The right-wing Toronto Sun has never been afraid to foment division among workers, even when division didn’t exist. In the time of coronavirus, this hasn’t changed. Sun columnist Brian Lilley, on March 30 launched an attack on public sector workers in Service Canada offices. He wrote: “I know there are many good civil servants at […]
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As the old saying goes, “It is difficult to make predictions, especially about the future.” While this statement contains a lot of truth, it should not blind us to the fact that some clear political tendencies are emerging from the coronavirus crisis. It is safe to say that one of the big political losers from […]
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Tim Heffernan is a retired Ontario Teacher. Friday, February 21, saw the biggest show of united action by Ontario teachers since 1997. All 4 unions (elementary, secondary, Catholic and French) representing 160,000 teachers, in a one day strike closed down schools that affected 2 million students. In Toronto, an estimated 30,000 teachers, education workers, parents […]
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Tim Heffernan is a retired Ontario Teacher. Two months after the first one day strike by Ontario High School Teachers, the two sides are still miles apart. (This article gives background to the strike.) The High School teachers in the public boards, organized by OSSTF, were the first to take action with a series of […]
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Tim Heffernan is retired Ontario Teacher and OSSTF activist. Wednesday, December 4, saw the first provincial strike of teachers since 1997. 60,000 High School teachers and education workers walked off the job for the day and picketed outside schools, Board offices and the offices of Tory MPPs. For 2 weeks prior to this, the union, […]
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In early April, hundreds of thousands of students, teachers and education workers protested against Doug Ford’s attacks on education. At the end of April, 8,000 health care workers and their allies rallied at Queen’s Park, the seat of the Ontario legislature, in Toronto. This was hosted by the Ontario Health Coalition, an umbrella group representing […]
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On April 4, 100,000 to 200,000 school students walked out of 700 schools in protest against the Ford government’s plan to increase class size increases and other attacks on their education. The mood was energetic and enthusiastic. The students knew why they were protesting – to protect their education. Laughingly, Ford’s petulant comment even before […]
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The political scandal of the year is unravelling. At the forefront of media coverage are the high profile politicians: PM Justin Trudeau, ex Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould and Trudeau’s top political advisor, Gerald Butts. What seems to whet the media’s appetite is speculation surrounding the “scandal” – who pressured whom, who’s telling the truth, who’s […]
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So after a lot of fanfare, seemingly hard bargaining down to the wire, the media consensus is that Trudeau got the best possible deal for “Canada.” The point about any trade deal is that it is mainly about reconciling the interests of competing capitalist classes, not what is best for the working people of the […]
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One of Toronto’s great annual traditions over the last two weeks of August, “the Ex”, promises to be a much more interesting experience than usual for its 1 million+ visitors. The lock out of the workers who erect stages and move equipment started in late July and is building to a crescendo for the opening […]
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