Rabble

Over 33,000 Boeing workers in Washington state and Oregon,  represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM local 751 and W 24) have been on strike against the aerospace giant since early September. Despite US government pressure to settle the dispute and loudly voiced concerns from employer class spokesmen about the strike’s impact on supply chains and the larger US economy, the Boeing workers voted by a 64 per cent majority to reject the company’s latest offer. In an example of pro-business pressure for a settlement, the Republican governors of Missouri, Montana and Utah (Governors Mike Parson, Greg Gianforte and Spencer Cox), wrote a letter urging Boeing and the union to end the strike, expressing their concern as to the “far-reaching” impact on their states and on Boeing’s supply chain.

And Ken Herbert, an analyst with RBC Capital Markets, after the contract rejection told investors that “the clock is ticking for Boeing.”

“The potential impact of the strike on the supply chain is becoming a greater concern,” he wrote.

While discussions between the union and employer reopened on October 29, Boeing workers seem determined to hold on until they get a settlement that restores pension entitlement lost in a hated giveaway contract a decade ago. They are also calling for other contract  improvements. Rank and file militants at Boeing are leading the fight and have called for international solidarity.

At a meeting held on October 27, 175 workers from Canada, Australia, Germany, Britain, Brazil, and from across the US, called on workers world-wide to support the Boeing strike.

The issues in this dispute have profound implications for Canadian workers. Daniel, a Canadian postal  worker who attended, told the meeting: “The fact remains that our unions are aligned in a corporate tripartite alliance with the government and with management. The cowardly union bureaucrats, IAM and CUPW (Canadian Union of Postal Workers)  included, would never dream of defying strike-breaking legislation, which would require the broad mobilization of workers across industry and across geographic lines, such as we are doing right now.”

Andy Niklaus, a bus driver from Germany, told the Boeing workers: “I would like to start by expressing our unreserved solidarity and support for your strike. We are very impressed that for the second time you have rejected, by a large majority, the miserable collective agreement drawn up and signed by the bureaucrats of the IAM. We must fight back all attacks on wages, working conditions and pensions. And we have to defend all jobs,” he said, noting that more than 120,000 jobs in the German auto sector were threatened.

The Boeing workers will need all the support they can muster. Boeing spokespeople have insisted that there is “no scenario” in which the company will restore the pension entitlements given away by union leadership a decade ago, and the company has already enacted a brutal  retaliation against strikers by cutting their health care coverage.

And the business press is buzzing with alarmist claims that the strike will cripple Boeing, despite the fact that wages and benefits for workers at the aerospace giant only represent five per cent of the company’s production costs, and despite the fact that Boeing’s current troubles have more to do with management’s cost cutting measures and the resulting disastrous safety issues with Boeing planes than with what the company pays its workers.

Apart from the general need for international solidarity when workers square off against big companies with global reach , there are ways that the strike at the aerospace multinational engages issues that are vital for Canadian workers. It is in our interest to support the Boeing militants, as well as being the right thing to do ethically. Although the IAM’s international membership of 600,000 workers give it some leverage, real questions exist about how far the union leadership is willing to go to win its stated demands.

For the Boeing workers, restoring the pension plans frozen a decade ago is a key issue, and Canadian workers, too, know what it is like to work without adequate pension protection, in both the public and private sectors. According to the National Association of Federal Retirees: “The percentage of public-sector employees who have DB (defined benefit) plans has declined by about four per cent over the past 20 years while the number of private-sector DB pension plans has dropped from 21.9 per cent in 1997 to 9.2 per cent in 2017, as many employers move toward defined-contribution plans, putting investment risk on employees’ shoulders. Two-thirds of Canadians do not belong to a workplace pension plan at all, and these numbers are not improving. Many argue that governments and public-sector employers should also move away from DB plans, as seen in New Brunswick where the provincial government moved public-sector pensions to “shared-risk” plans. Other provinces, such as Nova Scotia and Manitoba, are considering similar moves.”

Although Canadian levels of unionization are higher than those in the US, and consequently workers here do enjoy more union benefits than workers in the States, our levels of union membership are lower than they used to be and the dire, looming prospect of a Conservative win in the next federal election may well lead to new attacks on unions and the rights Canadian workers have won over the last century. And as the Canadian postal worker quoted above suggests, we cannot always count on union leaders to fight as hard as they should to forestall such attacks and develop fightback tactics. Canadian workers should find ways to support the militants spearheading the Boeing struggle directly by linking to organizations like the Boeing Workers Rank-and-File committee at boeingworkersrfc@gmail.com and by pushing our unions to support the Boeing struggle. We are all in the same boat on both sides of the border, and the employers mean to sink it if they can.

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After the discovery of 215 unmarked graves of children at Kamloops Indian Residential School, British Columbia in 2021, the Survivor’s Secretariat was established to search for unmarked graves in the 600 acres of land around Mohawk Institute in Brantford, Ontario.

This institute operated from 1831 until 1970 and was the site of immense suffering for some 15,000 Indigenous children who were forced to attend the facility. The explicit intent was to separate these children from their families and cultures. 

The federal government established the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation in 2021, which is held annually on September 30. This is to acknowledge that the current state of Indigenous education, health, living, and welfare in Canada is a direct result of previous Canadian governments’ policies.

The present government is trying to atone for past mistakes, to right such horrifying wrongs, and move forward with Canadian and international law, the Charter of Human Rights and implementing the treaties. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission released its final report in 2015 and recommended 94 calls to Action for the Canadian government to act. These are recommendations meant to help the healing process in two ways: acknowledging the horrifying history of the residential school’s system and creating new systems to prevent these abuses from ever happening again in the future.

But the Indigenous communities searching for missing children are still seeking answers in 2024, to the question, what happened to children who never came home?

Like all other human beings, the residential school children were also descendants of the same creator created them. They had the same ambitions, desires, and dreams to enjoy this beautiful world, but they were denied a happy life and saw only tensions and tortures. Unfortunately, all this happened in one of the so called most civilized parts of the world, North America. 

What happened at residential schools was genocide. To understand its depth and intensity, it’s important to peep into the minds of Indigenous intellectuals and writers.

Three Indigenous writers, Dr. Suzanne Shoush, Chyana Marie Sage, and Keisha Erwin when asked how Canada can move forward by changing the way people feel about the tragedy of residential schools, they explained the reality.

Dr. Suzanne Shoush, said, as a country we have struggled to find solutions that would open the road to reconciliation. The findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is the result of the great strength of Indigenous people. It is the voices of those who survived through centuries of transgenerational atrocities with the determination to hold this country to account, honour the truth and change the future. She believes Canada relied on widespread philosophies deeply rooted in anti-Indigenous racism to colonize the land, claim ownership of resources, and develop a legalized system for racial oppression within a democracy, known as the Indian Act, which still stands with some amendments. This law created the Indian residential school system.

Chusna Marie Sage said that around 1835 when the residential school system was implemented the RCMP was established at the same time to control Indigenous populations. This all was done under Prime Minister John A. MacDonald, who used all tools to segregate and “kill the Indian in the child,“ in his own words. She adds these reflections are still seen in the prison system today.

Keisha Erwin said, despite the vital role the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has played in unraveling the injustices done in the past, we are far from reaching reconciliation. The chapter is not closed, and colonialism is still alive and well in Canada. As of right now, the government might say these are “completed “on their website but talk is cheap, and we have a long way to go.

In the light of the above views, we can say government is working in the right direction, but still we need to bring Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians together in a concerted effort to help repair the harm caused by residential schools and move forward with reconciliation. This will restore the trust of Indigenous Canadians and let them completely know what happened to their children.

Not only parents, but also Indigenous poets and thinkers keep remembering missing them, as Sidney Lynn writes in her famous poem” Missing children.”

“No laughter in the streets, just wind.

Where all children have been?

Once so cozy in their beds. Now all have been left for dead.

Where are the children that played in the street? 

Why did all of them have to leave? 

Where are the kids, will they be found?

Ghost town, silent, not one sound.”

(Missing children By Sidney Lynn, published in All poetry.com).

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All Hookers Go to Heaven is the debut novel of Canadian writer Angel B.H. The novel is a twist on the classic coming of age genre, exploring it through sex work. The protagonist, aptly named Magdalena, or Mag for short, was raised in a strict Christian home in the Maritimes, and moves to Montreal to pursue her studies, runs out of money, and begins dancing at the now closed infamous Club Supersexe. She later transitions to full-service sex work and takes the readers along while she tours (the sex work equivalent to a business trip) across the world. 

The prologue of the book enthralled me; it is a magical realism-filled meditation on what happens to strippers when a club closes. The author employs this literary technique and imbues strippers with magic so that they are able to change rigid societal structures. Otherwise social change can feel inconceivable. I remember the surprise I felt when Supersexe closed down: According to stripper lore, the club was being audited, which the owners refused, and then the club mysteriously burned down. The author of this new style coming of age also addresses the magic of strippers, in the prologue and what she refers to as “the Hustler’s Curse”. 

“Strippers aren’t witches, nor is hustling a curse. But there were times when it certainly felt like it” —this sentence from the book moved me to tears. Strippers metamorphize in the changing room from a girl next door, to a glamazon that enthralls and enchants men, and what is a witch if not a badass woman in charge of her own fate, a woman who turns her desire, in this case the desire for cold hard cash, into existence? 

As for the Hustler’s Curse, in a way, the curse is that with the beginning of every shift, there is a chance for magic, a chance that your life will be better than before you walked in, a chance that maybe today is finally the day that a wealthy and generous client will bestow upon you the money that you need to escape the socioeconomic circumstances that brought you to the club in the first place. If that mythical client doesn’t materialize, the Hustler’s Curse compels one to keep hustling with the promise that bit by bit, you’ll be able to escape your circumstances.

After a year working at the Supersexe, Mag decides to try her luck in New Orleans. But she lacks a work visa, and is unable to get hired by any of the local clubs, turning instead to sugar dating. She meets Tim, who pays her to go to a swinger’s club called Colette with him, and pays her based on the number of people they manage to swing with that given night. While this is initially lucrative, Tim is increasingly problematic with more and more demands on her time. Their outings also make Mag question what it means to do sex work as a queer woman. B.H. writes: 

“More and more, it felt as if I was engaging in some kind of public porn theatre. It came to irritate me that, inside Colette, lesbian action existed as a fantasy of, and not a threat to, the heterosexual norm. I found my sexuality there both exploited and trivialised—especially because, unsurprisingly, there was little to no sexual contact between the men.”

Things with Tim come to an end when he convinces Mag to join him for a weekend at a swinger’s club in Jamaica, and when she returns,  she’s caught with the cash she made at the US border. Unable to explain her income, she gets deported back to Canada and banned from entering the US for five years. 

From there, Mag follows the money based on a trail of whispered recommendations from other sex workers. Their advice in a way reiterates the Hustler’s curse—the whispers compel her into action as she travels to Berlin, Australia, Singapore, Thailand. In the course of her (mis)adventures, Mag does full-service sex work under different legal approaches to sex work: From the fully legalized brothels in Australia, to picking up men in fancy hotel bars in Singapore, where sex work is heavily criminalized. She’s in Berlin when the escort site Backpage closes down, and feels the chilling effect of FOSTA-SESTA legislation, which instead of preventing human trafficking like intended, actually pushed sex workers further underground and made it harder to screen clients for safety.

Her whirlwind tour, often filled with sex, drugs and problematic clients ends with her booking a vacation with a friend she just finished touring with, where they share their hopes and dreams for the upcoming New Year. This bittersweet ending reminded me of a vacation that I took to Panama with a colleague when she was fresh off a break up, and I was burnt out from working and going to university full time. 

Like Mag, we hung out on the beach, did a little ritual, set our intentions and let the ocean do its magic and help make our dreams come true. Because in the end, it’s really us girls who have each other’s backs, and the sex worker friendships and community forged along the way in this book, like in life, are the best part!

I highly recommend this book, it’s a meditation of self, of queerness, friendship and chasing money in a capitalist system. B.H. writes: “Possessed by the spirit of capitalism, we create our own Mythologies.”

All Hookers Go To Heaven does exactly that—it shows how sex work turned a regular, small town Christian girl into a woman who forged her own path and wrote her own story.

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This month on our Off the Hill political panel, we ask the question: how just is Canada’s justice system? Who is it serving and protecting – and who gets left behind? Does our justice system truly respect everyone’s rights and freedoms? 

From the ongoing federal Black Class Action lawsuit alleging systemic anti-Black racism in the federal public service, to a history of policing and silencing Palestinian voices, and more, clearly we can tell something isn’t working. 

Join us on Wednesday, November 20, 2024 as we dive into this discussion with poet and activist El Jones, policy analyst Chuka Ejeckam and rabble’s own parliamentary reporter Karl Nerenberg. Panel starts at 4:30pm PT / 7:30pm ET. Co-hosted by Robin Browne and Libby Davies. 

Register today to join us for this free political panel! Sign up today here.

Meet our guests this month

El Jones is a poet, author, journalist, professor and activist living in Halifax. She is the author of Abolitionist Intimacies (2022) and Live from the Afrikan Resistance! (2014).

Chuka Ejeckam is a writer and policy researcher. His work focuses on inequity and inequality, drug policy, structural racism, and labour. He is also a columnist for rabble.

Karl Nerenberg is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster and filmmaker, working in both English and French languages. He is rabble’s senior parliamentary reporter.

About Off the Hill

Since 2019, Off the Hill has been rabble.ca’s live monthly panel. Through this series, we break down important national and international news stories through a progressive lens. 

This webinar series invites a rotating roster of guest activists, politicians, researchers and more to discuss how to mobilize and bring about progressive change in national politics — on and off Parliament Hill. Co-hosted by Robin Browne and Libby Davies.

Join us the third Wednesday of every month at 4:30pm PT / 7:30pm ET. The live, digital show is one hour long – 45 minutes of moderated discussion followed by 15 minutes of audience participation.

Want to help projects like this going? rabble runs on reader support! Visit rabble.ca/donate today. 

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Remember, here in Alberta, if the oilpatch ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy.

Still, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s theatrical extended temper tantrum in the Legislature Building’s media room yesterday in response to the federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault’s release of draft rules to cap oil and gas emissions 35 per cent below the level of 2019 was a remarkable performance by any measure. 

It’s hard for anyone to keep up with what’s changing these days with United Conservative Party (UCP) chaos muppets in charge of Alberta, but the transformation of Smith from ecstatic triumph after her party’s leadership review vote Saturday night to Monday’s unhinged fury was positively startling. 

If it was a performance, it deserves an acting award. If it wasn’t, it may require an intervention. 

At times profane – I’m pissed. I’m absolutely angry! she barked at one reporter – and unrelentingly hyperbolic, Smith looked as if she were ready to blow a gasket when she accused Guilbeault of pursuing “a deranged vendetta against Alberta.” 

Flanked by her like-minded cabinet colleagues – that is, her former leadership opponents Energy Minister Brian Jean and Environment Minister Rebecca Schulz, to use their official titles unironically – she appeared at times to be about to burst into tears.

“We will not stand idly by while the federal government sacrifices our prosperity, our constitution and our quality of life for its extreme agenda,” the trio jointly said in a screechy official statement on the government’s web page. 

The statement also trotted out as evidence the same old discredited studies by right-wing think tanks and consulting firms, one of them famously commissioned by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, used in the bumf accompanying the government’s Scrap the Cap advertising campaign, which uses taxpayer funds to campaign against the federal Liberals. 

In person, speaking from the Legislature Building’s media room, a snarling Smith claimed “ultimately this cap will lead Alberta and our country into economic and societal decline.” (Readers who doubt my colourful descriptions are encouraged to watch the video of the news conference.) 

“Once again,” she continued, hoarsely shouting, “Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is putting reckless policy ahead of the needs and concerns of everyday Canadians.” (This can be disputed, but it’s a fair comment.)

“I made note that he would do this on his way out the door,” she went on. “It’s like a bad renter who’s burning the furniture on their way out.” (This is over the top.)

The presence of an official photographer, primed to get some good shots of the premier, eyes blazing, suggests this was a considered performance. 

If so, one supposes it makes a nice distraction from the way the UCP is burning the furniture over at Alberta Health Services, as it pursues its vendetta against anyone involved in the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the problems the government encountered last week defending its cruel and unneeded anti-transgender legislation. 

If it was a genuine outburst, it is not exactly reassuring, especially with the premier threatening extra-constitutional use of her government’s unconstitutional Sovereignty Act as some sort of magical instant Notwithstanding Clause to block the federal regulations. 

Since all the auguries suggest Trudeau and Guilbeault are in fact on their way out the door, if not quite as quickly as Smith and the federal Conservative Party would like, this reaction seems overwrought to say the least.

Well, perhaps Smith overindulged a little when she celebrated her carefully managed leadership review victory Saturday and was still a bit under the weather. 

Or maybe she senses that this policy announcement, assailed by the oil industry and the federal Conservatives but also criticized by environmental groups and the federal NDP for not going far enough, might prove a boon to the foundering Liberals in parts of the country more concerned about global warming and less about oilpatch profits than Alberta. 

Well, the result of today’s events south of the 49th Parallel are bound to give Smith something else to be either infuriated or ecstatic about. This time, though, more of us are likely to feel the same emotions, one way or the other. 

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A statement from the family of Murray Sinclair announced that the former senator, judge and lawyer passed away on Monday morning, November 4 “peacefully and surrounded by love,” the family said in a statement. He was 73-years-old.

Sinclair was of the Anishinaabe Indigenous peoples and his family said that he dedicated his life to public service.

“Mazina Giizhik (the One Who Speaks of Pictures in the Sky) committed his life in service to the people: creating change, revealing truth, and leading with fairness throughout his career,” reads the family’s statement. Mazina Giizhik was Sinclair’s Indigenous name.

Manitoba’s first Indigenous judge, Sinclair served for five years as a Canadian Senator.

A cause of death has not been made public, and the family is asking for privacy at this time.

Truth and Reconciliation

Perhaps what Sinclair will most be remembered for was presiding over the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

Setup in 2009, the TRC was aimed at reconciling Canada’s past with Indian Residential Schools.

For more than six years, the TRC interviewed over 6,000 residential school survivors and documented the physical, sexual, and emotional violence that Indigenous peoples suffered at these institutions.

In the conclusion of the report, the TRC found that those responsible for Indian Residential Schools, including the government of Canada, had committed cultural genocide.

The TRC issued 94 Calls to Action to help heal and reconcile the history of residential schools. 

When the report was released in 2015, Sinclair said that the process of reconciliation would be a long one.

“Achieving reconciliation is like climbing a mountain — we must proceed a step at a time. It will not always be easy. There will be storms, there will be obstacles, but we cannot allow ourselves to be daunted by the task because our goal is Just and and it also necessary,” he had said at a press conference following the report’s release.

Of the 94 Calls to Action, 10 years later, 11 have been completed, with 39 underway and the rest not started yet.

LISTEN: Truth and reconciliation: How is Canada doing?

A life celebrated

Indigenous writer and activist Cindy Blackstock remembered Sinclair as someone who was unafraid to shine a little on injustice.

The Honourable Murray Sinclair always walked into dark places with a flashlight so that we can safely follow. A beam of light that cut through injustice and shows the way to hope.Sending prayers and gratitude to his loving family pic.twitter.com/hOWnFy3ZBc

— Cindy Blackstock (@cblackst) November 4, 2024

Manitoba premier Wab Kinew issued a statement celebrating Sinclair’s career and lifelong commitment to the truth.

“It will be a long time before our nation produces another person the calibre of Murray Sinclair. He showed us there is no reconciliation without truth. We should hold dear in our hearts his words that our nation is on the cusp of a great new era and we must all ‘dare to live greatly together,’ reads a statement from Kinew.

Sinclair was passionate about his community, and in his memory, his family is asking that in lieu of flowers, that members of the public donate to a fund setup in his memory.

“In lieu of flowers, and if you are able, please donate to The Murray Sinclair Memorial Fund at The Winnipeg Foundation. Our dad loved and supported many community organizations and your funds will prioritize Indigenous women, children, families, and Survivors,” reads a statement from his family.

Furthermore, a sacred fire will be lit in Sinclair’s memory in front of the Manitoba Legislature.

“Everyone is welcome to visit his sacred fire to make an offering of tobacco and send him your best wishes. Out of respect for his journey for the next few days, the family respectfully asks others across the country to please DO NOT light any other fires for him,” the family’s statement concludes.

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A year has elapsed since Israel began its relentless bombardment of Gaza. As of August 2024, 40,000 people were confirmed to be dead, though the actual death toll was estimated to be as high as 186,000.  Approximately 1.7 million people have been displaced. Gaza’s healthcare infrastructure has been all but destroyed and Gaza now has the highest rate of child amputees in the world. The destruction of Gaza’s wastewater management systems and blockade on humanitarian aid has contributed to rising rates of famine and disease. 

These horrors have unfolded with the knowledge and complicity of the international community, including Canada, who continues to supply arms to Israel. Though Canada voted in favor of the UN resolution for a humanitarian ceasefire in December 2023—a decision that was applauded by numerous human rights organizations—it has taken few, if any, meaningful steps to bring an end to Israel’s siege on Gaza and killing of Palestinians. 

The same month as it voted in favour of a ceasefire, Canada also opposed South Africa’s application to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in December 2023 seeking the imposition of provisional measures to prevent Israel’s attacks on Gaza. Despite being a signatory to the Genocide Convention, Canada stated that “compelling evidence” would be required to demonstrate an intention to destroy or partly destroy a group because of nationality, ethnicity, race or religion. 

In January 2024, the ICJ ordered six provisional measures including an order for Israel to refrain from acts under the Genocide Convention, prevent and punish the direct and public incitement to genocide, and take immediate and effective measures to ensure the provision of humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza. Canada maintained its objection to the ICJ application, reiterating that its “support for the ICJ does not mean that we accept the premise of the case brought by South Africa” while counter-intuitively registering its position that “parties to any conflict must protect civilians and respect international law”. 

Despite the ICJ’s follow-up report in March 2024 in which it ordered Israel to take all necessary steps to ensure the unhindered provision of food, water, electricity, fuel, shelter, clothing, hygiene and medical supplies to Palestinians, Canada has maintained its opposition to the application.

In addition to preventing Israel from being held accountable before the ICJ, Canada has continued to lend financial support to Israel. In the first two months of Israel’s attack on Gaza, Canada is estimated to have authorised $28.5 million of new permits for arms exports to Israel. As one report notes, this exceeds the 2021 record high of $26 million in Canadian military exports to Israel in 2021. More recently, Canada was said to have “blocked” arms exports to Israel; however, this does not include the cancellation of existing permits, which may be in the range of 200.

As long as America continues to supply Israel with military aid (which is estimated to be in the range of $3.8 billion, annually), the actions of other global actors are unlikely to bring an end to the cycle of violence. But that is no excuse for the continued contravention of international law. As a party to the Genocide Convention, Canada is obligated to take measures to prevent and punish the crime of genocide. Customary international law and the Geneva Convention prohibit states from transferring weapons or parts if it is expected that they could be used to violate international law. Canada must make good on its commitment to ensuring the protection of human rights by immediately ending the transfer of weapons to Israel and advocating for the protection of human rights in Gaza.

The post Canadian Complicity in Israel’s Siege on Gaza appeared first on rabble.ca.

No one should be shocked by the fact Alberta Premier Danielle Smith not only survived her leadership review vote but posted an absurd sounding 91.5 per cent approval rating. 

The explanation is simple and obvious on its face, and not necessarily good news for the United Conservative Party (UCP). 

To wit: There’s almost no one left in the UCP except the extremists.

The “lunatics,” as former premier Jason Kenney called them not long before they skidded him, now utterly dominate the party.

And of course they’re happy with Smith’s performance – for the most part, she’s delivering precisely the policies they demand. And when she doesn’t, a tip of her tinfoil cap to the chemtrails above or a boot aimed at a lonely transgender athlete below is sufficient to distract them. 

So when Smith told her jubilant supporters – essentially everyone in the hall in Red Deer last night – that “our party is more united than it has ever been,” she spoke the unvarnished truth. 

But agreeing with the first part of her statement – “our conservative movement is stronger than it’s ever been” – requires a little more nuance.

You could make a case it’s true if you go by the obvious unity of what’s left of Alberta’s big-tent Conservative movement of yore. But a large percentage of the old-style Progressive Conservatives and not-so-progressive but still sane Conservatives have abandoned the ship. 

How they will vote in the next general election remains an open question, but the MAGAfication project that really got under way when Kenney was booted to make way for Smith is now for all intents and purposes complete. And it does not guarantee the UCP a victory in an election as the UPC would like you to believe. 

Albertans were not well served by local media in the lead-up to this relatively meaningless vote, thanks to the addiction of lazy journalists to portraying any event in which a ballot is cast as a horserace. Where was the other horse in this race? 

A leadership review is like a North Korean election. The leader is essentially running without opposition – although with the theoretical ability of eligible electors to vote no. 

Thankfully, there’s still a little more freedom in the Democratic People’s Republic of Alberta than the DPRK, so Smith had to be satisfied with a mere 91.5 per cent. She still has a little way to go to catch up to North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, who the last time he faced a similar ballot seems to have captured 100 per cent of the vote. 

Well, it’s a benchmark Smith can strive for next time. 

Meanwhile, for Smith’s fan club at Postmedia to suggest that a 91.5 per cent victory in a race against no one is somehow the equivalent of NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi’s 86 per cent victory against several credible candidates, each with a base of support in the Opposition party, is preposterous and a little sad.

Likewise, when former Progressive Conservative deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk noted last night that at the peak of their popularity, neither Peter Lougheed nor Ralph Klein received 95% approval, we need to remember that the PC Party in the heydays of those two premiers was a true brokerage with a moderate ideology and broad appeal. Of course the leaders of such a party couldn’t marshal that kind of support. 

“All leaders with totalitarian tendencies get +90% support scores. Yet on the outside crowds of millions gather to oppose them. It’s funny how that works,” tweeted Lukaszuk, who grew up in Poland when it was part of the Soviet bloc. “It reminds me of my childhood.”

The UCP is not the next iteration of the Progressive Conservative Party. It is a lineal descendent of the Wildrose Party, and a successor to the Social Credit League – which under William Aberhart arguably formed an even crazier government, at least so far. 

I imagine in 1935 or ’36, though, that Bible Bill could have summoned up a 90-per-cent-plus leadership review vote too.

By 1937, though, not so much. That year the voters in Premier Aberhart’s Okotoks-High River riding tried to recall him. His government repealed the Recall Act poste haste. Expect history to repeat itself if anyone looks as if they could have a chance of using Jason Kenney’s legislation of the same name to unseat a UCP leader. But I digress.

The Red Deer AGM passed all 35 of the policy resolutions put on the agenda for debate, including recognizing “the importance of CO2 to life and Alberta’s prosperity” by abandoning all net-zero targets and stating “CO2 is a foundational nutrient for all life on Earth.” 

You can’t make this stuff up. The UCP has gone deep into climate change denialism and it’s likely to go deeper. 

Readers may have seen suggestions in media that now Smith’s leadership review is successfully concluded, she will start to act more seriously. 

Don’t believe it. The extremists are going to continue to call the tune and, insomuch as she might disagree with them, Smith can be expected to continue to dance to it.

The post AB Premier’s 91.5% party approval rate shows there’s almost only extremists in UCP appeared first on rabble.ca.

Can Danielle Smith be trusted about anything she says? 

Now that Alberta’s premier has introduced what is widely acknowledged to be the harshest anti-transgender legislation in Canada, rivalling that in some of the more benighted corners of the Republic to our south, we all need to pause and reflect on that question.

A CBC commentator called the suite of bills introduced by the United Conservative Party (UCP) “Canada’s most restrictive and wide-ranging set of policies governing the rights and aspirations” of transgender young people. The three bills, wrote Jason Markusoff, “put Smith on the hard edge of Canadian reforms.”

Senator Kristopher Wells, recently appointed to Canada’s Upper House for his advocacy for sexual minority rights, described the legislation as “the most discriminatory and anti-2SLGBTQ+ legislation in Canadian history.”

When passed by the UCP majority in the House, Bill 26, the Health Statutes Amendment Act, 2024, will prohibit physicians from treating young people under 16 seeking transgender treatment with puberty blockers and hormone therapies.

Bill 27, the Education Amendment Act, will force students under 16 to get their parents’ permission if they want to change their names or pronouns at school. Bill 29, tendentiously named the Fairness and Safety in Sport Act, will ban transgender athletes from competing in leagues not designated as co-ed, among other things.

When Bill 26 is passed by the United Conservative Party majority in the Legislature, it will interfere directly with medical decisions for strictly political reasons – principally the premier’s need to pacify her party’s radical MAGA base at leadership review vote taking place today in Red Deer.

So even if your medical concern is something more commonplace – say, getting your seasonal COVID-19 vaccination or reproductive health care, both of which like gender-affirming treatment have because obsessions of the American MAGA movement that now drives the UCP – you have to wonder what will become the next medical target for the social conservative busybodies of the premier’s caucus. 

“This legislation will dictate what health care services Albertans can and cannot access,” said Friends of Medicare Director Chris Gallaway. “It is an appalling abuse of government power. Health care decisions are between patients and their doctors. The premier reaching in to set health policy like this sets a dangerous new precedent which should be of deep concern to all Albertans.”

Not so long ago, Smith stoutly defended the rights of citizens that she now wants to brush aside. 

A decade ago, a Calgary Sun political columnist described Smith, then the Wildrose Party leader, choking up about the need for gay-straight alliances.

“Wildrose leader Danielle Smith stands in the Legislature Tuesday and talks about meeting kids at gay-straight alliances,” Rick Bell trowelled it on. “It doesn’t take long for her to choke up as she speaks.”

But, hey, it’s been 10 years! 

Just last year, though, in a statement on Pride Month during the 2023 election campaign, Smith was still insisting “everyone deserves to feel safe, welcome and respected in our province.”

“That’s why we will continue to listen to 2SLGBTQIA+ Albertans’ concerns and find ways to strengthen our relationships through dialogue and tangible action,” Calgary Herald political columnist Don Braid quoted her saying in a column headlined, “Why Danielle Smith will lean away from past flakiness, toward sensible government.” 

It would appear Braid has come to regret that assertion. Well, good for him for admitting it. 

Soon after last year’s election, Smith even trotted out a sympathetic story about a non-binary relative, real or imagined. 

“I have a non-binary family member, and I believe these decisions are very personal, and it should not be debated in public,” she said. “We shouldn’t be making any child feel like the issues they’re struggling with are something that’s a political football.” (Emphasis added.) 

Well, that was then, and this is a whole year later. Gender identity issues are personal? Forget about it! Now they’re among the biggest political footballs in Alberta history – and this is a province that’s had a quarterback and a punt returner as premiers! Now Premier Smith is doing the punting. 

Aggressively defending her policy at a press conference on Halloween, the premier barked to a journalist that “we’re going to be making sure that our medical professionals know that this is a treatment that’s available for adults only.”

“Look, doctors were given a lot of latitude to prescribe opioids and now we have a fentanyl crisis as a result of inappropriate prescribing,” she told another reporter by way of explanation, defaming physicians in passing. “And we have had to put guardrails around who can prescribe opioids, how they can be delivered. And I would say doctors aren’t always right.”

She continued, claiming that puberty blockers and hormone therapies will have life-long consequences: “This has supreme consequences on young people,” she insisted. “… If you’re medicalized for life, it has consequences. If you are medicalized too early, it has consequences on fertility. And we believe that sometimes you have to step in and make sure you’re preserving choice and protecting the rights of kids so they can make those decisions as adults.”

This is sophistry, needless to say. “She doesn’t have the medical expertise to be able to make that decision about whether gender-affirming care is appropriate,” an Edmonton pediatrician and University of Alberta professor told The Canadian Press. “Secondly, calling some of these things irreversible or harmful is simply false,” added Dr. Tehseen Ladha.

Readers can decide whom they believe on this hitherto esoteric topic.

But there’s no argument to be made that Smith can be trusted to stand by anything she says. 

Not every conservative politician would fail to do the right thing regardless of the consequences, but Smith has shown us clearly what she does when political expediency demands.

Don’t expect her to change after today’s vote in Red Deer. 

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Since the Sudanese civil war erupted in April 2023, there has been no sign of an end to conflict. This month, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) doubled down on an offensive against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). 

Civilian deaths are mounting. War crimes are being committed with impunity. The UNHCR reports that both parties, and their respective allies, have deliberately targeted civilians, used rape as a weapon of war, and are responsible for “patterns of large-scale violations, including indiscriminate and direct attacks carried out through airstrikes and shelling against civilians, schools, hospitals, communication networks and vital water and electricity supplies.” The RSF has been accused of ethnic cleansing of the Masalit people in West Darfur. 

Airstrikes on the capital have continued through October, with shelling of a market on October 12 by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) killing at least 23 people and injuring more than 40 others.

Issues with the pathways to Canada

The Canadian government has offered few options for Sudanese refugees. 

Though the true death toll is difficult to establish, 20,000 people have lost their lives in the war since April 2023.

In February 2024, the Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship department of Canada (IRCC)  launched a family reunification program that allows asylum-seekers who are Sudanese nationals to seek admission into Canada and pursue permanent residency if they are sponsored by family members already in Canada.

This program has been criticized as financially inaccessible and, with a cap of 3,250 applications, insufficient for the scale of a conflict that has displaced nearly 11 million people. 

When the IRCC opened the program, applications flooded in. But by May, the cap had been met and the program temporarily closed. 

As of October 2024, there is still no government-sponsored humanitarian pathway in Canada for Sudanese refugees, as has been the case for victims of other wars not on the African continent. 

The inadequacy of the IRCC’s response and the ongoing hurdles facing Sudanese refugees have brought the community together. On Sunday October 20, a demonstration by Sudanese-Québecois and the Sudanese Canadian Association of Québec (ASCQC) at Philips Square in downtown Montréal gathered around 30 people to demonstrate for humanitarian action and attention to the war in Sudan.

Amged Khalil, a Sudanese-Canadian who has rebuilt his life as a software developer in Montréal, was one of the organizers. Khalil is celebrating a year of Canadian citizenship, though he came to Montréal seven years ago as a refugee during former President Omar al-Bashir’s dictatorship. 

According to Khalil, five people received approval through the re-unification program during the week of October 21, 2024, with others receiving approval the following week. No one has arrived in Canada to date. 

One of the causes of delay is the federal requirement for biometric data collection in Sudan. Khalil explained that this requirement has not adapted to the reality of a war-zone.

Without a biometric centre in Sudan, refugees are unable to submit the required data to the IRCC. “We have been advised by the government that it is under negotiation,” he explained, adding that a centre may be operational by early 2025 at an International Organization for Migration (IOM) centre. 

He says the Sudanese Canadian Association of Québec is also pushing for data to be collected in Canada: “We cannot afford to lose more lives.”

Québec’s exclusion from humanitarian pathway

Under Premier François Legault’s Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) administration, Sudanese-Québecois are facing unique challenges from the rest of the country, as Québec had been excluded from the IRCC’s program. 

In June, the Québec government halved the threshold on all family reunification programs, with a maximum of 13,000 people until June 2026. 

As Khalil explained, the Sudanese Canadian Association of Québec was created at the beginning of this year to raise visibility for the humanitarian crisis and address the concerns of Sudanese-Québecois who have been excluded from the federal program. 

“We were surprised that Québec was not included because this is not a normal program. This is a humanitarian program,” Khalil said of the reunification program.

Over the fall, national media reported that several people in Sudan who were sponsored through the program had lost their lives while waiting for a response.

“We are watching our families die over there and cannot do anything,” he said.

Residents of Québec may soon be included in the federal program, Khalil said, although relatives are not permitted to live in Québec. There might also be up to 800 additional spots allocated to the federal family reunification program; but these spots also include people who applied in the first round. 

Where is Canadian diplomacy? 

Dr. Emad Tahir is a public health resident and family doctor, who also works with refugees at the Clinique des réfugiés (Montreal Refugee Clinic). Originally from Khartoum, Tahir had worked as a medical resident in North Kordofan state, amid a huge displacement crisis across the country and influx of people fleeing war in South Sudan. Arriving in Canada in 2014, Tahir explained that it took eight years to get into the system amid bureaucratic hurdles that were not the case in other countries like the UK and Ireland. Today, he is raising a family and continuing his medical practice. 

“We expected the Canadian government, and all the Western governments, to have a quicker response to this human tragedy,” Tahir said. “We are speaking about a war. They are dying because of food insecurity. They are dying because of diseases. They don’t have access to healthcare. They die from bullets and shelling. I think it’s nonsense to delay like this.” 

Sudanese asylum-seekers don’t have many options in Canada or abroad.

In the U.S., a humanitarian parole program had not yet been established as the armed conflict escalated in Darfur state over the summer. Around 6,000 Sudanese people arrived in Italy in 2023 amid an increase facilitated by the decriminalization of migrant smuggling by Niger’s coup leaders last winter. 

Providing shelter and assistance to Sudanese people fleeing the war has fallen primarily onto neighboring countries that are also scarred by conflict. 

Within Sudan, people end up in internal displacement camps like Um Rakuba and Tunayadbah near the Ethiopian border. Up to last year, it was here that Sudan had given shelter to Ethiopian and Eritrean refugees from the Tigray war.

In North Darfur, half a million people are facing famine and unsanitary conditions in the Zamzam camp amid worsening outbreaks of cholera, malaria, dengue fever, measles and rubella. 

At the border with Chad, people are shuffled between the Adré and Farchana camps, which grow daily despite being unable to provide water and healthcare. In Egypt, Sudanese refugees including journalists are being deported back into a war-zone. 

Despite the dangers, many who have fled Sudan want to return. Khalil shares that his wife’s elderly parents are among those who insist on going home. They left for Egypt and were lucky to have documents, but they live every day with the stress of leaving their home behind.

Previous ceasefires with the RSF that had been negotiated by the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, failed because both warring parties failed to withdraw troops out of civilian areas. Peace talks by a coalition consisting of Saudi Arabia, the US, Switzerland, the UAE, Egypt, the African Union, and the UN—continue to drag on with fighting continuing through October. Canada is not a member of the peace talk coalition.

Eighteen months into the war, the Sudanese Armed Forces launched what ACLED (Armed Conflict Location & Event Data) has called “the most significant SAF offensive in the capital, Khartoum”. The Global Protection Cluster has reported civilian deaths in eighteen villages, with chaotic displacement of civilians, assault, intimidation, humiliation, indiscriminate shooting, and the bodies of the dead left in streets. By October 26, at least 124 people were killed in an attack by the RSF on the village of Al-Sireha. 

“We can go back to the root of the issue. [Canada] can play a bigger role,” Khalil said, stressing Canada’s diplomatic silence. 

Simply put, people want peace.

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Now that we have before us an actual copy of the United Conservative Party (UCP)’s first bill of the fall 2024 sitting of the Legislature, the new and improved Alberta Bill of Rights with secret sovereignty sauce, serious commentators are bound to start commentating seriously about it.

Indeed, to set the tone, the government’s press release about Bill 24 began by talking about the importance of protecting of fundamental rights. 

So it bears repeating that that Alberta Bill of Rights Amendment Act, 2024, is a fundamentally unserious document. 

Whereas the 1972 Alberta Bill of Rights passed in Premier Peter Lougheed’s first term was well meaning and aspirational, although not of much significance as history has proved because it was not a constitutional document that outweighed other legislation in any way, the 2024 amendments are merely performative, intended to appeal to a UCP fringe that now holds Premier Danielle Smith’s political fate in their hands. 

And while the 1972 bill indeed talked about timeless and universally acknowledged fundamental rights, even if it did little to actually protect them, the 2024 version would have us believe it has added fanciful new categories of rights driven by the ephemeral fashion of the perpetually aggrieved American Right. 

So in 1972 we tipped our provincial cap to freedom of speech, religion and assembly; in 2024, the UCP would have us salute the right to say no to vaccinations we need, no matter whom we infect, and yes to owning assault rifles we don’t, as long as we do so “in accordance with the law.” (Whatever that means, it would be fair to add.) 

“The proposed amendments to the Alberta Bill of Rights address issues important to Albertans and reinforce that Alberta’s government is committed to protecting their rights,” said Justice Minister Mickey Amery in the government’s press release, a quote about as meaningful as this entire exercise. 

Alas as for the would-be law-abiding assault-rifle collectors fooled by this performance, University of Alberta law professor Eric Adams told the CBC, “really nothing is being provided of substance that I can see.” 

He did, however, suggest the prohibition on requiring immunizations could lead to legal challenges against vaccine mandates, although such mandates seem unlikely as long as the UCP continues to cart off the furniture and pull out the phone lines at Alberta Health Services. 

Surely the risk of legal consequences is greater from people infected or otherwise made to suffer by irresponsible unvaccinated health care employees who come to work when they’re ill, and the negligent bosses who allow such behaviour, just sayin’. 

Anyway, these fashionable new “rights” seem fundamentally contrary to the notion of peace, order and good government that is firmly entrenched in the actual Canadian Constitution – so they would likely prove ephemeral even if they were included in a constitutional document, which the Alberta Bill of Rights emphatically is not. 

So while the commentariat may be tempted to wring its hands about the possibility of costly legal challenges caused by the changes to the Bill of Rights, it is said here, again, that the risk is low, and likely to be short-lived.

Meanwhile, the drafters of the bill appear to have contorted their language into legal pretzels to find ways to allow the UCP keep coercive policies that violate fundamental rights  – for example, imprisoning people in “drug treatment” centres and forcing them to take treatment – while insisting they must be able to refuse vaccinations. 

Regardless, no matter how fine its words are, and they aren’t all that inspiring, Alberta’s Bill of Rights remains just another organic statute, passed by a simple majority by a provincial Legislature, without any logical legal reason whatsoever for a court to give it precedence over another provincial law, let alone a federal one. 

As I noted last month, prime minister John Diefenbaker’s 1960 Canadian Bill of Rights suffered from the same fatal flaw. Courts can only strike down a law by appealing to a higher law, and the Alberta Bill of Rights does not meet that standard.

In real life, you don’t draft a constitution – even for a country that will never exist – by giving three goofs from the Free Alberta Strategy word processors and letting them sit down and start typing. You might even get a better result if you tried to implement the Infinite Monkey Theorem instead of leaving to job to Ms. Smith’s new chief of staff Rob Anderson and his pals. 

Thankfully, as NDP Leader Naheed Nenshi pointed out back in September, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms remains the supreme law of the land, including the Alberta part of it, so that will continue to be the best place to challenge unconstitutional laws, including the ones passed by the UCP majority in the Alberta Legislature.

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Thomas et al v. Canada is a class action lawsuit which was filed in the Federal Court of Canada in 2020 on behalf of Black Canadians employed in the Public Service of Canada.

The action seeks to address and dismantle the systemic racism and discrimination within the Public Service of Canada. Specifically, for Black individuals who applied for employment with the Public Service and were denied entry based on their race, and those who were employed but were denied promotions based on their race (including those who have been employed within the past five decades).

rabble.ca and labour reporter Gabriela Calugay-Casusa have been following this story as it develops, and this week Calugay-Casuga sat down with Bernadeth Betchi, a representative plaintiff who shared why seeking justice through the court is meaningful to her.

About our guests

Bernadeth Betchi is a representative candidate for the Black Class Action lawsuit.

In 2023, Betchi ran for the position of president of the Canadian Association of Professional Employees (CAPE). Her candidacy was historic, she was the first Black woman to ever put her name forward for the position. Betchi is also a co-founder of the Ottawa-Gatineau Black Breastfeeding week. This week aims to bring awareness to the realities of Black parents and their access to support when it comes to breastfeeding. Outside of organizing, Betchi is a PhD candidate in her fourth year of studying philosophy, feminist and gender studies.

If you like the show please consider subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Youtube or wherever you find your podcasts. And please, rate, review, share rabble radio with your friends — it takes two seconds to support independent media like rabble. Follow us on social media across channels @rabbleca. 

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Albertan consumers and businesses have overpaid $24 billion in electricity costs since the sector was de-regulated in 2001. The Alberta Federation of Labour has released a report calling for re-regulation and a new Crown Corporation to be called Alberta Power. An interview with AFL president Gil McGowan.

RadioLabour is the international labour movement’s radio service. It reports on labour union events around the world with a focus on unions in the developing world. It partners with rabble to provide coverage of news of interest to Canadian workers.

The post Alberta: Power to the people! appeared first on rabble.ca.

As the federal court continues to hear from the federal government and representatives of the Black Class Action Lawsuit, one representative plaintiff shared why seeking justice through the court is meaningful to her. 

Federal court proceedings to certify the Black class action lawsuit began this week and are expected to last for up to 12 days. The certification hearing will determine whether the case alleging systemic anti-Black racism in the federal public service can move forward as a class-action lawsuit. If certified, the lawsuit would cover all Black federal public service workers and job applicants from 1970 to the present, amounting to approximately 45,000 impacted workers. Plaintiffs are seeking $2.5 billion in damages. 

Bernadeth Betchi is a representative plaintiff for the case. She said this class action being certified would be a huge win for collective healing. 

“When you are a black person, a racialized person, someone who has been put in the margins, you know when people come to attack you,” Betchi said. “You know when people are there to oppress you. Folks will try to gaslight you and say that it’s all in your head. But we know our body is political.” 

Betchi said for many Black workers, the chronic stress of workplace discrimination can lead to widespread mental health issues. It is hard for people to leave this hurt at work, she said, and this means the Black community as a whole is affected. She said if this case gets certified, it could set a precedent for other marginalized groups. 

“These oppressions that we’re fighting right now with the Black class action suit are specific to black people, but many other groups in the margins can relate to some of these oppressions,” Betchi said. “Because they’ve been oppressed for maybe the color of their skin, for their sexual orientation, for their religion.” 

Since Monday, the court has heard the government argue that some departments should be excluded from the lawsuit because of overlapping class action lawsuits. As well, it is arguing that this lawsuit should not be certified because unionized workers have a grievance process through the federal labour relations board. 

During question period yesterday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was asked why the federal government continues to fight Black public servants in court. 

“In extending the UN Decade of support for people of African descent, this government has done more to recognize systemic bias, systemic discrimination, unconscious bias and anti-Black racism than any other,” Trudeau said. 

“We’re continuing to invest in anti-Black racism initiatives, continuing to stand with the Black community. There’s always more to do, and we will do it,” he added. 

Kofi Achampong, a legal advisor for the Black Class Action Secretariat (BCAS), said it is important all departments are included in this class action because it accounts for over 50 years of discrimination. 

“This [lawsuit] is unprecedented in various ways, and at the core of it is the idea that there’s common experiences across departments, across agencies,” Achampong said. “There’s a systemic problem in the way in which the government deals with hiring and promotion.” 

He emphasized that taking the government to court is one of the best ways to seek justice given recent reports that indicate there is in fact systemic discrimination in the federal public service. 

In 2023, the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat concluded that the Canadian Human Rights Commission discriminated against its own Black and racialized employees after nine employees filed grievances through their unions. 

This year, the Public Service Alliance of Canada joined the BCAS in releasing an internal report from the Privy Council Office which showed there is a workplace culture of racial stereotyping, microaggressions and verbal violence. 

For Betchi, things seem hopeful for this class action. 

“When it does get certified, we still have a long road ahead of us,” she said. “We haven’t quite won yet, but if it does get certified, then we’re one step further. We need to celebrate every single step, because we know that they’re not easy to get to.” 

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For too long we’ve clung to the Western concept of nature as something outside cities — far away and disconnected from most people’s daily lives.

Yet people need to spend time in nature because it improves physical and mental health. Without nature in their daily lives, people suffer more from depression and disease, reduced productivity and shorter lives. Children face the cognitive and behavioural consequences of living apart from natural surroundings. Without ecosystems to disperse, store and clean water, cities are saddled with crumbling pipes and sewers that municipal governments can’t afford to maintain and repair. Nature also provides clean air and water and healthy food. Urbanites removed from nature’s distress signals are slow to notice a planet in crisis.

So how do we invite nature into a city without pushing people out of the way?

It starts with the premise that both nature and people belong in cities, as intertwined co-creators of the urban landscape. Nature belongs where we are, and we belong in nature. From that premise flows an invitation that enhances cities, restores our connection with nature and rebuilds our relationships with each other.

I recently had the honour of co-authoring the foreword to a new book, Nature-First Cities: Restoring Relationships with Ecosystems and with Each Other. It promotes “nature-directed stewardship” in urban areas. This concept was developed by renowned ecological planner Herb Hammond and co-authors Cam Brewer and Sean Markey to address the non-urban challenge of protecting ecosystems and the rural communities that depend on them in the face of relentless resource extraction.

As an alternative to activities such as clearcut logging, nature-directed stewardship focuses on what to protect: ecological integrity, biological diversity, healthy watershed ecosystems, community employment and diverse, stable communities — not on what to use (commercially valuable timber). It shows that by prioritizing ecosystem protection, long-term economic and natural stability follow.

Nature-directed stewardship has not yet been fully applied to urban areas. In Nature-First Cities, Hammond and his co-authors outline a comprehensive rationale for why we should pursue it. It includes a detailed methodology, supported with case studies from Vancouver and Vancouver Island, with international comparisons.

Restoration is neither a quick fix nor a primarily human endeavour. Returning ecological integrity to degraded ecosystems in urban areas, or anywhere, is a slow process. Humans can help to reactivate natural processes and sometimes catalyze positive change, but recovery is up to nature. Of course, the more ubiquitous the urban development, the fewer the opportunities for restoration. New developments offer more ecological restoration options, whereas older, established cities impose constraints on restoration of their more thoroughly degraded ecological conditions. In either case, nature-directed stewardship can help.

Accompanying the commitment to restoration is a commitment to stop doing the things that create the need for it to begin with. To achieve this obvious but often ignored goal, new designs and developments must protect ecological integrity, occur within ecological limits and fit people into ecosystems.

Nature-directed stewardship in cities starts by understanding the natural character of the ecosystems that existed before the cities. This is contrasted with existing conditions, and the gap in ecological integrity between the two is the restoration target.

Nature-directed stewardship aims to re-establish natural ecosystem character (composition, structure and function) over an entire watershed.

Instead of creating a network of primarily existing ecological integrity — as would be the case when applying nature-directed stewardship in forests, grasslands and other landscapes — in urban areas it starts with establishing a network where restoration activities will lead to future ecological integrity.

As these components emerge, the shape of a restoration network appears. Linking the components at multiple spatial scales will establish and strengthen a restoration network across the watershed. With enough time and effort, this will mature into a protected network of ecosystems with ecological integrity, from small sites to the focal watershed within which the city is located.

I love cities and I love nature. But we need to reconcile the two by dispelling the lie that humans are separate from nature. The practical outcome is restoration of an urban environment that reinforces our place in nature.

Nature belongs in cities. For this reason, we need to redesign cities so they include biodiversity and intact ecosystems. More importantly, we need a fundamental shift in our relationship with urban green spaces, one that recognizes we are part of nature.

David Suzuki is a scientist, broadcaster, author and co-founder of the David Suzuki Foundation.

Learn more at davidsuzuki.org.

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Seeing my grandpa’s birth certificate for the first time was an emotional experience. My dad and I were finally applying for official Métis citizenship, which required documenting our ancestral and cultural ties to the Red River Settlements. As we went through the colonial government’s documentation of my family, I saw how this nation viewed our people. Under the parental “racial origin” section of my grandpa’s birth certificate read “French half-breed.”

That memory resurfaced when I first heard the controversial statements made by Marina Sapozhnikov—the BC Conservative MLA candidate in the Juan de Fuca riding near my home in the Cowichan Valley (unceded Quw’utsun territory). According to an article in the Vancouver Sun, Sapozhnikov made derogatory remarks during an interview with a Vancouver Island University student on assignment to attend the Conservative election night party. Upon learning the student was studying Indigenous studies, Sapozhnikov dismissed the entire academic discipline as “all a lie,” claiming Indigenous history has been falsified as a part of an “agenda” in universities.

Sapozhnikov said that Indigenous peoples were “savages” before European colonization, claiming they had no sophisticated laws and “didn’t even have an alphabet” (perfectly exemplifying eurocentrism, the idea that the “west” should be the pinnacle of humanity and the standard to which all other cultures should be compared.)

But the concern and emotions I felt when hearing Sapozhnikov’s remarks were not solely about the words she used, but more about the overall sentiment of what those words represent in this political moment. The normalization of extremist politics and the justification of white supremacist rhetoric are a signal of emerging forms of fascism that none of us should ignore.

Contextualizing the dehumanization of Indigenous people

Métis people, or Michif, or otipemisiwak, or however we choose to describe ourselves, were classified as “half breed Indians” by colonial authorities. In the eyes of the colonial government and settlers, this did not mean we were half-Native and half-European—it meant we were half human. Métis, First Nations and Inuit were considered the lowest demographic. We were forcibly sterilized, stolen from our families, subjected to poverty, and violently dispossessed from our land, though not without resistance (see: Red River Resistance, North West Resistance, and the on-going Wet’suwet’en resistance as just a few examples).

And they called us savages?

Historical records further highlight the dehumanization of Indigenous people through the words of Canada’s leaders. Canada’s first Prime Minister, John A. MacDonald, once said, “These impulsive half-breeds have got spoiled by this emeute (uprising) and must be kept down by a strong hand until they are swamped by the influx of settlers.”

Regarding residential schools, he said, “When the school is on the reserve the child lives with its parents, who are savages; he is surrounded by savages, and though he may learn to read and write his habits, and training and mode of thought are Indian.”

And Canadian politician Nicholas Flood Davin was just as explicit with his words: “Indian culture is a contradiction in terms. They are uncivilized. The aim of education is to destroy the Indian.”

These quotes should be antiquated and left for us to learn about in classrooms—not the type of classrooms that sought to destroy the Natives, but the type that honours Indigeneity. Instead, the BC election has revealed that this colonizing spirit is alive in the hearts of today’s politicians.

Sapozhnikov’s claims fundamentally misrepresent well-documented historical reality, and it’s shocking to hear this language from someone with such close proximity to power as a former medical doctor. While BC Conservative leader John Rustad denounced Sapozhnikov’s views, his party’s actions tell a different story. The BC Conservatives’ education platform initially stated it would “remove classroom material that instills guilt based on ethnicity, nationality or religion.” Such policies, combined with party members’ extremist views and statements, create an environment where education is degraded so that racist ideologies flourish. As Assembly of First Nations Regional Chief Terry Teegee explains to CBC News, remarks like Sapozhnikov’s only embolden hateful views in our society.

On October 29, Sapozhnikov made a statement on social media expressing regret, saying she used an outdated term and that she was “not aware of the full meaning of and emotional charge that it carries or its historical context,” and that she will use this event “as an opportunity to learn and grow.” I sincerely hope Sapozhnikov sees the irony in believing that Indigenous studies is illegitimate while simultaneously admitting to being ignorant about Indigeneity and Canada’s history of ethnic cleansing.

pic.twitter.com/QCPrBQJwh0

— Marina Sapozhnikov for BC MLA (@MSapozhnik9106) October 30, 2024

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— Marina Sapozhnikov for BC MLA (@MSapozhnik9106) October 30, 2024

A pattern of far-right organization and conspiratorial thinking

The election night remarks are not an isolated incident. Sapozhnikov and other aspiring Conservative politicians have engaged in anti-Indigenous activism for several years, joining a broader pattern of far-right political organizing in British Columbia. In March 2022, Sapozhnikov spoke at a far-right “We Unify” freedom convoy rally, urging the “freedom movement” to get involved in politics by running for municipal councils, provincial and federal offices, and school boards. Later that year, she ran for school board in the Cowichan Valley alongside other “freedom movement” members, campaigning on an anti-SOGI 123 platform.

Following her unsuccessful school board bid, Sapozhnikov organized for the Land Keepers Society, a non-profit created to oppose the Cowichan Estuary Restoration Project. She and other conservative hopefuls spoke at a Land Keepers Society town hall, sowing distrust about the estuary restoration project and climate science in general by suggesting the project was part of an international conspiracy to take private property from non-Indigenous people. In 2023, I published an investigation for The Breach into the Land Keepers Society, detailing how and why it opposes the restoration project. The project, which is co-led by Cowichan (Quw’utsun) Tribes, aims to restore stolen Quw’utsun land and strengthen biodiversity to mitigate the climate crisis.

Using social media platforms like Telegram, this neo-conservative movement coordinated across British Columbia during municipal and provincial elections, promoting “freedom” candidates, holding in-person trainings and town halls, aligning with far-right groups like BC Rising, and opposing Indigenous rights, including UNDRIP and DRIPA implementation—a stance also supported by John Rustad and the BC Conservative Party.

A 2017 study on conspiracy theories argues that during periods of crisis, people grappling with uncertainty and powerlessness often seek to oversimplify complex problems by identifying clear villains. While the strain on our social structures and institutions has indeed intensified causing many of our basic needs to go unmet (especially during the pandemic), the root causes can be traced to the systemic impacts of capitalism and imperialism. Yet rather than confronting these convoluted structural forces that impact us all, many instead redirect their anger toward imagined shadowy cabals, which tends to manifest in white supremacist and other discriminatory beliefs.

As the recent BC election shows, many people are now turning to ultranationalism as a solution to these problems. Sapozhnikov’s comments reveal deep conspiratorial thinking around Indigenous rights and a supposed insidious agenda behind teaching Indigenous cultures and histories from a non-Western perspective. Rather than acknowledging that the colonial foundations of the “west” were built on white supremacy and genocide, conspiracists turn to beliefs that Indigenous peoples (and other historically marginalized groups) are part of a sinister global scheme to oppress individual freedoms.

It’s time to connect the dots here: the normalization of such views within mainstream politics is not an isolated matter. Sapozhnikov’s election night comments reflect a broader movement that seeks to rewrite historical truth and undermine fundamental human rights.

The post BC Conservative candidate’s anti-Indigenous rhetoric must not be treated like an isolated incident appeared first on rabble.ca.

Dear rabble rousers, ‘tis the night to carve a pumpkin, dust off your witch hat and eat your weight in bite-sized chocolate and caramel goodies! It’s Halloween! 

During this spookiest time of year, all of us here at rabble wanted to wish you a very safe and happy All Hallow’s Eve. 

We also wanted to remind you that, while the Canadian news landscape may seem a dark and frightening place right now (what with the blackout of Canadian news on Meta and misinformation flooding social media), rabble.ca remains unwaveringly committed to sharing the progressive take on the stories that matter most to you. 

We know we don’t need to remind you – but there’s a lot going on right now. 

The upcoming U.S. presidential election, important elections in three Canadian provinces, a growing humanitarian crisis and genocide in Gaza – and that’s only the tip of the iceberg. 

Now imagine being without a trusted independent media source like rabble to share that news with you! 

*shudder* We can’t even imagine that! That’s too scary! 

For over 23 years, rabble has upheld its commitment to telling underreported stories while remaining free from corporate influences. And to keep you informed on the newest issues that mainstream media won’t cover, we rely on your support.

This Halloween, support rabble.ca!

Breanne Doyle, managing editor
On behalf of the entire rabble staff

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In this clip, poet, professor and activist El Jones explains how all social movements – from the Idle No More movement, to Black Lives Matter, to solidarity with Palestine – are all linked; and how when these movements come together to support each other, real change is possible.

El Jones is a poet, author, journalist, professor and activist living in Halifax. She is the author of Abolitionist Intimacies (2022) and Live from the Afrikan Resistance! (2014).

This is a clip from rabble’s most recent live politics panel: Off the Hill: Catching up on US and Canadian politics. Guests this month included NDP Member of Parliament for Churchill—Keewatinook Aski Niki Ashton, policy analyst Chuka Ejeckam, poet and activist El Jones and rabble’s own parliamentary reporter Karl Nerenberg. Co-hosted by Robin Browne and Libby Davies.

Off the Hill is a fast-paced live panel on current issues of national significance, hosted by Robin Browne and Libby Davies. This series focuses on the impact politics and policy have on people and on ways to mobilize to bring about progressive change in national politics — on and off the hill. To support Off the Hill, visit rabble.ca/donate.

The post El Jones on how social movements influence each other appeared first on rabble.ca.

According to some wag on the Internet, Blaine Higgs has changed his pronouns. They’re now Has/Been. 

I don’t know enough about New Brunswick politics to be certain if the cruel and needless anti-trans policies Higgs imported from the Benighted States of America are the reason he’s finished as premier of that beautiful Maritime province and even as MLA for the riding of Quispamsis.

I’m sure New Brunswickers had a multitude of excellent reasons want to be rid of the man and his Conservatives in the province’s general election, but it seems likely his focus on the pronouns children choose to use was at least part of what brought him crashing down a week ago. 

No matter, here in Alberta, Premier Danielle Smith is doubling down on the same kind of cruel nonsense, packing the Legislature sitting that begins today with bills attacking trans kids, political interference in medical treatments, and performative invention of distinctly un-fundamental rights designed to appeal to her party’s MAGAfied base. 

Of course, Smith isn’t preparing for a general election and may well try to gaslight away the significance of the fall 2024 sitting’s agenda when the time comes to pivot to the wants of a larger sample of voters.

Right now, though, she’s anxious to appeal to her United Conservative Party’s social conservative and hydrophobic MAGA factions with promises they can buy assault rifles and hysteria about the gender of kids who just want to play soccer. 

So the 13 bills her government plans to introduce as quickly as possible – presumably getting all of the worst ones on the order paper before the end of the week so her angry and oppositional base will be sufficiently placated not to use her leadership review at the party’s November 1-2 AGM to run her out of Red Deer on a rail as they did to her predecessor, Jason Kenney. 

Accordingly, UCP House Leader Joseph Schow spent a lot of his time at a news conference Friday trying to give the impression the upcoming bills have nothing to do with Smith’s immediate political needs and everything to do with her consultations with “grassroots Albertans” about what really matters to them – you know, gun ownership and the danger children changing their pronouns might end civilization as we know it.

This is of course pish-posh, as the reporters present kept pointing out, citing surveys suggesting what’s really on most Albertans’ minds is stuff like affordability, health care, and housing. 

Moreover, most of the consultation the premier has been doing lately seems to have been at members-only UCP town halls, and readers will have a pretty good idea of what segment of the electorate has been showing up for those based on the unauthorized recordings that have leaked out of the sessions. Chemtrails anyone? 

Schow, MLA for the Cardston-Siksika Riding deep in southern Alberta’s Book-of-Mormon Belt, clumsily tried to dodge most of those questions by insisting reporters should really talk to the responsible cabinet ministers – who, naturally, were not at the newser. 

As for questions about whether or not the government would use the Notwithstanding Clause of the Canadian Constitution to ram through clearly unconstitutional aspects of its War on Trans Kids legislation, he dodged those with a similar lack of finesse. 

“You know I think I’ve already answered to the most part … answered as much as I, I really can about the Notwithstanding Clause and, and using it. You know, again, it’s something that’s at the disposal if necessary, but what I actually go back to is how important this legislation is. We’re talking about the health and safety of youth in Alberta, we’re talking about parents being involved in their kids’ education, and we’re talking about safety in sport.”

One hates to ponder how the UCP might decide to go about what its news release called “protecting fairness and safety in sport by ensuring biologically born women and girls have the opportunity to compete in biological female-only categories.” 

There will also be legislation continuing the UCP’s program of dismantling Alberta Health Services and fiddling with workplace safety legislation. Nothing good can be expected to come from those things either. 

Despite his uncertain performance, Schow did respond confidently to one journalist’s question about how Smith would do in her November leadership review. “I think she’s gonna rock it,” he asserted. “She’s gonna crush it.” Well, perhaps there are reasons for his confidence. 

Coincidentally, on November 2, New Brunswick Liberal Leader Susan Holt will be sworn in as New Brunswick’s 35th premier. 

The post Danielle Smith’s government doubles down on its war on trans kids appeared first on rabble.ca.

In episode four, Palestinian storyteller Sarah Abu-Sharar joins us for our third annual Mouth Open Story Jump Out episode. Through Palestinian folktales and stories of her father, she reflects on the meaning and power of stories within Palestinian resilience, recuperation and resistance.

Reflection on her journey into storytelling, Abu-Sharar says:

“When I started storytelling, it had to be for Palestine because it was reclaiming my identity. It was a way of saying, the Occupation might have deprived me of my land, of my culture, but I will resist by telling our stories.”

About today’s guest:

Sarah Abu-Sharar comes from a long line of storytellers on her paternal side. She tells stories to both adults and children. Abu-Sharar has told stories both nationally and internationally at festivals in Canada, Italy, Croatia, Bosnia, Tunisia, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates. Because Abu-Sharar grew up in several countries she tells stories from all over the world with the focus on Palestinian and Croatian stories where her roots lie. Her favourite stories are ones that promote social change. She has also used stories in a therapeutic way with children in refugee camps and refugee children in Toronto, as part of their therapy. She works at the Parent Child Mother Goose Program using traditional storytelling to encourage parent child bonding. Abu-Sharar belongs to a collective called “Musical Story Studio” where stories and music are combined. She tells stories so that she may go deep inside of the tales and find herself in far away magical places that she remembers, from long, long ago.

Transcript of this episode can be accessed at georgebrown.ca/TommyDouglasInstitute or here.

Image: Sarah Abu-Sharar  / Used with permission.

Music: Ang Kahora. Lynne, Bjorn. Rights Purchased.

Intro Voices: Ashley Booth (Podcast Announcer); Bob Luker (Tommy)

Courage My Friends Podcast Organizing Committee: Chandra Budhu, Ashley Booth, Resh Budhu.

Produced by: Resh Budhu, Tommy Douglas Institute and Breanne Doyle, rabble.ca. 

Host: Resh Budhu.

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