Dec 3, 2021Visualizing Corporate Plunder of the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy with Bullet ChartsIn the first post in the DS4CS Learning Series, I shared the code used to produce my first story on the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy, which was a corporate feeding frenzy of historical proportions. In this post, I’ll be demonstrating how to produce the visuals for the CEWS story using…Data Science13 min read
Dec 1, 2021Using R and Open Data to Check-in on the Canada Emergency Wage SubsidyThis 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. …Data Science21 min read
Jul 23, 2021Canadian Fossil-Capitalism’s Hot Mess of Climate Contradictions (Part Two)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…Climate Change12 min read
Jul 6, 2021Canadian Capitalism’s Hot Mess of Climate Contradictions (Part 1)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…Data Science11 min read
Jun 15, 2021Super-Exploitation: Capitalism Needs Racism and PatriarchyOn 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…Canada7 min read
Jun 9, 2021What is the Police and Prison Dividend?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. …Police12 min read
Jun 3, 2021Excavating the Truth on Canadian Mining in AfricaYou 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…Canada6 min read
May 20, 2021Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy: A scandalous gift to capitalTo 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…Canada6 min read
