Statements

Communists Demand Immediate Government Action on US-inspired Hate Crime in Quebec

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The Communist Party of Canada today condemned the deadly attack by a masked gunman with assault weapons which killed 6 people and injured 19 more, who were at prayers in the Grand Mosque in St. Foy, Quebec Sunday night.

The Party’s Executive Committee expressed deepest sympathy to the families of those killed and injured in this heinous act of hate, and expressed its determination to unite Canadians to oppose and defeat the racism, xenophobia and Islamophobia  being whipped up in the US, Europe and Canada today.

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Repeal C-51, Scrap CSIS: Brief to the House Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security

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Brief to the House Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security

Consultation on Canada’s National Security Framework, including Bill C-51

Communist Party of Canada, December 2016

The following Brief outlines the position of the Communist Party of Canada regarding former five-part omnibus Bill C-51, (the Anti-terrorism Act, passed by the Harper Conservative government in 2015) and the threat that the renewed “War on Terror” posses to fundamental human rights, security and peace.

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S’unir contre les racistes d’extrême-droite de Trump

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Déclaration sur les élections américaines, Comité exécutif central, Parti communiste du Canada, 10 novembre 2016

L’élection de Donald Trump marque un changement extrêmement dangereux qui menace la paix, la démocratie et la souveraineté à l’extérieur des États-Unis, et les droits civils et sociaux, ainsi que le droit à l’égalité aux États-Unis mêmes. En tant que chef de facto d’un mouvement fasciste, Trump a été comparé à Silvio Berlusconi, le dirigeant fasciste du parti italien Le peuple de la liberté. Les Républicains contrôlent maintenant la Chambre des représentants, le Sénat et le pouvoir exécutif, avec le pouvoir de faire des nominations cruciales à la Cour suprême.

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Trudeau’s Pension Reform: Where’s the Beef?

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The best thing about the federal government’s pension reform is its pending decision to restore the age of eligibility for Old Age Security (OAS) to 65. It was Harper who raised the age to 67, citing the OECD countries which had re-set the pension age to 67, and in one case to 68. Canadians were living too long, was the argument, and ought to be working – not retiring at 65 – like the Europeans.

These are the same governments that imposed vicious austerity measures right across Europe, that in Greece have led to the suicides of pensioners including a pharmacist who said he refused to eat out of garbage cans.

In Canada the OAS is a significant amount of money for many retirees without a private plan, and can easily double the CPP payments for low-income workers. Harper’s plan was to force seniors to stay in the workforce, many competing with young workers for low-waged entry level jobs.

But the CPP reform, touted by federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau as an agreement that will make “a real difference in all our children’s future lives and I hope for many of you… It’s a historic day”, won’t make any difference at all for today’s pensioners whose incomes won’t rise by a single nickel.

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On the Brexit and the Fight for Real and Fundamental Change

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In the lead up to the June 23 Brexit vote, Canadian media reported almost daily on the line-up of right-wing, anti-immigrant, racist and fascist organizations that were campaigning in support of Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union: the Brexit referendum.

The message to Canadians was clear: Brexit is dangerous; the European Union is safe. To nail down that assessment with working people, the leader of Britain’s TUC, Frances O’Grady, confirmed that maintaining Britain’s labour rights and standards hinged on enforcement by the European Union – not the British government which she said, would first erode and then eliminate workers’ rights and standards.

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Support Postal Workers!

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The Communist Party of Canada today called on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to intervene with Canada Post CEO Deepak Chopra to restart negotiations and stop the clock on the 72 hour countdown to a lockout initiated by the corporation July 3rd to take effect at 12:01 am Monday.

“Canada Post’s Deepak Chopra’s “my way or the highway” approach to bargaining won’t lead to a collective agreement and will suspend public postal services across Canada, while lining the pockets of Fed-Ex, Purolator, UPS, and other private, for-profit multi-national corporations.  These companies are licking their lips at the prospects of a long work stoppage delivered by Pitney Bowes’s ex-boss Deepak Chopra, which begs the question:  Whose interests is Chopra working for anyway?” said CPC leader Elizabeth Rowley.

“Canada Post’s demands for massive concessions on the defined benefit pension plan, including the introduction of an inferior defined contribution plan for new hires that will eliminate any kind of pension security for the youngest workers, is a declaration of war.   It will lead to the elimination of defined benefit pensions for all postal workers, likely sooner than later, as workers in the private sector have found out after hard struggles with employers to stop the theft of their DB pensions.

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No NATO Warmongering in Europe!

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Demand that Canada stay out of NATO escalation against Russia

Since the United States-orchestrated coup d’état in Ukraine in February 2014, NATO has escalated its campaign of aggression against Russia, to the point that there is currently a very real risk of open war between nuclear weapons states. NATO’s current Anakonda 2016 war games – its largest military training exercises in more than two decades – combined with the push to deploy a large multinational military force in Latvia, are the latest steps in this dangerous warmongering march that threatens the survival of the entire planet.

The Communist Party of Canada denounces the Canadian government’s decision to deploy and command 1000 Canadian military as part of NATO’s permanent anti-Russia contingent in Latvia. We demand that the Canadian government immediately halt this deployment, withdraw from the Anakonda wargames, and actively oppose NATO’s anti-Russia escalation in Latvia and other areas of Eastern Europe. We further call on Canada to withdraw unilaterally from NATO, as a necessary first step to adopting an independent foreign policy of peace.

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Unite to Defend and Strengthen LGBTQ2SI Rights!

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An Injury to One is an Injury to All!

Pride 2016 Statement from the Communist Party of Canada and the Young Communist League

The massacre in Orlando at the Pulse gay night club makes it clear that the struggle for the rights of LGBTQ2SI people is far from over. (Note: In this statement, the acronym “LGBTQ2SI” and the term “Queer” refers to lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, gender variant, two-spirited, queer, questioning, intersex and others.) In the Queer community, a gay-bar is often the one place Queer folk feel safe and able to be ourselves. Pride marks the anniversary of a riot of resistance -Stonewall- defending gay-bars from police attacks. Pride marches and events have grown into global movement to assert human rights. Pride’s political significance cannot be forgotten.

The Orlando shootings, the victims of which were mainly Latinx and Black members of the LGBTQ2SI community, must be seen within the context of the well-organized backlash by, in particular fundamentalist Christian, right wing groups against the gains made by the Queer movement. In the USA, reactionary laws are being passed to abolish the civil rights LGBTQ2SI people have won, and in particular attack trans rights.

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