To those of you who might be concerned about the alleged financial mismanagement of federal funds at Attawapiskat, I have just one thing to say
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Defence Minister Peter McKay giving the thumbs up to the overpriced F-35 fighter jet.
The Harper government has recently eased the ban on the export of assault weapons to that beacon of freedom, democracy and human rights in Latin America – Colombia.
According to the International Trade Union Confederation there were 35 documented murders and 10 attempted murders of trade unionists in Colombia during 2012.
A strike in 2011 by workers at an oilfield operated by Toronto based Pacific Rubiales was met by over 800 riot police along with the Colombian Army according to Justice for Colombia
Now much as Harper and his cronies might occasionally fantasize about shooting trade unionists, it’s not something that can be done in Canada. But why not help out their pals in Colombia?
Canada’s ice man, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has finally melted…at least a little bit.
He announced today that he’s going to meet with leaders of the Assembly of First Nations next Friday (January 11th) to talk about ongoing treaty concerns and to soothe rising tensions.
Chief Theresa Spence may or may not be at the meeting and has no plans to end her heroic hunger strike until the meeting actually takes place. The grassroots “Idle No More” movement that Spence helped inspire has no plans to turn down the heat either!
Harper’s agenda is to help multinational oil, gas and mining corporations rip out as many raw materials as humanly possible using the cheapest and most exploited labour possible, running roughshod over aboriginal treaty rights, environmental protections and workers rights.
Then after the multinationals have ripped everything out, we’ll spend the next several generations dealing with massive toxic waste dumps.
That’s the Harper vision. Make no mistake about it.
In the meantime the heat should be turned up. This right-wing gang in Ottawa won’t back down unless there’s a fire burning under their asses.
This site was launched in May, 2012 and then went into a hiatus in July.
It’s a new year and the ruling elites are continuing to do things that piss us all off. Time for a CLASS RAGE relaunch!
We have the unfolding disaster that is Harper’s Ombnibus budget bill. We have the McGuinty government in Ontario beating up on Ontario’s teachers and education workers. Then in a move worthy of Stephen Harper, he hung up his socks and then prorogued the legislature.
Here in Toronto, the home of Class Rage Towers we have a mayor who couldn’t quite figure out that when everyone and his uncle is telling you that you’re in a conflict of interest situation, that you might in fact be in a conflict of interest. It took a judge slapping Mayor Ford on the wrist for him to figure this one out.
Harper gave a special Christmas gift to Canada’s worst employers in the form of Bill C-377, a bill so intrusive in nature that every file clerk and janitor who happens to work in a union office will have their salary published on the Canada Revenue Agency website. And, if that file clerk or janitor happens to pick up a marker and a piece of cardboard and writes “Harper Sux” on it that will become a “political” expense instead of a collective bargaining expense and will have to be accounted for separately.
Keeping a list of gun owners was an invasion of privacy. But, publishing the salary of a file clerk in a union office is not. Welcome to Harperland!
Justin Bieber didn’t have to go on a hunger strike to have a chat with the Prime Minister. But if you happen to be the chief of an aboriginal community where people are forced to live in third world conditions you do.
Maybe we can convince Peter McKay to let the Prime Minister borrow his private search and rescue helicopter so that he can pay Chief Theresa Spence a visit eh?
By the way, if you’d like to become a class rager drop us a note at info@classrage.ca
Today, CBC News reported on a U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee Report on defective electronic components making their way into military hardware.
Since Canada buys most of its war toys from the U.S., it only makes sense that some of these defective components have made their way across the border into Canada.
But since the Harper government doesn’t give a shit about very much these days, Julian Fantino, Harper’s Associate Minister of Defense appeared to be quoting Mad Magazine’s Alfred E. Neuman in his responses to questions from the media.
This government is getting downright scary!
Gotta love Bev Oda, Canada’s Minister of Expensive London Hotels, Limousine Rides and $16 Glasses of Orange Juice.
About that pricey orange juice. Here on top of the 93rd floor of the Class Rage Tower we have a little computer programme that allows us to crunch complex mathematical equations.
Here’s what we did. We took the average monthly Old Age Security Pension payout for 2012 ($510.21 Canadian) and divided it by the number of days in a month. Okay not all months have 30 days, but for argument’s sake we used the number 30.
So $510.21 divided by 30 = $17.01 rounded off to the nearest cent. (It won’t matter soon, because Harper is getting rid of the one cent coin).
If Bev Oda hadn’t bought that $16 glass of orange juice in London, England it could have paid a senior their OAS for almost an entire day. If she’d stayed in the cheaper hotel she wouldn’t have needed the limo. Who knows how many days of OAS payouts that would have saved!
Anyway, Oda eventually paid the money back…after she got caught.
Today we learned about Minister Oda’s “now you see them, now you don’t” expense claims via Charlie Angus and Scott Andrews, the ethics critics for the NDP and Liberals.
It seems that the expense claim amounts for Minister Oda’s trips to East Africa, South Korea and Haiti that were reported on government websites mysteriously changed.
Inquiring minds would like to know why.
In light of the victory of right-wing Republican governor Scott Walker in this week’s recall election in the state of Wisconsin, Canada may soon see a flotilla of little boats carrying refugees across the cold waters of Lake Superior according to the “Borowitz Report“.
Just a couple of things that Borowitz gets wrong. First of all, unlike the Coast Guard in many countries, Canada’s Coast Guard is a civilian agency with no paramilitary powers.
Secondly, thanks to Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s cuts, 763 Coast Guard workers have received lay-off notices according to their union, the Public Service Alliance of Canada.
So progressive Wisconsin voters, welcome to Canada! Bring your pots and spoons!
We did it again! Last night, in Leslie Grove Park at 8 p.m. (at Queen St. E. and Jones) a group of east enders got together to bang pots and pans in solidarity with Quebec student protesters. And one person brought a sign protesting Bill C-38 for good measure.
Whether it’s the Charest government in Quebec raising tuition, or the Harper government in Ottawa destroying the country with their omnibus bill, it all comes down to the same thing: right-wing austerity programs punishing the workers for the excesses of the 1%.
Three of us got there a bit late due to the thunderstorm, and when we got there, we thought we were the only ones. So we got our pots and pans out and started clanging away anyhow. Then, after about 10 minutes, we heard a clanging from across the park – and it was everyone else!
They had been on a march through the neighbourhood. This was the scene when they got back and we joined them:
Again, a small but mighty crowd – about 20 of us showed up. (That’s still lots of noise, though, when you’re banging on pots and pans!) We heard from the others who were there earlier that around 10 cops showed up to supervise at first, but eventually they left.
The neat thing about having a smaller group of us is that what would have been speeches at any large rally turned into a discussion among all of us about why we were there.
We’re all planning to be there next week, same place, same time. Join us! Leslie Grove Park, Queen St. E. at Jones, Wednesday, June 13, 2012, 8 p.m.
France’s new Socialist Party government has made a move to partially lower the retirement age from 62 to 60.
With the new rules, those who started working before age 19 will be able to collect a full pension at age 60. The previous right-wing government raised the retirement age from 60 to 62 in 2010.
While it’s not as good as before, at least it’s a partial victory for older workers.
Meanwhile here in Canada, Harper plans to defacto raise the retirement age from 65 to 67 by delaying people’s eligibility to collect the Old Age Security (OAS) pension and the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS).
If you were born after February 1, 1962 it’s two more years at your shitty job. If you were born between April 1, 1958 and January 31, 1962 you’ll be working anywhere from an extra month to an extra twenty three months before you’ll get your OAS pension.
The lesson to be learned from France? Don’t take crap from your government.
In case you weren’t quite sure what all the fuss is about, Rabble TV’s Humberto Da Silva (not Rex Murphy) explains it all!