Dossier: Working people across Canada speak out on the pandemic and take their stand

Note to Readers

Entries for the past 6 weeks have been deleted for some reason. We will update as soon as possible.

(Updated April 24, 30, May 1, 5, 7, 14, 19) – This blog salutes all of Canada’s working people whose contribution makes life possible, especially under the conditions of all out mobilization to contain the coronavirus.

For this period, we are reposting links to and articles from Workers’ Forum. This online publication is presenting the views and reports of workers on how to handle the pandemic and their struggles for the working conditions they require to make their contribution to the well-being of the population as a whole. They speak in their own name. Our aim is to help break the silence around the struggle being waged in every sphere to defend their rights and the rights of all.

A reflection: Canada’s collaboration with the fascist forces and their snipers

By TONY SEED

The poignant post by Ukrainian journalist Dmitriy Kovalevich struck a chord with me. I had heard about those snipers he mentions, responsible for inciting Ukrainians against Ukrainians. One of them was in Canada four years ago on a cross-country recruiting and propaganda mission sanctioned by the government of Canada. [1] 

On February 22, 2016 the so-called documentary film “The Ukrainians/Les Ukrainiens: God’s Volunteer Battalion” (Leonid Kanter and Ivan Yasniy) was shown at the Royal Military College of Canada (RMC) in Kingston, Ontario.

Crash of the Snowbird

Despite broad concerns about the safety of the Snowbird program, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan proclaims that he is eager to continue it. This is a time to draw warranted conclusions about the nature of Canada’s integration into the U.S. war machine | TONY SEED

On May 17, a Royal Canadian Air Force Tutor jet crashed in a residential area near Kamloops, BC. It was part of a cross-country public relations aerial show of the Royal Canadian Air Force demonstration squadron, known as the Snowbirds. Code named Operation Inspiration, the tour began in Nova Scotia on May 2, in the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic. The tour was unleashed immediately in the wake of Operation America Strong of the USAF Thunderbirds that began on April 19 over the state of Colorado, headquarters of NORAD.[1]

US media take a pass on Pentagon’s systematic undercount of civilian deaths

Smoke from a US-led coalition airstrike is seen over buildings near the front line on Feb. 10, 2019 in Bagouz, Syria | Chris McGrath/Getty Image

By BRUCE GREENE

The Pentagon released  in early May its congressionally mandated annual report on the number of civilians the US military has killed. The report concluded that the military was responsible for 132 civilian deaths in all theaters of war, including Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and Somalia.

Tough guys don’t use facemasks

Arrogant behaviour is costing lives | Rolando Pérez Betancourt

Donald Trump refuses a mask from a worker at a factory producing protective wear, in Phoenix, Arizona, May 5 | AFP

John Wayne wearing a facemask? Impossible, so the ferocious pandemic will advance toward him and he, gun in hand, will continue to shoot Indians, Mexicans and any viral load that gets in his way. There is no other country where reality and fiction come together in such an astounding way as in the United States.

Cuba condemns US government silence on the terrorist attack on its embassy

Following the April 30 attack on Cuban embassy in Washington, its Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez insists on full investigation of assailant’s ties with anti-Cuban extremists | Milagros Pichardo Pérez

The Cuban Foreign Minister stated that the attack, which left 32 bullet holes in the embassy’s façade, is the direct result of official U.S. policy inciting hatred and violence against Cuba | AP photo

Canada’s imperialist multilateralism in the race for a seat on the UN Security Council

By Margaret Villamizar

A notion that has been pushed a lot, especially since the Trudeau government decided to enter the race for a seat on the UN Security Council in 2021, is that Canada is a champion of multilateralism. In this way Canada’s meddling foreign policy is presented as different and presumably better than Trump’s obnoxious “America First” unilateralism. Canada’s imperialist multilateralism is based on its preferring to do its meddling as part of coalitions and other groups of like-minded countries rather than on its own. Canada’s attempt to convince other countries to support its bid for the UN Security Council seat is not likely to be helped by drawing attention to the defining feature of its foreign policy: its appeasement of U.S. imperialism, all down the line. Therefore a kind of diversion is put in place with a lot of noise being made about Canada’s “multilateral agenda” without explaining what it really means.