Thousands Protest Michigan’s Anti-Union Law, But Deep Pockets of Right-Wing Backers Prevail

Michigan Republican Governor Rick Snyder has signed into law two highly controversial anti-union bills, officially making the historic union stronghold the 24th so-called "right-to-work" state in the country. On Tuesday, thousands of demonstrators flooded the state capitol in Lansing to denounce the bill as an organized attack against labor that will lower wages and diminish collective bargaining rights. We’re joined by two people who attended the demonstrations: Katie Oppenheim, a registered nurse and President of the University of Michigan Professional Nurse Council; Andy Potter, state vice president of the Michigan Corrections Organization and the chair of SEIU’s National Republican Member Advisory Committee. We also speak with Lee Fang, a reporting fellow with The Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute, about how the bills were pushed through by powerful corporate interests and secretive billionaires. Michigan lawmakers are also using the lame-duck session to significantly restrict women’s reproductive rights with three bills that would ban abortion coverage in many insurance plans, and another bill that would allow employers and medical professionals to refuse to cover or provide health treatment on moral grounds.

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Transgender Rights Bill Sabotaged By Tories, Says NDP MP Randall Garrison

OTTAWA - The New Democrat MP behind a bill to protect transgender Canadians from discrimination is accusing a group of Conservatives of trying to sabotage the legislation through procedural stalling tactics.

Randall Garrison's private member's bill was sent back to the Commons from the Justice committee this week unamended and without an official report, despite efforts by the NDP, the Liberals and Conservative MP Kerry-Lynne Findlay to strike a compromise.

Right-To-Work Legislation Could Come To Canada, Opposition Warns

OTTAWA - The federal opposition parties are warning that so-called "right-to-work" legislation that has passed in Michigan could soon come to Canada.

Thousands of people in that state protested Tuesday as the first of two laws designed to weaken union power passed in Michigan's Republican-dominated House of Representatives.

Two Toronto councillors show how to keep local democracy alive

It was the second Saturday in December, prime time for Christmas shopping. The Eaton Centre was jammed, the sidewalks crowded, the coffee shops packed. Grim, determined buyers jostled for advantage.

A kilometre and a half away at the Regent Park Arts and Cultural Centre, the scene was quite different. Fifty residents of downtown Toronto were working their way through the city’s 2013 budget: asking questions, raising concerns, preparing to fight for the services they valued.

Lawyer accuses Conservatives of delaying tactics in voter suppression Federal Court hearings

OTTAWA—Six Conservative MPs whose 2011 elections are being challenged over allegations of widespread attempts to suppress votes with fraudulent or misleading telephone calls have used delaying tactics to hold off Federal Court hearings on the complaints, a lawyer for voters challenging the election results told court on Tuesday.

“We did confront along the way what I would respectfully describe as a highly-adversarial and litigious opponent in the respondent MPs,” Ottawa lawyer Steven Shrybman said to Federal Court Judge Richard Mosley as he began outlining evidence and legal arguments that eight voters in the six electoral districts are using in attempt to have the results overturned.

Evidence suggests election robocalls were targeted, court hears

A lawyer arguing six Conservative MPs should lose their seats because of a targeted campaign of voter suppression says there's "no loaded gun" pointing to electoral fraud, but the evidence fits.

Steven Shrybman says he doesn't have anyone among the eight voters he represents who didn't cast a ballot in the last election.

Harper’s foreign ownership policy is incomprehensible

Once again I’m dumbfounded that Stephen Harper’s university major was economics. His new policy on foreign ownership, unveiled with fanfare late last week, is as clear as the goo extracted from the dinosaur remains at Fort McMurray.

Harper last Friday rebuked the majority Canadian public opposition to a proposed Chinese government takeover of Calgary oil producer Nexen Inc. with his approval of that $15.1-billion deal, and of a $5.2-billion Malaysian government state grab for Alberta oil and gas assets. In doing so, the PM unveiled a ballyhooed “get tough” stance on future foreign state designs on the Alberta tar sands.

Michigan Legislature gives final approval to laws limiting unions in huge defeat for labour

LANSING, MICH.—Two laws that would weaken union power in the labour stronghold of Michigan awaited the governor's expected signature after the Republican-dominated House of Representatives passed them Tuesday, a devastating and once unthinkable defeat for organized labour in a state considered a cradle of the union movement.

The House passed the anti-union bills Tuesday as hundreds of protesters shouted “shame on you” from the gallery and huge crowds of labour backers massed in the state capitol halls and on the grounds. Gov. Rick Snyder says he will sign the laws — one dealing with private sector workers, the other with government employees — as early as Wednesday.

Gaza: 'My child was killed and nothing has changed'

The morning ritual goes like this: three-year-old Ali Misharawi wakes up and reaches for his father's mobile phone. He kisses and strokes the face of his baby brother, Omar, on its small screen. Then he starts asking questions. Why is Omar in paradise? Why did you put my brother into the ground? Why can't I play with him any more?

"He asks a lot of questions. Every day he asks if Omar is alive or dead. He knows what happened, he was there, but he needs to make sense of it," says his father, Jihad Misharawi, whose family was devastated in an inferno on the first full day of last month's war. Misharawi's 11-month-old son Omar and 19-year-old sister-in-law Heba were killed instantly; his brother Ahmed, 18, died after 12 days in intensive care with burns to 85% of his body.

Robocalls: No smoking gun needed to prove electoral fraud, lawyer says

OTTAWA—The lawyer representing eight voters challenging the narrow victories of six Conservative MPs based on alleged dirty tricks argued the absence of the proverbial smoking gun does not mean there was no widespread electoral fraud.

“There is no loaded gun,” said Steven Shrybman, a lawyer who is representing the eight applicants in a Federal Court challenge seeking to overturn the results of the 2011 federal election in six ridings.