Editorials

Bangladesh, Boston, connected by Internet and injustice

May 062013

Dealing with "root causes" of terrorism requires recognizing the impact of the digital world.

by Ish Theilheimer

Justin Trudeau gets a lot of ink with almost anything he says at this point, including his plea to consider the "root causes" of terrorism after the Boston bombing.

Naive as he may have sounded, he raised a serious and terrifying question that nags at a lot of us: Why are North American kids and immigrants, many of them from middle-class families, willing to become mass murderers for extremist – usually Islamist – causes?

Move over, GDP

Apr 302013

Editorials

New 'social progress' tool measures national and global social shortfalls.

by Penney Kome

“The ‘Arab Spring’ of 2011 and the challenges in Mexico over the last decade have illustrated the shortcomings of economic growth as a proxy for social progress,” said Harvard Business School Professor Michael E Porter. His team has produced a new 12-point measurement tool by which governments and social agencies can evaulate the social value of their investments and policies.

We are all Bangladeshis

Apr 292013

Editorials

Day of Mourning reminds us all workers need the right to protect themselves through unions.

by Ish Theilheimer

Sunday, April 28, marked the International Day of Mourning for Injured Workers. In my rural community, a group of people meets every year at a historic shrine at a hilltop park to remember those killed or hurt on the job.

“Temporary” foreign workers policy drives down all wages

Apr 222013

Editorials

RBC outsourcing controvery heralds introduction of new form of serfdom.

by Ish Theilheimer, with files and video from Samantha Bayard

Although recent revelations that the Temporary Foreign Worker (TFW) program is being used to outsource Canadian bank and mining jobs have ignited public fury; in fact outsourcing is only the tip of the Conservative iceberg.

Officially, the program is intended to supplement labour supply where Canadian workers just can't, or won't, fill a need. In practice, it is being used to drive down wages and working conditions for all Canadian workers. At the same time, it breaks Canada's traditional promise to a hungry world, that even if we can't take everyone, we'll take in as many dedicated offshore workers as we can, to help them build better lives for themselves and the entire nation.

Trudeau attacks ‘divisiveness’ but chooses the wrong side

Apr 152013

Editorials

Thirty years after Thatcher, the stakes have never been higher.

by Ish Theilheimer

Taking sides has never mattered more than it does today. In the 30 years since Margaret Thatcher — who died last week — and Ronald Reagan came to power, income inequality has been on the rise, and corporate giants have gained a stranglehold on the world's economy, its climate, its environment and its people.

What Thatcher and Reagan did — and Brian Mulroney in Canada — was to break not only the unions but a historic and hard-won compromise between labour and industry. For 30 years following World War II, the compromise gave working people unprecedented prosperity and rights. Then, around 1980, the Right began a relentless and remarkably effective assault to take it all back.

There cannot be any bystanders: James Clancy

Apr 152013

Editorials

Inequality has grown in the 30 years since unions have been under attack by the Right.

by Ish Theilheimer, transcription by Zachary Rankin, with video by Matthew Penstone and Zachary Rankin

An interview with James Clancy, president of the National Union of Public and General Employees.

A new report documents how income inequality in Canada has increased in the 30 years since Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan took power with their anti-union offensive. In March, the Canadian Foundation for Labour Rights released a report called Why Unions Matter, at a Toronto conference sponsored by the National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE), the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW Canada), and the Canadian Teachers Federation (CTF). The report documents a divergence in those years between Canadian union coverage and income inequality, with inequality rising as the rate of unionization has fallen.

On April 9, NUPGE's national president James Clancy met with Ish Theilheimer of Straight Goods News to talk about the significance of the report. Ironically, they met on the day after Thatcher's death. In a wide-ranging interview, transcribed by SGNews intern Zachary Rankin, Clancy laid out the systematic attack that conservatives have waged against unions since 1980 and how these attacks have driven down the wages and well-being of working people.

Fraser Institute tilts data on public/private pay

Apr 082013

Editorials

Disinformation offers faulty comparisons.

by Ish Theilheimer

The Fraser Institute is at it again. For all practical purposes and extension of the Conservative Party war room, the Institute specializes in pumping out so-called studies and research proving the Earth is flat, black is white, and anything else that suits the neocons who run this country. Then they use their vast resources to pump out disinformation to every possible media outlet.

And yet, despite being the propaganda arm of Canada's conservative movement, the Institute, amazingly, has managed to maintain charitable status.

Another embarrassing week in the House

Apr 012013

Editorials

Harperites rise for two-week break hoping nation and world will forget gaffes.

by Ish Theilheimer

The last week before the House of Commons rose for a break — Bob Rae's last as interim leader of the Liberals — was another embarrassing day at the office for Canada's governing party. With all the boondoggles, expense scandals and broken promises, you'd think they could just go away quietly, but that didn't appear to be the case.

Nixon’s meddling extended Vietnam war while LBJ shrugged

Mar 252013

Editorials

Latest tapes reveal Nixon scuttled peace deal hoping for 1968 election advantage.

by Ish Theilheimer

The release of former US President Lyndon Johnson's final tapes revealed shocking secrets, including a cynical political decision that resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths.

An excellent report from the BBC's David Taylor analyzes information in the last batch of of LBJ's secret tapes. These archives reveal that forty-five years ago, LBJ, Richard Nixon, and even Hubert Humphrey made decisions that extended the Vietnam War five years – and increased the body count by hundreds of thousands.

Right-wing US billionaire brothers driving Keystone XL

Mar 182013

Editorials

Kochs profit while tar sands, pipeline bid endanger climate.

by Ish Theilheimer

Last week NDP leader Tom Mulcair travelled to Washington where he spoke about his positions on tar sands, pipelines and avoiding climate change. Predictably, critics had a field day, accusing him of "trash-talking Canada" and undermining its interests in the debate over the proposed Keystone XL pipeline.

Older Entries Newer Entries