Features

Basic labour rights under attack

Jul 232012

Saskatchewan government "studies" 40-hour week, union autonomy.

Does the Saskatchewan Party respect international labour law? If their ongoing labour reform is any indication the answer is no.

A half dozen proposals in the labour consultation paper the government unveiled in May would definitely contravene International Labour Organization (ILO) statutes. For example, in a move that could affect a large number of unorganized workers, the consultation paper asks "What limitations should there be on hours of work, if any?"

Any move to lengthen Saskatchewan's work week would contravene the spirit, if not the letter, of the 1957 ILOConvention concerning the Reduction of Hours of Work to Forty a Week.

The Saskatchewan Party's consultation paper directly attacks collective bargaining rights enshrined by ILO conventions and recommendations. It questions whether employers should "be able to apply to the Labour Relations Board to rescind a certification order" on the grounds that a union is "not representing its employees".

Chris Hedges preaches peace

Jul 232012

Features

Pulitzer-prize winning journalist warns of US economic "sacrifice zones".

Through his signature owlish metal-rimmed glasses, former foreign correspondent and Pulitzer Prize winner Chris Hedges surveys a packed hall of rapt listeners at U of T's Innis Town Hall.

He's just been asked what activists ought to do following the apparent dissipation of the Occupy uprising. "I am not going tell people what to do,'' he says. "I just tell what I do."

Hedges is being modest, of course. The "minister pretending to be a journalist," as some have called him, is probably the most-read movement commentator in North America these days on all matters of protest against privilege and power. He's already spilled thousands of words of advice to Occupy — dump the Black Bloc and keep faith with non-violence — in his weekly column at Truthdig.com.

One pan-Canadian co-op

Jul 102012

Features

Movement moves towards bilingual national presence.

from the Canadian Co-operative Association

Parliament has moved ahead with its commitment to create a special committee on co-operatives, which will hold a consultation meeting this summer.

Manifesto for a Global Democracy

Jul 102012

Features

Globalizing democracy is the only way to democratize globalization.

by Bill Freeman

On Wednesday, June 27th, a group met in London to launch the Manifesto for a Global Democracy. The c is a pluralist statement on the need for giving democratic global answers to on-going global crises such as nuclear proliferation, climate change and financial instability.

A perfect and hot storm

Jul 102012

Features

It's time to save ourselves from a climate nightmare of our own making.

Daphne Wysham

I was driving toward my home in the foothills of the Shenandoah mountains when the wind really started to worry me. It was blowing debris horizontally across Interstate 66 with gusts that were flying at over 80 miles an hour. Then lightning began forking all around. The night sky was ablaze. Large trees sprawled across several lanes of traffic. The rain pelted down so hard I couldn't see further than a couple hundred feet.

Shooting the hippo — again

Jul 102012

Features

Austerity is an ideological need, not an economic one.

In the early 1990s, CTV broadcaster Eric Malling told Canadians the sad tale of a baby hippo shot by authorities at a New Zealand zoo.

Sad, but apparently necessary, Malling suggested in a special broadcast from down under. After all, New Zealand had big deficits, so there was no money to expand the hippo pen. What was a country to do but blow the newborn hippo away?

Canada’s evolving democracy

Jun 262012

Features

Charter of Rights now 30 years old; constitution, 145.

Questions still hang over Canada's Constitution even though 145 years have passed since it became the founding law of our country and governments, most of them relating to the diversity of Canadians now, and even at that time.

This is not surprising given that the Constitution was drafted by 36 men, 33 of them of British origin and three French, and that it was changed significantly by the British government before its parliament made it the law known as the British North America Act.

Three ways to celebrate Canada with gusto

Jun 262012

Features

A guitar, a quilt and a peace centre hold together our stories.

by Carolyn Pogue

I am writing a book about a rock. Beats me how this happened — geology isn't my forté. But my research into the Acasta River gneiss in the Northwest Territories, some of the oldest rocks on the planet, has given me one surprise after another. This one fits with Canada Day.

Warrior Nation documents militarization of Canadian history

Jun 202012

Features

Warrior Nation documents militarization of Canadian history

New book shows how Harperites revise Canada's story to play up military.

by SGN staff

OTTAWA, June 14, 2012 — A new book documents a concerted attempt by Canadian right-wing extremists — led by Stephen Harper and historians like Jack Granatstien — to revise how Canadians view their country and make them view the military as most important to its history.

Concrete goals essential for success

Jun 202012

Features

Rio +20: Sustainable Development Goals would guide policy at all levels.

by Stephen Leahy for InterPress Service

RIO DE JANEIRO, June 16, (TerraViva) — Goals drive action, and that's why establishing a set of Sustainable Development Goals is so important to put the world on a sustainable pathway, experts said Saturday under the tropical fig and palm forest that covers much of the ground at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro.

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