Well, it seems like Elon Musk is set to become our new Twitter overlord. This is a terrible idea, for many reasons which will probably be the subject of my next post. He seems to have become the new hope for the online Right. The one who will restore balance to free speech in the Twitterverse. How exactly giving one oligarch total control over an entire social media platform is a win for “free speech” is beyond me though. It is always fascinating to see right-wingers get the political spectrum wrong in so many ways. There is actually one sense in which this meme is correct, just not in the wa ..read more

In what can only be described as positive public relations spin – or just propaganda in this case – the Ontario Police’s official Twitter account referred to anti-vaccine, pro-disease protestors as “Freedom Supporters.” I’m sorry what? Anti-vaccine protestors have shown themselves to be the least supportive of freedom. This shouldn’t come as a shock to us at this point. Police officers have protected anti-vaccine protestors since the start of the pandemic. This is nothing new. David Moscrop nailed it in his retweet. “You know you don’t have to do PR for them, right?” You know you don’t have ..read more

Photo: The Canadian Press/Jonathan Hayward There is a common narrative among people who live on the southwest coast of Canada regarding the large number of unhoused people in the Downtown Eastside (DTES). This view states that the reason for the large increase in unhoused and mentally ill people in the area is due to the closing down of River View Hospital, an older mental health facility in Coquitlam shut down by the province in July 2012. This narrative misses the larger, complete failure of neoliberal capitalism to meet the needs of the people who live here. In fact, it created the current ..read more

Initially, the Conservative party generally supported the truckers convoy, even as figures of Justin Trudeau in a noose were on full display on the first day of the circus sideshow. “Freedom, not fear, Truckers, not Trudeau,” said Pierre Poilievre. As the general public grew tired and annoyed of the convoy-turned-occupation in Ottawa, the Conservatives switched course, calling on occupiers to remove their trucks and go home. Their message had been heard.  While the leaders of the convoy were far-right extremists of different sorts – Wexiters, QAnon supporters, or outright white nationali ..read more

Screenshots from the VPD advertisement The Vancouver Police Department released a series of recruitment ads on March 1st. The set of ads had a common theme attempting to showcase who the cops really are. “This is who we are” was the title of each ad. It turns out that, according to one ad, “who they are” includes wall scaling, armoured vehicle driving, jumping out of helicopters, quasi-military organization. If you didn’t know any better, you would think it was an ad for the army. Nope, it’s an ad for the VPD. Watch below or click here. https://www.instagram.com/p/Can50YPp-DS/?utm_source=ig_w ..read more

I’ve been pretty quiet about the current Russian Invasion of Ukraine recently, mostly because I really didn’t know a whole lot about it. Instead, I’ve been mostly retweeting people who do.  What has become clear though, is that Canadian and American mainstream media are manufacturing consent, and presenting the Russian invasion of Ukraine outside of its historical context. According to this narrative, it is impossible that the USA (and therefore NATO) is ever in the wrong. Those of us on the Left know better. Over the past few days, I’ve done a fair amount of reading on the subject, and ..read more

*Note: due to the length of this article, there is a table of contents after the introduction to make reading easier. It is my opinion that Justin Trudeau invoking the Emergencies Act was a mistake, for a variety of reasons. Here I will lay out the case as best I can. This is not to diminish the impact of this far-right occupation on the people of Ottawa. The blaring of semi trunk horns at all times of the day could be considered psychological terrorism. Hundreds of hate crimes have been reported to the police. Healthcare workers and citizens experienced harassment. Police are even part ..read more

Trent Daley Trent is a 2020 graduate from the University of Alberta Bachelor of Arts, majoring in Sociology. Trent received an appointment for the Anti-Racism Advisory Committee to the City of Edmonton in February 2020 and serves as Vice-Chair. Trent is a 2022 recipient of the Alberta Council for Global Cooperation’s Top 30 Under 30 award. Find Trent on TikTok and Instagram. While liberals and the politically illiterate are celebrating our Prime Minister invoking the Emergencies Act and the following arrests of Patrick (Pat) King, Tamara Lich et al… What’s next for us? The Emergencies Ac ..read more

If the Conservative Party wants a new leader that will unite the party, Pierre Poilievre is the closest they will get. While I was scrolling through my personal Facebook feed the other day, I came across a conservative family member’s post – for the sake of anonymity, let’s call him Sam. Sam’s post claimed that he nearly ‘teared up’ while watching Poilievre’s announcement to run for Prime Minister. It would be easy to dismiss Sam’s thoughts as ignorant, laughable, and misguided. In the many political conversations that I’ve had with him, these would probably be accurate descriptions of his vi ..read more

The covid convoy has been barrelling through our social media feeds for almost two weeks at this point. The organizers have been demanding they speak to the manager, with no luck so far. Among convoy supporters, one can visualize a spectrum of beliefs within this predominantly conservative movement. There are some who simply desire “vaccine choice” or the “freedom to choose” – some of these supporters may even themselves be vaccinated. On the other end, the far-right elements rely on pseudo-science and conspiracy to promote an insidious agenda. Of course, many supporters find themselves somew ..read more