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Statistics Canada Issues Warning about Quality of Its Own Data
This past week, Statistics Canada released some findings from its 2011 Canadian census data, showing that Canadians are speaking a greater variety of languages at home. Justifiably, this news got a...
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Federal Labour Minister Intervenes in Yet Another Dispute
Apparently, we have become so used to Federal Labour Minister Lisa Raitt prematurely intervening in public sector labour disputes that, when it happens, it isn’t even considered news any more. In late...
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The “Union Transparency” Bill: How Transparent is This?
Back in March of this year, Conservative MP Russ Hiebert introduced the so-called “union transparency” bill in Canada’s federal House of Commons. Bill C-377 is a private member’s bill that would...
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New Labo(u)r Laws: Solving Problems that Don’t Exist
The program I teach in puts a big emphasis on using case studies – giving students a description of a problem situation, getting them to think the situation through, and getting them to come up with...
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Scabby the Rat Gets Some Well-Deserved Attention
Although strikes and other labour-related actions often get negative coverage in the media, occasionally there are light-hearted parts to these events. And one of these is Scabby the Rat, the giant...
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What Being a Professional Really Means
My doctoral dissertation was about workers in semi-professional occupations, and how their identification with their profession’s values affected how they felt about their work. So I’m always...
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Kate Bush Receives Her CBE
As a huge Kate Bush fan, it delights me to report that yesterday she was officially appointed as a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) for “services to music”. The appointment was announced this past...
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Not Again: The “10 Year Collective Agreement” for BC Teachers Should Just Go...
Back in October of 2012, British Columbia’s premier, Christy Clark, proposed the idea of a 10-year-long collective agreement for teachers in BC’s public school system. The proposal came after a long...
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Adios, Amigo: More Problems at Library and Archives Canada
The Canadian media have been very busy in the last few days trying to keep up with the story about members of Canada’s Senate making suspicious expense claims. However, at the same time, another...
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BC Government Mandates Bargaining for 10-Year Teacher Agreement
A few weeks ago, I wrote about how the idea of a 10-year-long collective agreement for British Columbia public school teachers had raised its ugly head yet again in the context of the BC provincial...
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Unfortunate Labour Relations Quote of the Week
There’s a lot of good work that has been accomplished at the table so far. That needs to conclude this week. That’s British Columbia Education Minister Peter Fassbender’s instructions to the...
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Unions, Feminism, and the Fortress Mentality
When a movement for social change is struggling, what’s the best strategic response? Is it to protect and nurture what’s been achieved? Or is it to attempt to become even bigger, and risk undermining...
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Poll Used to Support Bill C-377 Was Flawed
A poll that was allegedly the basis for proposing Canada`s controversial “union transparency” legislation, Bill C-377, is now being reviewed by a professional standards organization. The Vancouver Sun...
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The “Compensation Equity Act”: Anything but Equitable
Once again, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) is promoting the idea of a “Compensation Equity Act” that would require British Columbia public sector workers to be paid no more than private sector...
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Activism: It’s Not Just for Labour Day
It’s Labour Day weekend, and as many of my colleagues ruefully note, this is the one time every year when labour and union issues are guaranteed to get some attention in the news. And it’s usually...
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Sick Days “Abuse”: More Nonsense from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation
Generally I try not to write about any “news” coming out of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, because their anti-union and anti-public service bias is so obvious. I did break down a few weeks ago and...
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Goodbye Madiba.
Reblogged from Campari and Sofa: Our beloved Tata (father) has died. He had been ill for months and we didn’t really know how he was. Of course, it was none of our business. He had retired from public...
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The Rise of the Post-New Left Political Vocabulary
Reblogged from The Public Autonomy Project: By S. D’Arcy If a handful of time-travelling activists from our own era were somehow transported into a leftist political meeting in 1970, would they even...
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More on Public Sector Sick Days “Abuse”
A few months ago I wrote about the Canadian Taxpayers Federation’s completely unsupported allegations of rampant sick day “abuse” by British Columbia’s public sector workers. Sadly, similar accusations...
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Getting It Right About Canadian Unions’ Rights
The Canadian Constitution Foundation (CCF) is a Calgary-based organization that bills itself as “Freedom’s defense team”. Although the CCF claims it is “non-partisan” and “politically neutral”, the...
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