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By Richard Fidler, on May 7, 2013, at 12:36 pm I had to balance my agenda this past weekend (May 3-5) between two events: the congress of the Canadian Association for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, held here in Ottawa; and the Ninth Congress of Québec Solidaire, held at the University of Quebec in Montréal (UQAM).
The following are some notes on the latter event, which I was able to attend on the final day, Sunday, when some important decisions were made by the more than 600 delegates. This was the largest congress to date for this party, founded in 2006, which doubled its membership to 14,000 during (Read more…)
By Richard Fidler, on May 7, 2013, at 12:36 pm I had to balance my agenda this past weekend (May 3-5) between two events: the congress of the Canadian Association for Latin American and Caribbean Studies, held here in Ottawa; and the Ninth Congress of Québec Solidaire, held at the University of Quebec in Montréal (UQAM).
The following are some notes on the latter event, which I was able to attend on the final day, Sunday, when some important decisions were made by the more than 600 delegates. This was the largest congress to date for this party, founded in 2006, which doubled its membership to 14,000 during (Read more…)
By Obert Madondo, on May 2, 2013, at 12:35 pm By: Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive: The Montreal Police violated the rights of protesters during the 2012 student protests, says a new 47-page report based on 384 witness accounts. The report, called ”Testimonies of the Student Strike: Repression And Discrimination,” was compiled by ASSÉ, Quebec’s largest student federation, in association with the Quebec Human Rights [...]
The post Montreal Police Violated Protesters’ Rights During Student Protests, Says Report appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.
By The Mound of Sound, on April 25, 2013, at 2:22 pm Quebec’s federal and provincial Liberals appear to be enjoying something of a renaissance. The Toronto Star’s Chantal Hebert figures the Trudeau Libs now give Mulcair’s New Dems’ Quebec-centric power base a serious challenge.
In an ever-expanding forest of positive polls for the Liberals, the latest CROP snapshot of Quebec public opinion stands out but not necessarily for the usual Justin Trudeau-related reasons.
…the poll suggests that Quebec is undergoing a Liberal revival, with both the federal and provincial parties in first place in voting intentions at 38 per cent.
Trudeau and Couillard are associated with a better-established brand than (Read more…)
By Obert Madondo, on April 16, 2013, at 4:13 pm By: Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive: Dayleen Van Ryswyk, the BC NDP candidate for Kelowna-Mission, has resigned after the racist comments she made online against Canada’s First Nations surfaced earlier today. She also denigrated French Canadians. Called them bigots. This sad episode will not slow down the New Democrats‘ march to a [...]
The post BC NDP candidate resigns over racist comments against First Nations appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.
By Farid Rener, on April 15, 2013, at 12:48 pm Something happened last spring: a whole generation of Montrealers was mobilized, politicized, made aware that they had a voice. Finally opening their windows onto spring mornings as the snow melted into the grass, people converged outside, en masse, where the air was filled with promise. They filled their lungs with it, it entered through their pores, informing their every motion, their every thought.
Despite their demands falling on deaf ears, and the repression doled out by the police, they still held their heads high, knowing that they were fighting the good fight, knowing that no matter how hard the government (Read more…)
By Obert Madondo, on April 13, 2013, at 11:56 pm By: Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive: 5-05-13 Resolution on Idle No More, submitted by the Aboriginal Peoples Commission. WHEREAS years of inaction and broken promises from successive liberal and conservative government has led to severe social injustice and shocking poverty in too many communities WHEREAS as a consequence we are witnessing an historic and [...]
The post NDP Convention 2013: Resolution on Idle No More, Aboriginal Peoples appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.
By Obert Madondo, on April 13, 2013, at 11:27 pm By: Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive: 5-02-13 Resolution on Electoral Reform, submitted by Craig Scott, the MP for Toronto-Danforth. WHEREAS the current federal electoral system contains major shortcomings generating a significant democratic deficit; WHEREAS the decline in voter turnout in federal elections in the last twenty years in Canada is worrying; WHEREAS any electoral reform [...]
The post NDP Convention 2013: Resolution on Electoral Reform appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.
By Obert Madondo, on April 12, 2013, at 4:32 pm By: Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive: Oh, crap! The looming NDP-Liberal battle to replace Stephen Harper and the Conservatives in 2015 is only a family feud. Soon-to-be Liberal leader, Justin Trudeau and Thomas Mulcair, the leader of the New Democrats, are distant cousins, according to Ancestry.ca. Their connection goes back 400 years to [...]
The post Justin Trudeau and Thomas Mulcair are distant cousins appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.
By Greg Fingas, on April 10, 2013, at 9:51 am Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.
- Lana Payne offers an introduction to austerity for Newfoundland and Labrador residents who are just learning about it on a provincial level: In Canada, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has also taken a rather deep liking to austerity.
It is a ready-made excuse to gut government and change the positive role it should play in our lives, in building a better society, in sharing economic wealth and mitigating the inequality gap.
It is another excuse to trash government as a catalyst to build opportunities for all citizens; another excuse to turn Canada into a
. . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
By Obert Madondo, on April 8, 2013, at 9:33 am Rules “a consequence of weakened federal environmental laws under Bill C-38″ By: Greenpeace Canada & Environmental Defence | Press Release: TORONTO, ON, Apr 5, 2013 – New undemocratic rules are creating a barrier to public participation in upcoming National Energy Board (NEB) hearings into the proposal for Enbridge’s Line 9 oil pipeline. [...]
The post New undemocratic rules barrier to public participation in Enbridge’s Line 9 pipeline hearings appeared first on The Canadian Progressive | News & Analysis.
By Greg Fingas, on April 6, 2013, at 7:48 pm In advance of next weekend’s Montreal convention, the NDP has released the resolutions (PDF) to be voted on by delegates. And for all the distraction created by a non-binding constitutional preamble, the more interesting point to watch will be the treatment of substantive policy resolutions which look to confirm the NDP’s position as Canada’s true progressive party.
For those who want to see concerted action against tax havens and unbridled financial speculation (including a Robin Hood tax), an increased focus on social and community ownership and employment rather than capital interests, and a move away from corporate self-regulation, the
. . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: On topics of discussion
By Joe Fantauzzi, on April 5, 2013, at 9:36 am By Joe Fantauzzi @jjfantauzzi The electoral fortunes of the Liberal Party of Canada, once routinely referred to as Canada’s “Natural Governing Party”[1] have been in precipitous decline for nearly a decade. Currently the third party in the House of Commons, until relatively recently the Liberals held significant federal majority governments and guided Canada for 13 years until ultimately losing power to the Conservative Party of Canada in the 2006 general election. Among the factors that contributed to the Liberals’ implosion was the uniting of the conservative movement, which until 2003 had been divided between two parties. (Read more…) . . . → Read More: Illuminated By Street Lamps: ANALYSIS: The Slow Decline of The Liberal Party of Canada
By Obert Madondo, on April 3, 2013, at 11:46 pm By: Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive: Last Friday’s ExxonMobil Pegasus pipeline disaster in Mayflower, Arkansas, should warn Canadians against Enbridge’s proposed Line 9 project, says Environmental Defence. The Pegasus pipeline raptured and spilled more than 318,000 litres of tar sands oil into a local neighborhood and near a lake. Local residents had to be [...]
The post Exxon’s tar sands oil spill shows risks of Enbridge’s Line 9 project for Ontario and Quebec appeared first on The Canadian Progressive | News & Analysis.
By Nick Falvo, on April 1, 2013, at 8:46 am For the 15th consecutive year, the Progressive Economics Forum (PEF) is sponsoring its own events at the Annual Conference of the Canadian Economics Association (CEA). This year’s Annual Conference of the CEA is taking place at HEC Montréal.
PEF events will take place in the May 31 – June 2 period. All information pertaining to PEF events can be found here.
By Richard Fidler, on March 19, 2013, at 2:54 pm Paul Rose, Quebec sovereigntist and socialist, died March 14 in Montréal, following a stroke. He was 69.
Notorious for his participation in the 1970 kidnapping and death of a Quebec cabinet minister, for which he spent 13 years in prison, Rose went on to become a trade union activist, the leader of the Parti pour la démocratie socialiste (PDS) — formerly the Quebec wing of the New Democratic Party — and most recently a founder of the Union des forces progressistes (UFP), which became today’s Québec solidaire.
Paul Rose was part of a generation of Québécois who radicalized in the (Read more…) of the Cuban revolution, African colonial liberation, the Vietnam war and the Afro-American upsurge, and who sought to apply the lessons of these liberation struggles to the reality of Quebec’s national oppression. But Paul Rose was most remarkable because in later years — in contrast to many of . . . → Read More: Canadian Dimension Feed: Paul Rose’s tortuous path in search of Quebec liberation
By Obert Madondo, on March 14, 2013, at 5:13 pm By: Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive: The Algonquins of Barriere Lake are affirming their opposition to Copper One’s Rivière Doré Project “and all claim staking and mineral exploration” in their unceded territory. The following press release via Barriere Lake Solidarity: (Rapid Lake, Quebec) Today, the Algonquins of Barriere Lake are re-affirming their [...]
By cityprole, on March 10, 2013, at 11:54 am B.C. premier’s office mobbed over child-care costs CBC News Posted: Mar 9, 2013 4:49 PM PT
Lots of people complain that those who cannot afford childcare should simply stay home, or conversely, have no children until they can afford them (the 12th of never for many.) Let’s be honest and creative here (and, full disclosure, I have no children) and take the money, with which we already subsidize the rich parent and pay into private schools, and transfer it to a subsidy for daycare, based on a sliding scale of ability to pay, just like our medical plan
. . . → Read More: Left Over: Subsidizing Reality in BC
By ihurlyi, on March 7, 2013, at 5:17 pm I decided to stop by Riviere-du-Loup – a small city south of the St. Lawrence River in Quebec City. The last time I was here, I was hitch hiking back from, I think, Moncton. I wanted to go to Quebec City but I got stranded here so I stayed overnight at a couchsurfer’s place. I didn’t really do much that time coz I arrived late at night and I was kind of in a rush to get to Quebec City the next day. But my hosts then were a couple from France and they were studying in RDL. They were
. . . → Read More: Thumbs Up Canada: Riviere-du-Loup
By Orangutan, on March 6, 2013, at 7:05 pm (video - 5 mars 2013, Montréal. Ostie d’grosse manif de soir contre la hausse éternelle from Mario Jean on Vimeo.)
Tuesday, March 5, 2013, marked the rebirth of Montreal nocturnal protests against the commodification of university education. Below are a few of the sensationalist headlines (linked) that appeared in some of the city’s mainstream news outlets the next day. These headlines demonize the protesters as violent criminals and sadly continue a shabby tradition of “news” coverage from last year’s Maple Spring.
English-language MediaFree tuition protest ends with smashed windows, arrests (CTV Montreal)62 detained as protests resume (The
. . . → Read More: From Orangutan: Mainstream headlines demonize Quebec student protesters (again!)
By EclecticLip, on February 19, 2013, at 3:11 pm My column on plug-in car sales in Canada for January 2013, is now up at GreenCarReports. Since it’s hard to write ~600 words about sales statistics in the very small Canadian market, I discuss how Quebec — not B.C.! — is the leading province for plug-in vehicle adoption, and reasons why this might be the case. You can think of me as being “unpaid by the word”.
For Canada as a whole, the Chevy Volt retained a narrow lead, with the Nissan LEAF and Toyota Prius plug-in a close second and third — among reporting
. . . → Read More: Eclectic Lip: Plug-in electric car sales in Canada, January 2013 (via GreenCarReports)
By Richard Fidler, on February 19, 2013, at 12:17 am Following a meeting with Quebec premier Pauline Marois, the ASSÉ, the militant wing of the Quebec student movement, announced February 13 that it will boycott the Summit on post-secondary education that the Parti québécois government is holding later this month. The premier and her Minister of Higher Education Pierre Duchesne were clear that they rejected any proposal that university tuition fees be abolished and would continue to favour indexing fee increases to consumer prices.
“We will defend the option of free tuition and we will try to block indexation in the streets,” ASSÉ co-spokesperson Jérémie Bédard-Wien told a news conference.
. . . → Read More: Canadian Dimension Feed: ‘Quebec education summit – a public relations operation’
By Guest Blog, on February 10, 2013, at 2:11 pm During the Quebec student protests against the tuition hikes, members of the press came under attack by the SPVM (Montreal Police). This video aims to raise the issue of press freedom in face of suppressive and brutal tactics by the SPVM to deny access of coverage to members of the media. The Canadian Progressive recommends: READ MORE
By Obert Madondo, on February 8, 2013, at 1:24 pm If Brazeau stays on as an independent Senator, he’ll cost Canadian taxpayers at lease $7-million by the time he retires approximately 37 years from today. By Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive, Feb. 8, 2013: Conservative Sen. Patrick Brazeau’s charges of assault and sexual assault offer Prime Minister Stephen Harper the opportunity to do the right thing concerning his much-touted READ MORE
By Guest Blog, on February 7, 2013, at 10:31 am Transatlantic Statement Opposing Excessive Corporate Rights (Investor-State Dispute Settlement) in the EU-Canada Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) By Trade Justice Network | Feb. 5, 2013: BRUSSELS, BELGIUM and OTTAWA, ONTARIO and MONTREAL, QUEBEC – Labour, environmental, Indigenous, women’s, academic, health sector and fair trade organizations from Europe, Canada and Quebec representing more than 65 million READ MORE
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The Canadian Progressive: BC NDP candidate resigns over racist comments against First Nations
By: Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive: Dayleen Van Ryswyk, the BC NDP candidate for Kelowna-Mission, has resigned after the racist comments she made online against Canada’s First Nations surfaced earlier today. She also denigrated French Canadians. Called them bigots. This sad episode will not slow down the New Democrats‘ march to a [...]
The post BC NDP candidate resigns over racist comments against First Nations appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.