Opening Statement



Wednesday 3 January 2018

Teacher Free Speech Winter 2018 News y Views 1

hEY hO! kEEP ChECKing BAcK! LaTeR AdDITIoNs WiLL bE AddED In LaRgE TYpe SeT! mY Acronym Guide IS @ hErE! ... Legalization news now moved to "Oh Cannabis!" TheRe!


EDUCATION BEAT

OFL Speaks Out: The Ontario Federation of Labour [OFL] expresses it's support for some "basic respect" and a "living wage" for Tim Hortons coffeeshop staff, as Ontario raises the minimum wage to $14 [Cdn]! OTF's comments are directed towards the CEO of Tim$ very profitable parent company. Sadly, Tim$ poorly paid workers are being very nastily targeted for special labour abuse, at many outlets across the province @ OFL

ETFO Elementary Teacher President Sam Hammond attends the January 10th Tim Hortons Yonge and College protest rally, organized by OPSEU Ontario's Public Service employees, along with the $15 and Fairness campaign! OSSTF secondary school flags, along with one from the OECTA English Catholic teachers, fly high in solidarity with the badly mistreated Tim$ staff! More links below, plus see my blog @ HERE!

Exclusive Video: Ontario Teacher Federation [OTF] President Chris Cowley expresses the teachers' frontline solidarity with our province's minimum wage workers! Hear him speak at the Tim Horton Yonge/ College St. Toronto protest @ VIDEO


OTF's Chris Cowley Speaks!

Keep Up The Bad Work: Ontario's high school graduation rate has reached 86.5%. How? By lowering standards so most anybody can stumble or fall over the passing line! Then by fudging how achievement is measured! Far from a joyous occasion, the latest results have left many teachers rolling their eyes! Sighing in despair! What real learning is actually going on? @ Star

Hush! Hush! Vs The Right To Know: Parents aren't usually told about classroom violence or evacuations at their child's school. The Ontario Durham board is seeking legal council on a trustee motion requiring more transparency. It's about time! @ DR

Workplace Hazard: There's more! An OECTA Catholic Teacher survey reveals that 60% of members have experienced workplace violence at school. Nothing new! Think underfunding! Overcrowding! A lack of support workers! Haphazard Special Ed "integration"! Disengaged parents! The list of problems goes on and on and on ... It's a free for all! I was assaulted 3 times over my 28 year teaching career here in Toronto. Seriously doubt the situation has improved. As with student violence, much still goes largely unreported to an unsuspecting public @ CBC

OPSEU Contract Win: Ontario's college faculty have a new contract! Academic Freedom? Wages? Staffing? Here's a link and summary of the gains made. Read the arbitrated settlement @ OPSEU



Me Three: In 2017, the Me Too movement finally put white male privilege on notice that enough is enough. But is that enough in and of itself? More specifically, are we being colourblind to the special plight of non-white women? More @ Atlantic

On Racism and White Privilege: How it subtly works in ways we might little suspect @ Tol

OCT: Ontario College of Teachers: Candidate info for the April 9 Council election has been posted @ OCT

OH CANADA



Tim$ Gets Rimmed: Canada's iconic coffeeshop, that's not really Canadian, gets a bad media beating and a public boycott to boot! Despite record profits, some outlets are cutting worker benefits and eliminating their paid breaks. Why?!? To pay for a raise in the provincial minimum wage to $14 [Cdn] an hour. Greedy self serving Tim$ is taking quite a hit -make mine a double double! @ Macs

Fight Back: 60% of Ontarian's support a raise in the minimum wage to $15 [Cdn] by 2019. Tim$ i$n't alone among their Corporate Canada cronie$ in exploiting staff to increa$e profit$, hence the Canadian labour movement's emphasis on a fight for a living wage. Rank and File explains some easily do-able strategies for fighting back, now and in the long term @ R+F

Cynical Election Ploy: Premier Kathleen Wynne's reversal on raising Ontario's minimum wage targets widespread popular support for such a move just in time for the June 7th provincial election. However, the NDP and Ontario's labour groups have been arguing many years for it to be incrementally implemented over time instead. Too bad she wouldn't listen! It's also a move that could've helped the province's small business sector better adjust @ AG

Debunked: Here are some widely held but often quite wrong headed right wing myths about the minimum wage. They are regularly invoked, completely without question, to deny Ontario's lowest wage workers a very much needed raise and some, very, basic, workplace benefits @ PP

Follow The Tim$ Boycott on Twitter @ #Boycott Tim Hortons @ #Boycott Tims 


Pressing Issue: A little heralded Torstar and Postmedia deal closes 30 community and daily newspapers across Canada overnight. Many of them pre-dated confederation, but are now gone in the blink of an eye. Who'll cover the local municipal news and political beat outside of our major metropolises? The Trudeau Libs don't have much to say. The Competition Board is promising to investigate, but have no doubt -all those local newspapers are gone! Kaput! A very sad day for Made In Canada freedom of speech and democracy! More @ NP @ Globe @ FP @ CBC 

"A Deathblow To Local News Coverage"For an alternative to the big biz media news coverage of the story, check out what the unions, and NDP have to say @ iPo  

Liberal Ways: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's "sunny daze" might be finally clouding over. Dipping polls for the federal party, along with tough odds for provincial re-election in Ontario and Quebec, could mean the party brand is in for a rough ride ahead in 2018. Then again, where's our majesties loyal opposition?!? More @ CBC



CPC Zzzzzzzz: Canuck Conservatives continue to flounder. Don't provide much more than a Trump North style critique of the PM and an attack on everything Liberal. All the negativity and bashing didn't work for the CPC before. Dunno why they'd think it would now. More @ NP

CPC Andrew Scheer: His social conservative bent might work well in the US, but up here, he's an outright gift to the Trudeau Liberals @ iP

NDP Jagmeet Singh, a fresh face himself in Ottawa, brings a staff of relative newbies to his federal opposition team. We'll be watching with bated breath as they scramble to get up to political speed @ Macs


Some guarantee ...


Me Too North Shocker: Ontario Progressive Conservative [PC] Pat Brown resigns 18 weeks before the June 17th provincial election, among sexual misconduct allegations. The tea totaller stands accused of plying both an underage girl and an aide with booze to get a blow job and other sexual favours, when he was a Federal Conservative MP. Of course, he's due his day in court. 

BTAIM, one recalls how he falsely stoked the flames of public discontent, by misrepresenting Ontario's sex education curriculum, despite it's important emphasis on teaching "consent". As a political strategy, it certainly helped him get elected provincial PC leader as a safe, good, old boy, social conservative. Until he flip flopped when the issue didn't prove a big vote getter in the Greater Toronto Area [GTA]. So what's up?

Perhaps it's a case of "the  harder they come, the harder they fall"? Alas! Now the PC's are left desperately scrambling, as we enter a spring election that was the parties to loose! 

Premier Wynne publicly addresses the Brown allegations as a "people" or "human problem". She praises the victims for stepping forward, as both a mother and a daughter. The Premier reminds Ontarians, both male and female, that we all need to work together to address sexual assault and harassment. When questioned, she dismissed fears that she will use this as an opportunity to call a snap election. Give her credit; she was classy!

Pat Brown: The Mainstream News Links are @ CTV @ Star @ CBC Globe @ Global

Pat Brown on Sex Ed: From my blog archives @ [LINK] [LINK] [LINK]. 

NDP Opposition Leader Andrea Horwath expresses many, everyday folks' concern that "enough is enough" with sexual assault and harassment. We will watch with bated breath for Ontario's third party to tackle the issue from further to the left and at the more everyday, grass root home and workplace level. Hmmm. Kathleen might be poised to give Andrea a good race for her election money. Go Andrea Go! More party reactions @  Global

NDP Battle 4 Relevance: The NDP enter 2018 still all but missing in action. Canadians lack any clear, effective voice from further left on our political spectrum. Meanwhile the Trudeau Libs continue to claw away at the NDP's soft, centre left base @ NP

Wynning Formula? Ontario Liberal Premier Kathleen Wynne is hoping to snatch an election victory from the jaws of defeat this June 7th, despite her rock bottom polls. The minimum wage has been raised to $14 an hour. Free prescription drugs are being extended to those under age 25 @ CBC



NAFTA Poison Pills: The 6th round of the NAFTA talks commence in Montreal from January 23 to the 28th. Speculation is that US President Donald Trump will trigger a 6 month exit clause from the very successful trade agreement, with some pretty grave implications for Canada. Here's what Trump wants, along with some thoughts from the Council of Canadians, on how our team could now respond to try to salvage NAFTA @  CoC

No Opinion: PM Justin Trudeau refuses to "opine" about President Trump's shocking comments on Africa and Haiti, except to note that Canada values "openness", "respect" and is "welcoming" to immigrants from around the world. Likewise he backtracks upon his early comments about our "unruly neighbour", noting that the US is Canada's closest trading partner. In short; our PM just doesn't seem to want to ruffle Trump's tail feathers right now, despite his racist slurs @ Huff

Corporate Kanada: The federal government has decided that Canada's corporate sector lacks diversity at the top .... Hmmmm, sounds like the apple doesn't fall far from the tree within the new cannabiz economy either. See "Oh Cannabis" [LINK]! .... Publicly traded companies will be required to disclose stats on diversity among top management to shareholders. It's an effort to encourage them to hire more women and people of colour in leadership positions. Apparently  the government isn't buying arguments that they can't be more equitable @ G

IN THE NEWS



"The President Is A Racist": CNN's Don Lemon confronts Trump's shocking, "shit hole", racist statements head on, in no uncertain terms. Lemon's quite memorable moment of silence is riveting TV journalism, among the new millennium's very best @ Youtube

"Silence is Complicity": A clearly disturbed Senator Corey Booker takes US Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielson to task over her lack of spine in refusing to acknowledge the president's profoundly, sickening racism and bigotry. She is hardly alone in that these daze, especially among the GOP and Trump's MAGA fans @ Youtube

Donald Trump = Racist: Regardless of whether Trump described Africa and Haiti as "shit holes" or "shit houses", it doesn't detract from the deeper racist subtext of his latest divisive comments, especially as they relate to DACA and US foreign policy @ Vox

Very Shitty: President Donald Trump adamantly insists that he's the "least racist person you've ever met". It's a pretty dubious and outlandish denial, to say the least. Consider his track record from the 1970's through 2018 @ NYT 


Fire Y Fury: Or "The Man Who Didn't Want 2B Prez": Blockbuster tattle tell all book from the halls of the West Wing perhaps contains few, unsuspected surprises for Trump White House Watchers. Still it fleshes out lotsa the juicy details; The Donald's chaotic management style, the Russia Probe, the firings, Steve Bannon and MacDonald hamburgs in bed by 6:30 pm. All this and more folks! Excerpt @ NY

Steven Bannon -Apologist: The harder they come, the harder they fall! The former Trump strategist's belated apology seems a case of too little too late, as the embattled Donald fights back against Sloppy Steve for dissing the First Family @ Axios



You're Fired: Even Bannon's benefactor's the Mercer family have pulled his funding, as the Donald goes on the rampage. Meanwhile, the GOP continues to fiddle about as Washington continues to burn @ Politico

America Goes Mental: Grave doubts about the mental state of the president have become a national debate as Trump continues to erratically rant and rave on Twitter and to whomever else will listen, often times becoming his own worst enemy. Here's what some of the experts say @ Vox

Missile Envy: US President Donald Trump astounds world audiences by getting into a messy and quite unseemly pissing match with third world North Korean crackpot Kim Jong Un over the size and prowess of their respective nuclear arsenals, to put it nicely @ TelUk


Der Donald's Wrecking Ball approach to US foreign policy raises congressional concerns over the president's ability to go it alone on international matters on war and peace. Yiiiikes! Best get on it quick! @ CNN

The African Union, including many long time, staunch US allies in the "War on Terror", condemn Trump's description of the continent as a "shit hole". They are demanding an apology -good luck! @ AN

World View: Other leaders from around the world also react with horror and disdain to the President of the United States racist, demeaning and divisive comments @ BI

Normalizing Trump or "How Low Can You Go?": With the bar of presidential excellency set so low nowadaze, anything goes. Praise comes very cheap. Here's how it works from a journalist's perspective @ PT

Much Ado: The Big Business GOP is always quick to praise the small biz entrepreneur as the backbone of the US economy. But the yardstick of success? For them to become a big business too! That actually marginalizes and undermines their important grass root role in economic development @ Aeon



2 Hot? 2 Cold? Depends Where You Are!

Baby It's Cold Outside: A stiff, cold weather snap in the US and Canada has climate change deniers, lead by President Trump, claiming that global warming does not exist. We may well look back fondly at how cold this winter is during the years ahead. Elsewhere, worldwide temperatures are mostly reaching record highs @ CBS

Pope Francis calls 2017 out as a "wasted" year of "wars" and "lies". Janet and I enjoyed the simple pleasure of an audience with Pope Francis in Rome this September. Not big on religion anymore, to say the least. Often left wondering if, for the Catholic church, Francis is a case of too little too late. Still, in person, even among a crowd of 37,000 in St. Peter's Square, one couldn't help but be touched by his rootsy, down to earth manner. His straightforward but touching message to always "Live", "Love", and "Hope". Francis manages to knock one out of the ecclesiastical ball park here too, in no uncertain terms. @ Reuters

KULTURE KULT INK



Congratulations: Canada's shirtless, photo bombing hunk of a PM, Justin Trudeau, take note! Federal NDP Party Leader Jagmeet Singh has been charming Canucks, hopefully including Canadien voters in Quebec, with his carefully staged, "Kardashian" style, marriage proposal. Yup! He proposed to Gurkiran Kaur, a fashion designer. The story was staged as a mediated, news bite! The appeal? They are young, hopeful and in love. It's all very familiar and everyday, in a uniquely Kanuck sorta way! Here's a love story that might help warm the old cockles of yer heart on these long, cold, winter nights @ Chat @ Vice @ CBC


Psssst! Here's a free Beatle's Abbey Road Lp Link [while it lasts] @ Youtube

Not Dead Yet: A fight's on to save the once mighty CD as streaming tops the charts in the latest music media war @ CBC

COMMENTS

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

So...Halton CUPE members are now paying $20.00 per month for their health benefits free under the old board provided health care plan and contract? Explain that CUPE.

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