– by Jenny Parsons
WHY I AM A HUGE FAN OF THE NEW BGOS GREEN CANDIDATE, CHRIS ALBINATI
When I finally get to shake the hand of Chris Albinati, official Federal candidate for the BGOS Greens, I blurt: "You are a charm-bag!" This is not a good description of this excellent, fairly serious man. Having run in the spring Provincial election, you will recall, the charm-bag is moi. He is a lawyer who specializes in Aboriginal Land Law.
He has read all 183 pages of the GPC Federal policy book. He says that in it, there is "much that isn't in the current discussions, much that would resonate with citizens in this riding" and it has a "fully costed vision". It is a book of ideas and, he added, there are "not a lot of ideas on the table from the other parties".
-by David McLaren
The Harper Government's Universal Child Care Benefit (UCCB) cheques have started to arrive and Pierre Poilievre was front and centre, Tory-labelled golf shirt and all. As you probably know, a chunk of cash (some $3 billion worth) arrived in Canadians' mail boxes regardless of their income. I suppose that's what Conservatives mean by universal—everyone gets a piece of the pie, even those who have enough, thank you.
Our definition of Universal is different. Everyone who needs it has access to it—like health care. Those countries that have come out the other end of the Recession in good shape and managed to deal with poverty are those countries with true universal health care and child care (among other things).
The Conservatives' UCCB is not what successful countries do for their children.
In fact the Conservative's UCCB is barely a benefit. Let's say your annual UCCB cheque is $720. That $720 will be taxed at income tax time. In addition, another child tax benefit you got last year has been replaced by the UCCB. Subtract that and, poof! Your $720 UCCB is really worth only $158.22 a year, or $13.91 a month.
Bet that little calculation didn't come with your Harper Government cheque.
Dear Editor,
I write to you today in response to a letter written by Mr. David McLaren on the Owen Sound Hub website on July 20th, 2015 and in the Owen Sound Sun Times on July 24th, 2015. In his letter Mr. McLaren makes many falsified assertions about the intentions of the current Government in relation to the negotiations surrounding the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). This letter serves to correct this misinformation and unsubstantiated fearmongering by presenting the facts about free trade and Canada's system of supply management.
To begin, Mr. McLaren makes the assertion at the beginning of his article that trade agreements are somehow not in line with Canada's national interest. With one in every 5 jobs and 60% of Canada's national wealth directly linked to Canadian exports, I would say that these agreements
are 100% in line with our national interest.
-by David McLaren
I was at a meeting in Sauble Beach a year or so ago. Larry Miller was there and said, publicly, that what was being discussed should be brought into the open so everyone could see what it was. I thought that made a lot of sense, so I went over to Larry and said so.
Then, just to tease him I said, "Does this mean we get to see what's in the Canada-European Trade Agreement."
"No," he said. "Besides, you guys don't like trade, anyway."
Well, I thought that was a pretty good comeback so I laughed. But I also said, "That's not true, we just don't like secret trade agreements."
For the record, I also don't like trade agreements that promote corporate investments over national interests.
Now there's yet another trade agreement in the works—
-by Kimberley Love
Last month, after six aching years and the testimony of more than 7,000 survivors, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission released its report on the residential school system that forcibly separated aboriginal children from their families and created an indelible moral stain on the Canadian experience.
The stories of the residential schools – their purpose and what happened at them – are shocking to modern Canadians for three reasons. Firstly, they are recent: the last school closed its doors in 1996. Secondly and sadly, the school system was actually born from a hopelessly misdirected effort to "help" the children. And finally, these events all happened close to home, wherever you live in Canada.
I am not aboriginal. I grew up in a fair-skinned, freckled family in a community where everyone was fair-skinned. We knew absolutely nothing about the First Nations communities and families nearby. We never thought about the peoples who had inhabited the land that we now tilled. Our notion of local history was based on white settlement. Our communities, our culture and our school systems were all thoroughly colonized.
But here's what I find disturbing about the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission:
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