Any future government that’s concerned about environmental and human rights issues will have to reign in mining companies operating abroad.

For Canada to ratify OPCAT, or introduce any oversight over federal institutions, would need to go hand-in-hand with the introduction of national standards, against which Canada’s compliance can be measured. Yet, the foot-dragging of Canadian legislators on the issue of torture prevention has received little coverage. As a result there is a lack of public awareness of the effects that this international law might have across different sectors of society.

Even before Biden took the oath of office at noon on Jan. 20, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, citing D.C. lobbyists, reported Biden would cancel the Keystone permit on his first day in office. He did so late that afternoon, as one of 17 executive orders.
News reports added Biden is also cancelling the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit for another controversial project, the Dakota Access Pipeline, on grounds that it both endangers Missouri River drinking water and that it traverses sacred Native American lands.

Neoliberal transport policies have failed Canadians, but the pandemic provides us with the perfect opportunity to rethink our priorities.

From schools to hospitals, up and down the province, Manitobans are sitting in confined death traps. As of December 1, 312 people have died from COVID-19. Judging by the leisurely response of Premier Brian Pallister, it appears the sick and dead act as nothing more than sacrificial lambs to the political divinity of neoliberalism in Manitoba.

Although Canada is not as tactless as US politicians when they appeal to right-wing extremism in Florida, the Canadian government and its extensions of capital are deeply implicated in the Monroe Doctrine’s legacy of military and economic interventionism in Latin America, and their record in Colombia reveals this.

The brave and pioneering Independent Jewish Voices was the first to cry “Whoa, boy!” at Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau’s pusillanimous response to Israel’s projected annexation of much of the occupied West Bank.

NDP leader Jagmeet Singh and Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen discuss whether Canada really deserves its reputation as a progressive paradise.