Rick Salutin on Universities

Back from a two-week vacation and almost another week recovering from what I suspect was a food-borne illness acquired from a chicken sandwich I bought in the Rome airport, today's post will be brief, its purpose to direct you to Rick Salutin's latest column.

Entitled Universities are not job-training factories, the piece, while hardly breaking new ground, is a good reminder that there is still a very important role that university education can play in people's lives outside of what seems to have become its primary purpose, at least in the minds of our political and business 'leaders,' job training. Salutin opines the following values:

Students get to read widely and gain a sense of what human beings have been up to over the millennia. This expands their awareness and readies them to appreciate their own lives while contributing to enhancing the lives of others. Plus they learn to think critically, which is important to functioning as citizens rather than social cogs.

He goes on to argue that in this time, when job-sharing and shortened work weeks make sense, we need an educated and articulate population to entertain and discuss such matters. And, of course, if we think about it, having extra time on our hands, whether through unemployment, underemployment or, as in my case, retirement, possessing the tools with which to think critically and deeply really become invaluable assets and resources to draw upon as ways of enriching and deepening the experience we call life.

To me, that is surely a better alternative to the narcotizing effects of 'reality' television and other flights from the quotidian world available to us.

Time For Another Blogging Break

My Internet connection will be rather sporadic for the next little while as I take another break from blogging.

See you soon!

Thomas Walkom: Harper's Strategy Behind The Foreign Workers Program

Yesterday, over at Northern Reflections, Owen Gray wrote a post entitled A Lost Generation, a reflection on the discouraging prospects our young people face in establishing themselves in gainful employment, and the fact that their plight does not seem to be a factor in the Harper regime's decision-making.

I left the following comment on his blog:

Not only are our overlords ignoring the problem you describe here, Owen, but they are in fact compounding it by recruiting young people from Ireland to come work in Canada.

This inexplicable policy, apparently spearheaded by Jason Kenney, should outrage all of us, after which I provided a link to a story from the Star detailing Jason Kenney's efforts to recruit young people from Ireland to come to Canada for jobs.

Owen replied with the following:

It's all about driving down everyone's wages, Lorne. That was one of the items on the agenda when Mr. Flaherty met with the movers and shakers two summers ago.

Put that together with this government's preemptive moves on unions before a strike starts, and it's clear who this government serves.

It's not we, the people. And it's certainly not the young.

Owen's insight, it seems, is spot on. In his column today, The Star's Thomas Walkom looks at how Canada is using imported labour to do just that, keep everyone's wages down:

... the Vancouver Sun has reported, four brand new coal mines in the province’s northeast are bringing in just under 2,000 temporary Chinese migrants to do most of the work.

The ostensible reason, a spokesman for Canadian Dehua International Mines Group Inc. is reported as saying, is that not enough Canadians are skilled enough to do underground mining.

Let me repeat that. Not enough underground miners. In Canada.

Those who spent their working lives underground in Northern Ontario, or Quebec or Saskatchewan or Cape Breton would be surprised to hear this.

Walkom goes on to point out that the B.C. situation is hardly an exception, that the number of visas granted to temporary foreign workers is exploding; these workers, ranging from coffee shop staff in Alberta to those employed at XL Foods, hardly meet the criteria under which the foreign workers program was established, i.e. to do jobs for which they are uniquely qualified.

Walkom's conclusion? That they are being permitted entry because they are unlikely to complain of low wages or join a union. Their presence thus sends a strong message to the unemployed in Canada: Work for less, or others will take the jobs from you.

He concludes:

It’s one thing for the Harper Conservatives to return us to the status of a resource economy. It is another for them to insist that we become a low-wage resource economy.

And, of course, while such a policy may be a boon to our corporate masters, it is just one more obstacle that our young people have to face in their efforts to establish their careers.

An Update on Tim DeChristopher

About a year ago I wrote a post on Tim DeChristopher, a brave young activist who was sentenced to two years in prison for disrupting an oil and gas auction. In an act of civil disobedience, he submitted winning bids on land in Utah with no intention of paying for them.

An update on his status is provided by Peter Scheer on Truthdig. As well, there is a link on the site to an interview of DeChristopher that Chris Hedges conducted in 2011.

Worthwhile reading for those seeking examples of principled behaviour in these times.

Young Tim Speaks Again

But of course, he is singing the same tune as always: tax cuts will lead us to prosperity.

What's next? Did I hear someone say monorail?

Lying Politicians

Given the level of odium in which the public holds politicians, the title of this post probably seems redundant. However, it is also appropriate given an article written by Lawrence Martin yesterday and a not-so-surprising revelation made in today's Toronto Star.

First, Martin's article, published yesterday in iPolitics, posits that our elected officials, and those vying for office, regularly lie because it works, one reason being that journalists let them get away with it:

In the news business anything that is expected, that happens often, is of declining news value. And so the media over time has lost its sense of outrage when politicians willfully distort or lie. The media don’t hold politicians to as a high as a standard as they used to.

And until they do, expect the bald-faced lies that pass for informed discourse to continue unabated.

Which segues nicely into one of the front-page stories in this morning's Star. Entitled Cost to move gas plant may reach $700M in the print edition, it reveals the lie that Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty has been propagating that $40 million would be the cost to taxpayers/electricity users for his cancellation of a gas-fired generator in Oakville to purchase a Liberal seat in the last election.

The plant, already well-under construction during the waning days of the provincial contest, is to be moved to the site of the Lennox generating station near Bath, 210 kilometres east of Toronto.

Energy consultant Bruce Sharp, who pegs the cost of the move at $700 million, says earlier estimates haven’t taken into account several huge items.

...the biggest hidden cost in the deal is the province’s agreement to accept the cost of what’s known as “gas delivery and management services” costs, which he figures could add $346 million to the bill.

And a further $200 million or more comes from the decision to move the plant hundreds of kilometres to the east.

Then factor in about $250 for the extra cost of transmission upgrades.

This will not be the first time that Premier McGuinty has played fast and loose with the electorate's money in his bald pursuit and exercise of power.

With more diligent journalism, however, perhaps it will be his last.

Pick On Someone Your Own Size, Premier McGuinty

Much rhetoric has been uttered of late about the need for everyone to 'share the pain' as Ontario's McGuinty government attacks the provincial deficit in a manner that many think is counterproductive, stripping away teachers collective bargaining rights being but one example.

However one may feel about such moves, those in the public service are at least positioned fairly well to weather this strategy. The same cannot be said for many others. Not all targets are created equal.

One such target of McGuinty's fervour are the poor. As Carol Goar reports in today's Star, a program called the community start-up and maintenance benefit (CSUMB) will be cut off at the end of 2012.

Goar writes:

For 20 years, this program has served as a lifeline for people at risk of homelessness. It’s an emergency allowance, available every two years, worth a maximum of $799. It enables the homeless to move into an apartment. It helps low-income tenants who can’t pay their utility bill keep the lights on; job applicants buy suitable clothes; families fumigate bedbug-infested apartments; and people facing eviction pay their rent arrears.

According to Naomi Berlyne of Houselink, it keeps a roof over hundreds of heads every year. “Without it, we’re going to have a disaster on our hands.”

I don't care how venal or self-centred people might be, I expect that most will be as outraged as I am over this development; I know I will be writing my MPP a letter protesting it.

Shame on the Premier for targeting the most vulnerable amongst us.

It is something that I will neither forgive nor forget at the next election.