So, an extra two-year hitch has been affixed to Canada’s participation in the event that is “Insert Verb” in Afghanistan. The decision yesterday came on the heels of another Canadian combat death: the loss of Nicola Goddard was announced prior to the “extensive” debate in Parliament.
A quick notice of tendencies in relation to the question [...]
A brief remark regarding the return of four dead Canadian soldiers to Canada.
In shutting down media access to the event, Stephen Harper and Gordon O’Connor have stated repeatedly that the return of bodies from Afghanistan is a private affair for family and military officials. The sacred aura of the bodies and the affiliated grief and [...]
Late last week on CBC Radio One, I had the pleasure of hearing Liberal MP Hedy Fry – among others – take a run at Conservative Minister of International Trade David Emerson during the nascent stages of this most recently convened session of Parliament. That it is the first session undertaken by Stephen Harper’s minority [...]
by Neil Balan
Statistics Canada recently released its 2005 annual National Balance Sheets and the numbers are certainly worth a look. Three notable figures:
1.) the average net worth of every Canadian citizen is hovering at $137, 000; this puts the national net worth somewhere around the 4.5 trillion dollar mark. whew: we’re fat cats, or at [...]
Neil Balan
The recent completion of the 2006 World Social Forum – held simultaneously in Caracas, Venezuela and Bamako, Mali, with another session planned to follow in Karachi, Pakistan this March – added extra emphasis to recent early morning activities. I spent some time over coffee reading another thought-provoking, motorized essay from the February issue of [...]
by Neil Balan
[Note: for the record, initiate celebration. This is my first generation using Open Office, which is now running brilliantly on my laptop. Go open source.]
Bear with me.
Last week, Nat and I headed down to the besieged Gladstone Hotel for a reading and discussion of two new books by their respective Toronto authors. [...]
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