Doesn’t it seem too much of a coincidence that upon the resumption of the new session of parliament all these new private members bills are coming from his back benches? Certainly there have been private members bills before but usually they are …
Continue readingTag: unions
cmkl: Sending good vibes to my former colleagues
I am really hoping that the negotiators for my former colleagues can reach a fair settlement with their employer this weekend. As my wonderful, hardworking and ravishingly beautiful partner still works there, I have an interest in the settlement too.
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: The State of the Economy and Labour’s Response
The advanced economies, including Canada, risk falling back into recession because of government spending cuts and a looming financial crisis. The Canadian Labour Congress has been calling for our federal government and the G20 governments to respond by putting jobs first. This paper summarizes the economic situation as of the end of September, 2011 and […]
Continue readingcmkl: Strike breaking legislation: from premature to preemptive
I don’t know what’s in the deal reached today between CUPE’s Air Canada Component and the company. I’m guessing, since Lisa Raitt said the union would not be allowed to exercise its legal right to strike, that it will not herald a new era of progress a…
Continue readingRunesmith's Canadian Content: Dalton McGuinty at Burlington Rally (with video)
About 300 local Liberals was on hand to greet a special surprise guest at the offices of Burlington candidate Karmel Sakran on Thursday. The group included just about every candidate in the western GTA, as well as the now ubiquitous “Fire Fighters for …
Continue readingRunesmith's Canadian Content: Dalton McGuinty at Burlington Rally (with video)
About 300 local Liberals was on hand to greet a special surprise guest at the offices of Burlington candidate Karmel Sakran on Thursday. The group included just about every candidate in the western GTA, as well as the now ubiquitous “Fire Fighters for McGuinty” in their yellow shirts and their
Continue readingRunesmith's Canadian Content: Dalton McGuinty at Burlington Rally (with video)
About 300 local Liberals was on hand to greet a special surprise guest at the offices of Burlington candidate Karmel Sakran on Thursday. The group included just about every candidate in the western GTA, as well as the now ubiquitous “Fire Fighters for McGuinty” in their yellow shirts and their
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Politics, Re-Spun on Coop Radio, September 5, 2011
Spending Labour Day with Imtiaz Popat on “The Rational” on Vancouver’s COOP Radio, talking about Christy Clark’s revocation of a pre-2013 election date [coup, not really a premier, perhaps a “notional premier”], the end of the HST, the BCTF negotiations and how the courts noted how the government yanked almost $3 billion from BC’s K-12 […]
Continue readingThose Emergency Blues: Labour Day and the Toronto Sun: An Annotation
Public sector workers are lazy and overpaid parasites sucking at the taxpayer teat. Or something. Please remember to tell us this when we’re doing ACLS on your sorry ass. Happy Labour Day. Love, TorontoEmerg Filed under: Colour Me Cynical, Life in the Emergency Department, What Passes for Humour Around Here Tagged: Canada, emergency department, emergency nursing, […]
Continue readingBusting the union-busting bills
Anti-union legislation has been all the rage in the U.S. following last November’s election of a number of right-wing governors. Most notorious is Wisconsin’s Scott Walker, infamous for his polarizing union law that strips most public employees of thei…
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: The Double Whammy of Defunding Universities
As I’ve blogged about here, federal funding for post-secondary education (PSE) in Canada is decreasing. Between 1985-1986 and 2007-2008, annual federal cash transfers to Ontario for PSE (in constant 2007 dollars) decreased from roughly $1.4 billion to just under $1 billion. (Yet, during that same period, PSE enrolment in Ontario increased by more than 60 percent). And as I’ve written about […]
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: The Great Shopping Shift
I end each day quietly lamenting how I haven’t yet succeeded in completely reforming the global economy. Certainly, it’s a tall order. I search for economic and environmental sustainability. I explore no-growth, steady-state economics to see how we can transform our society’s deranged obsession with unlimited capitalist growth into a more eco-socialist model. I don’t […]
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: News of the World, Kai Nagata & the Omnibus Crime Bill
No, this isn’t a game of “One of These Things Is Not Like the Others”, ‘though I’m sure to suffer from the catchy tune playing in a loop in my head for the next several hours. Trust me, it’s more like a game of Tri Bond. If you have been off planet, embedded in an […]
Continue readingThe Progressive Economics Forum: Global University Rankings
The European University Association (EUA) recently released a report they’d commissioned entitled Global University Rankings and Their Impact. The report was written by Andrejs Rauhvargers. According to the EAU, one of their major motivations in commissioning the report was that their member universities are “often under pressure to appear in the rankings, or to improve their position in […]
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: SFPIRG: We stand in solidarity with CUPE 3338 and oppose the “reprehensible” recommendation to evict SFPIRG
The following is a quote from SFPIRG’s announcement to students, members, and supporters, posted on its website at www.sfpirg.ca. It is republished on PoliticsRespun.org in solidarity and to spread the word. SFPIRG stands in solidarity with and extends our full support to SFSS staff, members of CUPE 3338, who have been locked out of their […]
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: SFSS CUPE 3338 Lockout “either ignorance or malicious denigration of their vital work”: SFU student
The following open letter to the SFU community was written by SFU student Emma Noonan, originally titled “In Support of a Livable World” and originally published here. It is republished on PoliticsRespun with permission. On Sunday, July 10, 2011 at 2:13pm, the SFSS Board of Directors issued notice that they were locking out the staff […]
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: We are “refusing to cross picket lines”: Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Student Union and the SFSS CUPE Lockout
This open letter was originally written by Chelsea Mackay and the Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Student Student, published originally here and republished on PoliticsRespun.org with permission. Dear SFSS Board Members and President Jeff McCann, The Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies Student Union (GSWSSU) has been blindsided by the recent lockout of CUPE 3338 workers […]
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Austerity Leads to Suicide Rate Increase
Friday’s Vancouver Sun had a short item that you might have missed, “Suicides up, road deaths down due to recession.” It’s in the bottom corner of page B5: Suicides rates rose sharply in Europe in 2007 to 2009 as the financial crisis drove unemployment up and squeezed incomes, with the worst hit countries like Greece […]
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: “Plus ça change, plus c’est la meme chose”; or, how to ideologically re-structure your student society: a beginner’s guide: the SFSS CUPE Lockout
By Joel Blok, originally published here. This summer five years ago, the Board of Directors of the SFSS suspended its office staff, barring them from entering their offices and sending them home. This past Thursday, a different board issued a lockout notice to its office staff, preventing them from work. In 2006, the rhetorical justification […]
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Thoughts on a Filibuster
Can I get a “WOW”? Just look at all those women! I couldn’t stop grinning as woman after woman after woman rose and spoke. What happened to all the arrogant white dudes? Oh, they’re posturing and questioning. I guess someone noticed as the past few questions have been lobbed by female CPC MPs. Aside from […]
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