TFWP “reforms” leave cheap labour strategy intact

 Posted on July 15, 2014
Jul 152014
 

After a series of revelations about abuses of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP), the Harper Conservatives have announced so-called “sweeping changes”. Their political aim is to prevent this scandal from becoming a major issue in the 2015 federal election, without reversing the cheap labour strategy demanded by big capital.

Canada needs policies to put people’s needs ahead of corporate greed. Instead, the Harper government uses temporary foreign workers as part of the drive against job and income security for working people. This includes the expanding use of casualized, temporary, non-union workers, paid minimum wages and without benefits. The drive to reduce labour costs and attain a flexible work force is creating a brutal system of modern capitalist slavery, a system which generates, and feeds off, a huge pool of working poor. Continue reading »

Stop Israel’s massacre of the Palestinian people!

 Posted on July 15, 2014
Jul 152014
 

Communist Party calls for immediate end to airstrikes, for Baird to resign

The Communist Party of Canada condemns the murderous bombardment of Palestine by the Israeli Air Force, and calls for this aggression to end immediately. Israel’s attacks have already killed hundreds of people and left several thousand wounded and displaced. The Communist Party reiterates its support for the right of the Palestinian people to resist occupation in their territories, and for their legitimate struggle for an independent Palestinian state.

Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, John Baird, has once again taken a shameful position in this crisis, stating support for Israel’s attacks and criticizing the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights after she called for an immediate ceasefire and raised questions about the legality of Israel’s airstrikes. These comments are part of the effort by Baird and the Harper government to reduce Canada’s foreign policy to uncritical support for Israel, cloaking its aggressiveness in the language of “self-defense” and “anti-terrorism.” Continue reading »

Communist Party condemns Harper’s new prostitution law

 Posted on July 2, 2014
Jul 022014
 

In response to the Supreme Court’s December 2013 ruling in the Bedford case, which struck down several key Criminal Code provisions regarding prostitution, the Harper Conservatives have introduced Bill C‑36, the “Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act “.

The Central Executive Committee of the Communist Party of Canada condemns Bill C‑36, which gives police forces sweeping new powers, and creates Criminal Code provisions to make it more difficult and dangerous for those who sell sexual services to carry out their activities. While the government claims it wants to assist women to leave prostitution, the legislation allocates a pittance of $20 million over five years for this purpose, at a time when governments are slashing spending and support for social programs. The Communist Party restates our longstanding demands for fundamental social reforms which would offer the best possible options to help those who wish to leave the sex trade, especially massive job creation programs, higher wages, free post‑secondary education, affordable housing, free universal child care, and mental health supports, drug treatment and harm reduction programs for those facing addictions. The federal government should be taking decisive action to combat poverty, discrimination, racism and other factors which push people into the sex trade; instead, the Harper Tories are cynically using this important issue as a wedge tactic to seek votes in the next federal election. We therefore demand that this legislation be withdrawn immediately.

Central Executive Committee, Communist Party of Canada