(The following articles are from the May 1-15, 2008, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

Commentary on Bill C-50, by the Communist Party of Canada

Bill C-50 was written by the Tories for the employers, and the large national and trans-national corporations. The Bill is about giving the Immigration Minister and Cabinet arbitrary and sweeping new powers to slash immigration and to grow a giant pool of temporary foreign workers, effectively eliminating labour laws and protections for an ever-larger part of the working class.

     It's about rolling back rights for all other workers who will be forced to compete with the low wages, long hours, and abysmal conditions forced on temporary foreign workers by racist laws and bosses.

     It's about replacing immigration with temporary, super-exploited workers, injuring immigrant and Canadian-born workers alike. It's about creating racist divisions.

     It's about the race to the bottom, vastly increased exploitation and corporate super-profits, and turning the clock back 100 years on labour and democratic rights in Canada.

The Harper Tories have tried to hide this monstrous assault inside the Budget legislation, because they know that the vast majority of working people in Canada would reject it if it stood alone - as the profoundly anti-democratic, anti-labour and anti-human legislation that it is.

     The Tories know that public hearings on Bill C-50 would clearly expose the government's racist, xenophobic, and corporatist agenda, and could lead to a massive defeat at the polls.

     Their Bill C-50 can't stand the bright light of public debate, and the government can't stand the political exposure that public hearings would bring. This includes the proposal to give the Minister sweeping and arbitrary new powers to pick and choose applications, to levy quotas on national groups, and to block and stop family reunification.

     That's why the government has made C-50 a confidence vote. They're counting on the Liberals to let the Bill pass.

     The government must be pressured to withdraw C-50 by a storm of public and parliamentary opposition. But if the government refuses to withdraw it, the opposition parties must unite to vote C-50 down and go to the people in a general election; there is no other choice.

   The Communist Party stands united in action with the labour and democratic movements, and with all immigrants, with and without status, to defeat this odious legislation and this reactionary, racist government.   

     Canada needs a new government and new policies that will put people before profits. A broad based People's Coalition, uniting the labour, progressive and democratic forces around a People's Agenda for Canada, could defeat the Big Business neo-liberal agenda, and open the door to fundamental social change.

     This is what is needed to ensure that the extreme right-wing, reactionary agenda being advanced by the Tories and other Big Business parties in Parliament is permanently blunted and blocked.

     Defeating Bill C-50 and defeating the Tories in a general election is an important part of this struggle today.

     The CPC calls for:

* defeat Bill C-50.

* public hearings on all immigration and refugee Bills.

* hire new staff to clear the backlog of 925,000 applications - some up to 7 years old.

* expand immigration in all categories; facilitate family reunification; enable refugee claims, eliminate racist and discriminatory rules; reduce fees.

* provide all workers - irrespective of status - with the protections of the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and apply federal and provincial labour laws to all workers equally, irrespective of status.

* prosecute employers who break these laws to the full extent.

* enable non-status residents to secure Canadian status; end deportations; eliminate security certificates and restore habeas corpus.

* recognize the credentials of internationally trained professionals and skilled workers.