Hypocrisy and lies against Cuba: A letter to Tory MP David Anderson

TJ Petrowski

The following is a letter to David Anderson, Conservative MP for Cypress Hills-Grasslands Saskatchewan. It exposes Mr. Anderson and the hypocrisy of those politicians who have put forward a deceitful campaign against the Cuban Revolution in the wake of Fidel Castro's death.

Dear David Anderson,

I am writing to express my disgust with your false and outright disgraceful polemic in the House of Commons recently about the death of Fidel Castro and the revolutionary government of Cuba.

I’d like to respond to some of your criticisms of Castro and of the Cuban “communist regime.”

New Ontario Tory leader fuels campaign of ignorance

Liz Rowley

Originally published in Peoples' Voice newspaper

On May 4th and 5th, 35,000 elementary students – almost 90% - were kept out of school in Brampton and Toronto’s Thorncliffe Park neighbourhood to protest the new sex education curriculum being introduced in health and phys ed classes in September by the provincial government. 

As far as protest organizers are concerned, no sex education is the best education for their kids – and yours too.

The protests are the result of a massive disinformation campaign carried out by Campaign Life, the Christian fundamentalist Rev. Charles McVety, fundamentalists in the South Asian community who are the main targets of this campaign, and organizers for the new leader of the Ontario Conservatives and several of his Queen’s Park caucus.

Harper Vs. Women

by Marianne Breton Fontaine

Rape culture, discrimination, poverty, violence, etc.; the list of evils of patriarchy is long. One might think that every year, the status of women is improving in Canada. But it’s not, and it's not just women's groups and the left that say so. According to the World Economic Forum, Canada’s place on the international gender equality index has steadily declined from 7th place in 2004, to 25th in 2009. This is not a coincidence; it is the result of clear policies enacted against the advancement of women's equality. Yes, Harper is anti-women!

Funding for women's groups

Since Stephen Harper took power in 2006, the Conservative government gradually eliminated funding for groups that promote women's rights. For example, he has closed 12 of the 16 regional offices of Status of Women Canada. The Conservatives have made significant changes to the funding criteria of women's organizations, saying that they will only fund groups that are “directly involved” with women. In other words, groups that were doing research on issues affecting women, defending feminist positions or lobbying on women’s issues are no longer considered eligible for funding. Harper did not stop there. He also removed the word "equality" from the ministry’s objectives. Thus, groups such as the Victoria Status of Women Action Group (SWAG) and the Coalition for Pay Equity in New Brunswick saw their funding cut drastically, and in some cases these groups have had to close their doors permanently.

C-24 Expands Tory Attack on Human Rights

By Kimball Cariou - Reposted from People's Voice Newspaper

Anti-C24 rally in early July 2014, Vancouver

Passed in June by the House of Commons, Bill C‑24, the new "Strengthening Canadian Citizenship Act (SCCA)," imposes new requirements to obtain citizenship, and makes it easier for the government to revoke it.

            Human rights groups are planning a legal challenge to the SCCA, which effectively creates two classes of Canadian citizens, each with very different sets of rights. The Bill allows the federal government to strip the Canadian citizenship from dual nationals convicted of some offences. The law could apply in cases where Canadians are convicted in foreign courts, and even to people born in Canada if they also have citizenship elsewhere, such as through their parents.

            Amnesty International, the Canadian Association of Refugee Lawyers and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association say that giving the government the power to revoke people's citizenship is the same as banishing them into exile. They argue the legislation does not include enough safeguards to protect Canadians. Opposition MPs and other advocacy groups, including the Canadian Bar Association, have also objected to the bill.

            The new revocation provisions are "divisive and buy into and promote false and xenophobic narratives about `true' Canadians and others, which equate foreignness with terrorism," says an analysis released by Amnesty International Canada.

Call-out to the second-annual YCL-LJC student conference

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Open only to members of the YCL-LJC or by invitation

1. We believe in the principle that the student movement is one of the most radical, dynamic and progressive forces for change in society and the future.

2. The uprisings of students in the Middle East and North Africa, the brave united battles of the Chilean students, and the massive struggle in Quebec last winter and spring have shown the validity of the optimistic claim that the young people, united with the working class, are continuously an important catalytic force for social transformation, overthrow and revolution.

3. At the same time, new, contradictory and even confusing developments are taking place internationally and locally. We believe that the student movements in Quebec and English-speaking Canada are at a difficult but significant and even historic juncture.  At stake is our basic access to education.

Tory youth stoop to new low

Special by Rebel Youth

The Campus Conservatives of Ontario have sunk to a new low.

On their website the Tories have launched a provocative graphic featuring an ape with the sign -- "Silly Tories, everything should be for free!" (a message from the Left).

Update: the Tory youth have dropped this graphic after our article exposed their shallow ad campaign.

This is, of course, mockery and provocation posing as satire. But it also has a nasty edge.

Tory youth leader resigns over racism

Report from Sun News

Manitoba’s Progressive Conservative party says its youth president has resigned following racist comments he made on social media on Friday.

Braydon Mazurkiewich expressed disappointment on his Facebook page in regards to the Kapyong Barracks land deal that would see the former military base turned into an urban reserve.

“I wouldn’t want to live anywhere near there!,” Mazurkiewich wrote of the southwest Winnipeg property.

The 24-year-old went on to say the space was “built for hardworking men and women of the military, not freeloading Indians.”

The party condemned the comments and asked for Mazurkiewich’s resignation.

“As PC Manitoba Party President I have asked Brayden Mazurkiewich for his resignation and received it,” party president Ryan Matthews said in a statement late this afternoon.

Matthews called the comments “conduct detrimental to our party.”

Mazurkiewich had served as the party’s youth president since February 2012.

YCL CEC on Election and Youth

Struggle and resistance 

is the way forward!

The results of the 2011 Federal election are a call to action for the youth and student movement. It is time to pick up our picket signs and banners for major mobilization against the extremely dangerous Harper Conservative majority government.

The Conservatives have no mandate from the young people, nor from the people in general, to accelerate their pro-capitalist, anti-peace, anti-environment agenda – and this must not pass! In confronting our emergency situation, young people should take heart in the fact that Harper won the support of less than 25% of registered voters.

The election has also shown how flawed the Canadian voting system is. The situation calls out for mixed-member proportional representation. 

Struggle shifts to outside parliament

Commentary by the Central Executive Committee, Communist Party of Canada

The May 2nd federal election gave Stephen Harper and his Conservative Party an absolute majority in the new Parliament. But to do it they had to hide their real agenda, and spend millions in payoffs and promises they may never deliver. They haven’t convinced a majority of Canadians to privatize medicare and social programs, and they haven’t sold Canadians on their sky-high military spending, the wars in Afghanistan and Libya, or their war on civil, democratic and labour rights. The outcome did not reflect a political swing to the right among voters, and Harper has no real mandate to impose his reactionary agenda on the working class and the peoples of Canada.

In fact, the Conservatives garnered less than 40% of votes cast, and only 24.3% support among all registered voters. There was no seismic shift to the Conservatives; rather, the Tory majority came about primarily due to vote-splitting between the Liberals and the social democratic NDP in key ridings, especially in Southern Ontario and British Columbia.

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.

First Nations Students Live In University

Protest funding cuts that will lead to school's death

by GARSON HUNTER - reprinted from The Dominion

Suggestive of an eagle in flight, the First Nations University of Canada building was designed by architect Douglas Cardinal, whose work reflects his Metis and Blackfoot heritage. The building officially opened in 2003. The property is located within Wascana Centre Authority and owned by First Nations University of Canada Inc. Under its Saskatchewan Treaty Land Entitlement Agreement with the federal and provincial governments, Star Blanket Cree Nation is seeking reserve status for the 32.5 acres of land. The main campus is in Regina, located within the Treaty Four area, on Cree-Saulteaux land. There are also FNUC campuses in Saskatoon and Prince Albert.

Surrey tells Harper to get lost

Groups protest Harper appearance in Surrey

A number of groups came together Tuesday to pull off a noisy and boisterous protest of an appearance by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in Surrey. About 50 people chanted and made noise to protest various aspects of the PM's policies outside a Conservative Party fundraiser taking place at the ranch of Senator Gerry Saint Germain in South Surrey. The "Harper Welcoming Committee" included the Fraser Valley Peace Council, StopWar.ca, No One Is Illegal and the Olympics Resistance Network.

"Harper and his Conservative supporters heard loud and clear tonight about a number of issues where this government is out of line with the wishes of a majority of people in Canada," explained protest co-organizer Marla Renn, co-chair of the StopWar.ca Coalition. "From the war in Afghanistan, to the urgent need for social housing and the fight for war resisters to be allowed to stay in Canada, we got our message across."

Tories try to wreck student unions

Report taken from Ryerson Free Press

Leaked materials were posted on WikiLeaks.org over the weekend have added to the growing body of evidence that the Conservative Party has a strategy for interfering in campus student unions.

In 2002, a secret Millennium Leadership Fund of the youth wing of the Progressive Conservative Party was exposed by the Western Gazette in an article called “Tories plot to infiltrate student government.”The article referred to an email leaked in March of 2002 in which then OPCCA President Adam Daifallah boasted to fellow party members about Millennium Leadership Fund recipients who were successfully elected that year at Queen’s University, the University of Waterloo and the University of Windsor. According to the Gazette, the Millennium Fund was largely paid for by senior Progressive Conservative members and supporters.

Now it appears that strategy has evolved into a campaign to falsely obtain student union funding and destabilize student clubs with a social justice mandate.