Labour activists Robert Gosden and Albert “Ginger” Goodwin are the subject of two books I reviewed in BC Studies (#194, Summer 2017). Rebel Life and Goodwin book review – p. 1-3
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I had to migrate my site to a new host and server, so the site was temporarily interrupted. My apologies for any inconvenience to friends and regular users. Ron
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The other day someone read me an internet post that said eight of the sitting U.S. Supreme Court Justices had rejected President Donald J. Trump’s nominee to fill the position vacated by Antonin Scalia, the long-running conservative on the court. I got excited. Did the judges really put the kibosh on Justice Neil Gorsuch,...
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It took less than two months in office for Donald J. Trump to haul out the Tomahawk cruise missiles and start bombing Syria. Just days later, Fox News was boasting that the president had dropped the “biggest non-nuclear bomb in history” on Afghanistan. That must be some sort of record. It’s not surprising given that Trump...
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Jon Bartlett and Rika Reubsaat, Soviet Princeton: Slim Evans and the 1932-33 Miners’ Strike (Vancouver: New Star Books, 2016), 126 pp., $19 paper. Arthur “Slim” Evans has long been a notable figure in Canadian labour history, most often associated with the famed On-to-Ottawa Trek that he led in 1935 in an effort to improve conditions in the...
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With this short book, Tom Sandborn, labour reporter for the tyee.ca, and the United Steelworkers have reminded us of how deadly slow and ineffective workplace safety laws still are in spite of a law passed after the Westray disaster. RV #97 Getting away with murder  
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Bob White, who died of undisclosed causes on February 19, 2017, was one of my heroes and I’ll miss him, as will many working people all over Canada. I wasn’t close friend, more an admirer from afar. As a communications representative for the Canadian Union of Public Employees CUPE, I was often awed by...
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As the Trump administration continues to create a brand new political swamp in Washington, D.C., filled with billionaire alligators, the nation further divides into two camps. There are those who believe the one-month-old president is making America great again and those who watch in disbelief as he spits venomous tweets at the democratic traditions that are seen by...
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Tim Barker, “Terms of Engagement,” Harper’s Magazine, February 2017, 28-29, offers some thoughtful remarks in his contribution to a cover story called  “A Resister’s Guide – Let the Counterattack Begin.” Ten other writers complete the section on how to resist the Trump excesses. The following quote applies to our current celebration of Black History Month:...
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The other night I was reminded of how precious local theatre is when I saw a production of The 39 Steps in Eugene, Oregon. The play is a spoof on filmmaker Alfred Hitchcock’s films using The 39 Steps, his 1935 spy thriller, to provide continuity to a script that alludes to, and even reenacts...
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