Rebel Youth launches petition against Kevin O'Leary

Rebel Youth magazine has launched a campaign as our next issue goes to print. Each issue we publish features someone we think stands out as self-appointed spokesperson for the 1%, the big guys or perhaps most accurately, the ruling class. With a smile, we call it the class enemy of the month. In association with this story, we are running a campaign at change.org to Fire Kevin from the CBC. The petition statement is below. We encourage people to check it out and online. We will be posting more updates over the next weeks.

Sign the petition here.

Kevin O'Leary is a multi‑millionaire and owner of the asset management company O'Leary Funds. He has appeared with Amanda Lang on CBC's The Lang and O'Leary Exchange since 2009, and stars on the shows Dragons Den and its US counterpart, Shark Tank on ABC.

"Fire Kevin O'Leary" is urging the CBC to dismiss this notorious venture capitalist "dragon." Mr. O'Leary is abusing his position at the CBC to explicitly promote his own for‑profit businesses. He is hijacking the public broadcaster with a socially destructive message of corporate greed, privatization, selfishness, and austerity.

These shows are really about catering to the Harper Tory government and its "slash-and-burn economic action plan". It is ironic that the CBC seems to have become a bastion of right‑wing commentators like Rex Murphy and Don Cherry. In this group, Mr. O'Leary stands out as a chief spokesperson for the vicious agenda of "money‑over‑everything" and "greed is good," which is being used as an ideological battering ram against young workers and all people in Canada.

Thus he is the face of the poverty‑creators, the job‑destroyers, the union‑busters ‑ basically, of the austerity agenda.

Researching for the campaign, Rebel Youth magazine found a series of cases where Mr. O'Leary called unions a "parasite" on business.

"Elect me as Prime Minister for 15 minutes," Mr. O'Leary said on a show. "I will make unions illegal. Anybody who remains a union member will be thrown in jail." He adds that "Unions are sheer evil [...] Unions themselves are born out of evil. They must be destroyed with evil", and "no one could contain unions in hell. They were so evil they came out of hell and they came upon earth."

These remarks, which could have come out of the mouth of a fascist dictator, prompted several complaints. The National Union of Public and Government Employees wrote that "Trade unionists are beaten and murdered in many countries around the world, simply because they believe in workers acting collectively to improve workplace conditions such as pay, hours of work, health and safety, and job security. [...] Mr. 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."

The CBC Ombudsperson, however, refused to intervene.

Its time to restore and increase funding to the CBC so they don't have to cater to the O'Learys of the world to win adverstizing revenue.  Sign our petiton today and send CBC, Mr. O'Leary and his supporters a clear message: its time for Kevin to move on and get a new job.

25 years after Morgentaler, struggle continues to defend and expand the reproductive rights of women

This article is the first part in a series we are running on Rebel Youth in preparation for International Women's Day on March 8th.

In the same week as women and men celebrate the 25th anniversary of the historic Morgentaler decision which decriminalized abortion in Canada, a group of right-wing Harper Conservative MPs want to push women's reproductive rights back into the dark ages.

The latest attempt to attack abortion rights has come from three Tory MPs: Maurice Vellacott of Saskatoon-Wanuskwein in Saskatchewan, Leon Benoit of Vegreville-Wainwright in Alberta and Wladyslaw Lizon of Mississauga East-Cooksville in Ontario.

In their letter (addressed to the RCMP Commissioner on House of Commons letterhead) the MP's demand the RCMP launch a "national investigation" into abortions after 19 weeks gestation calling them "possible murders."  

Blast from the 80s - The trouble with normal

Bruce Cockburn

Strikes across the frontier and strikes for higher wage
Planet lurches to the right as ideologies engage
Suddenly it's repression, moratorium on rights
What did they think the politics of panic would invite?
Person in the street shrugs -- "Security comes first"
But the trouble with normal is it always gets worse

Callous men in business costume speak computerese
Play pinball with the Third World trying to keep it on its knees
Their single crop starvation plans put sugar in your tea
And the local Third World's kept on reservations you don't see
"It'll all go back to normal if we put our nation first"
But the trouble with normal is it always gets worse

Fashionable fascism dominates the scene
When ends don't meet it's easier to justify the means
Tenants get the dregs and landlords get the cream
As the grinding devolution of the democratic dream
Brings us men in gas masks dancing while the shells burst
The trouble with normal is it always gets worse

Witnessing a glimpse of the real Cuba

Peter Bazarov

What is Cuba? Ask the average American, and it is very likely that you will hear some variation on JFK’s “imprisoned island” hokum, where that small island is described as a testament to the bearded tyranny that is seemingly endemic to the developing world.

Ask the average Canadian and you will probably hear a description of softly lapping waves, cheap but delicious rum, and how they bought a t-shirt with some fellow named Che on it for only $10.

But if you were to leave the privileged confines of the West, if you were to go to the villages of Angola, to the streets of South Africa, or to the Barrios of Venezuela, you would hear about the shining example that Cuba presents in the face of Empire. You would hear about the sacrifices that the  Cuban people have made and still make, sacrifices in the name of solidarity with the people who Franz Fanon called “the wretched of the Earth”.

All of this in mind, a question emerges: what is Cuba?  And which description is right?

For me the answer didn’t come from a book, a film, or a “CNN Special Report”. I was able to witness a glimpse of the real Cuba when I went on the 20th annual Che Guevara Volunteer Work Brigade, and saw for myself the beautiful nuances and complexities of Cuban life.

The Brigade was a three-week long program that took me and 40 other Canadians (fellow Brigadistas as we called each other) through the Eastern half of Cuba, and was centered primarily in the pleasant and slightly dreamy city of Holguin (the capital of Holguin province). The city became a defacto base camp for the Brigade as we had a packed itinerary that saw us visit a diverse collection of locales ranging from medical centers, to wind farms, to opera houses.

Each daily trip offered a glimpse at the life of the Cuban people in a way that you could never otherwise see; a glimpse of Cuban life that did not hide the difficulties and the struggles of the Cubans, but also revealed their resilience, optimism, and continued vigor in building a better world.

The most amazing surprise of the whole experience however, was not something mentioned in the pamphlets or in the itinerary. Even considering all that was planned and organized, much of the trip placed us at full liberty, and it was during this time that everyone was able to explore and understand the Island on entirely their terms.

The adventure and idiosyncrasies of such exploration are not easily generalized, so instead allow me to share a personal anecdote of one of the more interesting free roaming experiences of the trip.

This particular adventure began on May Day, after we had been in Cuba only two days. As this was our first day of free time, a number of Brigadistas (including myself) decided to dedicate the day to unbridled exploration; it was as good a day as any, and the annual May Day parade provided a colorful backdrop to our anticipated adventure.

What we didn’t anticipate was the lack of directional sense that afflicted everyone in our little group. Now getting lost in Cuba is not a heart-quickening experience by any stretch of the imagination, as crime is almost non-existent - I would venture to claim that the streets are more dangerous in Canada.  However, we were getting hungry and were not used to Cuba’s sweltering heat. Alas, our Spanish was poor, and with nary a peso in our pockets a Taxi back to our quarters was out of the question. Thankfully, we were rescued by an unlikely hero.

That afternoon a medical student by the name of Fares was walking home from the May Day Parade, and with him he had a large Palestinian Flag hanging off of a bamboo pole. Though our group spoke little Spanish, one person did speak Arabic, and when we saw the young medical student with the flag we were certain we were saved.

Lucky for us, Fares was not simply bi-lingual in Spanish and Arabic, he was a veritable polyglot and spoke fluent English among many other languages. Not only did he offer to direct us back to the hotel, but he also invited us for tea and lunch at the student residence.  Without hesitation we took him up on the offer, and our small group of adventurers quickly found itself sipping tea at the International Residence of Holguin University, discussing middle-eastern politics with Fares and his two room-mates.

As it turned out, Fares and his roommates had moved to Cuba four years ago from Palestine, enrolling in medical school thanks to Cuba’s policy of internationalist free post-secondary education.

The friendship between the Mayday rescuers and the Brigadistas quickly flourished and we would see Fares and his friends many other times throughout the trip. With their assistance and their knowledge of the city we saw the nooks and crannies of Holguin, the little art-galleries, the best salsa-halls, and the student haunts; indeed, they even brought us to a Deep Purple tribute concert where we heard an excellent if slightly accented rendition of “Smoke on the Water”.

Somehow, even with the daily excursions and the spontaneous adventure, the Brigade also engaged in volunteer labour (as per the name). The volunteer labour consumed only a small amount of time on the trip, but as I fondly recall those weeks it was the volunteer labour which brings the biggest smile to my lips.

The volunteer labour consisted of us Canadians helping out at a construction site for the first two weeks and at a farm for the final week. We worked side by side with everyday working class Cubans, doing the kind of manual work that is exhilaratingly different for a bookish student such as myself.

While the labour was obviously more symbolic than necessary (the Cuban workers were much more qualified to do farming or construction than most of the Canadians), it nonetheless decreased the workload for the labourers onsite, and provided an opportunity for us Canadians to bond with the Cubans through shared labour.

In my case, I hope that my broken Spanish mixed with wild gesticulation was enough to establish a connection with some of my temporary Cuban co-workers, and in this way foster a feeling of solidarity.

Among the tapestry of new experience and adventure that made up the Ernesto Che Guevara Volunteer Brigade, the tales above are but a single thread. By the end of the trip, a sense of Cuba emerged for all of the Brigadistas, a feeling that made us understand why that little island had survived in the face of such adversity and why it still needs our solidarity. We saw a Cuba that was complex but beautiful, a human Cuba that’s been too often hidden from our sight.

Get involved in the Brigade -- check out this link to the main site of the Brigade with all the details of the current adventure including prices and dates, and connect with more past Brigadistas over Facebook.

I get this call everyday...

Rebel Youth

David S. Gallant is a young worker who would rather be designing video games than working in a call centre.

Who can blame him? How many times are young people of our generation told we can grow up and be the dream we want to be -- only to find out we will be facing lower rates of pay than our parents, most often in jobs without unions, and a shredded public network of social programmes.

Instead of doing his dream in the creative arts, David found work at the Canada Revenue Agency.

Call centre work, as anyone who has worked there knows, is alienating and exploiting work.  And for literally hundreds of thousands of young people in Canada, especially in the East Coast, its how we pay our bills.

...Cue the audio book of the Communist Manifesto saying that "the modern working class developed — a class of labourers, who live only so long as they find work, and who find work only so long as their labour increases capital. These labourers, who must sell themselves piecemeal, are a commodity, like every other article of commerce, and are consequently exposed to all the vicissitudes of competition, to all the fluctuations of the market."

David thought he found a way of pushing back, perhaps a bit in the style of the lone wolf, and made this video (above) to promote the game he titled... I Get This Call Every Day.

The tax man didn't seem to appreciate it. Now he's been fired from Revenue Canada.

"They terminated my employment as of Jan. 29," David told CBC news, who described the game as a scenario where users listen to calls from customers and are given options for how they can respond to the inquiries -- like "I'm not your buddy, sir" to rile up callers.

A statement the government issued stated that "The minister has asked the CRA to investigate urgently to ensure no confidential taxpayer information was compromised."

"I felt the need to express myself, and despite the fact that I could've lost my job for it, I still wanted to ensure that I got my art out there and I made it available to people," David also told CBC.

Maybe someone should make a meme: irony and sarcasm disqualify you from employment? Tell me more about your Robot Army of Wage Slaves...

At first glance it may seem like David is just mocking ordinary callers who dial into Revenue Canada, and of course he is. But really he is mocking the whole set-up of call centres.  He is mocking the powerlessness of call centre workers.  He is mocking the experience of being a cog in the wheel.

And frankly we all know that if David phoned his boss and asked for a pay raise or basic dignity at work, he would be, so to speak, 'hung up on.'

CBC also reports that "Gallant has received a slew of tweets of encouragement and says he almost doubled his daily rate of sales on Tuesday to about $500."

Is anyone surprised?

Solidarity with you, David Gallant, and all call centre workers. David should get his job back right away.

David should also have the right to contribute to society and do work that has genuine meaning. That would require a different social order than capitalism, however, where the bosses were out and the people run the show. But that's our socialist perspective, here at Rebel Youth. Maybe you agree.

Book Review: In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts

By MaryCarl Guiao

In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts by Gabor Mate is a compelling tale of addiction, abuse, and compassion.  Mate is a practising physician in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside and he based the book on two decades of personal experience and countless interviews with his patients.  The focus of the text is addiction but it covers everything from addiction to chemical drugs, to the author's own addiction to classical CDs.  This Canadian best-seller is written with exceptional elegance and style despite the depressing and sometimes horrific stories told within.  This book would appeal to both a professional audience interested in medical and treatment issues, but also to people who live with "hardcore" addictions seeking to put their own experiences into context, an understanding of their illness, and a path to healing.


The author makes it clear that conventional treatment and recovery are not exactly the end goal of his work.  It has more to do with compassion - he strives to let these people be who they are without judgement, and in the process helps them to reduce the harm they would otherwise inflict on themselves and the local community.  Canada's ground-breaking safe injection site is housed in the same building as Mate's office and is an example of this line of thinking: if you are going to inject yourself with drugs, at the very least you should have clean needles and medical staff nearby.  He takes issue with the punitive nature of Canada's drug laws and a society that "ostracises" those that become addicted to chemical drugs.  The non-profit Portland Hotel Society where he is employed offers a range of programs designed to meet the basic human needs of those who live and work on Vancouver's infamous Hastings Street.  Basic housing, meals, medical and dental care are the base services offered, and when the Society can afford it, they also organize camping trips, movie nights, and other social events to provide alternative experiences to some of Canada's most abused, shunned and forgotten inhabitants.


Vermin, disease and death are all too common in the lower Eastside and the opening pages alone recount details of over ten lives lost to the lifestyle of drug addicts.  The book is a mix of anecdotes, retold stories, and hard facts.  Almost every patient of Mate's is a convicted criminal, more than half are diagnosed with mental illness, and a third are HIV-positive.  But amidst the heart-wrenching details of poverty-stricken Hastings Street, the reader is struck with a sense of awe in how the book portrays these homeless, and in many ways helpless, individuals as human, and worthy of dignity and compassionate care.  Mate himself remarks how at times he feels "full of disapproval and judgement", but he also tries to recognize that the contradiction in his personal views originates within him, and that there is a power imbalance in the role he plays in their lives, and the role they play in his.


It is this element of self-reflection that makes the book ground-breaking and effective in facilitating healing.  While the first 100+ pages focus on crack, heroin and meth addictions, the later pages offer insight into the author's own "high-status" addiction: the purchase of classical CDs, of all things.  The switch is not only helpful to lighten the tone of an otherwise heart-wrenching subject matter, but it is also a very persuasive way to influence the reader to self-reflect on their own addictions.  The narrative allows one to appreciate how they too are influenced by many of the same primal urges of instant gratification that drive addiction, and to reflect on how it is that some of us get addicted to crack, while others seek pleasure in food, sex, or buying things like classical CDs.  The tell-tale signs of addiction, like hiding details from friends and family, are confessed by the author in the context of his addiction to buying CDs in a way that encourages the reader to deepen their understanding about their lives and addictive tendencies.  Aside from being an interesting literary style, it is an incredibly powerful way to generate a compassionate understanding by the reader of the ways in which they too could have been a crack addict if their life had been slightly different, and most especially if they were more frequently prevented from accessing opportunities to gain thorough and compassionate self-understanding.  


Mate is drawn to classical CDs partly because he was exposed to them early on.  Might the addicts in this book have been drawn to something else if their childhood involved different influences, ques, and precursors?

UK: Half of jobless youth suffering depression

Morning Star newspaper

A "frightening" wave of austerity-stoked chronic depression is battering young people across the country, researchers found today.

The Prince's Youth Trust (a UK charity - RY) found that 27 per cent of working young people are "always" or "often" depressed - while the figure rocketed to 48 per cent for those not in paid work, education or training.

More than one in 10 young people said they felt unable to cope with day-to-day life, rising to a fifth of those with neither employment, education or training, according to the trust's annual Youth Index.

Pollsters who surveyed more than 2,000 16-to-25-year-olds found a clear link to the economic crisis.

More than a quarter said they believed it had "permanently damaged" their career prospects - and a fifth of those out of work said they believed their self-confidence would never fully recover.

Youth unemployment currently hovers around 20 per cent, with the total number expected to reach more than a million again this year.

Those in work continue to see hours, pay and conditions dwindling.

Official figures in November showed that of the 316,000 new jobs since 2011, more than two-thirds were part-time - with an average 15.8 hours paying just £155 a week (or about $246 CND - RY).

Prince's Trust chief executive Martina Milburn said it was often those from the most vulnerable backgrounds who found it hardest to get work, creating a "demoralising downward spiral."

"A frightening number of unemployed young people feel unable to cope - and it is particularly tough for those who don't have a support network," she said.

The survey follows an alarming study in August directly attributing more than 1,000 suicides since 2008 to the economic crisis.

Researchers at the University of Liverpool found 846 men and 155 women took their lives during the last four years over and above pre-recession trends - meaning around two-fifths of the rise in suicides among men could be attributed to rising unemployment.

Suicidal protests are also on the rise. In December an 18-year-old Torbay man set himself on fire after being refused housing, while a Birmingham man set himself alight outside a jobcentre in June.

Is the same thing taking place in Canada? Share your point of view and experiences in our comment section.

Graphic: Grand Theft EI (employment insurance)

Discussion: the student movement is my movement

The Canadian Federation of Students has released a new and polished video about the necessity for the student movement. Without making an over-analysis of a simple video, the Youtube can kick-off wider discussion about the situation of the student movement today and what needs to be done. Here are five quick proposed questions. Comments are open here, and on our RY facebook page.

1. What do you think about the problems or grievances listed in the video. Do you have experience with these concerns? How or how not? What is going on at your campus?

2. The goal of the film is to draw more people into a united student movement. Do you think the message is complete? How or how not? If you had only three minutes to talk to a student about the importance of united action, what would you say?

3. Would you make reference to the Quebec student struggle? Why do you think the video does not? What would you tell students about the Quebec student strike? What about other struggles, like Idle No More or against Bill 115?

4. In the dynamic of the student movement, is unity -- or as this Youtube says being 'united' -- enough? What is the connection between unity and struggle? Could they be opposites? Could they be linked?

5. How does this film compare with the YCL's perspective towards the student movement and our demands?


Note: RY will have news shortly about the big announcements in the past few days about Quebec tuition fees.