In the Media

Nortel pensioners and former employees calling for change on bankruptcy law to move employee claims ahead of other creditors.

Last week I attended an event organized by Nortel pensioners and disabled employees marking the 1-year anniversary of Nortel going into brankruptcy protection.

The following link has video coverage of the event: Nortel Pensioners event

NDP to call for bankruptcy pension protection

Last Updated: Tuesday, November 3, 2009 | 12:53 PM ET Comments34Recommend11CBC News

The NDP said Tuesday it will introduce new legislation to protect employees' pensions when companies go bankrupt in an effort to prevent a situation like that currently facing Nortel retirees.

http://www.saultstar.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1650507

Posted By RYLEE IRWIN, SPECIAL TO THE STAR
Posted 4 hours ago

Local seniors will have the opportunity to voice their opinions in a public forum with participation from federal NDP critic for seniors and pensions, MP Wayne Marston and Sault MP Tony Martin.

Issues such as inadequate income support, substandard health care, disappearing pensions and New Horizon programs will be discussed throughout the day on Monday.

The full public forum will be held at 10:30 a. m. at the Senior's Drop In Centre on Bay St.

Budget 2008: Harper should think green to create growth
WAYNE MARSTON

Stephen Harper hasn't decided when his Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is going to hand down his budget, but already, there is rampant speculation and even a few promises about what will and won't be in it.

As your Member of Parliament, I try to stay away from speculation as much as possible and stick to what I know. I know we need investment in our community and to find ways to keep our jobs and to create more lasting jobs.

Statistics Canada's most recent manufacturing employment figures show 33,000 manufacturing jobs were lost last December alone. Tallied up, 2007 was worse than 2006 with a 6.2 per cent decline adding up to almost 350,000 manufacturing jobs lost since November 2002.

If Mr. Harper or Mr. Flaherty think a plan for this sector should look like Mr. Harper's recent forestry sector plan, which amounts to no more than showing up with a cheque after a mill or plant has been closed and the jobs have disappeared, they have misunderstood the potential of the manufacturing industry as much as they have the forestry sector.

But what can be done? If you looked around lately, a lot of people are talking about "greening" our economy and we in the NDP are talking about green-collar jobs. Green-collar jobs result from creating demand in existing sectors, while using many of the same skilled people in work that also contributes to the goal of reducing our ecological footprint.

Take for example our steel industry. If we were to look at Germany, where supports to the wind sector have increased demand for steel, because a lot of steel is needed to make wind turbines, we have an innovative way to think green and create jobs. Germany's wind sector employs 40,000 people, second only to its auto sector.

If Mr. Harper's budget were to support the wind energy sector so that it became more viable and widespread, in Steeltown we could talk about making the same product, perhaps with some modifications, for a new sector. And that would mean creating green collar jobs in our community.

Manufacturing jobs are disappearing in our community and others across the country. This affects everything from school enrolment to retail spending and has huge significance to local economies like ours, as well as our national economy. It is time for the federal budget to be about the manufacturing sector and the jobs depended on by so many in our community.

Published in the Stoney Creek News

PUBLICATION: The Hamilton Spectator
BYLINE: Daniel Nolan

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1,500 pack hall to back VON, St. Jo caregivers

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Union leaders, politicians, patients and just plain citizens packed a rally to support 200 home-care providers who will soon lose their jobs after being denied a contract renewal.

The event last night for the Victorian Order of Nurses and St. Joseph's Home care also attracted comedian Mary Walsh. She acted as co-host with CHAM 820 morning man Jason Farr, and American labour professor Tom Juravich. He entertained with songs he had written for the rally such as "Mean Things Happening in this Town" and the "New Home Care Song." It also featured numerous video testimonials from families who praised the two services and expressed fears for the future.

Organizers estimated about 1,500 people attended the rally at the Michelangelo Banquet Centre and they hope the attendance sends a message to the Ontario Liberal government to review the bidding process by the Community Care Access Centre (CCAC), which eliminated the VON and St. Joseph's last month from the request for proposal process that will determine who gets contracts for home care in the city. The two organizations currently handle 80 per cent of home care in Hamilton, but their contracts end March 31.

"They should take a step back and review this," said co-organizer Dave Murphy, vice-president of CUPE Local 4800 at Hamilton Health Sciences. "They should take a look at the whole process and start again. Don't shroud this process in secrecy."

The CCAC is expected to announce next month who won the new contracts. It won't say why the two services were eliminated, but they were dropped at the stage where written proposals were examined.

CCAC senior director Janet Doering said she welcomed the public appealing to the province for a review, but noted the request for proposals process had been reviewed by former health minister Elinor Caplan a few years ago and Caplan consulted with unions and patients.

"We already understood clearly that some people don't support the RFP process," she said.

"To be fair to the province, they did not create this whole RFP process in isolation ... This was not something cooked up in a back room," Doering said.

The rally featured more than half a dozen speakers, including federal NDP Leader Jack Layton, local NDP MPPs Paul Miller (who has asked the auditor general to audit the RFP process) and Andrea Horwath, and Joe Mancinelli, president of the Labourers International Union of North America (LIUNA). It was attended by local New Democrat MPs David Christopherson and Wayne Marston, city councillors Tom Jackson, Scott Duvall and Terry Whitehead, and Henry Watson, head of the local firefighters association.

Layton and Horwath denounced the involvement of for-profit corporations in the delivery of home care. Layton told the crowd how his 85-year-old mother-in-law received home care from a for-profit company and the care was not adequate.He didn't blamed the nurse, but her company, because it gave her too many patients to look after. He had to call a "complaint centre" to talk about his in-law's care.

"We should throw out the whole idea of competition for health care," Layton said.

Domestic violence, human rights on Marston's agenda
By Abigail Cukier Stoney Creek News

After four days off last year, Hamilton East-Stoney Creek MP Wayne Marston is in Cancun this week. But he already has lots planned for when he returns.

He will be holding town hall meetings, including one on the manufacturing industry crisis, Jan. 16, 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Royal Canadian Legion, 1180 Barton St. E. NDP Leader Jack Layton will be on hand.

Other priorities include increasing physical fitness of Canada's children and making sure domestic violence is dealt with more harshly and, as Multiculturalism Critic, he will write a review of the annual report on multiculturalism in Canada.

He also plans to continue talking to local residents.

"Just going to Horton's or Eastgate is important. You have to listen to the departments, but you also have to see what the average person's going to think of this," he said. "Getting out in the community, that's the great part of it for me and my wife, I really enjoy people and getting out."

He says 2007 was "extremely exciting."

One highlight was traveling to China. As is custom, when a minister travels, a member of the opposition is invited and Mr. Marston traveled with Minister of Foreign Affairs Peter MacKay.

While there, he had meetings regarding Huseyin Celil, whose case Mr. Marston has been working on for two years.

Mr. Celil was arrested in 2006 while visiting his wife's family in Uzbekistan. Three months later, officials there handed the former Hamilton imam over to China, where he is accused of participating in alleged terrorist separatist activities.

In parliament last year, Mr. Marston urged for consular access and a fair trial for Mr. Celil.
Mr. Celil came to Canada as a refugee and became a citizen in 2005. Chinese officials have rejected claims he is a Canadian citizen and have denied Canadian diplomats access to him.

After his visit to China, Mr. Marston believes there is a reasonable chance Mr. Celil will return to Canada after the summer Olympic Games.

Another issue that was important to Mr. Marston was launching a petition campaign calling on the government to establish a National DNA Bank and National Missing Persons Index.
Mr. Marston asked for legislation to create national systems for cross-referencing human remains to the DNA of missing persons.

"It is an honour to stand in the House and talk about issues that are so important to families," he said.

In February, the sub-committee on International Human Rights unanimously passed a motion by Mr. Marston to have hearings on the question of Canada signing the UN Optional Protocol Against Torture.

Mr. Marston's motion called for the sub-committee to hear witnesses on the protocol and make a recommendation to parliament.

Nov 01 2007 10:20:00 - Source: CP [The Canadian Press]

New Democrats call for national DNA databank, promote petition (DNA-Databank)

OTTAWA - A New Democrat MP is calling for a national DNA databank to help trace missing persons.

Wayne Marston says he took up the issue when he was approached by the Hamilton-area family of Billy Mason, who disappeared in February 2006.

Marston says there is a patchwork process in place to check DNA in missing-persons cases, but he says it's governed by luck.

He says a national DNA bank and missing-persons index would enable law enforcement to cross-check DNA on items and remains that have been found with that of missing persons.

Mason's family has started a national petition with 6,600 signatures calling on Parliament to review research and legislate implementation of a DNA human-remains index and a DNA databank for missing persons.

The petition states there are thousands of missing-person cases in Canada and no established method to cross-reference recovered remains with people on the missing-persons list.

The federal, provincial and territorial governments have been discussing a DNA missing-persons index, but the petition says while they talk families suffer without closure even though their loved ones may already have been found.

INDEX: SOCIAL JUSTICE
CP Command News is one of many services from The Canadian Press, Canada’s No. 1 Source for News.

Marston says Liberals failed to answer the call of duty
Cornwall Standard-Freeholder (ON) Fri 26 Oct 2007
Byline: Trevor Pritchard

The federal Liberals neglected their duty as Canada's official opposition when they abstained from voting on Prime Minister Stephen Harper's throne speech, a Hamilton MP said Thursday.

Hamilton East-Stoney Creek NDP MP Wayne Marston spoke last night to about 200 union members who have been attending the Canadian Labour Congress's week- long Autumn School at the Nav Canada Conference Centre.

While the country doesn't want to go to the polls any time soon, Harper's throne speech - which called for an extension of Canada's Afghanistan mission to 2001 and rebuffed the Kyoto Protocol - was too drastic for the NDP to support, said Marston.

With the Liberals abstaining, Wednesday's speech, which was a confidence motion, easily passed 126 to 79.

The Bloc Quebecois and the NDP both voted unanimously against it, and NDP leader Jack Layton has begun calling his party Canada's "effective opposition" - a jab at Liberal leader Stephane Dion's decision to sit out the vote.

"We don't want an election, but we also have principles that say we can't agree with that throne speech," said Marston.

"We were prepared to say no. And you saw the Liberals sit on their hands."

A former labour council president, Marston acknowledged the longstanding support the NDP has had from the labour movement, telling the crowd the party "couldn't get elected in 100 years without you."

Born in the small town of Plaster Rock, N.B., Marston explained how many of his friends from his youth had moved to Ontario after jobs were cut at the local mill.

He lamented that the same cutbacks were now happening to Ontario's manufacturing industry, with those jobs being replaced by lower-paying jobs in the service sector.

"The lives of people, they should be getting better," said Marston.
"They should be growing."

With recent polls showing the Liberals dipping below 30 per cent support across Canada, Marston pumped up those on hand with a call to "get rid of some of the ladies and gentlemen in the Liberal party."

He encouraged anyone with an appetite for activism to get involved in politics.

"You are at the core of activism. And activism is at the core of what is needed to save our country," said Marston. "When you come together you're a powerful force."

PUBLICATION: The Hamilton Spectator

BYLINE: Raveena Aulakh

Dieppe vets relive bloody raid 65 years later

Stan Darch stood in tears at the Dieppe Memorial on Beach Boulevard, remembering the raid on Dieppe in France 65 years ago and the soldiers and friends who died there.

The 87-year-old Royal Hamilton Light Infantry veteran also shed tears for the memorial itself, which was vandalized a few weeks ago.

"I wish I could get a hold of them ... I would kill them," said a tearful Darch.

Darch and other RHLI veterans, along with their families, attended the 65th anniversary memorial service at the Dieppe Memorial Park yesterday.

There were plenty of tears, some wan smiles and a feeling of camaraderie as RHLI veterans and their families paid respects to the fallen soldiers. Some 4,973 Canadians were part of the invasion force on Aug. 19, 1942. Nine hundred and thirteen Canadians died; 200 of them were from Hamilton.

"Dieppe was a massacre," said Darch, who can't bear to walk on the stones near the memorial. The stones, meant to recreate the stony Dieppe beach, do their job too well. Darch can only take so much remembering.

He went back to Dieppe in 1977, but turned down a chance to go again in 1982. "The memories are too bad," said his daughter Debbie Adams.

"He's always in tears when he comes to the memorial."

In another corner, veteran Gordon McPartlin stood quietly talking to his grandson, Kris Nichols, pointing out the damage to the memorial.

"I was really angry when I heard about it," said McPartlin. "I wondered what kind of people would vandalize a place which honours dead men."

McPartlin, 86, who also fought at Dieppe, was taken prisoner. He spent two years and eight months as a PoW.

He always attends the anniversary service. "It means a lot to me," he said, talking about Operation Jubilee, as the Dieppe raid was code-named.

Darch and McPartlin were among the four Dieppe veterans who attended the yesterday's service.

Lieutenant Colonel Rev. Bryan Robertson, who conducted the first service four years earlier, says the number of Dieppe veterans is going down, although some of them had gone to France for the anniversary.

"They must also be at the service right now," said Robertson while conducting the ceremony.

Indeed, a group of nearly 50 veterans, soldiers and family members from the Royal Hamilton Light Infantry joined hundred of other soldiers, dignitaries and French citizens in ceremonies marking the 65th anniversary of the 1942 Allied raid on Dieppe.

Former Hamilton police officer Jack McFarland was among those making the trip and, with Jim Forsyth, the regiment's honorary colonel, he laid a wreath on the RHLI monument under wet, grey skies.

Back in Hamilton, MP Wayne Marston, MPP Andrea Horwath and Councillor Bob Bratina, attended the beachfront service with about 300 others.

Among the sombre crowd was Anne Dukes Schilte, whose father fought at Dieppe and came back home but he was never the same again.

"He could never talk about the battle," said Dukes Schilte. "It was too painful for him."

Her father, William Dukes, died in 1957 but his daughter says Dieppe is a part of her life.

"I'm proud to be here," said Dukes Schilte, who has never missed an anniversary service.

This time, she also wanted to see the damage to the memorial.

"It's a sacrilege," she said, pointing to where the vandals had left their mark.

Earlier, Robertson said the city had advised that the damage will be fixed in six weeks.

"I hope so," said Dukes Schilte. "This means a lot to us."

Time to stand up for comfort women: NDP; NDP urges Conservatives to follow the lead from US resolution
By Rupinder Kaur
Source: Ugnayan (Filipino, Toronto)

OTTAWA, Ontario
July 31,2007

The NDP critic for Human Rights called on the Conservative government to follow the lead from the US House of Representatives and approve a resolution to call on the Japanese Prime Minister to acknowledge, apologize and appropriately compensate the Korean, Chinese and Filipino women who were forced into prostitution during WWII.

NDP MP Wayne Marston (Hamilton East-Stoney Creek) stated, "We must act in accordance with the principles of defending human rights that ordinary Canadians believe in. Around 200,000 women were lured from their homes in neighboring countries and forced to work as prostitutes for the Japanese military. Japan should officially apologize and compensate these women and Canada should be urging them to do so."

No formal apology or redress has been delivered and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has made disturbing comments in recent months about their situation. In April, Marston introduced a motion at the sub-committee on International Human Rights asking the Conservative government to urge the Japanese to officially apologize and provide compensation. Although the sub-committee passed that motion, the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs sent it back for further study.

"Women's organizations, representatives of the affected communities and the NDP have pushed for such action by Parliament but have had difficulty securing support for inexplicable reasons," charged NDP MP Olivia Chow (Trinity Spadina), who authored a parallel motion on comfort women that is currently before the House of Commons. "Until truth is named, reconciliation cannot be achieved," she said.

"If the U.S. House of Representatives can pass a resolution calling for an official apology, this Government should follow that lead and the NDP motion should be approved as soon as Parliament resumes, so that Canada can join other nations in urging the Japanese Government to do what is right," said Marston. "History denied is justice denied – Canada should have moved on this issue a long time ago."