Voices from the fight against Carney’s C-39

Mark Carney’s bill C-39 rewrites laws governing everything from Indigenous sovereignty and the right to consultation to the right to strike. Environmental protections are also being gutted to speed up corporate extraction projects. The bill is a gift to big business and the billionaires but it will be a disaster for working people.

 

Resistance is building across the country. A wave of demonstrations calling to unite the fights has started the process of building the kind of coalitions that can challenge Carney.

 

We cannot let the Liberal government divide the movement between workers and the environment and Indigenous groups. The old jobs versus the natural world dichotomy has to be resisted.

 

Here we reprint excerpts from events that are challenging this division with labour and Indigenous leaders together against C-39.

 

Crystal Sinclair, Idle No More, Toronto

“Welcome to Idle no More 2.0! Let’s do this. We condemn the federal government’s agenda of fast tracking legislation and accelerating project approval at the expense of Indigenous peoples’ rights. The government is messing with Indigenous rights but they are non-negotiable and neither are workers rights.”

 

Chris Moonias, Neskantaga First Nation.

“When Indigenous people are being attacked, what do you do? Stand up, fight back! This is the rally cry today. Our rights must come before corporate profits and political agendas. Consultation without meaningful consent is not reconciliation.”

 

Andrea Babbington, Toronto and York Region Labour Council

“They continue to pretend that they are our protector but at the end of the day they are no better than Trump. You are not going to weaken us at the bargaining table any more. You are not going to weaken Indigenous people anymore.”

 

Carolyn Egan, Steelworkers Toronto Area council.

“It’s clear to everyone standing here and I think hopefully we’re going to have to make it clear to so many people across this country that Carney is not defending Indigenous peoples of this country, he is not defending their interests. He is not defending the workers of this country, he is NOT defending their interest. He says he cares about the climate but he is not defending that either. He’s going exactly against our interests.

 

We have to ally ourselves in solidarity with Indigenous peoples across this land, because the same enemy that is fighting us is fighting you and we have to be clear that it is unity, it is our collective strength coming together. That is what is going to be able to win this battle. We are not going to win it in Parliament because he’s got the majority. But we can win it on the streets. We have to go out and build alliances, which are so critical. We can’t allow ourselves to be divided. We can’t simply say we don’t like this part of Bill C-39. And maybe we don’t like this Part of Bill C-39 frankly we don’t want anything, that has to do with Bill C-39. We have to kill the bill and we have to, as a workers movement, stand solidly behind the Indigenous leadership in this country.

 

We have the capacity to shut this country down. We have to stand shoulder to shoulder with you. That is our mission, it is our job. We have to go out and speak to every other union in this country and say, this is what we have to do. We have to kill Bill C-39.”