Imagine a country where the national government introduces and passes legislation that detrimentally affects all of its First Nations communities but it doesn't bother to consult with them. Then a chief of an impoverished northern First Nation community goes on a hunger strike to get a meeting between the First...

Canada's federal and provincial finance ministers will meet in Ottawa later this month and the Canada Pension Plan will be on their agenda, as it should be. The ministers have been talking since 2010 about enhancing the CPP and last summer the premiers and territorial leaders asked them to present...

The Conservative government has a disturbing habit of introducing significant changes to Canadian public policy by sleight of hand. One way is by using 400-page omnibus budget bills to make legislative changes that usually have nothing to do with the budget. The recent massive alterations to Canada's Navigable...

On Labour Day we celebrate the many contributions of working people who helped to build our country and its economy. Despite negative comments about unions from some business groups, we do make a positive difference in the health of our communities and the lives of business owners. We call this...

The International Monetary Fund and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development have confirmed that broadly-based collective bargaining is the best mechanism to build a healthy middle class. In short, when workers, through their unions, are able to bargain freely for decent wages, benefits and pensions, there are benefits for...

Today, Canadians will observe a National Day of Mourning in memory of workers killed or injured on the job. In 2010, the latest year for which statistics are available, 1,014 Canadians lost their lives as a direct result of their work. That is 1,014 too many. We can...

My grandfather Mike Georgetti worked at a manual job until he could work no more and then, worn out, he retired without a pension. He had four kids and he and my grandmother had to rely on them to support him in his old age.

I was thinking of...

There was a time in Canada -- not that very long ago -- when a working person could expect to have a family-supporting job throughout their life.

For an honest day's labour, a worker could raise their kids, buy a house, pay off the mortgage, take vacations, have weekends off,...