#ONpoli

[osmanthusoolong]

Contrary to the title and framing, this is about a landlord-on-landlord slap fight.

While the very real danger of these illegal rooming houses and their innumerable code violations are actually a lethal risk, here’s what the protesters interviewed had to say:

“Michelle Gauthier, who also attended the rally and is a landlord herself, says illegal rooming houses have been a growing issue in Brampton over the past two years.

She says about 30 per cent of the houses on her street have turned into rentals and illegal rooming houses.

"We really love that feeling of community, and we're afraid it's disappearing," Gauthier said.””

Hmmm

“Many residents at the protest expressed their support for the city's Residential Rental Licensing program.

The program, which began this January, is a pilot project that aims to crack down on rental units that violate health and safety rules.

Last week, Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown said the project has led to 4,700 home inspections and over 600 penalty notices.

Gauthier said 20 students were living in a neighbouring house for a year. She said they were frequently loud at night and were difficult to manage.

After the rental licensing program was introduced, she said the students were replaced with a family.”

I’m sure those students, who clearly didn’t have many options, are totally fine. Somewhere.

“Some landlords have criticized the pilot project, saying it costs them money, makes them do paperwork and, often, their tenants are to blame for the issues flagged by city inspectors.”

Much of the blame, unsurprisingly, seems to be falling on international students and foreigners in general, as opposed to the landlords.

@allthecanadianpolitics

[myalgias]

The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms promises fundamental protections for the most vulnerable in our society. Court after court has found that section 7 of the Charter — the rights to life, liberty and security of the person — guarantees the right for those who are homeless to put up shelter overnight on public land when other shelter is unavailable.  Yet, several Ontario mayors are urging the province to pass laws that override this right by invoking the Charter’s notwithstanding clause.

[girlactionfigure]

[sequencefairy]

The cognitive dissonance of listening to someone bitch about the lack of services in Ontario in one breath and spend the next one lauding our current premier.

I truly cannot understand how you do not see that this man has stripped our province for parts in order to pay off his friends and cronies. And he will continue doing it as long as ppl keep voting for him because he promises beer for a buck (that never happened btw) and canceled our license plate registration fees (this costs the province millions of dollars in lost revenue btw, all of which could have been used to help fund necessary repairs to schools, hire nurses, and the social welfare that many ppl in this province rely on).

That you have been on a waiting list for three years for a funded round of IVF is a direct result of the fact that Ford has completely obliterated Healthcare spending in this province in favour of building a highway to nowhere (so he can make sure his developer buddies get lotsa prime greenbelt real estate) and spending billions of dollars to demolish the lcbo ahead of schedule (the beer store is the actual shitty monopoly), among other things.

"Do better, Ontario!" you say, as if you and your votes for Doug Ford are not why we are in this fucking mess in the first place.

I cannot stand the voting public in this province. Why did none of you pay attention for one (1) hour of civics classes?

[wuts-good-gatsby]

[neveragainfools]

Some top tier signs from the Art Gallery of Ontario strike:

Anyway help these lovely people get a fair deal by emailing the CEO Stephan Jost (stephan.jost@ago.ca) and telling him that the gallery needs to negotiate with OPSEU and get the gallery to reopen!

[intothestacks]

For every dollar invested in London Public Library (Ontario), $6.68 is brought back into the community.

That’s a 452% return on investment.

[onpoli]

"The Canadian government promotes itself as really aware of the environment," environmental biologist Guido Berguido told W5 at a protest. "We cannot believe that a Canadian company would do this to our national resources." Owned by a subsidiary of Canada's First Quantum Minerals, the sprawling 13,000-hectare, open-pit mine is bordered by jungle about 120 kilometres west of the capital, Panama City, on the country's Atlantic coast. Pointing to its alleged impact on the environment and water supplies, a broad coalition of Panamanians – including students, environmentalists, labour groups and indigenous communities – have protested for weeks, with police resorting to tear gas and rubber bullets as the country has ground to a halt. "People already are feeling betrayed by all that is institutional in Panama," a photographer, who lost an eye as police fired at protesters, told W5. "It's not just the mining, many things are linked to corruption. People are tired of that."

[twooowars]

i know nobody talks about "canada" but i haven't read like, Any detailed posts about this. all the provincial liquor store workers in "ontario" have been on strike since july 5 and will be potentially continuing this action for the forseeable future.

there are some locally specific reasons for this- namely that our premier is making a lot of changes regarding liquor sales in the province- but this is only the tip of the iceberg as far as reasons go for the strike.

even without knowing someone who works there to corroborate this, anyone who has gone to an LCBO more than a few times can tell you they probably saw the same few employees working every time, even if they didn't notice at first. that's because the LC is allegedly notorious for understaffing and refusing to give out full-time hours. this is what you'll hear from a good deal of employees if you ask; you don't get hours unless you are somehow related to someone in upper management. there's also the fact that LCBO cashiers either make minimum or less than minimum wage, while the company's CEO makes 20x the yearly average of a full-time employee.

working at the LC is a government position that ought to come with government benefits. this is my opinion, but the people behind the bulletproof glass at the liquor store probably deserve better compensation than the people whose main job is signing off on installing those bus stop benches you can't lay down on. i digress. the point of full-time work, besides earning full-time pay, is getting benefits. by supposedly consistently giving out nominal hours, the LC has allegedly created an environment where a good deal of their workers need to work 2 jobs to make ends meet, and don't get benefits from either of them.

the LC has also claimed that the union made additional demands right before agreements came to a close and that is why the strike is continuing. union reps have claimed that LC reps have failed to properly sign return to work orders. legally speaking it is up to you which of those statements to believe, but from a personal perspective i have called bullshit on a lot of the LCBO's statements during this strike.

anyway just wanted to talk about this because the internet never notices when workers from this "country" go on strike ✌️

[osmanthusoolong]

“Lia Hess, chair of the board of the Estonian Summer Camp Society, said in an emailed statement to CBC News that the monument was installed by Estonian war veterans who came to Canada as refugees in the 1940s and 1950s.

"The Estonian and Jewish communities share a common hatred and disgust of all totalitarian and oppressive regimes," Hess said in her statement.

"The Estonian summer camp does not now and has never honoured Nazi collaborators and our children have never been indoctrinated into worshipping Nazi leaders as alleged."

She added that the campers also commemorate Black Ribbon Day, which is formally recognized by the European Union and Canada as a day of remembrance for victims of Stalinism and Nazism.

"Flowers were placed in remembrance at the base of this plaque, like one who grieves at a grave. We are remembering those that died and the importance of defending our independent country, language, traditions and customs," Hess's statement says.”

So definitely not indoctrination of children into worshipping Nazi leaders, just placing flowers at their monuments and teaching them about how great they and their beliefs were. Totally a different thing.

“Eva Plach, an associate professor of history at Wilfrid Laurier University, said that when the Swords Monument was erected decades ago, Estonia was still a part of the Soviet Union and its people were fighting for independence.

"What always needs to be remembered in this region is that kind of active military resistance to the Soviet Union often meant collaboration with Nazi Germany," Plach said, explaining how Rebane and Riipalu could have once been celebrated within the Estonian community while also being a part of the Nazi military.”

I wonder if there’s a word for someone who allies themselves with Nazis and works alongside them to further their goals.

“”After the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was formally dissolved as a sovereign state, Estonia, the Baltic States and other countries "were trying to rewrite or understand better" their Second World War histories, Plach said.

"They were looking for nationalist heroes. They were looking for feel-good nationalist stories, where it was really difficult to find those stories and it was complicated, too."”

That actually doesn’t seem very complicated at all. It in fact seems pretty straightforward that you’re not gonna look like anything but Nazis if you venerate your Nazi heritage.

Canada is full of shit like this. SS memorials in public cemeteries, summer camps where little kids can learn about their proud history as Nazi collaborators.

@allthecanadianpolitics

[russnightlife]

Two days ago:

Today:

[factoidfactory]

Black History Month Fact #6

In 1985, Lincoln Alexander became the first black Member of Parliament in Canada and later served as Ontario's first black Lieutenant Governor.

[hans-echo]

Unregulated price gouging for greed. He's threatening the entire country?

[gallopinggallifreyans]

From The Breach on the recent graffiti on an Indigo storefront in downtown Toronto. Indigo’s CEO, Heather Reisman, is a Zionist and co-founder of the Heseg Foundation, headquarters in Tel-Aviv.

It’s becoming unsafe to even suggest pro-Palestinian sentiments. That paint was washable. All cops are bastards. In Canada, vandals (this is vandalism) can be charged with like, $5k? Over or under depending. Graffiti does not warrant a fucking raid.

[neveragainfools]

The workers at my beloved Art Gallery of Ontario are on strike!

Despite rampant inflation in one of the most expensive cities in north america (Toronto), the management at the AGO hasn't adjusted pay for over 400 union members since before the pandemic. Most of them are part timers doing jobs that should be (and used to be) full time. Many are 'temporary' part timers despite being there for years.

These workers literally run the building. It's straight up closed because these people turn on the lights, hang the art, sell the tickets and clean the building.

The union negotiated with management for TEN MONTHS before management forced a piss poor final offer past the negotiating team to the membership.

The gallery is crying poor but yet they've taken on an expensive rebranding project and are working on a huge 10 storey addition to the building. Not to mention in 2020-2021 (during the peak pandemic struggle for most huge tourist attractions), the CEO Stephan Jost, took in almost $400,000 on TOP of his regular $400,000 salary in 'consulting fees' from the AGO foundation.

The Gallery workers' union, OPSEU, has asked the public to write Stephan Jost and let him know that we wanna see the Gallery actually negotiate with the union and get the gallery back open, and I just so happen to have found his email address on a convenient flyer: Stephan.jost@ago.ca.

Idk about you, but I'm gonna go ahead and tell him to go sit his ass down at the negotiating table because I love art and I want the gallery to reopen. Considering this is the unions and communism website, I cordially invite you to get his ass too.

Tldr: Union workers at the AGO are striking so that they can literally afford rent. Email their greedy CEO and tell him that you want management to negotiate with the union and you want to see the gallery reopen. Email: stephan.jost@ago.ca