I don’t know why we still have to do this kind of thing, but here goes. The federal government “apologized” to survivors of residential schools 5 years ago. It is clearly quite empty, considering how much neglect, abuse, victimization and racism has spewed forth from Stephen Harper’s government since then.
Continue readingTag: Class War
Politics, Re-Spun: Canada’s Evolving Soft Fascism
Things are bad under Prime Minister Harper. They’re getting worse, even since the last time I wrote about Harper’s soft fascism. But how do we measure it? It’s so…subjective, unless you have some kind of benchmark for totalitarian political behaviour. Luckily we do, at least these three: This powerful graphic
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: IKEA’s (Sad) Spin Reply to My Boycott Letter
Solidarity means an attack on one is an offense to all! So if you have sent your letter to IKEA explaining why you are boycotting them for locking out their Richmond workers for 10 weeks, you may have received this precious reply from the corporation, below. I will re-spin it
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: It’s 12 O’Clock, Have You Boycotted IKEA Yet Today?
$3.85 billion in profit is just not enough. Union busting and global greed now! Gratitude, then and now. It used to include a t-shirt and more, for all employees around the world. Now, union busting. The best part of the Teamster Local 213 rally in Richmond on Saturday was the
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Walmart and McDonald’s Pretend They’re Great Employers!
We need to work harder to ensure everyone earns a living wage! I love when gross corporations try to spin reality to defend against criticisms. For instance: Walmart used to take out dead peasant life insurance on its employees, putting itself in a conflict of interest: do their best to
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Zimmerman and Alexander: Racism and Sexism in America
Can you handle the contradictions? I’ve been seen things in twitter for the last few days that puts some grotesque perspective on the American culture. I’m actually quite speechless: Two Florida towns, 125 miles apart. Two people firing weapons at unarmed aggressors, purportedly in self-defense. George Zimmerman, the 29-year-old neighborhood-watch
Continue readingThe Ranting Canadian: Canada is an un-developing country. It has been for decades….
Canada is an un-developing country. It has been for decades. Here are some of the signs. * Crumbling infrastructure. * Irresponsible deregulation of industry and cutbacks to enforcement of the few, weak regulations that remain. This resulted – and will continue to result – in otherwise-preventable deaths, injuries and illnesses;
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Ikea’s Union-Busting Lockout in Richmond, BC Reaches Two Months
Is Walmart Ikea’s labour relations mentor? Ikea, that family-friendly darling of home decor and Swedish innocence is trying to break its union, Teamsters Local 213. They have locked out their Richmond, BC workers for two months now, while deciding to bargain in reverse: Start with a pathetic offer, then as
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Canada Day +1, Our Quiet Genocide
A banner drop during last night’s Canada Day celebration in Toronto’s Mel Lastman Square. (Photo: IdleNoMore.ca) Canadians are so nice. We have such a happy, positive self-concept. This makes it quite hard to address the quiet genocide of first peoples that our nation has conducted for centuries. What is genocide?
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Why Don’t People Respect Canada Anymore? Reason #766, Egypt
A huge crowd of protesters stretched along an avenue near the presidential palace in Cairo on Sunday evening If you ever wondered why Canada is losing international respect, here’s a shining example, #766 in fact. The “Harper Government” [sic] is fully addicted to neoliberal economic 1%-ism. Egypt, as we’ve seen
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Live-Blogging the Next BC Government
Here we are: only hours to go until the polls close. What will be the next BC government? What are your hopes, fears, dreams, goals? This page will refresh every 15 seconds, or you can manually reload it. Please add in your comments below What are your seat predictions? What
Continue readingThe Ranting Canadian: I just saw that today, May 5, is the birthday of Karl Heinrich…
I just saw that today, May 5, is the birthday of Karl Heinrich Marx (1818-1883), the German economist, historian, journalist and philosopher. I post this video in honour of the occasion. It’s a bit silly, and I’m not sure of the intentions of the creators, but I’ve been waiting for
Continue readingThe Ranting Canadian: Here’s my final photo from the International Workers Day…
Here’s my final photo from the International Workers Day rally in downtown Toronto on May 1, 2013. I couldn’t resist snapping a pic of this “Bourgeois” tour bus parked near the starting point of the Mayday march. Obviously I wasn’t the only one who saw the dry humour in this,
Continue readingThe Ranting Canadian: Toronto Mayday 2013 – Photo set 3 These are various photos of…
Toronto Mayday 2013 – Photo set 3 These are various photos of the International Workers Day march in downtown Toronto during the evening of May 1, 2013. A wide range of groups, individuals, causes and ideologies were represented — under the common banner of working class power.
Continue readingThe Ranting Canadian: Toronto Mayday 2013 – Photo set 2 Two current issues that were…
Toronto Mayday 2013 – Photo set 2 Two current issues that were emphasized at the 2013 International Workers Day rally in Toronto were the deaths of hundreds of garment workers in a recent factory collapse in Bangladesh (and the continuing systematic exploitation of all sweatshop workers in that country) and
Continue readingThe Ranting Canadian: Toronto Mayday 2013 – Photo set 1 These pictures are from the…
Toronto Mayday 2013 – Photo set 1 These pictures are from the starting point of the International Workers Day rally in downtown Toronto in the early evening of May 1, 2013. The trees and sunlight in these five photos highlight the other, much older, aspect of Mayday: nature, rebirth and
Continue readingThe Ranting Canadian: It’s April 27, 2013: a few days after my blog’s…
It’s April 27, 2013: a few days after my blog’s first anniversary, the weekend of Rebelfest in Hamilton, and a few days before International Workers’ Day (aka Mayday, aka the real Labour Day). Additionally, April 28 is International Day of Mourning for workers who were killed or injured on the
Continue readingThe Ranting Canadian: In grade 9 or 10 French class, we had an assignment to write a…
In grade 9 or 10 French class, we had an assignment to write a page of text in French and accompany it with some graphics. I chose to write about the French Revolution, and for the picture, I cut out magazine photos of Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan and Brian Mulroney
Continue readingThe Ranting Canadian: What a wonderful day! Maggie Fucking Thatcher is finally dead,…
What a wonderful day! Maggie Fucking Thatcher is finally dead, dead dead! I heard the news while getting ready for work this morning, and I was in a good mood all day! I have bookmarked a bunch of anti-Thatcher videos just for this occasion. I will start off with the
Continue readingThe Ranting Canadian: RBC declares war against Canadian workers
RBC declares war against Canadian workers: Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) is firing dozens of its employees in Canada and replacing them with lower-paid temporary foreign workers. RBC is forcing their soon-to-be-unemployed Canadian employees to train their own replacements. RBC made $7.5 billion in profits in 2012. Also about a
Continue reading