Protesters picket MPP Donna Skelly’s office over the government’s planned changes to social assistance programs. Photo by John Rennison/Hamilton Spectator. Discussions of Canada’s network of sub-poverty social assistance systems very often revolve around matters of humanitarian concern. But the deepening hardship of those who must exist on income support payments
Continue readingAuthor: John Clarke
Canadian Dimension: The Ontario election: Hopes and realities
Ontario Premier Doug Ford. Cartoon by Chris Chuckry. There’s some doubt over who first suggested that if elections could change anything they’d be made illegal. While it is certainly an overstatement, this embittered witticism does contain a significant grain of truth. Elections generate intense interest and great hopes but, even
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Canada’s spiralling cost of living crisis
Photo by Andrei Tselichtchev/Dreamstime As we purportedly emerge from the pandemic, one of the immediate challenges that confronts us is a global cost of living crisis. There has been a sharp round of inflation which, even if we optimistically imagine it will be rapidly contained, has already had a very
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: The far-right’s dangerous political momentum
A protester waves an anti-Trudeau flag during the Freedom Convoy occupation in downtown Ottawa, February 2022. Photo courtesy Caroline Marsh/The Rover. As state power is reluctantly and belatedly deployed against the far-right’s laughably named Freedom Convoy, it’s time for the political left in Canada to ask itself some very serious
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Canada’s militant working class history
Pickets at the Moncton Hospital during the New Brunswick public sector general strike in June 1992. Photo from Provincial Solidarities: A History of the New Brunswick Federation of Labour by David Frank. I was deeply disappointed that the Omicron wave made it impossible for me travel out to Ladysmith, BC,
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: The dangerous rise of the anti-vax far-right
Anti-vax sticker in Vienna during a rally against vaccine mandates, November 20, 2021. Photo by Ivan Radic/Flickr. As the pandemic has spread across the globe, the far-right has been at pains to undermine vital public health measures. From fomenting rejection of face masks to fierce and sometimes violent opposition to
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: British Columbia floods reveal our system’s skewed priorities
Flooding in British Columbia last week caused extensive damage in the Lower Mainland of the province, including along major roadways like Highway 11, pictured here. Photo courtesy BC Ministry of Transportation/Flickr. The massively destructive flooding that just struck British Columbia will likely constitute the “most expensive natural disaster in Canadian
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Sorry, Justin Trudeau: There is no equivalence between the extreme right and the extreme left
A billboard featuring the portrait of People’s Party of Canada (PPC) leader Maxime Bernier and its message “Say NO to Mass Immigration” in Toronto, August 25, 2019. Photo from Twitter. While attending a recent international conference in Sweden devoted to “Holocaust remembrance and combating antisemitism,” Justin Trudeau took the opportunity
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Policing the poor
Toronto Police assemble to confront protesters guarding homeless encampments in Trinity-Bellwoods Park in the west end of the city, June 22, 2021. Photo by Martin Reis/Twitter. Recently, we have seen massive police operations mobilized in Canadian cities to drive homeless people out of the parks in which they have sought
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: A left perspective on vaccine passports
If coercive measures are taken by the state to try and increase levels of vaccination, what approach should the left take, asks CD columnist John Clarke. Photo from Shutterstock. As the fourth wave of the pandemic takes hold in Canada, dominated by the highly dangerous Delta variant, the need to
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Danger signs on the road to a post-pandemic future
A post-pandemic austerity regime, coupled with the intensifying climate crisis, will demand new and bold forms of organizing, writes CD columnist John Clarke. Photo by Santiago Sito/Flickr. In my April column for Canadian Dimension I raised doubts about notions of post-pandemic prosperity and increased social equity. I suggested that the
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Hounding Toronto’s homeless
A homeless camp in Toronto’s Trinity Bellwoods Park was cleared out by police on June 22, 2021, after protestors and residents were removed from the area. Photo by Hector Vasquez. On June 22, a powerful force of police and private security guards descended on Toronto’s Trinity Bellwoods Park to drive
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Free speech on Palestine: Time to push back
At least 10,000 people rallied in Melbourne, Australia to stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people in the face of ongoing attacks and aggression from the Israeli government, May 15, 2021. Photo by Matt Hrkac/Flickr. Recent weeks have seen Israel’s agenda of colonial dispossession taken to a new level. Palestinians—whether
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Defending the left case against basic income
A MakePovertyHistory march attended by an estimated 200,000 people before a G8 Summit in Edinburgh, Scotland, July 2, 2005. Photo by Bruno Vincent. Canadian Dimension recently ran two important contributions to the discussion of basic income. In one, an excerpt from a new book on the subject, Jamie Swift and
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: A post-pandemic social peace accord?
There is no golden age of reciprocity ahead, writes John Clarke. The capitalist system is in crisis and a capacity to rebound and broker peace deals is lacking. Still image from YouTube/The Guardian. Last week’s federal budget was an exceptional opportunity for the Trudeau Liberals to polish up their ill-deserved
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: The class struggle and geopolitics
If we are to develop a clear and consistent form of international solidarity, we must be ready to face the contradictions and complications of the global context in which working class struggles take place. Image by Canadian Dimension. The United States is the world’s hegemonic power, though that position is
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Organizing in the face of crisis
NHS workers march for fair pay, London, August 2020. Photo by Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona/Unsplash. After nearly three decades as an organizer with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP), I now find myself teaching a course in Protest Movements and Democracy at Toronto’s York University. It would be fair to say
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Banning the Proud Boys—be careful what you ask for
Members of the Proud Boys rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, November 28, 2020. Photo by Anthony Crider/Flickr. The federal NDP has called for the far-right Proud Boys to be banned in Canada and declared a terrorist group. The party is now widely circulating a petition to that effect. Obviously, the
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: A decolonized society
Blockade at 1492 Land Back Lane in Caledonia, Ontario. Photo courtesy of One Dish One Mic. About a year ago, I chanced upon a remarkable piece of Indigenous history right where I live in the Toronto suburb of Scarborough. It’s a burial mound for some 523 people and the skeletal
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: The terminal politics of ‘more of the same’
Mural depicting Bernie Sanders in Philadelphia. Photo by Tyger Williams/Philadelphia Inquirer. With the American election looming, it appeared that a resounding defeat might be in the works for Trump and his Republican enablers. Nevertheless, it was clear that Democratic contender Joe Biden was not exactly setting the country alight with
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