Daily Split interview on assisted suicide
Last week I did an interview for the show The Daily Split. The shows plays on VisionTV and this episode played last night. My interview starts at 7:15 (which should be set in the embed below) and the host, Brian discusses assisted suicide further in his closing remarks "House of Common Sense", which starts at 21:15.
The show's byline is "it's about free enterprise" and is unapologetically right-wing, so take what you want from the rest of it.
I wish I hadn't called humanism "atheism plus" and would have expanded a bit more on how we believe in people's ability to be good on their own, but it is what it is. Every interview could go a bit better, and this represents a bit of exposure and some practice.
Oh Georgia Straight, why do you publish such crap?
Sometimes I appreciate the local coverage that the Georgia Straight provides. They’re coverage of the Vancouver election is extensive, and they’ve provided pages for every school and parks board candidate so far to get their word out. Hell, they questioned Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts on whether she though George Bush should be arrested for torture.
But then they have a day when they put out a pair of articles like they did last Thursday.
Kai Nagata: Media Crusader
After that last article, I want to point out something positive* on the internet.
You remember Kai Nagata right?
He wrote what may have been the best resignation letter ever. It was essentially a manifesto for change in the Canadian media climate.
Well, lucky for us, The Tyee found him and has started letting his unfiltered words hit the internet.
And wow does he have things to say.
He’s already started a series called “Warnings from Quebec”, which begins by painting the bleak picture of media centralization that has become Quebec under Quebecor rule. Nagata notes that Quebecor has been crucial in forcing secret laws through the provinces National Assembly to support the construction of a new arena, to be owned by Quebecor, in Quebec City. He questions the new motto of Quebecor president “What’s good for Quebecor is good for all Quebeckers” and worries about the extreme agendas being pushed by Quebecor.
Part 2 introduces us to the ex-Parti Quebecois members who quit over their party’s sell out to Quebecor. He notes how the PQ’s implosion has basically cost them their next election, which is of little concern to Quebecor who may have found the ideal puppet in Francois Legault – potential leader of an uncreated, but high-polling, new right-wing party. He finishes by asking whether any large corporate media in Canada is free of bias, noting that only the independent Toronto Star and Le Devoir endorsed anyone other than the Conservatives in 2008 and 2011.
Finally, Nagata concludes with a blistering two-page analysis** of Quebecor’s new Sun News Network, which he claims has a steadily rising viewership (his source is a Sun newspaper, so I’m still a bit skeptical). He discusses the prevalence of polling data in Quebecor papers, which seem to have been used to promote the Quebec arena – asking respondents to single out who is to blame for delays. He worries about the lack of critical analysis of Quebecor (save for a few courageous columnists) and concludes by worrying about the isolating effect that such media centralization can result in.
Go read all three pieces, and feel worried. But then feel a bit better knowing that at least someone’s paying attention.
*At least it’s a good thing that’s it’s being written.
**I hate when online articles are split across pages. We have scroll bars for a reason.
Wrong, wrong, so very wrong
Apparently people respect Vito Tanzi. At least, that’s what an article in the Globe and Mail tells me, and their journalists must be impartial right?
Tanzi apparently believes that because government spending has dropped as a fraction of the GDP in Canada and Sweden over the past 20 years that it will continue to drop into the future. I guess two data points does make a linear trend. Neil Reynolds, the author of the article, compares the levels that we’re spending with those of the 1920s and the 1700 and 1800s, and seems to argue that we should go back to such spending.
That’s right.
PostMedia admits failure of privatization
Granted, this is from the editorial board of the Nanaimo Daily News, and not the Calgary Herald (or even the Vancouver Sun), but still, someone get the devil some ice skates:
While the [BC] government has provided the subsidy [overpaid BC Ferries CEO David] Hahn said that B.C. Ferries needed, the news about continued falling ridership has to be seen as a sign that this is a service badly in need of being returned to where it belongs - as a public service. [emphasis mine]
The paper has many harsh words for premier Christy Clark for failure to take real action over falling ridership and skyrocketing fares at BC Ferries. It further criticizes NDP leader Adrian Dix for not yet stating his plan to fix the agency. Hopefully, once the election is on we’ll hear it.
On the Oslo blasts
By now you’re probably aware of the explosion and subsequent shooting that happened today (yesterday there?) in Oslo, Norway. If not, go read then come back.
Going off the details that are undisputed as of now, a bomb was set off in downtown Oslo, near the government buildings and later a man dressed as a police officer opened fire on delegates of a Labour Party youth camp. (Real) Police believe the two events are linked and the death toll is still rising and is at least 10.
The New York Times had initially reported that an Islamic fundamentalist group had taken credit for the bombing, but the paper was quick to note that such claims are often false.
Any time a terrorist attack (and I define this as a terrorist attack since it was an attack that inspired terror) occurs, it’s almost instinct now to blame Muslims. Hopefully most people take a second and realize it’s not any or even a sizable number of Muslims who could commit such atrocities (can anyone picture Mayor Nenshi doing anything so atrocious?). Finally, we actually realize that in situations like this, we need to wait until some facts come out before posting our favourite violent sections of the Koran in relation to this attack.
Almost ironically, some reports are starting to come out now, and they’re worthy of the same skepticism as the initial reports, that the gunmen was a blonde Norwegian and has no links to any Islamic group. The irony comes from the fact that this man may prove to have ties to ultra-right organizations that strongly oppose the left-leaning governing Labour party and Muslim immigration.
Rather than Islamo-Fascists it may prove to be just old fashioned Western Fascists.
Of course if a xenophobic right-wing group had escaped without being caught, they could have pinned the blame on Muslims and immigrants, potentially swinging popular opinion over to some of their more extremist policies.
But now I’m into idle speculation.
I wish the best for the investigators and Norwegian people. Norway holds a soft-spot in my heart as the place Alberta (and Canada) could be if we actually worked together.
Canada Day Canada.com article
I almost completely missed a chance at some shameless self promotion. For Canada day I was asked to submit an article to a renewal of their "Real Agenda" issue that ran gathered bloggers opinions during the recent election.
I came up with a shorter piece on our country's need for a vision to replace the cynical politics that seems to rule today.
A tease:
With our country’s 144th birthday upon us, we ought to stop, recollect, and decide our vision for this diverse land. Perhaps it is a part of our perpetual national identity crisis, but I believe that we need to rekindle the belief in a better future that drove the exploration and formation of Canada.
Visionary examples fill our history, from our transnational railway, to establishing the international peacekeeping forces of the United Nations, to Tommy Douglas’ universal health care system. Yet, the past few decades have lacked that vision, with our only goal of the 1990s being to eliminate the federal deficit.
Canada.com-It’s time to talk about abolishing the monarchy
I got another piece published on the front page of Canada.com in the “Real Agenda.” This time I argue that it’s time to due away with the monarchy.
It’s time to talk about abolishing the monarchy
The power of our Prime Minister’s Office has been growing in leaps and bounds since Trudeau sought to centralize the effectiveness of his rule. One of the few checks on the PMO is our beleaguered Governor General, yet the past few years have seen a precedent that not even he or she can stand in the way of the Prime Minister.
Coupled with the general disinterest in the upcoming nuptials of Prince William and Kate Middleton, it is time that our politicians start discussing whether Canada should remain a monarchy.
In the recent Australian elections, Prime Minister Julia Gillard made headlines across the Commonwealth by declaring that it was her belief that once Queen Elizabeth II passes the throne along, Australia should become a republic and abandon the monarchy.
This statement is less shocking Down Under, where the debate about republicanism has been raging since a failed 1999 vote to replace the monarchy with a president elected by two thirds of the Parliament. The option failed to appeal to all republicans, yet still 45 per cent voted for a republic.
A December poll by Vision Critical revealed that a vast majority, 70 per cent, of Canadians are not interested in the upcoming wedding.
When the pollsters asked which system they would prefer to the monarchy, a plurality, 32 per cent, said Canada should establish its own elected head of state, while 29 per cent were indifferent. Only 21 per cent said Canada should remain a monarchy. (Eighteen per cent weren’t sure.)
More Canadians preferred “no monarch” after the Queen abdicates than either Prince Charles or Prince William.
Traditionalists will naturally disagree with me. Personally, I have little time for arguments about the value of doing things the same way they’ve always been done, since that is what has kept various forms of bigotry, from sexism to slavery, around for so long.
Furthermore, our increasingly pluralistic country ought not to be governed by the head of a church who derives her authority from a claimed blood lineage. This system hearkens back to days of a deep social divide between peasantry and nobility, when blasphemy was punishable by death.
The other argument routinely trotted out against abolishing the monarchy is that we risk centralizing more power in the already powerful PMO. Yet, as the failed Australian referendums demonstrated, this could allow Canadians the chance to put a new democratic check on the executive branch.
By establishing an elected Canadian president, we could have the chance to actually vote for who leads us, instead of electing a local backbencher.
Alternatively, we could retain the Governor General’s office as an appointment, but strengthen the position such that the prorogation crises could be avoided.
The monarchy is out of date for Canada, and it is time that we close this chapter on our history and work toward becoming the Republic of Canada.
Ian Bushfield is president of the B.C. Humanist Association and blogs at terahertzatheist.ca and canadianatheist.com.
Young Canadians are not alcoholics
I know it fits a nice narrative about drunken college students, but before publishing an article like this, perhaps actually talk to some voters, not just a shock jock.
Election activity: ‘Coalition’ drinking game the new buzz
If Canadians are hanging on politicians’ every word this election, there’s a good chance it’s because alcohol is involved.
The “coalition” drinking game was sparked on Twitter shortly after a Brampton, Ont., speech in which Stephen Harper dropped the political c-bomb a full 21 times in 10 minutes. From that point forward, every time the Conservative leader used the contentious term, the rules dictated that a shot must be swigged.
Key findings from a 2009 Health Canada report (and the alcohol-specific section):
- Among Canadians 15 years and older, the prevalence of past-year alcohol use decreased from 79.3% in 2004 to 76.5% in 2009.
- Three quarters of youth (75.5%) reported consuming alcohol in the past year. This is a decrease from 2004 when 82.9% of youth reported past-year use of alcohol.
- The prevalence of heavy frequent drinking among youth 15 to 24 years of age, was three times higher than the rate for adults 25 years and older (11.7% versus 3.9%).
... Compared to 2004, a significantly higher percentage of Canadians in 2009 reported either not drinking (11.6% versus 7.3%) or drinking more moderately. In 2009, the rate of light frequent drinking at 31.3% was significantly higher than it was in 2004 at 27.7%. In contrast, a lower proportion of Canadians in 2009, than in 2004, reported heavy drinking to be their usual consumption, whether they be drinking frequently (5.1% versus 7.1%) or infrequently (3.7% versus 5.6%).
Note, that only 11% of youths are binge drinking, and those numbers are falling.
There is arguably no youth alcohol epidemic, but articles like this promote a negative stereotype which can drive more young adults away from the polls (the real issue).
The front page
As with articles that somewhat address religion and secularism, my article on Canada.com’s Your Agenda has taken off:
That’s a screenshot from the frontpage today of Canada.com. No clue who that kid is, but the picture is priceless.
Go ahead and read through the varied comments too. I’ll repost and respond to some them later.
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