For Ontario teachers, arbitration is no substitute for the right to strike

Story by Larry Savage, Professor, Labour Studies, Brock University 

Stephanie Ross, Associate Professor, School of Labour Studies, McMaster University 

THE CONVERSATION

The Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF) recently made headlines after reaching an agreement with the Ontario government to avoid the possibility of a strike in its current round of negotiations.

In short, the parties agreed to enter into binding interest arbitration to resolve any outstanding issues should they fail to reach a negotiated settlement by Oct. 27, 2023. OSSTF members will soon vote on whether to pursue this process.

On the surface, interest arbitration is appealing because it allows the parties to avoid a labour dispute and hands responsibility for resolving outstanding contentious issues to a neutral third party.

However, there are many reasons why trading the right to strike for binding interest arbitration is a minefield for unions — and why we as labour scholars and some OSSTF members and retirees have been left scratching our heads at OSSTF’s decision.

Outstanding bargaining issues

Interest arbitration is a mechanism for resolving outstanding bargaining issues. It’s most commonly used in instances where essential workers like firefighters or nurses are legally denied the right to strike. Less often, unions and employers use interest arbitration to achieve a first contract or resolve a contentious strike.

Once the parties negotiate to impasse, a neutral third party — the arbitrator — is called in to settle the outstanding issues. The result is binding on both parties.

In the case of OSSTF’s recent agreement with the province, it had not bargained to impasse, let alone conducted a strike vote to test members’ resolve and try to change the employer’s position.

Interest arbitration is no panacea

Interest arbitration is seductive for unions given recent decisions that have awarded major wage increases to Ontario nurses and other health-care workers to compensate for the effects of Bill 124, which capped public sector wage increases at one per cent per year and has been deemed unconstitutional.

For workers whose wages have fallen behind over many years, the prospect of catching up without having to build for a potential strike is tantalizing.
Demobilizes unions

However, there are at least four reasons why prematurely agreeing to binding interest arbitration is highly problematic for unions.

First, it normalizes the idea that the right to strike is unnecessary. That kind of thinking demobilizes unions and renders members passive. Because the arbitrator’s decision is binding, members don’t get to vote on the final settlement and therefore become mere bystanders. In short, interest arbitration ignores the key to unions’ power — an organized and mobilized membership.

Second, reliance on interest arbitration can actually increase bargaining impasses by reducing the incentive to negotiate terms that both parties can live with. If a third party is going to decide what the contract says, why budge from one’s initial bargaining position?

Researchers call this the “narcotic effect” because both unions and management become dependent on interest arbitration to decide contract terms. The problem is that imposed settlements rarely resolve the underlying conflicts.

Interest arbitration is an inherently conservative process. There is no guarantee that wage increases in one sector will be reproduced in others. Furthermore, arbitration is a poor mechanism for addressing deeper issues like the lack of investment in public services, which underpins the real problems so many public sector workers face.

Read more: Canada's high schools are underfunded and turning to international tuition to help

Inherently conservative process

Third, while the current context may yield decent arbitration awards, especially on wages and benefits, the economic landscape is constantly changing. What may seem like a good tactic this time around may prove disadvantageous in the long term. Changing course in future rounds of bargaining may become difficult if leaders and members become invested in arbitration as the primary process for resolving contentious issues.

Finally, arbitration is based on comparisons. That means the quality of arbitration awards is dependent on the relative success of other unions at the bargaining table to set good wages, some of whom are forced to use the right to strike to reach settlements that meet their members’ needs.

In other words, good agreements for arbitrators to use as comparisons require someone leading the way. Unions that resort to interest arbitration by choice are essentially free riding on other unions that have preserved their right to strike to secure improved terms and conditions of work.

Union bargaining power has increased

The choice to opt for interest arbitration is even more perplexing given that the conditions for unions to win big gains at the bargaining table are better than they’ve been in decades.

Inflation generates a lot of sympathy for workers whose wages are not keeping pace. A tight labour market also gives workers increased leverage. Workers across the economy are using their right to strike to get ahead.

Forfeiting the right to strike and choosing interest arbitration effectively undermines the bargaining position of other unions and helps fuel divide-and-conquer labour relations strategies.
Giving up rights?

In the case of the OSSTF, the Ontario government has already used its deal with the union to pressure other education unions to follow suit.

In recent years, unions have won hard-fought battles against governments’ attempts to strip away workers’ rights to bargain and strike.

After all this effort, voluntarily giving away these rights and turning over all the power to an arbitrator seems unthinkable. Anti-union governments don’t have to worry about restricting the right to strike if unions are simply willing to give up that right in exchange for the crutch of interest arbitration.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.

Read more:

Curious Kids: Do teachers get paid when they go on strike?

Ontario school strike: Government’s use of the notwithstanding clause — again — is an assault on labour relations

Stephanie Ross receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

Larry Savage receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

93 areas of interest found at site of former Saskatchewan residential school

Story by The Canadian Press •


SASKATOON — A chief in Saskatchewan says her heart is broken after ground-penetrating radar located 93 areas of interest at the site of a former residential school.

English River First Nation Chief Jenny Wolverine said it’s believed 79 of the areas of interest at the Beauval Indian Residential School could be the size of possible children’s graves and 14 could be the size of infants.

"It breaks my heart that there's likely more, or even that there's even one," Wolverine said Tuesday in Saskatoon.

"The experience of residential school is horrific."

Earlier this month, 83 areas of interest were located at the site and the additional 10 were confirmed as archeological flags were being placed in the area.

Wolverine said the community is saddened at the discovery of more possible graves and it’s clear their work is not over yet.

The First Nation began searching the site in and around the residential school's graveyard two years ago. The graveyard was primarily used by the school until the 1980s.

Wolverine said they didn't know what to expect when they began the project.

"We did know the stories that were shared over generations about the treatment of students and those students who never returned home," she said.

The residential school near Lac la Plonge, a glacial lake in northern Saskatchewan, was operated by the Roman Catholic Church from 1906 to 1969, when it came under federal control. Sixteen different communities in the north had to send their children to the institution.

Nineteen boys and one teacher died in 1927 when the school and its convent caught on fire.

The Meadow Lake Tribal Council took full control of the school in 1985, and the residence was closed 10 years later.



The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation has a record of 52 children’s deaths at the school.

Survivors told the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which looked into the legacy of residential schools in Canada, about physical and sexual abuse, humiliation and how their language was restricted.

At least two former staff members, a supervisor and a principal, have convictions for sexually abusing children.

Dawn McIntyre, the ground-penetrating radar co-ordinator for the search, said her father and grandmother attended the school and both brought home trauma from the institution. During this process, McIntyre said she has become acutely aware of how the school shaped her own life.

"These impacts continue to affect us today," she said.

Elders and survivors from the First Nation wrote a statement, read by McIntyre, that said they were shocked, angered and saddened by the discovery of the possible graves.

They said it brought back the turmoil of their childhoods spent in the school.

The survivors called on the federal government to provide ongoing support for searches and to fulfil the calls to action from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. They also called for churches to respect Indigenous rights and make all documents about the schools available.

The First Nation has said the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation has a vast amount of records about the school, including handwritten records in French that are being translated. Analyzing the records is expected to take up to three years.

McIntyre said excavation would be a last resort.

The First Nation is closely connected to the Métis community of Patuanak. Métis Nation-Saskatchewan Vice-President Michelle LeClair said it's important that all Indigenous people are unified in the search for answers about their relatives.

"It's a dark part of Canadian history," she said.

Chief Bobby Cameron of the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations, which represents 74 First Nations in Saskatchewan, said the discovery could amount to 93 young boys and girls who were "robbed from their lives."

He called on Prime Minister Justine Trudeau to ensure justice for survivors, their families and children who didn't make it home. He also said healing and wellness centres should be built at the sites of former schools.

"Do the right thing," Cameron said. "Do the honourable thing."

The Indian Residential Schools Resolution Health Support Program has a hotline to help residential school survivors and their relatives suffering trauma invoked by the recall of past abuse. The number is 1-866-925-4419.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 29, 2023.

Kelly Geraldine Malone, The Canadian Press

Edmonton closes Expo Centre evacuee registration due to high volumes

Story by Meaghan Archer •2d

Registration for new wildfires evacuees arriving in Edmonton from the N.W.T. has been closed due to high volumes of registratnts. August 27, 2023.

© Global News

The Edmonton Expo Centre, which has been staged as a wildfire evacuee reception centre for the past week, has closed its registration due to high volumes of displaced people from the Northwest Territories fleeing south as wildfires took over the territory last week.

Twice the number of people displaced by the northern fires have come to Edmonton compared to Alberta visitors using the city’s emergency services earlier in the wildfire season when large parts of the province were covered in flames.

The centre doesn’t have the space for the sheer volume of people coming down from the north, according to the city, which has now shut down registration for new evacuees. With so many temporary visitors, Edmonton is full. The city says there are no more hotels available, a status that led to its deciding to close registration for new evacuees.

At the Expo Centre, the city currently has 300 cots set up with nearly 7,000 evacuees registered — 3,000 people are in 1,700 hotel rooms, said Michael Stege with the city on Sunday.

“We’re constantly watching hotels and the Red Cross is looking at how they can accommodate people when that capacity opens back up,” he said.

Geoff Pothier and his family have been in Edmonton since Yellowknife was evacuated due to wildfires on Aug. 18. He says the support they’ve received since arriving has made the difficult situation easier.

“They’ve reached out and allowed us to do a lot of things that maybe normally we’d come here that we wouldn’t get a chance to do,” he said. The one issue the family has had, however, is with accommodations.

“One hotel and then we were able to stay there for a couple nights and then we got shifted and then we went to another hotel, stayed there for a night and we got into another hotel,” he explained.

Despite the inconvenience, Pothier and his family are happy to have a hotel to stay at for now, but are still hoping the stay isn’t a long one.

“Everybody’s in a position where now it’d be nice to get back home,” he said.

People who are not able to register at the Expo Centre are still able to register at a reception centre outside the city and stop by the Expo Centre for food, clothing and a temporary place to rest.

The city will continue to provide support for those who are already registered.

— with files from Slav Kornik, Global News

Video: Edmonton facilities and sporting event opening their doors to wildfire evacuees

Alien Objects on Earth: Harvard Physicist Says Hundreds of Tiny Fragments at Bottom of Ocean Are From Outside Our Solar System

Story by Samyarup Chowdhury •

Harvard physicist Avi Loeb and his team claim that the tiny fragments they found at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean originated outside our solar system.

This would be the first time someone has discovered an object from outside our galaxy on Earth, Knewz.com has learned.


The fragments of the© Knewz (CA)

Back in 2014, a meteor-like object crashed off the coast of Papua New Guinea, thus breaking apart into tiny fragments that now lie under the Pacific Ocean, as per Daily Mail.

Professor Loeb and his team are studying the tiny fragments, and he has not ruled out the possibility that they could also be the remnants of an alien craft.


Professor Loeb and his team aren't ruling out the possibility of the© Knewz (CA)

In a post on Medium from January 2023, Professor Loeb discussed in detail his plans regarding "The Galileo Project," the expedition to study the fragments of the interstellar object that crashed into the Pacific Ocean.

Related video: Searching for evidence of interstellar objects (NBC News)

Duration 7:17   View on Watch

"We have a boat. We have a dream team, including some of the most experienced and qualified professionals in ocean expeditions. We have complete design and manufacturing plans for the required sled, magnets, collection nets and mass spectrometer. And most importantly, today we received the green light to go ahead," he says about the $1.5 million expedition.

As per Daily Mail, the 700 or so tiny metallic spheres his team analyzed contain compositions that do not match any natural or man-made alloys of Earth.

"I was thrilled when Stein Jacobsen [the one who performed the composition analysis of the spherules] reported to me about it based on the results in his laboratory... Stein is a highly conservative and professional geochemist with a worldwide reputation. He had no bias or agenda whatsoever and expected to find familiar spherules with solar system composition. But the data showed something new, never reported in the scientific literature. Science is guided by evidence," Professor Loeb said in a statement to the outlet.

Analysis has shown that the fragments are rich in Beryllium, lanthanum, and uranium, in addition to a low content of elements that bind to iron, like Rhenium - one of the rarest elements found on Earth. However, the findings are yet to answer whether the fragments are artificial or natural in origin. The Harvard physicist says that it is the next question his research aims to answer.

“People say ‘Oh, it’s just a space rock. We saw so many space rocks in the past. What’s new about it? It’s the first one that came from outside the solar system and, second, it’s tougher than 99.7 percent of everything we have seen," Professor Loeb says in a statement to The Harvard Crimson. "We should be able to tell what its origin is — whether it’s an artificial alloy, for example, if it were a spacecraft of another technological civilization,” he adds.

Unilever beats shareholder case over Ben & Jerry's Israel boycott

 Ben & Jerry's, a brand of Unilever, is seen on display in a store in Manhattan, New York City

© Thomson Reuters

By Jody Godoy

(Reuters) - A Manhattan federal judge dismissed a lawsuit against Unilever Plc on Tuesday that claimed the company misled U.S. investors by not immediately disclosing a decision by its Ben & Jerry's unit to stop selling ice cream in Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories.

A Michigan pension fund sued in June 2022, seeking damages for a drop in Unilever shares after Ben & Jerry's announced in July 2021 it would stop sales in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and parts of East Jerusalem.

U.S. District Judge Lorna Schofield ruled on Tuesday that Unilever was not required to disclose the boycott when Ben & Jerry's board decided on it in 2020 because Unilever had ultimate control over whether to implement it.

While Ben & Jerry's board oversees its social mission, Unilever retained authority over financial and operational decisions when it bought the ice cream company in 2000.

Schofield said the delay in announcing the board's resolution was likely "to determine what, if anything, to do about it."

An attorney representing the pension fund for fire and police in the Michigan community of St. Clair Shores and a Unilever spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The pension fund had sought damages for those who held Unilever American depositary receipts in July 2021, when they fell after several U.S. states reviewed their relationships with the British consumer goods company and some Jewish groups accused Ben & Jerry's of antisemitism.

Founded in 1978, Ben & Jerry's has long positioned itself as socially conscious. It said in July 2021 that selling ice cream in the occupied Palestinian territories was "inconsistent with our values."

Most countries consider Israeli settlements in those territories illegal, which Israel disputes. In 2022, Unilever sold its interest in Ben & Jerry's operations in Israel.

The Vermont-based ice cream maker sued to block the sale. The companies settled the dispute in December.

The case is City of St. Clair Shores Police and Fire Retirement System v. Unilever Plc et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 22-05011.

(Reporting by Jody Godoy and Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

Wild horses could be removed from N.D. park

Story by Associated Press 
Jack Dura

BISMARCK, N.D. — The beloved wild horses that roam freely in North Dakota's Theodore Roosevelt National Park could be removed under a National Park Service proposal that advocates say could sever a cultural link to the past.

Visitors who drive the scenic park road can often see bands of horses, a symbol of the West and a sight that delights tourists. Advocates want to see the horses continue to roam the Badlands, and disagree with park officials who have branded the horses as “livestock.”

The Park Service is revising its livestock plans and writing an environmental assessment to examine the impacts of taking no new action — or to remove the horses altogether.

Removal would entail capturing horses and giving some of them first to tribes, and later auctioning the animals or giving them to other entities. Another approach would include techniques to prevent future reproduction and would allow those horses to live out the rest of their lives in the park.

The horses have allies in government leaders and advocacy groups. One advocate says the horses' popularity won't stop park officials from removing them from the landscape of North Dakota's top tourist attraction.

“At the end of the day, that's our national park paid for by our tax dollars, and those are our horses. We have a right to say what happens in our park and to the animals that live there," Chasing Horses Wild Horse Advocates President Chris Kman told The Associated Press.

Last year, Park Superintendent Angie Richman told The Bismarck Tribune that the park has no law or requirement for the horses to be in the park. Regardless of what decision is ultimately made, the park will have to reduce its roughly 200 horses to 35-60 animals under a 1978 environmental assessment's population objective, she previously said.

Kman said she would like the park “to use science” to “properly manage the horses," including a minimum of 150-200 reproductive horses for genetic viability. Impacts of the park's use of a contraceptive on mares are unclear, she added.

Ousting the horse population “would have a detrimental impact on the park as an ecosystem,” Kman said. The horses are a historical fixture, while the park reintroduced bison and elk, she said.

A couple bands of wild horses were accidentally fenced into the park after it was established in 1947, said Castle McLaughlin, who in the 1980s researched the history and origins of the horses while working as a graduate student for the Park Service in North Dakota.

Park officials in the early years sought to eradicate the horses, shooting them on sight and hiring local cowboys to round them up and remove them, she said. The park even sold horses to a local zoo at one point to be food for large cats.

Around 1970, a new superintendent discovered Roosevelt had written about the presence of wild horses in the Badlands during his time there. Park officials decided to retain the horses as a historic demonstration herd to interpret the open-range ranching era. "However, the Park Service still wasn't thrilled about them," McLaughlin told the AP.

“Basically they're like cultural artifacts almost because they reflect several generations of western North Dakota ranchers and Native people. They were part of those communities," and might have ties to Hunkpapa Lakota leader Sitting Bull, she said.

In the 1880s, Theodore Roosevelt hunted and ranched as a young man in the Badlands of what is now western North Dakota. The Western tourist town of Medora is at the gates of the national park that bears his name.

Roosevelt looms large in North Dakota, where a presidential library in his honor is under construction near the park — a legislative push in 2019 that was championed by Republican Gov. Doug Burgum.

Burgum has offered for the state to collaborate with the Park Service to manage the horses. Earlier this year, North Dakota's Republican-controlled Legislature passed a resolution in support of preserving the horses.

Republican U.S. Sen. John Hoeven of North Dakota has included legislation in the U.S. Interior Department's appropriations bill that he told the AP “would direct them to keep horses in the park in line with what was there at the time that Teddy Roosevelt was out in Medora.”

“Most all of the input we've got is that people want to retain horses. We've been clear we think (the park) should retain horses,” Hoeven said. He's pressing the park to keep more than 35-60 horses for genetics reasons.

The senator said he expects the environmental review to be completed soon, which will provide an opportunity for public comment. Richman told the AP the park plans to release the assessment this summer. A timeline for a final decision is unclear.

The environmental review will look at the impact of each of the three proposals in a variety of areas, Maureen McGee-Ballinger, the park’s deputy superintendent, told the AP.

There were thousands of responses during the previous public comment period on the park's proposals — the vast majority of which opposed “complete livestock removal.”

Kman's group has been active in gathering support for the horses, including drafting government resolutions and contacting congressional offices, tribal leaders, similar advocacy groups and “pretty much anyone that would listen to me,” she said.

McLaughlin said the park's effort carries “a stronger possibility that they'll succeed this time than has ever been the case in the past. I mean, they have never been this determined and publicly open about their intentions, but I've also never seen the state fight for the horses like they are now."

The park's North Unit, about 70 miles (112.65 kilometers) from Medora, has about nine longhorn cattle. The proposals would affect the longhorns, too, though the horses are the greater concern. Hoeven said his legislation doesn't address the longhorns. The cattle are managed under a 1970 plan.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park “is one of very few national parks that does have horses, and that sets it apart,” North Dakota Commerce Tourism and Marketing Director Sara Otte Coleman said in January at a press conference with Burgum and lawmakers.

Wild horses also roam in Assateague Island National Seashore in Maryland and Virginia.

The horses' economic impact on tourism is impossible to delineate, but their popularity is high among media, photographers, travel writers and social media influencers who tout them, Otte Coleman said.

“Removal of the horses really eliminates a feature that our park guests are accustomed to seeing,” she said.

Australia sets date for historic referendum on its First Nations people

Story by By Hilary Whiteman, CNN •

Australia has set the date for its first referendum in 24 years as polls suggest the government is on course for failure unless it can reverse declining support.

On October 14, more than 17 million registered voters across the country will vote on whether to change the constitution to recognize the land’s original inhabitants through a First Nations advisory group with a direct line to government.

“On that day, every Australian will have a once in a generation chance to bring our country together and to change it for the better,” said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Wednesday.

As soon as the date was announced, the no campaign sent a text message calling for tax deductible donations that read: “It’s on! Albo has called it and we have until OCT 14 to beat the Voice!”

Just one question will be asked that requires a “yes” or “no” answer – “A Proposed Law: to alter the Constitution to recognise the First Peoples of Australia by establishing an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. Do you approve this proposed alteration?”

The question has generated hundreds of headlines and hours of debate online and on air, as both sides mount vigorous campaigns to sway the majority in all states and territories.

A double majority vote is needed for the vote to pass – that is over 50% of voters across the country, and at least 50% in a majority of states – at least four of six. Votes in the territories – the Northern Territory and the Australian Capital Territory will only be included in the national total.

The vote is being seen as a pivotal moment, not only because constitutional change is rare and irreversible but because it has illuminated issues that have festered for centuries.

The Voice, if approved, would enshrine a body in the constitution made up of Indigenous people to advise the government on laws that relate to them.

Supporters say the vote is an opportunity to treat the raw wounds of injustice, to finally listen to First Nations people following generations of persecution, racism and neglect.

Others say it’s a token gesture that at best will achieve nothing and risks dividing the nation by giving some Australians a special place above others in the constitution.

The landscape is further complicated by those in the “yes” camp who believe a mark on a ballot is a small stand against racism destined to be exhibited by some “no” voters, whose ranks include some First Nations people who argue that voting yes will absolve Australians of any substantive action against racism and what’s really needed is a treaty.


Members of the audience react during the WA Liberals for No Campaign Launch in Perth, Sunday, August 20, 2023. - Richard Wainwright/AAP Image/Reuters© Provided by CNN

Is a tick a yes?

Now a date has been called, campaigners are expected to ramp up efforts to capture undecided voters, who may not automatically cast their ballots along traditional political party lines.

While the Labor government wants a yes vote, Australia’s other major parties – the Liberal Party and National Party, whose coalition was dumped last May after nine years in power – are backing a “no.”

The heated political climate has created spot fires of misinformation that the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has attempted to snuff out before they catch hold.

For example, last week, Liberal leader Peter Dutton suggested that the AEC process was flawed because the AEC commissioner said they’d likely accept a tick for yes but not a cross for no.

“At every turn, it just seems to me that they’re taking the opportunity to skew this in favor of the yes vote when Australians just want a fair election, not a dodgy one,” Dutton told Sky News.

The AEC released a statement saying it “completely and utterly rejects the suggestions by some that by transparently following the established, public and known legislative requirements we are undermining the impartiality and fairness of the referendum.”

The AEC said by law it is obliged to count votes with a clear voting intention that have been incorrectly cast and that “longstanding legal advice provides that a cross can be open to interpretation as to whether it denotes approval or disapproval.”

A question of perception

Beyond arguments over procedure, the debate has struck at the heart of how the nation perceives its Indigenous people 235 years after the arrival of British settlers irreparably transformed the fates of those whose ancestors had inhabited the Australian subcontinent for tens of thousands of years.

Government statistics updated each year show the enduring toll of colonization, casting a broad brush over an Indigenous population whose hundreds of distinct groups make up less than 4% of the population – some 800,000 people in a nation of 26 million.

For a long time, Australian history was told through the lens of colonizers, who ignored or downplayed the country’s violent roots, says Anna Clark, a historian at the Australian Centre for Public History, at the University of Technology Sydney.

At the end of the 19th century, she said Indigenous people didn’t fit into Australia’s nation-building narrative, and decades later, as the American civil rights and anti-apartheid movements took hold, “the silence became overwhelming.”

Demands from the Indigenous community grew louder and were discussed, refined and finally drafted into the “Uluru Statement from the Heart” – a document endorsed by nearly 250 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander leaders and elders. The statement forms the basis of the Voice proposal – which Clark says historians “overwhelmingly” back.

“It’s a really important moment because Australian historians have kind of curated and defined what Australian history is and who is a historian and who can tell that story. And right now we’re being invited to step back and listen to other national narratives and to give that voice to Aboriginal storytellers and knowledge holders.”


Cedric Marika leads the Gumatj dancers during Garma Festival in East Arnhem, Australia, on August 4. - 

Tamati Smith/Getty Images© Provided by CNN

No vote strengthening in the polls

But recent polling suggests if a vote was cast now, it would likely fail.

The no campaign has gained momentum with questions about the detail, suggesting that voters don’t know enough about how the Voice will work to make a decision. The government says those details will be debated in parliament after constitutional change.

The last time Australians were asked to vote in a referendum on the country’s Indigenous people was in 1967 – when 90% voted to include Indigenous Australians in population counts and for the government to enact laws pertaining to them.

This time around, June Oscar, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Social Justice Commissioner at the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), is concerned that the information isn’t reaching some people – those in remote areas and others who are shutting out the conversation, which at times has been distressing for some First Nations people.

“We are seeing or hearing a lot of racist and harmful discourse in relation to the referendum,” Oscar said, noting the AHRC produced a referendum resource kit that advises people on how to minimize harm. Tips include centering Indigenous knowledge, voices and perspectives and avoiding racially denigrating language.

Oscar said she’s also “saddened and disappointed at some of the untruths” being spread.

The fear among some is that if the vote fails, it will send a message, rightly or wrongly, that racists have won – and centuries of fighting for respect as the country’s First Nations people will then fall to future generations.

“I think there is a strong and shared belief that we should and we are capable of getting this right during our lifetime, and that we should not leave this legacy of the fight to our children and grandchildren,” Oscar said.

And if it fails?

“We go back to the drafting board again and learn from this for whenever the next opportunity comes around.”

But Albanese has made it clear there are no second chances.

“Voting no leads nowhere. It means nothing changes. Voting no closes the door on this opportunity to move forward,” he said on Wednesday.

Directly addressing Australians he said, “Don’t close the door on an idea that came from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people themselves, and don’t close the door on the next generation of Indigenous Australians.”

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TVO strike highlights the scourge of contract work in public service journalism

The Conversation
Story by Nicole Cohen, Associate Professor, Communication, University of Toronto •

Workers at TVO are on strike for the first time in the public broadcaster’s 53-year history.

Amid the din of traffic outside TVO’s offices in Toronto, unionized journalists, producers and education workers hold picket signs declaring: “Fund TVO Like it Matters.”

TVO’s contract with the union, a branch of the Canadian Media Guild, expired in October. After months of negotiations, workers are striking to improve wages and to address precarious employment.

The union says that workers have received below-inflation wage increases since 2012, including zero increases between 2012-2014.

I spoke to a producer who has worked at TVO’s flagship current affairs show, The Agenda, for 22 years and earns $74,000.

Wages shrinking

In a video posted to social media, digital journalist Daniel Kitts, who has worked at TVO for 25 years, says: “For the past 10 years we have tried to… support this organization by seeing our wages shrink basically every year thanks to inflation. And after 10 years, we just can’t do it again.”

Another crucial issue in the dispute is temporary and precarious employment, when workers are kept on perpetual contracts with no hope of their position becoming permanent.

TVO workers say these contracts prevent them from doing the kind of rigorous, civic journalism and current affairs programming that serves communities in Ontario.

In a news ecosystem where traditional advertising revenue is down, outlets chase clicks at the whims of platforms like Meta and X and disinformation circulates widely, the need for quality, fact-based public affairs programming is particularly urgent.
The risks of precarious work

In their 2015 study of precarious employment in southern Ontario, researchers found it has collective, cumulative effects on communities in what they call a precarity penalty.

People in precarious employment earn low incomes, face intermittent and insecure work, lack access to benefits and training and endure stress, social isolation and poor mental health.

Such pressures on individual lives shapes people’s participation in community life, and precarity becomes a burden borne by society at large.

Striking TVO workers are drawing attention to journalism’s precarity penalty: the consequences for robust journalism when the work of producing journalism is made precarious.


A striking TVO employee hands out flyers on the picket line outside of TVO offices.

© THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby

At issue at TVO is funding. TVO is funded via a provincial Crown Corporation and reports to the Ministry of Education. It receives a base operating grant of $38.3 million annually, but funding hasn’t increased as costs and inflation have risen.

Rank-and-file workers are feeling the squeeze as senior managers receive above-inflation raises. The Agenda host Steve Paikin told CBC Ottawa that when he joined TVO 30 years ago, there were 650 people working at TVO. Now there are about 250. “I’m really nervous about the place being squeezed any further,” he said.
TVO’s contract workers

The government wants to see TVO increase “self-generated revenue,” including donations and sponsorships. But precarious employment is baked into this model, TVO union branch president Meredith Martin told me.

As money comes in for specific projects, workers are hired on contract. When the project ends, so do the contracts. No one is made permanent in such an unstable funding environment.

TVO wants the union to give up language that enables workers on contract for two years to become full-time employees, eligible for benefits and other protections. Martin has seen first-hand the problems the contract model brings to the workplace: high staff turnover, low morale and an inability for workers to invest in quality work.

TVO signage is seen at Canada Square in Toronto. Almost 96 per cent of CMG’s members at TVO rejected an offer from the employer.

© THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby

In journalism, precarity is manifold. Insecure work prevents people from establishing themselves in an organization and accessing career supports. Precariously employed journalists can’t contribute meaningfully to teams, speak out against sexism and racism at work or enjoy professional autonomy.

Employment insecurity is linked to industrial precariousness, where technological and economic changes spur management to shrink journalists’ wages and job security. As profits decline and labour forces contract, fewer journalists are in secure positions and increasing numbers of workers are on contract or freelance.

The impact on diverse communities

Two successive annual surveys by the Canadian Association of Journalists show that women, racialized, Indigenous, queer and trans journalists are concentrated in the most precarious positions, making it difficult to meaningfully diversify journalism in Canada.

Journalists, researchers and advocates have long been calling for increased racial and gender diversity in journalism, demanding that newsrooms represent the communities they report on. Precarity is an impediment to such diversity.

Public, non-profit outlets like TVO can and should become model employers, committed to producing journalism in the public interest and providing workers, particularly those from diverse communities, with the sustainable jobs necessary to do so. (The CBC is also under fire for maintaining a permanent underclass of temporary workers).

TVO workers are part of a broader movement to protect journalism via unionization. Since 2015, more than 150 newsrooms in Canada and the United States have organized unions.

In my review of their contracts, I find many examples of language that converts contract workers into full-time permanent workers after a set period, usually 12 months. This type of language is becoming the industry standard, negotiated by worker-led bargaining committees to gain some stability in an unstable industry.

Although work in journalism has never been a safe bet, it’s now rife with deepening uncertainty. In this context, TVO workers’ strike for material security to do work in the public interest matters more than ever.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.

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Nicole Cohen has received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Canada 'trailing partners' on securing vital utilities and services: internal memo

Story by The Canadian Press •


OTTAWA — A newly released federal memo concedes Canada is "trailing key international partners" who have updated their approaches to securing vital utilities and services from a growing array of risks.

The Public Safety Canada memo says "new and rapidly evolving threats pose a greater risk of harm to Canadians and their cyber, economic and national security."

The Canadian Press used the Access to Information Act to obtain the internal briefing note, prepared in advance of a January meeting of deputy ministers.

The federal government is looking to update a 2009 national strategy intended to protect critical infrastructure in sectors ranging from energy and water to manufacturing and transportation.

An updated strategy would bring Canada into greater alignment with international partners as officials manage risks from extreme weather events, supply chain failures, cyberattacks or espionage, said Public Safety spokesman Tim Warmington.

"With a renewed understanding of the most vital assets and systems, and the interdependencies between them, Canada will be able to further combat the risks and vulnerabilities to critical infrastructure."

Just this week, a federal report warned that profit-seeking cybercriminals are expected to target high-value organizations in critical infrastructure sectors in Canada and around the world over the next two years.

In highlighting the importance of infrastructure protection, the government points to natural calamities including wildfires, flooding and landslides, the threat of malicious cyberactivity by foreign adversaries and the supply chain disruptions and goods shortages caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"There's a clear recognition that critical infrastructure is subject to significant threat," said Aaron Shull, managing director and general counsel at the Centre for International Governance Innovation in Waterloo, Ont.

Shull points to reviews and policy updates in the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia aimed at protecting their important systems in a changing world. "Our friends and allies are clearly moving on it."

He stresses the benefits of looking at the threats to Canada in a comprehensive, integrated way, rather than in piecemeal fashion divorced from a broader security strategy.

Shull also argues Canada's policy cannot be a "one and done type of thing, where it's like, 'Oh, we updated it, we've got a new strategy in place, we don't need to look at it for another 20 years, right?'"

"We need to have a mechanism in place to make sure that our policy frameworks are keeping up with the world around us."

Since the fall of 2021, Public Safety has been consulting interested parties on renewal of the national strategy on critical infrastructure. An October 2022 report cited the key themes that emerged over the previous year, including:

— possible addition of the space and defence sectors to the list of critical areas;

— expansion of partnerships to involve municipalities and Indigenous communities in forums;

— establishment of criteria to identify and prioritize the most vital infrastructure sectors, organizations and assets;

— and inclusion of the public and the broader infrastructure community in information sharing on risks.

"Some signalled a desire for the government to engage in more all-hazards risk assessments and analysis, and share the results of these analyses in a timely fashion," says the report on the consultations.

Respondents wanted to see more investigation of risks from cyberattacks, emerging threats such as pandemics, protests and extreme weather events and the dangers to communication networks and supply chains.

The consultations "identified gaps to fill and areas to further support," Warmington said.

Public Safety's ongoing work to renew the national strategy complements other ongoing federal security initiatives as well as efforts on emergency management and climate change adaptation, he added.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 29, 2023.

Jim Bronskill, The Canadian Press

Marching to Ottawa for neglected and murdered Indigenous men: One family’s fight for justice grows

Story by Michelle Stewart, Associate Professor of Gender, Religion and Critical Studies, University of Regina •
THE CONVERSATION

Amanda Snell (left) stands next to her car which has a photo of her deceased partner, Steven Dubois, taped to it. Richelle Dubois (right) stands next to a photo of her son, Haven Dubois.© (Michelle Stewart)

Summer in Canada means our highways are filled with tourists and travellers. For many summers now, some travellers move with a specific mission on those highways: to raise awareness about social issues facing Indigenous Peoples and the ongoing harmful impacts of Canada’s Indian Residential School program.

This summer, the Dubois family from the Pasqua First Nation in Saskatchewan is taking that walk. As they march from Regina to Ottawa, their hope is to raise awareness about the vulnerabilities and systemic inequalities faced by Indigenous boys, men and Two-Spirit People.

Specifically, the Dubois family is hoping to get some care and raise attention about what happened to two of their deceased family members. They are also demanding a national inquiry into missing, murdered and neglected Indigenous boys, men and Two-Spirit People.

My research focuses on racialized justice and settler colonialism. I first came to know the Dubois family in 2016 when Richelle was parked outside a Regina police station in -40 C weather demanding accountability in the investigation of her son’s death. We have since become friends and colleagues. I met up with the family as they began their walk.

Stories from fellow travelers

The cars leading the Dubois walk are covered with blue hand prints and photographs of deceased family members, Haven Dubois and Steven Dubois. The family’s march calls attention to the death of their loved ones, but also to all Indigenous people who face institutional neglect.

Constance Dubois, 59, is marching for her brother Steven who she says was mistreated at their local hospital in Regina. She also walks for her grandson, Haven, who she believes was murdered.

As they walk, the family has met many others on the road with similar stories.

Constance says the stories from fellow travellers have had a significant impact on her and her family: “The stories coming out while we are on the road makes us more determined to take their stories to Ottawa.”

Richelle Dubois, 42, is Haven’s mother. She says the stories have a common theme: “a lack of investigation and accountability.”
Haven Dubois, searching for justice

In 2015, Haven Dubois was 14 when he died. It was a school day and according to his school, he was on a school field trip. But instead he was found by his mother, unresponsive in a local shallow ravine in Regina.

According to his family, Haven was a strong swimmer.

The family believe Haven was murdered, and that his murder has not been investigated because it was prematurely deemed an accident. According to them, Haven had been subjected to gang recruitment and bullying prior to his death.

They see a flawed police investigation and modified coroner’s reports.

Intimidation and disrespectful care

After they rushed their son to the hospital, they say police declared their son’s death an accident before they left that day. Following his death, the Dubois family say they faced community intimidation and disrespect from police.

In the eight years since Haven’s death, the Dubois family has been fighting for a robust police investigation, exploring multiple mechanisms of police accountability. The family has seen two coroner’s reports, but believe they have not seen justice.

Just before they left on their walk, the Dubois family finally received a notice from the Saskatchewan coroner saying an inquest will be called in 2024 to investigate the circumstances of Haven’s death.

The inquest will focus on the cause of death, but will not look at how the investigation was originally handled.

The Dubois family feels they have demonstrated connections between other flawed investigations into the deaths of Indigenous people during the same time period.

Canadian-based sociologists Jerry Flores and Andrea Román Alfaro note the role between police inaction and settler colonialism and argue it is “through their (in)actions — what they say, tell, and do or do not do — that police affirm the disposability of Indigenous bodies, constraining the survival of Indigenous communities and consolidating settler colonialism.”
Steven Dubois, ‘ignored to death’

Steven Dubois, 47, was a partner and father of three when he died on Feb. 8, 2022.

His family believes Steven received substandard care at their local hospital. Steven had been previously diagnosed with a liver disease and the family says this diagnosis impacted his care.

Over the course of one week, they said Steven was taken by ambulance to the emergency room three times and was released back to his family despite being in medical distress. It was only when his family refused his return by ambulance and insisted that he receive medical care that he was admitted to the hospital.

Once there, the family says they received mixed messages about his care and how to manage his pain. Staff said Steven was alert and responsive, but it was clear to the family he was not — he was declining rapidly. Family members can only speculate had he been adequately cared for, he may have lived longer.

After his death, his partner, Amanda Snell, who had maintained diligent daily logs while Steven was in hospital, wrote to health care officials demanding information.

The correspondence she received indicate that Steven could have received medication as frequently as every 30 minutes to manage his pain, but he received it two to six times in a 24-hour cycle.

Amanda says the hospital confirmed hygiene protocols were not met.

His daughter, Avery Snell, said: “The very people who were meant to provide care and comfort made my dad endure excruciating pain…It is now our time to stand up and seek change for injustices that Indigenous families face every day in our society. Shame on our health systems.”

According to research, Steven’s story is one of many across Canada’s health-care system in which Indigenous people are subject to a “pattern of harm, neglect and death in hospitals.” Essentially, they are “ignored to death,” according to Manitoba law professor Brenda Gunn.
Rising voices

Critical theorist Sherene Razack writes that “although Indigenous people repeatedly register the connection between colonial violence and accountability, their voices are seldom heard.”

This summer, the Dubois family have added their voices to an increasingly large demand for further inquests by the Canadian government to continue to examine the impacts of colonial violence and racism on policing, justice and health-care practices.

The family’s next major town will be Sault St. Marie, Ont. They anticipate arriving in Ottawa by mid-September when they are hoping to meet with representatives from the Assembly of First Nations and the federal government. To find up-to-date details of their walk, visit their social media page.

This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts.

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Michelle Stewart has held funding from multiple organizations and entities including from federal contracts (for example Public Safety Canada) as well as research grants that include Tri-Agency funding. Michelle knows the Dubois family and has written in Briarpatch Magazine with Richelle Dubois as well as co-taught a community class on racialized policing.