Over 2,200 activists sign letter to Trudeau opposing the repeal of PCEPA

Over 2,200 "advocates, women’s rights and anti-trafficking organizations, sex trade

survivors, survivor-led networks, and concerned individuals from around the world dedicated to protecting the human rights of women and girls" have signed an Open Letter to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau demanding that his government reject calls to repeal the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act (PCEPA).

The letter is in response to a proposal by the Young Liberals of Canada which the letter describes as "incomprehensible"

As the letter notes:

The law decriminalizes prostituted individuals, who are mostly women, offering them services, and targets sex buyers, who are almost unanimously men, for the harm they cause in prostitution. The law’s goal is to end the commercial sexual exploitation of individuals, protect human rights, especially those of women and girls, and it recognizes that sex buyers fuel the global multibillion dollar sex trade. While the law still inappropriately criminalizes prostituted women in certain circumstances  PCEPA embodies the notion that the best way to eradicate the pervasive harms of prostitution is to end its practice.

The approach embodied in the PCEPA is known as the Nordic Model from its origins in Sweden and other Scandinavian countries. While the Nordic Model has been much maligned by many North American liberals, it is based on solidly social democratic, socialist and feminist principles.

Some very good places to learn about the Nordic Model from these perspectives include the exceptionally comprehensive Speaking of Prostitution  which was written by a Swedish feminist and socialist collective, as well as Nordic Model Now!'s What is the Nordic Model?, the London Abused Women's Centre's page The Nordic Model, the report Sexual Exploitation and Trafficking of Aboriginal Women and Girls by the Native Women’s Association of Canada, among many others.

The article The German model is producing hell on earth! provides a look at what decriminalizing pimps and johns has meant in Germany, while A Union of Pimps and Johns looks at how supposed sex workers "unions" are often not really what they purport to be.

As the letter states:

Prime Minister Trudeau, we want to bring to your attention that the term “sex work” was coined by the sex industry itself, and those with specific interests in it, to normalize and mask the harms, exploitation, and discriminatory practices that are inherent to prostitution. Prostitution is neither “sex” nor “work” but the essence of a complex multi-billion dollar global sex trade, whose bedrock is misogyny, colonization, racism and violence against women. 

Towards the end the Open Letter notes that:

It is also vital to understand that the decriminalization of “sex work,” which the Young Liberals are proposing, does not just decriminalize those being bought for sex. The PCEPA already protects prostituted people from arrests, with the above-mentioned exceptions. Instead, the proposal to be tabled this week calls for the decriminalization of pimping, brothel owning and sex buying. Decriminalizing the systems of prostitution triggers the expansion of a market of commercial sexual exploitation that disastrously renders the sex trade as a legitimate business and employer, a system that richly profits from the abuse, and even death, of women and girls. If Canada were to legalize the purchase of male sexual access to women’s bodies, it would also spark an increase in sex trafficking, including of minors, to meet the consequent state sanctioned demand for prostitution.

To read the full text of the Open Letter click here.

 See also: Children are never "sex workers" -- They are victims of rape and child abuse

See also: On Pornography and the Persistence of Patriarchy 

Sitdown Strike -- Heritage of Struggle - UAW Education Department 1965

Vintage Leftist Leaflet Project

See the end of this post for details on the project.


Leaflet: Sitdown Strike -- Heritage of Struggle - UAW Education Department 1965 

The leaflet we are looking at today was released in the mid 1960s when the American labor and union movement was significantly more powerful than it is today. Produced by the Education Department of the United Automobile Workers (UAW) it was part of a broader series that sought to tell the history of the "Heritage of Struggle" of workers and unions in the United States. 

This one looked at both the terrible reality of oppression and indentured servitude that existed for workers during the early history of the United States and then looks at the Sitdown Strikes of 1936 and 1937. These strikes, despite brutal attempts at repression, were ultimately successful and had a profound and transformational impact on American society and the evolution of industrial unionism. 

As the leaflet notes:

All the gains made by industrial workers date from that year. Time and a half for overtime; for work on the sixth day; double time for Sunday work; call-in pay; paid vacations and holidays; control over speed-up; the right to file a grievance; night shift differentials; pensions; hospital and medical insurance; all -- without exception -- derive from 1937, from the courage of the men who sat down. 

The leaflet also includes international art dedicated to workers and their struggles.

(Click on scans to enlarge)

When The Left Chapter began part of what I wanted to do on the blog was to show and highlight vintage public leftist election/political leaflets and booklets. While many of these have been offered with commentary to date, a very large collection of hundreds of them from several different sources remains and to preserve these often quite rare documents we will be posting them on a regular (almost daily) basis now often without or with minimal commentary so that people may have access to them as quickly as possible as an historical resource. 

While these will all be leaflets from a variety of different leftist viewpoints and countries, they are being posted as an historical/study resource and the views or opinions expressed in them do not necessarily reflect the views of this blog or blogger.

All of these posts (as well as posts made to date) will be listed on the page: Vintage Communist/Socialist Leaflets (which is still being updated with past posts).

If you have any public, vintage leaflets or booklets you would like to contribute to this project please contact us via theleftchapter@outlook.com

Doug Ford wants you to subsidize the poverty wages of corporations

Doug Ford, the new leader of the Conservatives in Ontario, has called the plan to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour in January, 2019 a "tax grab" --which of course it is not.

It is legislation that would force corporations to pay their workers something more approaching a living wage. It is not a tax at all. Rather it makes those who should be paying workers more -- the businesses those workers work for -- do so.

Instead Ford proposes that minimum wage workers should get a tax cut. This tax cut would amount an extra $859 a year for full time minimum wage workers. The higher minimum wage would mean an extra $1,553 a year for that same worker.

So Ford's plan is quite literally a proposal by a rich guy that would take $694 a year out of the pockets of lowest wage workers in the province.

According to the CBC and others, Ford's plan works out even worse for part-time minimum wage workers. 

But more than that, Ford says his plan would cost the government approximately $500 million annually in lost revenue. Revenue that will have to be made up through cuts somewhere.

Which means that ultimately he wants all of us to collectively subsidize the low wages paid by some Ontario businesses -- many of which are huge, and hugely profitable, multinational corporations with multi-millionaire or billionaire CEOs. 

It is very important to keep that in mind. Any plan that frames tax cuts or credits as an alternative to higher wages is by definition asking the people of the province to help ensure that businesses can continue to pay workers wages that they cannot live on. 

While many leftists would absolutely agree that minimum wage workers should not be paying income tax -- taxes instead should be steeply raised on people like Doug Ford -- this can never be seen as a fair alternative to demanding that businesses pay higher minimum wages.

Because it is not one! 

Further Minimum Wage Readings:

"Businesses that pay poverty wages are ultimately socially parasitic in that society as whole ends up subsidizing these wages and the business' profits through a wide array of social programs and benefits that allow minimum wage workers to survive in spite of their pay. It is deeply ironic that the business sector has long depended on government intervention through social spending to maintain what are thereby artificially low wages." - In the case of the Ontario $15 minimum wage the moral imperative is just as great as the economic

Ten myth-busting articles about the minimum wage in Ontario

Have minimum wage increases in Ontario demonstrably driven up inflation? No.

See also: For Ford fact and policy free is the way to go

The staggering hypocrisy of 'progressive' politicians in Canada will come back to haunt

What to make of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau arriving in Paris to meet with French President Macron claiming that the two will "redouble their efforts and increase their co-operation" in the fight against climate change?

Is this the same Prime Minister who has just vowed to build the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline even if it means doling out billions in corporate welfare and irrespective of the rights and wishes of Indigenous peoples and the government of British Columbia?

That his actions around Kinder Morgan belie his purported commitment to the targets of the Paris Agreement should come as little surprise given that his proclamation of the pipeline as essential to the "national interest" also puts the lie to his government's supposed commitment to the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).

UNDRIP explicitly says not just that Indigenous people have the right to control any development occurring on their lands,  but also that "Indigenous peoples have the right to participate in decision making in matters which would affect their rights"  and that :

States shall consult and cooperate in good faith with the indigenous
peoples concerned through their own representative institutions in
order to obtain their free, prior and informed consent before adopting
and implementing legislative or administrative measures that
may affect them.

So again, what to make of the fact that when Trudeau called for a "summit" to try to work out political differences related to the pipeline the Premiers of British Columbia and Alberta were there but no representatives of First Nations were?

Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde was rightly outraged by this saying "I think it’s a very big miss for the government. You’ve got the federal Crown, you’ve got the provincial Crowns, you’re missing out the rights and title holders and that’s the most important element".

Grand Chiefs Stewart Phillip and Serge Simon were very clear about what these actions by Trudeau represented saying in the Globe and Mail: 

Justin Trudeau's government has a decision to make. It can cut its losses and realize it simply made a mistake in approving the project. Or the Trudeau government can double down on its current path. But Canadians should be very clear-eyed about what that represents. It represents more than a failure of climate leadership. It means going back to the Stephen Harper days when Canada’s reputation on the climate file was mud.
Importantly, it also means going back to colonial-era relations with Indigenous people. In fact, if the federal government tries to ram through this pipeline, it could mean going back to one of the darkest times in modern Canadian history: the Oka standoff with the Mohawk Nation.
We just witnessed the ugly and shameful crackdown in the United States on the peaceful anti-pipeline protests at Standing Rock.
We don’t believe that’s the Canada that most Canadians want to live in. It would be a cruel joke indeed if, in this era of “reconciliation,” Canada instead repeats the mistakes of the past.

Trudeau, though, was not alone at the Kinder Morgan "summit". B.C. Premier John Horgan was there as well as Trudeau's pipeline ally, and the pipeline's greatest booster and advocate, Alberta Premier Rachel Notley. Neither insisted that the meeting needed a First Nations representative for it to have any legitimacy.

Of course, this should really come as no surprise.

Notley has so deeply invested her New Democratic Party's provincial government's political capital in getting the pipeline built that there is no depth to which she will not stoop at this point. Content not simply to see the rights of First Nations and the principles UNDRIP run roughshod over, she has also vowed to use any method no matter how outrageous to try to bully B.C. even saying that threatening transfer payments is in order or proposing legislation to try to blockade B.C's oil and gas supplies.

She has also talked repeatedly of the need to respect the "rule of law" with reference to potential mass protests over any attempt to build Trans Mountain, even though her government does not seem to respect Supreme Court decisions regarding First Nations rights over unceded lands and even though she surely knows what Canada's "rule of law" has meant for Indigenous people over the last several centuries. Many of Canada's most shameful moments, such as the horrific legacy of residential schools, were perfectly legal at the time.

Notley has already fully embraced the most right wing rhetoric around the tar sands as we have noted in the pieces To Rachel Notley -- Climate change is destroying millions of workers jobs and lives around the world, so please, smarten up and When it comes to opportunistic hypocrisy on the environment, Rachel Notley is right up there with Trudeau.

She may think that putting the short-term supposed electoral interests of her government ahead of the traditional alleged commitment of 'progressives' and 'social democrats' to the environment and indigenous rights is what she has to do, but it will hang as a terrible stain over the Alberta NDP and its legacy for a very long time.

B.C. Premier John Horgan, while opposed to Trans Mountain, cannot evade his own actions on these fronts either.

Horgan, after all, was the Premier who did not even bother with the usual progressive pretenses when backtracking on a perceived election promise and approving the Site C dam. Horgan actually put his cynicism on full display at the time saying:

When it comes to reconciliation and working with Indigenous leadership there has been over 150 years of disappointment in British Columbia. I’m not the first person to stand before you and disappoint Indigenous people

Yes, he actually said that.

Horgan also went even further than the previous right wing provincial B.C. government in offering tax handouts and other subsidies worth billions of dollars to encourage LNG in its natural gas infrastructure and export facility building plans, plans that could include constructing a pipeline!

Sierra Club B.C.’s climate campaigner, Jens Wieting said of this:

Today’s announcement is a new form of climate denial: The idea that we can build new fossil fuel projects that will cause millions of tonnes of additional emissions while reducing our emissions at the same time. By sweetening the pot for fracked gas export, the government is laying out a red carpet for investors to help destroy our climate.

Notley, not without some justice, called out Horgan and his government for its "hypocrisy".

There is a lot of hypocrisy to go around.

This hypocrisy from Trudeau, Notley and Horgan -- this total willingness to abandon principles and to directly mimic the right in their willingness to put the needs of corporations and short-term economic development ahead of the needs of the environment and the rights of First Nations people -- does something insidious and ugly that will, sooner than they may think, come back to haunt their governments and their assertion that they are truly different from conservatives when in power.

It breeds deep disillusion and distrust among millions of Canadians who thought that casting a ballot for the NDP or the Liberals meant that they would get governments committed to serious change on these fundamentally, critically important issues.

This disillusion and distrust will be magnified exponentially should the "rule of law" be used to impose pipelines or projects on First Nations people and to clear away protesters through what would have to be the use of mass state repression and state violence.

Such actions call into question, justly, many of the claims that lie at the foundation of the case they try to make every few years as to why Canadians should trust in or be inspired by the supposed promise of a better future through liberal, social democratic or progressive governance.

See also: To Rachel Notley -- Climate change is destroying millions of workers jobs and lives around the world, so please, smarten up

See also: When it comes to opportunistic hypocrisy on the environment, Rachel Notley is right up there with Trudeau


See also: John Horgan lets the facade drop with cynical, ugly comments after green-lighting Site C

Top Sirloin Roast in a Red Wine Garlic Jus

Today we are going to take a look at doing a top sirloin beef roast in the oven with a red wine jus where you brown the roast in olive oil prior to roasting.

This method provides a terrific balance of texture and flavour, especially if cooked to an ideal rare-medium or medium-rare. It is perfect for a 3-4 pound roast.

To begin, take out the roast and season liberally with sea salt and black pepper and then sprinkle with a tablespoon of mustard powder. Let sit out at room temperature for 30 minutes to an hour.

In a large saucepan heat some olive oil to medium-high and then brown the roast on all sides for at least 5 minutes a side to get a good texture.

Set your roast in a roasting pan.

Add 1 1/2 to 2 cups of red wine to the pan. You want to use a hearty wine that pairs well with beef. I used Bulls Blood Merlot-Keikfrankos from Hungary. Then sprinkle six minced cloves of garlic over the roast and into the wine in the pan. Pour two tablespoons of  Worcestershire sauce over the roast and then, finally, sprinkle the roast with about a tablespoon of dried basil leaves.

Place the roast in an oven preheated to 350. Roast for approximately 20 minutes a pound to get medium rare. If you want to test doneness by temperature you can use this handy chart. 

Let the roast rest for 10 minutes prior to carving.

Carve onto a large platter and then spoon some of the red wine jus from the pan over the beef slices just prior to serving.

Be sure to reserve some of the jus for people to spoon over their own servings. Pairs well with rice, a crusty French-style bread and, of course, more red wine.

Enjoy.

See also: Beef Roast with an Onion Jus

See also: Simmered Beef in Gravy

The Notley-Trudeau Pipeline Axis, Syria, Doug Ford & more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List April 8 - 15

This week's list of articles, news items and opinion pieces that I see as must reads if you are looking for a roundup that should be of interest to The Left Chapter readers.

This list covers the week of  April 8 - 15. It is generally in order of the date of the article's release.

This installment has two entries from before the period. It has been integrated into the post.

1) The gender pay gap isn't the half of it: our economy runs on women's unpaid work

Sandi Toksvig, The Guardian

I recently delivered the annual Adam Smith lecture in Kirkcaldy, Fife. It was the first time a woman had been trusted to give this economics lecture all by herself. As a marvellous bagpiper led the way, it struck me that this might be my glass cliff moment. Because, let’s face it, I’m not an obvious choice for such a task. But with men now making up two-thirds of economics students, all but one of the Nobel prizewinners for economics having been a man and every single British chancellor of the exchequer somehow having been required to be a boy, then finding a woman might have been tricky.

Read the full article.

2) About the boys: Tim Winton on how toxic masculinity is shackling men to misogyny

Tom Winton, The Guardian

Yes, boys need their unexamined privilege curtailed. Just as they need certain proscribed privileges and behaviours made available to them. But the first step is to notice them. To find them worthy of our interest. As subjects, not objects. How else can we hope to take responsibility for them? And it’s men who need to step up and finally take their full share of that responsibility.

Read the full article.

3) YORK U TRYING TO CRUSH UNION

Josh Lalonde, People's Voice

As the education workers’ strike at York University enters its fifth week, the mood on campus remains tense. Whereas in previous strikes in 2015 and 2008/2009, the university suspended all classes in order to preserve academic integrity, this time the administration of President Rhonda Lenton announced before the strike had even begun that “all classes that can continue, will continue”. This was a deliberate attempt to create chaos on campus, as students were unsure which of their classes were continuing, what form their suspended classes would take at the conclusion of the strike, which assignments and tests they were still responsible for, and whether their right not to cross the picket lines – recognized by the university’s Senate policy on labour disruptions – would in fact be respected by their professors. Though many departments quickly suspended classes, there are still thousands of students travelling to campus every day, leading to long waits at the picket lines and frustration that has boiled over into several violent incidents.

Read the full article.

4) Vietnamese party leader pays tribute to Ho Chi Minh

 Iramsy Peraza Forte, Granma

The General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam (CPV), Nguyen Phu Trong, on March 28 paid tribute to the Vietnamese revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh, in a park that bears his name in the Cuban capital.

Read the full article.

5) Caribbean Leftists Decry Lula's Arrest in Brazil

Telesur

A Caribbean progressive movement called for April 12 to be “a day of solidarity with the Brazilian Workers and for the release of President Lula.”

Read the full article.

6) Brazil: Former president Lula to prison; police fire on protesters

Ben Chacko, People's World

Brazilian police attacked protesters with tear gas and rubber bullets over the weekend as former president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was jailed in Curitiba.

Read the full article.

7) Doug Ford interrupted at Somali event over support for controversial police unit

Muriel Draaisma · CBC News 

Ontario Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford was booed and interrupted this weekend when he told members of Toronto's Somali community that he supports resurrecting a controversial police unit disbanded in 2017.

Read the full article.

8) Doug Ford Claims He’ll Cut Costs By Firing Someone Who Does Not Even Work For the Government

Press Progress

Does Doug Ford understand how the Government of Ontario works?

Read the full article.

9) Doug Ford professes love but delivers fear and dread to the Black community

Royson James, The Toronto Star

By skipping a recent leaders’ debate, Doug Ford learned nothing and that means the Black community is as endangered as before because the absent politician is poised to become the one with the most authority to impact their lives, Royson James writes.

Read the full article.

10) Pro Cheerleaders Say Groping and Sexual Harassment Are Part of the Job

Juliet Macur and John Branch, The New York Times

In interviews with dozens of current and former cheerleaders — most from the N.F.L., but also from the N.B.A. and the N.H.L. — they described systematic exploitation by teams that profit by sending them into pregame tailgating and other gatherings where they are subjected to offensive sexual comments and unwanted touches by fans.

Read the full article.

11) Sex Trade's Female Victims: 'Spoiled Goods,' Damaged Lives

Julie Bindel, Truthdig 

The women in the bar huddle together, talking and smoking, looking bored but tense. It is a hot evening in Phnom Penh, and I am in one of the notorious sex bar areas, hoping to find out all I can about commercial sexual exploitation in the country. I have gone undercover because the sex trade, whether legal or illegal, is driven and populated by dangerous criminals, and the women being sold are vulnerable and in danger.

Read the full article.

12) Jeremy Corbyn pledges free bus travel for under-25s

BBC News

Labour says it would give under-25s in England free bus travel in areas where local councils bring services back into public ownership as the party wants.

Read the full article.

13) Bill proposed to eliminate Louisiana death penalty by August 1st

 Paul Braun & Devon Sanders, KALB

A Senate judiciary committee on Tuesday approved a bill that would eliminate the death penalty in Louisiana effective August 1.

Read the full article.

14) Louisiana Bill Aims To Hypercriminalize Pipeline Protests

The Real News

Civil rights lawyer Bill Quigley says that the legislation is driven by private oil companies who want to clamp down on environmental activists' First Amendment rights and preserve profits derived at the expense of communities of color.

Read/listen to the full interview.

15) Indians Fans Taunt, Mock, And Scream Obscenities At Native American Protesters At Home Opener


Chris Thompson, Deadspin

Indians fans insisting that Chief Wahoo isn’t meant to be disrespectful to Native Americans, and then mocking Native American protesters with that stereotyped War Cry noise. Goddamn.

Read the full article/watch the video.

16) 'Heroes In My Head': The Abortion Fight in Canada

Judy Rebick, Rabble

The 1980s was the height of the women’s movement in Canada. In addition to the battle on choice, women were fighting for pay equity, affordable and accessible child care, and gender equality under the constitution. There was already a network of rape crisis centres and shelters providing services to women and advocating for better laws and more awareness of male violence against women. Young women had established co-operative daycare centres on campuses across the country and were working to get government support.

Read the full article.

17) She was a rising voice for feminists, but she was battling the voices in her head

Judy Rebick, The Toronto Star

In a memoir about her struggles with depression and multiple personalities, Canadian activist Judy Rebick recalls how memories of childhood sexual abuse painfully surfaced in the wake of the Montreal massacre.

Read the full article.

18) After Criticizing Israel, Canadian Journalists for Free Expression Fights for Survival

The Real News

CJFE's Kevin Metcalf tells The Real News he was placed on paid leave after he drafted a statement condemning Israel's Land Day killings.

Read/listen to the full interview

19) Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern bans oil exploration

Isaac Davison, The New Zealand Herald

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is defending her Government's dramatic ban on offshore oil exploration, saying the transition to a zero-carbon economy "must start somewhere" and promising that no jobs will be lost.

Read the full article.

20) After relentless protests, Kinder Morgan slams brakes on spending for Trans Mountain pipeline expansion

 Mike De Souza & Carl Meyer, National Observer

Energy giant Kinder Morgan has blinked in the face of relentless opposition from British Columbia to its plans to build a major oil pipeline.

Read the full article.

21) Alberta Hits ‘Peak Hysteria’ as Kinder Morgan Threatens to Pull Pipeline Plug

David J. Climenhaga, The Tyee

Corporation’s ultimatum an attack on democracy — and a way out of a project that no longer makes sense.

Read the full article.

22) Reality check: What exactly has the B.C. NDP government done to "block" the Kinder Morgan pipeline?

Charlie Smith, The Georgia Straight

Alberta premier Rachel Notley has been trying to ignite some outrage via her Twitter feed after Kinder Morgan suspended nonessential expenditures on its $7.4-billion Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion project.

Read the full article.

23) If Ottawa rams through Trans Mountain, it could set up an Oka-like crisis

Stewart Phillip and Serge Simon, The Globe and Mail

As the federal and Alberta governments continue to pull their hair out over the B.C. government’s stand against Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain pipeline expansion and tanker project, it’s important to point out, as we’ve been doing for years, that the pipeline company doesn’t have the consent of all First Nations along the route. In fact, many of them are strongly opposed to the project.

Read the full article.

24) Media outlets circle wagons around Justin Trudeau and Rachel Notley sloganeering about the national interest

Charlie Smith, The Georgia Straight

It's been astonishing to witness national media coverage of the Kinder Morgan pipeline dispute between Alberta and B.C.

Read the full article.

25) First Nations being ‘left out’ on Kinder Morgan: Bellegarde

 Rachel Gilmore, iPolitics

Perry Bellegarde, the National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, warned that First Nations “are being left out of the decision-making process” when it comes to the Kinder Morgan pipeline project.

Read the full article.

26) 'Big mistake' not having Indigenous rep at key pipeline meeting: Bellegarde

Rachel Aiello, CTV News

It was a "big mistake" for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to not invite Indigenous representation to Sunday’s big pipeline meeting, according to Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde.

Read the full article.

27) Alberta, feds to team up on easing Trans Mountain risk, Notley says

The Canadian Press

Alberta Premier Rachel Notley says her province and the federal government have agreed on a plan to "eliminate" investor risk surrounding the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.

Read the full article.

28) School cancelled as hundreds of Colorado teachers walk out Monday

Joe St. George, Fox 31 Denver

Teacher walkouts in Kentucky, Oklahoma, West Virginia, and elsewhere have dominated the news as of late.

Now a walkout is planned for Colorado.

Read the full article.

29) Gay Edmonton woman from Uganda fears for her life after deportation notice

Julia Wong, Global News

An Edmonton woman is asking the federal government to reconsider its decision to deport her based on the fact she is a lesbian and her home country of Uganda views homosexuality as illegal.

Read the full article.

30) 12-year-old hockey player endures 6 years of racial slurs, latest tormentor suspended

Paul Palmeter, CBC News

The father of a 12-year-old Nova Scotia peewee hockey player says a boy from an opposing team has been handed a 45-day suspension after using a racial slur against his son.

Read the full article.

31) 

32) John Tory’s favoured Scarborough subway was ‘drawn on the back of a napkin’ when council chose it over LRT, critics charge

Jennifer Pagliaro, The Toronto Star

When Toronto councillors voted in July 2016 in favour of the $3.35-billion, one-stop Scarborough subway over the LRT, the information they had about its design was exaggerated by city staff, rushed by consultants and based on hand-drawn sketches.

Read the full article.

33) Avoid Gulf stream disruption at all costs, scientists warn

Damian Carrington, The Guardian

How close the world is to a catastrophic collapse of giant ocean currents is unknown, making halting global warming more critical than ever, scientists say.

Read the full article.

34) America’s Real Nigerian Prince

Mark A. Lause, The North Star

President Donald J. Trump is the spawn of the American political system and media. Those with an affinity for and confidence in that parentage—the media and the political system—have found his administration terribly disappointing, even traumatically so. The president and his revolving door team are in an ongoing process of weaving campaign rhetoric and tweets into a script, which they hope to present as policy. In keeping with his particular kind of Reality TV offers one soap opera scenario after another, without the substance of a soap opera.

Read the full article.

35) The U.S. Has Accepted Only 11 Syrian Refugees This Year

Deborah Amos, NPR

The Trump administration has condemned a suspected chemical weapons strike in Syria and is considering military action. "We are very concerned, when a thing like that can happen, this is about humanity," President Trump said earlier this week.

Read the full article.

36) Who cares if Trump’s reckless, dangerous Syria announcement is hypocritical?

Simon Maloy, Media Matters for America

This morning, the president pecked out an especially unglued Twitter tirade in which he announced that the United States would be taking military action against the Syrian government. According to Donald Trump, who very likely made this announcement because the lackwit bobbleheads on his favorite morning cable TV show were talking about Syria, his plan is to fire “nice and new and ‘smart!’” missiles as punishment for “Gas Killing Animal” Bashar Assad’s recent alleged chemical attack on the town of Douma.

Read the full article.

37) Look at Syria, and you can see all the elements that have led to world wars

Simon Jenkins, The Guardian

What on earth are we doing? I have not heard a single expert on Syria explain how dropping missiles on that country will advance the cause of peace or lead its dictator, Bashar al-Assad, to back down. It will merely destroy buildings and probably kill people. It is pure populism, reflected in the hot-and-cold rhetoric of Trump’s increasingly whimsical tweets. Heaven forbid that British policy should now, as it appears, be hanging on their every word.

Read the full article.

38) 

39) Corbyn's Letter to May

Dear Prime Minister,
I want to thank you for speaking to me last night regarding the bombing raids in Syria overnight, and for the security briefing you shared.
I am very glad that all British military personnel have returned home safely, and hope too that there have been no civilian casualties in Syria.
As I said I believe that Parliament should have been consulted and voted on the matter. The UK Prime Minister is accountable to Parliament, not to the whims of a US President.
I believe the action was legally questionable, and this morning the UN Secretary General has said as much, reiterating that all countries must act in line with the UN Charter. You assured me that the Attorney General had given clear legal advice approving the action. I would therefore be grateful if you would publish this advice in full today.
Given that neither the UN nor the OPCW has yet investigated, it is clear that diplomatic and non-military means have not been fully exhausted.
It is now vitally important that the OPCW inspectors, who are due to arrive in Douma today, are allowed to do their work and publish their report into their findings – and report to the United Nations Security Council.
I would therefore welcome your assurance that there will be no further bombing raids while OPCW inspectors are on the ground. They must be allowed to complete their inspections without hindrance.
Acting through the United Nations, I believe Britain should now take a diplomatic lead to negotiate a pause in this abhorrent conflict in which hundreds of thousands of Syrians have already been killed and millions displaced. The refugee crisis places a responsibility on all countries and I the government will now increase its commitment to take additional refugees. Hundreds of unaccompanied children remain in Europe and the UK must do more through the Dubs amendment.This means engaging with all parties that are involved in the conflict – including Iran, Israel, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and the US – to ensure there is an immediate ceasefire. We have the grotesque spectacle of a wider geopolitical proxy battle being waged with the Syrian people used as pawns by all sides.
I would welcome your assurance that Britain will embark on renewed diplomatic efforts to end this conflict. Our only priority must be the safety and security of the Syrian people – which is best served by de-escalating this conflict, so that aid can get in.
Yours sincerely,
Jeremy Corbyn MP
Leader of the Opposition

40) Congress Needs to Cancel Trump’s Blank Check for War

John Nichols, The Nation

Paul Ryan may be winding down his tragic tenure as Donald Trump’s sycophantic speaker of the House, but that does not mean Congress will automatically reassert itself as a coequal branch of government—especially when it comes to matters of war and peace. Members of the chamber will need to act affirmatively on behalf of the rule of law, and the system of checks and balances that maintains it, in order to reestablish the role of Congress in this vital sphere. And they need to move quickly.

Read the full article.

41) Theresa May faces anger over Syria raids as Trump declares ‘mission accomplished’

Toby Helm, Martin Chulov, Sabrina Siddiqui and Michael Savage, The Guardian

Theresa May is facing a furious backlash from MPs after she ordered UK forces to join the US and France in targeted airstrikes on Syrian chemical weapons facilities – without having gained the consent of parliament.

Read the full article.

See also: Gaza Massacre, Jewdas, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela & more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List April 1 - 8

Social security, school lunches, mass transit, education, clean air....not while spending $824.6 billion a year on war!

American activist and writer Shaun King reminded us on Twitter yesterday of the terrible cost of American imperialism not just in terms of lives, but in terms of all that could be done for far less than the many billions squandered on the military industrial complex:

Indeed.

"While it has long been a fundamental myth of American imperialism and its legions of media apologists that American military spending is defensive and meant to protect "freedom" and "democracy", the lie is put to that by the very fact that the US spends as much on its military as the next eight largest national military budgets combined!  At a projected $824.6 billion for 2017-2018, the US spends more annually on "defence" now than the entire world did in 1984.

Yet, despite all the claims, these increases in spending and the military adventurism it results in has never made the world a remotely safer place...

...Imagine, though, what could be done for schools, hospitals and health care, fighting poverty, building housing and on and on and on with even a serious fraction of that $824.6 billion."

Text from: Military spending: As wasteful as it is dangerous