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December 19, 2019
2019 Photo Review
Speaking and Acting in Our Own
Name
to Uphold the Rights of All and
Make Canada a Zone for Peace
April
 In this issue of TML
Daily, CPC(M-L) continues its
month-by-month photo review of 2019 with events
in April.
As April began, the
ABI locked-out workers and the Quebec
steelworkers launched their global campaign to
mobilize maximum support, including financial
support, from workers in Quebec, the rest of
Canada and in other countries, to put pressure
on Alcoa/Rio Tinto to terminate its lockout and
negotiate a collective agreement acceptable to
the workers. This was a massive effort to
counter the power of the Alcoa/Rio Tinto global
cartel and its political representatives in
government. Union-trained representatives
traveled throughout Canada, as well as to the
U.S., Australia and Belgium, to explain the
conflict and mobilize support. Workers from many
places later came to the picket lines to express
their support and bring their financial
contributions. In many cases, unions held
general membership meetings where the workers
were informed of the situation facing the ABI
workers and subsequently voted to provide
financial support, often in the form of regular
contributions, until the end of the lockout. In
this global campaign, over 500 union locals in
Quebec, Canada, and elsewhere including the
U.S., Australia and Guatemala provided financial
support to the locked-out ABI workers.
Nova Scotia public
sector workers began the month with a rally at
the provincial Legislature to raise the alarm on
the crisis in the health care system in the
province and the need for increased funding for
health care and other social services.
On April 8, Quebec
nurses held a "No Mandatory Overtime" day of
action that brought to public attention their
fight for working conditions that ensure their
safety and well-being and that of their
patients. Their action highlighted the serious
situation in which some health care workers are
pushed to exhaustion, forced to work long
overtime hours, while others struggle to survive
on only a few days of work a week.
In
Ontario,
health care workers and their allies also took
action to defend the right to health care, with
some 10,000 people from across the province
converging on the provincial Legislature to affirm
their determination to prevent further cuts and
privatization and to protect and expand public
health care. The health care system belongs to the
people of Ontario and we must have a say in how it
is run, participants emphasized.
In New Brunswick,
nursing home and other public service workers
demonstrated in front of government buildings in
Fredericton on April 12 to demand acceptable
wages and working conditions. The protest was
part of CUPE's "Breaking the Mandate" campaign.
Public sector workers are determined to break
the “mandate” the Progressive Conservative
government claims to have, as did the previous
Liberal government, that limits wage increases
to one per cent per year and negates workers'
right to negotiate acceptable wages and working
conditions.
On April 6, more
than 34,000 Ontario teachers and education
workers, students, parents, children and the
general public converged on Queen's Park for a
rally to express a clear No! to the
Ford government's anti-social attacks on
education. From as far north as North Bay and as
far south as Windsor, buses poured into Toronto.
This mass rally was preceded on April 4 by a
province-wide walkout organized by students determined
to have their voices heard in opposition to the
Ford government's retrogressive education
agenda.
Across the country, meetings and demonstrations
were organized in various cities to discuss the
history and role of NATO and to put forward the
demand that Canada become a zone for peace,
withdraw from NATO and join with the
peace-loving people of the world in demanding
its dismantling.
Thousands of people were in action as
Earth Week was observed throughout Quebec. People
of all backgrounds and ages, especially youth and
students, demanded action be taken to protect the
environment and deal with the climate emergency.
The
month closed on a solemn note, with workers across
the country marking the annual April 28 Day of
Mourning for workers killed, injured or made ill
at work. This was another way in which workers
broke the silence on their living and working
conditions. To take a fighting stand for rights
and better conditions in remembrance of fallen
workers is more important than ever, as working
people are forced to bear the brunt of the
worsening neo-liberal anti-social offensive.
April 3
The Nova Scotia
Government and General Employees Union organize
a
"Rally to Raise the ALARM that Health Care for
All Nova Scotians is in Crisis."      http://cpcml.ca/WF2019/WO0612.HTM#5 (Photos: NSGEU, NSFL)
Interprofessional
Health Care Federation of Quebec joins
locked-out ABI smelter workers on their
picketline in Bécancour, Quebec, to express
their solidarity.
http://cpcml.ca/WF2019/WO0612.HTM#3
(Photo: FIQ)
April 4
Canada-wide meetings and pickets take place on the
70th Anniversary of the founding of NATO, to
demand Canada withdraw from this aggressive
alliance and that it be dismantled.
Montreal, QC 
Toronto, ON
Calgary, AB
Edmonton, AB
Vancouver, BC
April 4
Quebec
Steelworkers launch a global campaign to force
Alcoa/Rio Tinto to negotiate a collective
agreement acceptable to the ABI smelter workers.
http://cpcml.ca/WF2019/WO0613.HTM#1
April 4
Students in Ontario hold a province-wide walkout
to clearly express their No! to the Ford
government's retrogressive changes to K-12 and
post-secondary education.
Napanee
Ottawa
Wellborne Ave Public School,
Kingston
Carswell Elementary, Trenton
Bowmanville
Whitby
Codrington Public School, Barrie
Innisdale Secondary School,
Barrie
Harbord Collegiate, Toronto
Lakeshore Collegiate, Etobicoke
Richview Collegiate, Etobicoke
 
Michael Power- St. Joseph High
School, Etobicoke
Port Credit Secondary School, Mississauga
Fort Erie
Vincent Massey Secondary School,
Windsor
Essex District High School
Sudbury
Mattawa
Blind River
Elliot Lake
  
Sault Ste. Marie
Thunder Bay http://cpcml.ca/Tmlw2019/Articles/W4901310.HTM
(Photos: TML, A.D. Labelle, C.
Burns-LeBlanc, K. Graves, A. Trotter, C.
Davey,
M. Owens, A. Jofnson-Ford, blog TO, C. Glover,
R. Harvey, L. McAlpine, M. Mount, M. Manthra,
T. Pozzo, R. Fleming)
April 6
Mass rally of
Ontario teachers, education workers and their
supporters at Queen's Park to defend the public
education system against the Ford government's
attacks.
           http://cpcml.ca/Tmlw2019/W49013.HTM#10
Alberta
teachers use the provincial election as an
opportunity to step up their fight to provide
the right to education with a guarantee.
 
http://cpcml.ca/Tmlw2019/Articles/W490133.HTM
April 8
Quebec nurses
hold militant "No Mandatory Overtime" Day of
Action.
Maisonneuve-Rosemont Hospital, Montreal
 
West Island, Montreal 
Montreal Cardiology Institute
Abitibi-Temiscamingue
Drummondville 
Montérégie East
Mauricie and Central Quebec
Region
Quebec City Region
Sherbrooke
Bas St. Laurent
http://cpcml.ca/WF2019/WO0613.HTM#4 (Photos: FIQ)
April 10
Migrant workers
in Toronto hold a press conference to break the
silence on their conditions of work and their
demand for status on arrival in Canada.
April 10
Actions in
Canada condemn the Philippine state's brutal
killing of 14 unarmed farmers on the island of
Negros on March 29, held in conjunction with
protests in the Philippines and around the
world.
Toronto, ON
Montreal, QC
Vancouver, BC
cpcml.ca/Tmlw2019/W49014.HTM#25
April 12
More than 500
New Brunswick nursing home and other public
service workers demonstrate in front of
government buildings in Fredericton to demand
acceptable wages and working conditions. Workers
protest the use of the courts by the provincial
government to prevent them negotiating
acceptable agreements and making it illegal to
exercise their right to strike.
 
April 13
Rally in
Toronto in support of the Venezuelan people
demands "Hands Off Venezuela!"
April 14
Protest in
Vancouver outside the Jewish National Fund
fundraising event calls for the organization's
charitable tax status to be revoked because of
its funding for the Israeli armed forces and
their brutal occupation of Palestine.
 
April 15
Land
defenders and supporters celebrate the dropping
of contempt of court charges against 14 people
arrested January 7 on unceded Wet'suwet'en land
by heavily armed RCMP officers in an act of
state terror. They were accused of failing to
obey a court injunction which illegally granted
Coastal GasLink access to Wet'suwet'en lands
without their consent.
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlw2019/W49014.HTM#7
April 17
Monthly pickets
continue in Ottawa, Montreal and Vancouver
demanding an end to the
U.S. illegal blockade of Cuba.
Ottawa, ON
Vancouver, BC
 
http://cpcml.ca/Tmlw2019/W49014.HTM#9
April 18
Picket in
Terrace, BC, outside Senate hearings on Bill
C-48, the Oil Tanker Moratorium Act,
supporting a ban on tankers carrying more than
12,500 metric tonnes of oil stopping or
unloading along BC’s northern coast.
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlw2019/W49020.HTM#7 (T. Bachrach)
April 22-27
In observation
of Earth Week, thousands of people march through
the streets of Montreal to demand action be
taken on the climate emergency. Marches are also
held in Quebec City, Val-David, Sherbrooke and
Gaspé.
Quebec City
Montreal
     
 
Val-David
Sherbrooke
Gaspé http://pmlq.qc.ca/CPE2019/CPE06009.HTM#1
(Photos: Chantier politique, La
Planète s'invite au Parlement, Cedric
Martin, Jean Roy)
April 24
On
Tenant's Day, over 300 tenants hailing from
various Quebec regions took to the streets of
Old Quebec City to demand a profound reform of
the provincial Rental Board so that
it protects
tenants.
April 24
Production and
maintenance workers at the Brunswick smelter in
Belledune, New Brunswick go on strike to defend
themselves against the concessionary demands of
the Glencore mining and metallurgical monopoly.
The strike is planned to start at 6:00 pm, but
that morning Glencore prevents workers from
entering the plant for their day shift,
initiating what the workers call an
illegal lockout launched without proper
notice.  http://cpcml.ca/WF2019/WO0616.HTM#5
(Photo: USW District 6)
April 25
Monthly pickets
against NATO are organized in Toronto, starting
in January, on the occasion of the 70th
anniversary of the aggressive alliance.
April 28
The Day
of Mourning for workers killed, injured or
made ill at work, is marked across the
country.
Quebec City, QC
   
Drummondville, QC
Ottawa, ON
 
Kingston, ON
Barrie, ON
Toronto, ON
 
Mississauga, ON
 
Hamilton, ON
Oakville, ON; St. Catharines, ON
 
London, ON
Windsor, ON
 
Winnipeg, MB
Calgary, AB
 
Edmonton, AB
Vancouver, BC
Prince George, BC
http://cpcml.ca/WF2019/WO0616.HTM#9
(Photos: Workers' Forum, FTQ, M.
Brault, TAWC, HLC, MFL, VBTC.)
April 29-30
Airport workers
and their organizations from Britain, Canada,
Indonesia, south Korea, Thailand and the U.S.
are hosted by the Toronto Airport Workers'
Council for discussions on problems facing
airport workers around the world. The event is
held to mark the April 28 Day of Mourning and
May Day.
 
https://cpcml.ca/WF2019/WO0619.HTM#6 (TAWC)
April 30
Some 10,000
health care workers and people from all walks of
life, from cities and towns around Ontario,
converge on Queen's Park to demand the Ontario
government stop its plans for draconian cuts to
public health care.
 
 
  
 http://cpcml.ca/Tmlw2019/W49016.HTM#9
(Photos:
TML,
CUPE, OFL)
April 30
The Kashechewan
First Nation community from Northern Ontario
protests on Parliament Hill to demand that the
Trudeau government respect its promise to
relocate the community due to the annual threat
of spring flooding, in respect of the tripartite
agreement signed between the Kashechewan First
Nation and the provincial and federal
governments in 2017. 
http://cpcml.ca/Tmlw2019/W49016.HTM#11
April 30
Longstanding
friendship between the Canadian and Vietnamese
peoples is celebrated at Toronto conference on
Vietnam Ancestral Global Day and National
Reunification Day. 
http://cpcml.ca/Tmlw2019/W49016.HTM#15
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