The Lindsay Advocate - February 2022

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FEBRUARY 2022

Union strong How unions aim to reclaim lost ground HEALTH CARE CRISIS Ontario’s system is critical

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February 2022 • Vol 4 • Issue 46

PUBLISHED BY

Fireside Publishing House, a proudly Canadian company.

The Lindsay Advocate is published monthly and distributed to a wide variety of businesses and locations within Kawartha Lakes, North Durham and southern Haliburton County. We are a proud member of the Lindsay and District, Fenelon Falls and Bobcaygeon Chambers of Commerce.

CONTENTS KAWARTHA LAKES’ FINEST MAGAZINE

FEATURES

TEAM ADVOCATE EDITORIAL

Publisher: Roderick Benns Associate Editor: Nancy Payne Contributing Editor: Trevor Hutchinson Contributing Writers: Kirk Winter, Dennis Raphael,

Geoff Coleman, Ginny Colling, William McGinn, Ian McKechnie Web Developer: Kimberley Durrant LETTERS TO THE EDITOR SEND TO

The Lindsay Advocate, 1 Russell St. E., Lindsay, ON K9V 1Z7 kawarthalakespublisher@gmail.com ADVERTISING & MARKETING

Advertising/Editorial inquiries: Roderick Benns

705-341-1496

CREATIVE

Graphic Design: Barton Creative Co.

13 10 Editorial: Health care needs more money. But more importantly, we have to do things differently.

11 Opinion: There’s a reason

why the healthiest nations have the most unions.

13 Cover Story Visit www.lindsayadvocate.ca for more stories and to listen to our podcasts FOLLOW US ON

d

The Lindsay Advocate @lindsayadvoc

cf The Lindsay Advocate PRINTING

Printed by Cofax Printing OUR PRIVACY POLICY The Lindsay Advocate is independently owned and operated. The opinions expressed herein are the views of the contributors and do not necessarily reflect those of this magazine. Photos, text, and art work contained in The Lindsay Advocate are copyrighted and may not be published, broadcast, or rewritten without the express permission of the Publisher. Liability for incorrectly displayed advertising is limited to publishing corrections or advertising credit for subsequent issues. The Publisher reserves the right to reject, revise, cancel, omit, discontinue or even decline to print advertising without reason or liability, and without notice. The Publisher has made every effort to ensure information contained herein was accurate at press time. The Publisher does not assume and hereby disclaims any liability to any party for damage, loss, or disruption caused by errors or omissions.

Union protection matters, especially in the private sector.

Here’s how the movement could grow.

20 Our health care system is in trouble without more investment and attention.

But we don’t need more private sector involvement.

28 28 New arts centre in

Coboconk sees veteran teacher create new creative opportunities for residents.

IN EVERY ISSUE

4 Letters to the Editor 6 UpFront 9 Benns’ Belief 39 Cool Tips for a Hot Planet 40 The Local Kitchen 41 Crossword 43 Friends & Neighbours 44 Just in Time 46 Trevor’s Take

Our Vision

The Advocate cares the social wellness of our community and our country. Our vision includes strong public enterprises mixed with healthy small businesses to serve our communities’ needs. We put human values ahead of economic values and many of our stories reflect the society we work to build each day.

Advertising Sales: Contact us at 705-341-1496 • kawarthalakespublisher@gmail.com

Reader enjoyed learning of military officer’s mission A TE

LIN

DSAY

AD O C V

Bus connections inadequate

I very much enjoyed reading the Advocate exclusive feature by Lt. Sheila Tham, navy officer from Lindsay, who took us inside the anti-drug trafficking Operation CARIBBE. (February 2021,). It was an interesting story about her time on board ship HMCS Summerside.

Congratulations, Sheila; you’re a good writer!

Frances Emery, Janetville

I would like to echo the point made in a lengthy article in the January edition of the Advocate (“Transportation Wasteland”). The bus connection to Oshawa and Toronto now being reduced from seven trips a week to four trips a week is really inadequate. Patients who do not drive and need tertiary care are victimized. If they cannot manage the visit in a few hours they are forced to stay in Toronto for two nights, for only once a week, Sunday-Monday, are there buses on consecutive days. As soon as the pandemic is over TOK needs to replace the missing buses.

Dr. Michael Moreton, Lindsay

New Anglican priest will make a difference

Community Care’s transportation work to be commended

Reader not getting his hopes up for more transportation

I was heartened by the story of Jordan Prosper at Community Care and the work that he does to manage an important non-profit service. (“Transportation Wasteland,” January Advocate). Jordan’s Community Care transportation service employs volunteers to help fill the gaps in the current public transportation system so that citizens of underserved rural communities in Kawartha Lakes have access to transportation options when they need them most.

This story reminded me of a similar undertaking by my cousin John Balfour in Phoenix, Arizona, in the early 1970s. Johnny founded The Bug Line, which consisted of refurbished buses painted in bold, bright colours that provided inexpensive services to residents within the greater Phoenix area. Back then, Phoenix was a vast sprawling area with no subways and inadequate rail transportation options.

Over time, Johnny’s popular service helped to prove the need and viability for such a service and the City of Phoenix eventually stepped up to offer a public service for The Bug Line routes.

Johnny’s entrepreneurial initiative resulted in lasting benefits for many underserved citizens of Phoenix. Jordan’s efforts will likely produce similar long-term results for the residents of Kawartha Lakes while continuing to provide a vital service in the present.

Gene Balfour, Fenelon Falls

I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Father Alvardo Adderley (“Friends & Neighbours”, December 2021 Advocate). He will certainly make a difference and have an impact in his community. Nothing beats deep caring and concern for those around us. When it comes from the top, it has a ripple effect, especially at this time when many of our neighbours need genuine affirmation, focused attention and tangible support.

Avis Glaze, Tsawwassen, B.C.

I am a regular reader of our Lindsay Advocate magazine. Finally, I see the issue about transportation is becoming more popular. Maybe there is change coming but before I become too optimistic, I want the readers to share my experience with city hall 15 years ago. We had meetings at the seniors’ centre and petitioned city hall. We were told we do not need a bus — but there is a GO bus from Beaverton to Cannington and Sunderland, so why not Lindsay? I know if we want service, it costs money and that services are paid by taxes — I understand that. In the April 2021 issue of the Advocate Mark Lowell of Burnt River, a former transit adviser, writes that connecting to a GO bus should be a simple task. It is a topic city hall does not want to hear about and contacting MPP Laurie Scott is absolutely useless.

Gunter Schubert, Lindsay

Is Ford a Progressive Conservative?

First, I second Judi Forbes’ comment in her December letter in the Advocate when she writes, “Bravo to Barbara Doyle for standing as the NDP candidate for HKLB in the upcoming election.” It is important for all voices to be heard, all policies presented, for the

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electorate to decide, regardless of chances of winning.

Then, scrolling down to the final sentence, “ask yourselves what the Ontario Conservative party has done to make your life better in the last four years.” My short answer to her question is that the PC government, true to their word, cancelled the disastrous Green Energy Act. Sure, most of the damage had already been done, but the Ford government did its best to cancel future ill-conceived contracts, and even paid heavy penalties to eliminate more in progress. Cancelling the Green Energy Act did more for the people of Ontario than any single act that I can envision.

Carl Sweetman, Lindsay

Meet Team Advocate

What are the bylaws around dangerous animals?

I just read a CBC article. If it is true that the province of Ontario has no laws governing ownership of dangerous wild animals or venomous reptiles, then I would like to know what regulations Kawartha Lakes has in that regard. Perhaps, in the public interest, you could shed some light on this subject?

Andra Gerry, Kawartha Lakes ~ Kawartha Lakes has a bylaw that prohibits residents from owning animals such as lions and tigers. For a complete list of prohibited animals, please visit our website to download a copy of the bylaw. Concerns regarding bylaw violations can be reported to the municipal law enforcement office for investigation. The municipality does not license exotic animals or venomous reptiles and does not enforce animal welfare.

We have a co-operative relationship with provincial animal welfare inspectors for issues the related to animal welfare.

Aaron Sloan, Manager, Municipal Law Enforcement and Licensing, Kawartha Lakes

We want your letters! Send us your thoughts to be featured on this page.

The Lindsay Advocate welcomes your Letters to the Editor.

We reserve the right to edit letters for clarity or length.

We do not publish anonymous letters unless it’s a matter of public importance and/or someone risks harm by writing us. We would then publish under strict guidelines and only if we can verify the person’s identity.

Simply email kawarthalakespublisher@gmail.com.

Please keep your letters to 200 words or less.

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[ GEOFF COLEMAN ] Geoff Coleman moved to the Kawarthas in 1989 from Thunder Bay to take a high school teaching job in Fenelon Falls. He planned to return north after two years, but the area won him over.

His favourite stories for the Advocate almost always involve shining a light on ordinary people who do remarkable things for no other reason than to improve their communities.

When not writing, Geoff can be found behind a guitar, a table saw, a camera or a fishing rod, although usually not at the same time.

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UPFRONT

New Kawartha Lakes Ontario Health Team wants to hear from you

The Kawartha Lakes Ontario Health Team (KL-OHT) is running a series of focus groups along with a public survey and would like to hear from the community on what matters most when it comes to local health care. The health team’s mission is to co-ordinate and connect care to create a seamless experience for patients and families.

Community members’ participation in the survey will help guide the work of the health team, according to a media release.

All residents of Kawartha Lakes are invited to complete the public survey, which should take no longer than 10 minutes. Residents can find the survey at kawarthalakesoht.ca, or complete it over the phone or request a paper copy by calling 705-934-1430. The public survey closes on Feb. 21.

The team is also running a series of online focus groups throughout February to give the community an opportunity to share ideas and perspectives about improving local care. Anyone interested in participating can register their interest at the same website.

“We want to hear from as many community voices as possible. The public survey and online focus groups are the first step in a much broader community engagement process that we will build over time and look forward to having in-person dialogues with our community when COVID allows,” says Stephanie MacLaren, Kawartha Lakes Ontario Health Team executive director.

The team’s focus for its first year is to enhance co-ordinated care and services for residents 65 and older who live alone or don’t have a support network, are frail with complex medical needs or are cognitively unwell, or who have been hospitalized within the last year.

Victoria’s Shelter marks three decades of providing safety Women’s Resources recently recognized the 30th anniversary of the official opening of Victoria’s Shelter.

In January 1992, the 18-bed shelter officially opened its doors. Within the first three weeks, 15 of the 18 beds were filled, demonstrating the need for a safe haven for women who were ready to leave the intolerable, abusive situations they were living in. After just 12 months of operation, the shelter had admitted more than 200 women and children and responded to more than 500 crisis calls Since 1992 Victoria’s Shelter has provided a safe place for more than 2,800 women and 2,700 children and its 24/7 crisis line has responded to 38,000 calls. There are 38 staff now working for the organization.

Women’s Resources began life in 1983 as the Family Violence Task Force. The committee, which comprised a range of community members, undertook to assess the seriousness of woman abuse in Victoria County and to review and improve existing services.

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Business UPFRONT

Bobcaygeon’s Inn Style Lindsay Chamber Salon in its second month is celebrating of business 60 years

Kim Murphy has become a downtown Bobcaygeon fixture with her new salon.

Kim Murphy never thought she’d own her own business at 30. But when the opportunity came up to grab the space behind the Daylight Diner in Bobcaygeon and open Inn Style Salon, she didn’t hesitate for long. Once she made the move to her own shop, many of her regular hair clients from her previous place of employment came with her, says Murphy.

“It’s going great. It’s a cute little shop with three chairs,” she says.

Her mother, Tracey, works with her for two days a week doing walk-ins while Kim focuses more on colours.

“I get to be creative, which is so much fun.”

But her favourite part of her job is “seeing how much better people feel about themselves when they like their hair. People come in not feeling like themselves, or they’re in need of a change. It feels so good when they leave my chair with a big smile on their faces and can’t stop looking at themselves in the mirror.

It’s nice to think I can make a positive impact or difference for someone.”

Inn Style Salon is located at 80 Bolton St. (behind Daylight Diner) Bobcaygeon. Call 705-738-1888.

www.lindsayadvocate.ca

It’s an exciting year for the Lindsay + District Chamber of Commerce, given 2022 marks the 60th year since its incorporation. In fact, it has existed in one form or another since 1887 when it started out as a board of trade and later became the Lindsay Advancement Club.

Preparations are underway to celebrate the anniversary with an event, although pandemic circumstances have kept staff busy trying to figure out exactly when it will take place, according to Colleen Collins, executive director.

“It is important that we recognize and celebrate the accomplishments of the businesses and board members who have supported the Lindsay + District Chamber of Commerce over the past 60 years,” Collins says.

In the past, the Lindsay Chamber has hosted the Classics on Kent Car Show, Homecoming, Art in the Park and the Santa Claus parade while today it is known for its Awards of Excellence, the Mayoral Luncheon and Small Business Week Breakfast, among many other events.

Mayor Andy Letham speaks at the Lindsay Chamber’s Mayoral Luncheon, pre-COVID.

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BENNS’ BELIEF RODERICK BENNS Publisher

Value of unions should be taught by schools, media

When I open my Globe and Mail newspaper, I can easily find the business section. I can learn about the latest corporate acquisitions. I might find an analysis of how the economy is faring. Others so inclined may check their stock performance. But what I will almost never see is an article about labour, unless it is framed as opposing big business and its goals (such as strike action.)

In other words, we only have business stories, not labour stories, unless the latter is a disruptive side note. Quite simply, though, a business is nothing without workers. Workers animate a company’s vision. They bring life to business owners’ ideas and they fulfill corporate bottom lines.

Yet the prevailing attitude sees a large portion of Canadians denigrate the labour movement. We’ve been taught by big media and by the powerful interests that insidiously shape it that business is what shapes our economy — and in turn, have we not then become more consumer than citizen?

On page 11 in this edition of the Advocate Professor Dennis Raphael writes of the value unions bring to nations and individuals all over the world. He also warns the dominant media voices are ignoring labour and its health benefits — and so is the education system.

While every classroom experience is different and there are certainly excellent history teachers, how much time are most educators spending on the Winnipeg General Strike and its ripple effects? How much time do we really spend on Tommy Douglas, the prairie firebrand who almost single-handedly rescued this country from being America Lite? (After all, our universal health care system is one of the great differentiators between Canada and the U.S.) More to the point, how much emphasis are Ministry of Education documents guiding teachers to instruct on these topics?

Similar to our newspaper comparison, high schools offer courses in “business studies” — and it is hardly well balanced with the concerns of labour.

There are only two references to unions in the 136-page Ontario Curriculum for Grade 11 and 12 business studies.

I guess it surprises me that unions are not held in higher esteem, considering so many of the things we value were union-driven, even if we were not personally part of a union. This includes the eight-hour workday, pensions, paid lunch breaks, paid vacations, maternity and paternity leave and much more.

If union voices seem a little extreme sometimes, consider they are a counterweight to the extreme brand of capitalism that has plagued our country since the rise of globalization in the early 1980s. If you feel your wages haven’t kept up to inflation; if you feel you’re getting a raw deal from your factory or your chain grocery store, your fight is with corporate greed, not the union voices who are fighting in the trenches for fairness.

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EDITORIAL Health care needs new ideas, not private money The pandemic has once again spotlighted the deep inadequacy of our health care system.

Filled-to-capacity hospitals and over-burdened long-term care homes were already a thing in Canada. Now, it’s a public policy colossus that is crying out for our attention, yet another reminder of the deep inadequacy of our health care system.

We are the only nation with a universal health care system that does not include universal drug coverage. Instead, prescription drugs, as with long-term care, fall under our two-tiered funding system. As for dental care, eye care and even physiotherapy, these are dominated by the private sector — and that’s something we must avoid expanding.

Writing in Policy Options last fall, Dr. Danyaal Raza suggested reasons for the private sector’s involvement. Since 1980, he noted, Canada’s corporate tax rate has been cut to 15 per cent from 36 per cent. During that same time, the income tax rate for the highest income earners dropped to 33 per cent from 43 per cent. Prior to 1990, 75 per cent of capital gains were taxed.

Today, it’s 50 per cent.

While we acknowledge health care is underfunded, we would be remiss not to point out that money is easily sucked into the system, but too often, no one really knows where it goes.

Even more than new money we need a new way of doing things, like a recent proposal in the Canadian Medical Association Journal. Dr. David Urbach and Dr. Danielle Martin wrote that family physicians typically refer patients to specialists with whom they have consulted before, despite knowing little about their current wait times. A “single-entry” referral program would help clear backlogs by sending patients to the next available provider in their region based on level of urgency, rather than relying on informal networks.

We have a base to build a better health care system. Let’s do so with public sector ingenuity for the greater good.

LETTER SPOTLIGHT Advocate has ‘it all covered’

I just wanted to say kudos, kudos, kudos for such a fine magazine. In the January edition there were so many worthwhile articles. Everywhere in the edition there were little gems.

On page four the explanation about 2019 budget surplus, the article on page seven about FFFFenelon (we are proud of our girls!), your wise counsel on page 10 not to split the progressive vote. (I hope those potential candidates listen.)

Loved the local bakeries article. I am planning a baby shower and I got such good ideas from looking at those bakers’ websites. Saturday was an excursion to Mochi’s pop-up shop in Che Figata (yummy crème brûlée!) You have it all covered, from injured birds, to seniors’ issues, to local politics!

Five thumbs up and 10 “likes”!

Dana Bachman, Fenelon Falls

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OPINION

Wealthy and powerful interests benefit from low unionization rates DENNIS RAPHAEL Dr. Dennis Raphael is a professor of health policy and management at York University.

My entire working life has been in unionized environments. As a result, I have a healthy pension plan, just about all my teeth, affordable hearing aids and free prescriptions. And, during this span, job security when contracts or projects ended.

I knew I benefited from unions; when graduate student Jessica Muller and I undertook a careful examination of the health effects of unionization, we confirmed this.

Nations with greater union membership have fewer lowwaged workers and healthier citizens. Within nations, people in jurisdictions with greater unionization have better health, and at the individual level, unionized workers have higher wages, more benefits and better health outcomes than the non-unionized.

Why, considering these benefits, does Canada have one of the lowest rates of unionization and collective agreement coverage (31 per cent), with unionization rates especially low in the private sector at 16 per cent?

Who benefits from these low unionization rates? Why do Canadians go along with this? My answers relate to unionization in the private sector, specifically, as rates are high (76 per cent) in the public sector.

Unionization rates are low because provincial and territorial governments made it difficult to organize private workplaces. Until 1977, workplaces in Canada could be organized by having a majority of workers sign a card indicating a wish for a union — a process called card-check authorization. Since then, five provinces have removed this process in favour of an election: Alberta, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, Ontario and Saskatchewan, constituting 70 per cent of the national workforce.

This shift allows employers to mobilize opposition to unionization through a range of tactics, making it unlikely that certification of a union will occur.

Corporations and companies benefit from low union-

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ization rates because it increases profits. Paying lower wages and providing fewer benefits increases dividends for company shareholders. Not surprisingly, these corporations and companies lobby governments to maintain barriers to unionization. The profound growth of income inequality in Canada between the wealthy and others — with its related adverse health effects — occurs in lockstep with declining unionization rates.

Canadian citizens go along because they are subjected to a process identified by scholar Antonio Gramsci, by which the ideas and values of the wealthy and powerful are imposed upon and accepted by those being dominated. In this case, the accepted belief is that somehow unions are bad and to be avoided. This is not simply a result of the wealthy and powerful doing this messaging.

It is reinforced by the education system, the mainstream media, governing authorities and corporations and companies themselves.

Where to begin? First, unions and their benefits must become topics of public conversation. The educational system and mainstream media by and large avoid these issues. There has been increasing coverage of attempts to unionize gig workers but these reports neglect the benefits unionization would have for the great majority of Canadian workers and their families. Second, the public needs to demand authorities make the process of unionization made easier. This is where advocacy groups concerned with social issues related to income, such as poverty or housing, and political parties have a role. These groups would come together to support easier unionization of workplaces. And if political parties in power do not make it easier to unionize workplaces, they would be voted out of office.

Third, Canadians, once they experience the benefits of unionization, will then recognize and resist other processes of domination by wealthy and powerful interests in other public policy areas, like affordable housing, access to health care and prescriptions, and secure employment.

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Future union strength will depend on new approaches

}} Does hope for a union renaissance lie with women, new Canadians, the self-employed and youth?

From the end of the Second World War until the turn of the new century, the towns and villages that would soon make up Kawartha Lakes were home to thousands of unionized workers whose full-time jobs provided a living wage and benefits offering those people a place in the Canadian middle class.

CONT’D ON PAGE 14

KIRK WINTER Municipal Affairs

Analysis

UNIONS CONT’D FROM PAGE 13

In the private sector, good union jobs could be had at General Electric or OMC in Peterborough, General Motors in Oshawa or Fleetwood, ABEX, Viskase and Armada in Lindsay. If those positions weren’t to your liking, unionized public sector jobs that offered long-term security and some of the best managed pension plans in the industrialized world awaited at the Victoria County Board of Education, Sir Sandford Fleming College, Ross Memorial Hospital or the town of Lindsay.

New subdivisions in Lindsay’s east ward, Janetville, Pontypool, Bethany and Dunsford were built to accommodate this burgeoning unionized middle class, their well-tended bungalows signalling success for the baby boom generation.

A scant 30 years later, the unionized landscape of Kawartha Lakes has changed radically along with that of the rest of the industrialized world. While unionized positions can still be found in the public sector, the unionized private sector has been hollowed out in the industrialized West by free trade deals that rubber-stamp the export of jobs to whatever nation is prepared to pay its workers the least, globalization of markets, automation, policy reforms and the general decline of the manufacturing sector across the (OECD) Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which includes most of the richest nations in the world.

Where is the union movement today? Are unions still relevant? How are unions coping with these seismic and rapid changes? Can unions reinvent themselves to help workers, particularly in the service industries, who need their help more than ever?

Unions are working hard to answer these questions in 2022, realizing if they fail they risk irrelevance in an economy that is being buffeted by a once-in-a-century public health crisis.

Declining numbers

Apart from a few outliers like Iceland and Sweden, the rate of union membership is dropping in almost every developed nation in the world. OECD research reports that between 1985 and 2020, the number of unionized workers in their member countries, including Canada, has dropped from 45 per cent of working-age adults to only 32 per cent.

According to Statistics Canada, the rate of unionization in Canada dropped from 38 per cent in 1981 to 29 per cent in 2014. OECD data indicate that the decline has continued, with 27 per cent of Canadians paying dues in 2020, meaning only four million Canadians carry union cards.

If organized labour in Canada can take any solace it may

be in the fact that the decline has slowed in the last decade, and that losses in the private sector are almost balanced by gains being made by public sector unions.

Apart from a few outliers like Iceland and Sweden, the rate of union membership is dropping in almost every developed nation in the world.

In 2020, almost 78 per cent of Canadian public sector employees — led by teachers, health care workers and federal, provincial and municipal employees — were unionized, up slightly from 2016. During the same period, union membership in the private sector has dropped from 16.1 per cent to 15.8 per cent, despite the best efforts of the Canadian Labour Congress, the umbrella group that represents trade union interests across Canada.

In the private sector, transportation and warehouse workers led the pack with 39 per cent in union-recognized workplaces. The manufacturing sector, which once provided organized labour in Canada the bulk of its membership, has only 24 per cent of their workers belonging to unions.

“Canada’s union density compares favourably to most G7 nations,” Michael Hurley, national communications representative for the United Food and Commercial Workers, told the Advocate in an email, “but we lag behind Nordic countries like Iceland and Sweden, where the vast majority of workers are unionized. While we take pride in the fact that Canada’s union density is higher than … the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany and the United States there is so much more that can be done … to increase our unionization rates.”

The unions restructure

Professor Jim Stanford, director of the Centre for Future of Work, notes that when workers have the collective means of workplace advocacy, important economic and social outcomes such as higher wages, greater social stability and a more viable middle class for working peoples can be achieved.

He made this clear in his August 2020 analysis of the

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CONT’D ON PAGE 16

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Unions work together to make our community fair for everyone.

We have a long and proud history of fighting for the rights Weallhave a longpeople. and of working

proud history of fighting for the rights Here are just some of the victories unions have fought for and won for everyone: •of Weekends • 8-hour work day • Ending Child Labour • Work Breaks, including paid lunch breaks all working people.

• Paid Vacations • Equal Pay for Equal Work for Women • Abolition of Sweatshops • Sick Leave • Canada Pension Plan • Not for Profit Universal Health Care • Minimum Wage • Pregnancy Leave • The Right to Strike • Anti-discrimination Rules at Work • Overtime Pay • 40 Hour Work Week • Occupational Health & Safety • Workers’ Compensation • Unemployment Insurance • Pensions • Sexual Harassment Laws • Holiday Pay • Collective Bargaining Rights for Employees

Whenworkers workersunite, unite,they theyachieve achieve better things for When better things for everyone.

Unions stand up together wages, safe workplaces everyone.

Unions stand for up decent together for decent wages, and working hours. safefair workplaces and fair working hours.

LET'S WORK WORKTO TOACCOMPLISH ACCOMPLISHGREAT GREATTHINGS THINGSTOGETHER. TOGETHER. Lindsay ONON K9V 4S3 Lindsay and andDistrict DistrictLabour LabourCouncil Council| P.O. | P.O.Box Box330, 330,Lindsay, Lindsay, K9V 4S316 CONT’D ON PAGE

lindsaylabour.ca ldlcouncil@gmail.com lindsaylabour.ca | •ldlcouncil@gmail.com

UNIONS CONT’D FROM PAGE 14

Canadian union movement.

With that fact in mind, multiple trade unions in Canada seem to have decided there are three potential paths for renewed relevance and increased membership. One option is to focus on increasing the number of unionized workers at sites where they are already recognized and accepted or where like-minded workers are found. The Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation (OSSTF), for instance, has 45,000 teachers under its banner, but the fastest growing membership sector within the union is made up of people who don’t teach high school.

Over the last 25 years, the OSSTF has successfully signed up 15,000 new members by turning its attention to those working in education who had little or no representation. These new members of OSSTF include early childhood educators, office and clerical staff, technicians, custodians and board tradespeople, educational assistants and professional student services personnel not already represented by another union. The expansion at post-secondary has seen OSSTF organize not just instructors at some of Ontario’s largest universities, but support staff who work behind the scenes and whose labour is essential to the daily functioning of the institutions.

Locally, OSSTF’s decision to cast its net wider has led to the creation of a separate bargaining unit called the Professional Student Services Personnel (PSSP), which has about 30 members. The PSSP represents speech language pathologists, communication disorders assistants, psycho-educational consultants and student services/ attendance counsellors, according to Craig Horsley, District 15 president of OSSTF.

OSSTF has focused on the core business of representing educational workers, while expanding its reach to universities and even some private schools, stressing the message to its non-high school teaching members that “diversity is strength.”

The move has increased its membership by 25 per cent, far offsetting the loss in teacher membership because of declining enrolment in Ontario high schools, and, according to Horsley, providing a “major, growing segment of the union” that will continue to expand in the years to come.

The second route involves merging smaller unions into super-unions like Unifor, which represents workers from oilfields to assembly lines to communications. This option might be best described as “the bigger the better.” The basic belief is the more people the union organizes the more money, muscle and influence the union will have in negotiations and ultimately with boots on the ground if a strike was found to be necessary.

Unifor’s own website acknowledges the motivation for the merger was largely to turn around declining union membership rolls. “Running parallel to this decline in union density had been a sharp rise in income inequality, growing threats to retirement security, chronic unemployment and underemployment (particularly for young people) and a noticeable rise in insecure, precarious forms of work, especially among newcomers,” the website notes. “The decline of union influence coincided with the rise of grossly imbalanced business-friendly policies, starting in the 1980s, that included tax cuts, labour market deregulation and corporate-led free trade deals.”

It took the better part of two years to consummate the merger between the Canadian Auto Workers and the Communications, Energy and Paper Workers Union that was finalized in 2013. The result was the creation of the most influential private trade union in Canada, Unifor, with 310,000 members in 29 sectors of the economy.

More than one-third of the membership is female.

As president of Unifor, Jerry Dias is a force to be reckoned with. He’s on a first-name basis with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and he’s a first phone call when Ontario Premier Doug Ford of Ontario is looking for advice on how to deal with American protectionism.

In 2020, Dias and Unifor, with financial support from federal and provincial governments, cajoled Ford and Fiat Chrysler to make a $3.5 billion investment in the Canadian auto sector. More importantly, the investment will be in the construction of electric vehicles, which should lead to jobs for many years to come for Unifor members.

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Dias’s crowning achievement, which will benefit workers in Kawartha Lakes for decades, is the reopening of the shuttered General Motors plant in Oshawa in 2021. At its peak, the plant employed 23,000 people, about 4,000 of whom called Kawartha Lakes home.

“Dias has the unshakeable belief that if you put in enough effort anything is possible including the seemingly impossible, the re-opening of GM in Oshawa,” wrote Financial Post reporter Joe O’Connor, who covered the press conference announcing the $1.3 billion investment by General Motors and the 1,700 Unifor jobs it created.

O’Connor added that with Unifor representing workers at Bell, Air Canada, Canadian National Railroad, Postmedia and the Big Three automotive producers, “their strength is in their size. They have members across the economy and they are a force that cannot be ignored.”

Unifor has recently expanded its reach by unionizing workers at the Loblaw distribution centre in Moncton and at casinos in Belleville and Peterborough, pilots flying for Skylink Express, Brink’s armoured car workers and employees at the Canobo Medical Corporation.

“Unifor has come very close to organizing numbers we had pre-pandemic and have seen a surge in the service and manufacturing sectors,” said Kelle Scanlon, Director

COURAGE. COMPASSION. COMMITMENT. CUPE.

of Organizing for Unifor in an email to the Advocate.

The third possibility, and perhaps the most intriguing, is for unions to take a serious look at which workers are unrepresented or underrepresented and in need of union protection and then try to boost the union movement by focusing on women, new Canadians, the self-employed and youth. This focus seems to be taken up by multiple unions the Advocate contacted.

While this option may require the most work, it also offers the most hope for unions. It starts with identifying workers who could benefit most from union representation. Many of these workers have never had the possibility or even access to information about joining a union before. These individuals include socalled gig workers like Uber and Lyft drivers, new Canadians, workers at big box stores, Amazon warehouse workers, and migrant workers and agricultural workers in Canada on temporary work permits.

The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) union is finding efforts to organize these workers slow going.

“Massive corporations like Amazon and Walmart use their considerable resources to employ teams of managers, legal staff and consultants who are experts

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17

The third possibility, and perhaps the most intriguing, is for unions to take a serious look at which workers are unrepresented or underrepresented and in need of union protection and then try to boost the union movement by focusing on women, new Canadians, the self-employed and youth.

UNIONS CONT’D FROM PAGE 17

at thwarting unionization campaigns and intimidating employees into voting against union representation,” UFCW’ Hurley said.

“These companies also incorporate anti-union propaganda into their employee communications, onboarding initiatives and training programs to convince workers that unionization would be against their interests, which couldn’t be further from the truth,” he added.

Scanlon and Unifor agree, pointing out that many work ers are not fully aware of their right to unionize and shy away from the process, particularly if they feel vulnerable at work. Scanlon says the anti-union tactics employed by Walmart and Amazon are aggressive, but notes other factors that hamper union organization among these employees.

“One of the major challenges in unionizing at organizations like Amazon is the extremely high turnover rate of workers, due to difficult working conditions and the precarious nature of employment. Workers don’t stick around to organize.” Scanlon said.

The high numbers of new Canadians in such workplaces also require organizers to think differently. “Many new Canadians come from countries where those who join a union are punished or fired by their employer, or where there are so called ‘yellow unions’ that are basically in the pocket of the employer. It is important to recognize and address cultural sensitivities when reaching out to workers and to provide information in their first language to overcome language barriers,” Scanlon said.

Unifor, as part of a recent drive to unionize warehouse workers, provided information for workers in Hindi, Punjabi, Spanish, Tagalog and Tamil.

Until gig workers like Uber or food delivery drivers are reclassified by the government as employees rather than independent contractors, they cannot be organized, Hurley said. Migrant workers and agricultural workers currently also lack the right to organize, something the UFCW says it wants to change.

Union organizers in Canada are analyzing the May 2021 certification of a contract for 70,000 Uber drivers

in the United Kingdom in hopes of replicating it here.

The UK’s GMC union persuaded government regulators to reclassify Uber drivers as employees rather than independent contractors. With the surprising support of Uber, the GMC negotiated a contract that provided a living wage, holiday pay, a pension plan and sick pay to all Uber drivers.

The landmark agreement was the first of its kind anywhere in the world, setting the precedent for that is expected to have impact across most of the OECD.

The future of unionism

Any large and complex organization that wants to survive and grow must be flexible and open to change.

After experiencing the multiple hammer blows of globalization, automation and the birth of a service worker-driven gig economy, unions were initially slow to adapt and faced three decades of steady decline in their memberships, relevance and political influence.

Girded by the strength and support of public sector unions that found ways to increase their memberships, private sector unions have finally realized that the manufacturing and resource extraction jobs that once powered their unions are never coming back. The typical 20th century union representing all workers in a handful of huge factories, mines or mills is no longer a template that works in the 21st century. Work and workers are more diversified and spread out now, with many even working at home because of the pandemic.

“The labour movement must keep seeking ways to become more relevant and effective for Canadian workers,” Stanford said, summarizing the key challenges the movement faces. “It must build new ways of organizing and representing workers in precarious, temporary and non-standard jobs. It must dramatically improve its presence and activity with communities of immigrant and racialized workers. It must engage young people in the fight for decent jobs. And it must successfully integrate the struggle for jobs and the struggle for environmental sustainability.”

If Stanford’s recipe can be achieved, there is no reason that the future cannot be bright for the movement as a whole and for the workers it represents.

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}} What today’s health crisis means for tomorrow

‘This is an opportunity for transformation.’

“

If given the chance to start over, I don’t know that I would go into nursing now,” says Bonnie Kennedy, a Kawartha Lakes resident who retired from nursing after more than 40 years in the profession.

“I worked during the (former Conservative Premier) Harris cutbacks. I remember beds and entire floors at hospitals being closed due to funding cuts. But the situation seems so much worse now.

TREVOR HUTCHINSON Contributing Editor

Kennedy is not alone in her worry about our health care system. The COVID pandemic has made use more aware than ever about hospital and health care capacity.

But according to many experts, COVID has merely exposed and exacerbated long-existing problems in our province’s health care system.

“We have had capacity issues for decades. Before COVID, every winter we had surge capacity issues in acute care and down the chain through chain sub-acute and reactive units every year during flu season,” Dr Adam Kassam, president of the Ontario Medical Association (OMA), told the Advocate. The OMA represents

“

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more than 43,000 doctors, medical students and retired doctors in the province.

Natalie Mehra, executive director of the Ontario Health Coalition (OHC) agrees, noting that, “health care was in a total crisis before COVID. We had hospitals running at 120 to 150 per cent capacity. We had patients in lounges and hallways waiting for beds.”

The OHC’s goal is to be a guardian of public health care and it works to advocate for health care in a non-partisan manner.

As Sharleen Stewart, president of SIEU Healthcare, one of the largest unions in the Ontario health care sector notes, “problems of health care system capacity existed for decades. Some of us have been ringing alarm bells for years about these issues.”

The data definitely support the idea that some alarms are indeed ringing. The Ontario health care system is behind most other developed nations and most Canadian provinces in many areas. In 2020, Canada had one of the lowest per capita hospital bed ratios among the worlds richest nations, at 2.5 beds per 1,000 people, well below the World Health Organization’s recommendation of five hospital beds per 1,000. Canada also has the highest hospital occupancy rate in the developed world, which signals a system under too much pressure. Ontario lags almost every province for this statistic and spends less than all of them. Ontario also has one of the lowest rates of physicians per capita in the developed world. The capacity of our intensive care units does not compare well to the world either: We have just over half of the capacity of the United States and a measly 23 per cent of German ICU capacity.

In a calculation done by Dr. Danyall Raza provided by the OHC, Ontario would need an additional 12,850 hospital beds to just match the Canadian average per capita. In 2019, the Ontario Hospital Association estimated that it would require a $4-billion-dollar investment just to get Ontario up to Canadian capacity averages.

So, by almost any standard, we have a system whose capacity was stretched and squeezed to the limit by a succession of governments of every political stripe. And this situation existed well before the pandemic hit.

But as we have been reminded many times throughout the pandemic, capacity is about more than hospitals and the furniture that may be in them.

Our health care it involves home care, long-term care and community-based care, and most importantly the people who provide these services.

“It is not just a brick-and-mortar capacity issue; it is also a human resources capacity issue,” says the OMA’s Kassam.

CONT’D ON PAGE 22

In 2020, Canada had one of the lowest per capita hospital bed ratios among the worlds richest nations, at 2.5 beds per 1,000 people, well below the World Health Organization’s recommendation of five hospital beds per 1,000. www.lindsayadvocate.ca

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Home care and long-term care (LTC) were already short of workers before the pandemic, says Mehra of the Ontario Health Coalition. “Multiple missed home visits were common in home care for example. Things have gotten much worse during the multiple waves of COVID. “Despite all the challenges there was resilience in the system prior to COVID. LTC is in a staffing collapse now. I’ve seen reports of half the necessary staffing levels in LTC,” she says, adding that on the day she spoke to the Advocate, she heard from two families whose relatives in long-term care hadn’t had a bath in three weeks. “There is no way to overstate the emergency that we are in,” she adds.

While Ontario and Canada have had better outcomes and fewer deaths than many other countries due to our high vaccination uptake and public health measures, COVID has been devastating to our province and country. As of press time , there have been more than 10,500 deaths in Ontario, of which 3,200 were long-term care residents. In fact, Canada’s rate of COVID deaths in long-term care facilities is almost double that of other developed nations.

Add COVID hospitalizations and the unknown but troubling prospect of long COVID into this mix, and our systems will continue to be put under increasing strain. Not to mention the effect that the pandemic has had on our regular health care needs.

“Over the past 20 months we have had to do restrictive health care. Directive 2, which Ontario has

been under a few times during the pandemic, instructs physicians to delay certain procedures. This has led to a backlog of 20 million health care events — everything from diagnostic tests to appointments” to non-emergency surgeries, says Kassam.

With such a backlog of non-COVID health procedures (which will lead to worse health outcomes and a further pressure on the system) the race is now on to find solutions to our historical, current and future healthcare problems.

Some prominent conservative voices, noting the crisis in the sector, have begun advocating for more privatization in the health care system. The health coalition’s Mehta disagrees. “The province needs to stop their privatization efforts that siphon billions out of public health care.”

Privatization is a complicated subject here. Since the advent of medicare, the public purse has historically paid for 70 per cent of total health care expenses, with the remainder coming from insurance companies and individuals. But not all health care workers are government employees. The vast majority of doctors, for example, are not employed by the government but are more like small business owners. So, our health system has always had a mix of publicly and privately provided services.

What worries some people like Stewart and the frontline health care workers she represents in SEIU, is the increasing trend in Ontario of services that have been traditionally provided by public bodies being assigned to private corporations.

“I have never seen such a dependence on, and the increase of, the use of agency nurses, especially for regulated staff. And new agencies are popping up all the time,” she says.

As Stewart explains, the average wage of a registered practical nurse is about $30 per hour. An agency, which might employ an RPN at slightly higher wage (but without benefits, pension or job security) will charge a hospital or a LTC facility $90 an hour for that service. Stewart notes that this extra cost could be invested in hiring more people and boosting system capacity but is instead going to the profit margins of private companies.

“Corporations … are not in business to provide care.

They are in the business to provide return to their shareholders,” she observes.

Clearly the Ford government cannot be blamed for the funding decisions by all the major parties at the provincial and national levels over the years that led to the current crisis of hospital capacity. However, several critics of the

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Clearly the Ford government cannot be blamed for the funding decisions by all the major parties at the provincial and national levels over the years that led to the current crisis of hospital capacity. However, several critics of the government cite actions of the Ford government that suggest a privatization agenda.

Critics also point to Ford’s appointment of several pro-privatization people to his inner circle including Shelly Jamieson, a former president of private long-term care operator Extendicare, as one of the appointed board members of the new body. The super agency, in the opinion of several researchers, strips away any local control over health care and allows the government to force privatization or even close hospitals without any public input or right of appeal.

Just two weeks before the pandemic, the Ford government introduced Bill 175, which allowed for privatization of the last remaining Ontario home care that was still publicly run. (Even before the bill, Ontario had the highest rate of privately supplied home care in the country.) And while Ford has called nurses heroes throughout the pandemic, his Bill 114, introduced in 2019, caps nurses’ wage increases at one per cent for three years. This legislation

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is cited as one reason why some nurses are either leaving the profession or considering employment at agencies. Yet police and firefighters were exempt from this bill.

Mehra also criticizes what she calls “an array of cuts from the Ford government — real dollar cuts intended to privatize health care.”

Ford and his ministers’ appearances for photo opportunities early in 2022 at private health facilities to announce COVID measures have only stoked the concerns of those advocating for public health care. Ultimately, these advocates fear a two-tier system, where the wealthy access private care and those without wealth are forced to wait for underfunded public care.

Stewart, bluntly suggests the government is purposefully underfunding health care to encourage privatization.

“We have questioned whether there is some intention in the way the government has responded to COVID and other crises,” she says.

Stewart also notes the many well-documented connections between Progressive Conservative party insiders and private long-term care operators. Despite the fact that for-profit homes had worse outcomes than not-for-profit and municipally owned LTC homes, many private companies have received extensions and new licences.

“This government has so many connections to the private health care and LTC worlds. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand what is going on here,” she says.

The OMA is more muted in its comments about privatization, declaring in a written statement, “Privatization of health care is a complicated issue that can’t be answered yes or no, as there are arguments on both sides of the issue. We need to define what we are discussing.

We have a single-payer system for medically-necessary care, but some services are private, such as physiotherapy.

Ultimately, this is a decision for Canadians to decide.”

What almost every advocate does agree on is that to increase capacity, address the pandemic backlog and futureproof our system, more provincial and federal government support is needed for health care. In other words, it is going to take money. A lot of money.

“You can’t get to a better place without investments,” says OMA president Kassam. “After massive decreases in funding in the 1990s and flat spending levels throughout the 21st century, a big investment is needed now.”

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uniformity of health care services across the country. The transfer used to pay for about 50 per cent of a province’s health care costs, but through successive Conservative and Liberal governments, it has dwindled to about 23 per cent ts.

The OMA is advocating for the federal transfer rate to be increased to 35 per cent, which would require billions in additional funding. “Health care is a team sport.

We need the federal and provincial governments to step up,” Kassam says.

Deciding how we would pay for such an investment will require an intense debate. Mehra points to existing loopholes in Ontario that allow certain companies such as accounting and legal firms to not pay the employer health tax. She estimates that were such loopholes to be closed, the results could provide billions in additional provincial funding. Proponents of public health care also point out that reducing privatization can increase money to invest in the public system. Others point to an increase in Ontario’s low tax rates, compared to the past, for corporations and the country’s most wealthy What worries advocates like Mehra is that Ontario seems to be going in the opposite direction of the needed funding increase. She points out that the province’s Financial Accountability Office noted in its analysis of the most recent provincial budget that the government would have to cut almost $18 billion dollars of public services to reach its long-term budget targets.

Kassam, on the other hand, sees all the current challenges in Ontario health care as a chance to make some big changes. “We have an opportunity to look at our health care system, to look forward. This is an opportunity for transformation.”.

Stewart concurs, saying, “We need more investment, but we need to think systemically. We need a systemwide lens.”

There are few more complicated issues to solve provincially and in the coming months and years, Ontarians will be asked to make some huge decisions regarding what the future of the health care system will be and how it will be funded. And it will be up to us, the citizens, to express our decisions at the ballot box.

As Stewart notes, the election campaign is coming.

“We all have reason to worry. So, we have to ask questions of the people knocking on our door this June.”

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Creative in Coby

}} Arts centre brings creative

opportunities for more northern residents of city

GEOFF COLEMAN Writer-at-large

Lindsay Erdman, pictured above and to the left, is getting great feedback on her art classes.

In 2021, Lindsay Erdman, a seasonal resident in the area, had a trip to Asia planned. It was the kind of trip where, before going, you give up your Toronto apartment, take a leave from your job, and sell your possessions. Her plans changed dramatically however, as a result of global travel restrictions. The silver lining was that the cancellation gave her the freedom to move to Kawartha Lakes full-time.

As a veteran high school teacher specializing in the International Baccalaureate art program, she decided to launch art classes under the banner “Creative in Coby” to serve the northern part of Kawartha Lakes. In the warmer months, she ran group plein air classes in the garden at The Book Lady store in Fenelon Falls, with media changing week to week and ranging from watercolours to acrylics to charcoal sketching.

Facebook community groups boosted awareness of her offerings.

“I wasn’t on Facebook before moving up here,” Erdman says, “but was told by others what a necessary tool it was for connecting with people

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in a community where large physical distances between people exist.

Once I posted pictures on Facebook groups like Coboconk Moms, and the Bobcaygeon, Fenelon Falls, Coboconk and Norland pages, more people from the area began to sign up for the lessons.”

Encouraged by the response to the summer and fall programming, and with winter coming, Erdman began to look for an indoor space to continue in-person group and private lessons. She coldcalled Christ Church in Coboconk and classes ran there starting in September Class sizes were capped at eight to ensure sufficient oneto-one time with students, and to provide an inviting social environment. They went into hiatus with the imposition of the January provincial shutdown.

Andrea Lee, herself new to the area, attended lessons through Creative in Coby and though still a newly developing artist, discovered some hidden talent.

“Lindsay told us matter-of-factly to draw an elephant so I did, and it was perfect — for a kindergartener. I was embarrassed, but she didn’t ask to see it, so I let it go. Over the next 90 minutes I learned to see an elephant as an arrangement of circles, ovals and negative spaces. I had never drawn much of anything but by the end of the class, there was a real-deal elephant at the end of my pencil. I felt my brain and my intuition working together and it was a whole lot of fun.”

CONT’D ON PAGE 30

A student at the art school exploring her creative side.

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ARTS CENTRE CONT’D FROM PAGE 29

The downtime since the January pause button was pressed on indoor social gatherings has given Erdman the opportunity to find a permanent home for lessons, and Creative in Coby opens this month, occupying the former Mac FAB Sews storefront on the main street in Coboconk.

Coming from a rich artistic background that includes filmmaking, traditional visual arts, graphic design, music and writing, Erdman has nurtured a distinct philosophy about the creative process.

“Creativity is a way of thinking about things. And being able to see how different tools can be used to express an idea is where that creative thinking speaks to others.” That is the motivator behind the new space.

Erdman says she hopes to “create a place where many different media can be explored to express creative ideas and partnerships.”

Coming from a rich artistic background that includes filmmaking, traditional visual arts, graphic design, music and writing, Erdman has nurtured a distinct philosophy about the creative process.

Lindsay Erdman with her daughter Nwoma.

76northstreet.com

In addition to the lessons she runs, she sees the potential for the space to host workshops with guest instructors, stage exhibits by local artists, and have art supplies on offer.

Erdman participates in pandemic-inspired virtual art collectives, and she says the monthly Zoom meetings have underscored the importance of human interaction in an artist’s development. The critiques, encouragement and exposure to other art helps an artist grow.

Recognizing the even greater benefits of in-person contact, Erdman hopes to develop her new location as a hub for the local community, a spot where artists of all ages and experiences can make, talk, and learn.

Erdman, a practicing artist herself, has 17 years’ experience teaching art in Vietnam, India and Toronto, and in that time has come to firmly believe that everyone can develop artistic abilities.

“I don’t think the greats are born with an innate talent … they just use the techniques that anyone can learn and then put their 10,000 hours in.”

30

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What’s new for 2022 in Kawartha Lakes?

Council passed a budget that invests heavily in our communities, health care and recreation facilities.

An infrastructure levy was also approved, dedicated to funding the maintenance and replacement of vital assets such as our road networks.

Plans for Summit Wellness Centre in Coboconk

Community engagement continues to be a priority on Jump In, a platform where residents can have their say on large municipal pl projects and community initiatives. Register today at www.kawarthalakes.ca/jumpin.

Learn more about what’s new for 2022 by visiting our website, subscribing to news and following us on social media. You can also read more in the latest Municipal Update, available with your tax bill or for pick up at select locations across Kawartha Lakes. ac

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This book was selected from the Kawartha Lakes Public Library’s NextReads Newsletters. Register to receive monthly or bi-monthly e-newsletters with enticing book suggestions. Get started at www.kawarthalakeslibrary.ca/ nextbook.

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‘Fight to a Finish’

}} How the Brotherhood of Railroad

Trainmen union fought the Grand Trunk Railway in the strike of 1910

Those of us attending elementary or high school in Kawartha Lakes during February of 2008 will no doubt recall the CUPE (Canadian Union of Public Employees) strike that dominated local headlines for much of that month. “The libraries and arenas were shut down, and fortunately for students the snowplows were off the roads,” the LCVI Tatler reported in its 2007-08 edition.

“No snowplows + lots of snowstorms = a February filled with a snow day almost every week.”

While students might have relished a few days off school, those who relied on cleared roads to get them to work chafed at the inconvenience caused by the strike.

Now consider what the situation was like almost a century before, when members of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen walked off the job during the Grand Trunk Railway strike of 1910. Few people owned a car, so train travel was their only means of

IAN McKECHNIE Writer-at-large

transportation, and many local businesses relied on the GTR to facilitate freight shipments. Although the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) had been running trains through Lindsay for six years, it paled in comparison to the mighty G.T.R. A strike involving the latter’s sizable employee base in Lindsay, then, was significant.

Brakemen and conductors were frustrated by GTR President Charles Hays’ apparent refusal to budge on the question of wage increases. Class distinctions in Canadian society were much more defined a century ago than they are now, and Hays occupied the very upper rungs of wealth — he was what we might today call a member of “the one per cent.” (Two years later, in 1912, Hays would book first-class passage on the ill-fated Titanic, a voyage he would not survive.)

“The present strike,” editorialized the Fenelon Falls Gazette, “like all past strikes, forces on public attention the fact that private individuals, forming only a small part

36

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of the population of the country, are at liberty to throw everything into confusion and occasion heavy loss to the rest of the people, and that the sufferers have absolutely no means of redress.”

The strike began on July 18, 1910. Later that week, passenger services into Lindsay were vastly reduced, and all freight traffic stopped because the GTR failed to find temporary workers to fill in for striking trainmen. The GTR-owned freight sheds on Victoria Avenue South were shuttered and workers there refused to accept shipments; indeed, many local businesses had already turned to the CPR to ship their goods out of concern that a strike was imminent. Excursions were cancelled, and those on strike wore banners that read “CPR West” to remind those with long-distance travel plans that they had virtually no choice but to temporarily make use of Lindsay’s CPR facilities.

The Grand Trunk has made a mistake in allowing the strike to go as far as it has gone, and it will make another mistake if it continues to refuse to arbitrate and finally succeeds in running all its trains with non-union men.

“Fight to a finish” became the slogan for members of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen in Lindsay and across the whole GTR system. “This putting up a poor face to the public is about played out,” said one unnamed union member when interviewed by Lindsay’s Watchman Warder newspaper. “During the past ten years the company has taken out over $36,000,000 [of] their revenue and used it on improvements, where it should have come out of the capital account.” He added, “we feel that some of these millions should have been directed towards the pockets of the men who by long and faithful service have earned it for the company.”

Given the railway’s prominence on both the national and local scene, public sympathy initially rested with the GTR. As the strike wore on, opinion shifted and people began to realize just how unfair the latter’s conduct was.

“The Grand Trunk has made a mistake in allowing the strike to go as far as it has gone, and it will make another mistake if it continues to refuse to arbitrate and finally succeeds in running all its trains with non-union men,” editorialized the Fenelon Falls Gazette. “In the latter event it will be boycotted by organized labour of every description.”

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Officially, the strike lasted until 6 p.m. on Aug. 4, 1910. Following discussions between GTR conductors and trainmen, GTR upper management and William Lyon Mackenzie King, the federal Minister of Labour, a compromise was reached that apparently satisfied both sides. That evening, members of the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen gathered in their meeting hall above Tangney’s furniture store on Kent Street, where the mood was cautiously optimistic, according to the Post. “We will all be on to work in the morning,” said one conductor in response to a question posed by a Lindsay Post reporter. Train service slowly resumed, even as local union members continued to hold meetings in peaceful protest of what they saw as shortcomings in the terms of the agreement with the GTR. (One such meeting was graced with the presence of noted American socialist, Benjamin F. Wilson, and, to everyone’s delight, a freezer full of ice cream from a sympathetic merchant.)

It was mid-August before life returned to normal on the GTR. “It will not be long before the old order of things will prevail and the inconvenience and trouble caused by the strike will be forgotten,” asserted the Post. What wasn’t forgotten, though, was the role the Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen and other unions like it played in fighting for the rights of workers.

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Bye-Bye Chocolate?

No more heart-shaped boxes of chocolates? No more heartwarming hot cocoa?

No more daily row of a chocolate bar for this chocolate addict? Yikes!

But that’s one looming outcome as our climate thermostat cranks higher and higher. Chocolate may face production shortages because of the climate crisis and unsustainable practices.

“In 20 years, chocolate will be like caviar. It will become so rare and so expensive that the average Joe just won’t be able to afford it,” says John Mason of the Nature Conservation Resource Centre. The organization is recognized internationally for sustainable economic development in poor rural areas of Ghana and other nations in West Africa.

Cacao trees grow in the tropics and like humidity.

But higher temperatures mean lower humidity — bad news for my favorite bean.

Growers are fighting back. In some areas they plant cocoa trees in rainforests while others are also adopting climate-smart agriculture practices like ditching synthetic fertilizers for organic compost, applying natural pesticides, and improving soil quality by planting cover crops. All this to hang on to their farms while fighting the climate crisis.

In the meantime, researchers are developing more drought- and heat-tolerant cocoa beans.

And there’s another key player you might not think of right away: palm oil, an industry that is slowly changing its climate-destroying ways.

What’s palm oil got to do with it? Palm oil is found in half the products we buy, from lipsticks to soaps, cookies, instant noodles and, yes, chocolate. Not to be confused with coconut oil (from a different tree), palm oil demand has exploded in recent decades, with serious climate heating consequences. Rainforests in Indonesia and Malaysia are bulldozed or burned to make way for oil palm plantations,

releasing alarming amounts of carbon dioxide and causing serious habitat destruction. That’s had dire consequences for orangutan, elephant and tiger populations.

In 2004 the industry set up the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) to tackle the deforestation, human rights abuses and climate devastation of these practices. It set global standards and certification for sustainably produced palm oil, though critics say enforcement is weak.

After 18 years, only 19 per cent of palm oil production is certified, according to RSPO figures. Many big-name companies are still not using sustainable palm.

What can we do?

1. Check out online ratings like the World Wildlife Fund’s palm oil scorecard. For instance, it gives the company Ferrero one of its highest rankings: 21.7 out of 24. Want to go further? Call or email a company directly to see if it use RSPO certified palm oil. When we do that, at least they’ll know we’re paying attention.

2. Read food labels. If, like me, you don’t want to contribute to this climate devastation, avoid buying products that list palm as an ingredient, as in palm kernel oil, palmate, or palmitic acid.

Less obvious are palm derivatives like sodium lauryl sulfate, and glyceryl stearate.

3. Donate to groups like the Rainforest Action Network and the World Wildlife Fund that monitor work in this area.

Closer to home, we can ask small chocolatiers if they use palm oil. Owner Elaine Webster says there’s none in the solid or plain chocolates produced at the Chocolate Rabbit in nearby Lakefield.

For me, sitting back and watching the demise of chocolate is not an option. As my favorite T-shirt slogan says: “Save the Earth. It’s the only planet with chocolate.”

The Local with Kitchen

ON AIR

Diane Reesor

ADVICE COLUMN

proudly

PRESENTED BY

Dear Diane, I have recently been told that I must really control my gluten intake. I miss quiche. Do you have any suggestions for making an easy gluten-free crust?

THE ADVOCATE PODCAST

Hosted and Produced by Denis Grignon

Stories from Kawartha Lakes

Thank you, Judith Risser

Dear Judith, One of my favorite alternate quiche crusts is made with leftover rice. I actually make extra rice on purpose for this recipe.

Rice Crust 2 1/2 to 3 cups cooked white or brown rice 1 egg herbs and dried onion to taste (if desired) 1/4 flavorful cheese (if desired)

Directions

1. Mix the rice, cheese, herbs and egg in a bowl.

2. Oil a pie plate (to make the quiche easier to remove) and press the rice mixture into a crust about 1/4 inch thick.

3. Bake in a preheated 450F/230C oven until the edges and bottom just start turning golden brown, about 5-7 minutes.

Follow your favorite quiche recipe for filling and finishing.

Good luck, Diane

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Jumble Love Jumble Love Jumble Love Jumble Love ACROSS

by Barbara Olson Barbara Olson byby Barbara Olson CROSSWORD © ClassiCanadian Crosswords © ClassiCanadian Crosswords © ClassiCanadian Crosswords

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FRIENDS & NEIGHBOURS Cartoonist Kevin Frank sketches a creative life I met Kevin Frank when I was a little kid at a talk he hosted at the Lindsay library. Good times. I’d been writing a silly story I never actually finished and he was nice enough to read it before the event started.

Among others, he is the creator of a warm and whimsical comic strip called True North, a “nearly” true story of an American in Canada, indeed in Kawartha Lakes itself. The protagonist, Foster, was, just like Kevin, from Chicago, and had to learn to drink milk from a bag, lose sleep over gas prices and spend way too much time shovelling snow. An upside to moving was Tim Hortons and its Roll-Up contests.

Cartoonist Kevin Frank at work in his studio. Below: Kevin Frank holds his prized, signed Peanuts strip.

Photo: Renée Frank.

www.lindsayadvocate.ca

Similarly, while working at a small Chicago magazine, Kevin himself was persuaded by his wife Kathryn to move with their two sons Warren and Graham to Uxbridge in 1998. They had their daughter Renée, and then moved to Omemee in 2003.They moved

WILLIAM McGINN Writer-at-large

to Lindsay in 2010 because that was where all the youth groups and sports groups were, plus Warren and Graham had part-time jobs and were going to I.E. Weldon for high school.

True North ran from 2002-16 in multiple newspapers. He is also behind several other works, including the comic strip Thrift Shop, syndicated by King Features for 10 years in papers across North America.

Growing up reading the Sunday newspaper comics — he especially loved Peanuts and Calvin and Hobbes — “it was always my boyhood dream to be syndicated.”

He often sent fan letters to Peanuts cartoonist Charles M. Schulz, who sent him a signed strip he now has framed.

His first official attempt at his own cartoon was back in high school; the publisher’s words to him were “Look — keep practising. Don’t send originals.“ he said. “They were nice to me, and just the idea that somebody does read these and they do respond gave me the encouragement to keep doing it.”

Frank creates by making a pencil sketch, and with a lighting table that allows him to see his work from underneath another sheet, he then draws over it in black ink.

(These sketches are always bigger than are printed.) He also uses Photoshop for grey tones and shades, or whenever he has a project in full colour. In the pre-computer days he used Zipatone, see-through plastic sheets with dotted patterns that could be cut with a razor blade and pasted on a cartoon for visual effect. Schulz used it for Kevin’s signed strip.

Kevin is a huge garage sale nerd and loves to skim thrift stores like the Salvation Army in Fenelon Falls. He and his family have loved visiting the Lindsay Mustang drive-in theatre. On weekends, he also works part-time at Colborne Street Art Gallery in Fenelon.

Kevin likes going to different coffee shops, sitting with his laptop while planning a book. That includes Mickaël’s bakery in Omemee. On his contact page at kevinfrank. net is a Paypal button in case anyone wants to buy him a coffee.

43

JUST IN TIME “The King is dead.

Long live the Queen.”

}} Elizabeth II marks 70 years on the throne She looks back at us from coins, stamps and the $20 banknote. Her portrait is displayed in schools, post offices and Legion halls across the country.

She has drawn our attention to every corner of Canada through more than 20 tours as our sovereign. Closer to home, her name is immortalized on Princess Elizabeth Crescent in Lindsay and Queen Elizabeth II Wildlands Provincial Park north of Norland. And this month, she will mark 70 years on the throne.

It’s hard to imagine a time when the Queen was not part of our national life. Yet as many older residents will remember, Elizabeth’s reign began in sadness, with the unexpected death of her father, King George VI, on Feb. 6, 1952.

For many Canadians, the King’s historic tour of Canada in 1939 — a tour organized, he said, “to give my Canadian people a deeper conception of their unity as a nation” — was still fresh in their memories. Freda Kelly vividly recalls leaving Fenelon Falls at 5 a.m. to make the trek to Toronto, where the King was scheduled to visit. “In our family there were five of us,” Freda remembers.

“We took chairs down to the Danforth and waited for the parade to come.”

George VI was a shy but beloved monarch, and when he died at 56, communities across the country were plunged into mourning. “The message of the King’s death was transmitted by telephone in the country, perhaps because many people ate breakfast without media,” recalls Rae Fleming, whose parents ran the general store in Argyle.

“The phone rang. My mother took the news in silence. When she brought details to the nearby table, I remember wondering how we would continue living without George. At age 7, I knew only one King, and perhaps I thought that he would live forever.” In keeping with tradition, Victoria County

IAN McKECHNIE Writer-at-large

MPP and Premier, Leslie Frost, concluded a press conference with the phrase “The King is dead. Long live the Queen.”

Lindsay-area schools were closed for the funeral, as were businesses. “Out of respect to our Late Sovereign King George VI, the Century and Academy [Theatres] will remain

Queen Elizabeth II, 1959.

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closed Friday Feb. 15, until 6:30 p.m.,” read one advertisement. Hundreds of people filled St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church to capacity for ecumenical memorial service at which Frost delivered the eulogy, and more than 40 county officials assembled in the County Court House to swear allegiance to the new Queen.

Happier moods prevailed 14 months later, on June 3, 1953, when Elizabeth II was officially crowned. The coronation was historically significant in that Elizabeth was the first monarch to be proclaimed as Queen of Canada, a role distinct from her status as Queen of the United Kingdom. Also making history was the fact that the whole ceremony was televised. Those who wanted to watch the service but didn’t own a television were welcomed into the auditorium at St. Andrew’s in Lindsay, where George Williamson Radio-Electric had supplied TV sets for public viewing purposes. Linda Thomson grew up at 69 Peel St. and remembers taking in the proceedings at a neighbour’s. “I recall sitting quietly on the Plattens’ linoleum kitchen floor intently listening to the Queen’s coronation while consuming brown sugar sandwiches and tea.”

The coronation was celebrated in a variety of ways across the community.

Special services were held at Victoria Road and Woodville. The West Ops Women’s Institute sent cake mixes to its equivalent in Wellington, England, for use in the latter’s Coronation Day party. Led by local dignitaries, over 500 people gathered immediately north of Lindsay Collegiate Institute to plant a Coronation Tree at the northwest corner of Kawartha Park. That night, local Brownies, Cubs, Guides and Scouts assembled at the Lindsay “The phone rang.

Exhibition Grounds, where W.S. My mother took the Battersby, a local school principal, reminded them that the young news in silence.

Queen “has declared with her own When she brought mouth that her whole life will be details to the nearby devoted to our service. What a task table, I remember she has set herself, and what a task wondering how we would she has given us.”

Seventy years later, and the age continue living without of deference is long past. Canadians George. At age 7, I knew are now more than ever likely to only one King, and per- question their institutions – and haps I thought that he certainly the colonial legacy of the monarchy. Monarchy is perhaps an would live forever.” oddity in contemporary Canada.

Neither the Queen nor her Canadian representatives can make public policy, and the few powers they retain are seldom used. Unlike many heads of state, however, a hereditary monarch such as Elizabeth II is unique in that their selection is free from partisan influence; what is archaic in a modern democracy paradoxically ensures that regal and vice-regal neutrality isn’t compromised. Yet this neutrality is essential to a modern monarch’s most important role: nurturing civil society through the country’s honours system, leading charitable initiatives, and fostering dialogue among people from all walks of life.

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TREVOR’S TAKE TREVOR HUTCHINSON Contributing Editor

February: The worst month

Oh my God. The last, and by last I mean the very very last thing I need in the entire freaking universe right now is another February.

February is the worst month of the year. This is a scientific fact that is beyond dispute. It sucks beyond all ability to measure and let’s face it: we have had a lot of bad to measure. In the two years that have seemed like 725 days of March 2020, only Februarys have managed to out-suck these other painful months.

Now, statistically, eight per cent of those reading this are thinking “February is not that bad. That’s my birthday month.” Well. no offence to those in this camp but your birthday month sucks. And deep down, I know you know that.

Where do I start? Even the spelling of the month is stupid. What does that first “r” do anyway? Only uptight people ever pronounce that. And the month doesn’t even have a constant number of days, meaning that every four years we are forced to endure an additional day of pain and suffering.

You know that extra weight that many of us put on at Christmas? You can’t walk it off in February because it is usually too freaking cold. That’s okay because you are probably too depressed anyway, having looked at your Christmas credit card bills which are due in early February.

Some might say, “But February has Valentine’s Day!” Oh my God. Stop it. You need help. I mean, let’s say your jam is celebrating Hallmark holidays with performative actions and clichéd gifts. Fine. I don’t get it, but fine. But why, for the love of all that is holy, would you want to celebrate capital-L LOVE during the most depressing time of year? And I don’t want a box of chocolates. You can literally still see on my body the Christmas chocolates I ate just one month ago.

And for those who are alone on Valentine’s Day? They get a giant middle finger from the rest of us because we are overcompensating for our depression by buying overpriced chocolate. Not to mention roses … at the depths of freaking winter!

It is hard to believe that February used to be even worse in Ontario. At least now we get the Family Day holiday, which can be, umm, okay. But that one day is more like a small reprieve while being waterboarded at Guantanamo.

And no offence to my family, whom I love, but we had more than a few family days these last two years. I won’t say out loud that I need a non-family day, but I will think it.

But to each their own, I guess. If February is your favourite month, may you get all the counselling you need. And whatever hell this month holds, may we all get through it safely. And quickly.

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SOLUTION

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By Barbara Olson © ClassiCanadian Crosswords

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