–Amnesty (and a host of unions and others) calls for ensuring Indigenous Peoples’ rights be upheld in Ontario.

–Support the public sector. Support the workers. Support their unions.

–This Conservative government recently claims that it cares about the environment (HA!) but continues to undermine the workers that maintain it.

“There are several flaws in the new uranium rules. The move from blue ribbon staking to an electronic claims staking system will keep property owners in the dark about any claims made on their property. This is especially worrisome for those who do not have online access to the information,” stated Randy Nason of the Grand Lake Watershed Guardians.

“Besides mandatory public consultation, the public would be surprised to learn that quarries and exploration do not require Environmental Impact Assessments in this province. Since all mining activities and phases involve an environmental impact, we want to see it all subject to an EIA,” stated Inka Milewski.

–The Green Party falls into this category.

–Another appeal for the government to respect the will of the people and of Parliament and allow war resisters to stay in Canada.

–The Green Party falls into this category.

–A rather good response to the current right-ward shift around the welfare state. The Neo-Labour Party needs to take heed here. The people do not want reforms that hurt the deserving for the sake of catching a couple more undeserving recipients. Welfare is not a weapon against laziness, it is support for people who have fallen on hard times because of the nature of the capitalist system — the need of capitalism to have a minimum level of unemployment — and the fact that people become injured on the job with frightening regularity. We must demand that our governments maintain the welfare state while we struggle for a better system, it is the only moral position to take.

–Jim Stanford from the CAW is interviewed by The Real News. Stanford says the only thing that the union can do is negotiate nice retirement packages…

–The Conservatives continue to laugh in the face of rights, democracy, and Canadian tradition. No surprise here.

In May 2008, Senator Romeo Dallaire, a former general who served in Rwanda with the U.N. mission, told a parliamentary subcommittee that if Canada doesn’t act to protect human rights in the case of Omar Khadr, the country is no better than terrorists.

‘The minute you start playing with human rights, with conventions, with civil liberties, in order to say that you’re doing it to protect yourself and you are going against those rights and conventions, you are no better than the guy who doesn’t believe in them at all,’ he said.

-I’m not really a fan of Mcleans, but this article was of interest.  Rick Miner, one of the authors of the dreaded Commission on Post-Secondary Education (PDF) here in NB is the highest paid College president in Ontario at Seneca College.  Ironically, Seneca’s motto is “A Leader in Polytechnic Education.”

Meet the President of Seneca.

The benefit of this article is that it shows where a lot of student tuition fees and government grants are going, when they can be spent more wisely!

–A look at the CAW and the changing “leadership” of that union. Not much in the way of democratic debate going on above the shop floor.

–More regulation is needed as corporations continue to flaunt laws without consequence.

–Some great inter-union co-operation to get the message out here.

–CUPE comes out strong against the idea of an inter-provincial NAFTA type agreement (miss-labeled by the Premiers as a “labour mobility” agreement). Citizens of the provinces should not give-up democratic control over their public policy to big-business. We need to make sure that regulations are set by the people those regulations affect and are not driven by “the market” to the bottom. If you care about your jobs, your health, and protecting democracy, you should take a closer look at the fine print of this agreement (when it actually becomes available to the public) and start demanding that the premiers respect the people they are supposed to represent.

“the band members’ main objection is over their claim that the principal and more than one teacher at the government-run school have told the students not to express themselves in their own language in the presence of the non-Anishnaabe-speaking teaching staff, because the staff — most of whom are non-aboriginal — don’t understand it.”

See also this transcript of Andrea Bear-Nicholas’s talk Gencide, Language, and Aboriginal People

–Support the workers.

–It seems that the premiers are moving forward with inter provincial labour mobility agreements but not a common environment/carbon plan. I think that we can guess who’s interests are leading this group. Refer back here for analysis from across labour and the Left on this as it becomes available.

–Instead of putting time into debating silly and irrelevant things like name changes, we should be organising and doing grassroots out reach to the people of Canada to convince them to vote on politics and policy instead of brands. We could call ourselves the Bright Orange Bus (Bob) it won’t change a thing unless people better understand our policies. We cannot win if we are going to compete on the level of advertising and brand-name.

That said, the only name that would make sense in a country that has the Liberals and Conservatives as the two main capitalist parties, and would be to make it really easy for people to tell where we stand, would be to call ourselves the Socialist Party. Of-course, the word does not have the tradition in Canada that it has in Europe and the leadership would have a hard time admitting it, but it would be the sentiment of most of the people in the party. The “new” in New Democrat was not needed when the party was established out of the CCF except that it is important to distinguish the NDP from the international liberal-democratic movement.

We must build the party on the merits of its policy. People don’t make the decision based on the name, they make their decision based on many issues from perceived electability to the mistaken process of “strategic voting”. Stop playing games and PR stunts and start doing some real work and organise.

–Tell the government that, in a democratic country, the government is supposed to respect the will of the majority in Parliament.

From the War Resisters Support Campaign:

Robin Long denied appeal

U.S. Iraq war resister Robin Long received word at 4:00 this afternoon,
July 14th, in Vancouver that his appeal to have his deportation order
stayed was denied. More details will follow shortly.

In the meantime, please take a moment to email or phone Stockwell Day,
Minister of Public Safety, and ask him to immediately stop the deportation
of U.S. Iraq war resister Robin Long. (The Canadian Border Services Agency
falls under his ministry).

Also ask him why the federal government is refusing to respect the clearly
expressed will of Canada’s Parliament, that U.S. war resisters should be
allowed to stay and that deportation proceedings against them should cease?

In a recent Angus Reid poll, almost two-thirds of Canadians said they want
U.S. Iraq war resisters to be allowed to stay in Canada. Demand to know why
the Harper government is unwilling to be accountable to Canadians.

Minister of Public Security Stockwell Day
Email: day.s@parl.gc.ca (Ottawa office); days1@parl.gc.ca (Penticton
constituency office)
Phone: 613.995.1702 (Ottawa); 250.770.4480 (Penticton constituency office)
Fax: 613.995.1154 (Ottawa); 250.770.4484 (Penticton)

Please check the War Resisters Support Campaign website for updates on
Robin’s status and on emergency actions. His deportation is currently
expected to take place as early as tomorrow, Tuesday July 15th.

–We are all guilty for letting this go on like this. Six years he has been held without trial, without justice, without rights. Shame is not a strong enough word.

“The CLC convention was an important gathering point for ideas and action proposals. The desire for a more combative labour movement, expressed by so many delegates, is a hopeful sign for the future.”

Roger Annis lays out “an action plan for change” for the organised left.