Minimum Income: What You Should Know About The Idea That Could Revolutionize The 21st Century

Imagine the government started handing out $10,000 annually to every adult in the country, or implemented a negative income tax rate so that low earners and people out of work would receive tax money instead of paying it.

Sounds like the ultimate socialist scheme, doesn’t it? Exactly the sort of thing the business community and conservative economists would label a job-killing farce destined to create a nation of lazy, uncompetitive good-for-nothings.

Hold the rations: The Canadian government vs. First Nations

I was wondering when the first media report speaking about the resource revenue received by First Nations in relation to the First Nations Transparency Act (FNTA) would come out. And then there was a swarm of media articles.

This sudden interest in First Nations governance prompts the question: What is the real reason why the Canadian Government is forcing the issue of financial transparency amongst First Nations people?

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio Calls For Pause In Protests After Police Killings

(Reuters) - New York Mayor Bill de Blasio implored protesters on Monday to wait until after the funerals of two policemen shot dead in an ambush before resuming rallies that have roiled the city and beyond over the deaths of black men at the hands of police.

But de Blasio's plea was quickly dismissed by several activist groups that vowed to continue protests that have stirred the city daily after grand juries chose not to indict police officers who killed Eric Garner in New York and Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri.

Ottawa takes First Nations to court over transparency law

The federal government is taking six First Nations band governments to court for not complying with a new law that requires bands to post their audited financial statements online for members to see.

Those statements include the salaries and expenses of the band chiefs and councillors.

Of 582 First Nations, 48 have not complied, according to the office of the minister of aboriginal affairs.

Ontario's Debt Situation Is About To Get a Whole Lot Worse

When the federal government faced a growing debt problem in the late 1980s, then Opposition finance critic Paul Martin was initially skeptical about cutting spending. In 1989, he labelled mild government efforts to cut spending as "ideological." Six years later, as finance minister, Martin recognized that cascading debt and compounding interest on such debt have an unrelenting logic all their own: "The debt and deficit are not inventions of ideology," said Martin in 1995. "They are facts of arithmetic. The quicksand of compound interest is real."

Stop saving the Queen. She's the worst.

The new mayor of Victoria refused to swear an oath to the Queen, and this made the Monarchist League of Canada really mad. Because Canada has a Monarchist League. They even have a website where you can buy a royal wedding DVD or a $17 "royal grab-bag," which I assume has a bumper sticker that says "Have your driver honk if you love royalty" and a novelty sponge in the shape of Africa that grows when you soak it in blood.

In our constitutional monarchy, the role of the Crown is to personify the nation. Who better to personify Canada than a rich British lady who heads an institution that enslaved and murdered and pillaged its way around the world for hundreds of years?

Oil plummets after Saudis say $20 crude is possible

Brent crude crashed below the $60 per barrel level again on Monday after Saudi Arabia’s oil minister said his country would not intervene to revive prices.

Ali al-Naimi – who oversees the world’s largest exporter of crude – said in an interview that even if the price of oil fell to $20 per barrel the kingdom would do nothing to arrest the decline.

"Whether it goes down to $20, $40, $50, $60, it is irrelevant," he said in an interview with Middle East Economic Survey (Mees).

Canada Faces New Cold War In Europe, Hot War In Iraq

OTTAWA - It could very well be that 2014 is remembered as the year when Canada traded one shadow war for possibly two others.

The flag was barely folded and put away in Kabul, marking a formal end to more than 12 years of counter-insurgency war against the ghostly Taliban, before CF-18s were dispatched to begin pounding extremist targets in Iraq.

The summer offensive by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, the al-Qaida splinter group that brought its brutal caliphate to the gates of Baghdad, coincided with the under-cutting of Ukraine.

Canadian weapons exports reach new levels — Saudi Arabia largest purchaser

At $1.04 billion, the total value of military goods exported by Canada in 2012 is the largest ever reported since official documentation began in 1991. The value for 2013, at $681 million, is significantly above the median value for annual exports of military goods.

As with all prior reports, the value of exports of military goods to the U.S. is not included in the report for both 2012 and 2013. Past reports have noted that Canadian military sales to the U.S. were likely equal to, or exceeded, sales to all other states combined, although the government was unable to report a U.S total because military exports to the U.S do not require permits. No such comment is included in the 2012-2013 report, likely because of the unprecedented total for 2012. The U.S. may remain the largest market for Canadian military goods, but 2012 may also mark a waning of the Pentagon’s singular importance for the Canadian arms industry.

Stephen Harper's comments on missing, murdered aboriginal women show 'lack of respect'

In a span of a week, the Conservative government confirmed their feelings of indifference, disregard and utter lack of respect for indigenous people.

It seems that their contempt is solely aimed at First Nation men, First Nation women, and First Nation girls.

This is the very attitude that underlies the government legislation and (non) actions that have resulted in tragic consequences suffered by First Nation people for generations.