The Toronto & York Region Labour Council is horrified and dismayed by another devastating and senseless racially-motivated act of hate.
The Canadian Labour Congress (CLC), the Ontario Federation of Labour (OFL), and the Toronto & York Region Labour Council (TYRLC) wholeheartedly condemn raiding and call on the labour movement to stand together for the benefit of all working people.
To see why the Conservatives deserve to be decisively voted out of office on June 2nd, take a look at what Labour Council Delegates have said about this government during its four years in power. Each statement accurately predicted the results of Ford’s decisions – the real costs.
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.
It has been two years since Canada declared a pandemic on March 11th, 2020. Twenty-four months of social distancing requirements, restrictions on travel and entertainment. And, twenty-four months of frontline worker exhaustion, fear, illness and loss. COVID-19 fatigue is real, and it is impacting our ability to feel compassion for one another’s suffering as we focus on dilemmas closer to home.
Each election cycle, Labour Council works to support the election of progressive candidates for city councils and school boards across Toronto and York Region. Toronto City Council races have had the highest profile.
Doug Ford is trying to pull the wool over workers’ eyes. He wants to look like he’s helping workers and COVID-struck employers. But he’s actually helping workers as little as possible while rewarding bosses who injure their workers or deny their status as employees, in a desperate bid for re-election in June.
When the world’s leaders arrived at Glasgow for the United Nations Climate Conference (COP26), they were greeted with a poignant image. The official COP26 banner hung from the giant 175-ton Finnieston Crane at the edge of the River Clyde, a symbol of the city’s industrial heritage. The message was clear – it is “Time for Heavy Lifting.”
Climate action is heating up. Here in Canada the labour movement continues to push for climate justice, while COP 26 participants gather in Glasgow, Scotland with a key goal of “securing global net zero by 2050 and keeping 1.5 degrees of warming within reach.”
On most days, Doug Ford’s Conservative government does not respond well to problems, or it actively makes things worse. If an election had been called a year-and-a-half ago, Ford would have lost.
