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- Written by: Rod Boyle
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Alberta, as of the last 5 to 10 years, like most of Canada, has seen an influx of Temporary Foreign Workers. For those outside Canada, Temporary workers are brought by businesses to Canada from places such as the Philippines or Mexico to fill low paid positions, generally in restaurants and fast food outlets.
The government's argument is that there are not enough Canadians to fill these jobs. This, of course, is absurd, there are plenty enough Canadians to fill every job in Canada. The problem, of course, is that most of these jobs offer wages and / or circumstance that no Canadian would accept; things like the Charter of Rights, basic human dignity, a living wage, are frequently disregarded in these positions. Companies that offer these "perks" don't need to hire Temporary Foreign Workers.
In a free market economy, such as the one that Stephen Harper proposes he offers Canada (the motto of Conservatives generally being "less government, more business"), if you are unable to find staff willing to work for the wages or conditions you offer you:
a) raise the price of your product
and, with the profits -
b) pay your staff more.
and/or
c) Improve the conditions they work under (hours, benefits, competent and trained management), etc,
This is called "Free Enterprise", or "Capitalism". Unfortunately, as the system stands now we are importing people from various places to:
a) Work for less than a living wage, or for a wage that most naturalized Canadians find unacceptable
b) Work for employers that cannot retain Canadian employees, due to "management style" or other issues. (In the last 2 jobs I had where TFW formed the backbone of the restaurants, they were working in environments that in any major corporation would result in a 7 figure lawsuit and out-of-court settlements).
As the situation stands, the Temporary Foreign Worker provisions are being abused by businesses that refuse to compete in a free market ( - really, wouldn't you pay 25 cents more for your McBurger/Tim Horton's coffee to know that your server was being paid a living wage and working in a respectful environment?). Face it, all businesses in the service sector would have to raise prices, as most of them are abusing the TFW provisions, so any arguments about "being competitive" are moot. The TFW provision is generally abused by employers and businesses looking to pay lower wages, no benefits, and pocket the profits.
The word for this is not capitalism, it's "Exploitation".
Summing it up, if your business model depends on low wages and dire circumstance to maintain it's profitability, maybe, just maybe, you shouldn't be in business.
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
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And attempting to buy tickets to "The Book of Mormon", only to discover that it's almost all sold out. Except, however, for a startling number of tickets available on excite.com, prices ranging from $225 to over $1100 per seat... for that price, you could fly your date to New York and take it in there. Clearly Ticketmaster needs a new distribution model.
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Rants
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Now it's become painful, this, more hours of video are posted each day than ever I can hope to watch, and off of my favorite "inspiration" sites more and more articles are replaced by videos, the morning "routine" of catching up on the interweb is thwarted by the fact that catching up, even if I watch 2 or 3 videos simultaneously, can never take place. I had reading mastered, could quickly skim and misquote an article in a minute or less, but now I have to watch each and every video, even carefully selected for what's of relevance to me they are overwhelming, this move to video and streaming content, it has to stop.
Really. It turns the internet from a forum or exchange of information into a playground for the mentally bereft, who couldn't possibly be expected to read a two or three hundred word article, so can become victim of a 15 second ad and then 2 to 10 minute video that provides roughly 30 words of information or value. The timewasting is extreme, even by my most generous of standards. Information is slowly falling prey to the lowest common denominator.
And really, even this rant is lost, to be truly effective it should be preceded by a 15 second ad and jauntily animated or presented in a 2 or three minute video with infographics that illustrate the demise of the world wide web. At which point I would be part of the problem...
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
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In which every journalist who reported on the previous Oregon Mall Shooting, of which this was obviously a copycat, every newspaper and network that chose to publish or broadcast the previously mentioned Oregon Mall Shooting, are prosecuted for the willful and premeditated murder of the 28 victims, thereby ending the murder of innocents....
Newspapers no longer publish news of suicides, knowing that this leads to copycats. But they cheerfully publish stories that inspire unbalanced people across the nation to compete and / or do better in the slaughter of innocents. They are complicit, this news published with the view of gaining readership/audience share, copycat effect be damned.
Journalists, broadcasters, networks and publishers be damned, you are liable and this hangs upon your rotten souls. And if you should run into one on the streets, feel free to take matters into your own hands, take comfort in knowing you'll probably be saving a life...
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
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As we near 1984 - ever nearer - with the ubiquitous televisions in every pub and shop and more surveillance cameras than people to fill them, it's not a surprise that the government is attacking what few freedoms remain to us.
By which I mean the C-30 Bill undertaken and proposed by the contemptible Vic Toews, which would allow the police unprecedented freedom in monitoring Canadians online activity, giving them unrestricted access to server logs, email and texting histories, etc.
Now there's some backlash to this, there was - once upon a time - something known as "due process" in which police had to have warrants and just cause to invade ones privacy and personal space, so Mr. Vic Toews seeks to align the public with his somewhat Orwellian government dystopia by re-branding the proposed bill an "Anti-Pedophile" legislation, thereby polarizing the idiots who actually considered he might be acting in the public interest.
In further defense of his cause he suggests that police forces across the country are in favour of this - because, after all, it will help them to weed out the child pornographers.
"Oh, the children, please won't somebody think about the children...". Yep, that's the level of hysteria.
The police would, of course, stand behind any bill that gave them further powers and less accountability. Put forth a bill that allows police officers to fire their weapons at their own discretion without accountability and you'll find that all the police stations across the country are in favour of it. Put forth a bill that allows police officers to collect cash for traffic tickets on the spot and you'll find every police station across the country greatly in favour of it. In short, police officer's will support anything that gives them greater power with less accountability, what organization wouldn't?
A fine example of how police already respect your privacy - when checks and balances are in place - is here: http://www.citypages.com/2012-02-22/news/is-anne-marie-rasmusson-too-hot-to-have-a-driver-s-license.
Further to the "debate" (not a debate, really, any right-minded citizen would oppose such a gross abandonment of civil liberties) - it comes out that Vic Toews hasn't even read the content of his own bill:
Link: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2012/02/18/pol-thehouse-vic-toews.html
Now when the government has reached the height of it's powers and is busy in the purging of all contrary points of view, I'd like it noted that I haven't read this blog post.
The election of these people is the biggest proof of the failure of the democratic process I've yet observed. No kidding.
In further capitulation to the regulation and suppression of freedom of thought, comes this article: http://www.caut.ca/pages.asp?page=1061 - now, really, shouldn't Universities know better, and be actively lobbying for the free exchange of ideas? PWNED by the government. So, while one might lament that one's politicians are sadly undereducated in any real sense of the word, there's always the possibility that they were educated at the University of Toronto or Western Ontario, where freedom is fast becoming a memory.
And, if you're curious, there's still a few places working to keep the internet free (at least in spirit).
Visit: http://openmedia.ca/