"A Kick In The Gut"

That's what Alberta's nurses are calling the move by Jason Kenney's UCP to roll back their wages by 3%. 

In Kenneyland, contracts apparently are notional, not legal, documents. In 2020, a four-year contract with a 0% wage increase was signed, but Alberta Health Services, under the obvious direction of a craven, feckless premier, says they just cannot afford the wages they are currently paying. 

Perhaps the government hopes nurses will take some comfort in the fact that people like Alberta's Finance Minister really do like them:

In a statement on Tuesday, Finance Minister Travis Toews commended the “invaluable role” nurses have played in the COVID-19 pandemic but noted Alberta needs to get its finances back on track.

“The need to bring wages in line with other large provinces does not diminish our deep respect for the exceptional work and dedication of public sector workers.

And that 'deep respect' was echoed by the man himself. 

The premier was asked about the negotiations with the nurses’ union on Thursday. While Jason Kenney said he didn’t want to comment too much out of respect for the negotiation process, he did thank all health-care workers for their services, especially during the pandemic.

As the following report makes clear, neither the nurses nor the public are impressed by political platitudes. 

If the political winds are blowing in the direction I suspect they are, after the next provincial election  the United Conservative Party will have ample opportunity to reflect on and review how they do politics. Sitting on the other side of the legislature will, no doubt, be a humbling experience for them. 

 

 

Now He Is Just Being Absurd

With all that is going on in the world, this is where Jason Kenney directs his fervour, railing against a Netflix cartoon called Bigfoot Family.

A Call For Leadership

Jason Kenney's UCP has achieved a majority in Alberta. Proclaiming that Alberta is open for business and that “[h]ope is on the horizon,” he joins Ontario's Doug Ford both in identical sloganeering and rabid contempt for all measures related to carbon taxes or anything else that would discourage the consumption of fossil fuels.

The failure of the political class to confront the world's greatest crisis, climate change, is manifest. It therefore seems an apt time to reproduce the thoughts of a Star letter-writer about our predicament, to which I have added emphasis to underscore key points:

After the last five years of two serious droughts, a spring and summer with twice the normal annual rainfall and this unprecedented winter with wild swings in temperature and weather virtually every week, I’ve become a believer that climate change is largely man-made and very real. While some say that it’s just the vagaries of weather, I suggest that these past five years represent a serious shift in climate trend. I took up farming when I retired from a business career and the last five years have been completely uneconomic. In the farming community, there is an old saying: If it swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, it’s probably a safe assumption to say it is a duck! Why can’t Conservatives see this?

Which brings me to my point in this letter, as a lifelong fiscal conservative, I am gob struck by the Conservative party (Progressive in Ontario and God knows what federally) who simply spout “anti” everything when it comes to climate change. At the federal level, Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer plays politics on the issue and still has not provided a single shred of a positive, credible climate change plan. Further, Scheer continues to endorse a party-sanctioned candidate right here in Ontario, Cheryl Gallant, who proudly insists that climate change is a hoax. I might add that Gallant was the only MP out of over 300 to vote against the Canadian Parliament sanctioning the Paris climate accord.

Climate change is the issue of our generation and those of our children. Surely, some politicians have sufficient moral integrity to recognize the seriousness of the situation. There are real economic costs to climate change and a price on carbon is the least among these. It’s past time for Conservatives to show some genuine leadership on climate change, otherwise I’ll be supporting the only real agenda for climate change and voting Liberal for the first time in my life.

J. Hugh Brownlee, White Lake, Ont.

Over 300 years before the Common Era, Diogenes said he was looking for an honest man. More than 2300 years later, it seems he is yet to be found.

UPDATED:I Have A Simpler Solution

The headline reads, Restaurant owners seek meeting with PM over foreign worker freeze

The group representing Canada's restaurant owners is calling for an urgent meeting with Prime Minister Stephen Harper to discuss the freeze on temporary foreign workers in the restaurant industry.

"The recent moratorium on temporary foreign workers in the food service industry has turned the labour shortage into a crisis," Restaurants Canada CEO Garth Whyte said during a news conference in Charlottetown today.

The solution proposed by Restaurants Canada is threefold:

- Lift the moratorium on the food service industry immediately.

- Strengthen the rules of the program "to ensure there is no abuse."

- Allow restaurants that can't find Canadian workers to hire foreign workers at all skills levels.

Perhaps because of their fraught condition, they have overlooked a simpler solution:

Pay their workers more instead of pressuring the government to allow them to hire cheap foreign workers.

UPDATE: In her post this morning, Alison at Creekside does an excellent job piercing the hysterical hype being disseminated by Mr. Whyte on behalf of the restaurant industry.

Political Ambition And Public Outrage

The interesting thing about political ambition and public outrage is that sometimes they work synergistically to produce positive results. Jason Kenney, whose ambition to become the Conservative Party's next leader have been widely rumoured, announced yesterday that fast food restaurants are being suspended from participation in the Temporary Foreign Workers Program after increasingly bad publicity over its misuse, resulting in higher rates of unemployment among Canadian citizens.

The following short video discusses a report from the CD Howe Institute which uncovered this disturbing fact:

However, how much of this is simply a temporary sop to the masses remains to be seen. Although McDonald's moved just prior to Kenney's announcement to suspend its use of temporary foreign workers, as the video below shows, its Canadian CEO, John Betts, regards the entire imbroglio as 'bullshit.'

Will this ban become permanent? The cynic in me suggests it won't, given that the program as administered by the Harper regime has become yet another way of assisting its corporate friends by distorting the labour market, enabling the industry to avoid paying its employees what the market demands.

However, should both the media and the public continue to be interested in the issue, perhaps a permanent solution will emerge. A big IF.

More On The Temporary Foreign Workers Program

As noted yesterday, the Temporary Foreign Workers Program continues to cause both grief and outrage among Canadians. The latest publicly-identified victims, two former employees at a Weyburn Sask. eatery called Brothers Classic Grill and Pizza [previously called El Rancho], are receiving a groundswell of support both locally and across the country.

In an update on their website, CBC Saskatchewan, we learn that Sandy Nelson, a 28-year veteran waitress at the restaurant who lost her job to foreign workers, had tried to bring attention to her plight earlier:

"We tried going [the] government route. Never got a response," Nelson said. "Finally got a response today." That is, after the injustice became public.

Among those who are considered part of the Harper base, this comment was typical:

"I don't think that's fair," Weyburn resident Kyla Broomfield said. "We go there all the time and they treat customers well. I don't know why they would fire them."

"Why should they give foreigners more opportunities?" Jeremiah Broomfield said. "There's willing Canadians here to work. It's just not fair."

One can only assume that had this situation not been made public, Jason Kenney would not now be investigating it.

In today's Star, Tim Harper offers his assessment of the TFWP. Laying the blame squarely on the shoulders of the Harper regime, under whose auspices these abuses have proliferated, he says:

The Conservatives have now done what seems to be the impossible — cutting hours for Canadian workers, setting the stage for the ill-treatment of temporary workers, further alienating the labour movement in this country and fielding complaints from small businesses who play by the rules who say those rules are too onerous.

Harper suggests strong action is needed: the program either needs a complete overhaul, with caps put on the number of temporary workers in this country, or it should be scrapped and replaced with new immigration rules.

He adds that Jason Kenney has to start imposing real penalties, not suspensions. Without that, the abuses will continue and the program’s credibility will continue to crumble.

Ultimately, I guess it requires a careful cost benefit analysis by a government that has consistently shown itself to be so contemptuous of average Canadians and so subservient to the demands of business. Indeed, whose vote is most likely to be lost here?

UPDATED: The Temporary Foreign Workers Program: Yet More Abuse And Heartbreak

Although the Temporary Foreign Workers Program predates the ascension to power of the Harper regime, there is mounting evidence that the abuses occurring under the program, none of which I am aware predate 2006, have been nurtured by the current cabal that consistently elevates the interests of business over the well being of citizens.

The latest example, as reported by CBC, comes from Saskatchewan where, in March, Sandy Nelson, who worked at Brothers Classic Grill and Pizza [previously called El Rancho] in Weyburn, Sask., for 28 years, along with her her co-workers, received the following letter:

"Due to changes in operations we are currently discharging all of our staff".

Some of them were subsequently hired back, including two waitresses who are temporary foreign workers.

But Nelson was permanently dismissed.

And Nelson was not the only victim of a program gone awry. Shaunna Jennison-Yung worked for the restaurant for 14 years before meeting the same fate:

The jobs they have aren't jobs that nobody wanted. We wanted them," Jennison-Yung explained.

She said to make matters worse, as a supervisor, she was unwittingly training her replacements.

"It's hurtful to be put aside and have people that you trained to do your job now doing your job. It's heartbreaking is what it is."

Predictably, the owners of Brothers Classic Grill and Pizza uttered the standard evasions and platitudes in response to CBC inquiries:

"All obligations to any employee are taken seriously. This includes the protection of personal information."

Additionally, they offered that "employees are a valuable asset to any business."

So valuable, apparently, that they are fungible commodities to be disposed of as the owners' agenda sees fit.

UPDATE: As occurred after a recent story emerged of Canadians suffering under the TFWP at three McDonalds's outlets in Victoria, the federal government is reacting with manufactured 'outrage' over the Weyburn misuse of the program:

Employment Minister Jason Kenney has asked his department to investigate Brothers Classic Grill and Pizza in Weyburn, Sask., a spokeswoman for the minister said Monday.

The spokeswoman added:

“Our government will not tolerate any abuse of the temporary foreign worker program. Our message to employers is clear and unequivocal — Canadians must always be first in line for available jobs.”

In an expedient moment of high dudgeon, the government warns of “serious criminal sanctions,” including fines and jail time, if employers lie on their applications about their efforts to hire Canadians.

May I make so bold as to suggest that the Harper regime's interest in this case will last about as long as the media's interest in it does?

P.S. Be sure to check out Montreal Simon's excoriating post on this topic.

Another Harper Lie Exposed

Despite assurances last year that the TFW (Temporary Foreign Workers) program was being reformed because of a myriad of reported abuses, those assurances, like so many other pronouncements and assertions coming from the Harper regime, appear to be false.

Business continues to abuse the program, with what one can only assume is the tacit permission of Employment Minister Jason Kenney. The latest offenders, as reported by CBC, are three McDonald's outlets in Victoria, British Columbia, which are currently employing 25 temporary foreign workers.

"The pattern is that the temporary foreign workers are getting more shifts and that the Canadians are getting less,” said employee Kalen Christ, a McDonald’s "team leader" who has worked at the Victoria location for four years.

And unlike the usual excuse used by business that they cannot find Canadian workers willing to do the job, McDonald's has been caught red-handed, with numerous attestations of Canadian applicants being denied jobs:

Tim Turcot is a 21-year-old local resident who said he applied to work there during the same period. He wasn’t hired, despite his four years of restaurant experience.

“I don’t know why they didn’t hire me. I told them I am available 24/7 and just never got the job,” said Turcot.

As well, those Canadians 'lucky' enough to have a position with the house that Ronald built are seeing their hours slashed, hours taken up by the temporary foreign workers, according to team leader Christ, who himself has seen his job dropped from 40 a week to 36 then 32.

Another employee, who didn’t want to be named, also said hours have been cut and people fear losing health benefits next, because they need full-time hours to qualify.

“There’s a guy with a kid who works here who is getting his hours cut. In a minimum-wage job. That isn’t right.”

Now that the problem has been exposed, the office of Jason Kenney has predictably gone into damage control. You can read it here, should you have an especial interest in Harper regime propaganda.

Tory Attacks on the Canadian Soul

To suggest that the Harper regime is working relentlessly to diminish the Canadian soul is hardly a remarkable insight. Examples abound of its flinty resolve to undermine traditional Canadian values and virtues, compassion and fairness apparently at the top of its 'hit list'.

But while the Conservatives seek to remake Canada in its own morally impoverished image, it is important for all of us to see the human victims of such a governance model.

A number of such faces come into stark relief if one explores the consequences of Immigration Minister Jason Kenney's changes to health care coverage for failed refugee claimants and those from a yet-to-be defined list of "safe" countries [who] will only receive medical care if their condition is deemed a risk to public health or safety.

Here is one example of a woman who, ultimately, did qualify for care but, thanks to the widespread confusion created by the bill, suffered needless stress during a very vulnerable time in her life:

The call came 35 weeks into her pregnancy, right around the time her abdominal cramps began. It was the receptionist from her gynecologist's office saying the government's changes to the Interim Federal Health Program meant her prenatal care was no longer covered.

That's when Tiffany started to panic.

"I asked, `What am I supposed to do?'... I got scared," recalled the 27-year-old originally from the Caribbean.

"She told me that if I come and see the doctor I would have to pay the doctor a fee."

Unfortunately, even sympathetic and compassionate medical personnel are reaching the limits of help they can provide. As reported in today's Star,

Both the Scarborough Community Volunteer Clinic and Muslim Welfare Centre Clinic — the city’s two mainstays for uninsured patients — have reported an influx of refugee patients as a result of the cuts. “Our clinic is at a sustainability crisis point. Everybody is under the gun here and we are swamped. Some nights, it’s being crowd control,” said Dr. Paul Caulford, who operates the Scarborough clinic with seven other family doctors.

The article goes on to detail that many of the patients have chronic conditions, such as hypertension and diabetes, and the clinics are their last hope to receive medications that are covered by donations.

Anna Elumah is another of the human faces of this story. when her two-year-old daughter received stitches after a fall at the shelter where she, her brother and her mother are staying, Elumah was told to go to a community clinic to have them removed.

“We went to a clinic on Morningside. They looked at my paper and said, ‘It’s no good anymore. Go somewhere else,’” recalled Elumah, who also was suffering a nagging headache after she ran out of her medication for high blood pressure.

Her caseworker referred her to the Scarborough clinic, where she receives free drugs for her hypertension and asthma inhalers for her 8-year-old son, Davids.

In answer to all of this, there is the noble lie:

“The changes ensure bona fide refugees continue to receive comprehensive health coverage, while illegal immigrants and failed asylum seekers from safe, democratic countries no longer receive health insurance that is superior to what is generally available to taxpaying Canadians,” said Alexis Pavlich, a spokesperson for Jason Kenney.

So, our choice as citizens is clear. We can, as the government wants, turn our backs on the most vulnerable, failed refugee claimants who will eventually be sent back to their own countries, or we can treat them with compassion and care while they are here, something every human being deserves, and something well within even our weakened economic means to provide.

Victory for Lucene Charles!

Lucene Charles, the St. Vincent native who has been battling deportation from Canada for some time now because of her failure to fill out the proper immigration papers years ago, has finally achieved victory.

The decision in principle to allow her to stay has been made, a decision that will be finalized after the proper criminal and medical checks have been completed. A woman who is a valued and contributing member of the Hamilton community, Charles has worked for many years at St Joseph's Hospital.

The fact that Canadian immigration officials have come to the right decision is a victory for everyone, considering the publicity surrounding her case, and the flurry of social activism and petitions that ensued, were very likely major influences in this decision.

It would seem that even the Harper regime is not totally immune to the public will.

An Update on Sayed Sharifi

After many setbacks, Sayed Shah Sarifi, the brave young Afghan interpreter who recently arrived in Toronto thanks to his own tenacity and the efforts of people of goodwill, has landed his first Canadian job.

You can read this good-news story here.

Sayed Shah Sharifi Arrives In Canada

Thanks to the doggedness of The Toronto Star, for whom social justice and journalistic integrity are more than mere words, the long tale of Sayed Shah Sharifi, the Afghan interpreter, is finally over.

In a world where victories are often few and far between for the 'good guys,' today is a day we all should celebrate the fact that despite all of the efforts by Immigration Jason Kenney to prevent his immigration to Canada, likely out of spite for making a public fuss over delays, Sharifi is now safely in Canada.

You can read the full story here.

A Victory To Celebrate

I have expressed more than once in this blog my opinion that the Harper regime aims to make Canadians feel powerless and disenfranchised, thereby facilitating the government's efforts to remake Canada in its own calloused corporatist image. Once in a while, however, a victory comes along to remind us that we still have power and need to continue the fight against that agenda.

Thanks in large measure to The Toronto Star and reporter Paul Watson, Afghan interpreter Sayed Shah Sharifi is soon to come to Canada, after having been initially rejected under an Immigration program designed to rescue those Afghanis who had put their lives at risk helping Canadian soldiers.

Initially adamant in his rejection of Sharifi's application, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney was forced to reverse his department's decision after a groundswell of public indignation arose following Watson's stories.

The latest developments can be read in today's Star, and the entire episode serves as an important reminder that no matter how dispirited and disheartened we may become, none of us must ever stop fighting the intransigence and ideological madness of the Harper government.

Making Political Hay

Well, you have to hand it to them. The Harper regime never forgoes an opportunity to exploit tragedy:

In an interview airing on CBC's Power & Politics on Friday, Citizenship and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said "clearly the recent rash of gun crime in Toronto is connected to criminal gun activity, and we are aware that there have been foreign members, sometimes leading members of criminal gangs in Canada, able to re-commit offences while delaying their deportation."

Kenney went on to specify that his comments were "not in relation to any particular crime, or any alleged particular criminal" but about Bill C-43, which the government introduced last month as the faster removal of foreign criminals act.

Embarrassing The Harper Government

The rhetoric about overpaid doctors notwithstanding, I suspect the public loves it as much as I do when the medical profession defends its principles and embarrasses Tory lap dogs in the process.

As reported in today's Star, although it is not something they are used to doing, doctors feel it is morally incumbent upon them to speak out as frequently and vociferously as they can in their protests over Immigration Jason Kenney's recent cuts to refugee health care.

One of the more audacious, Dr. Mark Tyndal, is shown below as he interrupts one of the Harper faithful. Enjoy:

New Crime Discovered in Edmonton

Known in legal circles as politicius pontificus interruptus, Edmonton police are doing everything within their power to prevent this terrible crime from spreading and becoming a national scourge.

The Ripple Effect?

I wonder if Dr. Chris Keefer's sterling example helped inspire this.

Interesting that because they disagree with his cutting of refugee-claimants' health care, protesters are identified by Immigration Minister Jason Kenney as 'extremists.'

As opposed to what, enablers?

Another Victory for the Star: The Harper Government Blinks

The Globe and Mail arrogantly proclaims itself to be 'Canada's national newspaper' and 'Canada's paper of record.' It is a self-proclaimed designation that I have longed disagreed with, so much so that I eventually cancelled my long-standing subscription to it some time ago, substituting the Toronto Star, Canada's largest-circulation newspaper. And I have never regretted that decision.

Unlike the Globe, which is happy to make facile and incomprehensible endorsements of Stephen Harper whenever an election is pending, The Star has a solid record of success in a diversity of situations ranging from prompting the Ontario government to investigate the scandal-plagued Ornge medical helicopter service to being responsible for the initiation of a restaurant inspection system in Toronto that has become a model for cities across Canada.

The Star's latest achievement is getting the government to change its mind on the case of Sayed Shah Sharifi, the brave Afghan interpreter whose life was at risk from the Taliban due to the help he extended to our troops in Afghanistan. His application for a visa under a special program to grant visas to Afghans “who face exceptional risk or who have suffered serious injury as a result of their work for the Canadian government in Kandahar province” was rejected, and after 18 months, he is finally getting justice, thanks to The Star and the dogged efforts of reporter Paul Watson exposing this injustice at the hands of the Harper regime generally, and Immigration Minister Jason Kenney in particular.

The public outcry has been loud and sustained. As a result, the Harper government, as they say, blinked, and while I am usually not one to gloat, victories of any kind with this regime are so infrequent that I do believe I shall indulge myself a bit. You can read the full report of this victory here.

Perhaps there is also a lesson here for all of us about what can happen when we shed our cloaks of indifference and disengagement and fight for causes truly worth our passion.

The Sad Case of Lucene Charles

Because she failed to complete the paperwork to achieve permanent residency status when she married a Canadian 15 years ago, St. Vincent native Lucene Charles, the mother of four children, three of whom were born in Canada, faces deportation. Please watch the following video and consider signing this petition to Immigration Minister Jason Kenney.

Santa's Hit List

Well, here it is, Christmas Eve, and Santa has been rechecking his list, and five have been struck from it. This sad distinction goes to the following, who perhaps can be consoled by the fact that they have something in common: they are devoid of any recognizable morality; they have shown consistent contempt for the opinions and values of others, and they are all members of the same club, The Conservative Party of Canada.

5. Minister of National Defence Peter McKay - Peter has been an exceedingly naughty boy this year, living large at the expense of the taxpayer, and abusing what he mistakenly believes are his toys and lying when he gets caught. My sources reveal as a consequence of his bad behaviour, he will be on the no-toy list for decades to come.

4. Government House Leader Peter Van Loan – Struck from Santa's list for defending the indefensible, his novel but morally depraved explanation of why spreading false stories about Irwin Cotler was an exercise in free speech and good for democracy. Santa has grave doubts about whether he will ever see the error of his ways, and so a lifetime ban from the list is likely.

3. Jason Kenny, Canada's Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism - Jason has had a busy year sowing discord and promoting Islamophobia, but his biggest sin, in Santa's eyes, is his betrayal of Sayed Shah Sharifi, the brave Afghan interpreter who put his life and the lives of his family in danger to provide services to our troops, only to be told he really isn't in danger and thus can't emigrate to Canada. Another lifetime ban from Santa.

2. Environment Minister Peter Kent – His cabinet title and his name together constitute one of the clearest examples of oxymoron that either I or Santa have ever seen. For betraying Canadian integrity, for thumbing his nose at the world by putting profit before the effects of climate change that are already very apparent, Santa predicts a stormy time ahead for this less-than-sterling steward of Mother Nature.

1. Prime Minister Stephen Harper – The dear leader gets primacy of place on Santa's hit list for one very obvious reason. Without Harper, the moral bankruptcy infecting Canada today would not be possible. Setting a tone that shows only contempt for democracy, the courts, public opinion, and the health of developing nations, he, as the master puppeteer presiding over a feckless and opportunistic group of marionettes, is responsible for our current political moral vacuum, thus ensuring the disaffection of large numbers of Canadians, record low turnouts in elections, and general disgust with the political process, all part of his grand plan to ensure the Conservative Party as Canada's natural-governing party.

Usually a jolly and optimistic fellow, Santa holds out absolutely no hope of an Ebenezer Scrooge regeneration for this man's shriveled spirit.

Merry Christmas to some, and to some a good night.