Tag Archives: Toronto politics

The case for a human rights response to homeless encampments

Haseena Manek and Leilani Farha

A pattern is emerging. For two years running, the month of January has triggered the forced eviction of homeless people living in encampments in Toronto. 

This was the fate of those living in the Rosedale ravine a few weeks ago. They were evacuated ostensibly to preserve the ecology of the area, though it’s just as likely that their removal had to do with pressure from neighbours. 

Similarly, almost exactly a year ago, homeless folks living under the Gardiner Expressway had their encampment torn down for fire safety reasons. A few weeks later, a cluster of transparent domes – infrastructure for a luxury pop-up dining concept dubbed Dinner With A View – appeared nearby in a twisted metaphor for gentrification, with a heavy dose of irony.  

What’s happening in Toronto is mirrored across the country, with tent cities dotting the Canadian landscape in Edmonton, Winnipeg, London, Peterborough, North Bay and Fredericton. Regardless of where they spring up, the experience is disturbingly similar – deplorable conditions and, eventually, eviction.

Read the full story in NOW Magazine.

Workers at Newcomer Women’s Services Toronto are fighting for decent pay

“The best thing about this whole process has been an awakening among the workers,” said Local 518 President Elizabeth Wickwire in an email to Rank and File. “It is from small moments like this that I think the broader movement for workers’ rights is built. So, when people talk about fighting ‘Doug Ford’ or other larger foes, I always think it begins here, in supporting the workers, even at an agency as small (but fierce) as ours.”

Read the full story at Rank and File.

When Hate Goes Public

Stand Up and Speak Out

“On the one hand, I am a librarian and, as such, I am professionally committed to freedom of speech and bringing forward a broad range of viewpoints in the library,” says Maureen O’Reilly, president of the Toronto Public Library Workers Union (Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 4948). “However, we are living in a time where the inclusion of that group in the library was, to me, problematic.”

She is speaking of the July 12 room-booking at Etobicoke’s Richview Branch by a neo-nazi group to hold a memorial for lawyer Barbara Kulaszka. Kulaszka, in her day, enthusiastically defended known white supremacists and self-described white nationalists and holocaust-deniers.

Read the full article on the http://ourtimes.ca/Talking/article_545.phpOur Times Magazine website.

Rise up! ‘Drawn to Change’ illustrates Canadian labour’s stories and struggles

Drawn to Change’ is both a moving historical account and an unabashed call to arms.

“Indeed, much of what we learn about history in school, at the movies or on the History channel revolved around the lives of individuals with the most money and power in society, such as monarchs, capitalists, and politicians. But workers’ lives matter too; without our labour, society would cease to function. We are important agents of social transformation, and our power is magnified when we work together.”

So begins the Graphic History Collective’s new collection Drawn to Change: Graphic Histories of Working Class Struggle.

Drawn to Change has over 20 contributors with nine comics portraying different moments in Canadian labour. From 19th-century Knights of Labour to the contemporary Live-in Caregiver Program, this collection of chronological graphic histories is a feat of visual expression and storytelling and an incredible resource for Canadian labour history.

Read the full review on rabble.ca.

Women of Labour and the Arts: Talking With the 2014 Min Sook Lee Award Winners

Winter 2015

People don’t understand,” says musician, singer/songwriter and community activist Faith Nolan. “They think labour is two old white guys hammering a nail who want more money and to work less. They don’t see that those two old white guys, along with white women and brown and black and yellow women and men, are doing this labour to have the right to a life. People have a disconnect in this sense.”

Read the full feature on the Our Times Magazine website.

Series: USW Local 9176 Strike at Crown Holdings

Robert DiPippo and Cheryl Dollimore, Local 9176 Members May 1, 2014

For May Day Specialized Programming on CHRY 105.5FM, I spoke with United Steelworkers Local 9176 members Robert DePippo and Cheryl Dollimore about the ongoing strike at Crown Holdings which had begun the previous September.

Steve McHugh, Local 9176 Member May 8, 2014

I spoke with Steve McHugh about his recent trip to Turkey to conduct solidarity work with other Crown Holdings employees.

Lawrence Hay, Staff Representative September 11, 2014

I caught up with Local 9176 Staff Representative Lawrence Hay about the now year-long strike at Crown Holdings.

Joe Drexler, Head of Strategic Campaigns January 6, 2015

I spoke with Joe Drexler about the launch of the Bottles Not Cans Campaign to raise awareness and gain solidarity for the ongoing strike, now over one year.

Do The Right Thing: Talking with Labour Educator Jojo Geronimo About a New Equity Guide

December 2014

On Saturday, September 6, the Toronto & York Region Labour Council hosted the 2014 Aboriginal Workers/Workers of Colour Conference (AWOC) in Scarborough, Ontario.

I attended the one-day conference, which included a keynote address by Hassan Yussuff, the first person of colour to be elected as president of the Canadian Labour Congress. Six workshops were held, including “Decent Jobs/Living Wages” and “Electing Champions to City Hall,” and a guide to equity was launched.

Called Moving Beyond Diversity, Towards Inclusion and Equity: A Leader’s Guide to Strengthen Unions, the 30-page guide, published by the labour council and written by labour activist and educator Jojo Geronimo, is meant to be a tool that any union can use to create a strong equity agenda as part of its organizational culture. I spoke with Geronimo about the origins, goals and future of the project.

Read the full feature on the Our Times Magazine website.

Toronto activists intensify campaign against SodaStream

On Sunday, August 31st, the Coalition Against Israeli Apartheid (CAIA) gathered to share information with members of the Toronto community about the current campaign to boycott SodaStream, a carbonated beverage company whose main production facility is in Ma’ale Adumim, an illegal Israeli settlement in the occupied Palestinian West Bank.

As part of the international campaign to Boycott SodaStream, CAIA launched a its own campaign in October of 2013 asking homewares company Bed Bath and Beyond to stop carrying SodaStream products.

Read the full article on Mondoweiss.

Immigration Watch Canada at York University

September 1, 2014

Anti-immigration flyers went up on York University’s Keele campus, leading to the formation of Racism Watch York, a collective of racialized students seeking sanctions from the University Administration against the organization responsible for the flyers. Featuring Ommé-Salma Rehemtullah. Headline produced for the September 1st, 2014 edition of GroundWire, the NCRA’s national community radio new program.