A Positive Step Towards Reconciliation in British Columbia

This past June Romeo Saganash’s Bill (Bill C-262) was killed in the Senate by Conservative opposition.

At the time Saganash said he was “devastated.”

Former MP Romeo Saganash

He will undoubtedly be encouraged that Bill 41 was recently introduced in the British Columbia Legislature. This bill has the same intent as Saganash’s one.

Specifically, Bill 41 requires the B.C. government to take all measures necessary to ensure the laws of British Columbia are consistent with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).

It will also ensure that an action plan be prepared and implemented to achieve the objectives of the Declaration.

In the Explanatory Note to the bill it is noted that “the minister must report annually on the progress that has been made towards implementing the necessary measures and achieving the goals in the action plan.”

The Bill also provides for agreements to be entered into with Indigenous governing bodies.  That includes agreements relating to the exercise of a statutory power of decision.

Toronto Star Columnist Tanya Talaga does a good job of showing how important this legislation is for B.C and the country as a whole at https://torontostar.pressreader.com/toronto-star/20191029

The full text of the Bill can be found at https://www.leg.bc.ca/parliamentary-business/legislation-debates-proceedings/41st-parliament/4th-session/bills/first-reading/gov41-1

The Bill should pass, Ms. Talaga notes, as it was introduced by the government and the Green Party, which holds the balance of power, supported the idea in the 2017 election.

Calls to Action

Saganash, who, following two terms with the NDP did not run running for re-election in this fall’s election.  Saganash was one of the original architects of the Declaration.  He spent 23 years helping to draft it before it was adopted in 2007 by the UN General Assembly.

While Conservative Party Senators and MPs expressed fears of economic and legal consequences if Canada were to align its laws with UNDRIP, the Liberals apparently promised during the recent election campaign to legislate UNDRIP if re-elected in the fall.

The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is a global human rights instrument which sets out minimum standards for the survival, dignity and well-being of Indigenous peoples around the world.

In its  2015 report, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada called upon the federal, provincial, territorial, and municipal governments to fully adopt and implement the UNDRIP as the framework for reconciliation.

That’s written in Call to Action #43.  Call to Action #44 asks for the Government of Canada to develop a national action plan, strategies, and other concrete measures to achieve the goals of the Declaration.

Grandpa Tells us about Politics

It is one of those hot, lazy August days at the cottage.  Grandpa has his nose in a book of Canadianisms* - words and expressions from the past.  Later that day over a cocktail, his memory enhanced, Grandpa takes it upon himself to explain an important time in Canadian history - the summer of 2002.

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Kids today spend too much time playing video games and not enough time learning about their country’s past. Well kids the summer of 2002 was a crazy time in Canadian politics.  So, I’m going to tell you about it.

I am older than footprints and I thought the day I saw buzzards saying grace before meals was the day that I’d call the Liberals fiscally responsible.  But in 1993 this guy Paul Martin comes along and not only balances the books but has money left over.

Our Prime Minister back then was a fella from Shawinigan Quebec named Jean Chretien.  He’d been around since hell was a grass fire and he believed that Martin was about as slippery as a walrus on an ice flow.  Early in the summer he sacks him.

This leaves the country all up in the air – like a dog between two trees.  Throughout June and July, the public is hung up by the tongue of the garrulous media who, in their wisdom, tell us that the country now needs Chretien about as much as a kangaroo needs a purse.

One thing everyone had to admit about Jean Chretien was that he was quick on his skates.  He realizes that this chances of succeeding at the February leadership review were slim and none and slim was visiting Alberta.

Overnight Chretien concocts a plan that could sneak sunrise past a rooster – or
Paul Martin anyway.  He will retire, but he’ll do it in his own time – more than 18 months down the road.  Well now, that made the cheese more binding. (1)

Now Martin comes out the next day looking like he’d spent the night on a clothesline. (2)   This millionaire son of a politician clearly doesn’t know whether to swallow his watch or wind his food.

Martin declares the PM a great leader.  That was just too much candy for the penny (3)  - if anyone had asked me.

There is no need to connect the dots on this one.  Martin had a problem – a leadership race that’s going to go on longer than the time served by several Prime Ministers.

He has one thing going for him though.  His rivals aren’t so reckless that they will get off the ladder before they reach the ground.  Besides too much competition for the top spot might see them kicking stones down the road.(4)

Anyway you look at it; Martin’s big victory party was a long way off.  His supporters were well advised to put the big pot in the little pot and boil the dishrag. (5)  The little guy from Shawinigan wasn’t done yet. 

                  Notes 

1. An interesting turn of events.

2. A Quebec expression indicating a hard night had been had.

3. A metaphor from the penny candy store era

4. An Ottawa Valley expression that counsels good behaviour when work is scarce.

5. A sarcastic expression from the Depression.  There will be no party tonight.

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*Dunnville author Bill Casselman’s book Canadian Sayings, 1000 Folk Sayings used by Canadians (McArthur and Company – Toronto 2002) has inspired Grandpa and this writer.

Panel Discussion Rescheduled

Today I received this note from the note from OPSEU Local 240 Political Action Committee regarding their event “Unpacking the People's Party of Canada and Resisting the Far Right” scheduled for September 29th.  It seems that excessive security fees are inhibiting free speech in Hamilton Ontario.

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The Local 240 Political Action Committee sincerely regrets having to cancel our panel discussion for this Sunday, September 29, and to re-schedule it for Tuesday, October 8.

Today Mohawk College indicated that we would have to pay $4,000 in extra security costs due to our event taking place at the same time as the Maxime Bernier and Dave Rubin event.

We have expressed our concern to Mohawk that, while safety at events is important, it is also the case that charging excessive security fees effectively stifles free speech on College and University campuses.

We would like to thank all of our community partners and event participants for being flexible and available for a re-scheduled event.  We hope that the October 8 panel and discussion will provide important analysis and fuel for effective community organizing.  We also hope that anyone planning to attend the panel this Sunday will come to the re-scheduled event.


As an Alternative to the Panel Discussion

As for what to do this Sunday evening in place of the panel discussion, we would suggest peacefully attending the protest that is taking place at Mohawk from 5:30pm to 7:00 pm.

As faculty we value freedom of speech, and protesting is an important way to express this right.

Take care, be safe, and solidarity with all those working to resist the far right...

Unpacking the People's Party of Canada and Resisting the Far Right

Amid controversy, Mohawk College is hosting People’s Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier and infamous alt-right personality Dave Rubin this Sunday.

In response in order to inform public debate, the OPSEU Local 240 Political Action Committee are hosting a panel presentation and facilitated discussion.

The panel will address the far-right agenda behind the People's Party of Canada (PPC) and its relation to islamophobia, climate change denial and corporate interests. The panel will also address the need to confront and resist the rise of the far right, both in Hamilton and across Canada.

The OPSEU event runs

Sunday, September 29th, 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Mohawk College Fennell Campus, room C 233

Speakers will include:

Kevin MacKay

**Kevin MacKay (Liberal Studies professor, Mohawk College)
Just What 'People' Does the People's Party of Canada Represent?
**Tina Fetner (Sociology professor, McMaster University)
**Arun Jacob (Liberal Studies professor, Mohawk College) Populism and the Far Right

Basic Income Pilot Cancelled One Year Ago Today

"What I'm announcing today is about restoring dignity to Ontarians.”

That’s Minister Lisa MacLeod  (right) speaking on July 31, 2018 while axing Ontario’s Basic Income Pilot Project (BI).

On that day, mere minutes ahead of that edict, I had an inkling from reading social media posts what was coming.   

I’d picked it up on a live stream feed shortly after 2:00 p.m. In less than five minutes Basic Income was done.

BI was a three-year pilot intended to test this idea:  Can appropriate financial support programs be delivered efficiently while improving health, employment, and housing outcomes?

The concept of Basic Income goes back at least 500 hundred years. A basic income program ran in Dauphin Manitoba from 1974-79.  When the Ontario pilot was set up in 2017 it was one of the largest in the world.  It has been attracting international attention.

How could the government know that the Pilot was not doing what it is intended to do before any data had been collected, the Minister was asked? 

“Here’s the situation," said the Minister dodging the question.  “We have seen the program isn’t doing what it is supposed to do.” 

What about the recipients? 

We will end it “ethically,” the Minister boasted.

That’s the Minister’s story.  A narrative that fits her government’s agenda but is out of sync with the stories of BI recipients.

Hearing from participants we learn that BI gave them the opportunity to plan their lives.  Prior to the pilot project, poverty and the restrictive bureaucratic rules that came with it precluded having a life plan. 

Participants are fighting back by putting their stories out there.

Jesse Golem is leading the way.  She is a photographer, a writer and a Basic Income recipient. When the program was cancelled, she “needed to do something” so she created a photo series called Humans of Basic Income (@HumansBasic) as a way to tell the stories of those who had been participating in the project. 

Some snapshots from the photos:

I can finally buy Christmas Presents for my Children

It has given me a Chance to Recover My Future

Now I have the Dignity to go back to School

Helps me Stay Healthy

I Felt Human Again

I’m a late convert to BI. I’d always thought that we should live in a society where everyone has decent housing; where people are able to earn an adequate income and, if for whatever reason, they aren’t able to provide for themselves, there will be a safety net that takes care of them. 

But I was naive. Others have been too. Why do we trust these in-the-dark politicians who can’t countenance pilot projects, especially other people’s pilot projects?  So, when the government changed…well, we should have seen it coming.  That is what happened with Mincome in Manitoba nearly forty years ago.

We’ve got no data but the stories tell us that such programs have value; changing lives in ways that decision makers can’t or won’t understand.

Let’s keep getting their stories out there.

Cuts to Ontario Legal Aid Clinics - By the Numbers*

23                            

The percentage increase in certificates issued by LAO  from 2013-14 to 2017-18.           (Auditor General’s 2018 Report, p. 259 and 260.)

12                  

The percentage increase in active community legal clinic  files from 2012-13 to 2016-17 (Auditor General’s 2018 Report p.260)

$495,000,000          

LAO’s revenues in 2018-19 (source: Legal Aid Ontario)                                

$371,000,000           

Amount of LAO funding that comes from the provincial government based on the Auditor General’s 2018 report stating that 75% of 2017-18 funding came from the  province. [Auditor General’s 2018 Report p. 258]

$133,000,000           

Amount to be cut in current year a 36% reduction based on $371M of provincial funding. (Ontario Budget)

$164,000.000          

Amount to be cut by 2021-22, a 44% reduction. (Ontario Budget)

$2,088,000,000

Ministry of Attorney General Budget in 2018-19 (Ontario Budget,  p284)

$1,934,000,000       

Ministry of Attorney General budget for 2019-20 a 7% reduction. Ontario Budget, p284)

86                                

Percentage of Cuts coming from Legal Aid Ontario as a percentage of cuts to the Ministry of the Attorney General - a reduction of $154M this year and $133M of that is coming from cuts to Legal Aid.

$17,731                     

Maximum Income to qualify for Legal Aid Services in Ontario for a single person. The corresponding figure for a family of three is $37,194. (Legal Aid Ontario Website)

*Adapted from https://stoplegalaidcuts.nationbuilder.com/ This website was created by  www.itrapidsupport.com for North Peel and Dufferin  Community Legal Services.

 

You can Fight those Predatory Lenders at City Hall

In 2017, new provincial legislation in Ontario gave municipalities more power to regulate predatory loan businesses.  The new rules allowed local governments to take leadership where senior levels of government have faltered.  Here is what one municipality did.

Hamilton Steps Up

The City of Hamilton had a population of 536,917 in 2016. Hamilton bills itself as “the best place to raise a child and age successfully.”  Community advocates have long been concerned about the economic violence inflicted by predatory lenders on individuals, families and the community as a whole. 

Tom Cooper, Director of the Hamilton Roundtable for Poverty Reduction, was one such advocate. 

Tom Cooper 

“Profiteering is a derogatory term applied to those in business who make profits through methods that, while not illegal, could certainly be considered unethical,” says Cooper.  “Payday lenders sure seem to fit the description of profiteers.”

  

In 2015 Cooper decided to try to shine a bright light on the industry in Hamilton.

Cooper began to work with city council and particularly Councillor Matthew Green whose downtown Ward was home to many payday loan businesses.  In fact, Green calls the targeting of inner city neighbourhoods by the payday loan industry “pernicious.” 

“We had more payday loaners in some kilometres than Tim Hortons,” Green told local media in 2015.  Estimates of the numbers operating in Hamilton were as high as 35.  

Cooper and Green worked together to bring in the province’s first municipal licensing of payday loan outlets in Hamilton. That meant these lenders were required to provide city sanctioned information on credit counselling to anybody coming in their doors.  The new licensing required lenders to display large posters that contrasted the actual interest rates of a payday loans with the interest rates of chartered bank loans. They also had to pay a licensing fee. 

But more was needed. Cooper and Green strategized. Then, early in 2018, Green brought forward a motion to restrict these businesses to 15 in total (one per ward) but grandfathered existing locations.  He received strong support from council colleagues.

The by-law was amended.

https://www.thespec.com/news-story/8044206-new-bylaw-to-cap-payday-lenders-at-15-in-hamilton/

Here is what it said. 

The Hamilton By-law in a Nutshell

Licensing

• Every payday loan business shall hold the applicable current and valid licence. Before a licence is issued, every applicant shall submit: 

(a) a current and valid licence as a lender or loan broker under the Payday Loans Act. 

(b) accurate, scale representations of the posters that will be displayed.  

(c) the credit counselling information that will be given. 

• No new payday loan business shall be issued a licence for a location where payday loan businesses were located when the by-law was passed. 

• No more than15 payday loan business licenses shall be issued and no more than one payday loan business licence shall be issued per ward.

Rates Poster

Every payday loan business shall display a poster at each office, approved in advance by the Issuer of Licences. The poster shall be in English and visible to any person immediately upon entering the office.

The poster must be a minimum size of 61 centimetres in width by 91 centimeters in length; and must lay out the amount of the payday loan business’s annual interest rate and rates of chartered banks. 

Credit Counselling Poster and Information

A Credit Counselling Poster must be displayed that lists specific contacts with their respective telephone number and email addresses.

Every business shall ensure that each person who attends at its offices is given, immediately upon him or her expressing an interest in a loan, approved credit counselling information.

Here is the bylaw in full https://d3fpllf1m7bbt3.cloudfront.net/sites/default/files/media/browser/2018-03-02/18-042-as-amended.pdf

What You Can Do?

• Consider contacting a member of your local city or town council. Ask them to initiate a similar bylaw in your town.  

• Advocate for alternatives.  For example, the Hamilton Community Legal Clinic has called for a return to postal banking where basic financial services, like credit, could be available without exorbitant fees charged by payday loan companies at the Post Office.