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The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has released the results of a study on the impact of rising tuition fees in Ontario . The study shows that in 1990, a middle-income family in Ontario could earn the equivalent of four years of tuition fees in 87 days. Two decades later, that middle-income family needs to set aside the income of 195 days to earn tuition. For low-income families, of course, the situation is much worse: paying for four years of university tuition would take the equivalent of two years' worth of income. In other words, paying for a child's tuition is a huge stretch for many families, and completely out of the question for many more. Young people either don't pursue their educational goals - so their life chances are automatically restricted - or they begin their young-adult lives shackled by debt. In my country of origin, this situation is even worse, and it's accepted as the norm. Only the wealthiest families can afford higher education. The ch...

In September, Toronto Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker will reintroduce a motion to ban the for-profit sale of dogs and cats in Toronto pet stores and flea markets. These retail outlets are notorious for selling animals bred in puppy mills. The conditions in puppy mills are nothing short of torture, and it is widely acknowledged that they only way to shut them down is to cut off demand for their "products". Apparently this bill has been brought forward before, but the Council managed to dilute it to the point of complete ineffectiveness. If you live in Toronto, please email or call your City Councillor and express your support for this bill. You can find your Councillor's contact info here . (I don't live in Toronto, but this gives me an idea for a Mississauga-based action.) Here are some talking points. - Puppy and kitten mills cause extreme animal suffering. Breeding animals endure a life time of unrelieved misery. Banning the sale of puppies and kittens from retail...

Linda McQuaig's appraisal of Stephen Lewis's beautiful eulogy of Jack Layton is worth reading. It will probably be a while before a Canadian prime minister again offers a state funeral to someone on the left. Of course, there aren’t many political leaders of any stripe who could pull at the country’s collective heartstrings quite the way Jack Layton did, especially with his stunning political achievement snatched so cruelly from him before he even got to locate all the bathrooms at Stornoway. Allowing Layton a state funeral was probably Stephen Harper’s most generous prime ministerial act. But it led to a nationally televised scene that will likely haunt him and surely inspire progressives for years to come: Stephen Lewis, the iconic elder statesman of Canada’s social democratic movement, standing in front of Canada’s most right-wing prime minister ever, speaking truth to power. Determined that the event be more than just a tribute to the goodness of one man, Lewis used the hef...

Environmental activists in the US see an opportunity for real action against the tar sands pipeline. Since the oil-friendly and environment-hating Harper government won't listen to us on this issue, we owe it to North America to do whatever we can to try to stop this nightmare. See below for two important action links. They're separate petitions; please sign both. From NRDC: The [US] State Department is still rushing toward approval of the disastrous Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, which would enrich oil companies by transporting the world's dirtiest oil 2,000 miles from Canada to Texas. Please send a message to President Obama asking him to order Secretary Clinton to kill this dangerous project. The pipeline will drive horrific destruction of songbird habitat in the Boreal forest ... rev up excessive global warming pollution ... and threaten the drinking water of millions of Americans with toxic spills. The Keystone XL is a fossil fuel nightmare -- NOT the clean energy fu...

Nothing remains to be said about Jack Layton, the man and the leader. I certainly can't say anything that hasn't been said so many times already. I can only continue to miss him, and to pledge my determination to his cause - to our cause. But I thought I would tell you about my day. The photos were taken by Allan on Friday, August 26 and by me on Saturday, August 27. Allan went to Nathan Phillips Square on Friday. He was amazed and impressed and moved, noting that it reminded him of the AIDS Memorial Quilt . Allan and I saw the AIDS Quilt displayed on the National Mall during a huge LGBT-AIDS demo, and it's a fitting analogy to the outpouring of love and remembrance for Jack Layton. I got to Nathan Phillips Square around 8:30 on Saturday, August 27. There were already several hundred people waiting to pay respects to Jack. I normally find coffin visitations a bit strange. This time, however, I found the action very meaningful and moving, especially the shared experience of...

I missed this song in the 80s, along with the video, filmed on the streets of Toronto. Perhaps it was a Canadian thing that didn't cross the border very much, but I only know "Rise Up" from the 2011 NDP election campaign. Yesterday, like most of you, I found Lorraine Segato's rendition powerful and moving. I was standing shoulder-to-shoulder with thousands of other progressive people who had packed Picaud (Metro) Square to celebrate the life of Jack Layton. Stephen Harper and other dignitaries inside Roy Thomson Hall were awkwardly swaying and clapping, but I've heard that many people in the balconies - and certainly many of us outside - were punching our fists in the air. Rise Up! Rise Up! By the way, Rob Ford didn't clap, and he didn't rise up. We saw him leaving the funeral, walking down King Street with an eight-person police escort. I hope to write about my day celebrating and mourning Jack later today or tomorrow, with our photos of the memorials.

This earlier post - "we work to buy things that are built to die so that we must work to buy more things that will break" - was not meant to be about the trials and tribulations of my coffee maker, but I do want to finish that part of the story. Although the damn thing broke after only 13 months of use - and although I was very annoyed at having to ship it at my own expense to the service centre - and although I was even more annoyed that the warranty also required me to pay the return postage - a new Cuisinart electric percolator has just arrived on my doorstep, 14 days after we mailed off the broken one. The new one still includes Cuisinart's three-year warranty. Perhaps if they have to replace enough of them, they'll start making them more durable. Also, I did not have the receipt for the broken percolator. It seemed like I had every receipt for every item I've ever purchased, except that one. The coffee maker itself has a serial number, and from that the comp...