On December 4, 2010 Michael Zwaagstra delivered his key points as to why public schools are failing to properly prepare today’s students for the real world to the attendees of the Society for Quality Education‘s (SQE) annual general meeting in downtown Toronto, mostly because, he argues, that schools refuse to fail students.
Year: 2010
GM Crops: Plant breeding is like doing surgery with a chain saw, while genetic modification is like laser surgery
Crops are now designed to reduce chemical use or survive reduced water conditions, among many other possibilities. We are on the verge of having many of our pharmaceuticals grown in the field. Increasing yields will increase supply and reduce the need to go back to marginal lands.
Ezra Levant, lawyer, journalist, and political activist
Ezra Levant was interviewed after his Lunch on the Frontier speech in Winnipeg on December 2, 2010.
Pension Riots Brewing in Canada?: $208 billion MORE needed to pay for public sector pension plans
“Are you saving $14,180 a year for your pension? That is how much you would have needed to save – every year for the last 35 years – to pay yourself a pension equal to that of a federal public servant retiring today. That’s a lot of money and precisely why taxpayers are on the hook for an unfunded federal pension liability of $208 billion, according to a recent C.D. Howe Institute report.”
Featured News
The Man who Saved the Plains Indians
At the time of Confederation, Canada’s Plains Indians were in a desperate situation. The same European-introduced guns and horses that resulted in a briefly glorious golden age for them had also resulted in constant inter-tribal warfare and the rapid disappearance of...
Renewed Talk of Abolishing the Indian Act
Political attacks on the Indian Act are back in the news, and that is a good thing. However, Canadian politicians, including First Nation politicians, need a credible plan about what to do before we pull out the champagne. Attacking the Indian Act is not a big deal...
Having It Three Ways: The Competing Interests of the Customer, Investor and Employee in Saskatchewan’s Crown Corporations
The people of Saskatchewan play three competing roles in the Crowns; they are simultaneously the investor, the customer, and often the employee of the same companies. Too often, benefits for one role are promoted without considering what it means for the same people’s interests in the other two roles.
Media Release – Having it Three Ways: The competing interest of the investor, customer and employee in Saskatchewan’s Crown Corporations
The people of Saskatchewan play three competing roles in the Crowns; they are simultaneously the investor, the customer, and often the employee of the same companies. Too often, benefits for one role are promoted without considering what it means for the same people’s interests in the other two roles.
Taking Ownership Of Their Land
“The legislation is intended to help First Nations participate in the national economy on terms which most Canadians take for granted. However, participation will be optional. No one will be forced to do anything with their lands. Those of us who choose to participate will be able to escape the oversight of the Indian Act and actually take legal title to our own lands.”
If Canada Can Do It…: Slashing the State in the Great White North
“In 1994 government debt was 68 percent of Canada’s GDP. By 2008 that number was down to 29 percent. Finance Minister Paul Martin Jr. and Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, both of the Liberal Party, are the two unlikely stars in this heroic tale of fiscal discipline.”
Labour’s Green Suicide
“Once in a while, Germany’s Labour Party is finding out that one should listen to what common people think. The Green Party, according to opinion polls, has caught up with the Social Democratic Party (SPD) and, in some places, are set to overtake them. Instead of a future Red-Green coalition government, there could be a Green-Red one.”
Chief, band in election standoff; Members block bridge in dispute over extended term
“A Southern Alberta native chief has cancelled a band election set for next month, extending his term by two years and provoking a protest blockade of the road into a reserve west of Calgary.”
AFN’s Opposition To Band Salary Disclosure A ‘Slap In Face’ To First Nations: Larger solution is creating relationship of financial accountability
The Assembly of First Nations is dead wrong in opposing a bill disclosing chief and council salaries as it would advance transparency on First Nation communities.
Climate History Key to Future: Inuit Travels Provide Political Direction
“Manipulation of global temperature data to prop up claims of current global temperatures being the warmest on record due to human production of CO2 continue. Meanwhile nature ignores the false science. Solar activity declines, global temperatures decline and both will continue to do so.”
Dairy Farmers Still Milking All Of Us
“Supply management has remained basically unchanged since its inception more than 40 years ago. It has enriched dairy farmers, blackened Canada’s reputation as a free trading nation, forced Canadians to pay a hidden regressive tax on dairy products at the checkout counter and undermined the efficiency of both dairy farmers and commercial users of dairy products.”