French-language “Leaders’ Debate”: Quebec-bashing over Bill 21

Quebec’s Bill 21 is raised often across the country as an “election issue.” It is expected to dominate the French-language “leaders’ debate” on October 10 as well. Renewal Update asked Diane Johnston who is running in the Montreal riding of Mount Royal for her opinion on Bill 21 and the Quebec-bashing which is taking place in this election.

Six years on from the train explosion in Lac-Mégantic: A shocking account of criminal negligence

The report and interview in this issue of Renewal Update provide a shocking account of the criminal negligence of governments and the self-regulating railway companies.

The terrible memory of what happened in Lac-Mégantic is still fresh in people’s minds, with local residents still reeling from the experience.

152nd anniversary of Confederation: All out to give Canada a modern constitution and definition of rights

July 1 marks the 152nd anniversary of Confederation. On this date in 1867, the British North America Act, 1867 united four separate colonies of the British Empire in North America into the Dominion of Canada. The Indigenous nations and peoples were made subject to the racist colonial Indian Act and subjected to genocide on a grand scale while the Métis people were also treated on a racist basis and the Métis Nation was ignored.

ABI workers, families and allies demand an end to Alcoa/Rio Tinto/Quebec government dictate

Powerful family solidarity march with locked-out ABI workers

Over 5,000 people marched with great spirit and dignity in the streets of downtown Trois-Rivières on Saturday, May 25. They marched in honour and support of the aluminum workers in Bécancour who have stood firm in defence of their rights despite being locked out of their smelter for over 16 months by the Alcoa/Rio Tinto/Quebec Government cabal, Workers’ Forum reports in an edition devoted to the manifestation.

Workers came from many regions of Quebec and as far away as Chibougamau in Northern Quebec, and Fermont, in the northern part of Quebec’s North Shore. Workers also came from Toronto and Hamilton. [More]

Devastating floods in Quebec, Ontario and New Brunswick

Affirmation of social solidarity and need for measures to protect shoreline municipalities

Devastating floods are currently affecting many regions of Quebec, as well as parts of Ontario and New Brunswick. According to the provisional report published by Urgences Québec on April 28, there are 6,424 flooded homes, 3,508 dwellings isolated by water and 9,522 evacuees in Quebec.

Reality Check 1: Operation ‘Brave New Canadian’ – The Haitians

This demonstration outside the Riding Office of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Montreal did not make the front page of the monopoly media, let alone the inside pages. The demonstration demanded an end to the deportation of non-status persons of Haitian origin – The Action Committee on Non-Status Persons

The Canadian government is cynically using an orchestrated media operation centring around Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and a Saudi teenager flown to Canada in a special plane from Thailand on January 12 to receive asylum to camouflage how it is trampling on the rights and dignity of immigrants, refugees and migrant workers.

Every day dozens of people are being deported from Canada to Haiti. Non-status persons of Haitian origin awaiting deportation are experiencing insufferable harassment on the part of the Canadian government. One day the government is deporting them, the next day it is not. One day their application for asylum is refused, their deportation date is set, and the next it is annulled and they are told that they will be called back in a couple of weeks. This is an inhumane and untenable situation.

Bombardier debacle shows what it means for Quebec to be ‘open for business’

By K.C. ADAMS

The U.S. warmongers of Boeing and the Pentagon have crushed Bombardier’s Canadian commercial jet production. While doing so, they also seized Brazil’s Embraer commercial jet production this past July. The anti-social pro-U.S. coup government of Brazil appears to have approved the Boeing takeover of Embraer. The former Brazilian governments of Presidents Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff opposed the U.S. war profiteers gaining control of Embraer. However, Rousseff was removed from office via a parliamentary coup in 2016 and Lula was unjustly imprisoned and blocked from running again for office this year. The foreign seizure of both Embraer and Bombardier’s commercial jet sectors leaves Boeing and the Pentagon in face-to-face open combat for dominance with Airbus and its European backers.