‘Des Solitudes’ Asks Us to Step Outside Ourselves
“It’s very difficult for some people to recognize that we all have a master, and we all have a slave. It’s something you cannot really talk about.”
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Part 3: Newfoundland and Labrador Considers How to Maintain Its Romance
Back home, you embark on a vigorous online research endeavour: Getting Better. Improvement from the Inside Out. Healthy Habits. Eating Organic. Holistic Nutrition. You read, take notes, keep an ongoing list of URLs, all the while recognizing how your focus slowly splits into thirds – get better, show you want to get better, get better just enough to stall your lover’s departure. It’s difficult to get into this wholeheartedly when you know your bank account won’t maintain these diets. Six dollars for a pack of greens turning wet on the produce shelf. Grocery chains sell you packs of blueberries for five dollars so you won’t get them for free in the ditch. And none of this online literature addresses your lifetime habit of just keeping your belly full. A limited food budget meant mom could get bologna and KD – it kept the kids happy, kept them going. It showed…
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It’s not about a hotel
Really, all the ado is not about a hotel. If St. John’s is so awash in tourists that we need a new hotel, nobody is going to argue. Nobody minds a new hotel for the tourists. It’s work for contractors, it’s work for staff, it’s money for the local economy. What this is about is entitlement. It’s about a merchant class elite business community which really contributes very little to this city (trickle-down economics never worked; what’s more important is that the rich pay their taxes rather than stashing it in offshore bank accounts), yet considers that the city ought to jump through hoops, waive regulations and give them whatever they want on a silver platter whenever they ask for it. This small city doesn’t have much. It’s got an unemployment rate twice the national average (the second highest of any Canadian city), overcrowded hospitals, no family doctors taking patients,…
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Talking about the weather in Windsor Lake…
It’s unusual for this publication to let an election or even byelection go by with nary a comment. Yet despite the rapidly approaching Windsor Lake byelection, it took me a while to figure out what to say. I considered focusing on the Liberals. Oh, where to start? Their failure to tackle unemployment, which is the province’s biggest crisis and one nobody seems interested in talking about? Their failure to do anything remotely constructive to grow or diversify the economy over the past three years? The fact they fall to their knees grovelling at any big industry that comes knocking, handing the big mainland industrialists whatever they ask for on a silver platter, whether it’s royalty concessions or waiving environmental regulations? The fact that they’ve done nothing to secure the people of the province against ruinous energy bills as a result of the Muskrat Falls debacle, besides some vague promises that…
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Letter: Fracking on trial and the rights of nature
The historic Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal Session on Human Rights, Fracking, and Climate Change will take place this May 14 to 18, cohosted by Spring Creek Project at Oregon State University, Corvallis, and live-streaming online. For the first time in its nearly 40-year history, this session of the Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal (PPT) will have an international focus and will include arguments about the rights of Nature in addition to the rights of people. Among those participating are individuals and groups from Newfoundland and Labrador. The Permanent Peoples’ Tribunal is a highly respected international forum that grew from the Russell-Sartre Tribunal to investigate whether breaches of human rights norms occurred during the Vietnam War. Since then it has conducted a series of high-profile hearings to determine whether human rights standards were abridged in Bhopal, Chernobyl, and other sites worldwide. The Tribunal’s most recent session was on Myanmar’s (Burma’s) crimes against the Rohingya…
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What’s a budget for, anyway?
Finance Minister Tom Osborne used the words “methodical, fair and responsible” to describe the recent budget, but representatives of civil society and community organizations said that Budget 2018 failed to provide a vision for a sustainable future for Newfoundland and Labrador. Debbie Forward, head of the Nurses’ Union, referred to it as “a flat budget.” She said while there’s not a lot to be upset about, there’s not much to be excited about either. Mary Shortall, President of the Newfoundland and Labrador Federation of Labour said she was looking for a jobs strategy from the budget, but couldn’t find one. “There’s nothing in this that indicates there’s any plan ahead for that. I didn’t see a vision in this budget for what’s going to happen for our population going forward,” she said. The March 27 budget “doesn’t inspire confidence with respect to what we have been able to observe today,”…
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The price of everything in the province hinges on this case
Oceanex vs. Marine Atlantic is about more than just shipping rights. It’s about whether this province will survive.
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Oil, gas, and cognitive dissonance
We remember the last oil boom, right? Couple years ago? And the bust that followed? Wealthy people got considerably wealthier while the rest of us strained to see the benefits promised us. What weren’t hard to see were the deep cuts to the public sector after all those revenues (on which the government decided to be fully dependent) suddenly vanished. And the public continues to pay the price. It’s 2018. We’ve known for many years that the future of human beings depends on cutting dependence on fossil fuels. Scientists the world over have insisted this is the case. In a 2012 report, the World Bank stated that “we’re on track for a 4 degree Celsius warmer world by century’s end marked by extreme heat waves, declining global food stocks, loss of ecosystems and biodiversity, and life-threatening sea level rise.” The Tyndall Centre for Climate Research says this rise in 4…
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Here’s why democracy is better
We need more democracy, not less
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From Newfoundland to the edge of the galaxy: Encountering Ursula K. Le Guin
Le Guin’s worlds reshaped our own
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Court order issued for arrest of land protectors, journalist
Court order includes Independent editor Justin Brake.
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Are RCMP highway checkpoints infringing on the rights of Labradorians?
No clear statement of legal justification has been offered for the checkpoints
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Innu Nation wants flooding suspended as Muskrat Falls protest grows
More Innu join Muskrat Falls occupation, but leadership withholds endorsement.
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Ball dodges questions on Muskrat Falls
Premier Dwight Ball lands in St. John’s, dodges questions about people on hunger strike in Labrador, contradiction between Labradorians’ rights and business obligations.
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Municipal leaders want in on Muskrat meeting
Labrador mayors say Muskrat Falls meeting between premier and Indigenous leaders should include municipal representation.
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Muskrat Occupation: Government urged to fasttrack meetings
Demands have not changed; RCMP confirms reinforcements arriving; hunger strikes add urgency to meeting with government.
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Thank you, Land Protectors of Labrador
We have all learned something important from the courage of Labradorians
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“We hold Muskrat Falls”
Land protectors storm site, win temporary halt to flooding.
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The Muskrat Falls rebellion and Labrador independence
Boondoggle hydro project could see Labrador go its own way from Newfoundland.
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Newfoundland in the Black imaginary
Black history in Newfoundland has been ignored for too long, says visiting poet and scholar.
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