Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during a televised address to the nation, September 23, 2020. Justin Trudeau’s minority government has shrugged off the WE scandal, prorogued parliament, delivered a carefully crafted throne speech and lived to fight another day. It was an agile and impressive performance such as we have
Continue readingAuthor: John Clarke
Canadian Dimension: Trudeau’s crisis-driven ‘reset’
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during his Press Conference at the Annual Meeting 2018 of the World Economic Forum in Davos, January 25, 2018. Photo by Valeriano Di Domenico/Flickr. The impact of the WE Scandal on the Trudeau Liberals has doubtless been considerable but the far greater crisis of the
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: A Carrot for the Bosses and the Stick for the Workers
Workers have been reluctant to return to work and risk exposing themselves and their families to infection because of the relative security that the Canada Emergency Relief Benefit (CERB) offered. Photo from Flickr. The dominant public discourse in this society is based on the proposition that the rich need incentives,
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Brave New Workforce
LeeAnna Murphy, Spangdahlem Military Clothing Sales store manager, disinfects her work area at Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, April 30, 2020. Photo courtesy Spangdahlem Air Base. On May 23, an article appeared in the Financial Post, entitled “How to prepare yourself as Canada’s unemployment rate rises.” Targeting an audience of nervous
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Demands for a Post-Pandemic Future
Graffiti adorns a boarded-up restaurant in New York City. Photo by Anthony Quintano/Flickr. One might have hoped that the very severity of the threat posed by the pandemic would compel the elites who manage capitalist societies to behave more responsibly and decently. The return of the pre-neoliberal “nanny state” (however
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Struggles in the Shadow of the Pandemic
Street vendor working during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in Qingdao. Photo by Gauthie Delecroix/Flickr. It is a principle of historical materialism that social consciousness reflects social being and it is, therefore, inevitable that the former will tend to lag behind the latter. At a time like the
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: The False Hope of a Pandemic Basic Income
A man walks down an empty Yonge Street in Toronto. Photo by Myles Herod/Instagram. In the conditions of extreme economic dislocation that the COVID-19 pandemic has created, a crisis of unemployment is unfolding in Canada that is already dire and that will certainly intensify. More than one million jobs were
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: After the Pandemic
A face mask adorns a statue of St. Francis of Assisi in the town of San Fiorano in Italy. Photo by Marzio Toniolo. When people emerge from their homes after the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic (those, that is, who have homes and the option to stay in them)
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: The Left Must Fight the IHRA Definition of Antisemitism
Man blows a shofar at a rally in London against anti-Semitism in the UK Labour Party. Photo by Getty Images. Bill 168, the Combating Antisemitism Act, was introduced in the Ontario Legislature last December by Tory MPP Will Bouma. On February 27, it was approved on second reading by a
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: The War on the Poor in the Age of Austerity
Homeless camp in East Vancouver, September 2017. Photo by Kenny McDonald (Flickr). Last year, I stepped down as an organizer with the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP) after 28 years devoted to resisting an escalating war on the poor. Though I wish it were otherwise, it has been a largely
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: If Housing is a Right We Should Take It
In Toronto and across Canada, homelessness has reached proportions that no rational and just society would tolerate and it constitutes an emergency situation. The Trump Administration, seeing levels of destitution in California that are producing social dislocation, is preparing for a brutal crackdown on the homeless. We would do well
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Canada Joins Campaign to Stifle Criticism of Israel
Free Palestine protest at Parliament Hill, Ottawa, July 2014 • Photo by Tony Webster (Flickr) On June 25, Canada’s Minister of Canadian Heritage and Multiculturalism announced that the Trudeau government’s new anti-racism strategy would include the adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of antisemitism. The Co-Chair of
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Conservative ‘Blue Wave’ Sweeps Across Canada
Photo by Doug Ford/Twitter The federal system under which the Canadian state operates, places a great deal of decision making power in the hands of its provinces. While the dubiously progressive Trudeau Liberals run things federally (for the present), the provincial level of government is now dominated by the Conservatives
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: ‘Progressive’ Trudeau Government Attacks Venezuela
Photo by Chrystia Freeland (Twitter) Anyone who still entertains any illusions in the ‘progressive’ nature of the Trudeau Government of Canada, would have been shocked to witness the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chrystia Freeland, assembling a collection of regional representatives of the Washington Consensus in Ottawa, on February 4, to
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: A Tale of Two Austerities
Photo by William Murphy The greatly intensified austerity that has been imposed in the UK since 2010 has been looked to with considerable approval by right wing imitators. Among countries that had developed a relatively adequate ‘welfare state’, the attack on social provision in the UK has been outstandingly severe.
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Doug Ford’s New Poor Laws Replace Basic Income
Photo by Doug Ford/Ford Nation The decision of the new Tory Government in Ontario to terminate the basic income (BI) pilot project that their Liberal predecessors had set in motion, confirms that the right is as divided as the left on this issue of social policy. The Doug Ford Tories
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Basic Income: Progressive Dreams Meet Neoliberal Realities
Photo by Eli Christman Up until now, the concept of Basic Income (BI) has enjoyed a greater history of being proposed than of being implemented. We may well be approaching a period, however, when this changes. The Ontario Government is holding consultations on setting up a BI pilot project. The
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Looking the Basic Income Gift Horse in the Mouth
Photo by Jason Hargrove
Both the Trudeau Liberals in Ottawa and the Wynne Government at Queen’s Park in Toronto have been making noises of late on the subject of Basic Income. The last Ontario Budget, in f…
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: The Austerity Agenda in Sheep’s Clothing
Photo by CUPE Ontario
As we go into the New Year with Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Government in place, it’s worth noting that the struggle against poverty in Toronto now unfolds with a complete set of f…
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Toronto’s Plan to Push Out the Homeless
Photo by Ivaan Kotulsky The Mayor’s Office in Toronto is today occupied by a much slicker operation than it was during the years of dysfunctional, bigoted buffoonery that unfolded under Rob Ford. Mayor John Tory has resumed the drive toward a fully fledged neoliberal city but has the basic political
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