Canada

Canadian Democracy in Crisis: A Challenge for the Creative Class

Posted Tue, 01/05/2010 - 17:50 by jesse

Once again Canadian democracy is in crisis, as our government has prorogued parliament to avoid a scandal concerning the torture of detainees in Afghanistan. Public opposition has found a home on social media like Facebook and Twitter, which pose a challenge and opportunity for creative leaders to emerge and possibly even rescue our democracy from death's door.

The nature of a minority government like ours is that no single party controls the lower house of Parliament, and as a result gory details about the use of torture in Afghanistan were about to be revealed due to the diligent work of the opposition parties. In proroguing Parliament, Prime Minister Stephen Harper is able to prevent (or more likely just delay) the public from learning more and thus ensure the survival of his government for at least another two months.

A crisis like this presents an opportunity to expand the democratic process and include more people in politics as a whole. However, it's hard not to snicker at the fact that joining a Facebook group to show opposition to something has become the ultimate cliche. While such a group does raise awareness and cross over into mainstream media with front page headlines, I am not alone in wondering whether it actually accomplishes anything.

Even worse, why is the alternative to this kind of virtual action doing absolutely nothing? It's as if it has already become such strong orthodoxy that if you don't join, or even worse complain, you're regarded as a nay-sayer and are also responsible for providing alternatives.

The justification for this staid strategy is that it helps to raise awareness and provides an outlet for new initiates to the political process. However I don't believe that awareness alone makes a difference, but rather it is the larger process of mobilizing to action, and evading marginalization.

Censorship in Canada's Copyright Debate?

Posted Thu, 07/02/2009 - 17:16 by jesse

Last week I received a take down notice from YouTube regarding a video I posted three years ago from an appearance on RoBTV which has since been rebranded as BNN.

Turns out I was not the only one. Jason Crocker from the Canadian Coalition for Electronic Rights also had some RoBTV/BNN videos pulled from YouTube.

Jason also did some digging to find that there were dozens of videos from BNN on YouTube and it was just the ones around the copyright issue that had been forcibly removed.

The easy conclusion to reach based on this limited data is that BNN is getting pressure to remove these particular videos. Perhaps in response to attempts to book guests who disagree with the arguments made in the videos? Those guests perhaps decline to appear on the channel out of a perception of bias against them due to the examples uploaded to YouTube?

The story has been picked up by ZeroPaid.com in the states, and its possible there were other people who's clips have been removed and we just haven't heard from them (yet).

Unfortunately this type of censorship does tend to be effective in part because it employs the very copyright laws we seek to reform. In this instance my appearance on a cable news channel was not something I was allowed to share because they claim ownership. While fun, I don't presently have the time to fight it, so instead I'll just cease doing business with BNN, and encourage others to do the same.

The video had been modestly popular, featuring a panel with myself and a CRIA (Canadian Recording Industry Association) representative. Now that discussion is gone, and you can bet the people at CRIA would never have the courage to debate me in public again.

Update: Rose Noonan from BNN promptly got in touch with me to clarify that in fact they are removing *all* BNN videos from YouTube. So this is not an example of censorship in Canada's copyright debate, and that they are not discriminating against a particular topic, but rather are removing the items regardless of the topic.

While I still disagree with their actions I acknowledge that they are not targeting copyright in particular nor do they wish to curtail the debate on this subject.

Al Jazeera should be available in Canada

Posted Mon, 05/25/2009 - 12:02 by jesse

News is something I've always been interested in. Often this interest is more in the news business than it is in the news they are delivering. The internet has now matured to the point where I can get news from anywhere in the world, and I often seek multiple sources for coverage of a particular event.

However I do still tune into televised news, and most Canadians still get the majority of their news from their TV. This is why I think Al Jazeera should be available on Canadian cable television.

A number of CBC colleagues are now working for Al Jazeera's english language service, and via them I've been able to learn a lot about the programming produced for this network. For the most part it's excellent, and provides a crisp contrast to the rest of cable TV news.

You can view Al Jazeera online via Live Station, and once you do, I encourage you to contact the CRTC and participate in their current consulation regarding the network.

An Armada of Urban MPs Set Sail for the City State

Posted Sat, 12/06/2008 - 02:59 by jesse

It's been a really long week for me, and the country as a whole. I've been working really hard, on a ton of exciting projects. So, too, have the political parties in this country. All of them are coming closer than ever to achieving their agenda and creating a new type of government for Canadians.

On the one hand you have the Conservative party, about whose now-successful efforts at consolidating their hold on power I've been writing quite a bit.

On the other hand, you have a newly formed coalition that evokes strong emotion on all sides, and for the first time in a while genuinely threatens the otherwise arrogant Stephen Harper.

Now that parliament has been prorogued, the campaign for power moves into uncharted waters. While we're not in an election (yet), the airwaves are full of political ads, the media is talking about polls, and the internet is alive with the buzz of politics.

To some extent, the government has home field advantage, in that they can still govern, and appear to be hard at work navigating Canadians out of an economic maelstrom.

The coalition parties have their work cut out for them. Their challenge will be to stay in the news while the government bunkers down and hopes Canadians grow tired of the drama.

The key to the coalition's success is unity. But that doesn't mean there can't be dissent. Part of their strength lies in their diversity, and this diversity originates in the cities of Canada.

The Fall of the Tories and the Rise of the City State

Posted Mon, 12/01/2008 - 14:03 by jesse

So it would seem as if the Tories are too clever by half, and their arrogance has been the primary protagonist in their defeat. The opposition parties are in the last stages of forming a new coalition government. However the Tories do have a few tricks in their bag, and will do everything they can to resist their fall, including potentially proroguing parliament until the new year.

Yet the door is open and the opportunity for a new political era in Canadian politics is upon us. The Conservative party regards this as an attack from the left, however I think a more accurate description of this conflict is of an urban uprising.

It is often taken for granted that Canadian politics is regional, what with the Bloc Quebecois consistently dominating Quebec and the Conservatives dominating the West.

Yet the real divide is urban vs rural, with the last two elections virtually shutting the Tories out of major Canadian cities, in west, central, and eastern Canada. Even urban Alberta had a few non-Tory MPs elected.

The irony of course is that cities are where the action is, the engine of the global economy, and the front line for the pains and gains that result. In Canada the federal government has either treated the cities with neglect or disdain, limiting and restraining their potential.

Now that this same government teeters on the brink of collapse, their reactionary language will lead them to accuse the opposition of staging a coup d'etat, of hijacking the government for their own agenda.

Well that agenda is the urban agenda, and what we might be witnessing here is the rise of the city state, at least the Canadian version, i.e. non-violent and still within a geographically broad national federation.

Tories playing chicken: are they too clever by half?

Posted Fri, 11/28/2008 - 16:30 by jesse

So the Conservative Party of Canada have enacted a ridiculous strategy of playing chicken while the economy teeters on the brink, and I'm left wondering, are they too clever by half?

While I do realize that the Harrisites are gaining influence in the PMO, and that their Machiavellian nature should not be underestimated, I still assumed that Harper and the people around him were smarter than this.

Couched in an economic statement that includes government spending cuts, the Government is literally trying to bankrupt the opposition parties. An anti-democratic move unto itself, but one so crazy I kind of wonder if the Tories themselves actually expect it to pass.

Perhaps the government is actually engineering it's own defeat. Upset with their inability to obtain a majority to weather the economic storm, they are playing a wicked kind of end game that is both awesomely stupid and fiendishly clever. Either they will successfully bankrupt and cripple the infrastructure of opposing parties, or their government will be defeated and a new coalition comprised of Liberals, NDP, and BQ will form a new government.

In no way do I, or the Conservatives think there will be an election. The last election was a total waste, with horrible turnout, and calling another would inevitably draw the wrath of pretty much everybody.

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