February 12, 2019 was a national day of action to call for the inclusion of non-status people in our health care system in Canada. The call to action touches on a gaping hole in human rights protections in Canada: the exclusion of immigration status as a ground for discrimination. Anyone who has less than Canadian citizenship status in Canada faces discrimination, with those with the lowest status, being non-status, facing the worst of all. Despite this daily reality, immigration status […]

On December 8, 2018, Canada stated that it would adopt the UN Global Compact for Safe Migration. What followed was an unsurprising and reactionary set of protests across the country. People protesting did so in order to try and oppose the idea of more people – who they don’t like – coming to Canada to stay. The reality is that the Compact does not instill any formal obligations on Canada and does not go nearly far enough to respond to […]

Overview In this post, I will argue that the process of trying to have a criminal record removed is fundamentally flawed and should be considered unlawful. I am not going to put any time into the subject of cannabis possession records possibly being suspended or pardoned without a fee. There has already been substantial attention on this issue, but it is a drop in an otherwise empty bucket. I will will draw attention to the rest of the bucket. I […]

A worker is a worker, whether in a factory, office building, field, mine or behind bars. All workers should have the right to a union. Workers need a union in order to minimize – since present social relations will not allow elimination – the great power imbalance between bosses and workers. Where the power imbalance is the greatest, so is the need for a union. Workers in jail are the most vulnerable workers in our society, facing the enormous power […]