Search results for “site/human rights”

  • Democratic Media Reform in Canada

    Campaigns, coalitions aim to democratize media system Faced with a corporate-dominated mediascape and perceived editorial indifference or hostility, trade unions and other progressive Canadian organizations have responded pragmatically when they need to influence public opinion.  They have adopted media relations strategies, often run by specialized staff, to gain whatever space…

  • hotel workers on the picket line

    A paradox in COVID-19 pandemic recovery: Increased precarity of women hotel workers in British Columbia

    REPORT: While BC’s accommodations and food services sector (AFS) received over a billion dollars in government COVID-19 subsidies, women workers—predominantly racialized and immigrants—either lost their employment or had hours and income significantly reduced.

  • Neo-Con Economics and Canadian Well-Being

    Neoliberalism cause of the worst recession since the 1930s… “The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more  powerful than is  commonly  supposed. Indeed, the world is ruled by little else.”  –John Maynard Keynes *     *     * Ideas matter greatly…

  • October 2008: Horrendous Health and Environmental Toll

    Downstream from the tar sands, people are sick, dying There’s deformed pickerel in Lake Athabasca… Pushed-in faces, bulging eyes, humped back, crooked tails… never used to see that. Great big lumps on them… you poke that, it sprays water… A friend caught a jackfish recently with two lower jaws… He…

  • The Latin American Revolution (Part XII)

    Uruguay makes great social gains under left-wing government Uruguay, a small South American nation located between Argentina and Brazil, has been carrying forth the Latin American Revolution for the last eight years, with impressive social gains. Two left-wing governments, both of the Frente Amplio political party (Broad Front—FA), have been…

  • Manitoba Health Coalition on Budget 2022

    Premier Heather Stefanson began her tenure with a promise to listen to Manitobans. Her predecessor, Brian Pallister, had become identified with the chaos in Manitoba’s healthcare system and its often contradictory, and at times confrontational, pandemic messaging and policy. As premier, Pallister led these initiatives from the front. When he…

  • Resource Economics Project (BC)

    Communities impacted by resource development are fighting back: government should take notice

    Whether it’s mining, logging, dams or pipelines, the people living closest to resource industry developments typically face the highest health, economic and environmental risks. Such inequities will only deepen if liquefied natural gas plants materialize on BC’s coast. Sadly, the provincial government often behaves as though northern British Columbians are…

  • Moratorium Needed on Punishment Legislation

    More crowded and costly prisons wrong way to deter crime Prior to the 2006 federal election campaign, where the Conservatives, Liberals and New Democrats touted their “tough on crime” credentials in the shadow of the “summer of the gun,” prison systems across Canada were already facing significant challenges. In our…

  • April 2006: Americanizing the Restriction of Canadians’ Rights

    Security overtaking trade as driver of “deep integration” At the time the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and later the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) were negotiated, Canadians were told that they could enjoy the benefits of free trade with the United States without losing the benefits of sovereignty. Neither…

  • Proposed forest policy leaves First Nations bereft

    Ten years ago, the provincial government made the welcome decision to provide greater opportunities for First Nations to participate in and benefit from forestry operations in British Columbia. The result was a flurry of new resource and revenue sharing agreements between the government and numerous First Nations that underscored the…

  • November 2008: Dark Days

    How four Canadians were tortured in the “fight on terror” Dark Days: The Story of Four Canadians Tortured in the Name of Fighting Terror, by Kerry Pither, Viking Canada, 460 pages, hard cover, $35.00. * * * Much has been written about four Muslim Canadians who were falsely accused of…

  • Temporary foreign workers need more rights, not better enforcement of flawed policy

    On June 20, Minister of Employment and Social Development Jason Kenney announced a raft of changes to the federal Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP), including a moratorium (now lifted) on the hiring of temporary foreign workers (TFWs) in the food services sector. The TFWP program has attracted controversy since at…