Ontario Minimum Wage, Black Mirror, Woody Allen and more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List December 31 - January 7

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  December 31 - January 7. It is generally in order of the date of the article's release.


1) Germany's largest union escalates fight for 28-hour work week

AFP

The largest union in Germany is bracing for a combative start to the new year as it presses demands for a 28-hour working week, warning employers to expect mass strikes in the battle for a better work-life balance.

Read the full article.

2) Canada's top CEOs earn 200 times an average worker's salary: report

 Sophia Harris, CBC News

​Shortly before 11 a.m. today, the average top-earning CEO in Canada will have already earned — in less than one work day — what the average worker makes in an entire year, says a new study.

Read the full article.

3) With shelters packed and people at risk of freezing to death, why can’t we do more?

Edward Keenan, The Toronto Star

We have community centres, libraries, civic centres. We have City Hall and the great hall of Union Station. We have heated buildings that the city owns that sit mostly empty at night. If people are freezing, let them in, Edward Keenan writes.

Read the full article.

4) Tory now willing to open Moss Park armoury to homeless

David Rider, The Toronto Star

Less than a month after voting against opening armouries as emergency shelter for homeless Torontonians, Mayor John Tory says the city is talking to Ottawa about quickly opening the Moss Park armoury until spring.

Read the full article.

5) Barry Sherman’s donations sometimes used to wield political influence

Victoria Gibson, The Toronto Star

Barry Sherman was the philanthropist who once yanked back more than $25 million in promised donations — to a university, two hospitals and an aid group — because he was unhappy with decisions made on Parliament Hill.

Read the full article.

6) Windsor council leader calls for removal of homeless before royal wedding

Harriet Sherwood, The Guardian

The leader of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, home to Windsor Castle, Eton College and Ascot racecourse, has demanded police use legal powers to clear the area of homeless people before the royal wedding in May.

Read the full article.

7) Freed to kill again – and again: Theodore Johnson and the truth about domestic violence


Paula Cocozza, The Guardian

This week, Theodore Johnson pleaded guilty to murdering his ex-partner – the third woman he has killed. Is this a uniquely tragic triple crime, or a systemic failure to take domestic violence seriously?

Read the full article.

8) Sen. Lynn Beyak publishes ‘outright racist’ comments about Indigenous people on her Senate website

Andrew Russell, Global News

Conservative Sen. Lynn Beyak, who faced a string of controversies in 2017 for defending residential schools, has published more than 100 “letters of support” on her individual Senate website, with dozens  containing language that First Nations advocates call racist or offensive.

Read the full article.

9) I read decades of Woody Allen’s private notes. He’s obsessed with teenage girls.

Richard Morgan, The Washington Post

Woody Allen is wrapping up a new movie. Just kidding: He doesn’t make new movies. What he’s editing now, “A Rainy Day in New York,” about a college-age love triangle, could, like any of his movies, instead be titled “A Woman Gets Objectified by a Man.” This, in his view, is the pinnacle of art, its truest calling and highest purpose. Especially when it involves young women who are compelled to lackluster men merely by the gravity of the men’s obsession.

Read the full article.

10) 'Black Mirror': How the New Season's Breakout Episode Guts Toxic Fandom

Jenna Scherer, Rolling Stone

It's a familiar image: a strapping, confident young white guy seated in the captain's chair of a spaceship, blaster at his hip, hair coifed just so, one elbow on the armrest, legs spread wide as if to say, "Mine is no tiny penis you are dealing with." He's a hero we all know, love and trust do the right thing in the end, whether it's James T. Kirk or variants like Han Solo, Peter Quill or Mal Reynolds. This is his story. He takes the lead. He gets the glory, and ever it shall be.

Except when it's 2018. And except when it's Black Mirror.

Read the full article.

11) Mumbai-Dalit strike latest: City plunges into chaos as workers from India's lowest caste walk out in spontaneous protest

Harriet Agerholm, The Independent 

Violence erupted in Mumbai and parts of the city ground to a halt after workers from India’s lowest caste went on strike to protest against attacks by right-wing groups.

Read the full article.

12) Former Manitoba grand chief files $1B class-action suit over bread price-fixing

Kelly Malone, CBC News

Derek Nepinak, the former grand chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, has filed a $1 billion class-action lawsuit against multiple Canadian grocers after Loblaw Companies said it participated in industry-wide bread price-fixing for 14 years.

Read the full article.

13) Oceans suffocating as huge dead zones quadruple since 1950, scientists warn

Damian Carrington, The Guardian

Ocean dead zones with zero oxygen have quadrupled in size since 1950, scientists have warned, while the number of very low oxygen sites near coasts have multiplied tenfold. Most sea creatures cannot survive in these zones and current trends would lead to mass extinction in the long run, risking dire consequences for the hundreds of millions of people who depend on the sea.

Read the full article.

14) Iceland believed to be 1st country to make equal pay mandatory in public and private firms

The Associated Press

A new law in Iceland is requiring all companies to prove that their wage practices don't discriminate against women, in what is thought to be a global first in the effort to reduce gender pay gaps.

Read the full article.

15) Treatment of women in Canadian prisons a human rights travesty

Vicky Mochama, The Toronto Star

Incarceration rates are soaring for women, particularly among Indigenous women. They face a variety of injustices, particularly the misuse of the security classification system, writes Vicky Mochama.

Read the full article.

16) 'I was being groomed to think this was normal': Actors sue director Albert Schultz alleging sexual harassment

Anna Maria Tremonti, CBC Radio

He's been a leading figure in this country's arts scene, but Wednesday, four women filed four statements of claim against Albert Schultz, casting the actor and director in a very different light.

Read excerpts/listen to full episode.

17) Numbers never lie: Proof that Kaepernick is being blackballed

Carron J. Phillips, New York Daily News

Nick Wright from FS1’s new morning show “First Things First” provided the evidence Wednesday that many have always known was true, but maybe couldn’t quite prove.

Read the full article.

18) Media get it wrong on Bank of Canada minimum wage study

 Michal Rozworski

Over a million workers in Ontario just got a big raise thanks to tireless, bottom-up orgainizing, but if you look to the media it’s a bad news story. The same, tired headlines are back. Yesterday, the CBC ran a story titled, “Minimum wage hikes could cost Canada’s economy 60,000 jobs by 2019”. Today, the Toronto Star’s front page blared, “Wage hike could cost 60,000 jobs, Bank of Canada says”.

Read the full article.

19) Why Tim Hortons doesn’t deserve your sympathy

Michael Coren, TVO

The point is that this long-overdue increase will give countless people a better chance to pay the rent and feed themselves, and any society that regards itself as civilized should surely allow its lowest-paid citizens at least a modicum of hope and dignity. As for the angry and often hysterical reactions, they were inevitable. “It seems to me the government has given us no choice but to leave" — not the words of an Ontario business owner in 2018, but of a Saskatchewan doctor in 1960, when Tommy Douglas introduced Medicare. Progress provokes pushback. Always has, always will.

Read the full article.

20) 'Minimum wage bully hotline' launched by Ottawa labour council

Joe Lofaro, CBC News

An Ottawa labour council has launched a hotline to publicly shame businesses cutting paid breaks and other worker benefits after the province's minimum wage hike.

Read the full article

21) On Tim Hortons, Minimum Wage, Conspiracy, and Unlawful Reprisals

David Doorey, Law of Work

Happy new year!

This story from the CBC on a Tim Horton’s franchisee penalizing its employees by taking away a list of contractual entitlements and blaming it on the new minimum wage is just too precious to ignore.  A similar story came emerged about Sunset Grill.  So it will be the subject of my first blog entry of 2018.

Read the full article.

22) Workers are under attack: Where is the ONDP?

David Bush, Rabble

It should be noted that the ONDP have better policy positions on workers' rights and labour law reform, but Wynne and the Liberals have taken over the ground the ONDP ceded. They have message discipline on the issue, and they frame it along class lines bytalking about bully bosses, and they champion the low-wage workers. They are the Liberals, so we know this is opportunistic, but who gave them this opportunity? The ONDP leadership only has to look in the mirror.

Read the full article.

While from 2016, definitely worth reading again.

23) A report that analyzed every minimum-wage hike since 1938 should put a bunch of nonsense ideas to rest

Nick Hanauer, Business Insider

From the fear-mongering headlines marking passage of $15 statutes in New York and California, you would think nobody ever dared raise the minimum wage before.

Read the full article.

See also: Ahed Tamimi, Poverty in America, the Arctic and more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List December 24 - 31

See also: Nepal, Israel, Venezuela, Honduras and more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List December 17 - 24

The #MeToo Movement, Jerusalem, Honduras and more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List December 3 - 10

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  December 3 - 10. It is generally in order of the date of the article's release.

This installment has 5 entries that are from before the period. They have been integrated into the post.

1) A Women’s Revolt That Targets Far More Than Sexual Abuse

Chris Hedges, Truthdig

The press, trumpeting the lurid and salacious details of the sexual assault charges brought against powerful men, has missed the real story—the widespread popular revolt led by women, many of whom have stood up, despite vicious attacks and the dictates of legally binding nondisclosure agreements, to denounce the entitlement of the corporate and political elites. This women’s revolt is not solely about sexual abuse. It is about fighting a corporate power structure that institutionalizes and enables misogyny, racism and bigotry. It is about rejecting the belief that wealth and power give the elites the right to engage in economic, political, social and sexual sadism. It challenges the twisted ethic that those who are crushed and humiliated by the rich, the famous and the powerful have no rights and no voice. Let’s hope this is the beginning, not the end.

Read the full article.

2) Tax assessors target Canadians with diabetes, memo suggests

Bruce Campion-Smith, The Toronto Star

Federal tax assessors are clamping down on Canadians suffering type 1 diabetes to restrict their qualification for the disability tax credit, an internal memo suggests, contradicting public claims by the government that nothing has changed.

Read the full article.

3) Honduras: police refuse to obey government as post-election chaos deepens

Sarah Kinosian, The Guardian

Honduran police have announced they will refuse to obey orders from the government of the incumbent president, Juan Orlando Hernández, and will remain in their barracks until a political crisis triggered by last Sunday’s contested presidential election has been resolved.

Read the full article.

4) THE PRESIDENT OF HONDURAS IS DEPLOYING U.S.-TRAINED FORCES AGAINST ELECTION PROTESTERS

Lee Fang and Danielle Marie Mackey, The Intercept

HONDURAN PRESIDENT JUAN Orlando Hernández, using the specter of rampant crime and the drug trade, won extensive support from the American government to build up highly trained state security forces. Now, those same forces are repressing democracy.

Read the full article.

5) Paramedic service will investigate after witnesses question treatment of Yosif Al-Hasnawi

 Samantha Craggs, CBC News

Witnesses including a local Muslim leader say paramedics told a dying Hamilton man he was shot by a pellet gun and merely acting injured before he died in hospital less than an hour later.

Read the full article.

6) Jeremy Corbyn stretches Labour lead over Tories to largest gap for five months according to only pollster to call election right

Keith Perry, The Mirror

The poll by Survation, which was the only company to accurately forecast June’s General Election result, puts Labour on 45 per cent, with the Conservatives trailing on 37 per cent.

Read the full article.

7) Iceland’s new PM is a 41-year-old anti-war feminist and environmentalist

Joe Roberts, Metro UK

Iceland’s new prime minister is a 41-year-old anti-war feminist, democratic socialist, who is also an expert on crime literature.

Read the full article.

8) Living in cars, working for Amazon: meet America's new nomads

Jessica Bruder, The Guardian

Millions of Americans are wrestling with the impossibility of a traditional middle-class existence. In homes across the country, kitchen tables are strewn with unpaid bills. Lights burn late into the night. The same calculations get performed again and again, through exhaustion and sometimes tears.

Read the full article.

9) Winning Slowly Is the Same as Losing

Bill McKibben, Rolling Stone

If we don't win very quickly on climate change, then we will never win. That's the core truth about global warming. It's what makes it different from every other problem our political systems have faced. I wrote the first book for a general audience about climate change in 1989 – back when one had to search for examples to help people understand what the "greenhouse effect" would feel like. We knew it was coming, but not how fast or how hard. And because no one wanted to overestimate – because scientists by their nature are conservative – each of the changes we've observed has taken us somewhat by surprise. The surreal keeps becoming the commonplace: For instance, after Hurricane Harvey set a record for American rainstorms, and Hurricane Irma set a record for sustained wind speeds, and Hurricane Maria knocked Puerto Rico back a quarter-century, something even weirder happened. Hurricane Ophelia formed much farther to the east than any hurricane on record, and proceeded to blow past Southern Europe (whipping up winds that fanned record forest fires in Portugal) before crashing into Ireland. Along the way, it produced an artifact for our age: The warning chart that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency issued shows Ophelia ending in a straight line at 60 degrees north latitude, because the computer program never imagined you'd see a hurricane up there. "When you set up a grid, you define boundaries of that grid," a slightly red-faced NOAA programmer explained. "That's a pretty unusual place to have a tropical cyclone." The agency, he added, might have to "revisit" its mapping software.

Read the full article.

10) The price of death

Kristin Annable, Jacques Marcoux and Vera-Lynn Kubinec, CBC News

From a 22-year-old fatally injured on her second day of work at a B.C. quarry to a 65-year-old Manitoban who died just 13 days before retirement, these profiles tell the stories of a fraction of the roughly 350 people who die on the job every year in Canada.

Read the full article.

11) My Experience at Charlie Rose Went Beyond Sexism

Rebecca Carroll, Esquire

In 1997, I joined the production team of Charlie Rose’s popular interview show. I was the only black journalist on staff. At the time, there was little to no recognition of what it meant to be black and female in a workplace dominated by white men. Twenty years later, in this watershed moment of examination and reckoning as one powerful white man after another is disgraced following allegations of sexual misconduct ranging from harassment to assault, we’re still not talking about the ramifications for black women—or the broader connection to structural racism in America.

Read the full article.

12) John Conyers resigns from Congress after sexual harassment allegations

Ben Jacobs, The Guardian

John Conyers, the Michigan Democrat who is battling sexual harassment allegations from former female staffers, resigned from Congress on Tuesday, after telling a Detroit radio host: “I am retiring today.”

Read the full article.

13) Ontario police to turn over sexual assault cases for outside review

 Judy Trinh, CBC News

Advocates for women say a new pilot project — which allows outside experts in gender-based violence to review sexual assault investigations by police in Ontario and Alberta — will increase the number of charges laid and improve public trust.

Read the full article.

14) #MeToo – The Yoga Stories

Rachel Brathen, Yoga Lifestyles

I want to begin by extending my immense gratitude to every single person that has submitted a story over the past week. You are so brave. I believe you. And none of this was your fault. Thank you all for speaking up! I hope that shedding light on this issue will attribute to some sort of change. This post is not about my own #MeToo stories (I recorded a podcast episode available here if you want to listen), but about the many women (and some men) that have been courageous enough to speak up. We have received over 300 submissions and many of these individual stories name the same yoga teacher again and again.

Read the full article.

15) I Believe Franken’s Accusers Because He Groped Me, Too

Tina Dupuy, The Atlantic

The Democratic Party needs to stand with women who have been harassed—and not defend the politicians who abused them.

Read the full article.

16) Al Franken resigns from Senate over sexual misconduct allegations


Lauren Gambino, The Guardian

Senator Al Franken announced his resignation on Thursday, becoming the highest-ranking US politician yet to step down in the wake of widening allegations of sexual misconduct against powerful men in Hollywood, Silicon Valley, the media and politics.

Read the full article.

17) The Silence Breakers

Time Magazine Person of the Year

Movie stars are supposedly nothing like you and me. They're svelte, glamorous, self-­possessed. They wear dresses we can't afford and live in houses we can only dream of. Yet it turns out that—in the most painful and personal ways—movie stars are more like you and me than we ever knew.

Read the full article.

18) TARANA BURKE WAS OMITTED FROM THE TIME MAGAZINE COVER, SO LET’S CELEBRATE THE SH*T OUT OF HER TODAY!

 Hari Ziyad, Afropunk

A Black woman creates something, and white people credit themselves for it, after ignoring it for as long as possible. Where have we heard this before?

Read the full article.

19) AFN chiefs back resolution calling on MMIWG chief commissioner to resign

John Paul Tasker, CBC News 

First Nations chiefs have backed a resolution calling on Marion Buller, the chief commissioner of the missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls inquiry, to resign.

Read the full article.

20) Don’t let the Tories fool you: we must borrow to invest

Owen Jones, The Guardian

Here is a story about how crude dogma and a factually baseless political attack line are wrecking the country’s future. Britain desperately needs investment, and with interest rates this low it would be economic madness not to borrow to fund it.

Read the full article.

21) Why are America's farmers killing themselves in record numbers?

Debbie Weingarten, The Guardian

The suicide rate for farmers is more than double that of veterans. Former farmer Debbie Weingarten gives an insider’s perspective on farm life – and how to help.

Read the full article.

22) Why has the #MeToo revolution spared Woody Allen?

Dylan Farrow, LA Times

We are in the midst of a revolution. From allegations against studio heads and journalists, to hotel maids recounting abuses on the job, women are exposing the truth and men are losing their jobs. But the revolution has been selective.

Read the full article.

23) All I wanted was for the government to say, ‘Yes, it’s true’

Verity Stevenson, Maclean's 

Lucie Laperle was one of the veterans invited to Ottawa for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s apology to LGBTQ Canadians for the state discrimination they experienced. Laperle underwent surveillance, interrogation and was institutionalized because of her sexual orientation in the Canadian Forces in the 1970s. She has been diagnosed with PTSD, determined to have been caused by what happened to her in the army. Maclean’s met with her in Shannon, north of Quebec City. This is her story, as told to reporter Verity Stevenson.

Read the full article.

24) Council votes for new shelter beds, refuses to open armouries to the homeless

David Rider, The Toronto Star

City staff say armouries are not the best option for homeless people, but advocates say opening them could save lives.

Read the full article.

25) Council rejects request to study whether Scarborough subway is good value for money

Jennifer Pagliaro, The Toronto Star

A motion from Councillor Josh Matlow to study the costs and benefits of the subway compared to the alternative failed in a 13-27 vote.

Read the full article.

26) Marriage equality law passes Australia's parliament in landslide vote

Paul Karp, The Guardian

Australia’s parliament has legislated for marriage equality, passing a bill almost unanimously to allow two people, regardless of sex, to marry.

Read the full article.

27) On a Vancouver SkyTrain full of people, just one came to help teen in religious attack

Patrick Johnston and Stephanie Ip, Vancouver Sun

When a man started yelling and hitting a young woman wearing a hijab on the Canada Line on Monday night, Jake Taylor didn’t hesitate.

Read the full article.

28) St. Thomas woman describes disturbing baseball-bat assault that hospitalized husband

Liny Lamberink and Jake Jeffrey, Global News

A woman and her family are left feeling shaken, after a shopping mall parking lot assault in St Thomas, Ont., on Thursday that’s being investigated as a racially motivated attack.

Read the full article.

29) Advocate group calls Niagara Region’s seizure of reporter’s notes, computer ‘an outrageous assault on media rights’

Alison Jones, The Canadian Press

The Niagara Region has apologized to a reporter for seizing equipment staff thought was being used to record a closed council session, an incident journalism organizations decried as an assault on press freedom.

Read the full article.

30) Brian Pallister Takes Heat After Thanking Winnipeg Chamber Of Commerce Chair For Wearing Heels

HuffPost

Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister is taking criticism for making comments about the physical appearance of the woman who chairs the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce.

Read the full article.

31) Migrant workers’ group slams NDP’s Singh for online posts on farm visit

Alex McKeen

NDP leader Jagmeet Singh fielded harsh criticism this week from a group of activists advocating for migrant workers’ rights — a cause the leader has promised to address in an upcoming party platform.

Read the full article.

32) Trump’s error on Jerusalem is a disaster for the Arab world … and the US too

Rashid Khalidi, The Guardian

Every time it seems Donald Trump cannot outdo himself, he does it again. Now he has announced that his administration will recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, reversing nearly seven decades of American policy. This step will have multiple negative ramifications, many impossible to predict.

Read the full article.

33) How will US Jerusalem move affect Israel's far right?

Jonathon Cook, Al Jazeera

Trump's recognition this week of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, overturning seven decades of US policy in the region and effectively ending hopes of a two-state solution, has provoked dire warnings.

Read the full article.

34) Charlottesville: Where's the $200,000 the DSA raised?

 Creede Newton, Al Jazeera

Allie was among the 19 people injured when white supremacist James Alex Fields Jr allegedly drove his car into a crowd of anti-racist protesters in Charlottesville, Virginia in August.

Read the full article.

35) THE UNFOUNDED EFFECT

Robyn Doolittle, The Globe and Mail

In February, after a 20-month investigation, The Globe found that one in five sexual-assault allegations reported in Canada is dismissed as unfounded. Now, law-enforcement agencies are reviewing more than 37,000 cases and many are pledging to revamp their approach to policing sexual violence. But for some police services, it’s still status quo.

Read the full article.

36) Honduras: Government deploys dangerous and illegal tactics to silence population

Amnesty International

The Honduran government is deploying dangerous and illegal tactics to silence any dissenting voices in the aftermath of one of the country’s worst political crisis in a decade, including preventing lawyers and human rights activists from visiting detained demonstrators, Amnesty International said after a visit to the country following contested presidential elections on 26 November.

Read the full article.

37) US Looking to Divide Honduran Opposition: Ex-President Zelaya

Telesur

Former president of Honduras and coordinator of the Opposition Alliance against the Dictatorship Manuel Zelaya denounced that spokespeople for the Organization of American States asked the opposition presidential candidate Salvador Nasralla to disassociate himself from Zelaya "for being a Chavista and promoting Democratic Socialism."

Read the full article.

38) Donald Trump and America’s new civil war

Omar El Akkad, The Globe and Mail

Barack Obama's presidency was supposed to mark a great leap forward for the United States. But, as Omar El Akkad discovered as he travelled across America this year, the election of Donald J. Trump has turned the country against itself. Scenes from a divided nation.

Read the full article.

39) #MeToo means I can be honest about why I skip office Christmas parties

Jean Hannah Edelstein, The Guardian

No, I’m not going to the office Christmas party this year, and yes, I’m feeling pretty happy about it. Thanks to the current cultural moment, in which we’re being more open about sexual assault than ever before, I feel safe being open this year about the fact that it’s because I was sexually assaulted at an office Christmas party. And though it’s a long time since I worked for that company – I left less than a year later – the thought of colleagues and alcohol and Christmas lights still makes my blood run cold.

Read the full article.

40) Why approving Site C could sink NDP

Damien Gillis, Common Ground

It’s getting down to the wire for the NDP-led government to announce its decision on Site C Dam. The corporate media and some big guns for labour have been making a sales push to throw the beleaguered project a lifeline and many fear they could succeed. That would be the biggest mistake the NDP could make. They didn’t create this monster, but they will own the consequences if they keep it alive.

Read the full article.

See also: Honduras, the #MeToo Movement, the OFL & more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List November 26 - December 3

See also: Transit, Housing, Climate Change & more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List November 19-26

Ginger Jentzen, Pope Francis, Podemos and more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List October 22-29

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  October 22-29. It is generally in order of the date of the article's release.

1) A Toronto imam was accused of hate-preaching against Jews. But that wasn’t the whole story

Jennifer Yang, The Toronto Star

Ayman Elkasrawy’s controversial prayers sparked outrage and condemnation from many, including members of his own faith. In the aftermath, he reached out to the Jewish community to educate himself and learn from his mistakes. Still, a key question remained unanswered: did he really say what he was accused of saying?

Read the full article.

2) Sexual Harassment is Old News for Women in Trades

tradeswomn musings

In the wake of harassment allegations against sexual predators including movie moguls and our president, tradeswomen applaud women who are telling their stories and rising up against this outrage.


Women in male-dominated occupations have been fighting this fight for as long as we can remember. We’ve been on the front lines of the feminist movement for decades defending our sisters, supporting legislation to protect women against sexual harassment and helping employers and unions see their responsibility on this issue. We and our fight have been invisible except to each other. Every female construction worker has experienced harassment and all of us can say #Metoo.

Read the full article.

3) CAMI Strike 2017: After Another Setback Can Unifor Move On?

Herman Rosenfeld, The Socialist Project Bullet

A four-week strike at the CAMI assembly plant, that began on September 17th, ended on October 16th. Members of Unifor Local 88 voted 86% in favour of the tentative agreement bargained with the stand-alone GM plant. Located in Ingersoll, Ontario, close to London, it is a former joint venture between Suzuki and GM. CAMI assembles hot-selling Chevrolet Equinox crossover vehicles.

Read the full article.

4) Why did Masuma Khan’s post invite censure from Dalhousie if free speech is so vaunted?

Shree Paradkar, The Toronto Star

Dalhousie University is facing scrutiny for investigating a student leader's polarizing social media comments as a group of law professors and a civil liberties group accuse the university of censoring political speech.

Read the full article.

5) Please turn up the volume on the #MeToo outrage

Susan G. Cole, NOW Magazine

Don’t buy the argument that smaller abuses aren’t harmful – there is a spectrum of abuse, and it has to be acknowledged.

Read the full article.

6) Quebec Gov't To Keep Crucifix Despite Banning Niqabi Women From Public Transit

Huffington Post

A crucifix that is prominently displayed in the room where members of the Quebec national assembly hold their regular sittings is staying put.

Read the full article.

7) Catholic school sex-ed plan as advertised won't ever be taught, premier says

The Canadian Press

Alberta Premier Rachel Notley says an alternative sex education curriculum being crafted by Catholic school officials will never be taught if it arrives as previously advertised.

Read the full article.

8) Labour leaders rally at Union Station to demand transit services be kept in public hands

Muriel Draaisma, CBC News

A handful of labour leaders launched a campaign at Toronto's Union Station on Tuesday morning to stop what they say is the privatization of public transit projects.

Read the full article.

9) James Toback: 200 more women allege harassment by director, reports LA Times

Gwilym Mumford, The Guardian

Julianne Moore among new accusers as paper says it has received hundreds of stories of unwanted sexual attention from Toback, who has denied earlier allegations.

Read the full article.

10) Fashion must now move on from female exploitation – and Terry Richardson

Namalee Bolle, The Guardian

The Harvey Weinstein scandal has triggered a wave of allegations, revelations and even confessions, via the #metoo campaign, across media and entertainment. I’m not the only one working in the fashion business wondering whether this will finally signal the end of our own disgraceful “hush hush” culture surrounding harassment.

Read the full article.

11) Woody Allen Keeps Telling Us Who He Is. Women Should Listen.

Kali Holloway / AlterNet

Someone should invent a word for that moment when you realize an artist you love is a terrible person. The term could be used to succinctly describe the painful transition between before and after, that fracture in time separating carefree consumption from morally weighted knowledge. It would define the general discomfort of watching Last Tango in Paris versus the full-on horror of learning Bernardo Bertolucci and Marlon Brando conspired to commit verité sexual assault against Maria Schneider to get an authentically humiliating take. It would sum up the sudden creepiness that emanates from Cliff Huxtable with awareness that serial sexual abuser Bill Cosby is actually ensconced in that sweater. It’s the disturbing realization that sexually predatory thug Harvey Weinstein was involved in so many iconic films and incidents of sexual harassment dating back decades, it casts a shadow over an entire industry. Or the insight that R. Kelly—who will never face charges because this country doesn’t believe black women can truly be victims, as Weinstein also proved—was genuinely trying to sell us all on age-of-consent laws being useless.

Read the full article.

12) 'I will never not speak out again': Cindy McCormick killed in murder-suicide, says friend

Bobbi-Jean MacKinnon, CBC News

As Jennifer Gordon struggles to cope with the slaying of her best friend, Saint John dentist Cindy McCormick, in Alberta last weekend, she has made a promise to herself.


"I will never not speak out again," she said. "I will never stay silent."

Read the full article.

13) Revealed: oil giants pay billions less tax in Canada than abroad

Martin Lukacs, The Guardian

Canada taxes its oil and gas companies at a fraction of the rate they are taxed abroad, including by countries ranked among the world’s most corrupt, according to an analysis of public data by the Guardian.

Read the full article.

14) MINNEAPOLIS CITY COUNCIL CANDIDATE IS A SOCIALIST WHO GETS THINGS DONE

Zaid Jilani, The Intercept

A Group of about 20 Minneapolis residents huddled outside a downtown building on a recent Friday, some wearing T-shirts emblazoned with messages, like “Tax the Rich” and “Minneapolis Needs a Political Revolution.”

Read the full article.

15) A Harvey Weinstein Moment for the Restaurant Industry?

Jen Agg, The New Yorker

In September of 2015, I organized a conference in Toronto to discuss gender inequality in the restaurant world. Titled Kitchen Bitches: Smashing the Patriarchy One Plate at a Time, the conference was the first of its kind, and it came in the wake of several instances of women in the Toronto restaurant industry speaking out about the discrimination and harassment they’d faced.

Read the full article.

16) Ontario makes it illegal to protest outside and near abortion clinics

The Canadian Press

It will soon be illegal to protest outside and near abortion clinics in Ontario.


The legislature passed a bill Wednesday to create zones around the eight clinics in the province of between 50 and 150 metres in which anti-abortion protests, advising a person not to get an abortion, and intimidation or interfering with a woman's ability to access the services will be banned.

Read the full article.

17) Quebec police officers accused of trading money and drugs for sex with aboriginal women placed on leave

Postmedia News

Police officers trading money and cocaine for sex, a missing persons case that collected dust for months, and allegations of wanton cruelty against vulnerable women.


These are what indigenous people say they have encountered first-hand in their dealings with the Sûreté du Québec in the remote mining city of Val d’Or.

Read the full article.

18) Social media brings Pakistan's persecuted women rare justice after the violence

Farhad Mirza and Sophie Hemery, The Guardian

Sarah Gill, Suman Ali – aka Acid Survivor – and Khadija Siddiqi represent a growing movement using the internet to demand justice for the shocking crimes they have suffered. Will it trigger long-awaited change in Pakistan?

Read the full article.

19) Why deny the Ukrainian Nazi connection?

David Pugliese, Ottawa Citizen

The Russian Embassy in Ottawa has created quite the controversy with its latest tweets about Nazi monuments in Canada.

Read the full article.

20) Podemos Leader Pablo Iglesias Calls Catalan Independence Illegal

Left Voice

The repression of October 1 may be small compared to the immense repression that Rajoy could bring down on the Catalan people as a result of this independence vote and concrete move to separate from the Spanish State. Iglesias turns his back on those workers and students who are in the streets celebrating right now, and who may tomorrow be in the streets facing the Spanish police. All progressives must position themselves in opposition to Article 155 and against the repression of the Spanish State. Podemos must put its immense political weight on the side of the workers and youth instead of leaving the Catalan people isolated to face off against the Spanish State and its imperialist backers. They must call for a huge movement against Article 155, against repression, and against a possible occupation of Catalonia by the Spanish armed forces.

Read the full article.

21) The war against Pope Francis

Andrew Brown, The Guardian

Pope Francis is one of the most hated men in the world today. Those who hate him most are not atheists, or protestants, or Muslims, but some of his own followers. Outside the church he is hugely popular as a figure of almost ostentatious modesty and humility. From the moment that Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio became pope in 2013, his gestures caught the world’s imagination: the new pope drove a Fiat, carried his own bags and settled his own bills in hotels; he asked, of gay people, “Who am I to judge?” and washed the feet of Muslim women refugees.

Read the full article.

22) Marital rape myths have no place in Canadian law

Jennifer Koshan, Melanie Randall and Elizabeth Sheehy, The Globe and Mail

Since 1983, it has been a crime in Canada to sexually assault one's spouse. Yet marital rape too often remains effectively decriminalized, as shown in a recent Ontario decision. In R. v. H.E., an Ottawa man was acquitted of sexually assaulting his wife. Justice Robert J. Smith found that "the accused probably had sex with his wife on many occasions without her specific consent, as both he and she believed that he had the right to do so." With respect to the incident that led to criminal charges, however, the complainant testified she had told the accused to stop several times, and the judge found her to be credible. It is difficult to see how the accused could have honestly believed that his wife was consenting in these circumstances. It appears the accused was acquitted because he did not understand the law of consent, despite the fact that ignorance of the law is no defence.

Read the full article.

23) Judges failing women again on sex assault cases

Vicky Mochama, The Toronto Star

Companies and institutions will have to reckon with how they have created environments for predators to thrive but is the criminal justice system is ready for this change?

Read the full article.

24) 'An insult to women': Roman Polanski retrospective causes outrage

Agence France-Presse, The Guardian

French feminists have voiced outrage over a planned retrospective of the films of director Roman Polanski, who has been accused of several sexual assaults, calling it “an insult” to women following the Harvey Weinstein scandal.

Read the full article.

25) How Terry Richardson created porn ‘chic’ and moulded the look of an era

Richard Benson, The Guardian

The photographer, now ostracised by the fashion industry after many allegations of sexual harassment, shaped an aesthetic of exploitation.

Read the full article.

26) Iceland's centre-left opposition takes narrow majority in parliament

France 24

Icelanders, angry over a string of political scandals, ousted the centre-right government in an election that could pave the way for a young charismatic opposition leader to form a left-leaning coalition, final vote counts showed on Sunday.

Read the full article.

While this piece is from before the period covered, it is important and we are including it as we missed it before:

27) POLICE REPORTEDLY CLAIM A BROOKLYN TEEN CONSENTED TO SEX IN CUSTODY. THAT’S IMPOSSIBLE.

Natasha Lennard, The Intercept

On September 28, attorney Michael David filed notice of a claim against the New York Police Department, the City of New York, and two unnamed police officers, referred to as John and Jim Doe. These plainclothes cops, alleged the claim, “brutally sexually assaulted and raped” his 18-year-old female client. David told me that within a day, he needed to amend the claim: The officers had been identified by police in the press as Brooklyn South narcotics detectives Richard Hall and Edward Martins.

Read the full article.

See also: Bill 62, Harvey Weinstein, Climate Change and more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List October 15 - 22

See also: Harvey Weinstein, Sidney Crosby, Cuba and more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List October 8-15

Syria, Trump, the JDL & more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List April 2 - April 9

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 2 - April 9. It is generally in order of the date of the article's release.

1) NDP differences on international policy need to be debated

Yves Engler, Rabble

There has yet to be a single question about foreign policy in the NDP’s first two leadership debates, but some contenders say they want the party to devote a forum to international affairs.

Read the full article.

2) Russell Peters's 'joke' about young women had no place at the Junos

Kira-Lynn Ferderber, The Ottawa Citizen

Many of us in Ottawa’s music community were very excited to have our city host the Juno Awards on Sunday night; unfortunately, the show quickly took an unpleasant turn. Co-host Russell Peters chose to open the evening by looking out at the crowd gathered at the Canadian Tire Centre and commenting “Look at all the young girls. This is a felony waiting to happen.”

Read the full article. 

3) ALLIES IN HATE: SOLDIERS OF ODIN AND THE JEWISH DEFENCE LEAGUE

Warren Kinsella, The War Room

The Soldiers of Odin is a rapidly-growing far-Right anti-refugee, anti-immigrant racist organization now found across Canada.  Experts call them a terror group.  More on them here and here.

The Jewish Defence League is a far-Right group that has itself been classified as extremist by the FBI for many years, and its parent organizations Kach and Kahane Chai are now officially terrorist organizations in Israel, Canada, the E.U. and the United States.  More here and here.  The JDL wasn’t always that way, as I write in Web of Hate, but it sure is now.

And now the JDL stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the Muslim and immigrant-hating Soldiers of Odin.  An organization founded by an actual neo-Nazi.

Read the full article.

4) Suspended police officers make Ontario's Sunshine List

Mike Crawley, CBC News

At least 15 police officers in Ontario earned more than $100,000 each in 2016 while sitting at home for most or all of the year, suspended over criminal charges yet collecting their full pay, an exclusive CBC Toronto analysis reveals.

Read the full article. 

5) South Sudan Is Officially In Famine. This Is What That Means

Ian Wishart, The Huffington Post

The first famine in six years has been declared in the world's newest nation, South Sudan. To understand just how dire the situation is, you need to understand the United Nations' reluctance to use the f-word: famine.

Read the full article. 

6) Lynn Beyak removed from Senate's Aboriginal peoples committee

John Paul Tasker, CBC News

Senator Lynn Beyak has been removed from the Senate's Aboriginal peoples committee, interim Conservative Leader Rona Ambrose told CBC News in an interview Wednesday.

Read the full article. 

7) Iceland to enshrine equal pay for women and men in law

The Guardian

Iceland’s parliament has presented a bill that would require public and private businesses to prove they offer equal pay to employees, in what would be the first such requirement in the world.

Read the full article.

9) Mishandling of sex-assault cases violates right to equality, lawsuit alleges

Robyn Doolittle, The Globe and Mail

The 18-year-old Western University student whose sexual-assault allegation was dismissed as “unfounded” by a detective who relied on rape myths and stereotypes during his investigation was the victim of systemic discrimination based on gender, a lawsuit filed against the officer and the London Police Services Board on Friday alleges.

Read the full article.

10) Spineless Social Democracy

Thorvaldur Gylfason, Social Europe

Of all social democratic parties in Europe none has fared worse at the polls of late than Iceland’s Social Democratic Alliance. Whereas in the parliamentary election of 2003 it won 20 out of 63 seats in Parliament, it barely cleared the 5% threshold in the 2016 election, securing three seats, all in rural constituencies. The reasons for this spectacular fall from grace may hold lessons for other social democratic parties.

Read the full article.

11) Federal judge blocks Pence's Indiana law requiring women to get an ultrasound before they get an abortion

Timothy Mclaughlin, Reuters

A U.S. federal judge blocked an Indiana measure requiring women to have an ultrasound at least 18 hours before undergoing an abortion, saying that the mandate was unnecessary and a burden to low-income women.

Read the full article.

12) Toronto’s Jewish Defence League Fascists

Yves Engler, Dissident Voices

We live in strange and dangerous times. While Toronto thugs export their violence and extremist ideology to the USA and the Jewish Defence League works with neo-fascists to bash Muslims, the dominant Canadian media has placed a cone of silence over these disturbing developments.

Read the full article. 

13) How does a pundit get neo-Nazi fans? This is how.

Bernie Farber, iPolitics

If you’ve ever been through the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem, you know that it’s a heart-searing, life-changing experience. It tells the story of one of the most terrible acts in recorded history: the murder of six million Jewish men, women and children during the Second World War.

Read the full article.

14) Trump Pulls Back Obama-Era Protections For Women Workers

Mary Emily O'Hara, NBC News

With little notice, President Donald Trump recently signed an executive order that advocates say rolls back hard-fought victories for women in the workplace.

Read the full article.

15) Trump administration halts money to UN population fund over abortion rules

Liz Ford and Nadia Khomami, The Guardian

The US state department said on Monday it was ending funding for the UN population fund (UNFPA) – the first concrete move in what activists describe as President Donald Trump’s “crusade against the health and rights of women and girls globally”.

Read the full article.

16) Unarmed. Not wearing a seatbelt. Running away. Police are more likely to shoot if you’re black

Neil Bedi and Connie Humburg, The Tampa Bay Times

In the past three years, police shootings have sparked an unprecedented series of protests across the country.

Groups led by Black Lives Matter said the shootings were part of a larger pattern of racial discrimination.

Read the full article.

17) U.S. Is Helping Israel Annex So Much Land, Palestinians Could Have Essentially Nothing

Democracy Now

Last month, a U.N. agency sparked controversy when it published a report accusing Israel of imposing an "apartheid regime" on the Palestinians. The report came the same month the Israeli government took the extreme step of banning non-Israeli citizens who endorse the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement from entering Israel. For more, we speak with world-renowned political dissident, linguist and author Noam Chomsky.

Read, watch and listen.

18) Boxer Custio Clayton says he was racially profiled by Montreal police

Kalina Laframboise, CBC News

Former Canadian Olympic boxer Custio Clayton says he was racially profiled — detained without reason, handcuffed and arrested on suspicion of being a drug dealer by Montreal police on Tuesday night.

Read the full article.

19) I’m not going to answer the same question about being fat any more

Lindy West, The Guardian

This morning at 8:15am some man with a cool life navigated to my YouTube page, found a five-year-old video in which I taste-test an unpleasant seasonal cookie, and typed the comment: “It’s like watching a reallllllly slow suicide.” Men have been leaving similar comments on this video obsessively for the past five years: “You fucking disgusting pig. KILL YOURSELF.” “You actually posted a video of the time when your fat ass got really super excited about eating seasonal, promotional candy.” “Fugly dumpling stuffs her gullet on youtube. Disgusting.” The video is monetised; my husband asked me today whether I’ve made any money off of it. I told him I think YouTube sent me a check for $100 (£80) once. That’s it.

Read the full article.

20) Of Course Donald Trump Doesn’t Think Bill O’Reilly Did Anything Wrong

 Rebecca Traister, New York Magazine

By every rational measure, “Donald Trump Defends Bill O’Reilly on Sexual Harrassment Allegations” should be the least surprising headline of any given day.

Read the full article.

21) Halifax police sign on to ‘start by believing’ sex-assault campaign

Les Perreaux, The Globe and Mail

Halifax police have signed on to a slow-growing movement of municipal forces adopting a “start by believing” approach to sexual-assault complaints in the hope of hastening a culture change among officers and encouraging victims to come forward.

Read the full article.

22) Hero or villain? The Livingstone question

David Rosenberg, Rebel Notes

My favourite political image among the protests and street activism that has marked the first three months of 2017 is a banner held on the St Patrick’s Day parade. It proclaimed:”More Blacks! More dogs! More Irish!” – mocking the daily racism of the 1960s when people looking for homes were confronted by openly discriminatory window signs rejecting applicants from these categories. The first Race Relations Act of 1968 finally knocked that appalling behaviour on the head, but not the sentiments behind it. It took another 20 years of grassroots campaigns led by victims of racism, finally aided by another layer of government, to normalise anti-racism and explicitly promote multiculturalism.

Read the full article.


23) The Last 5 Presidents In A Row Have Bombed Iraq

Darius Shahtahmasebi, Activist Post

Who is to blame for the current state of chaos in Iraq? An oversimplified and misguided, if not dishonest course of action would be to blame Iraqis for being the radical, death-cult worshiping fanatics they are and ignore America’s foreign policy decision-making, which led to the current situation. In turn, one could place Iraq on a travel ban list of nations that doesn’t include any of the countries that created and support al-Qaeda (and then nonsensically remove them from your revised list some weeks later).

Read the full article.

24) Trump lifts ban on hunting hibernating bears

Daksha Rangan, The Weather Network

The state of Alaska is home to 16 U.S. national wildlife refuges and a vast variety of iconic animals — two of which are now fair game for hunters.

Read the full article. 

25) Government unveils eight-page 'rape assessment form' for mothers hit by tax credit cuts

Jon Stone, The Independent

Women who have a child conceived due to rape will have to fill in an eight-page form to prevent the Government from withdrawing their tax credits.

Read the full article.

26) Community and Police Action Committee faces barrage of criticism over wristbands

Simon Gardner, CBC News

At a meeting of a committee that works to improve relations between diverse communities and Ottawa police, speaker after speaker ripped into the force over a controversial wristband campaign supporting an officer charged with manslaughter.

Read the full article.

27) No good will come of Trump's Syria strike

Ryan Cooper, The Week

On Thursday night, the Trump administration abruptly announced that it had launched more than 50 cruise missiles at a Syrian airfield, in retaliation for the apparent use of chemical weapons against Syrian civilians by Bashar al-Assad.

Read the full article.

28) Trump's Strike has Prolonged the Syrian Tragedy

Chris Nineham, Socialist Project Bullet

Trump's attack on the Shayrat airbase in Syria has received plaudits from western politicians and commentators across the board. Liberal pundits, who had nothing but contempt for Trump days ago, are suddenly more respectful after this show of lethal force, even though most would probably accept The Guardian's Jonathan Freedland's caveat that despite this virtuous show of violence, Trump is still not to be wholly trusted.

Read the full article. 

29) Brendan Cox, Husband Of Murdered Jo, Warns Of The Rise Of Fascism

Chris York, The Huffington Post

The husband of murdered MP Jo Cox has warned of the growing dangers of fascism and extreme right-wing politics.

Brendan Cox, whose wife was stabbed and shot by a right-wing extremist outside her constituency office last June, said communities need to stand together against division and hate.

Read the full article. 

In addition to these articles, the following two articles from prior to this past week are worth sharing in the roundup as well:

30) Colin Kaepernick Saw This Coming

Dria Roland, Complex

In pop culture years, 2012 was ages ago. But try to remember. That was the year quarterback Alex Smith suffered a concussion in the first half of the Niners game against the Rams in Week 10, and a backup QB named Colin Kaepernick had to fill in. The game ended in a tie, the NFL's first in four years. The next week Kaepernick started, and led the team to victory. And even after Smith was declared healthy, Kaepernick continued to start—and to win. A "quarterback controversy" brewed, but coach Harbaugh went with the guy "with the hot hand," as they say.

Read the full article. 

31) Israel Is an Apartheid State (Even if the UN Report Has Been Withdrawn)

Jakob Reimann, Foreign Policy Journal

A withdrawn UN report's conclusion that the criminal occupation of Palestine and Israel's racist policies toward Palestinians are "apartheid" remain true.

Read the full article. 

See also: Canada 150, Saskatchewan Austerity, the Ottawa Police & more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List March 26 - April 2

See also: Climate Change, Police Malfeasance, Lenin & more -- The Left Chapter Sunday Reading List March 19 - 26