Any one else see a trend here?

As with any budget there are winners and losers, with the true test of a budget at least in my mind being the determination of who wins and who loses. As the days pass and people have had time to scour the latest Conservative government budget a picture of who loses this time around has emerged and surprise surprise it is civil society, access to data and information plus the most vulnerable among us.

With election fraud,F-35's and cuts to the CBC using up most of the oxygen many of the smaller yet just as important cuts in the budget are gaining little notice, no doubt much to the Harper regimes delight. Lets take a look at three of those "minor" cuts that I feel will highlight just what this government is trying to accomplish.


The National Aboriginal Health Organization’s (NAHO) funding has been cut by Health Canada. NAHO which provides research and has formed partnerships with many in the healthcare sector provides vital information on the healthcare needs of people who are often under served by our healthcare system. Their website alone saw 640,000 publications downloaded by those seeking the latest information regarding the health needs of Aboriginals with another 250,000 sent out via snail mail last year alone


Plug pulled on public Internet access program ( CAP ) Started in 1995 this program was set up to ensure that those unable to afford internet access could at least access the net through terminals placed in public spaces such as libraries and community centres. The Harperites as usual play loose with the truth in their attempts to justify this cut. saying that since 79% of us now enjoy some type of access there is no longer a need for CAP to continue. Putting aside the fact that this ignores the 21% that do not have access, according to Eric Stackhouse, Nova Scotia CAP administration chair there is still very much a need for CAP to continue "All of our usage numbers are the same as they always were or increasing," Plus lets not forget that this government is actively forcing us to access more of it's programs online thus denying this population access to much needed programs.


Scrapping welfare council is a cheap shot by a government that doesn’t care about the poor Around since 1969 the National Council of Welfare has been an invaluable ally in the fight against poverty, perhaps too invaluable for it's own good given Harper's desire to strip us of the information we need to fight back against his ruinous policies. The government didn't even have the decency to announce its death,as former Director Steve Kerstetter pointed out in his article. "The budget papers included a table in one of the appendices that showed a cut of $1.1 million a year in the council’s budget beginning next year. What the papers didn’t bother to say was that $1.1 million is the council’s entire budget."  Check out this  table, 
A Snapshot of Racialized Poverty in Canada to get a sense of the type of research the council provides Canadians and why Harper is so bent on silencing them.

Any one else see a trend here?. Each of these organizations served marginalized communities and helped keep Canadians informed, leaving no doubt if there was ever one as to to what the Harperites agenda  truly is.

The Job: A Ticket to Poverty

Said the office worker to the poor person "Get a job you bum" I have three replied the poor person How many do you have?

Increasingly these days a job is anything but a ticket out of poverty, that is true right across the country but ever more so in Toronto. During the boom years from 2000 to 2005 the number of working people in Toronto who couldn't make ends meet grew by 42%, some six years on and a never ending recession later those numbers have likely skyrocketed. It is interesting to note given the Transit City debate that those rates grew fastest in the areas less served by transit.

The latest Statistics Canada’s Labour Force Survey shows that even these starvation level jobs are becoming scarcer while Toronto's unemployment rate increased by a 1/3 of a point the labour force dropped by 25%, showing that people are giving up in their search for a job any job. Worse yet as the CIBC report on job quality showed the few jobs that are being created are of declining quality.

Food Banks Canada surveys their members each year and publishes the results on food bank usage in a report titled Hunger Count,  the 2011 survey shows that 18% of people accessing food banks in Canada have jobs. The fact that more than 850,000 people a month used food banks in 2011 certainly highlights the breadth of the problem. But even those numbers mask the true scope of the issue, How many more have moved in with relatives or friends,how many are too proud to seek assistance and even more troublesome how many are homeless in the traditional sense,in other words, living on the streets.

“People who live beneath the poverty line are not, to use an unpleasant quote, sitting on a couch drinking beer and eating popcorn. They are, in fact, working,” Senator Hugh Segal

 The costs associated with poverty in general both economically and socially are enormous. Like it or not we live in a consumer driven economy and poor people are poor consumers. Those forced to live in poverty also tend to be less healthy due to increased levels of stress ( Try having to worry whether you can pay the rent or feed your kids every waking hour of every day and you would be sick as well) and the lack of access to an affordable healthy diet. Children who go to school hungry tend to under perform leading to increased costs to society again both economic and social.

 In the Toronto area, McMaster University professor Wayne Lewchuk says, as much as 45 per cent of the working population could be in non-permanent jobs.

The jobs being created in this"new workplace" also don't provide benefits like extended health meaning that should one become sick the public must pick up the full cost of care. The same is true of pensions, when the working poor are no longer able to work they will have no private pension or savings to rely on meaning again the public will need to pick up the full cost. In short this push to low paying precarious employment amounts to yet another huge corporate subsidy.

Good paying permanent jobs are not likely to return anytime soon, certainly not while the world is planted firmly under the jackboot of neoliberalism. So what to do? Well first and foremost we must start working together instead of fighting each other, this is a war against all working people not just those at the bottom of the pecking order. Everyone's wages and benefits are in decline whether union or not, whether you are skilled or not and no matter what colour your collar.

We can look at moving from the minimum wage to a livable wage concept or better yet bring in a Guaranteed Livable Income program. In the seventies Canada ran a Guaranteed Annual Income (GAI) pilot project called Mincome.  The results were startling. Contrary to what everyone thought at the time and still thinks today people receiving the GAI kept working, the exceptions being new mothers and teens, the latter of which stayed in school longer. Visits to ERs declined as stress related health issues ebbed and instances of domestic abuse also went down partly due to the reduced stress levels and the fact that the GAI was delivered to the individual meaning that economic factors were removed from the equation when considering whether to stay or leave.

 Another way in which we could help lift everyone out of poverty is by providing adequate housing support, something that is not only needed but as a recent study and action plan points out is eminently affordable. The majority of those helped by food banks are renters 63% pay market rent and 22% live in subsidized housing.

 Whether we ignore the problems posed by this new normal or we choose to tackle it head on, we pay no matter what. Better that we pay for solutions instead of band aids or worse yet do nothing. Of course having said all that defeating the neoliberals is our best option in the long run.

Troubling questions about CETA 's impact on municipalities

As negotiations between Canada and the EU near their completion we still don't know many of the details as our government only sees fit to brief business interests on them, but what we do know is extremely troubling. CETA in the governments own words is the "most robust" trade and investment agreement we have ever entered into. It's scope reaching for the first time into municipal and provincial jurisdictions.

For those not familiar with the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) here is a primer

The Columbia Institute's  Centre for Civic Governance has taken what we do know,including the leaked text and sought a legal opinion on it's potential impacts on municipalities which pretty much confirms what opponents of CETA have been saying.

Here are some of the highlights from that report titled  Municipalities and the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) 101

Prohibit municipalities from restricting tender calls to local or Canadian companies or
requiring that bidders use some proportion of local or Canadian goods, services or
labour. This would essentially end the ability of municipalities to use procurement as
a local economic or social development tool;

Prohibit municipalities from using procurement for strategic purposes, such as creating
or supporting a market for innovative goods and services, including green
technologies if the effect would favour Canadian producers or attract investment to
Canada;

Prohibit municipalities from using procurement for sustainable development purposes such as promoting food security by adopting “buy local” food practices.


Big European drug corporations may gain extended patent rights, resulting in massive cost increases for Canadian drug plans, including $1.3-billion per year on taxpayer-funded public drug plans and $1.5 billion on private drug plans.

Hydro Quebec researchers warn that CETA‟s procurement chapter could limit the ability of government agencies to use public spending to achieve goals such as economic development and regional employment. If CETA had been in place in 2003, Quebec would likely not have been able to insist on 60 per cent provincial content in wind projects. Local content requirements under Ontario‟s Clean Energy Act could face similar problems under CETA (Note: The EU has already challenged Ontario's Clean Energy Act at the WTO.)

The legal opinion warns that CETA would require municipalities to shoulder administrative costs associated with:

Providing the federal government with information and statistics about their procurement practices and activities:

Publishing detailed notices and announcements of intended procurements;

 Issuing tenders in accordance with CETA procedures and technical specifications;

Accounting to unsuccessful suppliers for their procurement decisions; and

Defending their actions if challenged, before domestic administrative, judicial and appellate bodies

The opinion also found that proposed CETA rules could slow or derail procurement processes by forcing municipalities to

Provide unsuccessful EU bidders with sufficient time to appeal their decisions;

Contend with an order suspending the procurement pending the resolution of such an appeal; or

Pay damages to an unsuccessful bidder or bidders where [municipalities] fail to comply with CETA rules.

When we go to the polls we have but one option- Neoliberalism

And that is the problem, the only options we have when we vote these days no matter where we are in Canada is the degree of neoliberalism we get. So while it does matter which party we vote for as the degree with which they embrace this vile philosophy does vary, what we end up with is still neoliberalism.

While I still feel the NDP are our best option here in Ontario, the NDP has shown when elected to government elsewhere to be just as capable of following the same disastrous path as the other parties.


This will not change until as a society we realize that the root of the problem is capitalism and we start to search out other more egalitarian systems around which we organize society. Thankfully this process appears to be starting thanks to the impossible to ignore greed of the capitalist elite and their decision to make their victims ( that's us folks) pay for their crimes through austerity.

So by all means since we are stuck with the system we have for now, go vote and choose the strength of your poison but if like many of us you long for an antidote a good place to start would be by supporting or even joining the folks at Occupy Toronto,Vancouver and elsewhere on October 15th and deliver a message to the politicians but more importantly to our fellow Canadians that it is time for a new way, a better way.



Huge shout out to Operation Maple for the videos

Stephen Harper and CETA or Why Let Facts Get In The Way Of Ideology

You would think embarking on negotiations towards perhaps the most sweeping trade deal this country has ever entered into, you would want to conduct some studies into it's impact on Canadians.If you're an ideologue like Harper, apparently not. Two years and eight rounds into the process our government still hasn't bothered to commission a single study of CETA's potential impacts.

Actually there is a study out there that our government is relying on,only one problem though,it was commissioned by the EU. That's right a study brought to us by the folks on the opposing side of the negotiating table. Thankfully there is a Canadian study that our government could refer to.The only problem for them is that unlike the EU study it doesn't rely on false assumptions like full employment and every penny of Canadians savings being invested inside Canada,therefore it's conclusions don't support Harpers ideology and his precious trade deal with the EU

If you're a bit of a wonk like I am here is the Jim Stanford's study Out of Equilibrium done for the CCPA or if you actually have a life and still wish to review Out of Equilibrium, Alison over at Creekside has posted  two short videos of a presentation by Jim Stanford.

Before Wisconsin there was Puerto Rico

Governor Scott Walker's actions in Wisconsin brought the NeoLiberal agenda into the mainstream conscientiousness. Many were surprised by the viciousness with which Walker implemented his agenda yet we shouldn't have been surprised at all, he was merely aping Puerto Rican Gov.Luis Fortuno's tactics that he used in inflicting this agenda on the citizens of the Island.

Starting in 2009 Fortuno while making deep cuts in corporate taxes also stripped unions of bargaining rights,laid off tens of thousands of civil servants,privatised government on a massive scale and raised tuition fees, making education too expensive for many, leading to much unrest in the streets and on the campuses of the US territory.

As always happens with NeoLiberalism and austerity the people suffer tremendously.Puerto Rico is on pace to have the worst economic performance in the world, has the highest rates in the US for Unemployment,poverty,murder and foodstamp usage.No one should be surprised here for this is always the end result of the NeoLiberal austerity for the masses and handouts for the corporations agenda.

The Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement - A Primer

If you think NAFTA is bad, just wait until you see what is being proposed in negotiations for The Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA). CETA is a far-reaching trade deal that could touch on nearly every aspect of Canadian society.

The CETA aims to remove government regulations over such things as public purchasing, environmental standards, public services, domestic-content rules and so on.

With the CETA,  a trade agreement would for the first time apply directly to Provinces, and cities,crown corporations,  school boards, and hospitals,binding them to it's provisions in some extremely dangerous ways. For instance CETA would contain a section similar to NAFTA's chapter 11,exposing them to potentially bankrupting lawsuits for making policy decisions that benefit their constituents but may harm the profitability of some EU corporation.

Another proposal on the table is a provision that says anything not listed as exempt from the free trade agreement would be automatically covered. Which means that if a city or province fails to list any of the thousands of programs they deliver,that program is covered by the deal and open to privatisation.

The CETA would prohibit governments at all levels from spending tax dollars to encourage local development.  Bids would have to be open to EU companies with the cost of the bid the only consideration allowed. 

The EU is demanding access to our Crown corporations, such as electric and water utilities. Big Pharma is at the table demanding extended patent rights which will lead to massive increases in the cost of drugs, placing enormous strain on our healthcare budgets, potentially further increasing the threat of privatisation. Pharma isn't the only industry at the table,in fact big business are the only ones being consulted and briefed on CETA by the Harper government.

Of course we are told that this abomination will lead to increased employment and standards of living for all Canadians,which is exactly what they said about NAFTA  and we all know how that turned out. Studies to the contrary suggest that a free trade deal with the EU would cost us somewhere between 28,000 and 150,000 jobs.

This video offers an introductory glimpse into the CETA and what's at stake for us if this deal is signed.

Canada has become a nation of Dupes

Ever get the feeling that you're working harder and not only getting nowhere but falling behind , well that's because unless you're rich or a high level executive , you are.

In the past decade wage gains and I use the term gains in the loosest manner possible, have been even lower than during the Great Depression. From the years 2000 to 2009 the average wage increase was 4% yet during the Depression the average increase was 5%. I know that sounds counter intuitive but there is a possible answer to why this has occurred.

During the Depression Unions were still a force giving workers bargaining power resulting in higher wages, however during the last decade and beyond as Union membership has declined so have wages.Some may pass this off as a mere coincidence,I don't. Workers and the masses in general have never received any benefit from those in power without a putting up a mighty fight ,once too many of us abandoned the battlefield our bosses busied themselves in regaining lost ground and man have they ever succeeded.

Lest you think things are starting to improve the annual pace of wage increase in June was 2%, far below the reported rate of inflation of 3.7%. That inflation number of 3.7 is a work of pure fiction. Just look at the rapidly rising costs of gas, electricity and food and ask yourself if that number bears any semblance to your reality.If you're like me and those I know it doesn't come close. As for the wage side of the equation I haven't seen a "raise" equal to or greater than  even the fictionalised rate of inflation in well over a decade and that is true for the vast majority of the people I have talked to.

Yet we are incessantly bombarded from the likes of Stephen Harper with the message that the greatest threat to the economy is greedy workers. This is understandable of Harper for he is a devout disciple of NeoLiberalism. He pursues this vile philosophy with an evangelical zeal and will likely never be deterred from his quest for the Holy Grail. What truly irks though is that he and his ilk are, as witnessed during and after the Postal lock out, cheered on in their quest by their victims.

These dupes are so intent on seeing everyone suffer their fate that they can't see that they are in fact cutting off their own noses to spite their faces and that the only way out of this horrible mess  is to support all workers in their quest for a fairer share of the pie. The point that must be hammered home to them is that if you keep lowering the ceiling eventually you'll need to lower the floor in compensation. Hopefully some day they will figure out that simple equation.

With our economy artificially propped up by China's massive appetite for our commodities, Harper and his army of dupes can maintain their fiction that things are alright and getting better, however like all booms, China's will go bust someday.When this happens and their wall of denial crashes down around them, it's  a given that the dupes will react with fury and anger, the question is who will they blame.

NeoLiberalism and the inevitable pushback

What we are seeing in places like the Mid East,North Africa, Europe and even the States is the inevitable push back against NeoLiberalism . I say inevitable because NeoLiberal policies  are so ruinious for the vast majority of the people that eventually we reach a critical mass of  victims who feel that they have nothing left to lose, for many worldwide that time is now.

To date here in Canada we have been able to delude ourselves into believing that we are somehow magically immune from the forces that are creating so much unrest elsewhere.However it is becoming increasingly difficult to maintain this fiction, especially with governments at all levels embracing the austerity movement.

With austerity we will be told that we have to sacrifice even deeper than we have already have, while governments continue to offer corporations and the richest among us ever greater tax breaks, tax breaks that as has been proven time and time again do not create jobs, never have, never will. While we suffer Harper will also reward the corporations with with our tax dollars by building prisons buying jets even the Americans say are overpriced and as he lays off tens of thousands of civil servants he will quietly replace them at greater cost

So as it is everywhere else the push back will come to our shores eventually and the kicker is that all those security measures many have supported will be turned back against all of us. And don't think for a moment that authourities won't resort to the type of violent response that we have seen overseas, as we have seen at APEC,Summit of the Americas and the G20 our police forces have and will respond with violence towards peaceful citizens.Violence that will be visited upon us all including the many who cheered it on in the past.

One more thing to ponder is the aftermath of the G20. We now have thousands of cops from every region of Canada who are trained in the violent suppression of peaceful protest and they are extremly well armed what with all that taxpayer money that went into funding the purchase of weaponry such as water and sound cannons.