Still Squeezing the Poor…Into Inadequate Housing

Bad landlords face licensing crackdown

With multiple tenants crammed into decrepit properties, one London borough is taking direct action

• Lisa Bachelor
• The Guardian, Friday 14 June 2013 14.46 BST

Here in British Columbia, Canada, especially in Vancouver (and I suspect, any other major city in the country) such criminally sub-standard crowding exists alongside single family dwellings, looming over-priced condos and other assorted attempts to eke out a way to exist amid inflated costs and lousy pay…
The local and Federal governments, in both British and Canadian  cases, is to blame, even indirectly, for creating the conditions for the wealthy to continue to exploit the poor, workers and students …our Prime Minister is trying desperately to block Canada’s support for an International tax evader law….you know, the landlords (and Conservative donors)

Yes, We Have No Compensation…..

 

WorkSafeBC uses questionable methods to deny claim

CBC News

Posted: Jun 4, 2013 5:52 AM PT

Last Updated: Jun 5, 2013 6:18 AM PT

 

This gentleman is very lucky to have found some help through the CBC, but I can assure anyone who thinks this is the end, that it isn’t..
WorkSafe BC has gone from being an agency created and funded to help to  to protect the worker,  to a corporate tool to deny claims whenever and wherever possible, and has been just that for more than a decade..
I don’t know if CBC was made aware of this fact, but WorkSafeBC actually
rewards businesses that have no claims/fewer claims on a yearly basis, and of course, this triggers all sorts of alarms, since the motivation is to deny all claims, and fight the ones that challenge the ruling, to keep your numbers down…especially true in the public sector…yes, I do know this for a fact…as a retired worker with a story of my own, which I won’t bore anyone with, I can speak from experience…this organization exists purely as window dressing for workers, and as a cudgel for corporate interests, both private and public (is there a difference,  any more?)

Unions are all placed in the damn-near impossible position of  fighting these rulings (where unions still exist) and are brought to their financial knees by expensive lawyers on retainer who  fight at every step…have to wonder what that ends up costing  the taxpayer..because make no mistake, you and I are paying, even indirectly for this attack on sick and injured workers….

Strangely, this attitude lines up perfectly with the defeat of the NDP here in BC by Gordon Campbell, along with the destruction of the Red Seal certification oversight of the Apprenticeship Program, which got in the way of his rich corporate donors…who wanted to pay  everyone slave wages to develop properties for for huge profits to fill the greedy maw of their offshore accounts..they of course, priced themselves out of the market, as many condos stand empty…and the need for certified, well-trained apprentices is overwhelming the workforce here, leading to  jobs being  sent elsewhere…smart move, Gordo….

While injured workers like John Peeters have to deal with the fallout from this corporate attack on worker’s rights and union-bashing that continues, unabated,  BCers will be left in the  dark as to what the  ”job creation” mandate of the newly elected (by  28% of the vote) BC Liberals, or Conlites, might really look like…can  so-called “right to work” legislation be  very far down the road?

Strength in Numbers, or Just Numb?

Unifor: CAW, CEP Merger Creates Largest Private-Sector Union In Canada

Posted: 05/30/2013 11:59 am EDT  |  Updated: 05/30/2013 5:12 pm EDT

Considering that CUPE, the largest public sector union, seems to be powerless when it really matters, I’m not sure what difference this is going to make to the private sector…the same things apply to both sectors – if the membership isn’t willing to fight back against the government and the corporate greed, then no union can  do a thing…the members have to be willing to put their butts on the line, and mean it, not capitulate at every turn…as usual, things will have to get really bad before they get better…and with all the meaningless distractions in the news these days, re Ford and Duffy, it wouldn’t surprise me if Harper and the ConJobs aren’t working on something nefarious right now, something typically anti-labour to sneak in  while the media are distracted by petty b.s.  that really  doesn’t matter in the long run…

Does this sound depressing?  After the BC election results, I am convinced that  the public has lost it’s appetite for  fighting what seems more and more inevitable…

It isn’t so much that the wrong Party won, it is that so few people voted…so that  around 28% actually elected this provincial  Party…if that sort of disinterest can be said to be mirrored in union negotiations, I can’t see much hope for the public, or private sector workers in the years to come…

How You Gonna Keep ‘Em Down on the Pharma….?

 

 

 

Nadeem Esmail

Director, Health Policy Studies, The Fraser Institute

  

Bulk Buying Pharmaceuticals Isn’t All It’s Cracked Up to Be

Posted: 05/24/2013 5:30 pm

 

OOOHHHH….a warning from a minion of the Fraser Institute..couldn’t be his Big Pharma puppeteers steering him into this scary-sounding piffle…now, could it?
The facts are that even Big Pharma screws up, or else all those massive lawsuits would be fairytales..nope, they stand to lose out on all their billions, so naturally, who else but the Fraser Institute, good buddies of corporations and the rightwing whackadoodles out there (who equate the  gathering up  of filthy lucre with goodness and purity) would be sounding the alarm about a better use of our tax dollars than lining the pockets of their corporate masters…and  looking over his bio, it appears Mr. Esmail is neither a medical practitioner or a pharmacist, but that most august of  professions (just ask Steve Harper) an ‘economist’…..

Perhaps Mr. Esmail should be directing his ‘concern’ towards such luminaries as Rob Ford…who should be tutored on pharmaceuticals, both legally-obtained…and otherwise…

Rolling (Over) on the River….

Holmes Hydro can proceed without environmental assessment

The Canadian Press

Posted: May 18, 2013 1:30 PM PT

Last Updated: May 18, 2013 2:19 PM PT

And this is our BC Supreme Court? Bought and paid for…disgusting display of arrogance and ignorance..the Court must have been stacked with Albertans, because no BC judge in his or her right mind would use an excuse  like convenience and economic ‘hardship’ to  ignore  an environmental assessment..really, tell us, what will it take to get this Province to  stand up for itself?  To protect the beauty we have, to maintain our coastlines and keep our watersheds  clean and non-polluting, and what few fish we have left allowed their dwindling spawning grounds…does everything have to be decided on the basis of dollars?

When this act of abject moral cowardice is placed alongside  our First Nations ‘ admirable and courageous stand against pipelines being built in their traditional territories, it makes our BC Supreme Court seem far less than Supreme….more like the squabbling little capitalist sycophants they so obviously are….the rest of the world must be wondering just what the hell is wrong with BC, that these acts of destruction  can occur with such ease…and that the ignorant voters here just gave the government the mandate to  continue with this destruction…

Well if  Clark can find a riding willing to elect her, and she does end up leading the Province, we  can only hope that she will consider the fact that the difference between her majority and an NDP one was about 5%…and take the strong feelings of BCers into account on these matters of enviromental protection…are you holding your breath, too?

The Uneducated Masses Strike a Blow for…?

Middle Schools Closed In Cowichan Valley, School Bus Fees Implemented

CP  |  By The Canadian PressPosted: 05/16/2013 10:48 am EDT  |  Updated: 05/16/2013 11:14 am EDT (found  in Huffington Post)

 

And this action was  signed off on instantaneously,  about 2 seconds after the results of the dismal election were announced…viva the People’s Republic of Vancouver Island! If ever we needed to separate and form our own Province, this should make it obvious…. and  watch those  ’environmental impact’ studies get fast-tracked for a pipeline through our Province..let’s get ready for the fight if our lives, folks,for our beautiful interior and  coastline…because nothing else will stop the corporate greedbags now..

And I’d like to wish a fond farewell to those  members of   former Cowichan School Board, democratically elected by the people ( who knew in advance of the election that these progressive school board trustees would  vote against the government imposed budget reductions) and unceremoniously dumped  for doing what they said they would…

‘Cowichan’ comes from the local First Nations word for ‘Warmland’ and I get  the distinct feeling it’s gonna get a lot warmer here, after this announcement…

So much for democracy, and thanks again to all those BCers who didn’t bother to vote (only 48% did) …your pathetic  lack of interest in your own future  leads me to  revisit the idea of  a mandatory  vote, but then, you’d probably just pay the fine rather than get off your butts, or actually think…..

Dazed & Confused, Depressed & Not Amused….

By now the entire country  knows what happened here in BC…the re-election of the Provincial Liberals (or Con-Lites) …to say that  I am depressed is to  state the case in an all-too delicate way.

If I can derive any tiny bit of  satisfaction  from the election, it is that… a) my old home riding, Kitsilano in Vancouver, did not elect Christy Clark  as their MLA – and this is Gordon Campbell’s old riding, where we fought long and hard to unseat him (unsuccessfully, I should add)… and b)   Vancouver Island, my current  home base, stubbornly true to form, went almost all NDP,  and even elected our first Green MLA, leaving only one seat left for the Fiberals  in,  inexplicably, the Comox Valley……

So, here’s my plan for the future..that the Island declare Independence  and break away from the rest of the Mainland, becoming their own  Province…and why not?  We have a very large land base, and grow an increasingly large amount of our own healthy food. We have a thriving  tourist industry, beautiful natural places (that we want to maintain and protect) and we are willing to fight hard to protect, and work with, not destroy, our  well-appreciated  natural resources. We have elected politicians willing to thumb their nose at the status quo and protect children’s health and education, and show some respect for our  seniors…

I have a strange sort of feeling that other  places might actually wish to join us..the Gulf Islands, Haida Gwaii, etc….(well, Haida Gwaii as a friendly sovereign nation, then)

It will take me a long time to recover from this  major defeat of principles and social justice..but, of course, the work continues, because I just know that  the Feds will look on this  rightwing triumph as a green light for the pipeline push…and that is something that should be fought with everything we have…it’s the only important fight we have left.