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Syndicate
Opposition MPs are calling for a thorough debate on the government's planned changes to Employment Insurance that are going to alter the definition of what constitutes suitable work.
The controversial budget implementation bill proposes several amendments to existing legislation that could affect eligibility criteria for the program and the NDP said Tuesday that the government needs to be more transparent about its intentions, particularly in light of comments made by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty about finding jobs.
Bill C-38 proposes giving cabinet the power to decide criteria for defining what constitutes suitable employment and for defining what constitutes reasonable efforts to find a job. It also removes two clauses from the existing Employment Insurance Act, clauses that say work is not suitable if it is in the claimant's usual job but at a lower rate of earnings or if it is outside of the claimant's normal line of work.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/05/15/pol-ei-budget-changes.html
The drift towards full scale fascism continues.
You know that I stopped using the word fascist because all my social democrat friends said it was over the top. Actually I think babble a few years ago had a number of threads where people educated me and others on the futility of that kind of language. Seems though that as people wake up to the reality around them they instinctively use the fascist tag.
In deference to them I try to always use the terms totalitarian or police state. Tell me were the G8/G20 police riots in Toronto any different than any other police state in this day and age? On this coast we have been fighting this kind of police state tactics since at least the People's Summit in 1997. That is when the fascists took the gloves off against Canadian citizens so as to not embarrass the murderous dictator from Indonesia about his storm troopers actions in East Timor.
Of course the term fascist has that nice linkage between right wingers and corporations. A totalitarian government that rules on behalf of the business class is by definition fascist.
Can we force these degenerates into a workfare program?
They've been living on the government teet far too long!
ETA : I'm referring to the Conservatives
It is funny Boom Boom as we have these discussions people have said that for years.
The difference is now you don't get people responding saying that's hyperbole anymore.
This opens an interesting question: Were the people who said this back then forseeing what we have today or was it unreasonable then?
Perhaps facism is not actually the right word. Maybe this is the refuge for the apologists for the government's attacks on anything resembling democracy. But it does seem very, very clear that democracy (as imperfect as it has always been) is being dismantled not just at a steady rate but one that is accelerating.
I think that in some respects there is also a trend to a convergence of the level of democracy around the world: those who were more democratic are moving to having less and those who had less democracy are moving to more.
There is a new version of anti-democratic capitalism that combines old liberalism with modern police state style structures, technology and unfettered triumphant right wing control that actually is not entirely the same as the 19th century liberalism. This is all covered over with the trappings of progress in a nod to Orwell, where you have a culture of freedom, equality and tolerance but without the structure to make them more than a mirage in practice.
Here's the method to the Harpercon madness.
Make E.I. impossible to collect so those laid off or lose their jobs from Harper economics will be forced to apply for welfare.
Once this is done,the provinces will be overwhelmed and be forced to implement extensive welfare reform.
And that's the whole point of this latest attack on workers...Forced to take jobs with much less pay is good for businesses and since welfare is a provincial jurisdiuction and Harper can't eliminate it,he'll make the provinces do the dirty work.
Demented genius.
Many jobs out there are short term , contract jobs. Instead of helping us to find some job security, they are accusing us that we are being lazy because we are repeat user of Employment Insurance. I guess the Harper government had enough fun bullying scientists, and environmentalists, public servants and socialists, they need a new target for bullying. It must be nice to be a rich conservative making judgement about the low class poor workers.
I think it's going to be very interesting when those making 20,25,30 000/year find themselves stuck with a crappy minimum wage job will wake up..Sadly some of these people may have voted Conservative.
What better than a work force without a union,benefits or a pension for Harper's business criminal friends?
Meanwhile,the GG is given a 50% pay raise,MP's enjoy great benefits,health care,vacation and a massive pension for 4 years of 'work'
It amazes me that Canadians seem not to give a damn...But we'll see.
This is classic 'first they came for them and then they came for me' politics...I wonder if Canadians can finally be woken from their collective comas...Let's hope.
I agree and am thunderstruck this slash and burn agenda continues mostly unopposed.
I actually think this is a fine time to pull the term fascist out of its intellectual ghetto and start forcing it back into mainstream discussion. The main problem with calling things fascist or racist or some other nasty but appropriate term, is our tendency to put everything in either-or's, so that society is either fascist or not, people are either rascist or not, and to use these terms on something that is not-fascist or not-racist in their mind is horribly overblown.
The truth is that there are elements of fascism and democracy in society struggling with each other every single day, fighting for more purchase and resources. You can point at a million little things in any free society and say "fascism in action" and be entirely right, but it won't go over well with those are heavily invested in the notion of their categorically free society.
However, the recent attacks on civil liberties are well outside any notion of freedom. We need to call a spade a spade here. Canada is becoming a police state, legally speaking, and the US is already there. The fact that they are treading lightly with it so far is irrelevent. There are no rights left in the US that seem to mean anything, and ours are slipping away rapidly with each new repressive step. Thank Jesus we've still got Quebec holding the rest of the country to account somewhat. I'm really feeling lately how less of a place Canada would be without it.
A better argument can be made for the use of the term fascist right now than any time in my life. We need to make people understand that while it may still be a free country, there's an everpresent web of fascist thought, laws and structures that are gaining a lot of ground and need to be opposed to preserve that freedom.
I can't agree more..The Harpercons are fascists---point blank...No arguement there.
I feel like a man without a country and I also feel persecuted,,,,Why I cannot emigrate or apply for refugee status is because Canada is still considered a 'free' country..Much like the States who are so deluded that they truly believe they are the 'greatest' country in the world..Nothing can be further from the truth.
Living in Quebec,I feel somewhat safe but it's only a matter of time before the cancer inevitably spreads into 'La Belle Province'
Options are becoming scarce and there's beginning to be no place to run to or hide.
Hitler's grinning from his grave....He lost the war but won the battle.
"Fascism should more properly be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power." Mussolini
2+2=4 and Canada is Fascist
That's one hell of a prophetic quote.
Closing for length.