7 in 10 weren't buying Jason Kenney's lines on Temporary Foreign Workers

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Published on Wednesday, 03 December 2014 15:00

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Greetings,
I'd like to introduce myself as the new editor of PressProgress.

We've put together a post showing that the government's own polling shows it is out of tune with Canadians on the issue of TFWs. Please share:
http://www.pressprogress.ca/en/post/7-10-werent-buying-jason-kenneys-lines-temporary-foreign-workers

Thanks,Chris

GreenJobs BC: Local Best Practices, Town Halls, News Roundup - our fullest update yet!

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Published on Wednesday, 03 December 2014 12:44

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Read more: GreenJobs BC: Local Best Practices, Town Halls, News Roundup - our fullest update yet!

Why 3% of scientist climate change deniers still cant dissuade us

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Published on Wednesday, 03 December 2014 12:44

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Decision making under tiny variable uncertainty

#HuntersNotPoachers: Bushman appeals to Prince William ahead of USA visit - News from Survival

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Published on Wednesday, 03 December 2014 12:22

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#HuntersNotPoachers: Bushman appeals to Prince William ahead of USA visit

Note to editors:

- Read the full letter by Bushman Roy Sesana Prince William (pdf, 20KB)
- Download Survival’s hard-hitting “Parks Need Peoples” report
- Read more about Survival’s work to change conservation

Bushman leader Roy Sesana has appealed to Prince William to acknowledge that the Bushmen are hunters not poachers.© Survival International

Ahead of the visit of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to the United States this week, a Botswana Bushman leader has appealed to Prince William for help in recognizing that tribal peoples who hunt for food are not poachers.

The couple are scheduled to visit New York and Washington D.C., where Prince William will launch his “United for Wildlife” initiative in the United States – a consortium of conservation organizations such as Conservation International and the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) aiming to tackle the illegal wildlife trade.

But initiatives like United for Wildlife – which uses the slogan #WhoseSideAreYouOn – risk criminalizing tribal peoples like the Bushmen in Botswana’s Central Kalahari Game Reserve and the Baka “Pygmies” in Cameroon by failing to openly acknowledge their rights to live on their ancestral land and hunt for food.

Read more: #HuntersNotPoachers: Bushman appeals to Prince William ahead of USA visit - News from Survival

BC Fed $15.00 Minimum Wage Campaign

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Published on Wednesday, 03 December 2014 12:00

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CCPA BC Director Seth Klein refutes the attack on the BCFED "Fight for $15" campaign to raise the minimum wage.

http://www.policynote.ca/refuting-the-tired-claims-of-those-opposed-to-minimum-wage-increases/

Refuting the tired claims of those opposed to minimum wage increases

November 28th, 2014 · Seth Klein · 5 Comments · Economy, Employment & labour,Poverty, inequality & welfare

In a Vancouver Sun opinion piece, Laura Jones of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business warns against minimum wage increases, calling it “Fa-la-la economics”.

Perhaps it’s not the season to be so Grinch-like.

Jones is right about one thing – the minimum wage is not a magic cure for our economic woes. No one has ever suggested it is.

But it is an essential piece of what should be a comprehensive poverty reduction strategy.

Jones claims that past increases in the minimum wage have not reduced poverty. But how could they, when past increases have been too small and too late. At $10.25 an hour, BC’s current minimum wage is too low to reduce the poverty rate. Someone working full time and full year at that wage would still earn less than the poverty line for a single person. A single mom in a minimum wage job brings home 32% less than the poverty line. However, even those inadequate increases have reduced the depth of poverty, meaning they have brought low-wage workers up a little closer to the poverty line.

The claim that minimum wage increases will kill jobs is old and tired, and has been firmly refuted. A recent CCPA study that closely examined the history of minimum wage increases across Canada since the early 1980s found there is no consistent connection between higher minimum wages and employment levels. Instead, the research concludes that, “Employment levels are overwhelmingly determined by larger macroeconomic factors. In the few instances where an empirical connection between minimum wages and employment outcomes is found, it is almost as likely to be positive as negative. In other words, higher minimum wages could just as easily result in stronger employment performance (not weaker).”

Read more: BC Fed $15.00 Minimum Wage Campaign

30 Years of Waiting, Enough is enough! #Bhopal

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Published on Wednesday, 03 December 2014 12:00

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Today is the 30th Anniversary of the Bhopal Tragedy.
Enough is enough.

TAKE ACTION

I am a Canadian film director, born and raised in India. Though a Canadian who is proud to be an Officer of the Order of Canada, I am equally proud to be a non-resident Indian. However, I am not proud of the 30 year legacy that has been the Bhopal tragedy.

Today on December 3, I am reminded that 30 years ago thousands of people died when toxic gas was leaked from the Union Carbide factory in Bhopal, India. Thousands more died in the months and years that followed. Amnesty International estimates the death toll at more than 20 000.

In this video is Bhopal resident Rampyari who has been challenged with cancer since 1984. Rampyari’s daughter-in-law was seven months pregnant on the night of the leak. The effects of the gas sent her into labour. Both she and the baby died.

Read more: 30 Years of Waiting, Enough is enough! #Bhopal