Hundreds braved persistent cool showers to celebrate International Workers' Day at the south-west corner of Toronto's City Hall Square on Sunday, April 30.Hosted by the Labour May Day Committee, a coalition of dozens of unions, leftist parties and international solidarity…
Read More May Day Rally shines on a rainy April 30 in Toronto
"Kill a worker, Go to Jail" is the chant that expresses the demand of the labour movement to hold accountable bosses who subject their employees to unsafe, even fatal working conditions. On average, three people per day die in a…
Now that Olivia Chow, former MP and City Councilor, is running for Toronto mayor, again, it is useful to recall her 2014 campaign. Chow's vague slogans and vacuous themes today, sadly, are reminiscent of her failed past effort. Fortunately, there…
Over 124,000 members of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) and around 35,000 Union of Taxation Employees are now in a legal strike position. Though some of them are designated "essential", PSAC says that over 100,000 staff could still…
by Barry Weisleder A bevy of bourgeois councilors and wannabees flocked to Toronto City Hall early on April 3 to register as candidates for the municipality's top job in a hastily called by-election. An exception to the Dishonor Roll of…
Read More MSA candidate for Toronto mayor speaks to mass media
Hundreds gathered in front of the Ontario Legislature on March 30 to protest the decision of the Ontario Conservative government to cut healthcare coverage for people without health insurance. Doctors, nurses, massage therapists and undocumented health care users and providers…
Read More Hundreds protest Ontario Tory Cut to Health Coverage
Trudeau’s Federal Government Budget 2023 is Unsatisfactory On March 28, Ottawa unveiled its federal budget with great pomp and circumstance. However, on close inspection, it is apparent that the budget’s proposed measures to alleviate economic pain are woefully inadequate. A…
Barry Weisleder The photos below show scenes of the pro-Palestine rally held on March 27 at the entrance to the Student Campus Centre of Toronto Metropolitan University (ex-Ryerson U). The occasion was a protest against the publicized appearance of a…
Read More Pro-Palestine Protest at TMN Displaces Zionist showcase
by Tom Baker, March 27, 2023 On March 24 over 100 students and community members rallied in support of five students from the McMaster Divestment Project (MacDivest) who are on a hunger strike against a duplicitous “green washing” university administration. …
Read More McMaster students begin 2nd week of hunger strike for a fossil free university
by Barry WeislederSA Canada is 26 years old. But SA didn’t suddenly arise. It did not spring from the head of Zeus. It emerged organically from concrete conditions. To understand those circumstances, some background is needed. This is the 103rd…
Read More The History and Practice of Socialist Action – Canada (2020)
Education workers at Carleton University are set to commence strike action on March 27 in an effort to reach a fair deal with the University. CUPE Local 4600 President Noreen Cauley-Le Fevre states that despite months of negotiations, the University…
Read More Carleton University Workers Strike against Poverty Wages and for Quality of Education
Discontent with the capitalist status quo is spreading rapidly. At the forefront are mobilizations in France against President Emanuel Macron's reform of the country's retirement law. Under Socialist Party President Francois Mitterrand and up to the 1990s the legal retirement age with full pension was 60 years. Since then, right wing governments have pushed it up to 62 years. Macron announced a move to raise it to 65 years, but backed down. He now proposes age 64. Mass action involving strikes and demonstrations, one day at a time, usually once or twice a week, have followed the parliamentary calendar. More militant sectors in the union movement have been calling for renewable strikes from one day to the next, towards a general strike.
By A. Ellis (MSA Shadow Councillor in Windsor-Essex). Published on the Municipal Socialist Alliance website on Jan. 24, 2023. On January 16, 2023, Windsor City Council supported a proposal from Capital Power to add two natural gas turbines to their…
Well folks, he’s done it again. Ontario Premier Doug Ford retrieved the major tool in his toolbox: privatization. This time, Ford brandishes privatization to hammer on the nail that is the province’s healthcare system. As reported by the CBC last week, “Ford and Health Minister Sylvia Jones are planning to make an announcement next week on expanding the number and range of surgeries performed in independent health facilities outside of hospitals.” Independent health facilities are generally for-profit clinics operated by the private owners.
As the city’s Budget Committee wrapped up for the year, hundreds of demonstrators, including Socialist Action Canada and members of the Municipal Socialist Alliance, rallied outside of Toronto City Hall, demanding that the Toronto city council divest from the Toronto police budget and invest in Toronto communities. Socialist Action member Sean Ihn spoke at the rally, representing Students Mobilizing Against Systemic Hardship at U of T (SMASH U of T)
Canada’s 100 highest-paid corporate executives made an average of $14.3 million in 2021, exceeding the previous record of $11.8 million set three years earlier. By January 3, the average CEO on that list made $58,800, the amount an average Canadian worker earns in an entire year, according to the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
Regarding “Scrap fighter-jet purchase plan” (Jan. 6): I have serious reservations about the Trudeau government’s decision to procure F-35 fighter jets at a life-cycle cost of over $70 billion. Despite previous Liberal government statements that the F-35’s “stealth first-strike capability” was not needed to defend Canada, Minister Anita Anand now asserts that the F-35 is needed to protect Canada and fulfil its obligations. In truth, funding these costly carbon-intensive war machines will drastically undermine our capacity for Indigenous reconciliation, adequate housing, accessible health care, education and urgent climate action.
On the first Monday of 2023, Jan. 9, the Toronto Police Services Board (TPSB) held a special meeting to discuss and vote upon a proposed $48.3 million CAD increase to the Toronto Police Services (TPS) operating budget in 2023, which represents a 4.3% increase over the bloated 2022 operating budget.
As opposition to it grows, it appears that the very legislation enacted by the Conservative government to limit the rights of unions is creating an unprecedented level of solidarity among them.
It is with a little delay that we return here to a mobilization of education staff at the beginning of November and publish the content of the interview granted to us by Julius Arscott, member of the executive committee of the union of employees of the Ontario Public Service.
