wealthy ones – are behind the idea of raising income taxes on people who earn more than $250,000 and more than $500,000. The poll found 83 per cent are in favour of that idea.
And 73 per cent agree with raising corporate taxes back up to 2008 levels. Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government has steadily lowered the rates since taking office in 2006, arguing the tax breaks help corporations create more jobs. The NDP and Liberals are opposed to the lower rates, saying they haven’t helped create new jobs and that corporations are just sitting on higher profits.
The survey, conducted by Environics Research Group, found that a majority of Conservative voters support higher corporate taxes.
It also shows that 69 per cent of Canadians support the introduction of an inheritance tax on any estate valued at more than $5 million.
The Broadbent Institute says the poll shows that the problem of income inequality is not an ideological one and that even the wealthy agree that they should play their part in addressing it.
It calls on governments to match public opinion and take action to reduce income inequality.
The survey showed that 77 per cent of respondents agree that widening income gaps are a big problem for Canada that will have long-term consequences and 71 per cent agreed that income inequality undermines Canadian values.
I would laugh, but this isn’t funny anymore.
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On libertarianism and racism.
I’ve often heard the claim that libertarians can’t be racist because they believe in individualism instead of collectivism, or something like that.
You know what? I call bullshit.
Racism can be done on a collective level, as well as an individual level. A form of collective racism would be state segregation laws. A form of individual racism would be not interacting with someone because of their skin colour.
It happens.
It would also happen in a libertarian society, where people would be free to interact or not interact with whom they please, including people of colour.
Of course, instituting the state to deal with issues of racism creates far worse problems, as it leads to collective racism in the form of systemic discrimination.
Racism isn’t an issue for states to deal with, but for societies, and people on a micro level. Passing it off to benevolent overlords doesn’t solve the problems, it only widens them, and creates new ones.