The Sandor Report

Olivia Chow – the Federal NDP transportation critic – plans to introduce a motion in parliament this Tuesday asking the government to design and implement a strategy for funding municipal infrastructure and transit systems. On the surface this proposal seems to be a good one; after all, anyone who spends any amount of time driving or taking public transit in Canada is bound to have a least one example of crumbling roads, overfilled busses leaving riders at the curb, or long commute times.  Not only does investment into infrastructure and transit seem like a ‘no-brainer’ to the average Canadian, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) has also made requests to the government to increase infrastructure spending by $2.5 billion.  According to the CBC , the preliminary version of the motion reads as follows: That this House call on the government to commit in Budget 2013 to a long-term, predictable and accountable federal infrastructure plan in partnership wi...

If you haven’t read about it yet , Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario has recently suspended a history professor in response to allegations that he used racist language in the classroom.    In the university’s defense, the professor does not deny that he used phrases such as “japs”, “towelheads.   However, in the professor’s defense, the racial slurs were quotes from books and articles about racism in the post-colonial era.   Oh, and the course in question was one on post-colonial history.   Perhaps one question that stands is whether a course on post-colonial history could be taught without discussion and inclusion of racial slurs.   The answer clearly is ‘yes’.   A better question however is whether such a course ought to omit such discussion.   The answer as far as I am concerned is an emphatic and resounding ‘absolutely not’.    Canada, 1918: The Government of Canada issues a set fee that all Chinese immigrants must pay t...

The answer to this article’s title question could simply be “because I live in Canada where our government is NOT pursuing internet censorship” or “because I can use Wikipedia in French”.  However, as a result of pages like Wikipedia (let’s be honest, it’s only Wikipedia that anybody cares about) ironically deciding to restrict access to their content, I’ve spent a good portion of my time today reading comments from Canadians upset that SOPA will somehow impose Orwellian censorship on their lives.  It seems that we have decided to not just ignore the nonsense coming up from the US and so I feel a more through explanation of why SOPA is nothing to get all worked up about. Don't you dare press that button! SOPA is an acronym that I – along with countless others – have been avoiding on the internet for weeks.  It stands for the “Stop Online Piracy Act” that is being placed before the US government in an attempt to control what Americans are able to access on the internet...

In addition to the standard issues of international affairs, economic growth and social equality that most of us expect our government to constantly address, the federal government has spent the last few months placing focus on what on the surface appear to be minor domestic issues.   Among these proposals have been the ruling that a portrait of the Queen should hang in all Canadian embassies, flying the Canadian flag should be a constitutional right, memorials for the War of 1812 should receive funding and our army should be renamed “The Royal Canadian Armed Forces”.   Although there seems to be a general consensus on Parliament Hill that these measures are not out of line, many Canadians have expressed a belief that these changes hold little significance beyond strengthening the support of Conservative Party members.   I have no intention of arguing the point, however we must look beyond the veil of partisan politics in order to see that these measures have the pot...