Category: Our Society

The Toronto & York Region Labour Council stands firmly in support of the Ontario Federation

At the end of election night – June 2nd, 2022 – the counting was over

The Toronto & York Region Labour Council is horrified and dismayed by another devastating and senseless racially-motivated act of hate.

In March 2022, the Ford government quietly scrapped equity hiring targets in arrangements for the $28.5 billion subway program (consisting of the Ontario Line, Yonge North Subway Extension, Scarborough Subway Extension, and Eglinton West LRT), undoing years of progress to bring women, people of colour, and Indigenous and Black residents into this well-paid workforce.

Two years after the last federal election, Prime Minister Trudeau has yet again dropped the writ and called for a snap federal election.

It has been a rough year for Ontario students, parents, teachers, and education workers. In the past 15 months, Ontario students have only been in school for approximately five months.

The Toronto & York Region Labour Council and its affiliates are still in shock and outrage over the most recent hate-motivated attack in London, Ontario this past Sunday, June 6th.

In the last year, we have often heard how “the COVID pandemic has laid bare the economic and racial inequalities of our society”. We know that to be true – as the conditions of work in long-term care, warehouses, factories, supermarkets and many other places have come to light in a way that was seldom discussed in the mainstream.

March 21, 2021 was the 61st anniversary of the Sharpeville massacre, when police opened fire on unarmed Black South Africans demonstrating against racist “pass” laws, killing and injuring hundreds of people.