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] Continue reading →
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, trillions of bailout dollars in the U.S. and Canada are about to be fire-hosed into particular areas of the economy. Given that this is public money, who decides where and to whom these funds should go? | PETER EWART
All over the country, working people are under tremendous pressure to wage only defensive battles and depend on others to represent them politically. But the clash between the conditions in which the people have to face the coronavirus pandemic and the authority, which does not share the same conditions as the working people, is leading more and more contingents of workers to break out of this old way of doing things. Continue reading →
On April 3, Prime Minister Trudeau announced that his government had signed an agreement with Amazon Canada to manage the distribution of medical equipment, such as masks, gloves and ventilators that are needed in all the provinces and territories.
Trudeau did not provide any details on the value of the contract but a government news release issued later the same day said that Amazon was providing the service to Canadians at cost, without profit. Continue reading →
Members of Parliament and Senators are enjoying pay increases – 2.1 per cent and 2.4 per cent, respectively. The pay raise took effect on April 1, April Fool’s Day. The base salaries for MPs went up to $182,600 from $178,900. News agencies report that the law requires Senators be paid $25,000 less than members of the House of Commons, so members of the Senate will now be paid $157,600, up from $153,900.
According to Parl.ca increases in pay for MPs and Senators are based “on the average percentage increase in base-rate wages for each calendar year, resulting from major settlements negotiated with major bargaining units of 500 or more employees in the private sector in Canada.” The law requires that the base salaries for all parliamentarians “be rounded down to the nearest hundred dollars.” Who are in these “major bargaining units” in the private sector is a mystery to most Canadians who think the pay of a Member of Parliament should be equivalent to the pay of an average working Canadian.
That might level the playing field between those who govern and those who are governed a tad.
No to secret deals! Parliamentary negotiations should be broadcast live! | TML Weekly commentary
The cartel parties which have seats in the Parliament of Canada passed Bill C-13, the COVID-19 Emergency Response Act, on March 25. The bill was negotiated between the parties and with business interests and between the Premiers in secret negotiations behind the backs of Canadians. It was adopted by both the House of Commons and Senate and given Royal Assent in the name of protecting Canadians during the coronavirus pandemic. Continue reading →
Over 3,000 Canadian National Railway workers on Strike
Picket lines in Port Robinson
At 12:01 am Eastern Standard Time on November 19, about 3,200 Canadian National Railway conductors, trainpersons and yard workers went on strike, mainly over issues of workers’ health and safety, which are also issues of public health and safety. The workers are members of the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference (TCRC).
In a press release dated November 16, the TCRC explained:), which served the legally required 72-hour strike notice during the evening of November 15. The TCRC reports that it was unable to reach a deal with CN, as the company remains unwilling to address the workers’ concerns.
The labour contract of these workers expired on July 23. The monopoly media are reporting that talks are ongoing with CN at this time.
Picket line goes up in Saskatoon, as strike begins on November 19
Prince George
In a press release dated November 16, the TCRC explained:
“CN currently requires TCRC members to operate trains alone from outside of the locomotive, hanging on to moving trains with one hand while operating a remotely controlled locomotive with the other. Railroaders are expected to do this in rain and in freezing temperatures, sometimes for distances of up to about 17 miles.
“The union’s demands to cease these dangerous practices have fallen on deaf ears and the company has refused to come to a satisfactory agreement at the negotiations table to adjust their operating practices in the interest of safety.
“The company also wants to make it more difficult to take time off and make employees work longer hours, in an attempt to get more work done with fewer people and to reduce staffing levels.
“‘Fatigue has been recognized by the Transportation Safety Board as a major safety problem in this industry. Too many railroaders are operating trains when they should be resting,’ explained the president of the TCRC, Lyndon Isaak. ‘For the safety of all Canadians, we cannot allow CN to make it even harder for our members to get the rest they need.’
“Moreover, CN is demanding that the union accept a lifetime cap on prescription drug coverage which would be tantamount to denying workers — and their families — proper treatment for some forms of cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, and other diseases.
“Wages are not a major sticking point in these negotiations.”
Montreal, November 19, 2019.
These are long-standing concerns of the rail workers, for which they have been presenting demands that remain unaddressed by the rail monopolies and the federal government.
Already, the monopoly media are playing their dirty role of paving the way for the Trudeau government to pass back-to-work legislation so that the just struggle of the workers is criminalized and the burning issues they are raising are once again swept under the rug, while workers and the public are placed at great risk. Just 12 hours after the CN workers went on strike, the Kenney government in Alberta called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to immediately recall Parliament and enact back-to-work legislation (Parliament is not scheduled to convene until December 5). In calling for the criminalization of the striking workers and the important issues they are raising, the Kenney government shamefully invoked the failure to build pipelines, saying this puts extra pressure on CN to transport oil by rail, and also claimed to be defending farmers, saying they need to transport their crops and are already facing problems with bad weather and the trade dispute with China.
This must not be permitted to happen. All workers and the public at large must express their support for the just demand of the CN workers for a negotiated contract that addresses their concerns and demands.
The annual CANSEC weapons fair is being held in Ottawa May 29 and 30. Anti-war activists are holding a protest during the opening speech by Minister of Defence Harjit Sajjan on May 29. Two other federal ministers – Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development and Carla Qualtrough, Minister of Public Services and Procurement – and Lieutenant-General Paul Wynnyk, Vice Chief of the Defence Staff will also deliver keyote addresses. The “weapons fair” is organized by the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI), involving some 900 corporations. It has been hosted annually in Ottawa since 1998 and just as often opposed by the people of that city. Continue reading →
(February 7) – CUPW condemns the Government of Canada’s decision to recognize Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido as the legitimate president of Venezuela, over the elected president Nicolas Maduro. Continue reading →
BERLIN/WASHINGTON/BEIJING (german-foreign-policy.com) – In the dispute over boycotting the Chinese Huawei corporation, the German government is considering joining a campaign of the “Five Eyes” intelligence-sharing network, it was reported in Canada and Australia. According to the media, intelligence chiefs of the five English-speaking “Five Eyes” countries launched a boycott campaign last July under US leadership. Continue reading →
Using the Extradition Treaty between Canada and the United States, the U.S. got Canada to arrest Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei Technologies, the world’s largest telecommunications equipment manufacturer and the second largest smartphone manufacturer after Samsung. Continue reading →
(From a Facebook post of Dec. 13, revised Dec. 24) – Six people appeared in Halifax provincial court on Monday, December 10 to face charges of mischief and obstructing a peace officer, stemming from Sunday night’s protest at the Canada Post mail-processing plant on Almon Street in that city. The real reason they were arrested is that they were protesting the federal government’s criminalization of their rights. Continue reading →
Postal workers and their allies are continuing their ongoing campaign demanding that Bill C-89, the legislation ordering postal workers back to work, be withdrawn and the contract with Canada Post be settled by negotiations and not government dictate. Continue reading →
The Canadian government’s cause is not defence of the Jewish people but defence of the Zionist project. Its aim is not the political and social equality of Jews in all countries but to take over all of Palestine and promote the emigration of Jews from their countries to take up residence in the settlements in Palestine.
By RAMZY BAROUD*
Trudeau and his government will certainly be judged by future generations, as his predecessors were judged for their past sins, for choosing, despite the passage of time, to stand on the wrong side of history.
How does one explain Canada’s contradictory foreign policy regarding Palestine and Israel? Continue reading →
Join Palestinians in demanding the implementation of the right of return! End the Zionist occupation of Palestinian lands!
Mississauga picket on 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, November 2017.
November 2 marked the 101st anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, a 1917 letter sent by the British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to a prominent British Zionist leader promising land in Palestine for foreign settlement. Continue reading →
GM executives in Detroit have announced the closure of an auto assembly plant they control in Oshawa, Ontario. The shutdown will terminate the direct employment of 2,522 auto workers, members of Unifor Local 222 and a large number of salaried workers, and result in an enormous loss of value for the Canadian economy and community. Continue reading →
• Postal Workers treated like criminals by Trudeau government – Louis Lang
• Canada Post not the workers has been withholding social assistance
cheques – Canadian Union of Postal Workers
• Renewed attacks on postal workers: We take it personally! – Pierre Soublière
• Postal workers demand justice as Trudeau meets with Corporate Calgary
• Photo weview: Postal workers’ rotating strikes and occupations
Canada Post and Trudeau government provoke a crisis in relations of production | Workers’ Forum, November 22
The Trudeau government has issued a Notice Paper in Parliament to criminalize postal workers’ right to negotiate their terms of employment. The Notice of back-to-work legislation includes closure to force its passage within the afternoon when introduced. This back-to-work order placed on the agenda of the Parliament of Canada deprives postal workers of their right to negotiate a collective agreement regarding their terms of employment in a calm and fair atmosphere between the collective of postal employees and their employer, which includes the right of workers to engage in job actions to prod their employer to negotiate. Continue reading →
Canadian soldiers take over the streets of Montreal following the invocation of the War Measures Act, October 1970.
Forty-eight years ago on October 16, 1970, the federal Liberal government led by Pierre Elliott Trudeau invoked the War Measures Act. Trudeau declared a state of “apprehended insurrection” in response to kidnappings and mailbox bombings taking place in Quebec. The War Measures Act gave the police the power to act without warrants and to detain people indefinitely without charges or trial. Continue reading →
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was in New York during the third week of September to address the United Nations General Assembly and also lobby other nations to get their support for Canada’s bid for a non-permanent Security Council seat for a two-year term from 2021-23. The members of the General Assembly will vote on the candidates in the fall of 2020 during the 75th session of the United Nations General Assembly. Continue reading →
Mass grave at Nazis’ Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. These are the crimes Canada condemns. They were perpetrated by the Nazis, Mr. Trudeau, not the communists.
By DOUGAL MACDONALD
On August 23, 2018, the Trudeau regime once again made a public statement to mark the anniversary of Black Ribbon Day, a memorial day concocted by the ruling circles of Europe in 2009 to promote anti-communism through slanders and lies and to glorify Nazism. Continue reading →
Demonstration in Quebec City, April 5, 2018, against upcoming G7 summit in La Malbaie. Banner reads: “The G7 Does Not Represent Us.”
The 44th G7 Summit is hosted by Canada. It will take place June 8 and 9 in the luxury hotel Fairmont Le Manoir Richelieu in La Malbaie in the Charlevoix region of Quebec. It is preceded by ministerial meetings.
La Malbaie is a small town of 8,000 people about 150 kilometres north-east of Quebec City. The Summit area has been secured behind a $3.8 million, three-metre high, 3.7-kilometre long fence anchored in cement posts sunk half a metre into the ground. A temporary prison will be set up near the arena in Clermont, a neighbouring municipality, at a cost of $1 million, according to local radio station CIHO. The budget for the G7 events will be more than $600 million with $259 million to be allocated to the RCMP alone for security, over $35 million to National Defence, $99 million to Public Safety Canada, $2 million to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, and $1 million to the Canada Border Services Agency. Continue reading →
International Women’s Day March, Toronto, March 2017
(Revised and expanded from a Facebook post on January 25) – CBC TV’s The National hosted by Michael Serapio devoted the first 21 minutes of its 3-4 p.m. newscast on 25 January to the case of Patrick Brown, who has resigned/sacked as leader of the Conservative Party in Ontario although not his seat as an MPP after two women accused him of sexual misconduct. The case is dominating the news cycle. Premier Wynne, head of a government known for corruption and selling out the interests of the working class as in the case of U.S. Steel, was “shocked.” For its part, the Ontario PC Party declared it “unequivocally upholds the principle that a safe and secure society is what we expect and desire” and has “a message of change.” Federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh called the Brown allegations ‘heinous.” Tory MP Lisa Raitt says she has an “open door” for anyone experiencing harassment. All apparently stand for women’s empowerment.Continue reading →
Picket and signature collection, November 23, 2017, at the University Skytrain station in Vancouver. More than 2,500 Canadians thus far have signed the Canadian Petition Against War and Aggression on the Korean Peninsula.
While Canada claims it is for diplomacy and solidarity, it is not well known that the Canadian military has joined the massive annual U.S.-Republic of Korea joint military exercises Key Resolve and Foal Eagle in the spring and Ulchi-Freedom Guardian in August as well as others, all aimed at provoking the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) into a war on the Korean Peninsula. In September 2017, after participating in joint naval manoeuvres with the U.S., south Korean and Japanese military, HMCS Ottawa and HMCS Winnipeg docked at the U.S. naval base on Jeju Island which the people are fighting to demilitarize. Continue reading →
“We are Going to Have to Fight It Through the Regulations” — Interview, Rob Ashton, President, International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Canada
Maritime Workers at the port of Vancouver as well as ports throughout the country have been standing up to the Trudeau government’s Bill C-23, An Act respecting the preclearance of persons and goods in Canada and the United States. This legislation expands “preclearance,” a process for clearing customs of the destination country before leaving the country of origin, from select airports in Canada to land and water crossings. It permits preclearance of cargo in Canadian facilities by U.S. agents, and authorizes them to carry weapons and detain, search and use force against Canadians within those facilities. Continue reading →
Since this article was published a week ago, the US Commerce Dept. has levied additional tariffs on Bombardier at the behest of Boeing, now amounting to some 300 per cent on a sale of the C Series of aircraft to Delta Air Lines Inc. Yesterday, Bombardier announced that Airbus SE, a European Union monopoly and the main rival to Boeing, has assumed 50.1 majority ownership of the C Series airliner, without putting up a dime, in a deal that lasts only seven years. Jetliners ordered for the US market will be assembled in Mobile, Alabama to circumvent the tariffs. The C Series was originally intended to end the duopoly in the narrow-body jet market between Airbus’s A320 family and Boeing’s 737.Continue reading →
Since September 11, 2001, Canada has consistently been expanding its foreign military and police presence in Central and West Asia under U.S. and NATO command. While openly participating in the invasion of Afghanistan, the Chrétien Liberal government would not openly join the “Coalition of the Willing” and provide more than a handful of troops for the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, despite having provided troops, warships and jets during the previous U.S. invasion of Iraq – the Persian Gulf War. The Trudeau government has now taken up the challenge to provide an air of legitimacy for Canada’s ongoing military actions in Iraq and their expansion. On June 29, the Trudeau government announced that its mission in Iraq would be extended for two more years and that the mission would be “adjusted.” This is a far cry from its election claim that it would end Canada’s combat mission in Iraq, giving the impression that it was against foreign military escalation. Shortly after being elected, the Trudeau government launched a new mission in the Middle East, focusing on Iraq and neighbouring countries such as Jordan and Lebanon. Continue reading →
This week on September 19 General Debate began at the 72nd Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York and will continue until September 25. At the General Assembly, Heads of State or government, or their representatives, address the United Nations stating their priorities for themselves, the world and the UN itself.
A low point, exhibiting for all to see the deep crisis in which the U.S. is mired, was the performance of its President Donald Trump. His vehement rhetoric promising fire and brimstone to all non-believers in the U.S. democracy shows how desperate the United States has become because it cannot command that the world fix its economic and all-sided crisis. The more it declares that it is the indispensable nation, the more all others become aware of the need to make sure they are not dispensed with. Continue reading →
Today, Donald Trump is sworn in as the 45th President of the United States. The overriding necessity for the Canadian working people is to concentrate on their own work in defence of their rights. The antidote to the non-stop promotion of the ideological beliefs of both Trump and the official anti-Trump forces is the work to build the independent institutions and voice of the Canadian working class and its allies, and broaden the struggle in defence of rights, for democratic renewal, an anti-war government and an independent Canada. Continue reading →
The annual CANSEC weapons fair is being held in Ottawa May 29 and 30. Anti-war activists are holding a protest during the opening speech by Minister of Defence Harjit Sajjan on May 29. Two other federal ministers – 
BERLIN/WASHINGTON/BEIJING (
The Trudeau government has issued a Notice Paper in Parliament to criminalize postal workers’ right to negotiate their terms of employment. The Notice of back-to-work legislation includes closure to force its passage within the afternoon when introduced. This back-to-work order placed on the agenda of the Parliament of Canada deprives postal workers of their right to negotiate a collective agreement regarding their terms of employment in a calm and fair atmosphere between the collective of postal employees and their employer, which includes the right of workers to engage in job actions to prod their employer to negotiate. 
