Agenda of the Harper Government

The People vs. The Harper Dictatorship

We are into the second decade of the twenty-first century. The time is now to take stock of where we are heading as a society. The political regime in Ottawa, Quebec, the provinces and most of the major cities has become a huge block to solving problems and moving the country forward. A political caste at all levels of government does the bidding of the most powerful monopolies and blocks the people from solving the economic, political and social problems that are weighing us down. It has become clear that appealing to the monopolies and their political caste to solve problems goes nowhere except into frustration.

The Harper dictatorship in Ottawa simply declares that it has a mandate to do whatever it wants. It denies both public and private sector workers their right to bargain for terms of employment that are mutually acceptable to employees and employers. In rapid succession, the Harper dictatorship has used state power to attack the rights of Canada Post workers, Air Canada clerks and now Air Canada flight attendants.

Harper says he has a mandate to stabilize the economy in the face of the continuing crisis. For the ruling elite this means attacking the working class for concessions, paying the rich through grants, subsidies, lower corporate taxes and other "incentives," watching with indifference as manufacturing is wrecked, raising individual taxes, cutting social programs and public services, handing the country's assets to the global monopolies such as U.S. Steel, Vale, Xstrata, AbitibiBowater, ArcelorMittal, Walmart, big oil and pharma etc.

The Harper dictatorship tells Prairie farmers that despite their vote in favour of the Canadian Wheat Board, it has a mandate to destroy it and transfer the wheat and barley trade to the big U.S. monopolies such as Cargill and Bunge.

The Harper dictatorship tells Canadians that the Keystone Pipeline to take raw bitumen oil from the tar sands to Dallas is a "no brainer" and no scientific or popular opposition will stop the project. Also on this front, the Harper dictatorship sees frantic expansion of the tar sands without regard for the social and natural consequences as the right of the oil monopolies, which includes building additional pipelines to the west coast despite broad opposition from First Nations and others.

The Harper dictatorship has established capital-centred globalization as the future for Canada and in this regard has intensified the annexation of Canada into the U.S. Empire and is now serving the country up in a free trade agreement with Europe even though Canadians have consistently voiced their opposition and said repeatedly that free trade agreements are harmful as they serve the most powerful global monopolies and destroy any aspect of local control that may still exist.

The Harper dictatorship has dragged Canada into an annexed war relationship with the U.S. global killing machine. Even before the predatory war against the long suffering people of Afghanistan has concluded, Harper has plunged Canada into a U.S.-led war to conquer Libya. Other war fronts seem to be opening daily, as U.S. war president Obama announces one provocation after another, with the latest the unleashing of U.S. troops right into the heart of Africa -- in Uganda, South Sudan, the Central African Republic and Democratic Republic of the Congo. The Harper dictatorship ignores the deep desire of Canadians for peace and to settle disagreements without force under a broad international legal framework respecting the sovereignty of nations. Canadians have continually demonstrated against war and for an anti-war government in opposition to the Harper dictatorship's thirst for war and war spending.

Canadians for years have said they want increased investments in social programs to strengthen public education, healthcare and solve other social problems. Canadians cherish the modern view that people have rights by virtue of being human and governments are duty-bound to defend those rights. For years Canadians have demanded that the government uphold public right and restrict monopoly right. Canadians want to hold their governments to account but the Harper dictatorship and others refuse to listen. On the contrary, the political caste has strengthened its dictatorship and made it more difficult for Canadians to participate in government in any meaningful way. Canadians want to become the decision-makers in their own country but monopoly right and its political caste are blocking any progressive political development.

Canadians are lacking the kind of organization and social consciousness which they require to initiate actions based on analysis aimed at providing solutions to the economic, political and social problems facing the society and overcoming the block imposed by the ruling elite. They need to reject the disinformation based on the illusion that the ruling elite will bring about changes which favour the people.

Denounce the Harper dictatorship!

Let us together strengthen our popular organizations and unity, the key to successful actions with analysis and the development of social consciousness, all of which are necessary to build the new!

In the Parliament

Office of Religious Freedom in Foreign Affairs
Aims to Extinguish the Right to Conscience

- Dougal MacDonald -

"Harper!: 'A bible [in one hand] and a gun [in the other]' -- we don't want that here! Go home!"

During his September 26 address to the 66th United Nations General Assembly on the theme, "The role of mediation in the settlement of disputes by peaceful means," Foreign Minister John Baird shamelessly advocated the use of force as a way to resolve international disputes, in direct violation of the very principles of the United Nations in whose name Baird claimed to speak (see "Canada Champions Cold War 'Freedom' at United Nations General Assembly," TML Weekly Information Project, No. 13, October 2, 2011). In his irrational speech, Baird also stated that he was "pleased to report that Canada will be creating an Office of Religious Freedom within our Government at the heart of my own department. The office will promote freedom of religion and freedom of conscience as key objectives of Canadian foreign policy." At first, the juxtaposition of the use of force and "religious freedom" in the same speech might seem random, but for the Harper government the two topics are closely allied.

The whole notion that the Harper Government will champion religious freedom is quite bizarre from the get-go, since Baird's leader, the evangelical dominionist[1] Prime Minister Stephen Harper stated in an interview on September 6 that a "hate ideology" he calls "Islamicism" is the greatest threat to Canada's internal and external security. It is suggested that this reference is not to target Muslims per se, just "extremist Muslims," who it is claimed deserve to be criminalized because they are extremists, terrorists, against the Canadian values of democracy, human rights, etc. It is not explained how these extremists are to be distinguished from other Muslims or how Muslim extremists are to be distinguished from other religious extremists, or in fact what religion has to do with it at all. Why does he not simply call extremists "extremists"? It would seem that anyone who holds fundamental political beliefs is an extremist and a legitimate target of attack. Only Harper himself and his Ministers and other self-serving elements are fooled by the idea that certain religious beliefs can be opposed in the name of freedom of religion and conscience. It is not fortuitous that many of his Ministers are either dominionists themselves or some other version of Christian zionists.

Harper's declaration tells Canadians that henceforth the state will single out those of the Muslim faith whom he labels "Islamists" for further repression, and that henceforth the Harper government will arbitrate which religions and beliefs will be allowed "freedom."

The suggestion that there is a difference between people of the Muslim faith and what Harper calls "Islamists" is to cover up his public attack on Muslims and is in itself a direct contradiction to any notion of an Office of Religious Freedom. It speaks loud and clear that he and his Ministers are not in the least bit concerned with religious freedom at all but will use any means, including religion, to advance his agenda for war abroad and fascism at home.

That the main goal of the Office of Religious Freedom is to advance Harper's agenda for war abroad and fascism at home is clearly exposed by how Baird, in his UN speech, very carefully cites only a handful of self-serving examples of "religious persecution," and omits thousands of others. If the Harper government is now so concerned about "religious freedom," why does Baird omit, for example, any of the following: the concerted campaign in Canada's north by evangelical dominionists to coerce the Inuit people to discard their traditional beliefs; the campaign by Peter King, U.S. Republican chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, to demonize the U.S. Muslim community through McCarthyite "hearings"; the fact that in Israel only Jews can get citizenship; France's ban of the niqab; and the control by evangelicals over the distribution of aid in Haiti, to the detriment of other groups, such as those who practice traditional West African vodou. The reason for Baird's silence on these and other related issues is that to bring them up would undermine the real purpose of the Office of Religious Freedom.

The fact that Baird carefully chooses examples that advance the Harper agenda is additionally important because the latest information suggests that the main way that the Office of Religious Freedom will operate is not by supporting religious freedom in general but by choosing to take up certain carefully selected cases. This is similar to how the so-called International Criminal Court only takes up cases that demonize African leaders who stand in the way of the recolonization of Africa.[2] A professor from BC's Trinity Western University, the number one training institution in Canada for evangelical dominionists, recently confirmed that the Office of Religious Freedom will most likely "track cases of religious persecution" and "act as a resource to government policymakers across departments like Foreign Affairs and Immigration." This suggests that the new office will not only function as an international political weapon but will also be used to control immigration into Canada whereby those who practice "acceptable" religions will be welcomed while those who practice "unwelcome" religions (i.e., Islam) will be shut out.

Another confirmation of the blatant political purpose of Harper's proposed Office of Religious Freedom is that his "inspiration" is the U.S. office of the same name. Established in 1998, the U.S. Office of Religious Freedom is part of the U.S. State Department, which implements U.S. foreign policy. The U.S. Office of Religious Freedom deliberately selects certain countries that are a block to U.S. imperialist plans, such as the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, China, and Iran, and tries to isolate them by branding them as "Countries of Particular Concern," pretending that they are being singled out only because they have allegedly violated someone's "religious freedom."

The U.S. Office of Religious Freedom site links to the website of the U.S. Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism whose main purpose is to whitewash the crimes of Israel against the Palestinian and other Arab people by pretending that any criticism of Israeli war crimes is "anti-semitism." Also linked to the U.S. site are intelligence organizations such as the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) which spends millions of dollars to undermine governments of countries, such as Cuba and Venezuela, that stand against the plans of U.S. imperialism.

Harper's evangelical dominionism resonates well with Baird's simultaneous talk of the use of force and "religious freedom" because dominionists believe that they have a divine mandate to build an end-time military force to impose Christian "dominion" on non-believers. They preach a coming world war -- Armageddon -- the end of history, when good will defeat evil, all other nations and religions will be destroyed, and dominionists will rule the Earth.

Advocates of such apocalyptic violence are prominent in the U.S. military. For example, General William Boykin, former U.S. Deputy Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, believes that the U.S. military is recruiting a spiritual army to defeat the forces of evil. Prominent U.S. televangelist Pat Robertson, the "spiritual" mentor of Guatemalan fascist General Rios Montt and his murderous regime, has called for Hugo Chavez' assassination and a pre-emptive strike against Iran. Dominionist-linked groups such as American Identity are connected with violent white supremacist organizations such as the KKK and Aryan Nation. The fascist notion of waging battle against so-called forces of darkness is a means of sanctifying state violence against all those who are not dominionists.

The real issue behind all of the above is not religious beliefs per se, but the need for any modern society to provide a practical guarantee of the right to conscience, which all should have by virtue of being human. In other words, social mechanisms need to be developed to ensure that every individual can hold his or her beliefs, including political beliefs, without fear of retaliation by the state.

The Harper government refuses to recognize this right, let alone guarantee it. In fact, the Harper government gives itself the exclusive right to pick and choose who has the right to conscience and who does not by "validating" certain beliefs and not others. Those who hold the "wrong" beliefs will be criminalized -- such as in the case of the G8/G20 demonstrators -- and even deprived of their citizenship. What determines which beliefs Harper will allow is whether or not they accord with what Harper calls "Canadian values," i.e., the values put forward by Harper to oppose public right and uphold monopoly right at home and abroad, including Canada's annexation into U.S. security arrangements and its participation in U.S. wars of aggression and occupation.

Notes

1. Dominionism, also referred to as Christian Reconstructionism, is a small but influential evangelical theocratic sect centred in the United States. Dominionists want to establish the United States and Canada as Christian theocracies based on biblical law. According to dominionism, the Bible has supremacy over the Constitution. The defining concept of dominionism is that Christians alone are biblically mandated to occupy all secular institutions until Christ returns, while non-Christians are to be stripped of their rights.

2. The International Criminal Court was founded in 2005 and is mainly funded by Europe and Japan. It uses a high-sounding name but is a thoroughly racist and colonialist organization which is criminally involved in the recolonization of Africa.

Significance of Stopping Debate on
Budget Implementation Bill

- Enver Villamizar -

The Harper government does not want discussion on the direction in which it is taking Canada. It is hoping that it can overwhelm the Parliamentary Opposition, and the Canadian working class and people so that its agenda goes undiscussed. It is resorting to schemes such as the use of omnibus bills, presenting legislation as having a certain aim, while in reality, various aspects of it are related to another. In this way there is a deliberate attempt to hide from the public the direction the government is taking.

On October 4, the Harper government tabled Bill C-13, An Act to Implement Certain Provisions of the 2011 Budget as Updated on June 6, 2011 and Other Measures. The name of the bill gives the impression that it deals strictly with the funding of government programs. However, this is not the case. It includes substantial changes to the Canada Pension Plan including schemes to establish individual savings plans in place of public pensions, changes to international trade regulations, the Canada Human Rights Act and the Canada Elections Act. Although not referred to as such, it is in effect an omnibus bill and contains broad changes to the Canadian state. The bill is 644 pages long and divided into 22 parts.

Introducing the bill, Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty stated: "Our Government is focused on what matters to Canadians -- creating jobs and promoting economic growth. While Canada has the strongest job growth record in the G-7 with nearly 600,000 net new jobs created since July 2009 and the IMF projects that we will have among the strongest economic growth in the G-7 over the next two years, we are not immune from global economic turbulence. That's why we need to stay the course and implement the Next Phase of Canada's Economic Action Plan."

In an attempt to prevent any substantial discussion on the direction in which the bill takes Canada, on October 6 the government moved to limit debate on the bill to three sitting days. The motion was passed 150 to 107. Second reading of the bill took place on October 17 and it was adopted by a vote of 149 to 129 and referred to the Standing Committee on Finance.

For your information, TML Weekly Information Project is providing an overview of Bill C-13 and its measures.

Overview of Bill C-13

Micro-Targeting Election Promises

Part 1 -- contains many of the promises the Harper government made as part of its micro-targeting strategy used to entice specific people in particular ridings to vote for it, so as to win a majority. These include income tax measures that are supposedly aimed at helping families with children or who are caring for a dependant. Examples include the Children's Arts Tax Credit, the Volunteer Firefighter Tax Credit, changes to the medical expense tax credit for families caring for a loved one and changes to the Child Tax Benefit. These measures were used during the election to cover up the demand of the people for governments to do their duty to provide people's right to health care, education and housing with a guarantee, and instead use the tax system to push the notion that families, not the society, are responsible for the well-being of individuals.

Pay-the-Rich Schemes

Part 1 -- includes various schemes to pay the rich:

- "extend to the end of 2013 the temporary accelerated capital cost allowance treatment for investment in machinery and equipment in the manufacturing and processing sector;"
- "expand eligibility for the accelerated capital cost allowance for clean energy generation and conservation equipment;"
- "extend eligibility for the mineral exploration tax credit by one year to flow-through share agreements entered into before March 31, 2012;"
- " expand the eligibility rules for qualifying environmental trusts;"
- "amend the deduction rates for intangible capital costs in the oil sands sector;"
- "introduce rules to limit tax deferral opportunities for corporations with significant interests in partnerships;"

Pension and Employment Law

Part 1 -- hidden amongst the changes to income tax law pointed out above, are changes to the pension system, in particular measures dealing with shifting underfunded pension funds to Registered Retirement Savings Plans (RRSPs) when employers declare bankruptcy. It also introduces "anti-avoidance rules" for RRSPs and registered retirement income funds; and rules to limit tax deferral opportunities for individual pension plans.

Part 11 -- amends the Wage Earner Protection Program Act to "extend in certain circumstances the period during which wages earned by individuals but not paid to them by their employers who are bankrupt or subject to receivership may be the subject of a payment under that Act."

Part 12 -- amends the Canadian Human Rights Act to "repeal certain provisions that provide for mandatory retirement. It also amends the Canada Labour Code to repeal a provision that denies employees the right to severance pay for involuntary termination if they are entitled to a pension. Finally, it amends the Conflict of Interest Act."

Part 14 -- provides for the retroactive coming into force of section 9 of the Nordion and Theratronics Divestiture Authorization Act "in order to ensure the validity of pension regulations made under that section."

Part 15 -- amends the Canada Pension Plan to include amounts received by an employee under an employer-funded disability plan in contributory salary and wages.

Part 19 -- amends the Special Retirement Arrangements Act to "permit the reservation of pension contributions from any benefit that is or becomes payable to a person. It also deems certain provisions of An Act to amend certain Acts in relation to pensions and to enact the Special Retirement Arrangements Act and the Pension Benefits Division Act to have come into force on December 14 or 15, 1994, as the case may be."

Part 8 -- amends Part IV of the Employment Insurance Act to provide a temporary measure to refund a portion of employer premiums for small business. An employer whose premiums were $10,000 or less in 2010 will be refunded the increase in 2011 premiums over those paid in 2010, to a maximum of $1,000.

Part 17 -- amends the Department of Veterans Affairs Act to include a definition of dependant and to provide express regulation-making authority for the provision of certain benefits in non-institutional locations.

Part 22 -- amends the Department of Human Resources and Skills Development Act to change the residency requirements of certain commissioners.

Foreign Investment and Establishment of One National Securities Regulator

Part 10 -- amends the Canadian Securities Regulation Regime Transition Office Act so that funding for the Canadian Securities Regulation Regime Transition Office may be fixed through an appropriation act.

International Trade Relations

Part 2 - amends the Softwood Lumber Products Export Charge Act, 2006 in light of a ruling against Canada based on a U.S. Trade Representative Challenge in January under International Trade Law relating to Canada's softwood lumber industry.

Parts 3 and 4 -- amend Canada's tariff regime. The legislation contains 411 pages of specific technical changes to the tarriff regime on a country-by-country and item-by-item basis.

Election Law

Part 18 -- amends the Canada Elections Act to phase out quarterly allowances to registered parties.

Judicial Appointments

Part 13 -- amends the Judges Act to permit the appointment of two additional judges to the Nunavut Court of Justice.

Education

Parts 5, 6 and 7 -- relate to changes to the national system of student loans that facilitate students going further into debt in order to pay for post-secondary education. The legislation also includes providing more powers to the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development to forgive certain portions of student loans for various medical professionals if they work in a "under-served rural or remote community."

Federal Control Over Provincial and Municipal Jurisdictions

Part 1 -- includes measures to align the tax treatment to investments made under the Agri-Québec program with that of investments under AgriInvest.

Part 9 -- provides for payments to be made to provinces, territories, municipalities, First Nations and other entities for municipal infrastructure improvements.

Part 21 -- amends the Federal-Provincial Fiscal Arrangements Act to clarify the legislative framework pertaining to payments under tax agreements entered into with provinces under Part III.1 of that Act.

For the full summary and text of the Act click here.

Department of National Defence

Report on Transformation of Military Reveals Stepped-Up War Preparations

- A.G. Smith -

On July 6, 2011, Canadian Forces Lieutenant-General Andrew Leslie issued a "Report on Transformation" to the Harper government on how to reorganize the Department of National Defence and the Canadian Forces (DND/CF) in order to be better prepared to wage war and "protect Canadian interests" in an "agile" manner. The Report on Transformation was prepared by a "transformation team" made up of civilian and military personnel and was commissioned by Minister of National Defence Peter MacKay in 2010. The team's mandate was to "develop ideas to increase efficiency and effectiveness, and to act as the driving force behind organizational changes needed to reposition the DND/CF for the future."

While the media has focussed on the changing of the names of the Canadian Forces back to their designations before the late 1960s -- the Royal Canadian Navy, the Royal Canadian Air Force and the Canadian Army -- little attention has been paid to the war preparations being carried out. With respect to the"Report on Transformation," the media has focussed on alleged cuts to military spending of up to $1 billion, giving the impression that the Harper government is cutting back on the military, not just social programs. This disinformation covers up the direction in which the Harper government is taking the Canadian Armed Forces.

According to the 80-page "Report on Transformation," in recent years the "tail" of the Armed Forces -- non-deployable civilian and military staff -- has increased in size by 33 per cent, while the "teeth" -- forces that can be used for war -- have only increased by 11 per cent. It states: "we are going to have to reduce overhead and invest in output; we have to become slimmer, to trim the top and middle while protecting and investing in the various systems that result in the people in the ships, battalions and squadrons of aircraft doing the tough and often dangerous work that Canadians are so proud of. In short, we are going to have to reduce the tail of today while investing in the teeth of tomorrow."

There are currently 67,000 regular forces, 33,000 reserves, and 29,000 civilian employees at the Department of National Defence and in the Canadian Forces, according to statistics provided in the Report. One of the stated goals of reorganizing the DND/CF is to increase the combat forces by 3,500 and reduce reserves and civilian employees.

The Report claims its proposals are in accord with Canada's allies who are carrying out similar war preparations. "A key component involves structural realignment with a view towards eliminating top level positions and reducing spending on non-deployable administrative headquarters, whilst preserving core military functions and capabilities in a resource constrained environment. Most of our allies are placing an emphasis on capabilities that will yield responsive, adaptive and multi-purpose military forces that are able to project power abroad and participate in a wide range of missions and campaigns for an extended period of time."

The need for transformation is said to be linked to new threats to Canada. After first outlining "conventional threats" faced by Canada it adds: "...weapons of mass destruction, ballistic missiles, terrorism, cyber attack, piracy, failed states, illegal trafficking, natural disasters, disease, and limited energy and natural resources..."

The striving of the peoples for national sovereignty and against foreign economic and political domination, as well as competing threats to Canadian monopoly interests are presented in the Report as "security challenges" that the transformation is aimed at addressing. It states: "The shift to a multi-polar power struggle produces increasingly diverse potential security challenges for Canadian defence planners. With more actors on the world scene than ever before, new nation states, non-governmental organizations, multilateral alliances and treaty organisations, as well as global corporate entities abound and continue to multiply. Despite generally rising global wealth, the widening gap between the rich and the poor fuels discontent, and is often exacerbated by shifting demographics, in turn encouraging protest, large scale migrations, and rebellion."

The Malthusian justification for war and aggression is introduced, citing "aggravating factors" to "security challenges" that include "the increasing scarcity of potable water, and increased international competition for natural resources, especially carbon-based fuel sources and minerals required to fuel growing economies."

Echoing Prime Minister Harper's line that Canada is threatened by "religious fundamentalism," in particular "Islamicism," the Report states: "Within existing states, the desire for ethnic, cultural and political sovereignty is frequently fuelled by religious fundamentalism, presenting security challenges well beyond their own borders."

The conclusion outlines the link between the war preparations and the demands of Canadian monopolies to be competitive: "Taken individually or together they indicate that there are risks for the interests of all nations, especially those that desire to develop and grow their economies in this highly interconnected world. The varied and rapidly changing nature of security threats demands an equally dynamic defence strategy and supporting processes and organization. Such organizations must be smart, fast, adaptive, collaborative, and accountable -- in a word, agile."

Canadians do not support having their armed forces used to suppress Canadians or any other peoples. Canadians want an armed forces that defends the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country, not a mercenary force that is organized to defend the interests of the monopolies around the world. The transformation being considered by the Harper government should be resolutely opposed. It must not pass!

Social Programs

National Council of Welfare Publishes
Report on Poverty

- Serge Lachapelle -

On September 28, the National Council of Welfare (NCW), an advisory group to the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, published a report entitled "The Dollars and Sense of Solving Poverty." The NCW first examined the costs of poverty almost a decade ago and in this new report provides the grand conclusion that "poverty had high costs for all Canadians, not just for those living in poverty," a conclusion reached by the Canadian population years ago.

In not tackling the root causes of poverty, Canada spends a lot of money ineffectively, the report claims. This Canadian government organization estimates that although the consequences of poverty cost $25 billion annually, it would take only half that amount to lift all Canadians above the poverty line. "We have to stop considering the elimination of poverty as an expense rather than an investment," said NCW member Glen Shepherd.

As an example, the NCW cites some of the high costs linked to homelessness: shelters, food banks, healthcare, police services and court costs. While shelter in a prison or psychiatric hospital totals $120,000 per person per year, a spot at a Calgary homeless shelter comes to $42,000 or only $15,000 for a supervised housing unit or half that sum in affordable housing. The NCW points out that for a person unable to pay a $150 fine, the price of imprisonment amounts to $1,400. With respect to health care, Shepherd adds that families who cannot afford medicine often end up in the emergency ward, one of the most expensive services in the health care system.

The group points out that social welfare recipients must be "almost destitute" before they can qualify for benefits and that associated restrictions "make it hard to get ahead." In the opinion of Mr. Shepherd, an individual who starts to work part-time and as a result loses advantages linked to social assistance, may end up in an even more precarious situation. "Everyone wants to work," insists Shepherd, "but people must be assisted in becoming independent through such measures as facilitating access to transportation and daycare."

The NCW poses the question: "If the methods used over the past 40 years haven't worked, isn't it time to try something else; to rethink our investments and spend more wisely to get better results? We think so."

For the working class and people of Canada, the social security system must be based on the modern definition that everyone has rights by virtue of being human. The cause of poverty is oppression and exploitation of the working class and people, not the "lack of money" suggested by the report. The solution is to eliminate class exploitation and oppression.

The report suggests that investments in social security should be made to improve the training of "autonomous persons" who are expected to re-train all their lives to satisfy the requirements of those who compete on markets. However, the report's authors remain mum on the need for the best education available in order to raise the level of the society and counter the high levels of illiteracy, drop-out rates and lack of training. The need to determine the role of businesses in financing the education and training of qualified labour is not even mentioned.

While increasing spending on social programs is important, this increase is not the same as eliminating poverty and guaranteeing the rights of all and can actually exacerbate the problem of poverty. For instance, on the question of homelessness, the infrastructure to address the problem of homelessness can actually become a recipe for guaranteeing that it continues, as programs are put in place to provide shelter beds, for instance, while nothing is done to address the question of a livelihood and the guarantee of housing, and a whole section of people come to rely on the homelessness of others for their own livelihood.

The alleviation of poverty begins with social security programs based on the recognition of the right of all to a Canadian standard of living based solely on their being human.

October 22, 2011 Bulletin • Return to Index • Write to: editor@cpcml.ca