For Immediate Release November 15, 2019 WINNIPEG — In the lead up to next week’s throne speech, Manitoba Liberals presented their alternate vision for Manitoba, focusing on children, better health, the environment, jobs and democracy. “If we want a better future, we have to make keeping children safe a priority,”…

We talk all the time about “root causes” of social problems, especially poverty. We know poverty makes everything harder. It affects people’s health. It means people are vulnerable and can be exploited. It is not a choice. It is the way we choose to run our society. Especially when it…

There are two global crises unfolding. While students around the world are going on a global climate strike, there are fears that in 2020, there will be a global recession. Even politicians and companies that want to address climate change feel they cannot because they just do not have the…

From the 4th episode of the Marc & Tom Show. Listen to the whole thing here: https://www.wbez.org/shows/wtf-with-marc-maron/the-marc-and-tom-show-4/fbf13bb3-2cda-470e-abce-47dff78fe489 Maron: I was talking to you right, about — with almost everything now — did you tell me Jason Woliner said that? “A movie’s like a tweet.”? Scharpling: Yeah. He said there’s no…

Canada’s cultural industries are approaching a crisis that has been caused, not just by technology, but by the failure of governments to keep up with technology to ensure functioning markets. This is a paper that explains some challenges and offers some solutions — especially proper enforcement of intellectual property rights…

The MacDonald Laurier Institute has issued an op-ed about the danger of increasing taxes on Canadians who make the most money, arguing that there are limits to redistribution — it is running in Sun Newspapers. This is a profoundly misleading piece — it could easily fall into the “fake news”…

There has been an explosion of concern about “Fake News” in the aftermath of the U.S. election. Craig Silverman of Buzzfeed Canada reported that, towards the end of the election, “fake” stories on Facebook were being shared more than “real news” sites. …

I see lots of people out protesting that Donald Trump has been elected president. Don’t just march, get organized. I have worked in politics for a long time, mostly doing communications and policy — (in Canada, so that may not count). Plenty of people are freaking out, not just about…

It’s May Day in Canada, so let’s take a look at income inequality in Canada. — We’ll start with clarifying some terms that will help make things easier to understand. One is the difference between “income” and “wealth”. In general terms, we talk about people who are “rich” or “poor” or “better-off” or “wealthy” but we need to be a little more clear. We can talk…