Kellie Leitch and friends, unplugged, on the Quebec Mosque Shooting

Ms Leitch on Facebook, 10 hours ago : 

"Last night people in Quebec City were murdered as they prayed. This outrageous act of violence is an attack not just on those gathered in a house of worship but on the very fabric of Canadian society, on the values of freedom and tolerance. There is no excuse and no justification for this terrorist attack. I condemn the act, the people who carried it out, and any who might try to justify, rationalize, or support it unreservedly and in the harshest possible terms."

And the responses to that post from her Friends : 

Shane St-Croix Justin Trudeau is responsible for this attack as Canadians are starting to reap the fruit of his determination to turn Canada into an Islamic state. The chickens of 'un-vetted' Canadian diversity have come home to roost. There is blood on the hands of everyone that voted for Trudeau.

Dan Bjorklund It was those peaceful motherfuckers that turdeau and the rest of you idiots want to bring in..it wasnt some local white guys.

Trevor Sydorenko Considering they have 2 people in custody.. and they arent releasing names.. im going to go with "Coulters Law" on this one.

Kevin Hackett This was likely an 'inside job' to inflame the anti Muslim narrative being forced upon us by Trudeau & State media CBC. Sadly, we will likely never know the truth due to the hyper Political Correctness environment we're surrounded by ! Do not allow them to soften your Principled positions Kellie Leitch !

Lyn Wood Trudeau is relocating the Muslim wars here. Why do we need to be tolerant of that? Our politicians are making our Canada dangerous with their 'tolerance'. Close our borders. Bring in Christians. What is wrong with Christians from Iceland, Poland, Australia......? No common sense left anywhere.

Tim Johnson I wonder how trudeau is gonna spin this if these attackers were muslims themselves ?

Duane Mousseau Some are assuming that this was committed by Christians. Strange how when other acts of terror took place we had to wait and see and were very careful not to imply that it was done by Muslims. Even after the officials were tootsie footing around actually saying it was an act of terror. I believe there is some evidence here that the perpetrators were Muslims and they recently immigrated here from Morocco. Muslims kill Muslims and would love to leave evidence that a Christian did it of course.

Thomas Clayton Maybe they were Jews who converted to Islam and then back again & therefore they were all supposed to be killed as per the 84th Hadith - dealing with Apostates. Sure hope Justin Trudeau never converts back to Catholicism because his punishment would be death.

Cecil Crocker And it is going to get worst if Trudeau don't stop this bringing is Muslim ...he is doing this for to get more votes ..Trudeau don't care about Canadians ....We are not allow to say our Lord Paryer in school .PUT THE MUSLIM GOT THERE OWN ROOM FOR PRAYERS ...SO HOW COME WE CAN'T SAY OUR LORD PEYERS IN SCHOOL ....TRUDEAU HAVE TO GO ...CANADA IS GONE SO HE HAVE TO GO .

John Wood Muslims killing Muslims then others, we must elect Leitch for conservative party leader and prime minister to stop these horrendous Muslim nonsense actions.

Tyler Dockendorff Why don't you acknowledge that they were muslim? Suspicious.

Marty Smith Why aren't they releasing names. I will bet there not Tim Smith, Jacques lacriox.

Penny Labrecque One of the shooters is apparently named mahammed Khadir???

David Pacho Just send them all back where they came from, funny how all problems start when these animals are involved.

Kym Mychelle KellieLeitch this is a false flag and thank "GOD" we still have common sense to know what truth is

William Wolfgang-Steven Litz It was Muslim refugees that killed these people.
CBC is blaming trump and white racism...don't believe the fake news.

LaPresse : Published January 30, 2017 at 15:52    Auto-translate

Mohamed Belkhadir: "For them, someone who flees is a suspect"

Mohamed Belkhadir, the engineering student arrested by mistake in the wake of the terrorist attack at the mosque in Sainte-Foy, was helping the victims when he was wrongly mistaken for a suspect.

Freshly returned home, the young man of 29 years was interviewed in La Presse to indicate it does not want all the police of Quebec, who was "very nice" with him.

"I went in to try to give first aid to my friend on the ground, and I saw someone with a weapon. I did not know that he was a policeman, I thought he was coming back to shoot. So I fled outside, on the parking side, "he said.

"I understand, I respect that they caught me. They saw me flee, they thought I was suspicious, that's normal. For them, someone who flees is a suspect, "he insists.

The student of Moroccan origin had attended the prayer on Sunday evening, then went out to clear the stairs of the mosque.Soon after, he heard several shots, for 15 to 20 seconds, he said.

He entered, called 9-1-1, gave the address to the emergency services, and then used his coat to warm a wounded man on the ground. It was then that he panicked when a policeman came in

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The Temporary Foreign Workers Pipeline

For some time now we have had a government in the business of preventing people from working within their own country, as Boris from the Beav once put it.

This is the Cons' other pet pipeline - their TFW Pipeline.
In 2007 they raised the length of a temporary foreign worker permit from one year to two; in 2011 they raised it again to four years.

And today we add Canadian helicopter pilots to the growing list of occupations that are filled by cheaper temporary foreign workers - some pilots working at half the going wage according to one of them.

The Cons are shocked, shocked I tell you, that employers are actually making use of their program designed to drive down wages in Canada. Who could have foreseen such a thing? As Kellie Leitch once put it : "We expect firms to comply" and by god they do seem happy to do so.

Foreign workers drove unemployment higher in B.C.: C.D. Howe report

"In 2008 BC and Alberta received 94,000 temporary foreign workers.The sudden surge was the result of a federal government pilot project in the two provinces between 2007 and 2010, largely in response to demands from employers who wanted easier and faster access to temporary foreign workers. 

The project ended in 2010, but B.C. and Alberta continued to hire temporary foreign workers by the tens of thousands."

Still, there are appearances to keep up and Kenney has promised "another phase of further reforms" to the TFW program yet again, including fast-food sector suspensions. Luckily for employers though, there's still a workaround ...
CTV : 

"Are you an employer keen to hire help from abroad, but nervous about the controversy dogging Ottawa's temporary foreign worker program?

The government of Canada may have a solution for you.

Under the International Experience Canada program, as many as 20,000 workers aged 18 to 35 will soon be coming to Canada -- just as Canadian youth begin pounding the pavement in search of summer jobs. 

The program allows employers to bypass the labour market opinion process, which means there's no need for government approval. As well, companies are not obliged to pay their workers the prevailing market wage."

From the Canadian embassy websites in Spain, France and Ireland : 

Many Canadian employers consistently hire temporary workers under IEC again and again in industries such as:

• Tourism

• Food Service

• Hospitality

• Engineering

• Commerce

You can hire young workers from Ireland [Spain, France] without a Labour Market Opinion normally required by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada. Canada issues a two-year work permit to qualified applicants.”

In 2012 Jason Kenney went to Dublin himself to drum up biz, with various employers and recruiting agencies in tow . How'd that pan out again?

A week ago immigration lawyer Vanessa Routley wrote about calling up a recruiting agency in Alberta and posing as a foreign worker looking for a job at KFC in Canada. The whole transcript - from the initial pitch to have her pay $1000 to apply, to upping it to $1250, to downgrading it to $100, to her revealing her real identity at the end - is well worth a read but here's the part of it she high-lighted herself :

One grand for a High Impact Dream Job Pack just to apply for a job bagging chicken at KFC.

Yesterday "the government refused to release detailed information on the controversial Temporary Foreign Workers program on the grounds that doing so "would produce a prohibitively large document."

I'll bet.

May Day : Terry Glavin on the "permanent underclass of perpetually 'temporary' non-citizens"

"There were 338,000 people in Canada at the sufferance of the Temporary Foreign Workers program at the beginning of last year. When you add in other non-citizens working or at least entitled to work, including farm labourers, nannies, foreign students, “Experience Canada” exchange students and so on, you’ll find that you’re looking at more than 600,000 people whose subservience and obsequiousness is disciplined on pain of deportation.This is a number of people that exceeds the size of the entire labour force of Saskatchewan  and its existence inside Canada’s already underemployed working class will have implications that should not require an economics degree to comprehend.

Glavin piece via Owen on Labour Racketeering 

Additional resource : Canadians Against the Temporary Foreign Worker Program
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Fast-tracking fucking over Canadian workers

Fort McMurray Today reports that 270 unionized welders and pipefitters contracted to the Husky Sunrise tarsands project were laid off and replaced by cheaper temporary foreign workers from Mexico, Ireland, Portugal and Italy.

Husky says their work was over but a commenter under another article who was a worker on the site disputes this :

"The work contracted to Black and McDonald was no where near complete. We had to conduct a handover to Saipem (a mostly Italian workforce), detailing to them where we had stopped work so that they may continue. In the final week, Saipem foreign workers were actually in the facility working side by side with us; a very uncomfortable situation for those of us about to be laid off."

Six months ago, we learned that employees of Royal Bank - and all the other banks - were being forced to train and work alongside the outsourced foreign temporary workers who were to replace them at their jobs, while HD Mining, a BC mining company based in China, imported 201 Chinese workers after their ad to hire Mandarin-speaking miners in BC failed to turn up any candidates. ***

CitImm Min Jason Kenney promised a fix, the Accelerated Labour Market Opinion process was temporarily cancelled, and Kellie Leitch, then parlsec for Diane Finley of Human Resources, did such a bang-up job on Power and Politics saying they'd already fixed this  - repeating talking points about Canadian jobs for Canadian workers five times in as many minutes - that Steve made her Minister of Labour.

PostMedia Oct 10, 2013 : Program for foreign workers could be restored

Employment Minister Jason Kenney says the government could soon resurrect a fast-track scheme that allows companies to bring temporary foreign workers to Canada more quickly.  

"highpaying, high-skill jobs, not fast-food franchises in booming Alberta that need foreigners to peddle burgers and doughnuts to oil workers.

Of course not everyone has to apply for a ALMO first :

For example, the federal government has an agreement with Alberta to exempt welders, heavy-duty mechanics and iron workers from the process due to a shortage of skilled workers in those fields.

A point I'm sure was not much comfort to the the welders and pipefitters at Husky Sunrise who were laid off this past Labour Day.


So what changed in the intervening six months?

Nothing. Kenney is right on schedule.

A Wall St Journal article in July reported corps were just waiting for the public backlash to blow over : 

 "To be sure, the halt in outsourcing is expected to be temporary, with experts and IT service providers expecting outsourcing projects to resume after six to eight months. 

CGI Group signed $12 billion in outsourcing contracts with various Canadian corporations, and IBM - $7 billion.

" 'After the RBC controversy, companies are waiting for things to die down. Banks are slowing down projects—they are keeping a low profile, while the tension over offshoring jobs blows over," said an executive from an outsourcing advisory firm who requested anonymity.'  "

And how is iGATE, the company that kicked off the Royal Bank controversy, faring ? 
"Strong Second Quarter Results; Profits Up 136% " and they're planning on opening a new centre in Halifax.


*** Meanwhile the BC Liberals' love affair with HD Mining, the Mandarin-only-speaking Chinese mining company in BC, continues unabated.
Jody Shimkus, former BC assistant deputy minister of mining and "the main point person for the Chinese mining companies in B.C.",  left her government job in January 2012 to join HD Mining. 

Blair Lekstrom, former BC Minister of Energy, Mines, and Petroleum Resources, joined her there two months ago.

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Dr. Kellie Leitch, Minister of Labour

A look at what we can expect from our new Minister of Labour.

So how many of you made it all the way through to Leitch at the Harper/Hudak/Ford TeaCon Trifecta BBQ?
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The invisible hand of the market outsourcing

CBC Go Public's Kathy Tomlinson on The Current :

 "A single mom, an experienced IT worker, couldn't find work for seven months. She heard one of the Indian firms had a project going at one of the banks here so she asked the manager who she knew who was here from India to hire her to oversee it. He said he'd think about it. Then she says he called back to say he would give her the job if she would agree to kickback $8 an hour from her salary to him - a cash commission, he called it. She took the deal because she says she'd rather pay him to work than not have the job."

So Canadians are now having to pay off the insourced scam artists who cost them their jobs to get work at all, even as foreign temporary workers have increased 700% since 2001 and Ottawa is currently inking a trade deal with India to increase labour mobility.

Jason Kenney : 

"Intra-company transfers in the vast majority of cases are a completely normal part of international commerce ... The obligations we have have for intra-company transfars are often hard-wired into trade agreements."

Conspokesbot Kellie Leitch, parlsec for Diane Finley of Human Resources, responds to Anna Maria Tremonti's specific question about companies bypassing government labour market opinions to get fast-tracked on international intra-company transfers :

"The program's intent is not to replace Canadian workers ... We had concerns with respect to what was happening with iGATE and the government acted extremely quickly to begin an investigation to make sure that those labour market opinions were being used appropriately."

which of course entirely bypassed Tremonti's question about employers bypassing LMOs.

Meanwhile in February this year the BC Government Labour Market and Immigration Division was holding classes on how to do it :
(italics mine)

"Is your business experiencing a labour or skills shortage?

If you are an employer interested in learning how to use an alternative approach than the LMO process to recruit and retain foreign workers, this is your chance to find out directly from program staff. "

I guess the BC gov program staff is pretty good at it.
At the now cancelled April 2013 CORE-Outsourcing's 8th Annual Conference : Fast Forward - What's Next for Outsourcing? sponsored by IBM, HP, and iGATE, one of the listed presenters was 
C.J. Ritchie, Asst Deputy Minister, 
Strategic Partnerships Office, Government of British Columbia, 
whose CORE bio advertized provided "leadership to BC’s $5.8-billion portfolio of outsourcing contracts".

And a year ago, the Ontario Ministry of Transportation finalized a $22-million deal with iGATE to provide IT workers for its Road User Safety Modernization Initiative, the department in charge of "road user safety, provincial highways management, and transportation policy and planning including transit." 

Last month iGATE hired a lobbyist to lobby :

• Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA)
• Canada Revenue Agency (CRA)
• Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC)
• Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC)
• Industry Canada (IC)
• Prime Minister's Office (PMO)
• Privy Council Office (PCO

on "the Temporary Foreign Workers Program and proposed government changes to the program."

We'll see how well they do with that.

Northern Reflections : One May Smile  and Smile

with files from : Boycott Royal Bank of Canada and Outsource Canada
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Update : Wednesday, May 8 :

Star investigation: Millions in taxpayer-funded consulting work kept secret

A Star investigation has found 90 per cent of the $2.4 billion paid out in the past decade comes with no description of the work done — and more than a dozen departments refuse to provide details when pressed.

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Boycott the Royal Bank - Part 2

Shorter Gord Nixon : Look, they're not your jobs, they're our jobs, and if we choose to move our jobs offshore to another company without you because it's cheaper, that's just business. Besides, only one of the 13 dudes we brought in to RBC came under iGATE's temporary foreign worker application - the rest of them are house guests.

About that one iGATE dude : G&M : 

The federal government is investigating Royal Bank of Canada’s move to outsource technology jobs and reviewing paperwork submitted by its contractor to bring in temporary foreign workers. The probe centres on what the government sees as “apparent discrepancies” regarding RBC’s explanation of the events.
RBC came under fire on the weekend after allegations emerged that Canada’s largest bank contracted iGate Corp. to handle the outsourcing of certain technology jobs, and the firm was using temporary foreign workers to displace RBC technology staff. The bank denied those claims, and said it does not get involved in the hiring practices of the companies it hires. 

“An investigation is under way and Human Resources and Skills Development Canada officials are currently reviewing the labour market opinions submitted by iGate in great detail, based on apparent discrepancies between RBC’s public statement and information which has previously been provided to the government,” said Alyson Queen, a spokeswoman for Human Resources Minister Diane Finley. 

Meanwhile when CBC interviewed Diane Finley's parlsec Kellie Leitch about the bankster issue, Leitch went on and on and on about "very critical labour shortages in Canada". Way to entirely miss the effing point, Kellie. These people had jobs.

But it's not just RBC of course. Two minutes of statements from employees replaced by foreign workers at TD Canada Trust, Scotiabank, and RBC :



Yesterday CBC Go Public reporter Kathy Tomlinson, who broke the RBC offshoring in-and outsourcing jobs story, was on CBC BC Early Edition. She said she also heard the same stories from terminated employees at Bank of Montreal and CIBC. Excerpted transcript :

I'm getting emails from people who are management, that are high in this and who know how it works. It seems to me that the banks essentially have a template and these outsourcing companies have a template too - they know exactly how to present their case for bringing these workers in, and remember it's the outsourcing company that actually brings the workers in. They're the one that apply to the government for permission and they're the ones that get these workers the visas., right? 

But of course the banks are involved - they're a partnership. So it looks to me from what I'm hearing that there's a template that they've developed that's approved by the government." 

Anna Maria Tremonti's show today took on the larger issue of global outsourcing: 

The insourced foreign workers go home to do the work from their own countries where they are paid 50% of what the Canadians they replaced made.

We have had foreign temporary workers for over 40 years but since 2006 there's been an explosion of low skill temporary foreign workers who can stay here for up to four years and be paid 15% less. Not just low skill workers, this has now evolved to include engineers.

Armine Yalnizyan from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives : 

" Importing people to learn the skills so they can take the skills out - what kind of public policy is that? The Economic McAction Plan."

Alberta Federation of Labour, today, on guest worker permits provided by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada :

Between April 25 and December 18, 2012, more than 2,400 Accelerated Labour Market Opinion or ALMO guest-worker permits – which are supposed to be reserved for highly-skilled employment – have been granted to fast-food restaurants, convenience stores and gas stations. McDonalds, Tim Hortons, A&W, Subway Sandwiches. Are we supposed to believe that these are ‘high-skill’ employment opportunities? 

More than 54 per cent (2,640) of the ALMO approvals in the country were for Alberta-based employers.  ...  The list of businesses in Alberta who received ALMO approvals included 33 A&W restaurants. 

The ALMO stream, introduced in last year’s omnibus budget bill, is proving to be the latest evidence that the temporary foreign worker program is part of a low-wage agenda on the part of radical Tea-Party Tories.

How are young people supposed to compete for temporary low skill jobs to get the education they need in order to finally not be able to get the IT jobs they trained for because they've all gone offshore? Because the real news here is that good education and a relevant skill level is no longer enough to keep you off the unemployment line. 

Armine Yalnizan is right - this is terrible public policy on the government's part.

And finally, the Cons fundraiser/voter contact company, Xentel/RMG/iMarketing Solutions Group, announced yesterday that it is laying off its call centre workers. (h/t Holly Stick)

Will they be outsourcing those jobs offshore? I ask because the Conservative Party of Canada is currently trolling Creekside reading all the posts on Royal Bank and iMarketing Solutions/RMG.

Boycott the Royal Bank of Canada, Part 1

Boycott the Royal Bank - Part 3             Boycott the Royal Bank ... and Amanda Lang
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