Rabble

It's an unusual Friday night at Grinder, a small coffee shop in Toronto. There is an alien in someone's cup, hearts in another and someone else sees their face in their mug.

What's even stranger is how local artists replaced paintbrushes and pencils with milk and cinnamon powder. The cause of this madness is an event called "Medium: Coffee Live Latte Art for Non-Latte Artists."

What these five artists did is part of the MakerCulture movement, the idea of taking things into your own hands, and producing new objects.

"It was different," says Abra Dolman, a participating artist. "I can't say I've ever used coffee, espresso, or milk as a medium before."

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Wow. A federal budget and an Ontario Speech from the Throne in the same week. A veritable feast of political divination is being offered up in these parts. And both governments are no doubt hoping their yummy fortune-telling will stack the cards for an election win.

Somehow, though, I'm pretty sure most of us share a gut feeling that we're being fed a load of bull, though if it's a contest for who wins the Stupid Award, the answer is obvious.

Let's remember how well all our political leaders did in foreseeing the crash that dominated 2009. But Stephen Harper, of course, was the thickest when it came to barely noticing the global crisis even after it had occurred. He finally pinched himself awake to stimulus spending. And, oh right, it took a prorogue.

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On Sunday, February 28th Sidney Crosby scored an overtime goal that lifted a nation. From coast to coast to coast, Canadians spilled into the streets to wave our flag, to sing our anthem, and to revel in our national spirit. We were unapologetically proud of what we had just accomplished.

In the wake of the Vancouver Winter Olympics many social and political commentators have asked a poignant question: how have these 17 days changed Canada?

Those more cynical believe that this single moment was akin to a teenage New Years Eve party, in which things seem magical until the next morning when the unsuspecting neophyte wakes up in a stupor, no more enlightened than the day before.

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The Harper government's claim that it plans to make maternal health a G8 priority is at odds with its efforts to prevent water from being recognized as a human right in international law and its promotion of water privatization in Canada and around the world. Good health begins with access to clean, safe drinking water and women are disproportionately affected when governments fail to provide adequate water and sanitation services. 

A report produced by the National Network on Environments and Women's Health in collaboration with the Council of Canadians and other groups called Women and Water in Canada highlights the impacts of water privatization on women. 

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The health of a people -- their vulnerability to illnesses and diseases -- is often an indicator of something larger. A new report shows that the rate of tuberculosis among Inuit is 185 times greater than for the rest of the country. That's an incredible number and, sadly, it's the product of our unfair social institutions.

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The article below is a tribute to Marcel Simard, a central figure in Quebec cinema who is barely known in English Canada. Last Saturday, Marcel committed suicide after a long depression. His death is a terrible loss to cinema throughout Canada because, as his friend Marquise Lepage says in the extraordinary piece below, he made provocative films often about the people society prefers not to see.

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As grassroots support for the pro-immigration reform March for America grows, anti-immigration groups and their allies are trying to use racial tension to stop the momentum. Opposition groups like NumbersUSA and the Americans for Legal Immigration PAC announced plans this week to partner with Tea Party activists in response to the event, which is expected to draw as many as 100,000 people to the National Mall on March 21.

Their hope? To scare the public into opposing a pathway to citizenship for the estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants living in the United States.

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Each year, in the lead up to Israeli Apartheid Week (IAW), organizers expect backlash and attempts to shut down events. IAW 2010 was no different. The Ontario Legislature condemned IAW, The Toronto District School Board banned IAW from its premises even though no events were scheduled there, and Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff slammed IAW for the second year in a row.

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Who says the Prime Minister Stephen Harper won't make Raj Pannu Lieutenant Governor of Alberta? He is the best choice, after all.

OK, it seems unlikely when there are so many undeserving old Alberta Tory retainers hanging around with their paws sticking out. But if you think Stephen Harper doesn't have what it takes to name the former Alberta NDP leader the Queen's representative in Alberta, maybe you should consider Canada's new ambassador to Washington.

Sometimes a prime minister, even a Conservative one, just needs to send a political message –- either to wave a political carrot or shake a political stick in the general direction of whoever ought to be paying more attention.

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The Toronto Star's 2010 investigative series on racial profiling proved the black community right. It is not often that disputes about perspective are conclusively settled with one side clearly right. However, the difference of opinion between the black community and the police force over whether the Toronto police engage in the practice of racial profiling may finally be settled.

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Alissa Westergard-Thorpe, one of the key organizers from The Olympic Resistance Network, speaks with Meghan Murphy about the anti-Olympics movement in Vancouver.

Recorded February 25, 2010.

Who counts? In Harper's budget world it isn't women, the environment or indigenous issues.  But he counts deficits.  And plenty is being counted for the U.S. health care bill but not necessarily what matters - like universal coverage.  That said, maybe the progressives have something up their sleeves.  Single payer does exist in parts of the bill, if we can only get it to count.  And we also serve up some rumours about something Obama might do and if he does, it will be very bad. 

Of course we have our feature Below The Fold (News You Might Have Missed)

Terroism Debate

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A freedom of information request by Canadian Press revealed that the office of Immigration Minister Jason Kenney deleted references to the civil rights of queer Canadians from a guide for immigrants. We speak with NDP MP for Burnaby, Bill Siksay.

To find out more about Redeye,check out our website.

Casey Leung talks to writer and editor Kevin Hollett about Megaphone, the Downtown Eastside, and the Olympics.

Thousands of Tibetans and Tibet supporters in dozens of countries took to the streets today, March 10th, to commemorate the 51st anniversary of Tibetan National Uprising Day and to show solidarity with a new nonviolent resistance movement gaining momentum in Tibet.

The video posted below showcases the Toronto march.

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I grew up on a farm and have continued to raise plants for most of my life. Anyone who does this usually learns about insects that prey upon plants. The smart ones also learn about the balance of nature.

I have seen cut worms, aphids, mites and hoppers destroy crops and the plants that produce them. I have seen how practising mono culture, that is growing huge, unbroken areas of a single crop, has facilitated terrible infestations by providing and almost endless feast of a favoured plant for a pest.

I have seen pest control that did more harm than good by killing not only the targeted pest, but directly or indirectly also many benificial organisms. Collateral damage, so to speak.

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Former Rep. Eric Massa (D-NY) punked conservative talk show host Glenn Beck yesterday by recanting his earlier allegations that House Democrats forced him out of office because he refused to vote for health care reform. Massa resigned on Monday amidst allegations that he sexually harassed one or more male staffers.

Adele Stan has a nice recap of the implosion of Massa’s political career at AlterNet. Massa initially said he was stepping down because he had cancer. Then the news broke that the House Ethics Committee was probing allegations that Massa sexually harassed a male staffer.

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An unusual trial begins in Israel this week, and people around the world will be watching closely. It involves the tragic death of a 23-year-old American student named Rachel Corrie. On March 16, 2003, she was crushed to death by an Israeli military bulldozer.

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The Toronto municipal election is many months away, but so far the mayoral front-runners have offered nothing inspirational.

George Smitherman and Rocco Rossi, both Liberal in name only (LINOs?), are in a heated race to the bottom over who can say "privatize" the most, who can more adeptly lambaste unions, who can continue to repeat that insidious fabrication that government shouldn't be in the business of being in business.

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The entry into a downtown Toronto shelter by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) on February 27 brought a renewed demand for prompt action from the Shelter | Sanctuary | Status Coalition, a growing movement of over 120 anti-Violence Against Women Organizations.

Fariah Chowdhury, an organizer with the Shelter | Sanctuary | Status Coalition, told a crowded press conference Monday at the Toronto Rape Crisis Centre that at the end of February immigration enforcement officers “invaded” a women’s shelter in search of Jane, a single mother and violence survivor from Ghana.

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