A Child’s View of Gaza

Posted on April 15, 2012 by

A Child’s View from Gaza is a travelling exhibition of art by Palestinian children, age seven to 14 years. The pictures were created during art therapy classes for children and youth suffering from trauma, depression and stress disorders resulting from Operation Cast Lead, Israel’s 2008-09 military assault of Gaza.

Pictures show brave but small children defending their lives and and their communities from soldiers, tanks, bullets and white phosphorous bombs. The art was often drawn and painted in the dark, because of limited electricity and frequent power outages. The names and ages of the artists are unknown, as Israel’s siege made it difficult to even get the art out of Gaza.

There have also been challenges in presenting the art to North American audiences. The Museum of Children’s Art in Oakland cancelled the exhibition in response to pressure from pro-Israel organizations in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Because of Israel’s blockade, it was also difficult to get paper to the children. School and art supplies are not considered essential to life and are frequently blocked by Israel from entering Gaza, said local organizer and Canpalnet-Winnipeg member Erin Bockstael.

The Winnipeg exhibition runs to Thursday, April 19 at the Atomic Centre, 167 Logan Avenue. Exhibition hours are Tuesday (noon – 2pm), Wednesday (10 am – 2 pm) and Thursday (4 – 8 pm). The exhibition is organized by the Canada-Palestine Support Network with support from Independent Jewish Voices Winnipeg, Peace Alliance Winnipeg and the Winnipeg Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid.

 

 

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Bon Appetit: Budget 2012 (Part 2)

Posted on April 11, 2012 by

On March 29, the federal government tabled its 2012 budget. The changes are substantial, including a two-year increase in the retirement age, a five per cent cut to the federal public services and new limits to environmental assessments of major resource extraction projects. In this series, Mud and Water analyzes different aspects of the federal budget.

Part 2: Food Safety and Labelling

The 2012 federal budget cuts over $5 billion from programs and services that Canadians depend on. According to the budget, more than 19,000 jobs will be eliminated. But if previous rounds of cuts are included, as many as 35,000 jobs will be cut by 2015.

Stephen Harper pretends the cuts are all fat, and that no reductions in services will result. Back office efficiencies and reduced red tape are the lines being parroted by the corporate media.

The image of civil servants lounging in back offices, undisciplined by the forces of the market and providing only for their own perquisites and privileges, has a popular appeal. But this does not correspond to reality. The health and safety of Canadians depends on civil servants having the resources to do their jobs well. This is probably no truer than in the case of food regulation. And yet it is here that Budget 2012 makes some of its deepest and least thought out cuts.

Cuts to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency in this year’s budget total $56 million. This is on top of a further $42 million in cuts between 2007 and 2010. This has resulted in a 13% reduction in service. It is important to keep in mind that, in 2008, 22 people died from listeriosis contamination. The Weatherill report found that oversight was lacking at the Maple Leaf plant and other food processors. Even so, the government’s response has been to cut back food inspection even further. The 2012 Budget proposes an additional loss of 651 positions from the CFIA. To protect Canadians, the government should inspect the fat before cutting it.

Beyond the cuts, this government has once again shown it is ideologically driven to cut government involvement in society as far as possible. Under the heading, “Making It Easier for Canadians and Businesses to Deal With Their Government” the budget proposes a series of ill-defined and poorly thought out changes to how food labelling is regulated.

Of particular concern is the creation of a “web-based verification tool.” Instead of having government employees inspect food products, Canadians will be asked to inspect them themselves. Consumers will be encouraged “to bring validated concerns directly to companies and associations for resolution.”

Food regulation is one of the oldest and most central responsibilities of government. With this government, there is no responsibility too big that it cannot sidestep and leave the market to regulate itself. Bon appetit.

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Jim Flaherty’s 2012 Budget: Substantial, Irresponsible and Unnecessary (Part 1)

Posted on March 31, 2012 by

On March 29, the federal government tabled its 2012 budget. The changes are substantial, including a two-year increase in the retirement age, a five per cent cut to the federal public services and new limits to environmental assessments of major resource extraction projects. In this series, Mud and Water analyzes different aspects of the federal budget.

Part 1: Austerity for Low-income Seniors

 “The eleven-year advance notification and the subsequent six-year phase-in period will allow those affected by these changes ample time to make adjustments to their retirement plans. ” Budget 2012

In this budget, the federal government confirmed that there will be changes to Old Age Security (OAS) that many Canadians feared. The eligibility age will be increased from 65 to 67 years and will affect all Canadians born after 1958. The Conservative government says that the changes are necessary because Canadians are living longer and healthier lives. But, as the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives points out, low income seniors have not shared the average increase in life expectancy of other Canadians. These are the seniors who will be most affected by the change. Statistics Canada reports that the ten per cent of Canadians with the lowest incomes can expect to live almost 10 years less than the the richest ten per cent of Canadians.

Many of the mainstream media reports on OAS ignore the Guaranteed Income Supplement and instead only focus on middle- and higher-income seniors who will lose $6,481 per year for two years. However, this ignores the additional $8,788 received through the Guaranteed Income Supplement. Thus, low-income seniors will have to save an additional $30,538 to compensate for the two-year loss in federal income support.

Many individuals have limited opportunities to save while working, because of the arithmetic reality of the difference between low wages and the cost of living in Canada. The notification period is irrelevant. For those most in need, a $30,538 adjustment is impossible.

Working an additional two years may also be impossible for many low-wage workers, especially those in occupations that are more physically demanding or more likely to result in occupational injury or illness. Lower-wage workers, including labourers, care givers and performers, may also be more likely to be employed as contractors, rather than employees, without access to the Canadian Pension Plan or any private pension benefits. These workers may compromise their health and safety by working two more years. Their only other option is provincial welfare benefits.

The Conservative government doesn’t understand the reality faced by many working Canadians. For many, there are no savings or private pensions and no feasible employment opportunities between age 65 and 67 years. Even those who are able to continue working may be forced into early retirement, through layoffs and redundancies, especially in the manufacturing sector. For many older workers, it’s not easy to find a new job as some employers may prefer to hire younger workers. The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives reports that the likely result of this change will be a doubling of seniors living in poverty in this group from 50,000 to 120,000. The Conservative solution, pooled private pension plans, are not accessible to most Canadians.

Reducing the leisure time of older adults creates a deteriorating quality of life in Canada. Despite its rhetoric about sustainable programs, the Conservative government knows it had a choice.

In his budget speech, Flaherty bragged “Our government reduced personal income taxes and cut the GST. We allowed seniors to split their pension. At the same time, we reduced taxes on the businesses that create jobs for Canadians. Canada now has the lowest overall tax rate on new business investment among major advanced economies.”

Even the federal government’s research shows that OAS expenditures are expected to rise from 2.4 per cent to only 3.1 per cent of GDP by 2030. If Canada can afford to cut income, consumption and business taxes, it can afford to provide income support for all low-income seniors.

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Re-nationalize Air Canada

Posted on March 23, 2012 by

It’s been a bad week for Air Canada. Workers in Toronto and Montreal held wildcat strikes, resulting in numerous flight delays and cancellations. Unions representing Air Canada employees launched a constitutional challenge against recent back-to-work legislation that forces workers to accept contracts imposed by arbitration. The company’s maintenance provider, Aveos, declared bankruptcy. Air Canada employees are increasingly frustrated by the continued sabotage of labour negotiations, and especially with Labour Minister Lisa Raitt, and Canadian travellers are increasingly frustrated with Air Canada.

The Conservative government and Canadian corporate media like to blame Air Canada’s problems on its unionized work force, and they frequently propose more competition as the panacea. In doing so, they ignore the economic reality that air travel is not a competitive industry. There are high barriers for companies to enter the industry, including costly purchase and maintenance of aircraft fleets. Lower-cost pricing on more popular, profitable routes can be used to eliminate competitors to expand market power by the dominant firm. The federal Competition Bureau has reported that competition in the Canadian domestic market is weak and that Air Canada is overwhelmingly dominant on many routes. On most domestic routes, there are, at most, two options. On most international routes, especially with the creation of international airline alliances, there are only a handful of providers. Further deregulation, to allow more foreign-owned airlines on domestic routes, is not a solution.

Air Canada was created as a public-owned monopoly in 1936. Until the 1980s, the federal government actively supported Air Canada’s monopoly power with regulations that limited the routes and capacities of private airlines. The more profitable routes – Toronto-Montreal, Calgary-Vancouver – were used to subsidize flights to more remote and Northern communities, flights that weren’t provided by private airlines. In 1988, following a decade of industry deregulation, Air Canada was privatized, purportedly to increase competition. The company eventually took over its largest competitor, Canadian Airlines. Since 1988, Air Canada has had repeated episodes of corporate bankruptcy and near-bankruptcy, and its employees have seen wage cuts, loss of benefits, deteriorating working conditions and an erosion in the financial stability of their pension plan.

Privatization has not fostered competition in the Canadian airline industry. Cost cutting by Air Canada has reduced the quality of service at the expense of workers and passengers, but any savings have been countered by high executive payouts. In an industry that naturally tends towards monopoly or near-monopoly, private ownership generally results in surplus profits going to owners or executives, with no public or employee benefits. This is what has happened at Air Canada since 1988.

Industry Canada has appointed former Liberal/Conservative cabinet minister and forestry executive David Emerson to review Canada’s aerospace industry, with a report expected later this year. It’s unlikely that Emerson will promote public ownership, even though the federal government continues to subsidize the aerospace industry, with the benefits now going to private rather than public owners. For the Conservatives and the corporate elite, ideology trumps good public policy.

Federal opposition members and provincial governments, including Manitoba and Québec, have spoken out against the job losses in the aerospace industry with the recent closure of Aveos. But no opposition party or government is talking about the need to re-nationalize Air Canada, at least not yet. We hope they will.

Government owned airlines were once the norm for the industry. Even after three decades of neo-liberalism, approximately 130 airlines around the world are government owned including Aeroflot, Finnair and Air Egypt. The barriers that encouraged governments to intervene to create a global airline industry in the 20th century – high cost of market entry, low competition and essential services to unprofitable markets – are still prevalent in this country. A publicly-owned national airline makes political and economic sense for Canada.

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Tories’ reformed environmental assessments would see, hear and speak no evil

Posted on March 22, 2012 by

ImageA group of environmental activists greeted federal Natural Resources Minister, Joe Oliver, as he spoke in Winnipeg today. Three activists dressed as the proverbial three wise monkeys trained to see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil. A forth activist, dressed as Joe Oliver, led the other three by a leash. Activists were joined by a small group of supporters outside the Delta Winnipeg Hotel on St Mary Avenue.

Oliver was in Winnipeg to promote his vision for reforming environmental assessments while speaking at a luncheon put on by the right-wing think tank, the Frontier Centre for Public Policy. The talk marked the third day of a Western Canada tour promoting a new vision for environmental assessments. At his speech in Vancouver on Monday, Oliver raised ire among First Nations groups by calling them “dysfunctional.” “It goes beyond paternalism – there’s definitely a colour of racism in a lot of his remarks towards Indigenous or Aboriginal or First Nations people,” Grand Chief Stewart Phillip told The Vancouver Observer.

Since 2009, the Conservative government has introduced several measures to undermine environmental assessments including the removal of thousands of projects from review under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act. Now, with the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline hearings underway, the federal government is seeking further regulatory reform to ensure that this project is approved, ignoring whatever risks it poses to the environment, local economies and communities.

Even a cursory assessment of the risks of the Northern Gateway Pipeline would show that it is dangerous, unsustainable and not in the interest of Canadians. The plan is to ship half a million barrels of bitumen every day in massive supertankers through some of the most difficult to navigate straights on the planet. This project could only be approved if the assessment process is made blind, deaf and mute, Unfortunately, that seems to be the goal of this government.

Backgrounder on Environmental Assessments: A Checklist for Strong Environmental Laws

Mud and Water Radio:
February 20, 2012

John Sinclair, of the Natural Resources Institute at the University of Manitoba, talks about federal attacks to the environmental assessment process under Stephen Harper’s Conservative government.
Download

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Conservative double standard: Air travel as essential service

Posted on March 21, 2012 by

This week, 2,600 aerospace workers across Canada were laid off without notice. On Sunday, March 18, 2012, Aveos posted notices at its work sites in Montreal, Winnipeg and Vancouver, telling workers not to return. Many of the workers were recent Air Canada employees.

Until 2007, Aveos was Air Canada Technical Services, the in-house maintenance unit of Air Canada. Over the next five years, mechanics and other workers had to transfer from Air Canada to Aveos or lose their jobs. According to the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, this week’s layoffs are a direct violation of the Air Canada Public Participation Act, under which Aveos was to be exclusive provider of heavy maintenance services. The union has been warning that Air Canada would transfer its maintenance work to lower-wage countries when its contract with Aveos expires. Unfortunately for workers, the layoffs came even sooner than expected.

Air Canada and Aveos are blaming each other for the layoffs. Aveos says that Air Canada has not provided enough work and has been requesting lower-cost bids from other companies that perform maintenance work. Air Canada says that Aveos has refused its offer for $15 million in stabilization financing. Air Canada has been quick to dissociate from its former maintenance division, saying that Aveos is a separate entity and that its workforce is independent and covered by a separate collective agreement. However, Air Canada is a part owner of Aveos and almost all of Aveo’s revenue comes from Air Canada contracts. Although technically true, it’s disingenuous for Air Canada to call the laid-off workers Aveos employees. Many were employed by Air Canada just months, or even weeks, ago.

The federal government has been silent on the jobs losses and the economic impact. The Conservatives also seem unconcerned about possible flight cancellations due to delays in the maintenance work previously done by Aveos, even though this government has had no problem interfering in private labour negotiations to prevent flight disruptions, most recently during the busy spring break season.

In mid-March, the Conservative government passed legislation to send Air Canada’s labour disputes to binding arbitration, sabotaging the collective bargaining process. Labour Minister Lisa Raitt said that Canada’s economic recovery is dependent on air travel and therefore on Air Canada, because of its significant share of the domestic market. She said that the economy should be considered an essential service, as an excuse for interfering with labour negotiations between Air Canada and its unions. Under Canadian labour laws, essential services are those necessary to life, health and safety, not to economic activity.

Spring break flights are not generally essential for either Canadians or the Canadian economy, not least because many Canadians travelling at this time of year are leaving the country. But, economic impact isn’t the real point. The economy is a red herring to help Air Canada in its negotiations and prevent the unions from bargaining in good faith. This also happened in 2011, when the federal government interfered in Air Canada’s negotiations with flight attendants by threatening back-to work legislation.

The bad faith of the Conservative government’s declaration of air travel as an essential service is epitomized by the government’s lack of intervention thus far in the case of Aveos. It seems the only thing Riatt views as essential are corporate profits.

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Canadians protest electoral fraud

Posted on March 12, 2012 by

On Sunday March 11, protests were held in dozens of cities across Canada to protest against fraud in the May 2011 federal election. In Winnipeg, more than two hundred people came to the rally and march.

In at least 57 ridings across Canada, there have been allegations of illegal voter suppression tactics including the use of  robo-calls impersonating Elections Canada to direct voters to the wrong polling stations, and harassing phone calls impersonating opposition parties. Since these allegations were first reported in the media, there have been 31,000 reports from individual voters to Elections Canada on election violations.

The Winnipeg rally was one of the largest demonstrations held across the country yesterday. Citizens heard speeches from Winnipeg North MP Kevin Lamoureux and former MP and recent mayoral candidate, Judy Wasylycia-Leis. Then, they marched down Osborne and Corydon streets to the constituency office of Winnipeg South Centre MP Joyce Bateman. Her riding was one of the 57 across Canada where voter suppression is alleged to have occurred in the last election.

The Toronto Star has recently reported that the robo-calls directing Canadians to the wrong polling stations may have mostly targeted older voters. In addition, the Liberal party is asking Elections Canada to investigate how thousands of unregistered voters where allowed to vote without providing proper documentation or information in the previously-Liberal riding of Eglinton-Lawrence. Conservative natural resources minister Joe Oliver won the riding.

At the Winnipeg demonstration, more than 150 signatures were collected to deliver to the House of Commons, asking for a full investigation into the election fraud scandal and by-elections in ridings where electoral fraud may have occurred.

Paul S. Graham has provided a video report of the protest, including all speeches.

 

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