Defection to Liberals highlights NDP dilemma

While NDP officials go to great pains to prevent leftists from becoming NDP candidates at election time, they'd do better to spend more time screening the right wingers in their ranks.

A case in point is Lise St-Denis, who was elected NDP MP in the Quebec riding of St-Maurice-Champlain and who crossed the line to join the federal Liberals on January 10. She was one of 58 NDP rookies to win a seat in Quebec last May 2.

Mass Rally at London, Ontario says No to Concessions

Some 10,000 people, according to the Toronto Star, converged at London’s Victoria Park, two hours west of Toronto, on January 21 to participate in the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL) sponsored-rally against the lockout of 500 workers. They are members of the Canadian Auto Workers Union at the Electro-Motive Canada plant (recently acquired by Caterpillar Inc.). 

Harper Raises Alarm on “Radical” Environmentalists

The Conservative Stephen Harper government has revealed its mean streak once again. In an open letter released on January 9, Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver lashed out at environmental organizations, branding them as “radicals” who “use funding from foreign special interest groups to undermine Canada’s national economic interest.”

How the 1% Screw the Rest of Us

a book review by John Orrett and Barry Weisleder

The appearance of “The Trouble With Billionaires” could not have been more timely. Published in Canada by Penguin Books (Toronto, soft cover edition in 2011, 272 pages), the book is to be released in the USA under the title “Billionaires' Ball: Gluttony and Hubris in an Age of Epic Inequality” on March 27 by Beacon Press. 

Jamaicans seek change, elect opposition PNP

MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica—Car horns blared, orange flags waved, and campaign reggae jingles pulsated. Youthful political celebrants blew vuvuzelas from roving car caravans on the evening of Dec. 29, continuing well past sunrise across this Caribbean island nation.

Attawapiskat: Native people suffer while corporations mine riches

It has been called Haiti at minus 40 degrees celsius. Attawapiskat, an isolated Cree First Nations community located near James Bay in northern Ontario, is enduring a severe housing crisis that is just the latest in a series of tragedies that have affected the health and well-being of its residents.

Mounties spied on aboriginal protesters

When it comes to native housing, health, and education needs, Ottawa provides funding through an eye-dropper and at a snail’s pace. But where it concerns meeting the perceived “security” needs of capital and the state, the authorities act swiftly, generously, and without much regard for civil liberties.

Ottawa ignores Kyoto

A previous Liberal government cynically entered into it, and systematically violated it. The present Conservative government thumbed its nose at it from the start, and unceremoniously quit the treaty on Dec. 12. Despite its abject weaknesses, including low targets and unenforcability, the Kyoto Protocol still signifies the need to address escalating carbon emissions, climate change, and the dire threat they pose to civilization.

Will 2012 be year for Labour fightback?

The big business Conference Board of Canada predicts that 2012 will be a year of major labour-management strife across the Canadian state.

U.S.-Canada treaty escalates attack on civil liberties

The Dec. 7 border agreement between Prime Minister Stephen Harper and U.S. President Barack Obama requires Canada to adopt more U.S.-style security measures, and to share more information on Canadians with American state authorities. This is contrary to the interests of working people in both countries.

Save the Canadian Wheat Board

On October 18th, Prime Minister Harper introduced legislation to dismantle the 68 year old, farmer-controlled Canadian Wheat Board (CWB). With a Conservative majority in Parliament, it is expected the Bill will become law before Christmas. Legislation to come into effect August 2012 would allow a farmer to sell directly to grain handling companies. With no 'single desk selling', the farmers will have no collective capital base or access to grain handling facilities.

Ottawa eyes role in Syria conflict

Flush from its part in NATO's bloody intervention in Libya to impose a pro-western government there, Canada's Defence Minister Peter MacKay said Ottawa will not rule out military action in Syria. Speaking to the International Security Forum in Halifax on November 20, MacKay postured as the defender of democratic forces suffering repression at the hands of the Syrian regime of President Bashar Assad.

Tory 'Reforms' Target Refugees

Refugees will increasingly be victimized by Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s majority federal government, thanks to Bill C-4, the Conservatives’ new immigration reform bill. 

The Future of the Occupy Movement

On November 23 police enforced an Ontario Superior Court order to Occupy Toronto to vacate St. James Park, a few blocks from Canada's corporate financial hub. Occupy camps around the world, from Oakland, California, to London, England, from New York to Vancouver, are also under seige. Whether re-locating, or clinging to home turf, the physical encampments inspired a mass movement against social inequality and injustice. They put proponents of the dysfunctional capitalist system on the defensive.

NDP Leader race crowded, on the right

Montreal MP Thomas Mulcair, a former Quebec Liberal cabinet minister who takes pride in his role in early 'free trade' negotiations, brings a decidedly pro-capitalist, anti-Quebec self-determination perspective to the New Democratic Party leadership race. When Mulcair announced his candidacy, he had the backing of 15 MPs, soon likely 30, but few supporters outside of the ranks of strongly pro-federalist Quebecers.

OPSEU threatens to split OFL

The last thing the labour movement needs at this time is division. Yet this is exactly what is happening due to a dispute between officers of the Ontario Federation of Labour, including OFL President Sid Ryan, and some affiliated unions including the Ontario Public Service Employees Union and its President, Warren 'Smokey' Thomas.

Toronto marches demand 'Canada Out of Afghanistan', Stop the cuts at City Hall

Despite high winds and cold showers, scores of anti-war activists in Toronto took to the streets on Saturday, October 15 to demand an end to the ten-year-long war of occupation in Afghanistan.

Quality of Life Declining – says study

Workers in Canada are over-stressed and under-rewarded in the capitalist pressure cooker we call every day life.

There is greater productivity, but growing inequality and less personal enjoyment, according to the Canadian Index of Wellbeing. The CIW, a 12-year study based at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, measures how people, communities, the environment and democracy are faring – not just the economy.

Proposed Mega-Quarry to face tougher review

A month before facing voters in the October 6 Ontario provincial election, the governing Liberals decided to require a more stringent approval process for a controversial proposal to dig a massive quarry in a sensitive environmental area near Toronto.

Recession with a Vengeance

As voters troop to the polls in six provincial and territorial elections across Canada in October and November, they do so in the shadow of another global economic melt down.