The Restructuring of Canada

In case you think I'm the only one who feels like my country is crumbling around me I encourage you to read this little gem.

It will take some time, but please, read the above article.

I like the picture. Harpy with a panda bear. Only used because the pictures of him blowing Chinese businessmen were too suggestive. "You won't recognize Canada when I'm through with it." says Harper. Well I already don't recognize Canada and this traitor ain't through with it yet.

Tommy Douglas, in stark contrast to Harper who would be in the running for our WORST Canadian, was chosen as our greatest Canadian in a CBC television program. It was one of only a few truly democratic things we've done in Canada in recent memory and I have to admit, I thought Gretzky would win. I saw the show advertised on TV and Gretzky was up there on the screen along with some unrecognizable guys who did comparatively minor things like discovering insulin. I thought about it and decided that Terry Fox would have gotten my vote. But, although I didn't see the show's conclusion until I read this article, I have to admit I am REALLY proud of Canada! Well, of Canadians, to be more accurate. A socialist won the contest so, as you might imagine, that didn't get much play in these here parts. Here are the results and the voting method. Tommy Douglas headed the first democratic socialist government in North America as leader of the CCF party and premier of Saskatchewan from '44 - '61. The CCF was the forefather of the NDP party. Architect of Saskatchewan's very successful, (though hideously socialist), single payer, universal healthcare system, Douglas would roll over in his grave if he saw the state of health care or the NDP party nowadays. He once said of the Socialist Party that they sat around quoting Marx and Lenin, waiting around for a revolution while refusing to help the poor. "I've no patience with people who want to sit back and talk about a blueprint for society and do nothing about it." THIS is who Canada voted as the greatest Canadian not 10 years ago! VOTED!

That N+ magazine article above is about starting grassroots movements of resistance in Canada, instead of blogging about it then getting the hell outta the country, (cough), and I think Tommy Douglas, were he alive today, might be heading up some of those movements. Even he would probably be able to see that politics is no longer the answer. We have proven that it doesn't work in Canada. Look at the state this country is in! Our public services like health care and education, (two things I've whinged about here before), are mentioned in the article as shadows of their former selves. Two other public services, mail and the CBC, our national TV station, are also mentioned. This might sound like a joke but when I watch Hockey Night in Canada, by far the most watched CBC show every year, it's missing something. Then I watch a game on TSN, which is owned by CTV, which is owned by Bell Media, and I realize what it is. The Hockey Night in Canada theme song, one that Canadians, (and I'm not making this up), recognize more than our national anthem, is now the intro to hockey games on the private, corporate TV station. THAT'S a sign of the times in Canada!

The post office model is probably the best example of what I've been pointing out here on my humble blog. It was announced last December that within 5 years door to door mail delivery would be phased out. Stamps would go from 63 cents to a dollar and 8000 postal workers would be laid off. It was claimed that the postal service is just a drain on taxpayers but in reality it has never needed any tax dollars for support. The model of "restructuring" the business or service so that costs increase and services decrease is one I've pointed out elsewhere in this blog. It is the exact opposite of the model that won our greatest Canadian his title. And let me point out again that this title was one that was voted on by Canadians. The other model that has crept into so many essential parts of Canada is one that is NOT voted in, rather imposed upon us by governments set upon neutralizing anything that uses the Tommy Douglas model, which the Canadian people support. For years our governments, mostly those of Stephen Harper, have been doing the exact opposite of what Canadians want: they're helping the rich, and helping themselves.

Most Canadians have their own personal examples. Like me. Yesterday I received news that my unemployment insurance claim was denied. Not a surprise. What surprised me was the inquisition-like treatment I received from the agent assigned to approve or deny my claim, the erstwhile Elliot. He called me again defiantly stonewalling my 15 attempts to explain that I did not quit, I requested a transfer, which was agreed to by my supervisor, gave him a month to make good on his promise to find me another position within the company, that had many available, and only quit after I was forced to reasonably conclude that he was doing exactly NOTHING to find me that position or even a few shifts here and there. Elliot continued to insist that I had quit my job due to changes in the job description. Well there were changes, changes that I was promised at contract time would NOT take place. But that was only one of a dozen reasons I listed to my supervisor as my reasons not for quitting, but for requesting a transfer. I said to Elliot that he is continuing to confuse only one of my reasons for requesting a transfer with my reason for quitting. And he was ruling on my claim accordingly. He actually AGREED with me at one point in the conversation but said that he had made his decision and I could always file an appeal. We got into the burden of proof during our conversation. He asked if I could prove that the transfer request was approved. I told him that because it was approved by phone and because I don't record all of my phone conversations, I don't have proof. A lot of my contact with my supervisor was over the phone. I DID, however, have an email I sent to my supervisor pointing out one of the jobs advertised by the company that I would like. My supervisor responded saying that it was a completely different department but that he would look into it for me. He didn't look into it and I didn't get that position, but this email would seem to indicate that the transfer was agreed to. I also told Elliot that I have the email I sent to my supervisor with the 12 reasons for the transfer request which explicitly points out that I was not quitting, just asking for a transfer. Elliot said I could fax him these emails but that he was sticking to his decision.

I said to Elliot that I don't have a fax machine but I could just forward the emails to him. He said that that was not possible. The E.I. workers don't have emails. I then asked him why he would believe that it was NOT agreed to. He cited a conversation he had with my supervisor a day or two before. So I said that this looked suspiciously like I, (the employee), am guilty until proven innocent. I am responsible for the burden of proof. And even if I provide the emails, which are pretty close to proof, he isn't going to change his mind? Elliot said something like, "I am not responsible for the process..." so I went ballistic and said, "No, you are just responsible for making incorrect decisions and denying my claim." I then told him to fuck off and hung up on him. I have little hope that an appeal will do any good and don't intend to file one.

In fact I called a number that I found for the Calgary unemployment insurance office to explain what had happened. They gave me a number, 1 800 OH Canada, that has access to all numbers for all government agencies and for issues such as mine, and is the place to call to get another place to call for help. 1 800 Oh Canada gave me the number to call. It was the ironically named, "Service Canada" office. I talked to a guy with an Indian accent who was probably at a call centre in India somewhere. He actually told me that he was the WRONG person to contact and gave me another number. I started asking who the other number was and pointing out that it was odd that 1 800 Oh Canada had told me to call him and they usually know what they're talking about, but before I could finish he HUNG UP ON ME! Out of interest I called the number he had given me. It said that long distance charges may apply and then that the number could not be connected as dialled. So I added a 1 to it for long distance. I got, "Thank you for calling Google. Please input the four digit code of the Googler you wish to contact."

So I called 1 800 Oh Canada back. I got a lady on the phone who asked me to explain my entire situation. I did and she said that I had a legitimate beef with the Employment Insurance agent and should call "Service" Canada. She was puzzled as to why the person I reached gave me another number because that WAS the office I needed to talk to about this. It is also the office I need to call if I want to lodge a complaint or file an appeal. She also said that although she has thousands of numbers in her system, the number I was given was not one of them. She said that the "Service" Canada guy should not have referred me elsewhere and that Elliot was a douchebag. Well, she didn't say that, but she did say that SHE understood me clearly and was surprised that any E.I. agent would not be able to understand my legitimate reason for quitting my job. Anyway she suggested I call the Service Canada number again. Strangely, I HAD tried several times to call back after reaching Google and was now unable to reach a human being. She said that that was because of high volume of calls. All I could do was continue calling, and failing, until I lucked out and got a real person. You see they don't even have the, "Your call is important to us. Please wait two hours until one of our agents feels like answering." They just have a press this number or that number labyrinth that never answers the question you want answered.

Employment Insurance premiums continue to rise every year and the service, OBVIOUSLY, continues to deteriorate. That, as the article at the top of this post thoroughly documents, is now the Canadian way. The impetus behind this radical, anti-democratic movement in Canada is simply, as you might expect, to manufacture public frustration in order to suggest market-based solutions. MONEY. Don't be surprised to see private mail service or even private employment insurance offered soon. It'll be more expensive but, hey, who wants to deal with all the headaches government agencies cause? Well maybe those headaches are manufactured to create frustration in government so it can be replaced with something profitable to the few and expensive to the many.

Speaking of money, I have a million dollar idea. No not "No No Nose" though that would be awesome! Right? Why do you suppose my supervisor and Elliot can be such assholes, lie their faces off and treat me like crap on the phone, but are resistant to email correspondence? Could it be the tendency of emails to hang around in people's inboxes like the smoking gun, damning evidence they could be to thwart an otherwise perfectly devised screw job? I think that may be. And wouldn't it be nice if we had a sort of phone email storage system that recorded all conversations and stored them until we delete them? Think of the arguments you could win with friends or spouses who say, "I NEVER said that." You open the app on your phone, I dunno, let's call it Callstore, look up a phone call from April of 2013, put the call on speaker phone and BAM! In your FACE! You did SO say that! How sweet would that be? Sweet enough to buy that app for 19.99? Probably. And what about MY case? If I could just play Elliot's calls to his supervisor, or MY supervisor's calls to Elliot, I wouldn't be so frustrated. And I'd be getting the Employment Insurance benefits I deserve. And what kind of society do we live in where we feel the need to record everything we say on the phone? There's a question!

I also have an idea for Canadian "restructuring" suicidal though it may be. I submit to you that if Tommy Douglas got more votes than Don Cherry, Wayne Gretzky, all those others, (some who shouldn't be on that list mind you), a candidate with the same kind of democratic socialistic ideals could probably run independently in a federal election and win it. And once in power, if the guy weren't actually a politician, he'd deliver on what he promised and there would be so much money going from the few to the many in this country that he'd be hockey superstar popular and sure to win a re-election! But he'd also get shot. Because don't forget those few, from whom the money would be taken, are the socially mal-adjusted, greed addled sociopaths that created the capitalist wet dream Canada is today. Maybe this could be the reason why we never HAVE anybody running who would do what Canadians want. Maybe this is why we need to abandon the broken system that is politics in Canada. How about we have CBC TV shows on everything that is of concern to the Canadian people? We could vote on our "Greatest Alternative Energy Source," or maybe "Greatest New Social Program," "Greatest Tax Decrease," "Greatest Way To Make Wages and Prices Fair Again," the list goes on and on. The money we save the country, (that would have been pocketed or squandered by corrupt politicians), could fund another show called "Greatest Idea on What the Hell To Do With All This Extra Money."

Ahhh I don't know why I care so much, I'm leaving anyway.