DS4CS Learning: An introduction to finding, preparing, and using open data for data journalism — This is the first in an ongoing series of educational articles where I show my code and work used to produce a prior analysis. I hope that this series will serve as a useful resource to those curious about using data to advance the agendas of labour and socialism. …

Part Two: The dangerous and disturbing climate strategy driving the Canadian Government’s pipeline obsession. — The Green Paradox of Canadian Climate Capitalism The writing is on the wall for either fossil capitalism or humanity. Nine hundred and eighty billion tonnes of CO₂ from 2020 onward stands between us and the best chance of preventing more than an already catastrophic two degree rise in average global temperatures. Foreseeing the pending demise of their…

The political economy of Canadian fossil-capitalism and why it’s so dangerous to life on Earth — Have you ever wondered why Canada exists as such a tangle of climate contradictions? We’re talking about a nation that is consistently a top 10 greenhouse gas emitter in the world, despite having under 0.5% of the global population. One that has literally never met a greenhouse gas emissions reduction…

On capitalism’s historical necessity for oppression — On capitalism’s historical necessity for oppression Exploitation and oppression are the twin pillars of capitalism. In this analysis, I demonstrate that a patriarchal and racist labour market hierarchy is an indispensable component of Canadian capitalism. Using data from the Canadian Census, I propose a thought experiment and a simple statistical simulation to quantify, at least in…

The political economy of defunding the police — What is the police and prison dividend? It’s quite similar in concept to the peace dividend, the proposal that diverting money and resources away from the military-industrial complex to civilian uses can yield great economic and social benefits. …

A case study in Canada’s odious role in the global capitalist economy — You may have heard that the world needs more Canada, right? Many Canadians are not alone in the prevalent illusion about Canada as friendly, benevolent force for good on the world stage. Such patriotic daydreams usually feature vague appeals to peacekeeping, diplomacy, human rights, tiny Canadian flags sewn to backpacks…

The Liberal Government’s flagship pandemic response program is a corporate give-away of unprecedented scale — To the capitalist class, a crisis that isn’t used to enhance profits and power, is a crisis wasted. Restoration and reorganization through crisis is a fundamental principle of capitalism. The practice of disaster capitalism, where both natural and human-made disasters are used by the ruling classes to leverage anti-social, pro-corporate…