The Marxist-Leninist Daily

Taking Bold Stands in Defence
of the Rights of All and to
Make Canada a Zone for Peace

June

TML Daily continues its month by month photo review of the stands taken by the working people of Canada and Quebec and Indigenous peoples in 2018 with the month of June.

June opened with Ontario's 35th Annual Injured Workers' Day actions at the Ontario Legislature and across the province. Held just days before the election, these actions called on everyone to take up injured workers' just stand that "Workers Comp Is a Right!" Based on this uncompromising stand, along with the stand that workers have a right to safe and healthy workplaces, injured workers mobilized throughout the province to put their problems on the agenda for solution. The initiatives taken by the injured workers and all others during the election put them on a fighting footing in the period after the election, where an immediate response was required from working people and their collectives to the anti-worker anti-social offensive of the Ford government, unleashed in the name of making Ontario "open for business."

In Quebec, demonstrations, roundtable discussions and other actions that opposed the G7 Summit in Malbaie, made clear that the G7 and its neo-liberal anti-democratic agenda is rejected by the peoples of the world. The militarization of their region, used to criminalize dissent during the summit, was also vehemently rejected. These actions showed that the claim of the ruling circles that the G7 upholds an international rules-based system in which the people should have confidence is not accepted by the people, who instead relied on their own experience with the anarchy and violence that is increasingly imposed by the big powers on international relations. Speaking at an open mic, a Marxist-Leninist Party representative pointed out that these powers have destroyed politics, leaving only destruction, anarchy, chaos and war; that is why we are stepping up our work to build a political movement based on the people becoming the decision-makers to provide society with a new direction that favours them. This was corroborated by the G7 proceedings, which were fraught with conflict.

The month also saw continued opposition to the Trudeau government's planned purchase of the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline with a day of action organized at MPs' constituency offices across the country demanding the buyout not proceed and that no pipeline be built without the consent of the Indigenous peoples.

Important stands in defence of the rights of all were taken in June. In Montreal, an important press conference followed by a march was held that brought to the fore the plight of migrants in Canada. Organizers from Solidarity Across Borders refuted the claim that the Canadian and Quebec governments do not have the means to provide proper care for migrants crossing into Canada from the U.S. The attempts to blame migrants for depriving the rest of the population of services was flatly rejected. It was pointed out how migrants are used as scapegoats to cover up that it is the anti-social offensive, with its cuts to health care, education, social programs and so on, that is to blame. The conference heard moving testimonies from persons without status at risk of deportation. The organizers pointed out that their work has taken on new importance in light of the attacks on the rights of immigrants and refugees in the U.S., especially faced with the refusal of the Trudeau government to follow through on its commitments to protect immigrants and refugees.

The month ended with demonstrations in cities across Canada against the increasingly brutal attacks by the U.S. government on the rights of refugees and migrants and in particular the criminal detention of children and separation from their families. The actions took place in concert with large-scale mobilizations across the U.S. The Canadian actions affirmed the stand that "Refugees Are Welcome Here." People called for Canada to end its "safe third country" agreement with the U.S. that in practice is yet another way in which Canada has been embroiled with U.S. border security measures, against the desire of working people that Canada be a country that defends the most vulnerable.

June 1
Injured workers make their voices heard at spirited rally and march in Toronto
on Ontario Injured Workers' Day demanding "Workers' Comp Is a Right!"

Following the rally, injured workers hold a town hall candidates meeting and discussion on their concerns in the context of the province-wide Workers' Comp Is a Right! campaign and the Ontario election.

http://cpcml.ca/WF2018/WO0521.HTM#1 (Photos: WF, ONIWG, K. Taghabon)

Injured Workers' Day actions take place in Peterborough, London, Windsor and Thunder Bay as part of the province-wide campaign.

Peterborough

Windsor

London http://cpcml.ca/WF2018/WO0521.HTM#2

June 3
Citizens of La Malbaie march to oppose the holding of the G7 Summit in their region and reject its militarization as a means to limit the right to political expression.

http://cpcml.ca/Tmlw2018/W48022.HTM#3 (Photos: CIHOFM, Centre-Femmes aux plurielles,Comité populaire Saint-Jean Baptiste, @TheTocsin)

Picket in Vancouver at a celebration of the 70th anniversary of the establishment of Israel on stolen Palestinian lands. Picketers also denounce the Jewish National Fund which hosted the dinner and is responsible for building "Canada Park" in Israel on the lands of three Palestinian villages, destroyed in 1967 in the Six Days' War.

June 4
More than 100 protests are held from coast to coast at the constituency offices of Members of Parliament decrying the use of public funds to bail out private U.S. pipeline monopoly Kinder Morgan. Copies of a petition opposing the project and bailout are delivered to MPs. More than 250,000 people have signed the petition.

Prince George, BC

Comox Valley, BC

Port Alberni, BC

Parksville, BC

Sidney, BC

Surrey, BC

Maple Ridge, BC

Mission, BC

Chilliwack, BC

Kelowna, BC

Vernon, BC

Nelson, BC

Whitehorse, YT

Red Deer, AB

Calgary, AB

Edmonton, AB, June 5

Saskatoon, SK

Prince Albert, SK

Winnipeg, MB

North Bay, ON

Guelph, ON

Lindsay, ON

Toronto, ON

Peterborough, ON

Ottawa, ON

Hull, QC

Montreal, QC

Fredericton, NB

Antigonish, NS

Bridgewater, NS

Halifax, NS

http://cpcml.ca/Tmlw2018/W48022.HTM#5 (Photos: B. Appledorf, K. Balzer, M. Youds, L. Collins, Rise Resist Kinder Morgan, H. Tuffs, Dogwood Society, Peace Arch News, M. Fatur, J. Smith, M. Jacques, Saskatchewan Climate Justice, S. Moreton, K. Armstrong, LeadNow, E. Bland, J. Green, 350 Canada, Council of Canadians, Cmry)

June 7 - 9
Unity march in Quebec City affirms "The G7 does not represent us!" Rather it represents capitalism and its most oppressive, colonialist and militarist features. Participants refuse to marginalize themselves within what the ruling elite and its police forces have decreed a "free expression" zone, and take their protest to the streets, in full view of everyone.

June 9
A roundtable discussion, open mic and march through the streets of Quebec City give voice to the peoples' stand that the G7 is illegitimate and violates the sovereignty of countries and peoples to serve an increasingly small global economic elite, and should be disbanded. The march takes place under the banner "United Against the G7."

June 14
Cuban Ambassador to Canada Josefina Vidal is the keynote speaker at a Montreal meeting on Cuba's recent election and the situation in Latin America.

June 16
A conference takes place in Toronto on the unfolding events on the Korean Peninsula in the wake of the historic Panmunjom Declaration and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea-U.S. Summit in Singapore. A similar event is held in Vancouver the next day, as part of informing and involving people in Canada in the important developments for peace on the Korean Peninsula.

Solidarity Across Borders organizes a press conference and march in Montreal to bring the plight of migrants in Canada to the fore and demand status for all.

Demonstration in Toronto following the June 7 election of the Ford Conservatives demands the government not privatize public services and not revoke improvements to labour law and the minimum wage included in the 2017 Bill 148.

June 21
More than 300 crane operators demonstrate outside the head office of the Quebec Construction Commission in Montreal to denounce the deregulation of the trade and the consequent downgrading of health and safety standards which impacts not only crane operators but all construction workers and the public.

June 22
Indigenous leaders and their allies march in Ottawa to demand the Canadian government recognize their title to the ancient sacred site of Akikodjiwan/Ainabka and not finance a massive Zibi condo project on the land.

June 23
The 100th anniversary of the death of labour organizer and socialist Ginger Goodwin is marked in Cumberland, BC. The anniversary is marked with a re-enactment of the massive funeral held in his honour by his fellow workers after he was killed by Dominion police who were hunting down those who refused to take part in World War I.

June 25
Vigil on Parliament Hill demands the Canadian government stop the deportation of Mohamed Harkat to Algeria on unproven allegations based on a spurious security certificate process. The longstanding injustice against Harkat is yet another example of the Canadian state's use of "national security" concerns in the name of justifying and codifying exceptional measures that can then be used against the workers and others fighting for rights.

June 28
Community barbeque reflects broad support in Goderich, Ontario for 350 striking workers at Compass Salt Mine. The workers have been on strike since April 27, rejecting the company's demand for concessions, including onerous overtime conditions. Their just stand wins broad support, while the company brings in scabs to carry on production.

June 29
In Hamilton, locked-out workers at Max Aicher North America and their supporters picket the company gates to mark the fifth anniversary of the lockout by the German company. They and their supporters reiterate the demand that the company stop running the plant with scabs and end its lockout. This is yet another example of monopolies that are permitted to wreck Canada's economy, while governments refuse to hold them to account.

http://cpcml.ca/WF2018/WO0525.HTM#6

June 30
Demonstrations across Canada affirm the human rights of children, refugees and immigrants, and condemn the U.S. government's brutal and wholesale attacks on them, in particular the detention of children and separation from their families. Actions take the stand that "Refugees Are Welcome Here" and call for Canada to end the "safe third country" agreement with the U.S.

Hamilton, ON

Kitchener-Waterloo, ON

Guelph, ON

London, ON

Winnipeg, MB

Edmonton, AB

Lethbridge, AB

Victoria, BC

http://cpcml.ca/Tmlw2018/W48026.HTM#8