Louis David Riel (English: /ˈluːiː riːˈɛl/, French pronunciation: [lwi ʁjɛl]; 22 October 1844 – 16 November 1885) was a Canadian politician, a founder of the province of Manitoba, and a political leader of the Métis people of the Canadian Prairies.[1] He led two rebellions against the government of Canada and its first post-Confederation prime minister, John A. Macdonald. Riel sought to preserve Métis rights and culture as their homelands in the Northwest came progressively under the Canadian sphere of influence. Over the decades, he has been made a folk hero by the Francophones, the Catholic nationalists, the native rights movement, and the New Left student movement. Riel has received more scholarly attention than practically any other figure in Canadian history. —Wikipedia
Starting today, people across Ontario will see their wages rise $14 an hour as the new general minimum wage takes effect. This change will help workers and their families who are struggling to get ahead in a changing economy.
As part of Ontario’s Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act, 2017, the minimum wage will increase again to $15 an hour on January 1, 2019, to be followed by annual increases at the rate of inflation.
It may not kill jobs, but it’s raising prices in just about every business I’m aware of. Corporations - including big ones like Little Caesars or Pizza Hut - don’t want to lose a single cent to their workers, and the consumer suffers for it.
Also, all of the price increases are largely just CEOs that aren’t willing to give up their Christmas bonuses even though its thousands of dollars. That’s it. If they cut it down just a bit and spread the goddammit wealth like decent people, we wouldn’t be in this situation where people are worried about this. I’ve already noticed the price increase when it was announced. My over all groceries have increased by a solid $20. And I absolutely blame corporate greed for it, not minimum wage jobs wanting a decent pay.
Galen Weston Jr., the mild-mannered, bespectacled grocery-store magnate you may recognize from President’s Choice commercials, is a thoroughly Canadian one-percenter. He is thoroughly Canadian in the sense that he isn’t flashy or grandiose like Richard Branson, and he doesn’t tout the benefits of vampirism or plot to destroy the free press, à la real-life super villain Peter Thiel. He is thoroughly of the one percent in the sense that his family is worth somewhere in the ballpark of $9 billion, he himself earned at least $5 million last year, and, despite that generous—one might even say obscene—level of wealth, he remains staunchly opposed to paying his employees enough money to live on.
[…]
“We are flagging a significant set of financial headwinds,” Weston said in reference to the long-overdue wage increases set to come into effect over the next few years. He predicted the company’s labour costs will jump by about $190 million next year. Rather than address the fact that such a huge jump means his company is paying many of its employees below $15 right now—which equals to, in most Canadian cities, poverty-level wages. He’s chosen to portray his nearly $14 billion company as the victim of unfavourable legislation.
It’s true that a modest hike to the minimum wage is unfavourable to a profit-seeking entity, but it beggars belief that Weston or his company are the ones holding the short end of any stick. After all, the company reported a second-quarter profit $200 million higher this year than last, up to $358 million from $158 million.
LICO: Low Income Cut Off = Enough To Live On
LICO varies, but here in Waterloo Region where I live, LICO is around $18 per hour, which means that while $14 is a start, it is still too far too little.
I imagine this is one of Ms Wynne’s “re-elect me” carrots.
We all know if we replace her Liberals with Mr Brown’s Conservatives, there will be no $15 next year.
Do you know that in nearly 15 years of McGuinty-Wynne Liberal government, Ontarians are still worse off than we were before Mr Harris began chopping away at our social safety net? Since the 2008 recession, while big business and banks have resumed profitability, Ontario’s increase in jobs has been largely driven by an explosion precarious work.
In this year’s Ontario Election it is time to stop voting for the usual suspects.
Which is not to say I want an NDP majority government… far from it! Ontario needs minority government and Electoral Reform to #Proportional Representation if we’re going to turn this around. Which means anyone who wants to elect an NDP MPP needs to vote NDP; anyone who wants to elect a Green MPP needs to vote Green.
Since our winner-take-all system is stacked against us, we can increase our chances by:
volunteering in the party you like, or
volunteering for the Candidate you want, or
if there isn’t a candidate you like in your riding, maybe running yourself!
If you can’t manage to get directly involved, donating to the party/candidate you want
Vote for the candidate or party that will best represent you.
Possibly the single most important thing we can do to amplify our votes for real alternatives is to encourage everyone you know who doesn’t vote to get out and vote!
If you aren’t sure which riding you’re in, you can find your riding on this map. [Note: in Ontario at this point our federal and provincial ridings are aligned.]
Starting today, people across Ontario will see their wages rise $14 an hour as the new general minimum wage takes effect. This change will help workers and their families who are struggling to get ahead in a changing economy.
As part of Ontario’s Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act, 2017, the minimum wage will increase again to $15 an hour on January 1, 2019, to be followed by annual increases at the rate of inflation.
It may not kill jobs, but it’s raising prices in just about every business I’m aware of. Corporations - including big ones like Little Caesars or Pizza Hut - don’t want to lose a single cent to their workers, and the consumer suffers for it.
Also, all of the price increases are largely just CEOs that aren’t willing to give up their Christmas bonuses even though its thousands of dollars. That’s it. If they cut it down just a bit and spread the goddammit wealth like decent people, we wouldn’t be in this situation where people are worried about this. I’ve already noticed the price increase when it was announced. My over all groceries have increased by a solid $20. And I absolutely blame corporate greed for it, not minimum wage jobs wanting a decent pay.
Galen Weston Jr., the mild-mannered, bespectacled grocery-store magnate you may recognize from President’s Choice commercials, is a thoroughly Canadian one-percenter. He is thoroughly Canadian in the sense that he isn’t flashy or grandiose like Richard Branson, and he doesn’t tout the benefits of vampirism or plot to destroy the free press, à la real-life super villain Peter Thiel. He is thoroughly of the one percent in the sense that his family is worth somewhere in the ballpark of $9 billion, he himself earned at least $5 million last year, and, despite that generous—one might even say obscene—level of wealth, he remains staunchly opposed to paying his employees enough money to live on.
[…]
“We are flagging a significant set of financial headwinds,” Weston said in reference to the long-overdue wage increases set to come into effect over the next few years. He predicted the company’s labour costs will jump by about $190 million next year. Rather than address the fact that such a huge jump means his company is paying many of its employees below $15 right now—which equals to, in most Canadian cities, poverty-level wages. He’s chosen to portray his nearly $14 billion company as the victim of unfavourable legislation.
It’s true that a modest hike to the minimum wage is unfavourable to a profit-seeking entity, but it beggars belief that Weston or his company are the ones holding the short end of any stick. After all, the company reported a second-quarter profit $200 million higher this year than last, up to $358 million from $158 million.
LICO: Low Income Cut Off = Enough To Live On
LICO varies, but here in Waterloo Region where I live, LICO is around $18 per hour, which means that while $14 is a start, it is still too far too little.
I imagine this is one of Ms Wynne’s “re-elect me” carrots.
We all know if we replace her Liberals with Mr Brown’s Conservatives, there will be no $15 next year.
Do you know that in nearly 15 years of McGuinty-Wynne Liberal government, Ontarians are still worse off than we were before Mr Harris began chopping away at our social safety net? Since the 2008 recession, while big business and banks have resumed profitability, Ontario’s increase in jobs has been largely driven by an explosion precarious work.
In this year’s Ontario Election it is time to stop voting for the usual suspects.
Which is not to say I want an NDP majority government… far from it! Ontario needs minority government and Electoral Reform to #Proportional Representation if we’re going to turn this around. Which means anyone who wants to elect an NDP MPP needs to vote NDP; anyone who wants to elect a Green MPP needs to vote Green.
Since our winner-take-all system is stacked against us, we can increase our chances by:
volunteering in the party you like, or
volunteering for the Candidate you want, or
if there isn’t a candidate you like in your riding, maybe running yourself!
If you can’t manage to get directly involved, donating to the party/candidate you want
Vote for the candidate or party that will best represent you.
Possibly the single most important thing we can do to amplify our votes for real alternatives is to encourage everyone you know who doesn’t vote to get out and vote!
If you aren’t sure which riding you’re in, you can find your riding on this map. [Note: in Ontario at this point our federal and provincial ridings are aligned.]
The war on drugs is rooted in racist policies . The failure of the war and drugs is obvious. We need to find a better solution, because people of color should never be the victims of racist policies. White Americans are more likely than black Americans to have used most kinds of illegal drugs, including cocaine and LSD. Yet blacks are far more likely to go to prison for marijuana, which is not a hard drug. Moreover , even when white people get caught , they get less time in prison.
…is that Rachael Leigh Cook, the same actress who did the original anti-drug ad when she was a teenager?
“2015 will be the last election using First Past The Post.”
—Justin Trudeau, 2015
A Liberal friend assured me that, since the Liberals believe in evidence based policy, this *had* to mean we would end up with Proportional Representation.
And she was right: even though the ERRE Consultation was woefully underfunded and the lions share of the outreach was left up to ordinary Canadians DIY community dialogue and information sharing, even though the ERRE Committee recommended Proportional Representation… and then Prime Minister Trudeau pulled the plug.
More than 25,000 Canadians voted on Electoral Reform. Fewer than 1,000 voted on the Infrastructure Bank idea.
But Mr. Trudeau decided not to do Electoral Reform ~ in spite of the fact 26,129 Canadians were interested in it. Now we hear that Mr. Trudeau is going to push ahead on the Infrastructure Bank that only 997 Canadians even bothered to vote on!
They call it “the Red Chamber” but it sure seems like Canadians have been singing the Senate Blues for most of my life.
In the dying days of the Harper Government, the misadventures of Senator Mike Duffy proved to be a major embarrassment for the Canadian Government. By the time the dust settled, Duffy had resigned from the Conservative Caucus, the criminal charges against him were dropped, and Duffy, now an un-aligned independent, resumed his seat as Senator for PEI (even though he still doesn’t actually seem to live there). Then Prime Minister Stephen Harper was certainly mixed up in Mr. Duffy’s case, but was never properly investigated or held to account.
But Duffy’s case was just the tip of the iceberg. The Auditor General report identified thirty (THIRTY!) past and present Canadian senators or former senators as having “made inappropriate or ineligible expense claims.” In addition to being implicated in the expense scandal, 39 year old Senator Patrick Brazeau had a host of still unresolved other problems. About a year ago Press Progress shared an Angus Reid Opinion Poll that suggested only 6% of Canadians were happy with the Senate as is.
Real or Imagined?
Canada’s new Trudeau Government had ostentatiously promised, ahem, real change.
And yet, once again, there are Senators making news in ways that reflect very poorly on Canada’s Upper House.
It has become increasingly clear that a code of conduct that hopes miscreants will quietly resign in the face of exposure is simply not sufficient. Real change requires a framework that allows for summary suspensions of Senators (and MPs) accused of impropriety and/or lawbreaking, removing them from office if such charges proven. Our Westminster System of government was designed for a feudal society that allowed the nobility to get away with a great deal. But in a society that aspires to citizen equality there is no place for such abuses of power.
I speak partly for the record, but mostly in memory of the kindly and well-intentioned men and women and their descendants — perhaps some of us here in this chamber — whose remarkable works, good deeds and historical tales in the residential schools go unacknowledged for the most part and are overshadowed by negative reports. Obviously, the negative issues must be addressed, but it is unfortunate that they are sometimes magnified and considered more newsworthy than the abundance of good.
Even the United Church had some strong words for the Hon. Ms. Beyak:
“Indigenous peoples and organizations have responded to Senator Beyak’s comments. As one of the parties responsible for the operation of residential schools, The United Church of Canada also feels a responsibility to respond.
“Senator Beyak spoke of the “good intentions” behind the residential schools system. Thirty years ago, The United Church of Canada apologized to First Nations Peoples for our role in colonization and the destruction of their cultures and spiritualties. In the process of preparing, delivering, and attempting to live out that Apology, we have learned that “good intentions” are never enough, and that to offer such words in explanation is damaging and hurtful.
“The United Church of Canada participated in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission not just as part of a legal agreement but also as part of a moral and ethical commitment to understand the impact of our role in the residential schools system, to atone for it, and to participate in healing and building of a new relationship between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada.”
Not everyone is right for every job, and it’s pretty clear to everyone but Senator Beyak that she is not a good fit for the Senate of Canada. Again, there doesn’t seem to be any provision to remove her in spite of the growing outcry. The longer this goes on, the worse the Senate, and, indeed the Government of Canada looks.
Canadians need a government capable of governing itself with decorum and accountability.
As often happens in Canada’s unrepresentative democracy, there is a Petition:
Makaristos have been dedicated to the public domain. Click the images to find the originals on Wikimedia Commons.
