The gun register and women

Quote from the Canadian Firearms Program Evaluation.

Police and CFO’s require better sensitization to domestic/family violence in
circumstances where those committing the act are also firearms owners.
Recent Canadian research in one province has shown some possible national
implications.

The study found that hunting rifles and shotguns are part of
the cycle of abuse for many victims of family violence living in rural areas.
The researchers learned that there is a very high tolerance level for firearm
misuse in rural communities, compared to that in urban communities.
Interviews with abused rural women, crisis workers, and police suggest that
for some abused women, threats with hunting rifles was a part of the
everyday life and that these firearms played a role in creating a climate of
control and intimidation. This ranged from dealing with their partner’s
frequent threats of suicide, damage to property, or threats to harm her, the
children or the pets/farm animals if she should ever leave. Such intimidation
increased women’s fears that something deadly could happen. The
acceptance of firearms as a normal occurrence in domestic violence
incidents often reduced the perceptions of firearms abuse and risks of
lethality even among professionals. Several service providers who worked
with victims noted that when a client (abused woman) said that there were
firearms in the home (hunting rifle or shotgun), it did not cause alarm. Some
police in the study (in particular regions) removed firearms in domestic
cases, while several officers mentioned that they did not routinely search for
and seize firearms in a domestic case. Authority exists in the Criminal Code
for police to seize firearms from all alleged perpetrators of domestic
violence. A recent Supreme Court of Canada decision may further put onus
to police to consider firearms present, even if they are unused, as possible
and probable threats to the victim’s safety, and hence fit for removal.

Check out this article on the gun registry and why we should keep it.

WFDY on racist laws in France

Against racism and xenophobia: the anti-imperialist struggle is the only way for victory!

WFDY has come to know with shock and indignation that the French President (Nicolas Sarkozy) has proposed severalxenophobic and racist measures, as part of the strategy that will lead the country to a “national war”.The several measures announced, such as the loss of French nationality for the French “with foreign origins” if they haveever attacked a policeman and destruction of half of the Roma illegal camps within 3 months, are terrifying and establisha clear link with the darker period of this country the Collaborator and fascist government of 1939-1945.

Romas who are not in a regular situation are hunted, being them many of them have expelled to Romania by charters or“invited to leave” in exchange of a compensation. The presidential will of quick expulsions is fulfilling.

WFDY draws attention to the fact that, alongside with these measures, Sarkozy’s administration is taking ahead counter-reforms that clearly aim to destroy the rights of workers and youth, in line with the general measures followed by theEuropean Union members’ Governments, and that are being rejected massive demonstrations of the French people.

As proof of our anti-imperialist thesis, that racism is nothing but a tool of the system to divide the workers to better ruleand exploit them, these measures are being justified by the French Government as an initiative to eradicate the sourceof the problems of the French people: the foreigners.

These racist measures don’t acknowledge the vital contribution of the immigrants to the development of France anddon’t recognize that the origin of the problems with the immigrants have a social origin, thereby being the state’sresponsibility to solve them by eradicating poverty, exploitation and human trafficking.

WFDY is sure that the cause for the problems of the peoples, in France as everywhere else in the world, is the imperialistdomination of the world and that the only measures that can ever answer to the needs and problems of mankind arethose taken in a framework of the overthrown of imperialism, as part of an economic, social and political system in favorof the youth and peoples.

We call upon all our member and friend organizations to support MJCF and the whole progressive movement of Francein the struggle against the attacks of the French youth and people, calling your attention to the importantdemonstration of September 04, as well as to continue the struggle against imperialism in their own countries.No human being is illegal!

Kenney spars with protesters, thanks communists

September 01, 2010
Reprinted from the Guelph Mercury

Jason Kenney gave as good as he got Tuesday during a visit to Guelph.

The federal Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism got a glimpse of Guelph political activism as he attended the Guelph Conservative Party’s annual summer barbecue in Riverside Park.

About 100 turned out to meet and hear Kenney, whose recent changes to rules governing foreign workers and funding for immigration services have sparked much discussion in the media.

A coalition of about 30 protesters occupied a picnic area about the length of a soccer pitch away from the Conservative event, but the pitch of their voices over a megaphone was shrill and loud enough to clash with Kenney and Guelph Conservative Party federal candidate Marty Burke during their remarks.

Jason Kenney not welcome in Guelph!

Statement by the YCL Ontario

This Tuesday, August 31^st, Guelph Conservatives welcome federal Citizenship and Immigration (Censorship and Deportation) minister Jason Kenney. Mr. Kenney is coming as a special guest to a BBQ hosted by the Guelph Conservative Party, along with their candidate for the next federal election. But he isn’t just here to enjoy the food, the company, the summer weather – or even the beautiful scenery at Riverside Park. Mr. Kenney is here on a mission: to portray the Harper government’s immigration program as being about creating a welcoming, multicultural Canada for immigrants from all over the world by playing on the popular sentiments of Canadians who genuinely hope that this is the case.

Labour needs to take the lead!

Labour demonstration in Greece


Labour Day 2010 statement, Central Executive Committee, Communist Party of Canada

This year's Labour Day takes place two years into the most serious capitalist crisis since the Great Depression. The so-called "recovery" is already faltering in Canada and around the world. Corporate profits and huge bonuses for top executives have rebounded, but for working people, the reality is continued high unemployment, falling incomes, more social cutbacks, and new attacks on wages and pensions. On a global scale, the working class faces the unchecked growth of militarism and imperialist wars, and the impact of deepening environmental problems and natural disasters.

In this complex situation, the labour movement and its allies desperately need to build a massive, united and coordinated fightback campaign. But the experience of the past two years shows that the willingness of workers to struggle for their rights has yet to be matched by the leadership of the trade unions. The time has come to stand together and say: those who reap billions in profits must pay for the economic crisis!

Faced with a stubborn refusal by most working people to surrender to the right-wing agenda, the ruling class and the Harper Tory minority government have increasingly resorted to demagogic tactics designed to create divisions and muddy the waters, such as the racist campaign against Tamil refugees and the scrapping of the long-form census. In Canada, the most visible and powerful public rejection of Tory policies - the demonstration by some 40,000 people during the G20 Summit on June 26 in Toronto, including thousands of trade unionists - was met with brutal state repression, including the arrest of over 1,000 protesters and bystanders.

The corporate/government attack has been particularly sharp against organized workers, such as the Vale Inco strikers who held out valiantly for one year in Sudbury and Port Colborne against the outrageous attempt by their Brazilian-based bosses to gut their collective agreement.

There are many other positive signs that workers across Canada are ready to take on the corporate agenda. These include lengthy and determined strikes by university employees, civic workers, and Steelworkers in Ontario, and by the paramedics in British Columbia. In Montreal, 75,000 public sector workers and their allies marched on May Day this year, during the Common Front negotiations with the Charest government.

These examples prove that Canadian workers are just as capable of challenging the ruling class as our sisters and brothers in other countries. The powerful upsurge of general strikes and mass protests in Greece, Portugal and other countries has inspired workers everywhere to step up our militant resistance

However, the truth is that heroic struggles by workers across Canada have been weakened by the labour movement's inability to mobilize its full potential. Time and again, we have witnessed the refusal by many union leaders to build broad community/labour solidarity campaigns around strike battles or wider social issues. This trend includes the retreat from mass action by the Common Front union leaders in Quebec, the collapse of the Coalition to Build a Better B.C., the reluctance of the Steelworkers Union to appeal for wider support for the Sudbury strikers, and the attempts by some forces to hamstring important efforts by the Ontario Federation of Labour leadership to move in a more militant direction. Most troubling, the Canadian Labour Congress itself remains unwilling to engage in the type of movement-building which would rally millions into action against the corporate agenda.

Some activists mistakenly argue that the difficulties in mobilizing the labour movement for a major struggle mean that workers have "sold out" or that the trade unions are a spent force. This wrong assessment has fuelled attempts to impose divisive tactics on the people's movements, such as the claim that isolated acts of property damage, rather than mass action, is the only way challenge the foundations of ruling class power.

The real lesson of these experiences is that working people in Canada have the strength and understanding to conduct tough battles for their rights, despite that challenges of cold weather, scabs, police brutality, corporate media slanders, and relentless political attacks. When organized workers have leadership which matches their capacity for struggle, important victories have been achieved. But when leadership consists of looking for "exit strategies" or calls to retreat at the first sign of pressure, workers are understandably reluctant to take chances.

On this Labour Day 2010, the Communist Party of Canada salutes all working people across our country and around the world who have chosen to fight rather than surrender. Their struggles have played a major role in slowing the offensive by the corporations and pro-business governments (including many led by social democratic parties) against the interests of the entire working class.

We renew our call for the labour movement in Canada to play a leading role in stepping up resistance against the corporate attack. It remains both timely and urgent for the CLC and other labour federations to convene a broad People's Summit, with the full participation of the Aboriginal peoples, youth, seniors, women, immigrants, anti-war and anti-racist groups, environmental groups, and many other movements. Such a Summit should develop an Action Plan to bring down the Harper Tories and other pro-business governments, and to block the offensive by the corporations.

Unity can and must be built around a set of immediate demands for a People's Recovery Program, such as expanded EI coverage, a massive investment in low-income housing and improved social programs, and reversing the huge tax cuts given by the Tories and Liberals to the corporations and the wealthy. These and other pro-people demands are needed to rally millions into action, rejecting the lie that "there is no alternative" to the policies favoured by big business.

We urge trade union members and all activists in the people's movements to raise their voices for such a perspective to move from isolated defensive battles, towards a strategy of coordinated, united, mass resistance, based on recognition that "an injury to one is an injury to all." The working people of Canada have nothing to lose from such a strategy - and we have a better future to win!

2010 BDS Conference Oct 22-24

Since 2005’s historic Palestinian call for a comprehensive, international movement for Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israeli apartheid, we have seen many important victories for this movement in both Québec and Canada.

The past two years have seen growing numbers of Québec civil society organizations taking up the call for BDS. From the student movement and the commitment to BDS passed by L’Association pour une Solidarite Syndicale Étudiante (ASSÉ) in 2006; to college and university workers calling for boycott under the banner of College and University Workers United (CUWU) in early 2009; to the resolution in support of BDS adopted by the members of the Centrale des syndicats du Quebec (CSQ), one of Quebec’s largest labour federations, growing numbers of people have enthusiastically joined the international BDS movement.

Beyond Québec, the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) has become the first union at the Canadian level to join the BDS campaign, while the Ontario branch of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE-ON) has also helped to push the boycott to centre stage. The past two years have seen increasing public debate on the issue of BDS in Canada, whether during the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival; within the United Church; in the public debates on the academic boycott on university campuses in Ontario; or in LGBTQ communities, where queer activists organized anti-Israeli apartheid contingents in pride parades in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. This energy in diverse sectors of society shows that the movement for BDS against Israeli apartheid is growing.

Now is the time to reflect on the successes of the BDS movement in Quebec and Canada to date and to consolidate and intensify our efforts in solidarity with the people of Palestine, who continue to suffer under the brutal system of Israeli apartheid. All BDS activists, as well as anyone who is interested in learning more about BDS, are invited attend to a 3-day BDS conference from October 22 to 24th , 2010 in Montreal, Quebec. Together we will map out the next steps in the Quebec and Canadian movement to end Israeli apartheid and to free Palestine!