“I’ll believe that corporations are people when Texas executes one.”
—Robert Reich
November 2012
1 post
October 2012
2 posts
“When you grow up, you tend to get told that the world is the way it is and your life is just to live your life inside the world, try not to bash into the walls too much, try to have a nice family, have fun, save a little money. That’s a very limited life. Life can be much broader, once you discover one simple fact, and that is that everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use. Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.”
—Steve Jobs
“Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right.”
—Nelson Mandela
August 2012
1 post
“The world is not changing if you don’t bear the burden of responsibility.”
—Ai Weiwei
July 2012
6 posts
“Given the scale of life in the cosmos, one human life is no more than a tiny blip. Each one of us is a just visitor to this planet, a guest, who will only stay for a limited time. What greater folly could there be than to spend this short time alone, unhappy or in conflict with our companions? Far better, surely, to use our short time here in living a meaningful life, enriched by our sense of connection with others and being of service to them.”
—Dalai Lama
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“The notion that a radical is one who hates his country is naive and usually idiotic. He is, more likely, one who likes his country more than the rest of us, and is thus more disturbed than the rest of us when he sees it debauched.”
—H. L. Mencken | www.billmoyers.com
June 2012
2 posts
“The moral life is achieved only by fostering a radical individualism with altruism. The Christian Gospels call on us to love our neighbor, not our tribe. Immanuel Kant says much the same thing when he tells us to “always recognize that human individuals are ends, and do not use them as mere means to your ends.”
—Chris Hedges - http://www.nationofchange.org/righteous-road-ruin-1341067043
“In all the political posturing and lobbying by corporations, there is simply no comprehension of what the real crisis is: We humans have become so numerous and technologically powerful, so impatiently demanding and servile to a destructive global economy built on a corporate agenda, that we are undermining the life support systems of Earth.” - David Suzuki”
—http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/david-suzuki/rio20_b_1616430.html?utm_hp_ref=canada
April 2012
1 post
Canadians for Justice Releases Electoral Reform Proposal
Canadians for Justice is pleased to release our first policy paper, the subject of which is electoral reform.
Canada’s electoral system does a poor job of allocating seats in the House of Commons relative to the popular vote. In the last federal election, the electoral system awarded 53.9% of the seats to a party that won only 39.6% of the votes cast, and allowed that party to form the Government. All told, the present electoral system resulted in a distortion of 22.2% in terms of seat allocation as compared to the parties’ shares of the popular vote. According to Ekos Research, roughy two thirds of Canadian voters are “progressive” yet the electoral system produced a conservative government. A system that distorts the results by more than 22% cannot be said to meet the standards for a functioning democracy.
There are many challenges facing Canadian society. Solutions consistent with our collective views cannot be implemented by a government that has not earned our collective support and does not share our collective views. Canada needs a new electoral system, one that allocates seats in the House of Commons in proportion to the popular vote in each province and territory, rather than at the riding level. Our democracy has to be fixed before our challenges can be addressed in the manner of our choosing. This is why Canadians for Justice chose electoral reform as our first project.
Canadians for Justice has designed a new electoral system. This system, called PTPR (Provincial/Territorial Proportional Representation), allocates seats based on the percentage of the parties’ popular vote in each province/territory. Candidates are ranked and elected based on the percentage of the popular vote they earned in their respective ridings. This system is far more accurate than Canada’s present electoral system. When applying the system to the results of the past election, the distortion factor is reduced from 22.2% to just 1.6%.
Canadians for Justice has also designed a path to achieve electoral reform. The New Democratic Party and the Green Party both advocate the adoption of a form of proportional representation. The Liberals have yet to make this commitment. If they do, then the three parties should cooperate in a limited number of ridings in the next election with the goal of displacing the present government and implementing electoral reform. Once electoral reform is passed, a new election should be called and the seats allocated based on the new electoral system. This would restore legitimacy to Canada’s democratic institutions and give Canadians future governments that reflect their aspirations.
The specifics of the electoral system and the path to achieve electoral reform are outlined in our policy paper which can be found at the Electoral Reform link below. This paper, together with the supporting research documents, can also be found here.
In the coming weeks and months, Canadians for Justice will reach out to interested parties to secure support for our electoral reform proposals. If you would like to help in this effort, please e-mail info@canadiansforjustice.org.
March 2012
2 posts
The Impact on Health of Chemicals in the Food Supply →
youtube.com
Many, if not most, Canadians expect their government to protect their health against known threats. Regrettably, this has not been the case relating to our food supply. This problem exists in other nations as well, and often their governments fail to protect their citizens. We learn more every day about how often governments cave to business interests at the expense of their citizens. Canadians for Justice plans to work on this issue. As an introduction to the issue, we offer this link to a French film on this critically important subject. To view the film, click on the title of this post.
The person who posted the film on YouTube offered the following introduction:
“Comment les produits chimiques qui contaminent notre chaîne alimentaire sont-ils testés, évalués, puis réglementés? Notre Poison Quotidien est une grande enquête de Marie-Monique Robin (Le monde selon Monsanto) qui démontre de manière implacable comment l’industrie chimique empoisonne nos assiettes. Note: Ce film a uniquement été uploadé dans un but éducationnel. En aucun cas je n’ai l’intention d’en tirer avantage. Tous droits réservés à ARTE.”
