December 28, 2018

2018 Photo Review

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

December

TML Daily completes its month-by-month 2018 Photo Review with the struggles waged by the working people of Canada and Quebec and the Indigenous peoples in December.

The 70th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was marked in December. Many of the actions during the month brought out the need to fight for human rights in Canada today. The actions pointed to the need for the people to start with the present by demanding their rights based on their actual situation, by fighting to end conditions which violate rights, including the right to conscience and right to be.

The month began with broad opposition in Ontario to the Ford government's attack on the Francophone population of the province, as it scrapped plans for a French-language university and eliminated the Office of the French Language Commissioner, as a "cost saving" measure.

In Ottawa, Indigenous youth organized a "Stop the Framework" rally on Parliament Hill, rejecting the Trudeau government's framework on Indigenous rights as an attack on their hereditary rights. The youth pointed out that to move forward and create their own governance, they must lead the process. It cannot be Canada telling them what to do once again -- as the proposed Framework does. They affirmed that the Indigenous peoples will not give up their lands for any price. In addition to sending a clear message to the Canadian government, the youth marched to the site of the Assembly of First Nations' Special Chiefs Assembly to urge those gathered to take a stand against the Framework.

Two days later youth from Grassy Narrows First Nation took to Parliament Hill to demand government action to deal with the longstanding mercury contamination of the English-Wabigoon River system that runs through their territories and compensation for the crimes committed against them.

A meeting to discuss the state of human rights today was organized in Montreal by the Marxist-Leninist Party of Quebec, featuring participation by organizations working to defend the rights of the most vulnerable in the society and the rights of all.

Injured workers' groups continued their "Workers' Comp Is a Right!" campaign with a week of actions across Ontario. These focussed on the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board's reduction of employers' premiums which severely reduces the funds available to compensate workers injured or made ill at work.

Throughout December, postal workers and their allies continued to demand that Bill C-89, the legislation ordering postal workers back to work, be rescinded and a contract with Canada Post be settled in negotiations not by legislation, with pickets at postal facilities and events such as Canada Post's annual general meeting, and sit-ins at MPs' offices.

December 1
Political social event in Mississauga marks the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. The evening includes poems, songs and speeches, with a keynote speech by the Roving Ambassador for Palestinian Missions, His Excellency Afif Safief.

http://cpcml.ca/Tmlw2018/W48043.HTM#9

A Day of Action is organized in more than 40 communities across Ontario as the provincial government's decision to scrap the building of a French language university and to eliminate the Office of the French Language Commissioner is swiftly and broadly condemned.

Ottawa, Ontario

Highway 11, Ontario

Temiscaming Shores, Ontario

Sudbury, Ontario

North Bay, Ontario

New Liskeard, Ontario

Greenstone, Ontario

Timmins, Ontario

Elliot Lake, Ontario

Blind River, Ontario

Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario

Marathon; Kapuskasing, Ontario

Thunder Bay, Ontario

Essex, Ontario

St. Boniface, Manitoba
http://cpcml.ca/Tmlw2018/W48043.HTM#7 (Photos: TML, AEFO)

December 2
A demonstration in front of Prime Minister Trudeau's constituency office in Montreal responds to the inhumane situation imposed on Haitian asylum seekers by the Canadian government. It is a continuation of actions organized in July and August for an immediate moratorium on deportations and to demand they be ended altogether.

http://www.pmlq.qc.ca/CPE2018/CPE05013.HTM#8

December 4
"Stop the Framework" rally on Parliament Hill, brings together Indigenous youth from many parts of the country to express their opposition to the Trudeau government's framework on Indigenous rights. The march ends at the Westin Hotel where the Assembly of First Nations is meeting and some of the delegates come out to thank the youth for taking this action. Events are also organized in several other cities.

Ottawa

Youth delegation attends and addresses Assembly of First Nations Chiefs Assembly

Windsor

Saskatoon

Edmonton http://cpcml.ca/Tmlw2018/W48044.HTM#4 (Photos: TMLW, Chiefs of Ontario, B. Forester, B. Manitowabi, E. McKinney, M.A. Morin)

The Quebec Network of Housing Committees and Tenants Associations launches its "Justice for Tenants: Reform the Rental Board" campaign. The organization is demanding the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing overhaul the rental board system and end the many injustices affecting tenants. Actions are organized in Montreal, Joliette, Quebec and Rimouski.

Montreal
http://www.pmlq.qc.ca/CPE2018/CPE05012.HTM#5 (Photos: TML, AEF

Unemployed groups, unions, municipal elected officials and seasonal industry employers from the Acadian Peninsula in New Brunswick and the Charlevoix, Côte-Nord and Bas-St-Laurent regions of Quebec, hold a press conference in the foyer of the House of Commons in Ottawa, to highlight the difficult conditions experienced by seasonal workers and to call for solutions that enable them to live in dignity.

http://cpcml.ca/WF2018/WO0543.HTM#1

December 6
This year marks the 29th anniversary of the Montreal Polytechnique tragedy, when 14 young women were killed by a gunman because of their gender. More than 50 events are held in Quebec alone, as well as many in the rest of Canada and others throughout the world, to demand an end to all forms of violence committed against women.

Shippagan, New Brunswick

Estrie, Quebec

Jonquière, Quebec

Maniwaki, Quebec

Victoriaville, Quebec

Saint-Jérôme, Quebec

Montreal, Quebec

University of Windsor, Ontario

University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Manitoba

Chilliwack, British Columbia

Whitehorse, Yukon
http://www.pmlq.qc.ca/CPE2018/CPE05012.HTM#4 (Photos: NAN)

Grassy Narrows youth go to Parliament Hill to demand action and compensation for disastrous effects of mercury poisoning on their community, following the release of a report commissioned by the Grassy Narrows First Nation on the situation.

http://cpcml.ca/Tmlw2018/W48044.HTM#8 (Photos: NAN)

December 1-6
Postal workers and their allies continue to demand that Bill C-89, the legislation ordering postal workers back to work, be withdrawn and the contract with Canada Post be settled by negotiations. A National Day of Action takes place December 1 and community pickets continue at postal facilities in a number of cities.

Halifax, December 2

Fredericton, December 1

Fredericton, December 6

Montreal, December 1

Ottawa, December 1

Ottawa, December 5

Kingston, Ontario

Pickering, Ontario

Sudbury, Ontario

Toronto, Ontario

Mississauga, Ontario

Hamilton, Ontario. Picket outside MP Bob Bratina's office. http://cpcml.ca/WF2018/WO0543.HTM#1

Guelph, Ontario

London, Ontario

Winnipeg, Manitoba

Thompson, Manitoba

The Pas, Manitoba

Regina, Saskatchewan

Grand Prairie, Alberta

Edmonton, Alberta

Calgary, Alberta

Prince George, BC

Chilliwack, BC

Vancouver, BC

Victoria, BC
http://cpcml.ca/WF2018/WO0542.HTM#1 (Photos: Workers' Forum, CUPW, Friends of Public Services, CUPE, PSAC 610,
BCFL, People 4 Postal Workers, T. Glynn, A. Muppett, C. Snooks, T. Balducci, J.B. Woods, J. Fontaine, N. Dias, C. Eyfe, C. Repetowski, FVLC, M. Rozworski, J.T. Parent, K. Peppard, Z. Roman.)

December 8
Demonstrations to oppose climate change are held in Montreal and Quebec City alongside other cities around the world, while the 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change takes place in Katowice, Poland.

Montreal

Quebec City

http://www.pmlq.qc.ca/CPE2018/CPE05012.HTM#3 (Photos: Chantier politique, André Querry)

A delegation from the Public Service Alliance of Canada brings their support and financial assistance to the locked-out workers at the Bécancour aluminum smelter. The broad support from Quebec workers has sustained them in their nearly year-long lockout.

http://www.pmlq.qc.ca/CPE2018/CPE05013.HTM#2

December 10
Human Rights Day is marked by actions in support of the Unist'ot'en chiefs who, with the support of their hereditary chiefs and clan members of the Wet'suwet'en Nation in BC, for the past eight years, have re-occupied part of their territory in part to say No! to multiple proposed pipeline projects that would run through their lands. A solidarity picket takes place in Toronto.

Vancouver

Toronto

http://cpcml.ca/Tmlw2018/W48044.HTM#9

December 10-14
The Ontario Network of Injured Workers' Groups holds a week of actions across the province as part of their ongoing "Workers' Comp Is a Right!" campaign. The actions highlight the hardships injured workers and their families face throughout the year and especially during the holidays.

Toronto

Hamilton

Barrie

London

Windsor

Sudbury

http://cpcml.ca/WF2018/WO0543.HTM#5

December 11
Postal workers from Gatineau and Ottawa and members of community groups picket a Liberal Party fundraising event condemning the government's back-to-work legislation and demanding their right to have a say in their working conditions be respected.

December 12
Postal workers accompanied by members of many other unions, gather outside Canada Post's annual general meeting to demand that the government listen to the just demands
of postal workers that back-to-work legislation be rescinded.

http://cpcml.ca/WF2018/WO0543.HTM#4

December 16
Lively meeting in Montreal, organized by the Marxist-Leninist Party of Quebec, commemorates the 70th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and discusses its significance today.

http://www.pmlq.qc.ca/CPE2018/CPE05013.HTM#6

Airport workers and allies demonstrate in front of Montreal's Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport, rejecting the demand from the administration that the workers accept nearly a one-third reduction in salary and benefits to match a sub-contracting tender the administration has received.

http://www.pmlq.qc.ca/CPE2018/CPE05013.HTM#3

December 17
Monthly pickets this month mark the four year anniversary of the freeing of all the Cuban Five from U.S. prisons, and demand the U.S. end its blockade and return Guantánamo to Cuba.

Ottawa

Vancouver

People hold a militant march and rally in support of Unist'ot'en land defenders following the BC Supreme Court ruling granting an injunction against their encampment. The purpose of the camp is to affirm their claim on their traditional lands.

(Unist'ot'en Camp)

December 17-22
Community pickets and visits to MPs' offices continue across the country to support the postal workers and their right to collective bargaining and calling for Bill C-89 to be rescinded.

Halifax, Nova Scotia, MP Andy Fillmore’s office

Fredericton, New Brunswick, MP Matt DeCourcey's office

Montreal, Quebec

Sarnia, Ontario

Winnipeg, Manitoba

Victoria, BC

(Photos: L. Moreau, J. Archie, p4pw, Winnipeg Labour Council, S. Metha)

December 19
Windsor rally condemns decision by General Motors to close Oshawa plant.

December 21
Picket in Saint John, New Brunswick against shipment of light armoured vehicles to Saudi Arabia.

(Photos: J. Tunney, Laste)

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Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca

December

TML Daily completes its month-by-month 2018 Photo Review with the struggles waged by the working people of Canada and Quebec and the Indigenous peoples in December.

Two days later youth from Grassy Narrows First Nation took to Parliament Hill to demand government action to deal with the longstanding mercury contamination of the English-Wabigoon River system that runs through their territories and compensation for the crimes committed against them.

A meeting to discuss the state of human rights today was organized in Montreal by the Marxist-Leninist Party of Quebec, featuring participation by organizations working to defend the rights of the most vulnerable in the society and the rights of all.

December 1 Political social event in Mississauga marks the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People. The evening includes poems, songs and speeches, with a keynote speech by the Roving Ambassador for Palestinian Missions, His Excellency Afif Safief.

A Day of Action is organized in more than 40 communities across Ontario as the provincial government's decision to scrap the building of a French language university and to eliminate the Office of the French Language Commissioner is swiftly and broadly condemned.

Grassy Narrows youth go to Parliament Hill to demand action and compensation for disastrous effects of mercury poisoning on their community, following the release of a report commissioned by the Grassy Narrows First Nation on the situation.

December 8 Demonstrations to oppose climate change are held in Montreal and Quebec City alongside other cities around the world, while the 24th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change takes place in Katowice, Poland.

A delegation from the Public Service Alliance of Canada brings their support and financial assistance to the locked-out workers at the Bécancour aluminum smelter. The broad support from Quebec workers has sustained them in their nearly year-long lockout.

December 11 Postal workers from Gatineau and Ottawa and members of community groups picket a Liberal Party fundraising event condemning the government's back-to-work legislation and demanding their right to have a say in their working conditions be respected.

December 12 Postal workers accompanied by members of many other unions, gather outside Canada Post's annual general meeting to demand that the government listen to the just demands of postal workers that back-to-work legislation be rescinded.

December 16 Lively meeting in Montreal, organized by the Marxist-Leninist Party of Quebec, commemorates the 70th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and discusses its significance today.