Author Archives: bhaggart

It’s about ethics in vaccine mandates: Welcome to Gamergate North, but with trucks!

Even as the trucker occupation of Ottawa ends its fifth day, the high-stakes game of interpreting what it all means has already begun. Today’s entry, from the Globe and Mail editorial page, goes with “mid-sized inconvenience.” The editorialists are comforted … Continue reading

Posted in covid-19, FluTruxKlan | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Truckers, Nazis and the battle for the Conservative Party’s soul

The past weekend’s FluTruxKlan gathering in my hometown of Ottawa had the feeling of a breaking point for the country. To read and see pictures and videos of Nazi flags paraded openly, of Canadian flags desecrated by swastikas, of soup … Continue reading

Posted in common decency, Conservative Party of Canada, democracy | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Truckers, Nazis and the battle for the Conservative Party’s soul

Martin Regg Cohn and the mystery of the empty classrooms (Armchair quarterback edition)

In this morning’s Toronto Star, columnist Martin Regg Cohn presents us with a puzzler about the pandemic issue of the moment, university students and online teaching: How to explain the incongruity of packing thousands of students into university dorms — … Continue reading

Posted in covid-19, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Not much of a consultation, not much of a plan: Our submission regarding the federal government’s proposed approach to addressing harmful content online

Natasha Tusikov (Assistant Professor of Criminology, York University) and I have submitted the following to the federal government regarding their proposal to regulate harmful (or, more accurately, illegal) content online. The tl;dr: We’re very much in favour of democratic government … Continue reading

Posted in platform governance | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Not much of a consultation, not much of a plan: Our submission regarding the federal government’s proposed approach to addressing harmful content online

Unexpected Outcomes of an Unwanted Election: Notes from the Fourth Wave

To give you an indication about how unusual the Great Unwanted Federal Election of 2021 has been, on the weekend here in St. Catharines, Ontario, I passed by an auto shop with a purple People’s Party of Canada sign in … Continue reading

Posted in 2021 election | Tagged , | Comments Off on Unexpected Outcomes of an Unwanted Election: Notes from the Fourth Wave