Employment Insurance: Toronto's Jobless Have Less Than 1-In-5 Shot To Get Benefits

OTTAWA -- It was a barely noticed peculiarity in the government's latest employment insurance numbers — just 17 per cent of unemployed workers in Toronto are collecting EI, among the lowest rates in the city's history as it confronts a higher jobless rate than the provincial and national average.

There are more than 307,000 jobless Torontonians, according to the latest Statistics Canada figures. Fewer than 55,000 of them are collecting EI in a city with an 8.9 per cent jobless rate.

Kurds seek heavy weapons against ISIL

IRBIL, Iraq - Peshmerga Brig-Gen. Magdeed Haki motioned towards a dark blur on the horizon about a kilometre from his searing hot, windblown perch atop a sandbagged, orange-dirt bunker in northern Iraq.

Behind him, kilometres to the south, the key city of Irbil lies relatively unscathed, despite recent events. Just 40 kilometres northward, the city of Mosul is still held by the marauding Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, or ISIL, the al-Qaida splinter group that has waged a relentless offensive across this region for months.

Will the Detroit water department be privatized?

There have been ongoing concerns that the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department could be privatized.

In June, the Detroit Free Pressreported, "[In March, Detroit emergency manager Kevyn] Orr began exploring a public-private partnership to run the [Detroit Water and Sewerage] department. The city issued a request for information seeking proposals from private companies." At that time, USA Today reported that Orr confirmed that he had taken bids from two large American private water companies to manage the water department. "A spokeswoman for one of the companies, New Jersey-based American Water, confirmed it's in discussions with Orr but declined further comment. Another large water company, Veolia Water North America in Chicago, didn't return phone calls."

Join the fight for net neutrality with the Internet Slowdown!

Next Wednesday, Sept. 10, if your favourite website seems to load slowly, take a closer look: You might be experiencing the Battle for the Net's "Internet Slowdown," a global day of grassroots action. Protesters won't actually slow the Internet down, but will place on their websites animated "Loading" graphics (which organizers call "the proverbial 'spinning wheel of death'") to symbolize what the Internet might soon look like. As that wheel spins, the rules about how the Internet works are being redrawn. Large Internet service providers, or ISPs, like Comcast, Time Warner, AT&T and Verizon are trying to change the rules that govern your online life.

My Dinner With the 1 Percent: The Fight for Higher Wages Means Confronting the Greed of the Rich

As fast food workers are walking out Thursday yet again for higher wages and the right to union representation, they can count some lawmakers and President Obama as being on their side, verbally championing a higher federal minimum wage. And they have the support of a majority of Americans.

But when it comes to corporate decision makers such as those represented by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, they face hostility and ridicule. In fact, as a recent personal experience demonstrated to me, the wealthiest Americans who control the purse strings of corporate America may actually believe the lie that raising wages is unnecessary and that today’s workers are better off than in the past.

NATO Should Stop Putin From Restoring Czarist Empire, Zbigniew Brzezinski Says

Zbigniew Brzezinski, who served as national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter, remains one of America’s top strategic thinkers going back to the days of the Cold War. He spoke with WorldPost editor Nathan Gardels on Monday evening about the NATO Summit in Wales.

First Nations social contracts: How to contain an aboriginal rebellion

The new religion of economic development — mines, pipelines, power projects and private property — is being promoted by Bob Rae, Jim Prentice, and even former prime minister Brian Mulroney as the only realistic alternative for First Nations.

Last month Rae, acting as a negotiator for nine Ontario First Nations, joined Premier Kathleen Wynne to celebrate the signing of a framework agreement that would open up the province's far north to a mineral development bonanza.

Only Stephen Harper Stands in the Way of an Effective Government

I've watched a good many Premiers Conferences during my 26 years in Parliament. This year's get-together in Charlottetown has to rank among the best for both substance and tone.

On healthcare, services and facilities for the elderly, and retirement incomes for middle-class Canadians, the Premiers were right on-target with the insecurities that preoccupy a big portion of Canada's population all across the country. Provincial leaders were also in synch with decent Canadian values in their support for a Public Inquiry (or some reasonable facsimile) to get definitive answers and action with respect to 1,100 missing or murdered Aboriginal women.

Mount Polley mine tailings spill nearly 70 per cent bigger than first estimated

Imperial Metals’ estimate of the size of the spill from its Mount Polley mine tailings dam collapse is nearly 70 per cent greater than the initial estimate.

The B.C. government has estimated that 10 million cubic metres of water and 4.5 million cubic meters of finely ground rock containing potentially-toxic metals was released by the collapse of the dam on Aug. 4.

Six Reasons BC Place Is Growing into a Giant Lemon

It was the perfect storm.

Mere hours after talks collapsed between negotiators for the B.C. government and the province's public school teachers, the Vancouver Whitecaps were hosting the Portland Timbers in a Major League Soccer match at B.C. Place Stadium. Premier Christy Clark was spotted among the announced crowd of 21,000 for the home team's embarrassing 3-0 loss. The Whitecaps claim precisely 21,000 people attend most of their games. Not 20,999 or 21,001, but 21,000.