By Sean Carleton - January 31, 2013

...[T]here is still much confusion about why Bill C-45 is so problematic. To help clarify the case against Bill C-45, this article first breaks down the Conservative Party's rationalization of Bill C-45 and then examines how the bill can be understood as a dangerous attack on democracy and a continuation of the Canadian state's support for colonial and capitalist expansion and exploitation.

By Stefan Christoff - Al Jazeera

Beyond contemporary extremes in inequality for aboriginal peoples in Canada, increasingly labelled "Canadian apartheid", Idle No More actions sound the alarm on questions of colonial injustice that reach to the political depths of Canada's existence and national character...Central to the Idle No More movement is a call for all Canadians to respect treaty rights, highlighting the constant refusal to acknowledge treaty obligations by successive Canadian governments over the past century.

By Kel Kelly - January 28, 2013

As Parliament resumes on this #J28 global day of action, we present 28 reminders of what people across the country and around the world are mobilizing against.

By Murray Dobbin - rabble.ca

When historians write the chapter on the current period of social democracy in Canada they might well conclude that the worst thing that happened to it was the 2011 election when the NDP got 103 seats it hadn't really earned...[T]he NDP could not cope with it. You could see it in the euphoria of election night -- the same night that the dismantling of the country...would begin in earnest with a Harper majority....After transforming the country in the post-war years into a modest social democracy...the NDP's false dream of actually coming to power threatens to wipe out its legacy.

By Dru Oja Jay - January 8, 2013

There is a prevailing myth that Canada's more than 600 First Nations and native communities live off of money...from the Canadian government. This myth, though it is loudly proclaimed and widely believed, is remarkable for its boldness; widely accessible, verifiable facts show that the opposite is true...Indigenous people have been subsidizing Canada for a very long time.

By RON JACOBS - Counterpunch Weekend Edition

Recently, a movement of native peoples...calling itself Idle No More arose in Canada. The impetus for the movement is the Canadian government’s Omnibus Bill C-45. This bill seems designed to further abrogate treaty rights assigned to First Nations in order to expand resource exploration and extraction. The movement is slowly spreading to the indigenous nations of the northern United States, which have seen their lands ravaged numerous times over the course of history in the name of resource extraction.

By Vic Neufeld - 12 January 2013

Canada has a long history of importing workers from abroad to perform heavy, undesirable work at depressed wages, then expelling them when they are no longer needed...However, the unions’ campaign to block Chinese-owned HD Mining International from importing “temporary” Chinese workers is a dangerous, chauvinist diversion. The United Steel Workers, the Council of British Columbia Building Trade Unions and other unions are pitting worker against worker in the name of “defending Canadian jobs.”

By Carl Bronski - WSWS

The escalation of Idle No More’s fight against chronic native poverty, inequality, the abrogation of treaty rights and environmental degradation comes in the wake of a series of events last week that have brought to the fore issues surrounding the historic oppression and dispossession of Canada’s native peoples, a renewed push by big business to develop huge northern fossil fuel and mineral deposits, and the growing social stratification amongst the native population itself.

By David P. Ball - January 12, 2013

Across from Parliament Hill, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and several cabinet ministers met with a selection of First Nations leadership as several thousand protested outside the meeting..."Essentially, the chiefs are saying that we could shut down the country if we really wanted to...[Harper] should be dealing with this as an emergency situation...The situations we're talking about...are really hitting the bottom of the barrel...That's why there's so many missing and murdered women; there's a lack of justice, a lack of equality, there's poverty."

By Alexander Fangmann - WSWS

The lead negotiators for the NHLPA acted from beginning to end as though concessions were entirely normal and expected. The team owners easily extracted from the players nearly everything they originally sought, including wage cuts and player contract restrictions.

You are no longer a white man and we Indians own everything.

Signed; Canada

Now, if an Indian chief asked you to sign this treaty, would you?

By Eric Walberg - January 7th, 2013

Not only do Canada’s natives empower all Canadians against the 1%, they also help us understand Canada’s actions in Palestine and Iran, countries whose people love Canada and root for our natives, whose struggle against the imperial order is their struggle too. Victory against Canada’s Mubarak helps Egyptians shake off the legacy of neoliberalism, helps Palestinians in their struggle against Jewish colons in Israel, and Iranians dying in hospitals for lack of medicines due to the embargo intended to crush their independence.

By Matt Moir - January 1, 2013

Though Canada doesn't yet lock up the same percentage of its citizenry as its southern neighbor -- the most heavily incarcerated society in the world -- measures passed by Prime Minister Harper's Conservative government have resulted in a steady increase in the number of Canadians behind bars. Canadians of Aboriginal ancestries have borne the brunt of the surge of prisoners.

By Nozomi Hayase - January 09, 2013

The indigenous movement sparked in Canada has gone beyond borders and across the ocean to countries like New Zealand and England. It has been gaining strength as a force of healing and regeneration. Idle No More calls for all to join in and participate...This non-violent social uprising is viral in the minds and hearts of everyone across the planet determined to bring healing to our troubled communities, our planet, and the corruption that is eroding the highest places of government around the world.

By Glen Coulthard - rabble.ca

"Canada, if you do not deal with this generation of leaders, then we cannot promise that you are going to like the kind of violent political action that we can just about guarantee the next generation is going to bring to you...We want to let you know that you're playing with fire. We may be the last generation of leaders that are prepared to sit down and peacefully negotiate our concerns with you."

- Warning from the National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations, Georges Erasmus, in 1988