Public Service Alliance of Canada BC

The application deadline for the 2006 Union School, which will take place November 17-19, is Friday October 13th.

Union School is an opportunity for PSAC members to gain more specialized knowledge and skills. You will network with other members from BC and return to your workplaces and locals energized and educated to work on behalf of the membership. This years courses:

• Stress and Conflict in the Workplace: Identifying Tools for Change
• Health and Safety Activism: Empowering And Mobilizing Members
• Human Rights Are Workers’ Rights: Becoming Effective Human Rights Activists
• Building For Tomorrow: Revitalizing Your Local - Recruiting New Activists
• Bargaining From Strength: Strategies For Getting Better Collective Agreements

Read more about the Union School here, or go straight to the online application.

Via Terri Lee, PSAC National EOC member: “sounds like a great demonstration is brewing on Tuesday. It sounds like a great opportunity to let Harper know what we think of him. Members who are interested should be encouraged to attend with the PSAC banner, pro childcare, public service, etc.”

• TUESDAY OCTOBER 10, 2006 @ 5 pm
• GATHER: NE CORNER OF COLOMBIA AND KEEFER
• CHINATOWN MONUMENT FOR CHINESE RAILWAY WORKERS

Prime Minister Stephen Harper is visiting Vancouver on Tuesday October 10 for a dinner organized by businessman Johnny Fong geared towards increasing trade, business, and investment with China. Although presented as a “direct dialogue with Vancouver’s Chinese Canadians”, a number of community-based Chinese-Canadian organizations and other grassroots groups have of course not been invited to this dinner. So we have decided to invite ourselves!

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Maher Arar’s courageous voice has quietly demanded answers to simple questions about the events that have forever changed his life.

Why was he detained by US border authorities more than four years ago, when he attempted to re-enter Canada from a family vacation abroad?

How was it possible that a Canadian citizen could subsequently and quietly be whisked to Syria, held against his will and tortured by Syrian Military Intelligence and imprisoned for nearly one year?

What role did Canadian government officials play in his wrongful detention,arrest and torture?

What did Canadian officials do to protect and seek the return of a citizen of Canada?

Last week, more than four years after his ordeal began, he finally got answers to his questions.

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Public servants in Canada are less likely to be visible minorities than workers in the private sector and that is worrisome, says a report released Tuesday.

The report was released by the country’s Public Service Commission, an independent agency that is supposed to ensure Canada’s public service is competent, non-partisan and representative of the population.

Maria Barrados, president of the commission, found three main areas of concern in this year’s report:

• the “unmonitored movement” of employees between positions in the civil service and positions in ministers’ offices
• the underrepresentation of visible minorities in the public sector
• questionable ways temporary staff gained longer-term and permanent positions

In one of its main concerns, the report found that in 2005, fewer minorities worked in the public service than worked in the private sector.

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Saturday October 14th, rain or shine!

The Make Poverty History Campaign will be holding this Walk & Rally from Peace Flame Park to the Vancouver Art Gallery to coincide with global mobilizations around the International Day of Poverty Eradication.

Last year, Global Television estimated 2000 of us were marching. Let’s double that number this year. Come join us for some great music and learn how you can support others in our community who are working to eliminate local and global poverty. Bring friends and family! Bring out your whole school or office!

The walk starts at 11 am at Seaforth Peace Flame Park (south end of Burrard Street Bridge). March to the Vancouver Art Gallery. Estimated arrival time 12 pm.

Festivities begin at 12 noon at the VAncouver Art Gallery - Guest speakers, music, NGO booths, and more!

For more information contact bccic@web.ca. Make Poverty History is one of the campaigns the PSAC Social Justice Fund supports. Download the poster here (pdf).

Last weekend brought together young workers from across British Columbia and two young workers from Alberta and Ontario to participate in the YOUR* course (*Young, Organizing, Unionizing and Resisting) held in Vancouver from September 30 - October 1, 2006.

Their expectations ranged from wanting to learn more about their union, meeting other active youth, hearing other people’s perspectives on the important issues for youth, discussing why youth are/not involved in the union and learning how to get more involved.

Click here for some photos!

The PSAC-BC Human Rights Committee would like to invite all interested and available members to participate in an audio conference with Lancaster House  on “Accommodating Disabilities (to the point of undue hardship): The Tough Questions, the Up-To-Date Answers” (see below for conference description).

The PSAC-BC Human Rights Committee is supporting one playback session which is scheduled for Monday, October 16 from 12:30 pm - 2 pm to be held at the Vancouver Regional Office (#200 - 5238 Joyce Street). They are requesting that those who wish to participate to arrive at noon in order to receive the accompanying materials and get set-up for the audio conference.

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Via Multi Union Pride

Delay requested by equality opponents

(OTTAWA - Sept 27, 2006 ) Before Parliament resumed for the fall session, it was widely reported that a vote on Mr. Harper’s motion to re-open the divisive equal marriage debate would take place in early October. However, as Parliament resumed, Mr. Harper privately told his caucus that the vote would be delayed until just before Christmas.

“We are calling Mr. Harper out on this delay,” said Laurie Arron, National Coordinator of Canadians for Equal Marriage. “We know that opponents of equal marriage have asked for a delay, because they know the motion will be defeated and that after the vote Mr. Harper will have to admit that the issue is settled.”

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Low-income women in Canada face increasing inequality in terms of their health, according to a report just published by the Canadian Association of Social Workers (CASW).

The fourth in a series of CASW reports on women and poverty, The Declining Health and Well-Being of Low Income Women in Canada: A Preventable Tragedy explores the connectionsbetween the income of women and their health and concludes that the health of low-income women is being compromised.

“The socio-economic links to health are well documented nationally and internationally,” says Veronica Marsman, president of CASW. “This paper finds that significant differences exist in the life expectancy, onset and intensity of illness, and frequency of violence in the lives of low income Canadian women.”

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