While the Globe And Mail isn't usually Canada's most left-leaning newspaper by any stretch of the imagination, even it couldn't close its eyes on the Conservative government's recent budget provision which would force a worker on unemployment (EI) to accept work even if it doesn't correspond to their specific skill-set, even if it pays less than they are accustomed to (or can afford) or involves “conditions less favourable than those (…) recognized by good employers”.
As Sid Ryan, president of the Ontario Federation of Labour, said:
I believe it’s more about a downward pressure on wages. This government is essentially saying unless Canadians lower their standard of living and lower their wage demands, we won’t be able to compete with China and places like that.Nice. An official government policy that will turn into Law making Canadians even by going to the lowest common denominator. I have talked often about how Stephen Harper's cronies seemed to want Canadians to be slave workers to their rich friends' companies; now, they are instituting this as Law.
Imagine a CEO, paid a million bucks a year, big house, 5 cars - the whole deal. Loses his job, but it's only temporary, he's highly educated, highly regarded, has the right friends in right places, just needs a bit of time... being forced to accept a job as a clerk in a 7-11. Think that's a way to repay his mortgage? Of course not. He'll go from ''the 1%'' to ''the rest of us'' in no time.
Same goes for skilled workers, like plumbers, electricians, truckers... they risk losing their trades, licenses, even their skill-set, and many professions risk if not elimination, at least a monopolization that would exclude many members in the short-to-middle run.
The Conservatives want power and money to remain in the hands of people they know, and no one else.
They even raised the age for receiving old age pensions from 65 to 67 (effective in 2023, after all their fucking friends will have received theirs...) and will diminish the amount provided, despite tons of research proving none of this needs to be done.
All of these measures, as well as re-opening the gay marriage and abortion debates, and the costly Queenification of the country is taking the country back 4, maybe 5 decades. And there's nothing anyone can do about it, because they have the majority at the House Of Commons.
We're talking about the same fuckers who cut $6.7B the National Film Board and $115M in the state-run CBC, but gave Quebecor Media $5.5B as a gift, presumably to keep spewing right-wing fake news on Sun News TV.
We're talking the Armed Forces Fan Club who managed to cut mental health resources for soldiers. I guess the message is ''if you don't die abroad, you're fucked''.
So the Feds want us dead or as slaves, and the provincials want us uneducated and poor. And yet, the Independence option remains below 40% in most polls, despite strong federalists Michael Ignatieff and Justin Trudeau being relatively open to it... hard to understand.
Need I remind these fuckers that in the Grande Scheme of things, mankind is but a blip on the map, a few thousand years in millions of years of evolution - and this particular generation, century even, is but a blip on mankind's time. We're pretty fucking meaningless, and yet there remains a bunch of assholes intent on fucking it all up for most folks instead of letting us enjoy the ride.
The current climate just cannot stand, and I wouldn't be surprised if stuff like the Victoriaville riot happened more often. Then again, wearing a mask - even a gas mask for protection from canisters and fumes - will soon mean 5 years in jail...
