Another reason why I still hate Harper.
The Harper Connection
In this week’s cover story,
Michael Harris looks at the global shift towards right-wing, authoritarian governments and cooperation between infamous figures to get those governments elected. And who do we find connecting India’s Modi to Hungary’s Orbán like a conservative Kevin Bacon? Why Stephen Harper, of course.
The International Democracy Union (IDU) is a global organization run by the ex-prime minister that’s dedicated to electing right-wing governments around the world. “If you want to see what sort of global club Canada will join if governed by a Poilievre-led Conservative party, a look at IDU’s membership — including the recently scrubbed — can be informative,” says Harris.
But it’s not just federal politics playing by the global far-right’s playbook. David Parker and Take Back Alberta are poster children for the anti-democratic assaults happening around the world.
“Parker warns that society is crumbling. He echoes the mantra of Trump — Poilievre, too — that everything is broken,” writes Harris. “For Parker, it is a crusade. The only way forward is a revolution — using democracy as a tool.”
The creation of Wood Buffalo National Park is often held up with national pride as a success story in preserving ‘wild’ spaces against the capitalistic impulses to mine and log them. But that origin story obscures the Indigenous People removed to make way for those pristine viewpoints.
Ximena González writes about a new book of oral histories that tells the stories of betrayal, dispossession and erasure that enabled the creation of Wood Buffalo National Park.
“The oral histories compiled in this book illustrate the underhanded removal of the Dënesųłıné Peoples,” González writes, “and the Canadian government’s attempts to erase the essential role Indigenous Peoples played in maintaining a balanced ecosystem for the sake of buffalo conservation.”
Charles Rusnell has news this week about the
whistleblower complaint made by five Edmonton surgeons against Dr. Daniel O’Connell — it’s been dismissed. After a 17-month internal investigation, Alberta Health Services associate chief medical officer Dr. Sharron Spicer told the surgeons in an email that their “concern was dismissed as unfounded.”
But University of Alberta law professor Cameron Hutchison, an expert in whistleblower legislations, tells Rusnell the terse email leaves little confidence in a proper investigation. “There is nothing here, it is really pathetic.”
Finally, University of Calgary education professor
Maren Aukerman details how the creation of Alberta’s much-criticized new social studies curriculum went so wrong. “The recently released draft was created through an opaque process that effectively shut out Alberta’s foremost educational experts.”
Elsewhere...
! Helped buddy pull side by out of water last week 
. There’s about 5” of ice most parts but very dangerous due to currents from runoff. Never seen ice so thin in February, typically have 2-3’ by now. Sold all my gear in fall, no desire to sit out there anymore lol.
globalnews.ca
canadahealthwatch.ca
thenarwhal.ca
www.lawtimesnews.com
