Foreign Canada Line workers win human rights case
Posted by admin on Dec 4th, 2008
By Kelly Sinoski, Vancouver Sun.December 4, 2008
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A group of temporary foreign workers who complained of substandard pay and housing while working on the Canada Line have won a discrimination suit against their employer. The BC Human Rights Tribunal on Wednesday ordered SELI Canada, SCNP-SELI Joint Venture and SNC Lavalin Constructors (Pacific) Inc. to pay each complainant – all Latin Americans – $10,000 as compensation for injury to dignity, feelings and self-respect. “While the feelings and the self-respect of the Latin Americans was impacted, this case is primarily about dignity,” the tribunal said in its written ruling, released Wednesday. “For two years the respondents’ treatment of the [workers] conveyed to them the message that they were worth less and less worthy than other employees, because they were Latin American.”
Native Rights Concerns Cloud 2010 Games
Posted by admin on Dec 2nd, 2008
Jon Elmer; Tuesday, 02 December 2008 – InterPress Service
A coalition of indigenous elders, social justice activists and community organisers is voicing opposition to the upcoming Winter Olympics, promising to continue their protests up to and throughout the 2010 games. Taking advantage of a three-day media briefing hosted by the official Olympic body in late November, the Vancouver Organising Committee (VANOC), activists and native representatives invited the local and visiting international media to an office in the heart of the what is commonly known as Canada’s poorest neighbourhood, the Downtown Eastside, to hear “the other side of the Olympic story”.
National Olympic Spirit Train gearing up amid threats of protest
Posted by admin on Sep 19th, 2008
Canadian Press, Sept.19, 2008
VANCOUVER — An event designed to drum up enthusiasm for the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver is set to begin amid threats of nationwide protests. Canadian Pacific’s Spirit Train is scheduled to leave Port Moody, B.C., on Sunday for a 10-city tour and activists say they’ll be at every stop. “Across the country people have an understanding the Olympics has created (and) perpetuated, displacement, homelessness, destruction of the environment and increasing theft of indigenous land,” said Harsha Walia of the Olympic Resistance Network, which is spearheading the call for national protests.
Communique from Olympics Resistance Network
Posted by admin on Aug 30th, 2008
The 2010 Winter Olympics will take place on unceded indigenous land from February 12-28 2010. Far from being simply about ‘sport’, the history of the Olympics is one rooted in displacement, corporate greed, fascism, repression, and violence. Only the political and corporate elite – from real estate developers to security corporations – have anything to gain from the Olympics industry. The effects of the upcoming Winter Games have already manifested themselves- with the expansion of sport tourism and resource extraction on indigenous lands; increasing homelessness and gentrification of poor neighbourhoods; increasing privatization of public services; union busting through imposed contracts and exploitative conditions especially for migrant labour; the fortification of the national security apparatus; ballooning public spending and public debt; and unprecedented destruction of the environment.
