|
|
People’s Voice January 1-31, 2017
Volume 25 – Number 01 $1
1) ON ITS 50TH ANNIVERSARY, MEDICARE IS BEING
SYSTEMATICALLY STARVED
2) CUPE WOMEN STEP UP THE FIGHT ON THE PICKET LINES
3) CHILDREN’S AID LOCKS OUT NORTHERN ONTARIO WORKERS
4) PRECARIOUSNESS AND POVERTY FOR YOUNG WORKERS:
STATSCAN REPORT
6) LOOPHOLES, LOBBYISTS AND LIES - Editorial
7) PROTECT MARITIME JOBS AND ENVIRONMENT - Editorial
8) ONTARIO’S AFFORDABLE HOUSING PLAN A GIFT TO DEVELOPERS
9) DEFEND PEOPLE AND NATURE, NOT BIG OIL PROFITS
10) ARMED DRONES PART OF TRUDEAU’S NEW MILITARY
11) CEOs STILL RIDING THE HIGH INCOME GRAVY TRAIN
12) EVEN LEONARD PELTIER’S PROSECUTOR CALLS FOR CLEMENCY
13) MUSIC NOTES, by Wally Brooker
14) FIDEL CASTRO SPEAKS OF JAN. 1, 1959, IN HIS OWN WORDS
PEOPLE'S VOICE January 1-31, 2017 (pdf)
|
People's Voice deadlines: February 1-14 February 15-28 Send submissions to PV Editorial Office, |
|
|
REDS
ON THE WEB
http://www,rebelyouth-magazine.blogspot.com
http://www.communist-party.ca
http://peoplesvoice.ca
www.ycl-ljc.ca
www.solidnet.org
|
People's Voice finds many "Global Class Struggle" reports at the "Labour Start" website, http://www.labourstart.org/. We urge our readers to check it out! |
* * * * * *
Central Committee CPC
290A
Ph: (416) 469-2446
fax: (416) 469-4063 E-mailmailto:info@cpc-pcp.ca
Parti Communiste du Quebec (section du
Parti communiste du
5359 Ave du Parc, Montréal,
B.C.Committee CPC
Tel: (604) 254-9836
Fax: (604) 254-9803
Tel: (780) 465-7893
Fax: (780)463-0209
Unit #1 - 19 Radcliffe Close
Calgary
Tel: (403) 248-6489
Tel: (613) 232-7108
Manitoba Committee
387 Selkirk Ave., Winnipeg, R2W 2M3
Tel/fax: (204) 586-7824
290A
Tel: (416) 469-2446
Tel: (905) 548-9586
Atlantic Region CPC
Box 70 Grand Pré, NS, B0P 1M0
Tel/fax: (902) 542-7981
* * * * * *
News for People, Not for Profits!
Every issue of People's Voice
gives you the latest
on the fightback from coast to coast.
Whether it's the struggle for jobs or peace, resistance to social
cuts,
solidarity with
we've got the news the corporate media won't print.
And we do more than that
- we report and analyze events
from a revolutionary perspective,
helping to build the movements for justice and equality,
and eventually for a socialist
Read the paper that fights for working people
- on every page, in every issue!
People's Voice
$30 for 1 year
$50 for 2 years
Low-income special rate: $15 for 1-year
Outside
Send to: People's Voice,
You can call the editorial office at 604-255-2041
<pvoice@telus.net>
(The
following articles are from the January 1-31, 2017, issue of People's
1) ON ITS 50TH
ANNIVERSARY, MEDICARE IS BEING SYSTEMATICALLY STARVED
By Liz Rowley, leader of the
Communist Party of Canada
December 19 marked the 50th anniversary of the Medicare Act, passed in the
House of Commons December 19, 1966,after a mass struggle led by the labour
movement that had its roots in the plan created by Dr. Norman Bethune for a
system of socialized medicine in Canada.
Tommy Douglas, then the CCF Premier of Saskatchewan, introduced medicare in
that province, taking on the powerful doctors’ lobby that saw medicine
primarily as a business, not an essential service and human right.
Saskatchewan’s doctors went on strike, but eventually came back to work, tails
between their legs, overwhelmed by public support for this first introduction
of socialized medicine in Canada.
But the opponents of Medicare have never given up their fight. The doctor
business is quite profitable in
Among these is Dr. Brian Day, owner of the Cambie Surgery in
The very biggest opponents of Medicare are the multi-national health care
corporations operating in the
Big Pharma is also an opponent of Medicare, because it recognizes the public
push to expand Medicare is the push for pharmacare, and long overdue nationalization
of the pharmaceutical industry in
Across the country, provincial governments have been delisting healthcare
services and drugs covered under provincial healthcare plans for years. They
have turned a blind eye when private for-profit clinics set up shop in cities
and towns across the country, and ignored the myriad fees being illegally
charged to patients. Provincial governments have cut health care spending
systematically and deliberately, leading to hospitals without any free beds,
emergency departments unable to accept patients and redirecting ambulances
elsewhere, wards with super-bugs, and without adequate cleaning staff, RNs or
RPN’s to care for patients.
The federal government too has cast a blind eye to the decline in the quantity
and quality of Medicare services available across the country, due in the first
place to their refusal to meet their obligations to adequately fund
Medicare.
In 1967, adequate funding meant that the cost of Medicare would be split evenly
between the federal and provincial governments, so that Canadians could receive
an equivalent level of good medical care, no matter where they lived. Federal
healthcare transfers were to be made to the provincial governments, which
delivered healthcare services, under the umbrella of the
By 1977 the federal government’s share of funding came in two parts: 25% was a
cash transfer, and the other 25% was in tax points given to the provinces. But
the amount of the cash transfer was already falling.
The biggest cuts were made by the Liberal government of Jean Chretien in 1995.
During that time Chretien also raided the Unemployment Insurance fund, denying
hundreds of thousands of unemployed workers access to the insured
benefits they had bought and paid for.
Substantial cuts to the cash transfers by various federal governments since
Medicare’s inception have guaranteed that the quality of healthcare available
to Canadians can vary substantially, particularly with regard to access to
services. For Indigenous Peoples and migrants, who have never received
equitable funding for either healthcare or education, the situation is that much
worse.
From the beginning, the services covered by Medicare were not comprehensive,
and excluded everything outside of a hospital and a doctor’s office. Not
surprisingly, the demand to expand coverage to more services has grown. The
2002 Romanow Commission on the Future of Healtlhcare indicated that the most
urgent to be added were: vision and dental care, pharmacare, and
long-term care. Mental health care has subsequently been added to the list.
In consequence of renewed mass pressure, the federal government under Liberal
PM Paul Martin introduced an escalator clause into the funding formula for
Medicare, increasing the federal government’s cash transfer at a rate of 6%
annually, for 10 years.
Provinces responded by de-listing existing services, and forcing patients to
either purchase them in private clinics or do without.
By 2014 the Harper Tory government had reversed direction on healthcare
funding. Mindful of the public’s affinity for Medicare, Harper extended the 6%
escalator for a further two years, well past the 2015 federal election date,
promising his corporate friends that he would cut it to 3% in 2017 (presumably
on the way to zero, down the line).
This is the backdrop to the December 19 “take it or leave” consultation on a
new Health Accord, convened by federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau and Health
Minister Jane Philpott, with provincial and territorial Health Ministers.
What was being offered was a 3.5% escalator in the cash transfer over ten
years, plus lump sums totaling $11 billion for home-care and mental health
care. Philpott proclaimed the agreement “historic”.
Neither Philpott nor Morneau mentioned that the deal would result in an overall
cut of $30 billion in federal transfer payments for healthcare over the ten
years, or that the cut would reduce the value of the federal cash transfer from
the current 23.3% to under 20%.
If anything, the Liberals’ offer was “historically low”, including the $11
billion for home care and mental health care that was so clearly inadequate to
the task.
Not surprisingly, the Premiers said No.
Canadians should say No too. They didn’t vote for Harper-care and
privatization; they voted for Medicare and the Liberals who said they would
fund it and expand it. Now’s the time to hold them, and the provincial
governments, to their promises.
If the Liberals aren’t funding healthcare, what are they funding? Well,
military hardware and aggressive military ventures around the world, is one
clear answer. The antithesis of healthcare in other words.
Clearly, the direction being pursued by the federal Liberals is privatization
of healthcare, not expansion, despite Justin Trudeau’s letter to premiers when
he was campaigning in 2015. This privatization may take the form of suffocating
or starving Medicare to death, counting on the private sector to fill the void
of unfunded and under-funded services, while assiduously looking the other way
when the
This is the message that working people and the public need to get, because
it’s a clear indicator that the fight to save and expand Medicare is on the
forward agenda, and especially because of the arrival of Donald Trump, NAFTA
trade renegotiations, and the HMOs salivating over us, just south of the
border.
This fight’s just beginning.
2) CUPE WOMEN STEP UP THE FIGHT
ON THE PICKET LINES
By Helen Kennedy
Since April of last year, something amazing has been happening in CUPE in
Strike activity has been focused in two sectors – children’s protection
services and libraries. Protracted underfunding by the provincial government
has led to wage stagnation and dramatic increases in workloads for frontline
workers in Children’s Aid Societies across the province. Library Workers have
been fighting to improve wages and working conditions for their primarily
precarious workforce for years.
Children’s Protection Services
CUPE Local 4325, representing workers at Family and Children’s Services of
Guelph and Wellington County, were the first out on the picket lines in April
2016. Their previous negotiations resulted in a 2-year wage freeze, followed
upon ratification by a 9% increase for management staff. After three weeks on
the line, the union was able to sign a deal that increased wages and improved
contract language.
In September, 434 members of CUPE 4914, representing workers at Peel Children’s
Aid Society, were out on strike to demand workload and job evaluation
improvements. After the bargaining committee rejected the employer’s latest
offer, management mailed the proposal to each member. The workers rallied to
defeat a final offer vote by 93%.
“This offer does nothing to help the children of Peel or the health and safety
of workers,” said Stephanie Zaine, frontline worker and member of CUPE 4914.
After 13 weeks on the picket line, the local was able to get management to
agree to refer outstanding issues to binding arbitration.
Just two days before Christmas, the Nipissing and Parry Sound Children’s Aid
Society locked out their workers represented by CUPE Local 2049. Workers had
rejected a contract by 96% the week before the lockout and management had no
improvements to offer. The issues stem once again from the provincial
underfunding and the stress it causes with increased workloads and fear of
children ‘falling between the cracks.’ CUPE spokesperson, Fran Belanger,
emphasized that the society regularly leaves frontline positions vacant,
doesn’t replace employees who are on sick leave, and doesn’t fill other
temporary vacancies.
For the remaining child protection workers, these measures require them to
cover absent colleagues’ caseloads and perform extra administrative tasks, even
though they themselves may be struggling under already excessive workloads. The
irony is that management has proposed cuts to sick time provision, even though
they regularly don’t replace workers who are off sick!
Fred Hahn, the
President of CUPE Ontario, has been kept busy with picket line support.
“The daily reality for the people who work in child protection is that
workload needs to be addressed,” says Hahn. “This was first identified with a
workload study in 2001 and been recommended in numerous coroner’s inquest
reports. Many front line workers live in fear that with the complexities and
intensification of the cases they carry, one of the children on their caseload
could fall through the cracks. If the government is truly committed to fixing
the problems facing the CAS, then it must deal with workload and health and
safety issues that child protection workers face every day, along with
providing the funding necessary for expanding the mandate of services.”
Public Libraries
In addition to the picket line activity at CAS workplaces, 2016 saw an increase
in militancy among Public Library locals.
This past summer, CUPE Local 1989, workers at the
Another similarity between the
The success of Local 1989’s struggle helped to buoy the spirits of another
library unit, the
With thousands of dollars in strike support coming in from across the country,
CUPE 2974 has kept up the spirits of their members on the line through some
very tough times. In December, the leadership was forced to take a final offer
to their members. It was overwhelmingly rejected.
Currently the
Both current strikes are looking for support – through messages of solidarity,
and if you’re in the neighbourhood, picket line support. Updates and picket
line locations can be accessed at www.cupe.on.ca
3) CHILDREN’S AID LOCKS OUT
PV Ontario Bureau
It is a holiday drama with Kathleen Wynne’s Liberals cast as the
austerity-minded Scrooge, and a
On December 22, the Nipissing and Parry Sound CAS locked out its 140 workers
and suspended all Youth Justice Services and Early Intervention programs. The
agency expects children and families to rely on scabs for reduced services,
while forcing its trained and experienced workers to walk the picket line.
The workers, members of Local 2049 of the Canadian
The locked out workers are receiving active solidarity from the
The CAS claims the major stumbling block is paid sick days, specifically
targeting contract language that allows for banking sick leave and suggesting
this leads to an “above-average” number of sick days. CAS Executive Director
Gisele Hebert has stated that reducing paid sick leave, which she claims costs
$389,000 annually, is key to addressing the organization’s $2.6 million
deficit. The union counters that the Hebert has inflated this figure, something
employers are notorious for doing.
The facts suggest that the CAS focus about sick leave is a ploy to get the
public onside and avoid the real issue of underfunding. During the 2014-15
year, for example, boarding payments for children in care increased by nearly
$500,000, while funding from the Ontario Ministry of Child and Youth Services
(MCYS) actually fell by 1%. Ironically, the employer’s own Annual Report from
that year supports the union’s position that underfunding and workload are key
issues in the Nipissing and Parry Sound dispute: “We have seen an ongoing
increase of children being admitted to care to a level that became alarming in
January 2015. The Society had exhausted its foster care resources as well as
outside paid foster care options which had resulted in children being placed
hours out of community at a much higher cost, and was left with no other option
but to rent a cottage to accommodate children being admitted to care.”
In October 2016, the union and members of CAS held an information picket
outside Parry Sound town council, drawing attention to the problems of funding
cuts to child protective services and calling on councilors to demand adequate
local funding from Queen’s Park. Union president Debbie Hill noted that
underfunding had resulted in job cuts, staff working short, and an increasing
reliance on out-of-area workers and service providers.
This reflects a general trend that is affecting the CAS in districts across the
province, in which local agencies are handcuffed by an inadequate funding
formula that was introduced in 2014 and “accountability agreements” that
promise to balance budgets. While their employers have chosen to implement the
This was the case in Peel region, where 435 CAS workers who are members of CUPE
Local 4914 waged a 13-week strike that ended December 19. Among the key issues
was workload, which the employer has been increasing to a point that
jeopardized the quality of care given to the children, as well as the health
and safety of both workers and children.
As the provincial government continues to impose its austerity agenda on the
broader public sector, more people are seeing the political dimension of local
workplace disputes. This realization results in stronger community-labour
solidarity that is capable of building the mass pressure necessary to force
changes in government policy.
4) PRECARIOUSNESS AND POVERTY FOR YOUNG WORKERS: STATSCAN
REPORT
From http://rebelyouth-magazine.blogspot.ca/
In early December, Statistics
The report, entitled “Perspectives on the Youth Labour Market in Canada, 1976
to 2015”, focuses on young workers aged 15-24 who are not enrolled as full-time
students and compares this generation to past generations of the same age
group.
Youth unemployment remains high at the official rate of 13.2% averaged over
2015, which is well over double that of the unemployment rate for all ages.
But it is the nature of the work available and wages that show the greatest
deterioration over the last four decades. Full-time and permanent work has
declined sharply since the mid-1970s.
As the report says: “Of all young individuals who are not full-time students,
proportionately fewer are now employed full-time – that is, in jobs that involve
at least 30 work hours per week – than they were four decades ago. Among those
who are employed full time, a greater percentage hold temporary jobs.”
In 1976-1978, the percentage of those youth with a full-time job averaged about
76% for men aged 17-24 and 58% for women. Today’s full-time employment rate is
59% for men and 49% for women.
What has caused this? The report points out that the shift to part-time work is
because that is all the capitalist class has decided to offer these days: “…
the decline in youth full-time employment rates was driven mainly by increases
in the incidence of part-time employment rather than by decreases in youth
labour force participation or increases in youth unemployment.”
Along with the growth of part-time work is the growth of temporary employment
among full-time young workers. While these figures only started being recorded
in 1989, since then temporary jobs have increased by 16 percentage points for
women and 14 percentage points for men. This demonstrates that even those young
workers who can find full-time work are increasingly having their jobs become
temporary positions.
The spending power of wages has also not kept up, despite massive growth in the
economy over the last four decades. This means that workers are taking home
smaller share of the wealth they produce in today’s economy.
Here’s the story of young workers wages over the last thirty-five years:
full-time young workers saw their real hourly wages drop by 15% for men and 10%
for women from the early 80s to the early 90s. From 2004 until the economic
crisis hit Canadian wages, median hourly wages grew as oil prices increased
(Tar Sands development) and general economic activity grew.
But these gains have not made up the previous losses: “The net result was that
by 2015, young full-time male employees had median wages that were about 10%
lower than those of their counterparts in the early 1980s. For females, the
difference was 3%.”
This does not mean that the gendered wage gap in
As can be seen earlier in this article, young women have a 10% lower full-time
employment rate than young men and hold proportionally higher temporary
full-time jobs as opposed to permanent. This partially explains the widening
wage gap. This is a wage gap that is also racialized as it is gendered.
Racialized women earn only 64 cents, and Indigenous women 46 cents, for every
dollar earned by men of all age groups.
What to do about it?
A debate on youth unemployment and precarious work has started in
In a response to the StatsCan report, Rachael Harder, the Conservative Youth
Critic, said that the government needs to do more to invest in oil and gas
(hand over more cash to the industry that is threatening the planet), and give
students more access to loans (increase student debt levels while encouraging
higher tuition fees). Even if we put aside climate change as perhaps the most
important political issue of our time for a moment, the Tar Sands industry has
shown that it has very little to offer young people besides uprooting them and
putting them in an economically unstable field. Higher debt levels for students
would mean adding fuel to the fire for hundreds of thousands of university and
college graduates.
Meanwhile the Liberals promised increased funding for the federal Youth
Employment Strategy before and after the election. The government is planning
on spending $219 million this year on the Youth Employment Strategy (YES). This
consists of increased help for youth accessing jobs and training and incentives
to business to create jobs (subsidies). Social services and grants to help
youth can have an impact, but spending here remains low. Subsidies to business
to create youth jobs and summer employment are essentially hand outs of public
money to the private sector that do not create a long-term change in the
economy towards permanent, full-time employment.
The real Liberal agenda for young workers was expressed by Finance Minister
Bill Morneau to the Federal Liberal’s
The good news is that young workers are not as accepting of the status quo as
the Finance Minister. Morneau’s comments were cited as one of the reasons that
young workers’ turned their backs in protest on the Prime Minister when he was
speaking at the recent Canadian Labour Congress Young Workers’ Summit.
“Fight for $15” campaigns have sprung up in most provinces across
Present struggles and labour history both demonstrate that the collective
action of workers can change what big business is prepared to offer. We do not
have to “accept” it.
Commentary by Liz Rowley
The arrival of US President Donald Trump on the international stage, backed by
an army of trade negotiators, has raised the alarm among Canadians, and with
good reason.
More than half a million workers lost their jobs in manufacturing and secondary
industry after
The Canadian economy was undermined by the elimination of whole sections of
work, including textiles, clothing and footwear, furniture and appliances, farm
equipment, and big reductions in forestry, and in the steel and auto sectors.
In Quebec the auto assembly and parts have virtually disappeared, while in
Ontario, tens of thousands of jobs have disappeared in the parts sector, and
some in assembly with plant closures in Oshawa, Windsor, St. Thomas and St. Catharines.
Auto is the beating heart of the Canadian economy, which Donald Trump could be
aiming to take out in his drive to “make
Some think that renegotiating NAFTA would improve
NAFTA contained the first Investor State Dispute Settlement mechanism in its Chapter
11, which allowed corporations to sue governments over loss of existing and
future profits. As a direct consequence,
NAFTA helped to secure massive corporate tax cuts over two decades, and
put significant obstacles in the way of labour, civil and democratic rights.
NAFTA opened up communities to virtually unlimited access by multi-national
corporations like US Steel (Hamilton), Caterpillar (
In the early ‘90s, progressives knew that the deal posed a great threat to
Yet efforts were made to force governments to build in protections for the
environment, for Medicare, for Canadian culture, for workers. for Indigenous
Peoples. But as we have seen, and as has been widely acknowledged, the
safeguards added were weak and ineffective.
When Trump comes calling to renegotiate NAFTA, It will not be to help bolster
Trump will come to re-open the Keystone XL pipeline deal, as the first of other
pipelines still to come. He will advise us that climate change is a hoax, and
that he will roll back Obama’s climate change commitments.
Trump will come calling to open up Medicare to for-profit healthcare
corporations who see
He will come calling to tell carmakers and investors about the right-to-work
legislation and further tax cuts he plans to introduce, and the red tape he
will strike down, alongside the new national infrastructure he will build to
serve corporations and profit-making.
The only benefit to come from renegotiating NAFTA will go to the 1%, the owners
of the biggest corporations in the world, operating in Canada, the US and
Mexico.
Progressive people said NO in 1994, and we must say NO again. Fair trade, not
free trade - means GET OUT OF NAFTA NOW!
Fair trade means mutually beneficial, and multi-lateral trade with all
countries, and long-term credits to the developing countries and to the
socialist countries. Fair trade also requires a foreign policy of peace and disarmament,
investment in peaceful development, and civilian spending.
6) LOOPHOLES,
LOBBYISTS AND LIES
People’s Voice Editorial
One of the reasons many Canadians voted Liberal in the November 2015 federal
election was Justin Trudeau’s promise to support “middle class” people by
reversing some of the tricks that allow the wealthy to pile up ever larger riches.
A prime example was the loophole that gives executives, who take much of their
pay compensation in the form of stocks, a tax deduction of 50 percent of the
gain when they sell those stocks.
The Liberals promised to cap this deduction at $50,000, pointing out that 8,000
people were claiming an average of $400,000 a year via the loophole. That's a
total of $3.2 billion annually. But less than two years later, pressure from
wealthy executives led the Trudeau government to renege on this promise. Why?
According to Finance Minister Bill Morneau, because “small firms and
innovators” would be hurt by closing the loophole. But let’s be clear: we’re
mostly talking about the top 100 CE0s in
Canadians for Tax Fairness is calling out the PM over the government’s
backtracking. They point out that the issue raises concerns in light of the
cash-for-access scandal, in which wealthy donors get private dinners to lobby
Liberal cabinet ministers.
Of course, the Liberals first denied the accusations, claiming that lobbying
does not take place at these dinners. Now PM Trudeau admits that he is lobbied
at pay-to-attend events, but this doesn’t affect his decisions. We’re sure that
corporate big shots will give up their efforts to influence the federal
government - when pigs learn to fly.
7) PROTECT MARITIME JOBS AND
ENVIRONMENT
People’s Voice Editorial
The struggle to save jobs in the maritime sector and to protect Canada’s coasts
and waters will be in the forefront on Jan. 12, when the International
Longshore and Warehouse Union Canada, the International Longshore Association
and the Seafarers International Union join forces for a National Day of Action.
Rallies are taking place in
The federal Liberal government is out to dismantle “cabotage” - the legal
guarantees that ensure maritime work remains in the hands of trained and
dedicated Canadian workers. The unions are condemning the government’s
intention to adopt the Emerson Report on the Canadian Transportation Act, which
calls to dismantle the safety net of regulations which require people and goods
moving between two Canadian locations to be transported by Canadian companies,
equipment and workers.
The Emerson Report recommendations threaten 12,000 well-paying maritime jobs -
all those who work aboard ships, tugs, ferries, barges and dredges. The
underlying aim is to drive down pay and benefits, for the interests of bosses
who prefer to hire foreign seafarers for as little as $1.26 per hour. Smashing
the labour unions in this industry would not help these foreign workers; it
would slash the incomes and working conditions of every employee in the
industry.
And there are other dangers looming, including the potential to privatize
Canada’s ports, with billions of dollars of public infrastructure; and the
environmental threat posed by hiring inexperienced sailors, unfamiliar with
Canada’s coastal waters, to pilot vessels containing a wide range of fuels,
chemicals and other cargoes.
We urge readers to stand with ILWU, the ILA and the SIU in this important
struggle. Contact the Prime Minister and all Liberal MPs to say: stop
this assault on our jobs, our communities and our coasts.
8)
Communist Party calls for
comprehensive response to crisis; PV Ontario Bureau
As in much of the country,
According to a report by the
Furthermore, the proportion of rent controlled housing is diminishing rapidly
as provincial rent control legislation does not apply to units created after
1991.
The
The depth and duration of the housing crisis has led some activists to applaud
Bill 204 and parrot the government’s claim that inclusionary zoning (IZ) will
be a huge step toward fixing the housing crisis and increasing affordable
housing stock.
The reality is that IZ is a continuation of the province’s failed reliance on
the private sector to provide affordable housing. It specifically does not
increase affordable housing stock, and instead facilitates gentrification by
requiring developers to only temporarily set aside a token number of affordable
units while they gain cheaper and easier access to permits and resources. IZ
also means reduced public revenue through waived charges and fees, and a huge
transfer of valuable public lands to the private sector.
Bill 204 also contains provisions for redefining affordable housing, which
effectively enables the province to manipulate data and conceal the depth of
the housing crisis. Far from remedying the housing crisis,
McKee says the Communist Party in Ontario is going to ramp up its work on the
housing crisis, which is provincial in nature. “Right across the province, what
is needed is a massive public housing construction program, real rent controls
and rent rollbacks, proper building inspections for rental housing, and a ban
on evictions or utility cut-off due to involuntary unemployment.”
He says the CPC (
9) DEFEND PEOPLE AND NATURE, NOT
BIG OIL PROFITS
Central Executive Committee,
Communist Party of
The decision of the Trudeau Liberal government to approve the Kinder Morgan
pipeline expansion and the Enbridge Line 3 project is a serious warning of the
unchecked political and economic power of the transnational energy monopolies.
Despite the government’s attempt to greenwash its decision by turning down the
Enbridge Northern Gateway project at the same time, Canada clearly remains in
the camp of countries engaged in the expansion of greenhouse gas emissions for
the sake of Big Oil profits.
This development is deeply disturbing to millions of Canadians who voted for
the Liberals to block the anti-environment Harper Conservatives. During his
first year in office, PM Justin Trudeau took some limited steps to reverse the
appalling record of the previous government. But while Trudeau campaigned to
prioritize “community consent” for resource extraction projects, and to fully
implement the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,
he made no commitment to block the Kinder Morgan project, which together with
Enbridge Line 3 will expand Canada’s carbon footprint by more than the total
emission cuts from his other policies. The KM approval in particular makes it
obvious that his election rhetoric was never meant to empower communities or
indigenous peoples, or to break with the traditional backing of Canadian
governments for the energy transnationals.
This decision comes along with news that 2016 will be the hottest year on
record, and as Donald Trump (who claims global warming is a “Chinese hoax”)
prepares to reverse
‘
But instead of placing the Kinder Morgan approval within the framework of the
dire threat to the planet from rising greenhouse gas emissions, the corporate
media continues to pose false dilemmas, such as “which pipelines should be
approved,” or “the difficult choices between jobs, the environment, and the
rights of indigenous peoples.” Ignoring the historic global context,
pro-corporate politicians and media want to shift the argument towards approval
of more pipelines to transport unprocessed bitumen from the
This short-sighted approach of feeding corporate greed avoids the fundamental
problem: how to sharply cut world-wide greenhouse gas emissions as soon as
possible, by expanding environmentally sustainable technologies which can
employ the workers displaced from the fossil fuel industry.
The Communist Party of
* Public ownership and democratic
control of all energy and natural resources, including extraction, production
and distribution.
* Freeze and reduce energy
exports.
* Expand shared power flows among
provinces through an East-West power and energy grid.
* Block new development of the
* Compensate the Aboriginal
peoples and communities already affected by the tar sands.
* No to the Kinder Morgan,
Keystone XL, Line 9 and Energy East pipelines, and to oil and gas exploration
and shipping on the west coast.
* Put a moratorium on the
exploration and development of shale gas resources.
* Emergency legislation to slash
greenhouse gas emissions.
* Invest heavily to create jobs
through renewable energy and conservation programs, and phase out coal-fired
plants and terminate reliance on nuclear energy.
* Substantially expand urban mass
transit, and eliminate bus and transit fares.
* Legislate stringent vehicle
emission controls.
* Fund high-speed rail as a
better alternative to highways and airlines.
* Ban “biofuels” derived from
feed grains.
The Communist Party of Canada once again states its full solidarity with all
those in struggle against the pipelines being built or proposed to take the
Alberta tar sands to export markets, including Line 9 and Energy East. We also
congratulate the heroic land and water protectors at Standing Rock, who have
won an important temporary victory against the completion of the Dakota Access
Pipeline by Energy Transfer Partners. The fight to protect the
We say - there is an alternative to capitalist destruction of the global
environment. The Communist Party calls to build a powerful and broad People’s
Coalition of the working class and its allies outside of Parliament. Such a
Coalition could have a huge electoral impact and begin to achieve real gains,
to curb corporate power, and start moving
The global environmental crisis is not only about government policies – it is
about capitalism itself. It is time to replace capitalism and exploitation with
a new system – socialism, a society based on working class power, full
democracy, human equality, and environmental sustainability, in which the
resources and economic wealth are owned and controlled by the working people,
not by corporate bosses.
10) ARMED DRONES PART OF
TRUDEAU’S NEW MILITARY
By Matthew Behrens, from
Alternatives International Journal, www.alterinter.org/spip.php?article4539
Following a
“We now have this very significant bureaucratic and legal infrastructure to
support targeted killing, and there’s virtually no oversight by Congress or the
courts of the lawfulness of these strikes,” says Jameel Jaffer, the
Kingston-born human rights lawyer who, following a clerkship with Supreme Court
Justice Beverley McLachlin, has spent the past 15 years on the front lines of
U.S. court battles challenging war on terror practices from indefinite
detention and warrantless wiretapping to torture and untold layers of
government secrecy.
“Once you accept the concept that the battlefield is borderless and war powers
can be used anywhere, you open up [the potential for] all sorts of abuses,”
says Jaffer, author of the new book, The Drone Memos: Targeted Killing,
Secrecy, and the Law. It’s a partially redacted collection of originally top
secret memos and documents in which some of the country’s leading lawyers have
twisted themselves like pretzels to justify abuses that Jaffer says would have
been unthinkable a generation ago.
“When Bush proposed extrajudicial detention [of alleged terror suspects],
Americans were quite rightly alarmed and outraged, but when Obama authorized
extrajudicial killing, Americans were for the most part indifferent,” Jaffer
says, noting part of that may have been due to the amount of faith Americans
placed in him following the bleak Bush years.
“But you cannot invest that kind of power in the presidency just because of the
person who occupies that spot at a certain point in time, because someone else
will eventually occupy that spot. And when they inherit this virtually
unchecked power, we have very little idea how they are going to use it, because
we don't know what the world will look like in a few years. Something might
happen that makes the resort to this kind of power much more appealing, and so
a President may say certain people in
Drone warfare – in which pilots sitting in a Nevada or New York State military
bunkers remotely pilot unmanned aerial vehicles armed with real-time video
cameras and Hellfire missiles halfway around the globe – is very much part of
public discourse, from Hollywood movies to Obama joking about the use of
Predators to scare guys wanting to date his daughters. Obama was even quoted as
saying “I’m really good at killing people,” but much of the assassination
program’s legal schematics remain secret, from why people are targeted to how
someone can be defined as an “imminent threat” when they may be on a target
list for months at a time.
In 2012, the New York Times reported the calculus for the administration’s
claims of extremely low drone strike civilian casualties was based on
considering “all military-age males in a strike zone as combatants unless there
is explicit intelligence posthumously proving them innocent.”
Jaffer has spent years in the courts trying to force disclosure of the
documentation behind those killings, but is frustrated with a judicial system
that continues to defer to the administration’s national security
confidentiality claims. Similar legal fights may be in store here as the
Canadian military pushes for a fleet of its own armed drones, which top soldier
General Jonathan Vance touted last March at the Senate Defence Committee. Vance
told Senators that he is prioritizing the Joint Unmanned Surveillance and
Target Acquisition System (JUSTAS), and earlier this year, Public Works Canada
put out a Request for Information to weapons manufacturers hungry for an
opportunity to fulfill the program’s mandate, whose parameters appear to engage
the very profound legal, political, and moral questions Jaffer tackles in The
Drone Memos.
Indeed, the 88-page JUSTAS document lists a number of potential scenarios which
appear to share the Obama administration’s shady targeted killings rationale.
The program envisions a hypothetical “Expeditionary ISR/Strike Scenario” with
Canadian Forces in Afghanistan performing reconnaissance for a coalition
convoy, during which their drone pilots conduct “Pattern of Life Assessments”
as they look for “High-Payoff Targets” on the approved “Joint Prioritized
Target List” (echoing the Kill List updated at Obama’s infamous “Terror
Tuesday” meetings). As part of a proposed mission sequence, the pilot crew
spots 3 Fighting Aged Males (FAMs) “standing near a long wall close to the road
that the convoy is traveling on,” with one holding a small radio or cell phone.
When it appears that “there is a shovel leaning against the wall next to the
three FAMs,” and that some nearby dirt seems to have been disturbed, they
suddenly become labeled as combatants, and the use of force – in this instance
one Hellfire Missile and two 250-lbs GBU 48 laser guided bombs – is authorized.
While it is unclear how those dead FAMs can perhaps prove their innocence
posthumously, the consideration of such a scenario raises significant questions
about the extent to which Canadian officials will develop a similar targeted
killing infrastructure to their American cousins. Given Ottawa’s broad
definition of Canadian interests, which now encompasses much of the globe, will
that include non-battlefield scenarios, as has become commonplace stateside?
And how will extrajudicial executions be justified by Trudeau’s Justice
Department’s lawyers?
Equally concerning, drones are an increasingly favoured tool for surveillance
and crowd control. The JUSTAS document posits another potential scenario, a
A proposed
As Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan considers the best bang for his military
buck, drone manufacturers argue their products are far cheaper than fighter
jets. Jaffer, meanwhile, says that as militarized drone use appears on the
Canadian horizon, “the public ought to know what the government is doing, and
they should be able to assess how the use of this kind of violence is likely to
change both the society in which the violence is used and the society that
authorizes the use of it.”
11) CEOs STILL RIDING THE HIGH
INCOME GRAVY TRAIN
Excerpts
from the new CCPA report, “Throwing Money at the Problem: 10 Years of Executive
Compensation”
Over the past 10 years, compensation for
Total compensation for
Although public outrage over exorbitantly high CEO pay continues unabated,
especially since the Great Recession of 2008-09, CEO pay in
This year is no different:
A review of CEO compensation in
... Every January since 2007, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has
highlighted one of the most visible symbols of income inequality in
The challenge we faced was how to express the astronomical discrepancy in terms
that would connect to people’s everyday life experience. This is not a unique
problem — studies of income inequality have always struggled to find ways to
communicate vast differences in income and wealth...
Because we were comparing income from employment, the obvious way to locate a CEO’s
pay in everyday experience was to ask and answer the question: how long would a
CEO have to work to take home the same pay as the average Canadian received in
a year?
The answer — consistent over the years — has been stunning. Like clockwork, on
the first working day of every year, the average of the 100 highest paid CEOs
in Canada already pocket what it takes the average Canadian an entire year to
earn. Usually by lunchtime.
This year is no different. Based on CEO pay data for 2015, reported in 2016,
and the Statistics Canada average industrial wage for 2015, the average of the
100 highest paid CEOs in Canada will have surpassed the average Canadian’s
earnings before noon (11:47 a.m.) on the first working day of the year, January
3.
In 2015, the 100 highest paid CEOs in
The gap is even bigger when you compare CEO pay to minimum wage earners’ pay:
the 100 highest paid CEOs would match the Canadian weighted average 2016
minimum wage — $11.18 per hour or $23,256 annually — by just after 2:00 p.m.
January 2. The average CEO in this elite group makes as much as 410 minimum
wage workers...
Of that $9.545 million average CEO pay: $1.1 million was base pay; $1.8 million
was bonus; $4.3 million was grants of shares; $1.5 million was the value of
grants of stock options; $316,000 represented the value of increased pension
earned; and $530,000 was “other” sources of income such as benefits, perks,
etc.
Forty-seven of the top 100 CEOs had a defined benefit pension plan, with an
average pension payable at age 65 of just under $1.1 million.
Even that doesn’t fully capture the income earned by these CEOs. Seventy-nine
of the top 100 CEOs owned shares in their companies that paid dividends: those
79 received an average of $1.625 million in dividends.
Although the CCPA began compiling data on CEO earnings with the 2005 pay year,
changes in the basis for compensation reporting required under accounting rules
beginning in 2008 mean that consistent comparisons over time are possible only
after that date...
If you think it’s always been this way, think again. In 1998, the average of
the top 100 CEOs in Canadian publicly listed companies was able to get by with
an income only 103 times that of the average Canadian. The gap between the
average top 100 CEO’s pay and that of the average Canadian has increased by 179
per cent since 1998 — from 3,390,367 to 9,472,938.
Longer term, we have data for the top 50 going back to 1995. In 1995, the top
50 CEOs received 85 times the average Canadian income; in 2015, the average of
the top 50 received 290 times the average Canadian income.
12) EVEN LEONARD PELTIER’S
PROSECUTOR CALLS FOR CLEMENCY
From TeleSUR
The former Iowa United States attorney in charge of the widely-condemned
prosecution and conviction of Indigenous activist Leonard Peltier wrote to
President Obama saying granting clemency to the 72-year-old, considered by many
the longest-held political prisoner in the U.S., would be “in the best
interests of justice.”
In writing the letter, James Reynolds, who was the chief prosecutor during Peltier’s
1977 trial as well as a subsequent appeal, joins Nobel Peace Prize winners
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela and Rigoberta Menchu, as well as tens
of thousands who have signed petitions calling for clemency for Peltier, who
was convicted under dubious circumstances of the murder of two FBI agents on
the Pine Ridge Reservation in 1975.
“It is truly extraordinary for the head prosecutor in such a politicized case
to take a public stance contrary to the FBI. It is unprecedented to our
knowledge,” said Martin Garbus, the lead counsel in Peltier’s petition for
clemency. “We will urge President Obama to weigh Mr. Reynolds’ letter when
considering Mr. Peltier’s case, and to examine the Petition with fresh eyes. We
believe that Mr. Peltier’s conviction presents one of the greatest injustices
in the history of the American justice system.”
Peltier has continually maintained his innocence and in the 40 years since the
trial, original evidence continues to surface showing that Peltier was
convicted under false pretenses. Amnesty International is just one of dozens of
organizations who point out that a U.S. appeals court judge found that the FBI
withheld key ballistics evidence showing Peltier’s gun did not fire the bullets
which killed the two agents and that the key testimony used to extradite
Peltier from Canada, where he sought asylum, was perjured.
Reynolds’ letter comes as pressure mounts on President Obama – who has granted
clemency to 1,176 prisoners, more than the previous 11 presidents combined – to
finally pardon Peltier, who is gravely ill. Many worry that the veteran
prisoner may die in prison given the scant hope that incoming President Trump
would release the world-renowned political prisoner.
In an earlier interview, Garbus told Democracy Now! that former President
Clinton had told Peltier’s defense team that he would grant clemency before
leaving office in 2000, a promise he broke after a last-minute protest by FBI
agents.
In support of Peltier’s release, Archbishop Tutu wrote, “In a nation which so
prides itself on a strong and incorruptible judicial system and a human and
responsive government, it is sad indeed to think that in nearly a (half)
century, justice has been elusive for this man. If the matter continues without
remedy and action, it will soon be too late for any justice at all. A tragedy
of this magnitude cannot be allowed.”
HOW YOU CAN HELP:
Call President Obama for Leonard Peltier: 202-456-1111 (White House Comment
Line) or 202-456-1414 (White House Switchboard); or send email to: www.whitehouse.gov/contact.
13) MUSIC NOTES, by Wally Brooker
Segato joins homeless T.O.
musicians
Toronto singer Lorraine Segato,
who rose to fame in the 1980's as lead singer of the pop band Parachute Club
('Rise Up'), has again joined forces with homeless
Patti Smith's Hard Rain performance
Fidel Castro: 7 musical tributes
It was a pleasant surprise to discover
a collection of Cuban songs celebrating Fidel Castro published the day after
his death in Billboard, the
venerable trade magazine for the
Russia mourns Red Army Choir
Flags were at half-mast across
14) FIDEL CASTRO SPEAKS OF JAN.
1, 1959, IN HIS OWN WORDS
By Nino Pagliccia
This is the first anniversary of the Cuban Revolution when Fidel Castro is not
with us physically. After he passed away last November 25 at the age of 90,
dignitaries and world leaders remembered him for his many achievements for
Cubans and for humanity. Around the world, including in
As we celebrate the 58th anniversary of the Cuban Revolution on
January 1, we recall different aspects surrounding the historical events
leading up to that day in 1959. Historians have described those events widely.
We ask a different question: what was it like for Fidel and the rebel army
during those crucial days approaching victory?
Fortunately, we can let Fidel tell the story in his own words, thanks to the
interviews that French journalist and author Ignacio Ramonet collected in the
book “Cien Horas con Fidel”, published in 2006.
In December of 1958, the minds of the rebel army of fighters against the regime
of Fulgencio Batista were not tuned into the Christmas season. There is not a
single reference to it by Fidel. On the contrary, they were literally fighting
to stay alive while pursued by the “enemy”, as Fidel rightly calls the Batista
army.
It was in preparation of that final push for victory that Fidel, the military
tactician, recounts his strategy: “It was strategic [to assign] Raul’s [Castro]
column to the Second Front, [Juan] Almeida’s to the Santiago Front, Che’s
[Ernesto Guevara] to Las Villas, and Camilo’s [Cienfuegos] initially to Pinar
del Rio. […] I remained almost without leaders at the front of Column 1.”
Fidel had words of recognition for many of his fellow combatants, including
Celia Sánchez Manduley and Haydée Santamaría, who in a particular battle “were
with me”, Fidel says. In those days approaching the final battle, Fidel knew on
whom he could count. His brother Raúl, Fidel notes, “had the ability of
developing columns and appoint leaders.”
He tells us who some of those leaders were. “The first commander we appointed
was Che. There were two who were prominent: Che and Camilo.” “Camilo, less
intellectual than Che but also very courageous, an outstanding leader, very
audacious and very human. The two of them respected and loved each other.”
When asked specifically about Che, Fidel states: “He was examplary, he had the
moral and the ascendance over his troops. I think he was a model of the
revolutionary man.”
That December of 1958, Fidel remembers, “The rebel columns marched ahead in all
directions in the whole country; nothing and no one could stop them. In a very
short time, we had dominated and surrounded the best of Batista’s forces.”
A strategic battle was planned for December 30 against a strong Batista army
force in
Even with that level of self-confidence about a certain victory, just days
before January 1, Fidel, the diplomat and negotiator, attempted to give an
honourable way out to the Batista forces through negotiations requested by an
army general in
None of the agreed conditions were met and Fidel calls it, “a coward treason!”
on the part of the general. Then, he meets with about “three hundred officers
of the troops defending
What follows is well known. Fidel: “On January 1st I convey to Camilo and Che
the critical instruction: ‘Advance towards
Fidel himself leaves
And so triumphs the Cuban Revolution that we remember 58 years later. To
conclude with Fidel’s words: “Three thousand combatants won the war in less
than two years. We cannot lose the notion of time.”