Rally for Respect!

To see a photo gallery of the Rally for Rights! demonstration, click on the image

UFCW Canada activists joined several thousand workers and community groups in Toronto on April 9 to participate in a major protest called the Rally for Rights!, which included a march to city hall where demonstrators make a stand for good jobs and public services.

The massive group of trade unionists, environmentalists, equal rights and student activists, filled the streets of downtown Toronto to demonstrate against the city’s ideologically driven mayor, Rob Ford, for his short-sighted approach to governing which includes an aggressive plan to sell off public housing and privatize city services and public transit.

Many Rally for Rights! participants were also protesting the Ontario government’s decision to legislate the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) an essential service, a move that was heavily influenced by the Ford Administration and denies transit workers the right to strike.

“Mayor Rob Ford’s disdain for our public services and the people who make them possible looks a lot like the kind of Tea Party politics that we are seeing in Wisconsin and other American states these days,” says UFCW Canada National President Wayne Hanley. “As trade unionists and social justice activists we always needs to stand on guard against the type of politics that limits universal access, widens the gap between the rich and the rest of us, and undermines the rights of workers.”

Vol. XI No. 16 • April 18, 2011