It’s December 19th, 2023. We’re coming up to the season when self-described Christians start saying lovely things like “peace on Earth, goodwill to all,” and paying lip service to the teachings of a Hebrew Palestinian carpenter with proto-socialist sensibilities, who happened to be born in Bethlehem a couple millennia ago. Not long ago, back in early November, many of these same people, and countless others, donned poppies on their lapels, and said “lest we forget,” to pay their respects to those who …
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NOTE: There are some spoilers below for people unfamiliar with the TV series or books. Also, this commentary is confined to a reading of the television series alone, not the books. It also borrows from some of my …
On July 1st, 2021 the Canadian Historical Association (CHA) — which represents some 650 professional historians across the country — released a statement saying that Canada’s “long history of violence and dispossession” directed at indigenous peoples …
This article was published in Active History on Aug. 9, 2021 On August 3, 1871 the negotiations that became known as the “Stone Fort” treaty, or Treaty 1, were wrapped up at Lower Fort Garry, north …
A version of this was published in Canadian Dimension magazine (July 4, 2021) Every so often the media and political pundit classes work themselves into a frenzy of finger-wagging over the vandalism, toppling, or destruction of …
Tha Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) followed the corporate media newswire framing for its headline on May 11, 2021: Israelis are “killed” with the active voice; Palestinians “die” with the passive voice. Even the headlines are colonial. …
Hard to believe 20 years has passed since this little festival in Quebec City against the FTAA. We had a fairly large contingent of Winnipeggers, lots of folks from the Mondragon and G7 Welcoming Committee collectives, …
Paul Burrows (March 7, 2021) Today is the 100th anniversary of the day that the repression against the Kronstadt soviet began. Judging from the relative absence of any discussion about Kronstadt over the last several years …
I’ve heard a lot of Canadians get indignant over the years about charges that this has always been, and continues to be, a fundamentally racist and colonial society. They were indignant when Maclean’s published a piece …
Originally posted in the Media Co-op (November 11, 2019). It’s Remembrance Day in Canada, and so rather than talk about how ignorant and racist Don Cherry is, or how the day is typically used by disingenuous …
Musings in the wake of Joseph Boyden’s fall from grace, 2016. One of the things I remember most from my first creative writing class with David Arnason at the U of Manitoba (way back in 1985-86) …
“Debates” over the last month triggered by events in Syria have been almost unbelievable. Not because reasonable people cannot disagree about facts, about ethical priorities, and about the efficacy of different strategic and tactical options. They …
[Some brief remarks for “Red November / Black November,” Winnipeg I.W.W. feast, November 15, 2014.] It’s an honour to be invited to say a few words about memory and martyrs of the working class. But sadly, …
Review of James Daschuk’s Clearing the Plains: Disease, Politics of Starvation, and the Loss of Aboriginal Life (University of Regina Press, 2013) Originally published in Briarpatch Magazine (March 2014) In the context of a Canadian popular …
Originally published in The Media Co-op on December 16, 2013 The eulogies and myth-making began almost immediately –– in Canada as notably as elsewhere.[1] On December 5th, the day Nelson Mandela passed away, former Prime Minister …
Originally published in The Uniter (October 3, 2012) This year marks the 200th anniversary of the Red River Settlement, an agricultural colony founded by a Scottish “noble” named Thomas Douglas, the Fifth Earl of Selkirk. Familiar Winnipeg …
Originally published in The Media Co-op (June 16, 2010) As many of you may know, there has been an uproar in the House of Commons recently, and a flurry of parliamentarians (Tory, Liberal, and NDP) expressing …
Speech by Paul Burrows (originally posted to Media Co-op and ZNet) When you board a civilian ship in international waters, and proceed to threaten, shoot, kidnap, or rob its inhabitants, you are generally called a “pirate” …
Paul Burrows Originally published in Chris Spannos (ed.), Real Utopia: Participatory Society for the 21st Century (AK Press, 2008) Editor’s note: This chapter is based on a talk given at the Life After Capitalism Conference, World …
Originally published in Manitoba History Journal (Number 57, February 2008) Emma Goldman visited and lectured in Winnipeg on five separate occasions: first in 1907, twice in 1908, again in 1927, and finally in late-1939, just five …
Originally published on the Electronic Intifada website on 2 October 2005. TO PROFESS “NEUTRALITY” IN THE FACE OF INJUSTICE IS TO SIDE WITH THE OPPRESSOR, SAYS CANPALNET-WINNIPEG In a press release dated September 28th, 2005, B’Nai Brith Canada claimed that the 2nd Annual Canada Palestine Film Festival, which opens today at Winnipeg’s prestigious Cinematheque …