Alternative News

Articles from non-mainstream as opposed to corporate for profit sources.

Ending the Policing Crisis – heres what weve been working on

Details: Published on Thursday, 18 March 2021 19:04; Written by editor

This is a test r1

Dear Friend,

From illegal spying to police violence, policing institutions across the country continue to target and oppress Black, Indigenous, racialized, and low-income communities.

For the past few months, the BCCLA team has worked tirelessly to hold police and criminalizing systems accountable for their harmful actions and end the ongoing crisis of policing. Here is what we have been working on since the beginning of 2021.

Solidarity with Migrant Sex Workers

BCCLA is a signatory to Declaration of Support for Migrant Sex Workers from our friends at Butterfly.

If you are horrified and grieving the killing of eight Asian massage parlour workers in Atlanta, you can show support by signing this important Declaration.

Police Act Review and Public Submission

Tomorrow morning, I will be appearing to represent the BCCLA at the Special Committee on Reforming the Police Act in British Columbia where we will continue to push for a radical transformation of the scale and scope of policing power. The Committee...

Will you join us today?

Details: Published on Thursday, 18 March 2021 12:10; Written by editor

Paov,

Earlier this week, over 1,000 fossil fuel workers in Calgary lost their jobs.1 It’s clear that the era of fossil fuels is rapidly coming to an end. We need our federal leaders to take note and act with the urgency needed to build a green economy that takes care of people and the planet.

In short, we need the Just Transition Act that Prime Minister Trudeau promised in 2019 but failed to deliver. Where is it?

That’s the big question I plan to bring to our federal leaders tonight during our grassroots town hall on Canada's promised Just Transition Act. Will you be there? Sign up to reserve your seat for our Just Transition Act town hall taking place tonight at 3 pm PT / 4pm MT / 5 pm CT / 6 pm ET / 7 pm AT.

This event will be our opportunity to hold our federal leaders accountable.

Green Party Parliamentary Leader Elizabeth May and NDP Environment Critic Laurel Collins will both be there to hear from the hundreds of people who have already signed up to attend.

Over 12,000 people across Canada have signed the petition...

Is Inflation a Threat?

Details: Published on Thursday, 18 March 2021 10:32; Written by editor

Is Inflation a Threat?

Andrew Jackson

Many conservative economists and policy-makers, not least the C. D. Howe Institute and its corporate allies, are sounding the alarm about potential inflation in the opinion pages of the Globe and Mail and the National Post.

The basic line of argument is that recovery from the pandemic caused downturn could well be much faster than anticipated, partly because many households are sitting on a lot of savings which they will spend as the economy returns to normal, and partly because the recession has reduced the capacity of the economy in some key sectors as small firms have gone out of business. The other key...

Stop RBC funding climate chaos

Details: Published on Wednesday, 17 March 2021 18:18; Written by editor

RBC is pouring billions into fossil fuel projects driving climate chaos

We have a shareholder proposal that would make sure RBC stops funding the fossil fuel industry.

Will you email your pension fund manager today to support this important proposal?

Send an email

RBC is financing the climate crisis. It is the 5th largest funder of fossil fuel projects in the world, it dumps billions every year into fossil fuel projects, including destructive pipelines and tarsands mines

But did you know that your retirement savings could help make RBC change its ways and be part of the solution to stopping climate change?

That’s because if you have a pension, including CPP or CDPQ, superannuation, or mutual fund it’s probably invested in RBC and that means you have the power to force RBC to stop financing climate catastrophe.

We submitted a powerful shareholder proposal calling on RBC to limit its role in causing climate chaos by reducing how much it lends to fossil fuel companies.

This...

CIA Headquarters Got Vaccinated in Early January

Details: Published on Thursday, 22 April 2021 20:00; Written by editor

SEA Actions March 2021

Details: Published on Monday, 15 March 2021 20:46; Written by editor

SEA Actions March 2021 r1 ...

Paov, can you send a reminder to Environment Minister Wilkinson?

Details: Published on Monday, 15 March 2021 17:16; Written by editor

Paov,

Soon after the last federal election, Environment and Climate Change Minister Jonathan Wilkinson promised that passing the Just Transition Act would be one of the first actions his government would take.1 That was over a year ago and since then, we haven’t heard a word about the Just Transition Act from Wilkinson or any other member of Trudeau’s cabinet.

We have some questions and we’re sure you do as well. That’s why, this Thursday, March 18th, at 6pm Eastern, we’re hosting a grassroots town hall to hold Wilkinson and our federal leaders in Ottawa accountable. The only problem is, Minister Wilkinson still hasn’t responded to our invitation.

Help us make sure that our invitation for this Thursday's Just Transition Act town hall is at the top of Wilkinson's inbox. Email the Minister with one click using our online tool and tell him to join the Just Transition Act town hall.

It’s confusing. If the Just Transition Act was ever truly a top priority for Minister Wilkinson, why isn’t he prioritizing this event? He should...

Bees, dead and paralysed

Details: Published on Monday, 15 March 2021 05:20; Written by editor

The Canadian government is deciding *right now* whether to ban one of Bayer-Monsanto’s bee-killing neonics.

Bayer is running a sophisticated public relations war -- we need your help to get the truth to politicians.

Can you chip in for a full page ad in Canada’s key newspaper to save the bees?

If you’ve saved your payment information with SumOfUs, your donation will go through immediately:

Donate CA$89 now Donate another amount

BREAKING: a new study just proved that another of Bayer-Monsanto’s neonic pesticides is a brutal bee-killer.

The timing is critical -- Canada’s government is deciding *right now* whether to ban this very chemical, imidacloprid.

The evidence is clear. A ban should be a foregone conclusion. But Bayer is hard at work trying to discredit the...

Read more: Bees, dead and paralysed

Closing the Enforcement Gap: The Pandemic and Precarious Employment

Details: Published on Monday, 15 March 2021 01:14; Written by editor

Closing the Enforcement Gap: The Pandemic and Precarious Employment

Leah Vosko interviewed by Bruce Kecskes and Amadeus Narbutt

As of March 15th, Ontario will have spent a full year in some form of lockdown. More than 22,000 Ontarians have died from COVID-19, hundreds of thousands of jobs have been lost, and the insufficiency of both the economic and public health responses have caused the burden of insecurity and illness to fall disproportionately on the backs of the most vulnerable people living in the province. Through this crisis, labour, precarity, and the future of work have been a salient topic – from the concept of ‘essential work’ to the Canada Emergency...

Bee populations PLUMMETING

Details: Published on Sunday, 14 March 2021 04:22; Written by editor

The Canadian government is deciding *right now* whether to ban one of Bayer-Monsanto’s bee-killing neonics.

Bayer is running a sophisticated public relations war -- we need your help to get the truth to politicians.

Can you chip in for a full page ad in Canada’s key newspaper to save the bees?

If you’ve saved your payment information with SumOfUs, your donation will go through immediately:

Donate CA$89 now Donate another amount

BREAKING: a new study just proved that another of Bayer-Monsanto’s neonic pesticides is a brutal bee-killer.

The timing is critical -- Canada’s government is deciding *right now* whether to ban this very chemical, imidacloprid.

The evidence is clear. A ban should be a foregone conclusion. But Bayer is hard at work trying to discredit the...

Beyond Digital Capitalism: Socialist Register 21 Launch and Tribute to Leo Panitch

Details: Published on Sunday, 14 March 2021 03:04; Written by editor

Beyond Digital Capitalism: Socialist Register 21 Launch and Tribute to Leo Panitch

The North American launch of Socialist Register 21: Beyond Digital Capitalism, with presentations by Greg Albo, Sam Gindin, Bryan Palmer, Joan Sangster, Stephen Maher, Pat Armstrong, Hugh Armstrong, Tanner Mirrlees, and Derek Hrynyshyn, and short tributes to the life and work of Leo Panitch (1945-2020).

As digital technology became integral to the capitalist market dystopia of the first decades of the 21st century, it not only refashioned our ways of communicating but of working and consuming, indeed ways of living. The COVID-19 pandemic revealed not only the lack of investment, planning and preparation that underlay the scandalous slowness of the responses by states around the world, but also grotesque class and racial inequalities as it coursed its way...

Do Not Consume

Details: Published on Saturday, 13 March 2021 07:42; Written by editor

Do Not Consume r1 ...

“Cherry” and Hollywoods Treatment of Robbers and Victims

Details: Published on Thursday, 22 April 2021 20:00; Written by editor

PBI virtual tour in Canada

Details: Published on Saturday, 13 March 2021 05:06; Written by editor

PBI virtual tour in Canada r1

PBI accompanied defenders speak about the impacts of Canadian mining in Mexico … Read more...

PBI-Mexico accompanied ASMAC and Educa Oaxaca meet with Global Affairs Canada officials … Read more...

Canada appears to back...

Why mandatory minimums are unjust.

Details: Published on Friday, 12 March 2021 13:16; Written by editor

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Dear ,

Policing doesn’t simply begin and end at the hands of police officers.

It includes many overlapping laws and structures that criminalize Indigenous, Black, racialized, and low-income people.

One such criminalizing structure is the use of mandatory minimum sentences. For almost twenty years, the BCCLA has advocated for mandatory minimums to be abolished. Mandatory minimum penalties limit judicial discretion and bring us closer to becoming a prison society that emphasizes incarceration over rehabilitation.

Last month, the federal government put forward Bill C-22, proposing several amendments to Canada’s criminal law and drug laws. The bill proposes removing mandatory minimums for all drug offences under the Controlled Drug and Substances Act and for some offences under the Canada’s Criminal Code.

Mandatory minimums have a disproportionate impact on Indigenous and Black people; even the federal government admits this. This reality is made clear by the staggering number of Indigenous people, particularly Indigenous women, incarcerated in Canada’s prison system. Mandatory minimums in Canada’s drug laws...

Were building an Iron & Earth Instructor Network!

Details: Published on Thursday, 22 April 2021 20:00; Written by editor

Iron & Earth r1

Paov --

Over the past year, we’ve been hard at work shaping four new rapid upskilling programs that will prepare fossil fuel industry and Indigenous workers for careers in solar and wind energy. They are now finished and ready for delivery — the next big step is to build our instructor network!

These are the programs that are ready for delivery:

10-Day Solar Skills for Electricians
10-Day Community Solar Skills
10-Day Community Wind Skills
10-Day RenuWell Workforce Training Program

If you are interested in delivering one or more of these training programs, please apply by April 4th to participate in our Train the Trainer (TtT) program.

We are looking for experienced electricians and other tradespeople that are passionate about renewable energy and climate solutions to take the TtT program, and subsequently, be available to deliver our programs starting in 2021 or 2022.

We...

Council This Week

Details: Published on Friday, 12 March 2021 12:02; Written by editor

Council This Week r1 ...

Danger at Home Depot

Details: Published on Friday, 12 March 2021 08:24; Written by editor

Cancer-linked pesticide

The two biggest hardware store chains in the world are still selling cancer-linked Roundup across North America, despite knowing the risks.

Tell Home Depot and Lowe’s to take this dangerous pesticide off their shelves.

Sign the petition

Glyphosate -- the main chemical ingredient in Roundup -- is linked to increased risk of cancer and reproductive problems.

It threatens 93% of US endangered species with injury or death.

And as you read this, Home Depot and Lowe’s are making decisions about whether or not to continue selling glyphosate-laden weed killers this spring.

This is our chance to convince the mega hardware store chains to put the health of their customers and the planet first by getting rid of these toxic pesticides.

Sign the petition now to demand that Home Depot and Lowe’s stop selling Roundup and other cancer-linked glyphosate products.

Home Depot...

Read more: Danger at Home Depot

The Responsibility of Revolutionary Intellectuals in Building Socialism

Details: Published on Friday, 12 March 2021 02:08; Written by editor

The Responsibility of Revolutionary Intellectuals in Building Socialism

Michael A. Lebowitz

When we talk about intellectuals, we have to recognize, of course, that there are many varieties of intellectual. So, let me be specific. I’m not talking about traditional intellectuals nor about academics. I am talking about intellectuals who are committed to building socialism. Further, my comments are not directed specifically about Venezuelan intellectuals – that would be inappropriate for me as a visitor. So, my comments are general rather than specific to Venezuela.

What I want to focus upon are revolutionary intellectuals – people who are committed to building socialism for the 21st century. And I have in mind...

GET TO THA CHOPPA

Details: Published on Thursday, 11 March 2021 15:24; Written by editor

GET TO THA CHOPPA r1 ...