Senate scandal upstages CETA and Omnibus Bill C-4

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Jobless Youth in Ontario:

Canaries in a coal mine? 8 SOCIALIST ACTION NOVEMBER 2013 How ironic would it be if Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s ultimate downfall occurs due to a scandal involving some rip-off artists he appointed to the Senate, rather than as a consequence of Harper’s bes­ tial record on the economy, the environment, First Nations and Canada’s wars of occupation abroad?

Very ironic, eh?

But as things go in Ottawa, where both an ominous trade deal with Europe, and a meandering but men­ acing Throne Speech were quickly eclipsed by the deepening Senate imbroglio, anything seems pos­ sible.

The Conservative P.M. dug in his heels, and fired back at blistering Opposition attacks on his cred­ ibility. Harper insists that he knew nothing about the scheme to bail out Senator Mike Duffy. He coldly disowned Senators Duffy, Pamela Wallin, and Pat­ rick Brazeau when scrutiny of their mis-spending habits became too hot and too damaging to the Con­ servative Party.

Harper even prorogued Parliament in a vain effort to ride out the storm. Still the crisis persists, undi­ minished by the so-called free trade triumph, or the baubles offered to consumers in an otherwise toxic Throne Speech.

While the political crisis, now six months old and With special guest Glen Ford of Black Agenda Report.

252 Bloor St., Rm. 2-214 For complete schedule of presentations: (647) 986-1917 www.socialistaction.ca The rate of Ontario youth unemploy­ ment rivals those of the European Union and the U.S. Rust Belt states. So says the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives in its recent report, “The Young and the Jobless.” Joblessness among people aged 15 to 24 in Ontario is 16.9 per cent, which is higher than that in Indiana, Minnesota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. The actual employment rate is significantly worse. It ranges from 50 to 52 per cent in the province, meaning half of all youths don’t have jobs.

The gap between youth and adult em­ ployment in Toronto is the largest in the province, at 21.8 per cent. The report states that “young workers are subject to the negative consequences of the same macroeconomic forces that are affecting the rest of the population. However, young workers are the labour market’s canary in the coalmine. When there are hiring freez­ es, they remain out of work. When there are layoffs, it is newer, younger workers who often feel the brunt of the job losses.” Many believe that education is the key to success. Not quite so, at least not in our times. As the Toronto Star reports, a typi­ cal student makes about $26,000 a year, between four part-time jobs. Most of the earnings go towards tuition. And accord­ ing to the Canadian Federation of Stu­ dents, average student debt after graduat­ ing with a four-year degree is $37,000. Yet, having a degree does not always in­ crease your chance of getting a job. The 17.1 per cent unemployment rate among adults with advanced (above bachelors) deepening, widens rifts in Tory ranks, it is important not to lose sight of the threat to the common good posed by the still-gestating deal known as the Com­ prehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between Canada and the European Union.

In the first place, like its predecessor “free” trade deals, NAFTA and the FTA, CETA is not primarily about trade. Tariffs and duties between the two re­ gions are, on average, less than four per cent. Nor will we see a major impact on sales of beef overseas, or cheese here. CETA is overwhelmingly a corporate bill of rights. It will jack up Canadian drug prices (by $2 billion a year) by extending patent protection for multinational pharmaceutical companies, most­ ly based in Europe. It will be harder for provinces and cities to favour local businesses when they buy goods or services. And it will enable corporations to sue governments if their owners think that environ­ mental, labour or other regulations interfere with the maximization of profits. (Canada is facing $2.5 bil­ lion worth of corporate lawsuits under NAFTA.)

Secrecy marked the CETA negotiations, and still shrouds the contents. Progressive economists say Ot­ tawa’s claim that the pact will create 80,000 new net jobs is entirely bogus. Europe’s 500 million consum­ ers are enduring an economic recession, worsened by austerity measures that curb workers’ ability to buy much of anything beyond essentials. Unifor econo­ mist Jim Stanford predicts that CETA will, over time, vaporize up to 150,000 Canadian jobs.

Since 28 EU countries have to endorse the deal, and Ottawa needs to get the provinces on side by guaranteeing compensation for higher drug prices and for any harm done to home in­ dustries, there is thus time to defeat the deal be­ fore CETA is entrenched.

Likewise, there is an opportunity to challenge the pernicious plans outlined in the Oct. 16 Tory Throne Speech. Harper’s endeavour to change the channel on his Senate problems includes promises to cut cellphone roaming costs, to un­ bundle cable-TV channels to allow consumers to pick and choose, and to allow people to carry booze across provincial boundaries for personal consumption.

But Harper’s mailed fist is revealed in core measures, such as a federal budget freeze, and curbing costs in the public sector by shedding staff. Legislation to require balanced budgets aims to entrench austerity. New laws to en­ sure life sentences for those convicted of major crimes, and to bar the release of serious repeat offenders, would help the Conservatives to pos­ ture as “law and order” enforcers, as does their degrees is higher than young workers who have completed high school (16.0 %).

Youth make up 17 % of the world’s population. According to the International Labour Organization, there are 73 million young unemployed people in the world, an increase of 3.5 million since 2007.

At the same time, informal employment among young people remains pervasive and transitions to decent work are slow and difficult. For example, informal em­ ployment accounts for half of the jobs of young workers in the Russian Federation.

Against this backdrop, socialists argue:

The youth are the backbone of produc­ tion. But young workers need to unite to become the brain of production as well.

More jobs, higher wages, shorter work­ ing hours, and better working conditions are achievable only through organized struggle.

Education is a right not a privilege. Post-secondary education should be free. Drop fees and cancel student debt—now! To achieve these goals, get involved in the many of the rest are likely to be deprived as well. Not only that, the new law would exclude dispute arbitration, except when the government agrees to it, and arbitrators would be obliged to give a “pre­ ponderance” of weight to the government’s claims as to what it could afford. Say good bye to the right to strike and to any semblance of fair arbitration in the federal public service. And this is buried in a bill that includes changes to employment insurance, workplace safety, veterans’ affairs, conflict of inter­ est, immigration policy, and more.

But where there ought to be concern about corporate criminality in the shipment of hazardous substances, in ravaging the environment, in violating indigenous peoples’ land rights, in hiding billions of dollars in offshore banks to avoid tax obligations, ‘law and or­ der’ seems to be missing in action.

That brings us back to the parliamentary crisis. It operates on many levels. One more dimension is evident in Harper’s bid to ram through his appoint­ ment of a judge to the Supreme Court. The latest high court vacancy had to be filled, as a constitutional re­ quirement, by a judge from the Quebec bar. Harper’s choice (for ideological reasons we can only imag­ ine), is Marc Nadon, who once practiced maritime and transportation law in Quebec. But Nadon spent the last 20 years at the Federal Court’s appellate and trial divisions in Ottawa. So Harper aims to jam a square peg into a round hole. How? By amending the Supreme Court of Canada Act.

Like suspending Parliament four times over the past seven years, like trying to bully out of the Senate his own mangy appointees, those whom he shielded and defended until recently, Stephen Harper’s actions on labour and the economy are those of a man who doesn’t take no for an answer, regardless the spirit or the letter of the law.

The saddest aspect of this ugly chapter is that most of the media attention focuses on the misdeeds of certain powerful individuals. But those potent hacks can be replaced by the ruling class when push comes to shove. A superficial approach to corruption, rather than a serious examination of the system that drives its minions to do what they do to perpetuate human exploitation, social oppression and the devastation of nature, is what passes for politics in the mainstream. Unfortunately, the leadership of the workers’ move­ ment, including those who sit atop the unions and the labour-based New Democratic Party, are complicit in this artful misdirection. They demonize Harper. This in turn tends to foster a “get rid of him at all costs,” lesser-evil, unprincipled politics. The net effect is the mis-education of the many, helping to keep the crimi­ nal elite class in charge of the sinking ship, weighed down as it is by stupendous capitalist greed. Urgently needed is mass job action to stop the Tory attack on the right to strike, to defeat CETA, to re­ verse the public service cuts, to uphold aboriginal land rights, and of course, to abolish the Senate and the monarchy. n student unions, and challenge students’ union officials to lead the struggle. Fol­ low the example of the Quebec students’ strike in 2012!

Bridge the gap between youth and the rest of the working class. Replace the la­ bour leaders who accept divisive condi­ tions, such as the two-tier wage system (lower starting pay) that increases the ex­ ploitation of youth.

Youth unemployment, like mass unem­ ployment among adults, can be overcome if new jobs are created, such as by launch­ ing massive public works to provide housing and to modernize infrastructure. Expropriating the banks and giant corpo­ rations, and placing them under workers’ control, is necessary to finance and imple­ ment massive public investment projects.

Today’s rotting capitalism resembles a coal mine before a methane gas explo­ sion. Youths should not be the canaries in that mine. They should organize, join workers’ struggles, and smash the cage in which they are trapped. n

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