The fall session of the 44th Parliament started on September 16. In less than two weeks, the House of Commons became a scripted, consultant-managed jockeying for positions of power between the cartel parties. Set against a backdrop of predictions of an "imminent election" and non-stop polling telling Canadians how they would vote "if an election was called today," the session is revealing the ongoing debasement of political affairs. Canada's liberal democratic institutions have been destroyed by the narrow supranational private interests which have taken over the Canadian state in the service of the Pentagon and the aggressive military alliance NATO which it controls.

The Liberal government is making a flagrant show of exercising its prerogative powers in contempt of any appearance of accountability to the House of Commons, while in the House of Commons a mockery is being made of the non-confidence protocol that is said to be the guarantee of government accountability. This is done mainly by the Conservative Party which is electioneering, all arms flailing wildly, which defies accountability as well.

In the weeks preceding the fall session, the Liberals made it clear that they would forge ahead with measures in the service of the integrated U.S.-Canada economy linked with the U.S. war machine without the nuisance of the House of Commons. Their annual cabinet retreat, held in Nova Scotia August 25-27, began with a keynote speech from U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan. Former Bank of Canada and Bank of England Governor Mark Carney who is the current Chairman of Brookfield Asset Management and head of its transition investing was another keynote speaker. He was subsequently appointed to a position which is somewhere between advising the Liberal Party on its platform for the next federal election and advising the Liberal cabinet on its current policies.

Politico reported on August 25 that Sullivan said he would be discussing "a range of national security priorities in the U.S.-Canada bilateral relationship." Sullivan said he would be talking about "the immense changes taking place underneath our feet, on technology, on the clean energy transition, on geopolitics and on things that matter to ordinary citizens in both the United States and Canada." Sullivan addressed Canada's trade policy with China which is in lock step with the U.S. policy. He had the gall to say that "Canada ultimately will determine its own trade policy" and that "It's not for the U.S. to try to dictate." He then added that "The U.S. does believe that a united front, a coordinated approach on these issues benefits all of us."

Since then, outside of the House of Commons, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland confirmed that the government is in lockstep with the U.S. on Chinese EV imports, steel and aluminum, while plans are underway for further tariffs on "batteries, battery parts, semiconductors, critical minerals and metals and solar products" to bring it fully in line with the U.S. anti-China trade policies, which are being challenged by China at the World Trade Organization.

In the name of "press updates," it has become routine for the government to bypass Parliament as a focal point for its announcements. While Bill C-63, the On-Line Harms Act, was being debated on September 23, MP attendance was such that the quorum of 20 MPs was twice challenged. This bill has been broadly criticized for intrusion on freedom of speech in the name of "combatting hate." On September 24, again the Liberals chose to announce Canada's Action Plan on Combatting Hate at a photo-op press gala outside of Parliament.

For their part, other members of the party cartel are making their own self-serving contributions to undermining what are called democratic institutions. Twelve days before the resumption of the House, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh announced he was walking away from the Supply-and-Confidence Agreement with the minority Liberal government, saying that Justin Trudeau has "proven again and again he will always cave to corporate greed."

As if the aim of cartel party government is not to serve "corporate greed" and the Liberals did not do this prior to this collaboration to keep the Liberals in power as well as with the measures prompted by the NDP. Jagmeet Singh said that henceforth, he will not prop up the Liberal minority government. He dramatically tore up the March 2022 Agreement which was scheduled to expire at the end of the summer 2025 session of Parliament. Even his own caucus was caught by surprise without mentioning NDP members.

What is taking place in the Parliament underscores the urgent need for democratic renewal. The national leader of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) Anna Di Carlo gave an important presentation on this topic on September 1 at the celebrations held on the 54th anniversary of the Mass Party Press. She pointed out among other things that the debasement of politics by the cartel parties in both Canada and the United States puts the need to raise the level of political discourse on the agenda by workers, women and youth setting the example themselves.

"CPC(M-L) calls on workers to not permit the debasement of politics and nor should they drop out in disgust. The ruling class must not be given free rein to commit crimes. This is what happens when they manage to disorient Canadians on matters related to the economy, sovereignty, war and peace or divide them on a racist basis by blaming immigrants for all the social ills plaguing the capitalist society and making them targets of attack," Anna said. She emphasized the importance of getting together with one's peers to discuss the challenges the country faces and speaking out in one's own name on all matters of concern.

Following on the NDP announcement, Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre announced he would attempt to force an election at the earliest opportunity. On September 24, he tabled a motion "that the House has no confidence in the Prime Minister and the government." With both the NDP and the Bloc Québécois having announced days earlier they would not support the motion, it was defeated 211-120. The Conservatives said they would present another non-confidence motion in the coming weeks.

No sooner had the Conservative non-confidence motion been defeated, Bloc Leader Yves-François Blanchet held a press scrum telling reporters that if the Liberal government does not schedule two Bloc Québécois private member bills to be adopted by October 29, he would talk to the other parties, "with a view to bringing down the government." Why October 29 has not been made clear.

Bill C-319 calls for a 10 per cent increase in Old Age Security for those between 65 and 74. It is at third reading in the House of Commons. The bill would increase pensions for seniors under age 75 by 10 per cent.

Bill C-282 amends the 2013 Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Act by precluding changes to the dairy, poultry and egg supply-management system. It is at Committee stage in the Senate.

At second reading, Senator Donald Plett, leader of the opposition in the Senate, commented that if Bill C-282 is passed, it would "jeopardize our trade with our biggest export market, the United States," and that the Canadian Agri-Food Trade Alliance has said the bill would "hurt, not help," the agricultural sector. According to Plett, the legislation "contradicts Canada's commitment in recently signed declarations on food security at the G7, the G20, the World Trade Organization (WTO), and Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC)."

The concerns he is citing show which interests Canada serves. Given that treaties fall into the prerogative of the executive, if the bill is passed by the Senate, its impact will be much like that of the "fixed-date election" legislation which has preserved the exercise of the Royal Prerogative, as well as the "confidence of the House" to determine when an election is held.

All of these developments show the untenable state of affairs in the Parliament and the urgent need for democratic renewal -- that working people provide for themselves the venues and means to speak in their own name, make their views known, organize to see that their demands are met and by empowering themselves provide a pro-social alternative to cartel parties and the private and supranational interests they represent.

Public Hearings into Foreign Interference
Target Political Parties

– Anna Di Carlo –

On September 16, the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference in Federal Electoral Processes and Democratic Institutions (the Inquiry) resumed its public hearings in Ottawa. Established in September 2023, the Inquiry held 15 days of public hearings in the first "fact-finding phase" of its hearings from January 29 to April 12. The current hearings which will continue until October 16 are referred to as the "policy phase." They will result in recommendations for reforms to existing laws and practices and/or new measures governing police and government agencies, as well as political parties.

The mandate of the Inquiry, headed by Quebec Court of Appeal Justice Marie-Josée Hogue, is to study allegations that the People's Republic of China, Russia, and "other foreign states or non-state actors" interfered in the 2019 and 2021 federal elections. It is also tasked with studying the flow of intelligence reports to government officials and the government's response to it, along with Canada's "institutional capacity to respond." Finally it has been directed to propose "any means for better protecting federal democratic processes from foreign interference that the Commissioner may consider appropriate."

The "fact-finding phase," among other things, examined allegations of foreign interference in the Ontario riding of Don Valley North. In the Inquiry's preliminary report, issued in May, Justice Hogue stated, "It is not the mandate of this Commission to determine what actually took place at the Don Valley North nomination meeting in 2019, and I would not be able to do so on the record before me in any event. However, this incident makes clear the extent to which nomination contests can be gateways for foreign states who wish to interfere in our democratic processes." She concluded that "nomination processes and their potential vulnerability to foreign interference is undoubtedly a question that will have to be carefully looked at in the second phase of the Commission's work."

Since its public hearings recommenced on September 16, representatives of the Bloc Québécois, the Conservatives, the Greens, the Liberals and NDP have appeared as witnesses, with a focus on questioning them about their counter-foreign interference practices and what they think about various measures which are said to serve as shields against foreign powers targeting them.

The parties were asked about their cyber-security practices, how they vet their nomination contestants, how they verify the identity of party membership applicants and contributors and how they monitor social media postings about the party or its MPs and candidates to determine if they are "foreign-based."

The proposals for new measures posed to the parties by the Inquiry included a legal requirement to notify Elections Canada in advance of a nomination contest; permitting only citizens to vote in both leadership and nomination contests; requiring parties to publicly post their nomination/leadership contest rules; publishing the full results of votes for nomination contestants; requiring all contestants to file a "full financial return" (currently only contestants who spend more than $1,000 must file a full return); prohibiting bulk party memberships; requiring a third party, such as Elections Canada, to administer nomination races; and extending the current regulations that apply only to elections, such as prohibitions against intimidating electors and fraudulent voting to nomination/leadership contests. Another proposal presented was for the parties to receive regular classified briefings so that they can be attuned to the "threat environment."

Such proposals would result in the further conversion of the cartel parties into appendages of the state. It would also be a further violation of the right of all registered political parties to freedom of association, which includes their right to determine their own internal policies and affairs.

This party-centric approach to strengthening Canada's electoral and political process will further deepen the country's political crisis, a central feature being the failure of its so-called major political parties to involve citizens, permanent residents and any other interested resident of Canada in politics.

Why not introduce measures which permit Canadians to openly and publicly deliberate on matters of concern -- including the nomination and selection of candidates -- confident that they are not being disinformed because they can freely work things out for themselves? Canadians are certainly capable of determining what policies and proposals are in the interest of a nation-building project and what serves a foreign power.

One measure to empower Canadians would be to deprive political parties of state funding and instead use public funding to create and operate constituent associations open to all citizens and permanent residents to participate in political affairs. One of their purposes would be to make sure political parties act as primary organizations which link the people to governance, enabling constituents in a riding to set the agenda of what concerns them and provide society with a direction which favours them. If state funds which are said to support and enhance the democratic process were used for this purpose, Canadians would have something positive to participate in.

Murky Special Report on Foreign Interference

– Pauline Easton –

In March, the National Security and Intelligence Committee of Parliamentarians (NSICOP) delivered a classified report, entitled Special Report on Foreign Interference in Canada's Democratic Processes and Institutions, to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The redacted version was released in June. It corresponded to the Preliminary Report of the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference which had been released a month earlier, except for one particular allegation. It stated that NSICOP saw "troubling intelligence that some Parliamentarians are, in the words of the intelligence services, 'semi-witting or witting' participants in the efforts of foreign states to interfere in our politics."

This report was based on some 4,000 documents totaling more than 33,000 pages from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), the Communications Security Establishment (CSE), the RCMP, Public Safety, Global Affairs Canada and the Privy Council Office. The same documents were provided to the Public Inquiry on Foreign Interference, but it did not conclude that there are such parliamentarians. The House of Commons passed a motion referring the matter to Public Inquiry Commissioner Justice Hogue to take up, to which she has agreed. She did not attempt to explain how it is that her inquiry did not raise the same allegations.

Since then, controversies have continued to unfold about the report. There have been calls from some Members of Parliament and political commentators that "names should be named" while others acknowledge that this would be a violation of due process. The nature of the "intelligence" has itself been called into question since Green Party leader Elizabeth May and NDP leader Jagmeet Singh obtained clearances so that they could read the classified version and drew quite different conclusions. May concluded there was nothing to be alarmed about while Singh said the exact opposite. Since they, like NSICOP members, are sworn to secrecy, Canadians have no clue as to how they arrived at these opposite conclusions.

All of these conflicting renditions by those who are privy to highly classified reports say a lot about the nature of state secrets. It is necessary to keep in mind that state secrets have as their objective the protection of sources of intelligence and operational methods of the state. So long as Canadians are kept in the dark as to the details of the alleged threats, the assertions of CSIS and CSE that those whom they spy on and the leads they investigate constitute a threat to the "security of Canada" are to be blindly accepted as fact. The intelligence agencies are authorized to conduct these investigations on the basis of "reasonable belief" that an individual or organization is conducting or is suspected of conducting activities that may pose a "threat to the security of Canada."

This approach does not rest on how the security of Canada is defined or upon factual evidence, but on "reasonable belief" and "probabilities." It has resulted in the commission of horrible crimes against Canadians, as in the case of Maher Arar, where claimed evidence was in fact mistaken belief and probability. And the case of Maher Arar was far from being the only one. Once conspiracy theories are permitted as a basis for making judgements, there is no such thing as rule of law.

The creation of CSIS in 1984 separated intelligence gathering and police enforcement under the guise that before being turned into evidence, intelligence must not be used for policing purposes. Nevertheless, Bill C-51, the Conservative government's Anti-Terrorism Act, 2015, authorized CSIS to "take reasonable and proportionate measures to reduce the threats." CSIS was empowered to seek a court order allowing its agents to violate Charter rights. Through these "disruptive threat reduction powers," CSIS can use the same dirty black ops that made for the infamous RCMP, "wrong-doing," such as when it bombed a farmhouse to prevent an alleged FLQ meeting from taking place or when it forged tax returns to discredit and create havoc for political leaders, as it did in the case of Hardial Bains, founder and leader of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist).

Bill C-51 met with broad opposition and became a central issue in the 2015 Federal Election, with demonstrations and protests across the country demanding its repeal. The Liberals promised they would amend the legislation. Instead, they modified it to provide a veneer of "due process" to the "disruptive powers" of CSIS which were affirmed with Bill C-59, the National Security Act, 2017 which among other things empowered various agencies to review the exercise of these powers. The Liberals also expanded the power of the CSE to carry out "active cyber operations ... on or through the global information infrastructure to degrade, disrupt, influence, respond to or interfere with the capabilities, intentions or activities of a foreign individual, state, organization or terrorist group as they relate to international affairs, defence or security." Bill C-59 received Royal Assent in June 2019.

Demonstration on Parliament Hill, March 14, 2015, against Bill C-51.

In 2015, the "threat reduction measures" introduced in Bill C-51 were adopted in the name of combating terrorism. By 2017, when the Liberals affirmed and expanded the use of "threat reduction measures," the aim of combating foreign interference and defending Canadian democracy was the rationale.

Most recently, through Bill C-70, the Countering Foreign Interference Act, CSIS has been granted powers to share its intelligence with entities outside of the state and government agencies, which amounts to another form of disruptive powers.

All of these powers accorded to the spy agencies amount to giving the police the right to conduct disruptive operations, especially during elections which are a live theatre for them. In all likelihood this will be blamed on Russia, China, rogue hackers, etc.

In the course of the Public Inquiry on Foreign Interference, CSIS reported that since 2019 it has used its disruptive powers against what it deemed to be foreign interference on nine occasions. Predictably, they did not share what they did, to whom, and why.

According to an NSICOP post-fact review of the use of disruptive powers by CSIS, the spy agency used unidentified "third parties" in some cases. It said CSIS failed to assess the impact of these measures on the also unidentified victims. The report says CSIS failed to acknowledge that "[redacted] can have significant and lasting impacts on the subject and their families. For example, measures that impact the [redacted] interfere with [redacted.] ... the associated hardships can affect the subject's inherent dignity. The norms of our liberal democracy dictate that people should be able to [redacted.]"

So much for Canadians being able to figure out what CSIS has been up to with its "threat reduction measures." The entire exercise is an egregious abuse of police powers and impunity in the name of defending democracy. To say this poses an obstruction to casting an informed vote is to state the obvious, let alone the obstruction it poses to citizens, permanent residents and others exercising their rights to freedom of speech, conscience and association. Anarchy has been raised to the level of authority and what are called the democratic institutions have been undermined from within, not as a result of foreign interference. This is the truth of the matter.

The atmosphere of anarchy and chaos is clearly not conducive to serious political discourse amongst one's peers! Nobody can be held responsible for anything. Why put the political spies and police in charge of information with the power to target views and individuals that in their assessment undermine what they call liberal democratic institutions? What is liberal about these institutions which put the police in charge? What is democratic about them? It is a course that will increase the chaos which already exists in which accusations and counter-accusations about meddling in the electoral process and elections will dominate the airwaves to create anxiety and acquiescence.

It not only covers up who is paying whom to spy for whom. More importantly, the pretense that powers of disruption and embroiling the leaders of political parties to keep state secrets will control the spying, counter-spying, hacking and counter-hacking and the sale of ever stronger encryption systems is deplorable. The competition between telecom giants and for sources of investment capital in the field of artificial intelligence, and who reaps windfalls from this hacking and counter-hacking and the sale of ever stronger encryption systems cannot be both unfettered and fettered at the same time. It reveals the sorry state of what are called the liberal democratic institutions the police powers are said to be protecting against subversion.

The fox has put himself in charge of the hen house and we are to believe it is to protect the hens! Needless to say, Canadians are not hens, and they have no intention of being eaten. The conditions of life show with certainty that these measures sound the death-knell for an electoral process which is said to be "free and fair" but brings cartel parties to power by having them form governments which are said to have the consent of the governed. Canadians must do something about that.

These measures are also integral to the all-round militarization of all aspects of life which is making the peoples of the world vulnerable to the danger of wider wars of destruction and genocide than those already taking place under the auspices of the U.S./NATO and U.S./Zionist-led forces. This is because the products of artificial intelligence are not being put to use to humanize the social and natural environment but for genocide and war to further the U.S. striving for global domination.

The people of Canada can stop this. A good first step is to denounce the idea of putting the police in charge of elections to target foreign interference in the electoral process, or to protect our infrastructure, or our ability to engage in democratic discourse, or elect a government of our choosing.

Executive Summary

Preliminary Findings of Public Inquiry on
Foreign Interference

On May 3, 2024, the Public Inquiry on Foreign Interference released a 194-page "Initial Report." The document provides an executive summary entitled "The Initial Report in a Nutshell." It is reproduced below. Warning: Readers should keep in mind that the propaganda about foreign interference is a concoction of the political police presented as fact in order to accuse those who refuse to submit to U.S. dictate of being terrorists, extremists, anti-Semites, deniers of human rights and the like in order to eliminate them in one way or another. Their only justification is that they can because they have passed laws which give them impunity. The U.S. is never identified as "a foreign interference actor" in Canada.

The impacts of foreign interference

The Initial Report is clear: foreign interference occurred in the last two Canadian general elections. While the People's Republic of China ("PRC") currently stands out as the most persistent and sophisticated foreign interference threat to Canada, the intelligence holdings examined by the Commission also identify Russia, India, Pakistan and the Islamic Republic of Iran, among other countries, as possible foreign interference actors in Canada. Given this reality, the Initial Report considers a series of questions about the 2019 and 2021 general elections, and the impact that foreign interference had on them. These questions and the Commissioner's findings are summarized below.

Did foreign interference undermine the integrity of the electoral system itself?

No. Both elections were administered with integrity at both the national and individual riding levels. Voters were able to cast their ballots and their votes were duly registered and counted

There is no evidence to the contrary.

Did foreign interference impact which party came into power in 2019 or 2021?

No, it did not. The Liberal Party would have been in government with or without foreign interference in 2019 and 2021.

Did foreign interference impact any election results at a riding level?

It is possible that results in a small number of ridings were affected, but this cannot be said with certainty. In these ridings, foreign interference could have impacted both the nomination contests and the electoral campaign, affecting who was elected to Parliament or which party won the seat.

Did foreign interference impact the broader electoral ecosystem?

It did. Regardless of the impact on specific election results, the events named in the Initial Report likely diminished the ability of some voters to cast an informed vote, thereby tainting the process. This impact has likely been slight to date but may become more severe in the future.

Did foreign interference undermine public confidence in Canadian democracy?

Regrettably, it did. Undermining faith in democracy and government is a primary aim of many of the states that engage in foreign interference. This is perhaps the greatest harm Canada has suffered as a result of foreign interference.

Did foreign interference impact everyone equally?

It did not. While all Canadians are victims of foreign interference, the means and methods of foreign interference harm diaspora communities in Canada in distinct ways. Their experiences must not be ignored, and specific attention shall be given to them.

Appointment of Brookfield Asset Management Chairman
as Government Economic Advisor

Government Corruption Knows No Bounds

– K.C. Adams –

The cartel party government led by Prime Minister Trudeau has given the former governor of the Bank of Canada Mark Carney the official position of economic advisor. Carney is no stranger to politics having held prominent roles within the financial oligarchy including governor of the Bank of England. Currently he is Chairman of Brookfield Asset Management and head of its transition investing. He also holds directorships and leading positions in numerous other monopolies including the online payments firm Stripe, the investment firm PIMCO, Bloomberg and the World Economic Forum.

Brookfield Asset Management has long used political connections and laws such as the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) to enrich itself, becoming one of the largest real estate and investment cartels in the world. The CCAA insolvency legislation for large companies has been used extensively to seize what belongs to workers by right such as their pensions and to damage local suppliers.

At present, Brookfield is seeking assistance in dealing with the crisis in the commercial real estate sector, which has been aggravated as office employees are working from home. The crisis has led to a downturn in the market value of many buildings in the core areas of major cities including Ottawa and Toronto. As one method to alleviate the crisis in the sector, powerful private interests are using their representatives in governments to dictate policies forcing office workers back to their offices against their will to do precisely what they are doing at home, such as zoom meetings and computer work. The federal Treasury Board, without any discussion or rational explanation, is demanding all federal office workers spend at least three days a week in offices. The Ontario Ford government has made similar anti-worker demands. (Horror stories have been circulated about the poor rat-infested and moldy state of some of the buildings).

Brookfield is also floating a $50 billion investment fund, which it will lead and manage, and is expected to reap enormous profit. It wants $10 billion in seed money to come from the federal government, $36 billion from Canadian pension funds and $4 billion from itself.

Another area of interest for Brookfield is mortgage insurance for which it is the largest private lender in Canada. To assist its mortgage lending business, federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland on September 16, just one week after Carney's appointment, announced changes to mortgage rules for first-time home buyers. The changes allow a larger home price cap of $1.5 million and an increase in the length of mortgages to 30 years, which lowers the income requirement to qualify for a mortgage. Any buyer with less than a 20 per cent down payment -- which would include almost all first-time home buyers -- must purchase mortgage default insurance, which will channel more business to Brookfield. Precisely such schemes have led to hundreds and thousands of mortgage foreclosures in the U.S.

Another area of concern for Carney is Telesat and its Lightspeed satellite constellation project to provide satellite Internet connection in northern Canada. Carney is reported to be "good friends" with Telesat CEO Dan Goldberg. The company is seeking a "public-private partnership" arrangement for Lightspeed with the federal and Quebec governments including a $2.14 billion loan from the Government of Canada and a $400 million loan from the Government of Quebec. Certain Conservative Party members of Parliament are denouncing the plan and campaigning for Starlink, a competing satellite company wholly owned by Elon Musk's global aerospace cartel SpaceX.

Michelle Rempel Garner, Conservative Party MP from Calgary wrote a denunciation of Carney's appointment. She advised him that for appearances' sake he should have become a registered lobbyist instead of a government advisor.

Garner writes, "While the Liberals may not have a clear line of sight on whose interest they're supposed to be looking out for, Brookfield, on the other hand, does. As a publicly traded for-profit company, its executives are focused on making money for Brookfield's shareholders. Where the problem lies is that as one of Brookfield's top executives, that would be Mr. Carney's primary interest, too.

"So, there is no way he should be anywhere close to formally influencing the Prime Minister on economic policy without significant guardrails. In fact, he should probably consider registering under Canada's Lobbying Act instead."

It is a ridiculous complaint which begs the question: What "significant guardrails" would change the aim of private interests not being the aim of governments that represent and promote those private interests?

Politics is the concentrated expression of the dominant economics "influencing" the current governments in Canada. Those politics, as the concentrated expression of the imperialist economy and the aim of those in control, are only challenged with significant organized resistance on the part of the exploited social class. The aim of dominant private interests who control the socialized economy for maximum profit finds expression in official politics through their representatives in government. The result among other things is policies to pay the rich, provide their enterprises with defence against competitors, regulations that do not "interfere" with their aim, cheap publicly supplied infrastructure and supply lines, and legislation to attack organized workers who act to assert their rights and claims.

Brookfield is powerful within the economic sector where it operates. It comes up against problems in the economy because of the inherent contradiction of its aim to serve its thirst for private profit with a modern socialized economy that demands a modern aim of cooperation to serve the people and humanize the social and natural environment. To maintain its power and control, Brookfield like all monopolies seeks assistance from the state and its treasury through its political representatives. However, these pay-the-rich schemes will not save the sector or the economy from crisis.

The modern socialized economy demands those who do the work assert their rights and claims and assume control with a modern socialized aim and method of work of cooperation to serve the whole and all its parts equally for the good of all. This is what is required if the socialized economy is to function without recurring crises and unleash the full potential and productivity of the modern forces of production. The reality of the situation forces the working class to be political with its own thinking and modern outlook and to wage a determined organized defence of its rights and claims and prepare itself to win and assume control of the socialized economy and government and build the New.

Garner's Conservative Party cartel grouping has represented Brookfield in the past while Harper was Prime Minister when it grew substantially to become a global concern. Carney's policy objectives of growing the economy to serve private interests, which mean growing certain cartels in opposition to others, are in line with the policies of all the parties in government. Nothing less is to be expected except to the extent the working class leads the people to break with cartel party imperialist politics, constitute itself the nation with a modern outlook and reference point, vest sovereignty in the people, and embark on a new direction for the economy with relations in harmony with its socialized nature.

The appointment of Carney will not save the Liberal government and it will not save the Conservatives either.

Exploitation of Temporary Foreign Workers, Migrants,
International Students and Refugees

Resolutely Oppose State-Organized Racist Attacks on Migrants and Undocumented Workers

– Diane Johnston –

State-organized racist attacks against migrant and undocumented workers are being stepped up by the Canadian state. In April this year in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said, "Whether it's temporary foreign workers or whether it's international students in particular, ... have grown at a rate far beyond what Canada has been able to absorb ... To give an example, in 2017, two per cent of Canada's population was made up of temporary immigrants. Now we're at 7.5 per cent of our population comprised of temporary immigrants." It was the Trudeau Liberals who enticed these workers and international students to come to Canada in the first place and has taken no responsibility for ensuring the supports needed for them to live safely and make a contribution. Now he is using the same racist logic as his father Pierre Trudeau, whose Liberal government issued the infamous Green Paper on Immigration in 1975 which purported that Canada had "limited absorptive capacity" for immigrants with "novel and distinctive features" in particular those from South Asia and the West Indies.

Today, governments at all levels across the country are waging the anti-social offensive and violating everyone's rights to housing, health care and education. They are colluding with universities and colleges which exploit international students as a cash cow by making them pay exorbitant tuition while limiting their ability to work. Migrant workers are brought for private companies to maximize profits and put pressure on all workers to accept worsening working conditions. As the effects of the anti-social offensive become more and more acute and unsustainable, these governments are making immigrants, migrant workers and international students the scapegoats. This must not pass. Working people must not permit their ranks to be split and everyone together must uphold the dignity of labour.

On August 26, the Trudeau government introduced changes to reduce the number of temporary foreign workers (TFWs) in Canada, citing abuse and fraud by employers who use the TFW program. It claims it wants to reduce "reliance of Canadian employers on the program," which has been used to "circumvent hiring talented workers in Canada." These changes went into effect on September 26:

"- The Government of Canada will refuse to process Labour Market Impact Assessments (LMIAs) in the Low-Wage stream, applicable in census metropolitan areas with an unemployment rate of six per cent or higher. Exceptions will be granted for seasonal and non-seasonal jobs in food security sectors (primary agriculture, food processing and fish processing), as well as construction and healthcare;

"- Employers will be allowed to hire no more than 10 per cent of their total workforce through the TFW Program. This maximum employment percentage will be applied to the Low-Wage stream and is a further reduction from the March 2024 reduction. Exceptions will be granted for seasonal and non-seasonal jobs in food security sectors (primary agriculture, food processing and fish processing), as well as healthcare and construction; and

"The maximum duration of employment for workers hired through the Low-Wage stream will be reduced to one year (from two years)."

These changes will make life even more difficult and precarious for visa workers. Companies are not required to provide wages and working conditions that would permit everyone to live in Canada at a respectable standard of living. The program is designed to absorb the people already in the country by using their precarious status to provide cheap labour. The government points out that there are many vulnerable categories of workers who can be exploited to provide the cheap labour employers require without having to go abroad, regardless of the needs of the workers themselves: "Employers in Canada have a responsibility to invest in the full range of workers available in this country, such as young people, newcomers, and persons with disabilities, who are too often an untapped economic resource in Canada. They must also invest in retraining or upskilling to ensure that those they currently employ can adapt to the economy of the future."

Other current changes to work permits of recently graduated international students also affect their ability to support themselves and fulfill their aim of establishing permanent residency and citizenship. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Minister Marc Miller announced in September that Canada would be reducing the number of international study permits issued by 10 per cent in 2025, on top of already promising to reduce the amount by 35 per cent this year. He said the government would implement stricter rules for students who want to stay in Canada under a post-graduate work permit. In April, the government gave two weeks warning that "International students who begin a college program delivered through a public-private curriculum licensing arrangement on or after May 15, 2024, will not be eligible for a post-graduation work permit when they graduate." First these students are fleeced and their families are heavily indebted and now they are summarily denied the ability to earn a living to fulfill their qualifications for permanent residency and citizenship.

Immigrant rights groups point out that Trudeau promised a regularization program in December 2021 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when migrant workers and undocumented workers were taking on essential jobs to keep Canada going. Now that the pandemic is mostly behind us, these same workers are being blamed for burdening the health care system, social services and are even blamed for causing the housing crisis. Not to be outdone, Conservative opposition leader Pierre Poilievre said earlier this year, "The only way to eliminate the housing shortage is to add homes faster than we have people, and I will be removing bureaucracy to build the homes and setting immigration levels so that our housing stock outgrows our population."

It is a fact that since the start of the anti-social offensive in Canada in the mid-1980s, there have been cuts to housing and all social programs at the federal and provincial levels. Housing as a human right in Canada has been increasingly denied as private interests have taken over the building of housing stock. To blame immigrants and international students for the housing crisis is spurious and racist. The monopoly media such as the Globe and Mail and polling companies have joined this anti-immigrant chorus blaming them for the housing crisis, for stressing social services and programs that have been steadily privatized under the anti-social offensive against the people of Canada.

These crude and racist justifications are diversions aimed at splitting and dividing the political unity of the Canadian people, the vast majority of whom want immigrants and refugees to be treated fairly and not be abused. It is the Canadian state, its governments and monopoly media that are engaged in the anti-immigrant hysteria. Recently, Immigration Minister Marc Miller proclaimed that there is no consensus on regularizing migrants and undocumented people in Canada. Who did he ask to come to that conclusion? Not the workers, that is for sure.

In August, the UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary forms of Slavery noted that Canada's "Temporary Foreign Worker Program serves as a breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery, as it institutionalizes asymmetries of power that favour employers and prevent workers from exercising their rights." Canada brought in 84,000 workers in 2018, nearly 136,000 in 2022, and approximately 240,000 in 2023. Now these workers and others are being blamed for the problems caused by the anti-social offensive of the rich and their governments over the last four decades. It will not pass!

Immigrants, temporary workers and undocumented workers are standing up and speaking out against these attacks and are putting forward their demands as human beings and not as things that Canada can exploit, abuse and discard at the whims of the rich and their government. It is part of the organized political fight to uphold the rights of all people living in Canada, building a modern Canada which outlaws the racist attacks and the abuse of newcomers.

Migrant Workers Firmly Uphold Their Rights on Eve of Fall Parliamentary Session

Toronto, September 15, 2024

Under the banner Say No to Racism! Say Yes to Immigrant Justice! the Migrant Rights Network and its allies organized actions in Charlottetown, Moncton, Ottawa, Peterborough, Toronto, Sudbury, Edmonton and Vancouver between September 12 and 15. They firmly demanded that the Government of Canada uphold the rights of migrant and undocumented workers, international students and refugees which are under attack as the government tries to find scapegoats for all the ills which have befallen society as a result of its own anti-social offensive and pay-the-rich schemes.

The actions also condemned the ongoing abuse and exploitation of migrant workers, international students, refugees and undocumented people who are estimated to be close to 500,000 in number and demanded these attacks stop forthwith. The report on Canada by Tomoya Obokata, the United Nations' Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences, released on July 22, said that Canada's Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) "serves as a breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery, as it institutionalizes asymmetries of power that favour employers and prevent workers from exercising their rights."

Government officials and representatives of employer organizations strenuously opposed what some called extremist language and challenged his findings, citing government reports which show compliance with regulations in a majority of cases. Their responses basically ignore the conditions which make people vulnerable. They also ignore that some of those who deny the conclusions drawn by the rapporteur are champions of narrow private interests that benefit from the government's failure to uphold the dignity of labour across the board and that migrant and undocumented workers, international students and refugees are clearly vulnerable.

Speakers at the actions addressed their own experiences with the government's brutal and racist immigration system that is engaged in human trafficking and gross human rights violations. The situation facing tens of thousands of people who are brought to Canada under the TFWP is deplorable, as is the recruitment of international students. They are promised permanent status when in fact, they and their families are used as cash cows to meet Canada's desperation for funds to contribute to its pay-the-rich schemes while it cuts funds for social programs, education included.

International students contribute more than $25 billion annually to Canada but the government permits unscrupulous landlords to gouge them. International students who face deportation after studying and working in Canada for years number at least 150,000. Their Post Graduate Work Permits (PGWPs) are about to expire and there has been no response from the Trudeau Liberals to extend them, leaving the students hanging.

All those who work and study in Canada contribute to Canada's economy, culture and life immediately after they get here but their dignity is brutally violated, causing untold distress and hardship.

Representatives of the Migrant Rights Network pointed to the need for permanent status. Without permanent status, refugees, temporary foreign workers, current and former international students, and undocumented people are even more vulnerable to mistreatment and racism in the workplace, exploitation by landlords, and wage theft, because they are denied basic rights and protections. Canada must end this abuse by providing permanent residency without exception.

An overarching theme in the pan-Canadian action in support of migrants, refugees, international students and undocumented people was the rejection of attempts by the highest officials in Canada to scape-goat them for the problems for which governments are themselves responsible. For example, the event in Toronto pointed out that in the last two years Bell Canada cut 6,000 jobs while its CEO pocketed $13 million in salary and benefits. The banks -- TD, Royal Bank of Canada and Scotia Bank -- besides being invested in the Israeli military carrying out the genocide against Palestinians, recently cut 7,500 jobs while their top brass received first-rate "compensation" for services rendered.

It was also noted that corporate landlords and speculators, such as Starlight Investment, control thousands of rental units for which they get government subsidies from the public purse, while evicting vulnerable tenants and raising rents. This contributes to created an artificial housing shortage for which they should be prosecuted. It is not migrant workers, international students and refugees who are the cause of the housing shortage, as government spokespersons and media claim in order to incite attacks and a backlash against them.

Slogans which rang out during the actions included: We Want Justice!, Status for All!, If You Want Justice -- We Must Resist! If You Want Justice -- Raise Your Fist!, No Hate, No Fear, Immigrants are Welcome Here!, and We Raise our Kids -- We Work all Night! But Side by Side -- We are Ready to Fight!

Toronto, September 15, 2024

Ottawa, September 17, 2024

International Students Hold Militant Action
for Rights and Status

A lively rally was organized by the Naujawan Support Network (NSN), a defence organization of international students, on September 8, close to a busy main street in Brampton. The rally brought together workers and youth from the surrounding area and several organizations including the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) to demand that the Trudeau government end its ongoing abuse and racist attacks on international students and migrants.

The rally was held on the 10th day of an action organized by NSN to inform and mobilize the local community. Students have set up tents, big banners and signs at the entrance to a major shopping centre and have invited people to come and visit them there. One of the organizers explained that this action was taken after many fruitless meetings with Members of Parliament and politicians of all the parties in Parliament who turned a deaf ear to their concerns. Some actually "explained" that they are preoccupied with the next federal election and getting re-elected and were aware of the students' plight but cannot do anything to support them because it could harm their political fortunes!

Speakers, many of them international students, described how they are enticed to come to Canada with the promise of future employment and citizenship, but find a different and brutal reality once they arrive. They find upon arrival – some with young families – after spending tens of thousands of dollars that the promise of citizenship is a cover for the exploitation, abuse, arbitrary treatment and corruption that students face. For example, over the last year the government has changed the eligibility criteria and closed pathways to Permanent Residency for students with one-to-three year post-graduate work permits, leaving tens of thousands of students facing deportation in the near future.

Students with expiring work permits have been told by government officials that they should seek a job offer for a closed work permit from an employer with a Labour Market Impact Assessment (LMIA) under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program which itself is chaotic. What they are finding is that employers who hold an LMIA permit extort tens of thousands of dollars from the students for the "privilege" of a job offer.

Another pointed out that thousands of migrant students and migrant workers worked on the front lines during the COVID-19 pandemic, putting their health and lives on the line alongside others, and are now being tossed aside like used tissues.

Speakers condemned online racist attacks on international students and denounced the lies perpetrated by the state that immigrants and international students in particular are the cause of the housing crisis in Canada and are overwhelming the health care system and other nonsense. The international student speakers were joined by speakers from other organizations including the Ontario Sikhs and Gurdwara Council, the Workers' Action Centre, CPC(M-L), the York-South Weston Tenants' Association and others.

The theme of many of the speeches was the unity of the people against state-organized racist attacks on any section of the people. The speaker from CPC(M-L) said that the students' fight today is part of the tradition of the Canadian working class and gave the example of the mobilization in the '70s to the government's racist Green Paper on Immigration to which the working class from coast to coast responded, denouncing the state and not the people as the source of racist attacks. She denounced the ongoing attacks on international students and migrant workers and reiterated that the Canadian working class is one and our security lies in the defence of the rights of all.

The actions of the Naujawan Support Network continue. On September 28, the organization held a rally to mark one month of their ongoing 24/7 protests to demand:

- extensions for work permits expiring in 2024-2025

- a fair pathway to permanent residency, as promised

- an end to LMIA-based exploitation

- five-year post-graduate work permits (presently permits are valid for between eight months to three years)

UN Special Rapporteur Decries Canada's
Temporary Foreign Worker Program

– Fernand Deschamps –

The report by Tomoya Obokata, the United Nations' Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery, including its causes and consequences, was released on July 22. It says, "Canada should end labour migration arrangements that foster exploitation by creating dependency situations that tie workers to their employers and give employers control [over a] worker's housing, health care and migration status."

The Special Rapporteur visited Canada from August 23 to September 6, 2023, to assess the Canadian government's efforts in preventing and addressing "contemporary forms of slavery, in order to identify good practices and ongoing challenges." During his visit, he travelled to Ottawa, Moncton, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver and met with federal and provincial government representatives, departments and agencies, civil society organizations, workers' organizations, academics, workers and survivors of contemporary forms of slavery, amongst others.

His report notes that Canada has yet to ratify the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, as well as the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

It informs that Canada is a partner of Alliance 8.7, which calls upon States "to eliminate contemporary forms of slavery by 2030" and that Canada has not yet ratified the International Labour Organization's (ILO) Occupational Safety and Health Convention, the Labour Inspection (Agriculture) Convention and the Domestic Workers Convention, and calls upon it to do so.

The Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) is administered by Employment and Social Development Canada, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada and the Canada Border Services Agency. In Quebec it is administered in partnership with the Quebec government.

The program's five streams are: global talent, permanent residency, high-wage, low-wage and primary agriculture, including the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP).

Most temporary foreign workers, the Special Rapporteur points out, are engaged in agriculture or related forms of labour. SAWP differs from other programs in that it is managed through bilateral agreements between Canada and sending countries.

Statistics Canada points out that in 2023, 70,267 temporary foreign workers were employed in agriculture and 45,428 in food and beverage manufacturing sectors -- an increase of 21 per cent since 2020.

Even though the TFWP is a federal program, Obokata's report notes that "oversight of working conditions is primarily the responsibility of the provinces and territories, with the exception of a few federally regulated industries. It also informs that the number of temporary foreign workers entering Canada has increased significantly over time, with some 136,000 permit-holders under the TFWP in 2022, up from 84,000 in 2018.

Under the TFWP, the report explains, "workers' migration status depends on an employer-specific, closed work permit" which has "created a significant power imbalance given that, if workers are fired, they may be deported back to their countries of origin. Employers may have limited incentive to ensure decent working conditions, as workers do not have a meaningful choice of alternatives."

Added to this is the fact that workers "are not always aware of their rights ... as some employers reportedly do not provide relevant information." Other issues they face "include language barriers and limited access to the Internet." Furthermore, "most workers are reluctant to raise issues with their employers or to report exploitative working conditions fearing that they may be identified as complainants" who then get repatriated as unsuitable.

The government also "does not seem to proactively and effectively inform workers about their rights, apart from publishing information online and providing ad hoc funding to civil society organizations for migrant rights education, although it does provide outreach sessions to employers, consulates, migrant worker support organizations and authorities on workers' rights."

The government "defers a significant portion of responsibility for informing temporary foreign workers of their rights to employers, despite the obvious conflict of interest." And unlike other newcomers, "temporary foreign workers cannot benefit from federal settlement services, which would provide information on their rights and facilitate their ability to participate in public life." Thus, "the onus is on either a civil society organization to identify and inform workers or on workers to seek assistance" while "employers can act to prevent such contact."

The report of the Special Rapporteur asserts that "All workers should have trade union rights, but barriers exist for migrant workers. They are not always represented by unions, especially in the agricultural and care sectors, where all workers lack federal union rights," the report notes. More specifically, under the SAWP, "workers cannot negotiate their working conditions, as their contracts are negotiated between the Government and countries of origin."

"For many seasonal workers, the fear of losing their jobs and being deported is compounded by debt bondage," the report continues. "Employers argue that closed work permits are necessary to enable them to recuperate the cost of recruiting and transporting workers, which itself creates a de facto situation of debt bondage. Many workers go into debt to cover the costs associated with participating in the above programs and rely on their Canadian wages to repay their debts. They may also incur debts to third-party recruiters, including costs that legally should be borne only by the employer."

As a result of the "structural inequities between temporary foreign workers and employers and their insufficient access to justice and remedies, workers experience a wide range of abuses." The Special Rapporteur has "received reports of underpayment and wage theft, physical, emotional and verbal abuse, excessive work hours, limited breaks, extracontractual work, uncompensated managerial duties, lack of personal protective equipment, including in hazardous conditions, confiscation of documents and arbitrary reductions of working hours.

"Women reported sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse. Fraud is also an issue, as some workers reported receiving false assurances that their employers had undertaken a labour market impact assessment [LMIA] or applied for permanent residency, only to find out that they had fallen out of status. Complaint mechanisms are difficult for workers to navigate without external assistance" and "[c]onfidentiality is not always well-maintained and whistle-blowers face retaliation despite prohibitions against reprisals."

Police are also reported to have "failed to take complaints seriously, claim that they do not have jurisdiction and report workers to immigration authorities rather than investigating their complaints."

Conclusions and Recommendations

The Special Rapporteur's report stresses "the adverse effects of the activities of the Canadian private sector on human rights and its treatment of marginalized groups." It beckons Canada to "act more decisively to reform laws and policies that enable the exploitation of vulnerable workers and fail to provide adequate remedy and rehabilitation to victims of exploitation and abuse."

It suggests that Canada "move from acknowledging the human rights challenges its past and current policies have created ... towards meaningful remedial actions, including: promoting human rights due diligence by Canadian companies; reforming migration programs that are conducive to exploitation."

Turning to the country's constitutional framework, the Special Rapporteur believes that "the current arrangements for responsibility-sharing" between the federal, Quebec and provincial and territorial governments "systematically create situations of interjurisdictional neglect that increase vulnerability to contemporary forms of slavery for certain groups and stymie efforts to protect and assist victims."

In order for people to "coexist without discrimination every resident of Canada must enjoy the same rights," the report states. It notes that "numerous civil society organizations and workers' organizations" have "assessed the human rights challenges highlighted in the present report and have drawn similar conclusions." The UN Rapporteur calls on the government to "implement their recommendations ... rather than deferring action by prolonging debate or taking concrete recommendations under indefinite periods of consideration."

Canada is called upon to end "the use of closed work permit regimes" and allow "all workers the right" to "choose and change their employers in any sector without restriction or discrimination."

The federal government is recommended to ensure "that all migrant workers have a clear pathway to permanent residency from the time of their arrival in the country" and that they are "able to benefit from federally funded settlement services and other public services without discrimination."

The report also recommends the regularization of those "who have lost status, in particular workers who have been victims of contemporary forms of slavery."

It entreats the government to enforce "international human rights obligations, national human rights standards and provincial and territorial standards regarding labour rights, occupational health and safety, unionization, health care and housing for migrant workers, without discrimination."

As for "interjurisdictional neglect," the report states that it could be dealt with "by mandating or creating a single coordination body with full oversight of migrant workers' rights and conditions."

The federal government should also "ensure that all migrant workers have equitable access to health care from the time of their arrival" and be able to "effectively report abuses and receive protection, including by providing "necessary information to all migrant workers regarding their rights and entitlements ... before and after arrival, in languages they understand." Language education should also be provided "before and after arrival to all migrant workers."

The process "to obtain open work permits for vulnerable workers" should be streamlined to be "more easily renewable ... pending their transition from closed work permits."

The federal government is also called upon to "allocate sufficient resources and strengthen the labour inspection regime" by ensuring that it "covers all industries, including in-home care ... and all aspects of employers' obligations."

Inspections should be "unannounced" and "cover all aspects of migrant workers' rights and all employers' obligations, including access to health care, the provision of accurate information and oversight of third-party recruiters."

It is also proposed that the federal government "ratify the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, the ILO Labour Inspection (Agriculture) Convention, 1969 (No. 129) and the ILO Domestic Workers Convention, 2011 (No. 189)."

Canada is implored to end "collusion with immigration enforcement authorities that leads to the deportation of victims, witnesses, and whistle-blowers." It is called on to effectively protect migrant victims, witnesses and whistle-blowers by providing them "with status and a clear path to permanent residency that is not at any level contingent on collaboration with law enforcement." It also calls for Canada to create "pathways for long-term or permanent residency for foreign victims and survivors."

To read the Special Rapporteur's full report, click here.

Legault Government Prepares Next Round of Attacks on Most Vulnerable in Quebec

– Geneviève Royer –

On August 20, Quebec Premier François Legault announced the next round of anti-worker measures he is taking in the name of such high ideals as protecting the French language, not exacerbating the housing crisis with more immigrants and refugees, and the like.

Legault, at a one-hour press conference, declared a six-month moratorium effective September 3 on any new or renewed applications from foreign workers for the Temporary Foreign Worker Program – for which Quebec is responsible – if they are for the island of Montreal.

Part of his pretext is defence of the French language in Montreal. This change would result in the repatriation of some 3,500 foreign workers in Montreal, including many working in restaurants and warehouses. Exceptions include temporary foreign workers in the agriculture and food processing, construction, education, health care and social services sectors, as well as any workers that Hydro-Quebec will need.

Reports indicate that refugee claimants, the most vulnerable of all, will be used to fill these positions, while awaiting a decision from the Refugee Board and risking deportation.

Legault claims the moratoriam is the result of his demands that the federal government significantly reduce the number of refugee claimants in Quebec and "redistribute" them across Canada, and for a significant cut in the federal International Mobility Program. He says, the federal government has responded, "What about you?"

Premier Legault also announced that this fall he will introduce legislation regarding international students in an effort to eliminate some who come here to study but want to remain.

In the weeks and months preceding this announcement, various actors in the education system expressed their dismay at the government's divestment in French classes in spite of the Quebec government's claims that this is its priority.

They pointed out that Quebec decided to cut funds given to school service centres (formally school boards) in spite of the fact that last spring the Quebec French language commissioner established that the number of hours offered for French classes was largely insufficient. Many called attention to the fact that such cutbacks could lead to the closure of thousands of classes.

The president of the Quebec Association of School Principals' Personnel (AQPDE) also expressed his disappointment and incomprehension: "We need these people, workers who speak French, and the government is hindering the process. For us, on the ground, the decision is hard to take."

In July, the teachers' union Fédération autonome de l'enseignement (FAE) sent a letter to Premier Legault and to the chair of the Treasury Board, Sonia LeBel, to denounce the situation. They pointed out, among other things: "Only 43.6 per cent of immigrants who had declared upon application having no knowledge of French participated in French courses in the three years following their application. Between June 1 and April 15, only half the people who applied to Francisation Quebec had started their course or received confirmation that they were registered."

The FAE also points out that in January, 36,204 people were waiting to be admitted to a French class although the union, in their last collective agreement, negotiated an improvement in welcome classes and French classes for students from an immigrant background.

Despite the facts, the Legault government misses no opportunity to blame the people for the anti-social offensive and to incite racist attacks against migrant workers, refugees, international students and others. It is state-racism but Quebeckers are blamed for being xenophobic and other nonsense.

Philippines Labor Export Policy and Situation of Migrant
Filipino Workers in Canada

Migrante International Chairperson Addresses Toronto Meeting

Joanna Concepcion, Chairperson of Migrante International, was the guest speaker at an event hosted by Migrante Ontario on August 14. Migrante Ontario is the self-defence organization for Filipino and other migrant workers in the province, part of Migrante Canada which is affiliated with Migrante International that has more than 200 local and regional branches in Asia, Europe and North America.

Concepcion noted that 2024 marks the 50th anniversary of the Labor Export Policy introduced in the Philippines by the notorious U.S.-supported Ferdinand Marcos Sr. regime. Fifty years later, the current Philippines government of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has further institutionalized this policy by creating a Department of Migrant Workers which, Concepcion explained, is just another mechanism to impose extraneous processing fees to fleece those who wish to leave the Philippines in search of a better future for themselves and their families.

Currently, more than 6,000 migrants leave the Philippines each day. Almost 58 per cent are women. Collectively the close to 2.5 million Overseas Foreign Workers (OFWs) remit more than U.S.$37 billion annually to the Philippines, a critical factor in shoring up the Philippine economy. Concepcion explained that the Philippines is the world's largest provider of seafarers and other sea-based workers and one of the largest suppliers of nurses to many countries including the U.S. and Canada, creating a nursing crisis in the islands. The current ratio for nursing care in the Philippines is one nurse for 60 patients. By comparison, despite the health care crisis, the ratio in Canada is about one nurse to six patients.

The lack of protection for OFWs by successive Philippine governments has resulted in more than 5,000 Filipinos currently in detention, more than 70 on death row, in various countries including Malaysia, Indonesia, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and other places.

In her presentation Concepcion also noted that the domination of the Philippines economy by foreign monopolies from the U.S., China, south Korea, Japan and other countries has created an economic crisis which has forced people to emigrate to find a better life for their families. She noted that the current focus of the Marcos Jr. regime is to subsidize large privately constructed infrastructure projects that turn a huge profit for the owners while investments in social programs are cut and funds diverted to the military or the corrupt elites that rule the country. She also underscored that the energy sectors, construction sectors and technology sectors are owned wholly or largely by foreign multinational corporations. Almost 70 per cent of the manufacturing sector is in foreign hands.

The most important point that Concepcion made is that Filipino migrants are joining with other migrants and workers where they are to fight for their rights in defiance of escalating attacks by governments aimed at splitting the unity of the working people. In many countries state-organized anti-immigrant propaganda is ramping up and racist laws are being passed which further criminalize migrant workers and other immigrants, making them even more vulnerable to abuse, exploitation and physical attacks.

In conclusion, she applauded the courageous stands of Filipino migrants in Canada and elsewhere who are demanding that their rights be protected by the Philippine state and also by the governments of the countries in which they work and live. Their principled and militant actions contribute to increasing global awareness of the conditions of migrant workers, including Filipino workers, and are an essential contribution to the fight for justice and dignity for all workers, not just migrants, she added.

Following her presentation there was a lively discussion involving migrant workers and youth active in defending migrant rights in Canada.

Militant Action Denounces Provocations of Philippine State Agents in Canada

Some 70 people, mostly youth, took part in a militant action against two Philippine state agents speaking at a "by invitation only" meeting at the Korean Canadian Institute in Toronto on August 16.

Eric Celiz and Trixie Cruz-Angeles are vocal supporters of the U.S.-sponsored governments in the Philippines, those of the broadly reviled Rodrigo Duterte and his successor and current president Ferdinand Marcos Jr. They were in Toronto to drum up support amongst Filipinos before next year's mid-term election in the Philippines. Canadians who also hold Filipino citizenship can vote in the election. Celiz and Cruz-Angeles are well-known enemies of the Filipino people and have engaged in "red-tagging," the labeling of progressive forces as communists, subversives or terrorists to justify their arrest, imprisonment, torture and often death.

The demonstrators stood outside the venue where the meeting was held as invitees arrived. They chanted slogans in English and Filipino denouncing the two speakers. Alexia, the spokesperson for Anak Bayan Canada, the organization of progressive and patriotic Filipino youth, denounced the two speakers for coming to Canada to provoke the Filipino community. She detailed their crimes and denounced the Canadian government for allowing such individuals who violate the human rights of the Filipino people to come to Canada on their anti-people mission.

Philip Fernandez, speaking on behalf of the Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) expressed the strong support of the Party and the Canadian people for the struggle of the Filipino people for national liberation led by the Communist Party of the Philippines. He expressed confidence that the U.S. and its allies like Canada will not be able to suppress the just struggle of the Filipino people, in the same way as they have been unable to crush the Palestinian Resistance. He pointed out that the Canadian state trots out the bogey man of "foreign interference" in Canadian affairs in a self-serving way to serve narrow private interests, but clearly supports "foreign interference" if it disrupts the unity of the Canadian people who vigorously oppose the criminal actions of the U.S.-backed Marcos-Duterte government and of Canadian mining companies pillaging the natural resources of the Philippines.

Several speakers denounced the role of the Canadian state in allowing agents of the Philippine state to operate with a free hand in Canada, including threatening reprisals against activists in the Filipino community and against their families in the Philippines, for their stands in defence of their rights in Canada and their support for the struggle for independence and democracy in the Philippines. A youth from Anak Bayan Scarborough noted that their organization has been "red tagged" in the media.

A spokesperson from the Toronto Chapter of the International Coalition for Human Rights in the Philippines stated that carrying out actions for what is just is a duty and a right and that the red-tagging of political activists must stop. She said that people like Celiz and Cruz-Angeles should be held to account for their crimes.

The participants chanted many slogans such as Ang tao, ang bayan ngayon ay lumalaban! (The People United Will Never Be Defeated!), Celiz, Celiz, Is a Plague! and others, drawing the attention of many motorists passing by.

Canada Permits Agents from the Philippines
to Operate in Canada

Demonstration in Manila September 21, 2024 condemning oppressive policies of Marcos Jr regime on occasion of 52 years since the declaration of Martial Law.

The government of Canada is permitting agents of the reactionary Philippine state to operate in Canada. While they are drumming up support for the U.S.-sponsored Marcos-Duterte regime in the upcoming mid-term elections, they are also "red-tagging" progressive forces in Canada as the Marcos-Duterte regime is doing in the Philippines where there is widespread persecution of those fighting for peace, independence and democracy. The forces of reaction in the Philippines are desperate to crush the people's movement for national and social liberation and to drive the U.S. imperialists and other foreign powers out of their country. The agents of the U.S.-backed Philippine state in Canada are doing the dirty work of the U.S. and its stooges in the Philippines to justify the further militarization of the country in the name of security and progress, to turn the Philippines into a forward staging ground for a U.S.-NATO war of aggression against China in the Asia Pacific region, embroiling and endangering the Filipino and peoples of the region.

TML salutes the heroic Philippine resistance and the thousands of Filipino youth and patriots from all walks of life who have been martyred in the struggle against the repression of the U.S.-sponsored Philippine state and the tens of thousands who take the place of the fallen to advance the movement for sovereignty and national liberation. TML calls on Canadians to condemn the Canadian state for providing visas for these foreign agents and for its support of Canadian companies whose actions in the Philippines harm the people and the environment. This support exposes Canada's self-serving propaganda about foreign interference in Canada when, in deeds, Canada fully supports foreign interference if it serves narrow private interests. The bogey man of foreign interference is used to divide the people and silence opposition to people fighting for their rights. It reveals that the Canadian state's propaganda about foreign interference is aimed also at disrupting the movement of the people fighting for their rights and opposing what is unacceptable at home and abroad.

The Canadian state supports mining and resource monopolies which steal the natural assets of the Filipino people, particularly resources belonging to the Indigenous Peoples, causing environmental degradation and economic dislocations that feed directly into the Labor Export Policy of the Philippine state. This is the name given to the human trafficking in which Canada is a willing accomplice. In Canada, migrant workers, guest workers and immigrants from the Philippines face further abuse and exploitation. They are underpaid and denied dignified working and living conditions. The Communist Party of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) continues to stand with the Communist Party of the Philippines and the people of the Philippines, as well as with the Filipino national minority in Canada. They are an integral part of the Canadian working class fighting for justice, rights and human dignity.

Canada must stop supporting the subversion of the struggle of the Filipino people for national liberation, independence and peace!

Labour Day 2024

Photo Review

Labour Day, September 2 was celebrated across the country with parades, picnics and other events, except in Quebec where workers only celebrate May Day. Every year, it is an occasion for workers to express their pride in being the heart and soul of the socialized economy, and to defend the dignity of labour. Workers who are waging specific struggles take the opportunity to stand together and to have their struggles known so as to break the silence surrounding their working conditions and conditions of life.

This year in many cities workers took the occasion to stand with Palestine and demand the Canadian government stop arming and supporting Israel's genocide. In Sudbury activists with Palestine Solidarity Sudbury were warmly received at the Labour Day festivities where they distributed leaflets promoting the No Nickel For Genocide petition campaign. In Toronto and Ottawa large Palestine solidarity contingents participated in the parades.

Labour Movement -- Past, Present, Future -- Fighting for the Rights of All, was the compelling theme of the 2024 Labour Day March and Celebration held in Prince George. The day began with a march through downtown with marchers chanting Fight for the Rights of All; Workers Unite: Keep up the Fight; We Stand with the Railway Workers; Public Services Yes, Privatization No; Manufacturing Yes, Mill Closures No; Workers and Community: Solidarity Forever; Who decides, We Decide. This was followed by an afternoon of discussion, cultural performances, food and fun.

Ottawa

Toronto

Hamilton

Sudbury

Windsor

Prince George

(To access articles individually click on the black headline.)

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