by Cathy Crowe
After 14 years of advocacy, activism and action, Toronto Disaster Relief Committee (TDRC) is closing. The following is a synopsis of our work.
Mass homelessness became common in Canada starting in the 1980s. As the market economy de-industrialized — creating more low wage jobs — senior levels of government retreated from social spending, instead pursuing American-style practices of dealing with social issues.
by Paul Weinberg
TORONTO, May 30, 2012 (IPS) — Potential storms are on the horizon for much praised, regulated and privately-owned Canadian banks which survived the 2008 financial meltdown unscathed, unlike some of their larger counterparts in the United States.
During the crisis, Canada was given the thumbs up for having the soundest banking system in a survey of corporate executives by the World Economic Forum.
Nevertheless, the interrelated nature of the international banking system makes Canadian banks, valued at 6.3 trillion dollars in total, still vulnerable, says David MacDonald, a senior economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives in Ottawa.
by Stephen Kimber for Metro
Last week's surprise cabinet shuffle raises are all sorts of intriguing questions.
For starters, did Finance Minister Graham Steele jump, or was he pushed? If he jumped, was it because of a tiff with Premier Darrell Dexter over the province's fiscal future?
Does Steele want Dexter's job? If so, is quitting just a John-Turner/Jean-Chretien/Paul-Martin/Harry-Houdini return-to-win-another-day tactic?
by Bill Tieleman
This isn't a student strike, it's a society waking up.
– Montreal protest banner, June 2, 2012
As the "casserole" protest with banging pots and pans took over Montreal's historic Mount Royal Avenue, first it was Dollarama store clerks who came out to applaud the marchers. Then it was bartenders and servers standing in their doorways to cheer on 7,500 protestors braving the Saturday afternoon rain.
They oppose not just a 75 percent tuition fee hike for students but also the Quebec Liberal government's draconian Bill 78, legislation that makes demonstrations of more than 50 people illegal unless police approve in advance.
by Gillian Steward
NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair dropped into Alberta last week for his first visit to the oilsands. He came, he saw and almost immediately after headed for Saskatchewan. His appearance didn't win him much support. But it didn't do him any harm either.
That's because Mulcair was careful not to fan the flames of western anger — as he did earlier when he said that rapid development of the oilsands was a job-killer for central Canada's manufacturing sector and something needed to be done about it.
While in Alberta Mulcair didn't say much about the effect of oilsands development on the manufacturing sector. Instead, he called for stronger environmental regulations and enforcement of the regulations now in place in order to level the economic playing field. That was a smart move that left editorial writers and other commentators holding their fire.
by Stephen Kimber for Metro
Last week's surprise cabinet shuffle raises are all sorts of intriguing questions.
For starters, did Finance Minister Graham Steele jump, or was he pushed? If he jumped, was it because of a tiff with Premier Darrell Dexter over the province's fiscal future?
Does Steele want Dexter's job? If so, is quitting just a John-Turner/Jean-Chretien/Paul-Martin/Harry-Houdini return-to-win-another-day tactic?
by Bill Tieleman
This isn't a student strike, it's a society waking up.
– Montreal protest banner, June 2, 2012
As the "casserole" protest with banging pots and pans took over Montreal's historic Mount Royal Avenue, first it was Dollarama store clerks who came out to applaud the marchers. Then it was bartenders and servers standing in their doorways to cheer on 7,500 protestors braving the Saturday afternoon rain.
They oppose not just a 75 percent tuition fee hike for students but also the Quebec Liberal government's draconian Bill 78, legislation that makes demonstrations of more than 50 people illegal unless police approve in advance.
by Mehdi Rizvi
Education and work experience are among the valuable assets new immigrants bring to Canada. Almost one in five newcomers is a skilled-worker principal applicant, selected because, in theory, their skills fit what Canada needs.
Often those skills are professional skills. According to Statistics Canada, in 2008, close to 45 percent of all newcomers held a university degree. Among those who were admitted as principal applicants in the skilled workers category, 72 percent held a university degree, as did 41 percent of newcomers in the "spouse and dependents, skilled worker" category, and 33 percent of family class immigrants.
by Mehdi Rizvi
Education and work experience are among the valuable assets new immigrants bring to Canada. Almost one in five newcomers is a skilled-worker principal applicant, selected because, in theory, their skills fit what Canada needs.
Often those skills are professional skills. According to Statistics Canada, in 2008, close to 45 percent of all newcomers held a university degree. Among those who were admitted as principal applicants in the skilled workers category, 72 percent held a university degree, as did 41 percent of newcomers in the "spouse and dependents, skilled worker" category, and 33 percent of family class immigrants.
by Gillian Steward
NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair might as well have declared war on the West.
That's the way it sounded from this end of the country a couple of weeks ago, when he told a CBC radio program that something needs to be done about rapid oilsands development — which he said has artificially inflated the Canadian dollar and thereby delivered a bruising blow to central Canada's export-dependent manufacturing sector.
Mulcair might as well have said that the western resource-based economy is the enemy of the eastern-based manufacturing sector and must be stamped out at all costs.
