Friday, June 07, 2019
CLASS WAR IN ALBERTA
Opinion: Two-tier minimum wage will cost older workers their jobs
Alexander Shevalier, president of the Calgary and District Labour Council, says the new two-tier minimum wage will likely cost older workers their jobs.
Premier Jason Kenney’s cavalier approach to the minimum wage has led to one of Bill 2’s most regressive changes in a piece of legislation filled with them.
By lowering the minimum wage to $13 from $15 for an estimated 35,000 workers aged 13-17 — for the first 28 hours per week when school is in session and for all hours worked during the summer — the UCP has kept one of its most controversial election promises while facilitating the increased exploitation of young workers for the sake of higher private profits.
This isn’t the first time a conservative government has implemented an age-based minimum wage differential in Alberta. We had one in the 1990s, called a “training wage,” that allowed employers to pay 50 cents less per hour to those under 18.
The Klein government, however, nixed its unequal youth wage in 1998.
“One, we know that employees, particularly young people, are far more job-ready than they’ve ever been before,” then labour minister Murray Smith told the legislature.
“Secondly, we had evidence where that training wage was being abused by employers, abused to the point where it had to be eliminated. We took that action.”
A two-tiered, unequal youth wage system, as some have speculated it might do in Alberta since Bill 2 was tabled, encourages discriminatory hiring and firing practices. Known as the “substitution effect,” jurisdictions with differential minimum wages have experienced as much.
Australia’s age-tiered wage regime led to “learn or churn” conditions that often result in lower hours for aging workers, or outright replacement. One McDonald’s employee in Queensland called the gradual phase-out of older workers an “unspoken rule.”
While Australia’s youth wages are more extreme at the margins — a 14-year-old worker could make as much as 50 per cent less than their adult colleagues, with incremental wage increases every year until they reach 21 — the incentive to reduce the hours of older workers still exists.
“They use casual employment and junior rates to basically cycle workers off under the apprehension that those workers are going to get more hours as they get more skills in the workplace,” one fast food union rep in Australia said.
Wage differentials in Denmark saw unemployment levels rise by upwards of 33 per cent when workers reached the standard adult wage-earning age. The Danish study also found that hiring slowdowns occur for workers in the months approaching their 18th birthday.
While employment levels declined by a third for Danish workers who’ve turned 18 years old, those levels didn’t start to recover until they reached their 20s. This employment gap could lead to what researchers call a “scarring effect” on those young workers’ career prospects later in life.
Ensuring all workers are paid a standardized minimum wage — preferably a living wage — is the easiest way to prevent employers from the discriminatory practices detailed above.
But young workers are easy targets. They aren’t of voting age, many of their workplaces aren’t unionized, and they are now forced onto even more precarious financial footing because this government believes their labour is less valuable than their adult colleagues’.
While there are legal protections against age discrimination covered by the Alberta Human Rights Act for workers over the age of 18, enforcement is often ineffective. It is unclear how instances of “learn or churn”-style discrimination might be handled in the Alberta context if they occur.
It is also difficult to imagine young, freshly churned workers pursuing costly civil litigation against discriminatory employers.
Considering the hike to $15 last year did not bankrupt the province’s service sector or result in recession-level job losses predicted by some, the UCP’s take-it-or-leave-it “$13 is better than $0” attitude is confusing.
Along with Bill 2’s other anti-labour provisions, it is plain to see that this is a government preparing for a longer fight against Alberta workers. Kenney should heed the advice of former minister Smith and scrap this two-tier minimum wage.
Alexander Shevalier is the president of the Calgary and District Labour Council.
SEE
In case you wanted some great news in your needs feed. This man is going above, and beyond to help those who are in need. Thank you so much Conor for this!!
June 4 at 10:00 PM ·
LADBIBLE.COM
Conor McGregor has revealed he's been building several houses designated for families 'without a home to call their own'.
In a post on social media post, he said he was building a total of eight homes for those in need, and shared photos of the build coming along nicely.
McGregor wrote: "Back on the site today, it has been a while.
"This is my first property development. We have 8 homes here closing in on finish.
Reject the LabelsJune 4 at 10:00 PM ·
LADBIBLE.COM
Women's World Cup: Why the best female footballer is not taking part
Date created : 05/06/2019
By:Annette YoungFollow
This June, France is hosting the FIFA Women's World Cup, the biggest event in women's football. Annette Young talks to the world's best female footballer, Ada Hegerberg. In a surprise move, the female winner of the 2018 Ballon D'Or will not be taking part, in protest at what she calls the lack of respect for women players.
>> Women's football: Far from an equal playing field
Why the best women's soccer player in the world won't be at the World Cup
Syria: ‘Rebel offensive marks real shift in Idlib battle,’ says France 24’s Wassim Nasr
Date created : 07/06/2019 - 15:45Latest update : 07/06/2019 - 18:39
Screengrab, France 24 | France 24 terrorism specialist Wassim Nasr
Text by:FRANCE 24Follow|
Video by:Wassim NASR
Fierce clashes between government forces and jihadists have left 83 combatants dead in northwestern Syria, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Friday. France 24’s Wassim Nasr discusses the latest fighting in the Battle for Idlib.
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Clashes on the edge of the jihadist-controlled Idlib province have killed 44 government loyalists and 39 jihadists and Islamists since Thursday, the Observatory said.
The Syrian government and its Russian backer in April launched an intensified offensive in the last stronghold of both the rebel and the jihadist groups. The offensive has resulted in the deaths of up to 300 people, including 40 children over the past month.
Idlib is a region of some three million people, almost half of whom have been displaced from other parts of Syria.
Eight years into Syria’s civil war, the region is the last to remain beyond regime control apart from a large northeastern swathe held by the country’s Kurds.
The war, which started in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government demonstrations, has killed more than 370,000 people and displaced millions.
To watch Wassim Nasr's analysis on FRANCE 24, click on the player above.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
SYRIA
Text by:FRANCE 24Follow|
Video by:Wassim NASR
Fierce clashes between government forces and jihadists have left 83 combatants dead in northwestern Syria, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Friday. France 24’s Wassim Nasr discusses the latest fighting in the Battle for Idlib.
\
Clashes on the edge of the jihadist-controlled Idlib province have killed 44 government loyalists and 39 jihadists and Islamists since Thursday, the Observatory said.
The Syrian government and its Russian backer in April launched an intensified offensive in the last stronghold of both the rebel and the jihadist groups. The offensive has resulted in the deaths of up to 300 people, including 40 children over the past month.
Idlib is a region of some three million people, almost half of whom have been displaced from other parts of Syria.
Eight years into Syria’s civil war, the region is the last to remain beyond regime control apart from a large northeastern swathe held by the country’s Kurds.
The war, which started in 2011 with the brutal repression of anti-government demonstrations, has killed more than 370,000 people and displaced millions.
To watch Wassim Nasr's analysis on FRANCE 24, click on the player above.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
SYRIA
LET THEM EAT TURKISH DELIGHT
Turkish minister's wife criticised for flaunting wealth amid economic crisis
The wife of Turkey's culture and tourism ministry has drawn widespread criticism after she posted a photo on Instagram of herself handing a young girl a $100 bill as the latter kisses her hand.
Social media users expressed distaste for Pervin Ersoy's display of wealth amid the economic crisis engulfing the country and the government's claim to represent the working class.
The photo, which was since been deleted, was taken at the five-star Maxx Royal Kemert Resort, a hotel on the Turkish riviera owned by her husband, Mehmet Ersoy. It was posted on June 4, during Bayram, which celebrates the end of Ramadan and during which young people customarily kiss the hand of an elder in exchange for a gift.
A screenshot of Pervin Ersoy's photo, which has since been deleted.
Pervin Ersoy has since tried to play down the photo, saying that it was a joke and a reference to a viral video of Alişan, a well-known Turkish singer.
I have already explained that it was a joke, so please stop. When Alişan handed out money to his nephews, we just laughed. I clearly wrote: "We played a joke on one of our employees.” Please stop, am I that stupid?
Dollars instead of lira
Online users across the political spectrum also pointed out that Ersoy was flashing American dollars rather than Turkish lira.
“It would be wise to remind your wife that your office represents the Party of Justice and Development, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the people", one user tweeted at Mehmet Ersoy.
"Lack of national values, new money,” tweeted another user.
"President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that he was waging a war on the dollar," Barıs Yarkadas, a member of the opposition Republican People’s Party, wrote on Twitter. "I’m surprised by what you are doing."
In August, Erdogan encouraged the public to exchange foreign currency for Turkish lira in order to show national pride and undercut Western countries' ability to hurt the economy.
The lira fell by 30 percent in 2018 and dropped by another 10 percent in the first four months of 2019.
Erdogan's "new money" club
Many said the photo was evidence of the growing divide between Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) and working-class Turks.
"During its first electoral campaign in 2002, the slogan of the AKP was ‘the voice of the voiceless, the parents of orphans,'" Paris-based journalist Guillaume Perrier wrote on Twitter. "The photo shared by the wife of the tourism minister shows the extent to which 17 years have distanced the party from the people, leaving an opening for the opposition.”
Turkish minister's wife criticised for flaunting wealth amid economic crisis
The wife of Turkey's culture and tourism ministry has drawn widespread criticism after she posted a photo on Instagram of herself handing a young girl a $100 bill as the latter kisses her hand.
Social media users expressed distaste for Pervin Ersoy's display of wealth amid the economic crisis engulfing the country and the government's claim to represent the working class.
The photo, which was since been deleted, was taken at the five-star Maxx Royal Kemert Resort, a hotel on the Turkish riviera owned by her husband, Mehmet Ersoy. It was posted on June 4, during Bayram, which celebrates the end of Ramadan and during which young people customarily kiss the hand of an elder in exchange for a gift.
A screenshot of Pervin Ersoy's photo, which has since been deleted.
Pervin Ersoy has since tried to play down the photo, saying that it was a joke and a reference to a viral video of Alişan, a well-known Turkish singer.
I have already explained that it was a joke, so please stop. When Alişan handed out money to his nephews, we just laughed. I clearly wrote: "We played a joke on one of our employees.” Please stop, am I that stupid?
Dollars instead of lira
Online users across the political spectrum also pointed out that Ersoy was flashing American dollars rather than Turkish lira.
“It would be wise to remind your wife that your office represents the Party of Justice and Development, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the people", one user tweeted at Mehmet Ersoy.
"Lack of national values, new money,” tweeted another user.
"President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that he was waging a war on the dollar," Barıs Yarkadas, a member of the opposition Republican People’s Party, wrote on Twitter. "I’m surprised by what you are doing."
In August, Erdogan encouraged the public to exchange foreign currency for Turkish lira in order to show national pride and undercut Western countries' ability to hurt the economy.
The lira fell by 30 percent in 2018 and dropped by another 10 percent in the first four months of 2019.
Erdogan's "new money" club
Many said the photo was evidence of the growing divide between Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) and working-class Turks.
"During its first electoral campaign in 2002, the slogan of the AKP was ‘the voice of the voiceless, the parents of orphans,'" Paris-based journalist Guillaume Perrier wrote on Twitter. "The photo shared by the wife of the tourism minister shows the extent to which 17 years have distanced the party from the people, leaving an opening for the opposition.”
African Union suspends Sudan until civilian government established
The African Union said on Thursday it had suspended Sudan until a civilian government was formed, intensifying international pressure on the country’s new military rulers to give up power.
Ethiopia meanwhile will launch a mediation effort on Friday, diplomatic sources in Khartoum said.
The moves take place after security forces cleared protesters from a sit-in camp in central Khartoum on Monday, killing dozens of people in the worst violence since President Omar al-Bashir was removed by the military in April after four months of generally peaceful protests.
The opposition had been in talks with an interim military council over a civilian-led transition to democracy, but the negotiations faltered and this week’s crackdown marked a turning point in the power struggle.
The United Nations and several foreign governments have condemned the bloodshed.
The African Union’s Peace and Security Council, in a meeting in Addis Ababa on Thursday, decided to suspend Sudan from all AU activities until a civilian government has been formed. Suspension is the African Union’s normal response to any interruption of constitutional rule in one of its members.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was due to visit Khartoum on Friday to try to mediate between the military and an opposition alliance, a diplomatic source at the Ethiopian embassy in Khartoum said.
The source told Reuters that Abiy would meet members of the Transitional Military Council and the opposition’s Declaration of Freedom and Change Forces during his one-day visit.
Ethiopia hosts the headquarters of the African Union but it was not clear if Abiy would be acting under AU auspices.
Disputed toll
The Sudanese Health Ministry said on Thursday that 61 people had been killed in the crackdown but the opposition put the toll at 108.
The action was led by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary force, witnesses said. The RSF, commanded by the military council’s deputy leader General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, was built up from militias that fought insurgents in Sudan’s western Darfur region during a civil war that began in 2003. His troops fired on unarmed protesters then mounted a wider operation crackdown in the following days, witnesses said.
>> Read more: Can a former Janjaweed commander determine Sudan’s future?
The militias are accused of involvement of widespread atrocities in Darfur.
Amnesty International called for international action against the military rulers and condemned the RSF for its role in the violence.
“The RSF, the special military force which killed, raped and tortured thousands in Darfur, brings its murderous rampage to the capital,” Amnesty said. “Reports that bodies have been dumped in the river demonstrate the utter depravity of these so-called security forces.”
The military council has denied the force was involved in any illegal actions and said it was facing a negative media campaign “from hostile parties”. The raid was targeting criminals in an area adjacent to the camp, it said.
Dagalo, commonly known as Hemedti, said the military council had launched an investigation into the violence and would punish anyone found guilty of abuses.
Cycle of impunity
The deployment of the RSF suggests that Dagalo is calling the shots, at least when it comes to security. He is close to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and has committed Sudanese troops to the military coalition they lead in Yemen’s civil war.
Amnesty said that Sudan’s recent history has been defined by impunity for war crimes and other human rights violations.
“We are urging the African Union Peace and Security Council and the UN Security Council to break this cycle of impunity and take immediate action to hold the perpetrators of this violence accountable,” the London-based rights humans group said.
Meanwhile, movement began to return to the Sudanese capital on Thursday after some fraught days. Following the raid on the camp, protesters had blocked roads with rocks and burning byres.
Security forces led by RSF units have been trying to open roadblocks.
Some life had returned to the streets of the capital on Thursday, with limited public transport operating and only a few cars on the roads.
A small number of shops and restaurants were open on the second day of the Eid al-Fitr holiday.
But there was still widespread disruption around the capital.
At Khartoum’s airport relatives of travellers stayed late into the night waiting to see if their flights would arrive, following a slew of cancellations over the past few days.
Internet blackouts continued to beset the city.
US warns ‘extreme caution’
The UN and the British embassy announced they were pulling non-essential staff from Sudan, and the United States warned its citizens to exercise “extreme caution” amid the ongoing uncertainty.
On Thursday, a spokeswoman for the UK Foreign Office said they had summoned the Sudanese ambassador to raise concerns about the violence in Khartoum.
Despite the heavy presence of security forces on Khartoum’s main streets, the groups that spearheaded the demonstrations against Bashir made a fresh call on Thursday for civil disobedience.
“The revolution continues and our people are victorious despite the terrorism and violence of the militias,” the Sudanese Professionals Association, the group that initially launched the anti-Bashir campaign, posted on Twitter.
It urged an “indefinite strike and civil disobedience,” warning against calls for violence.
Sudan has been rocked by unrest since December, when anger over rising bread prices and cash shortages broke into protests against Bashir that culminated in the military removing him, ending his three decades in office during which the country became a pariah state in Western eyes.
In the wake of Monday’s events, the military council canceled all agreements reached with the opposition on a democratic transition and announced plans to hold elections within nine months. Protesters rejected the plan.
(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS and AFP)
WOMEN'S FOOTBALL WORLD CUP 2019
The 2019 Women's Football World Cup, by the numbers
Date created : 06/06/2019 - 07:10
FMM Graphic Studio
Text by:Tracy MCNICOLL
Football's best face off in France for the Women's World Cup from June 7 through July 7. FRANCE 24 takes a look at the global event in facts and figures.
OPEN GRAPHIC IN NEW TAB TO ENLARGE
CHECK OUT CANADA'S TEAM CAPTAINS STATS
The 2019 Women's Football World Cup, by the numbers
Date created : 06/06/2019 - 07:10
FMM Graphic Studio
Text by:Tracy MCNICOLL
Football's best face off in France for the Women's World Cup from June 7 through July 7. FRANCE 24 takes a look at the global event in facts and figures.
OPEN GRAPHIC IN NEW TAB TO ENLARGE
CHECK OUT CANADA'S TEAM CAPTAINS STATS
France to launch medical cannabis experiment in coming weeks
Date created : 02/06/2019 - 12:42
Philippe Hungen, AFP |
A shop selling medical marijuana in France, in May 30, 2018. It has since closed.
Text by:Jean-Luc MOUNIER
As a nearly unanimous French Senate gave medical marijuana the green light on May 28, France will start experimenting the use of medical marijuana for “about two years”, pending the approval of the health ministry.
Therapeutic cannabis may soon be legally available in France to hundreds of thousands of patients suffering from serious pain caused by illness. According to patient groups, somewhere between 300,000 and 1 million patients could be eligible to its use.
“There will be about two years of experimentation with therapeutic cannabis, beginning as soon as the health ministry gives the green light,” Professor Nicolas Authier, the head of pharmacology at Clermont-Ferrand University Hospital Centre’s pain clinic, told FRANCE 24. Authier heads the committee of experts charged by the National Agency for the Safety of Health Products of evaluating the practical arrangements for the distribution of medical marijuana. The committee’s report will be released on June 26.
The experiment “will be set up very quickly in the coming weeks,” confirmed Jean-Baptiste Moreau, LREM’s (The Republic on the move) MP contacted by FRANCE 24. He supports legalising medical marijuana. “The challenge is ensuring a French supply chain for the production [of these pharmaceutical products]”.
He hopes his district of La Creuse, where elected officials are trying to boost the local economy and asked in 2018 for a government’s permit to cultivate and produce medical-grade cannabis, will benefit from it.
A tightly controlled experiment
But lucrative business opportunities could still be a long way off. “For the moment, medical cannabis production is not authorised in France,” said Authier. Furthermore, he continued, “[the crops] will be grown in closed fields or greenhouses and will require significant investment. We will have to control the temperature, humidity and sunshine. It isn’t conventional agriculture".
During the trial period, which could last until mid-2021, “we will probably need to import pharmaceutical products [from countries where medical cannabis is legal] until a French supply chain is set up”, said Authier.
French producers will not only need to learn to grow the crop but to comply with European rules for producing medicine of a consistent quality.
The use of medical cannabis will be strictly controlled. Doctors will be permitted to prescribe it only as “a last resort, after trying other available therapeutic [pain] treatments”, said Authier. In December 2018, the National Agency for the Safety of Health Products identified possible applications for medical cannabis: cancer, certain types of epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, palliative care, and pain that does not respond to usual treatments.
“We will probably need to widen the scope of eligible illnesses,” Senator Esther Benbassa (of the Greens party), who opened the Senate debate on May 28, told FRANCE 24.
No legalisation for recreational use
Senators of the Républicains party are worried that medical cannabis is a “Trojan horse”, the beginning of a slippery slope towards legalising marijuana for recreational use. Authier does not share their concerns: “There is little risk that medical cannabis will be abused for recreational purposes. […] It has different users with different objectives. Those who take codeine for pain and those who smoke opium are taking the same substance but they don’t have the same purpose. Similarly, medical-grade cannabis will not satisfy those looking for psychoactive effects.”
There will be, for example, less THC – the most abundant cannabinoid and the most present in the cannabis plant – in medical cannabis than in the cannabis smoked regularly by 11 percent of French people aged 18 to 64, according to the French Observatory for Drugs and Drug Addiction.
The upcoming regulatory changes – pending the ministry of health’s approval – will allow only for medical experimentation, not for random consumption.
“Therapeutic cannabis is not a drug, it is medication,” says Authier. “The question of legalisation won’t come up before 2021, and only following this experiment.”
But MP Moreau is open to the idea of legalisation for recreational use. He said he plans to propose an investigation into other uses of cannabis in France. “For now, we are talking about medical cannabis, but eventually we will have to consider wellness cannabis [oils, vitamins and supplements with very low levels of THC].”
This article has been adapted from the original, which was in French, by Claire Mufson
Text by:Jean-Luc MOUNIER
As a nearly unanimous French Senate gave medical marijuana the green light on May 28, France will start experimenting the use of medical marijuana for “about two years”, pending the approval of the health ministry.
Therapeutic cannabis may soon be legally available in France to hundreds of thousands of patients suffering from serious pain caused by illness. According to patient groups, somewhere between 300,000 and 1 million patients could be eligible to its use.
“There will be about two years of experimentation with therapeutic cannabis, beginning as soon as the health ministry gives the green light,” Professor Nicolas Authier, the head of pharmacology at Clermont-Ferrand University Hospital Centre’s pain clinic, told FRANCE 24. Authier heads the committee of experts charged by the National Agency for the Safety of Health Products of evaluating the practical arrangements for the distribution of medical marijuana. The committee’s report will be released on June 26.
The experiment “will be set up very quickly in the coming weeks,” confirmed Jean-Baptiste Moreau, LREM’s (The Republic on the move) MP contacted by FRANCE 24. He supports legalising medical marijuana. “The challenge is ensuring a French supply chain for the production [of these pharmaceutical products]”.
He hopes his district of La Creuse, where elected officials are trying to boost the local economy and asked in 2018 for a government’s permit to cultivate and produce medical-grade cannabis, will benefit from it.
A tightly controlled experiment
But lucrative business opportunities could still be a long way off. “For the moment, medical cannabis production is not authorised in France,” said Authier. Furthermore, he continued, “[the crops] will be grown in closed fields or greenhouses and will require significant investment. We will have to control the temperature, humidity and sunshine. It isn’t conventional agriculture".
During the trial period, which could last until mid-2021, “we will probably need to import pharmaceutical products [from countries where medical cannabis is legal] until a French supply chain is set up”, said Authier.
French producers will not only need to learn to grow the crop but to comply with European rules for producing medicine of a consistent quality.
The use of medical cannabis will be strictly controlled. Doctors will be permitted to prescribe it only as “a last resort, after trying other available therapeutic [pain] treatments”, said Authier. In December 2018, the National Agency for the Safety of Health Products identified possible applications for medical cannabis: cancer, certain types of epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, palliative care, and pain that does not respond to usual treatments.
“We will probably need to widen the scope of eligible illnesses,” Senator Esther Benbassa (of the Greens party), who opened the Senate debate on May 28, told FRANCE 24.
No legalisation for recreational use
Senators of the Républicains party are worried that medical cannabis is a “Trojan horse”, the beginning of a slippery slope towards legalising marijuana for recreational use. Authier does not share their concerns: “There is little risk that medical cannabis will be abused for recreational purposes. […] It has different users with different objectives. Those who take codeine for pain and those who smoke opium are taking the same substance but they don’t have the same purpose. Similarly, medical-grade cannabis will not satisfy those looking for psychoactive effects.”
There will be, for example, less THC – the most abundant cannabinoid and the most present in the cannabis plant – in medical cannabis than in the cannabis smoked regularly by 11 percent of French people aged 18 to 64, according to the French Observatory for Drugs and Drug Addiction.
The upcoming regulatory changes – pending the ministry of health’s approval – will allow only for medical experimentation, not for random consumption.
“Therapeutic cannabis is not a drug, it is medication,” says Authier. “The question of legalisation won’t come up before 2021, and only following this experiment.”
But MP Moreau is open to the idea of legalisation for recreational use. He said he plans to propose an investigation into other uses of cannabis in France. “For now, we are talking about medical cannabis, but eventually we will have to consider wellness cannabis [oils, vitamins and supplements with very low levels of THC].”
This article has been adapted from the original, which was in French, by Claire Mufson
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