The Guelph Young Communist League and supporters of the campaign
flyered mall customers and displayed large signs in support of Firing Kevin
O’Leary from the CBC.
Although Chapters management and mall security were less than
pleased to see them, there was warm response from many members of the public. Even outside a Kevin O’Leary book signing it
seemed that there was more support for the campaign than for Mr. O’Leary’s
pro-big business bigotry.
The public often responded with encouraging statements such as “Yeah, f**k that guy, that’s a great cause”, “That guy’s a dick!” and “What did he do this time?”. Many stopped to have more in depth chats about Kevin O’Leary and said they would sign the petition to fire Mr. O’Leary and restore and expand funding to the CBC.
The following is the callout for the Guelph action:
O'Leary recently provoked public outrage when he said that an
Oxfam report showing that the wealthiest 85 people on earth had as much wealth
as the poorest 3.5 billion was “Fantastic.” O'Leary believes that this massive
disparity of wealth will inspire and motivate the poor to work harder, so that
they too can join the super-wealthy elite. In reality, O'Leary is aggressively
defending a system that is creating extreme wealth for a tiny handful and mass
poverty for the majority of the planet. This is nothing new for O'Leary, who
has a long history of obnoxious and offensive statements in defence of the
wealthy:
- O'Leary has frequently expressed his violent hatred of unions, organizations that millions of Canadians belong to, saying that if he were Prime Minister, he would “make unions illegal. Anyone who remains a union member will be thrown in jail.” He says that “Unions...are born out of evil. They must be destroyed with evil.” The National Union of Government and Public Employees pointed out that “O'Leary's wilful promotion of contempt and hatred towards unions reflects a viewpoint that has often ended in violence perpetrated against union members and leaders around the world”.
- He has said that education is a privilege and that unemployed students 'deserve to be in debtor's prison'
- Expressed admiration for frighteningly ultra-capitalist and writer and ideologue Ayn Rand
- Called interviewee “an Indian giver (sic) with a forked tongue” when referring to the guest's opposition to foreign corporate control of Saskatchewan's potash industry. CBC Ombudsperson concluded that the remark was “unambiguously offensive”.
- Described his spot on Dragon's Den as 'Free advertising'
The common thread in these remarks is O'Leary's belief that the
rich must be able to accumulate more and more wealth, regardless of any social
cost. The context for these comments, and O'Leary's public prominence, is the
global austerity offensive that is destroying public services, attacking
workers' rights and undermining every gain made by working people. Kevin
O'Leary is a mouthpiece for the super-rich elite that already controls most of
the world's wealth, but wants to eliminate any obstacles to accumulating more.
The Young Communist League of Canada's Rebel Youth magazine is
calling for CBC to fire Kevin O'Leary and stop giving him a platform to express
these destructive views, false statements and self-serving ideology. The
petition has gathered thousands of signatures to fire Mr. O'Leary and restore and expand
funding to the CBC so that the public broadcaster does not have to cater to
voices like O'Leary's to attract advertising revenue.
If
you agree that our public broadcasting station shouldn't be giving space to
this voice of the ultra rich in whose goal is to strengthen the austerity
attack on the vast majority of the public, join us in protesting Kevin
O'Leary's talk at Chapters this Tuesday.
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