Bell Canada failing First Nation customers

UOI OFFICES (Nov. 24, 2010) – Hundreds of First Nations telephone customers across Ontario are complaining about service providers failing to follow government direction to refund the provincial sales tax portion of the Harmonized Sales Tax.

“They don’t have any problem finding the cheques we send them to deposit in their big corporate bank account,” said Anishinabek Deputy Grand Chief Glen Hare. “But they seem to misplace our citizens’ requests for their lawful refund of the 8 per cent PST that is still on their telephone bills.”

Hare said he had heard horror stories from homeowners in the 40 Anishinabek Nation communities across Ontario who have spent hours on the phone trying to have Bell Canada, one of Canada’s largest corporations, delete the PST from monthly phone, internet and satellite bills.

After the Ontario government directed businesses in the province to comply with directives to honour First Nations treaty rights to exemption from the 8 per cent PST portion of the new 13 per cent HST, Bell Canada asked First Nations customers to send copies of their certificates of Indian Status and a refund form to FAX number 1-877-338-3013 and using the request form http://support.bell.ca/Documents/General/Other/taxexempt%28en%29.pdf?ver=7.0

But complaints are flooding in about lack of response to the requests and poor customer service from Bell Canada. First Nations citizens are being told the forms can’t be located and they will have to re-submit the information.

“Maybe if they were paying rent for all those poles on our territories the phone companies would pay more attention to First Nation customer service,” said Deputy Grand Chief Hare. “We’re looking for Bell Canada to issue a public apology to our citizens and start obeying the law.”

All telecommunications for First Nations citizens in Ontario were to be PST exempt starting September 1, 2010. This includes phone, cell phone, internet, cable and satellite services.

The Anishinabek Nation established the Union of Ontario Indians as its secretariat in 1949. The UOI is a political advocate for 40 member communities across Ontario, representing approximately 55,000 people. The Union of Ontario Indians is the oldest political organization in Ontario and can trace its roots back to the Confederacy of Three Fires, which existed long before European contact.

Forcible foster care ‘genocide’: UN Declaration

UOI OFFICES (November 24, 2010) – Anishinabek have the right to keep their children in their own communities, including those who require foster care.

“Other governments must put a stop to the harm that has been caused to thousands of our kids – first in residential schools, then in foster homes,” said Deputy grand Chief Glen Hare. “They have to give us the resources our communities need to look after our own children; their welfare is more important than providing jobs for outside agencies.”

“And now that Canada has finally endorsed the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,” he added, “it needs to understand that forcibly removing children from one group of peoples to another is considered genocide by the standards of international law.”

Hare noted that a Human Rights complaint has been filed against Canada for its funding of First Nations child welfare agencies across the country at an average of 22 per cent less than the budgets of provincial agencies like Children’s Aid Societies.

The Anishinabek Nation established the Union of Ontario Indians as its secretariat in 1949. The UOI is a political advocate for 40 member communities across Ontario, representing approximately 55,000 people. The Union of Ontario Indians is the oldest political organization in Ontario and can trace its roots back to the Confederacy of Three Fires, which existed long before European contact.

Update on the Growing Grassroots Opposition to Tory Anti-Migration Bill C-49

• Statements have been issued by Health for All (http://health4all.ca/), Health Providers Against Poverty (http://www.healthprovidersagainstpoverty.ca), over 200 Jewish community members (http://jewishopenletteragainstc49.blogspot.com) and numerous others. The Canadian Council for Refugees has compiled a partial list of organizations against the Bill at http://ccrweb.ca/en/organizations-calling-defeat-bill-c-49.

• No One Is Illegal - Toronto held a mass-flyering event on Saturday, Nov 20, 2010 - Photos: http://bit.ly/aUGed5, Radio podcast interview with Abeer Majeed: http://bit.ly/bAfM6o

• Renowned author, academic and activist Nandita Sharma was recently interviewed by No One Is Illegal-Toronto Radio on the issue: http://bit.ly/9eBh5d (You can download NOII-TO weekly radio podcasts from http://bit.ly/9geqeK)

• No One Is Illegal-Ottawa did a recent banner drop against Bill C-49: http://bit.ly/auQZ7e

In an extremely suspicious move, the Harper govt. re-introduced Bill C-56, another immigration bill, late Friday afternoon attempting to bury the news story. Though the full details of Bill C-56 are not yet known, the announcement that immigration enforcement will have enhanced powers to turn down work visas for migrants on arbitrary grounds is a dangerous expansion of the closed-border strategy and needs to be closely monitored. You can read the press release here: http://bit.ly/9DGb1N

For more background info, and to fight back against Bill C-49, visit http://toronto.nooneisillegal.org/node/495

For an article on how the Tories are pushing through key immigration changes, read http://www.rabble.ca/news/2010/11/understanding-tory-immigration-strategy

UN finds Canada and Ontario violate human rights

An agency of the United Nations has ruled a ban on farm unions violates the human rights of Ontario’s 100,000 migrant and domestic farm workers

GENEVA – November 18, 2010 – The UN’s International Labour Organization (ILO) has ruled that Canada and Ontario, through Ontario’s ban on farm unions, violate the human rights of the more than 100,000 migrant and domestic agriculture workers in that province. It follows a complaint filed in March 2009 by UFCW Canada — the country’s largest private-sector union and a leading advocate for farm workers’ rights for over two decades. The ILO is the United Nations agency responsible for formulating international labour standards including basic labour rights.

“The ILO has sent a clear message to the Canadian and Ontario governments that Ontario must end its blatant abuse of the rights of the workers who grow and harvest our food,” says Wayne Hanley, the national president of UFCW Canada. “These are farm workers, not farm animals, and people have human rights including the right to collective bargaining.”

The ILO ruling was handed down in Geneva (http://www.ufcw.ca/ilo). It found that Ontario’s Agricultural Employees Act, 2002 (AEPA) which denies all Ontario agriculture workers the right to join a union and engage in collective bargaining is a violation of human rights under two United Nation’s conventions: Convention No. 87 – Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organize, and Convention No. 98 – Right to Organize and Collective Bargaining.

Canada is a signatory to Convention 87 and supported Convention 98, “so you would expect a federal government that bid to get on the UN Security Council would have the integrity to follow up on the UN conventions,” said the UFCW Canada president. “The feds can say it’s a provincial matter but the reality is that both the Harper and McGuinty governments are partners with the farm lobby in plowing under the human rights of people doing some of the hardest and most dangerous work there is.”

The ILO ruling reinforces a November 17, 2008 Ontario Court of Appeal ruling that found the AEPA violated Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms by denying Ontario farm workers their freedom of association. The Ontario government appealed that decision to the Supreme Court of Canada which has twice before upheld the Charter guarantee of collective bargaining rights. The Supreme Court heard the appeal in December 2009 and its final and definitive ruling is pending.

“While Ontario continues to stall by using the courts, the lives of the workers continue to be at risk,” says Hanley. “Without labour rights, Ontario farm workers remain powerless when faced with abusive employers and dangerous working conditions. The Ontario courts have said it. The Supreme Court has said it, and now the United Nations has said it. Labour rights are human rights, and that must include Ontario farm workers.”

UFCW Canada, in association with the Agriculture Workers Alliance (AWA), operates ten agriculture worker support centres across Canada. The AWA is Canada’s largest national association and support network for both domestic as well as migrant agriculture workers.

CONTACT:
Stan Raper, National Co-ordinator
Agriculture Workers Alliance (AWA)
416.675.1104 x2232 office
416.523.0937 cell
sraper@ufcw.ca

www.ufcw.ca
www.awa-ata.ca

To Sisters In Spirit Supporters

It’s not over yet.

The Native Women’s Association of Canada’s (NWAC) Sisters In Spirit initiative 2005-2010 was denied the renewal of its special project status and are now parceled under one portfolio under Status of Women Canada. This change has negatively affected the activities that NWAC can undertake and will hamper our ability to maintain focus on resolving the epidemic of violence that threatens Aboriginal women. A strategic, long-term approach is needed to sustain our high quality of work and effectiveness on this issue.

Sisters In Spirit began out of a dire concern shared by many groups, including the Aboriginal community, social service agencies, churches and international groups such as Amnesty International. These organizations were alarmed by the large number of cases of missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls; they supported NWAC and our application for funding for the Sisters In Spirit initiative to address this issue.

Five years forward, Sisters In Spirit is no longer just a project - it has become something much larger. International, National, local and grass roots groups and individuals now have a connection to the name Sisters In Spirit as a global movement and brand. Sisters In Spirit is recognized in Europe, Latin America, Australia and North America as a symbol of the commitment of not only the community to ensuring the safety of Aboriginal women but also as a way to honour the missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls, their families and their communities.

The Sisters In Spirit logo “Grandmother Moon” is also recognized in conjunction with the initiative and as a connection to the nearly 600 known missing and murdered Aboriginal women and girls. The families of Sisters In Spirit trust the name and logo and feel a strong affiliation with them as a beacon of hope for change.

Sisters In Spirit has outgrown project status. It demonstrates NWAC’s success in conducting research, policy development and community engagement on this difficult issue. NWAC is recognized by both governmental and non-governmental organizations as a leader in this activity and an expert voice on this issue – a voice that brings forward the concerns of families who have lost a loved one as well as all those in the Aboriginal and wider communities who share a commitment to reducing violence and improving the circumstances facing Aboriginal women.

NWAC is concerned that the difficulties surrounding ongoing funding are not only curbing the success of the movement but also causing unnecessary pain to the families directly affected by this issue. NWAC hopes that the federal government will recognize this unique situation and work with the organization to make the right decision. NWAC looks forward to further collaboration with the government on new, ongoing and additional projects that will enable us to continue the work we began almost six years ago.

How you can help:

• Sending a letter to the federal government stating your support of NWAC’s Sisters In Spirit and urging them to make ongoing funding to this activity a priority
• Posting support of NWAC’s Sisters In Spirit on your websites or other locations you feel would be beneficial
• Communicating with your affiliates and members to also pledge their support to NWAC’s Sisters In Spirit.

Our doors are always open to family members and communities. Our doors are always open to develop new partnerships and relationships. We would also like to put your letters and supporting documents on our website located at www.nwac.ca

Please feel free to contact us if you have any further questions, comments, or ideas.

Sisters In Spirit,
The Native Women’s Association of Canada
1-800-461-4043
sistersinspirit@nwac.ca

Support the Report - Help make a breakthrough on poverty in Canada

An all party committee of parliament has just put forward a report that could change the face of poverty in Canada.

The report calls for the federal government to immediately commit to a federal action plan to reduce poverty in Canada. Make Poverty History has contributed and pushed for this report, now we must make its recommendations a reality.

Send a message now to Diane Finley, the Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development urging her to respond positively to the recommendations in the report. Ask her to commit to developing a poverty reduction plan. Click on http://www.makepovertyhistory.ca/act/support-the-report-help-make-a-break-through-on-poverty-in-canada

The report, Federal Poverty Reduction Plan: Working in Partnership Towards Reducing Poverty in Canada (http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?DocId=4770921&Language=E&Mode=1&Parl=40&Ses=3), is the result of an extensive three-year study on the federal role in addressing poverty by the Parliamentary Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development (HUMA). They support the key goals of the Dignity for All campaign by recommending that the federal government immediately commit to a federal action plan to reduce poverty in Canada. Key components of a poverty reduction plan the committee recommends the federal government take action on include:

• Raising the Canada Child Tax Benefit and supplement to $5000 within 5 years;
• A long-term national housing and homelessness strategy;
• Measures to help the most vulnerable – a refundable Disability Tax Credit, easing EI qualifications, increasing adult literacy, increasing and indexing GIS for seniors, implementing an early learning and child care strategy; and
• Major help for Aboriginal People for housing, education and social services, including elimination of the two per cent cap on federal funding.
• Recently, the government has ignored recommendations from similar reports on Poverty from the Senate. Don’t let this happen again.

We can’t let this excellent parliamentary report just be ignored and sit on a shelf to gather dust. It was the result of extensive public hearings in a number of communities across Canada – something that action by Make Poverty History supporters helped to make happen. Members of Parliament listened to people living in poverty and have responded to what they heard with very positive and thoughtful recommendations, which if adopted would help to make poverty history in Canada.

Send a message now to the government that we need immediate action to end poverty in Canada. And send a copy of your message to your Member of Parliament asking her/him to support the recommendations in the HUMA Report.

And if you haven’t done so yet, visit www.dignityforall.ca and sign up your support to the Make Poverty History sponsored movement to end poverty in Canada.

Thank you,

Dennis Howlett
Make Poverty History

Bill C-389

In the next few weeks, the House of Commons will be voting on a proposed law to make it illegal to discriminate against transsexual or transgendered people and to make violence against transexual and transgendered people a hate crime.

Email your MP to support Bill C-389 at http://petition.web.net/psac/node/47?utm_source=PSAC+Master+List&utm_campaign=ab27d07245-Trans_rights_make_history_eng11_16_2010&utm_medium=email

Burnaby MP Bill Siksay has tried to get C-389, a private members bill, made law twice before. But this time, has made it to third reading, a critical stage in the process of becoming law.

But C-389 needs your support. Two conservative members of parliament voted against the bill in committee and you can bet transphobic organizations and lobbyists are gearing up to defeat this bill.

Please tell your MP that you support Bill C-389 and you want to see trans people enjoy protection from discrimination and you want to see violence against trans people treated as hate crimes.

Help make history.