Tuesday, 29 June 2010
Financiers back in their private jets, while peaceful citizens remain in cages: Linda McQuaig
Reproduced below (from rabble.ca) is a column on the recent G20 meetings in Toronto by award winning author, journalist, and columnist Linda McQuaig:(View source article here....)
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Financiers back in their private jets, while peaceful citizens remain in cages
By Linda McQuaig
The violence of the mob was considerable, with hooligans smashing windows, looting stores and setting police cars ablaze.
I'm referring, of course, to the hockey riots in Montreal in April 2008, after the Montreal Canadiens' playoff victory over the Boston Bruins.
If you don't remember this thuggery -- or similar Montreal riots last month following another hockey victory -- it's probably because that violence wasn't used as an excuse to justify a massive police clampdown on a city.
What went on in Toronto last weekend -- as this usually vibrant city was put under virtual police lockdown -- went far beyond any necessary measures to preserve public order and protect world leaders at the G20 summit.
Could this massive display of force be an example of Stephen Harper's intense desire to control things, from the PMO right down to street protestors?
Certainly, when it comes to those who openly protest his policies, the Prime Minister appears determined to smother dissent at any cost, with little regard for their legal or civil rights.
Before the summit even began, Harper was clearly gearing up for a crackdown, with plans to spend $930 million on 19,000 police for the G20 (and smaller G8 summit in Huntsville).
This was stunningly out of line with how other big cities have handled G20 summits. Britain spent $28.6 million on 5,000 police to host the G20 in London in April 2009, while the U.S. spent a paltry $12.2 million on 4,000 police for the Pittsburgh G20 summit last September. Yet no world leaders were roughed up in London or Pittsburgh.
With Torontonians enraged by the exorbitant cost of arming their city to the teeth, the Harper government seemed determined to make it look necessary.
On Saturday afternoon, a number of black-clad hooligans broke from the peaceful march and began an outrageous rampage of vandalism through downtown Toronto. Despite a massive presence of police in the city core, hoodlums were able to smash shop windows unimpeded and leave police cars burning in front of TV cameras, creating the impression the city was dangerously under siege.
Police then moved forcefully, swooping up hundreds of people -- many of whom were obviously peaceful protestors, including some singing O Canada -- and holding them in deplorable conditions in cages at a makeshift detention centre.
As the Star reported, a veterinarian was woken at 4 a.m. by police pointing a gun at him in his High Park bedroom, as they searched for a protest organizer.
And Sunday evening, dozens of people who weren't even protesting -- including some whose apparent crime was waiting for a bus at Spadina and Queen Streets -- were detained on the street for four hours, much of it during a torrential downpour.
Meanwhile, even as his government hemorrhaged close to a billion dollars on "security" over the weekend, Harper pushed an agenda of austerity and deficit cutting at the G20.
This will mean brutal belt-tightening around the world, even though the deficits are clearly the result of the global recession triggered by the 2008 Wall Street meltdown. This connection is not lost on the G20 protestors, who see great injustice in the world's people being made to tighten their belts because of Wall Street's financial speculation.
With the top 25 hedge fund managers earning a combined $25.3 billion last year, Wall Street's bailed-out financiers are clearly back in their private jets -- while peaceful citizens protesting such injustice are locked up in cages.
Linda McQuaig is author of It's the Crude, Dude: War, Big Oil and the Fight for the Planet.
Monday, 28 June 2010
Saturday, 19 June 2010
Saturday, 12 June 2010
Trade unionists routinely murdered
And, unless I missed it, there is zero coverage of this in most of the mainstream media. You can bet if 101 bankers, or 101 CEOs were murdered last year this would be the lead story for a month.
Friday, 11 June 2010
I will never buy another sandwich from Subway, EVER!
Photograph by: Jean Levac, Ottawa CitizenAs a result of the firing of an employee from her job at a Subway in Dartmouth, N.S for giving her free employee lunch submarine sandwich to the vicitms of a fire, I will never buy another thing from Subway, EVER!
You can not treat decent hard-working folks this way and face no consequences.
StarPhoenix coverage see here: Subway employee fired for feeding fire victims
Tuesday, 8 June 2010
Sunday, 6 June 2010
Friday, 4 June 2010
Wednesday, 2 June 2010
Monday, 31 May 2010
Saturday, 29 May 2010
Friday, 28 May 2010
Fostering intolerance and hatred
Particularly, people have been raising his constant and relentless attack on unions as organizations, on their elected leaders, on their staff, and on their members. So, this past week, I've tuned in his show a couple of times, and I've been browsing the newstalk980.com and newstalk650.com websites.
The reports I have received are true. Mr. Gormley appears to be incapable of rational or respectful dialogue when it comes to the subject of unions. His comments are inflammatory, based on rhetoric and unsubstantiated stereotypes. It is obvious to me that he has an intense dislike of people exercising their constitutional right of freedom of association.
Mr. Gormley also does periodic segments called "60 Seconds with John Gormley". Reproduced below is a copy of the "newstalk980.com" webpage with links to one such segment:
Even the caption is misleading and dishonest. "We can expect unions to break the law"? What evidence does Mr. Gormley or his station have to support such a conclusion or such a broad and sweeping statement? Unions don't break laws. Mark my words, if unions did routinely break laws as implied by Mr. Gormley the jails would be full of union leaders. The courts would be bogged down with case after case of unions violating the law.60 Seconds With John Gormley- May 25th, 2010
Play this Episode
Click Here to Download This EpisodeAbout this Episode
We can expect unions to break the law, but the government?
But it simply is not true. The statement is a lie.
Sure, from time to time, someone who is a member of a union, or someone who works for a union will run afoul of the law - but that doesn't make every union, or every union member a law breaker. Or justify such an outrageous and inflammatory statement.
Mr. Gormley, and the station he works for are engaged in a campaign of inciting hatred against unions, hatred against union members, and of fostering intolerance.
Perhaps the RCMP should be investigating them.
Monday, 24 May 2010
Tuesday, 18 May 2010
Saturday, 8 May 2010
Brad Wall gets his marching orders
The Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce has just given Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall his new marching orders.
It is rapidly approaching the day when we need to stop spending our hard earned wages in businesses that are members of, or supporters of, the Saskatchewan Chamber of Commerce.
It's also time to focus our attention on turfing the chamber's puppets out of the Saskatchewan legislature. Governments have a responsibility and obligation to regulate and legislate in the "public" interest, not in the singular interest of the captains of industry in corporate back-rooms and behind closed doors.
Friday, 7 May 2010
Minister of Health misleads the legislature, Premier misleads the entire province
If you only read one article or column about the back-room deal Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall inked last Friday (April 30, 2010) called the New West Partnership Trade Agreement (a.k.a. TILMA 2.0) make sure its the one posted today on the Owls and Roosters blog entitled: Deception, hypocrisy, betrayal, and the New West Partnership; Premier Brad Wall misrepresenting labour’s role on Enterprise Saskatchewan board.Friday, 30 April 2010
Brad Wall breaks promise, signs TILMA
Brad Wall breaks promise, signs TILMA
New West Partnership is almost identical to trade deal he pledged not to sign
Regina – Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall has broken his promise to not sign TILMA, today putting his signature on the New West Partnership trade agreement that is almost identical in every respect to the agreement rejected by the people of Saskatchewan in 2007.
“For Premier Wall to claim that he has not signed TILMA is simply not true,” said Larry Hubich, the President of the Saskatchewan Federation of Labour. “The New West Partnership is lifted almost word for word from TILMA and offers no meaningful protections for municipalities or Crown Corporations, the two issues Wall said just this week were the reason he would not sign TILMA. This agreement isn’t TILMA-like, it is TILMA.”
Like TILMA, the New West Partnership has a “no obstacles” clause (Article 3) which commits Saskatchewan to ensure that its measures do not operate to “restrict or impair trade,” a mutual recognition clause (Article 5) which will harmonize provincial standards and regulations to the lowest common denominator, and an investor-state dispute resolution process (Part IV), which gives trade panels the power to force governments to pay up to $5 million for any measure that violates the agreement. Procurement for all provincial government entities, Crown Corporations, municipal governments, school boards, and publicly-funded academic, health and social services are included in the agreement, with identical thresholds as those found in TILMA.“Practically the only difference between the two trade agreements is the cover,” added Scott Harris, Prairie Regional Organizer with the Council of Canadians. “Besides adding the word “Saskatchewan” and changing “party” to “parties”, there isn’t a different word between the two until page 7 and only a handful of paragraphs that are different through the whole agreement. I don’t know how Brad Wall can keep a straight face when he says he hasn’t signed TILMA.”
The New West Partnership’s schedules 2, 3, and 4, which cover International Cooperation, Innovation and Procurement, respectively, expressly state that they are not legally binding on any of the three provinces and create no financial obligations.
“It’s clear that the only reason the other three agreements were stapled to the back of TILMA was so that Brad Wall could claim he was signing a new agreement,” said Hubich. “But I don’t think the people of Saskatchewan are going to be fooled by this smokescreen. The only part of the New West Partnership that means anything is the trade agreement, and it’s TILMA.”
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Contacts:
Larry Hubich, SFL President (306) 537-7330
Scott Harris, Prairie Regional Organizer, Council of Canadians (780) 233-2528