Milton NDP Blog

751 unmarked graves. I don’t have words. I don’t know what to say. I don’t want this to be political. Now is not the time. Now, this week, it’s time to listen. Time to read and learn. I want to go back and reread the story of Chanie Wenjack and the Secret Path . I’ve held my fingers in the bullet holes at Batoche but I want to go back and review the life story of Louis Riel . I don’t want fireworks on Canada Day. I want to hear the sound of drumming . I should reread the story of Shanawdithit , the last Beothuk . I see there is a new graphic novel about her. I should listen to Falen Johnson’s program Unreserved every week on the CBC. I will take some time to read some of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission reports . I will commit 751 minutes to reading, listening and saying quiet prayers. Mike Druiven Editor, Milton NDP Monday Message.

The PC government along with the town have announced further progress in the decades-in-the-making Education Village. The village now includes a retirement facility. Sounds good right? Wrong. They have specifically named Schlegal Villages as a partner. Of course! James Schlegal has donated upwards of $50,000 to the PC Party since 2007 , $20,000 of which went to the Minister of Health’s leadership bid. Schlegal is also a leading member of the government’s Incident Management System (IMS) Long-Term Care Table. He can make decisions about the very homes he owns! So how did the Schlegal Villages fare during the pandemic? Well this is where things get really ugly. It seems they are facing not one but two lawsuits over their mishandling of patient care during the pandemic. There were 21 deaths and 90 infections at The Village of Erin Meadows long term care facility in Mississauga. In Windsor the Village of St. Clair facility had 63 deaths with 177 resident cases and 143 staff cases. The Wi...

Alina found work in the catalogue department of Simpson's department store but the family had a difficult time becoming part of Canadian society. "What precisely do the Canadians think DPs are?" she asked. "Sometimes I feel as though we were expected to be some new strange species." - from a CBC history article titled Displaced Persons . Black school children are still mocked about the colour of their skin . Black students are four times more likely to be expelled from a Toronto high school than White students. Black workers are twice as likely as Asian workers and four times as likely as White workers to report experiencing racial discrimination in major decisions at workplaces in Canada A visibly indigenous women is attacked in her car while dropping her son off at school in Vancouver. An indiginous women is hit with a trailer hitch thrown from a passing car in Thunder Bay. And now three generations of a Muslim family are killed in one brutal act in London. ...

Lately, we’ve been engrossed by the Medici: Masters of Florence TV series. Season one chronicles the early days of Cosimo de' Medici, 1428–1464 in his new role as head of the famous Medici bank . The series portrays his conflict with Rinaldo Albizzi who accuses Medici of “usury”. In 15th century Europe the Catholic church had outlawed this practice - one that we know continues to this day. Usury def. Making a loan with excessive or abusive interest rates. When we get a loan from the bank we expect the interest rates to cover administration plus a profit margin. Whether or not those profit margins are a little high is another discussion. What about a government loaning money? Should the interest rate on Student Loans cover administration plus a tidy profit? Do we expect our government to profit on the backs of our youth? That is what is happening in Canada. We’re in the middle of a pandemic. Recent grads are struggling to find work . Those who are earning usually work in precariou...

The GlobalEconomy.com web site provides an interesting tool that lets you compare Countries using over 500 indicators. Here is what we found. Canada ranks number 9 in the world for it’s “ability of the government to formulate and implement sound policies and regulations that permit and promote private sector development.” Sounds good, right? But Canada also ranks 5th in the world for our rate of household debt to GDP . 5th! Canadian households owe 110% of our GDP in debt! The USA is only 78%. What does this tell us? Canada is good at letting the private sector grow on one hand while letting that same private sector get households further and further into debt. Canada was, largely, protected from the global economic meltdown in 2008 due to tougher banking regulations. So what have we done since then? Why deregulate of course! And not just in banking but anywhere corporate interests may come into conflict with our health and safety. Deregulation leads to events like tainted water in Wa...

Wearing seatbelts is the law. We accept this because we know it keeps us safe. Food plant inspections are the law. We accept this because we know it keeps us safe. So today we are asking “Why are bathrooms labelled for men and women the law?” Did you know that a majority of non binary people have faced harassment and even physical violence in washrooms? Canadians like to boast that they are a country with a good human rights record and yet LGBTQI2S+ people face subtle forms of discrimination every day, often in ways that are not well understood, unless you are the victim. We listened to a 99 Percent Invisible podcast that took architects to task over binary bathrooms. We learned that the International building code has been changed so that binary labelling is no longer required. Now Canadian Lawmakers need to catch up. Too many LGBTQI2S+ people still face discrimination. New Democrats are committed to ending employment discrimination, banning conversion therapy, ensuring access to...

The latest violence in the Middle East is sad indeed. 65 people including 16 children in Gaza died by Wednesday night. The escalating violence has many here in Canada worried about friends and family in Gaza and Israel. The resulting rhetoric over who acted first or who supports whom or who is anti this or that makes our head spin. As always, it is clear that there is a lack of good leadership on all sides. Violence is easy, sitting down and talking takes real effort. Canada has very little influence in the region, however, it will take outside influence to force both sides to the table. Canada does sell arms to Israel and so Jagmeet Singh has called on Canada to stop selling military exports to Israel, “ to stop arming one side of the conflict .” This is in line with NDP party policy endorsed at convention in April. The same policy also calls for Canada to block trade with Israeli settlements in occupied territories . So watch out for the rhetoric. The NDP is NOT calling for a cessa...