AltWeeklies Wire
Toronto City Hall's Seven-Hour Showdown on the Future of the Citynew
The 'yes' vote for a new bike lane on Toronto's Jarvis Street foreshadows a city finally daring to pedal into the future.
NOW Magazine |
Mike Smith |
05-29-2009 |
Policy Issues
The Cuban Revolution at 50new
I have learned one thing from my various visits to Cuba over the years, and that is not to predict the demise of the regime. Nevertheless, change may be lurking around the corner at last, for Barack Obama represents the greatest danger that the regime has faced since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of its subsidies seventeen years ago.
NOW Magazine |
Gwynne Dyer |
01-09-2009 |
International
This Bailout's a Bomb -- There's No Worse Industry Than Autonew

What we really need is investment in local infrastructure for sunrise industries that make the things we need, thereby shifting the focus from mobility of goods to local provision and access. By contrast, auto is a sunset industry from the horse-and-buggy age.
NOW Magazine |
Wayne Roberts |
01-09-2009 |
Economy
The Old Thailand Returnsnew
The political crisis in Thailand is over, and so is the ten-year experiment with democracy. The rich and the comfortably off have risen in outraged revolt against equal treatment for the poor, and it's back to the bad old days of shaky coalitions and bought-and-paid-for politicians.
NOW Magazine |
Gwynne Dyer |
12-22-2008 |
International
Militaries Map Out Scenarious for the Coming Climate Change Conflictsnew

I realized two years ago that the military in various countries were starting to run climate change scenarios in-house. So I started interviewing everybody I could get access to: not only senior military people, but scientists, diplomats and politicians.
NOW Magazine |
Gwynne Dyer |
12-12-2008 |
Environment
The Economic Mess Obama's Inheriting Comes from Clinton, Not Bushnew
If truth be known, Bush inherited, as Obama will soon, deregulated financial, agricultural, trade and social policies. Put in place by Bill Clinton and Al Gore, these were the achievement of the 1990s -- a period that needs to be understood not, as greens once hoped, as the "turnaround decade," but as the "regression decade."
NOW Magazine |
Wayne Roberts |
11-24-2008 |
Economy
The G20 Could Repay Bailout by Doing Wonders for the Environmentnew
There are several pieces missing from the current G20 consensus. Above all is the necessity of linking any solution to the current economic emergency to the even larger global environmental crisis.
NOW Magazine |
Alice Klein |
11-24-2008 |
Economy
Obama's Green Jobs Program Could Leave Canadian Entrepreneurs Out of the Loopnew
If Barack Obama actually does use the financial crisis to sink cash into eco industries, Canada will have squandered a golden opportunity to share the gains.
NOW Magazine |
Andrew Cash |
11-17-2008 |
Economy
Waging a PR War at Guantanamonew

U.S. officials are working hard to convince journalists that the military commission trial of Canadian Omar Khadr is fair. This is quite a feat given that Khadr is heading into a courtroom without a full investigation of charges that he was interrogated without access to legal counsel and under torture.
NOW Magazine |
Debbie Melnyk and Rick Caine |
11-03-2008 |
War
Iraq's Democracy is on Shaky Foundationsnew
Iraq really does have a kind of democracy now, even if the price was very high. But it is a democracy built on shaky foundations, and one of the shakiest bits is the relationship with the United States.
NOW Magazine |
Gwynne Dyer |
10-27-2008 |
International
10 Reasons Canada Needs a National Handgun Bannew
Handguns are blasting a hole in our national fabric, snuffing out young lives and costing billions in health care every year. And it's not just a gang thing.
NOW Magazine |
Enzo Di Matteo |
09-22-2008 |
Crime & Justice
Canada's Afghan Pullout Bluesnew

The prime minister's promised 2011 exit is in jeopardy from a shifting U.S. geo-strategy.
NOW Magazine |
Paul Weinberg |
09-08-2008 |
War
Fired Up On the Shanghai Sizzlenew

This delicious chaos of city that's turned Mao into Mickey Mouse and trains into bullets leaves Beijing -- and Toronto -- in its dust.
NOW Magazine |
Michael Hollett |
08-25-2008 |
International
E-Scooters Are Clogging Up Bike Lanes ... and Here Comes the Segwaynew

When is a bicycle no longer a bicycle? When it's equipped with a motor, right? But it's not that simple, as an electric bike pilot project in Toronto is making clear.
NOW Magazine |
Paul Terefenko |
07-22-2008 |
Transportation
Iran Calls U.S.'s Bluff on Attacknew
This explains the bravado of Iran's little propaganda show on July 9, when it test-launched a number of ballistic missiles, including one that has the ability to carry a nuclear weapon and the range to strike Israel. This elicited the usual veiled threats of an attack on Iran from both Washington and Jerusalem, but the Iranians don't believe them any more.
NOW Magazine |
Gwynne Dyer |
07-21-2008 |
International