the ilo, the bctf, and campbell's liberals - selon joel bakan

in the vancouver sun last thursday, joel bakan points out that the bc government, under campbell, are the chief lawbreakers in the teachers dispute.  the bc liberals have written laws that made this strike illegal, which are actually illegal according to ILO standards canada ratified in 1972 (and 2003).  in fact, the bc government is actually the worst repeat offender (nine times in the past few years) in north america when it comes to violation of the treaty.

like the WTO, the ILO has no real enforceability.  the UN is not going to descend on victoria and pre-emptively strike the bc legislature.  what they will do is "FIRMLY REQUEST that the government ... avoid in futre having recourse to such legislated settlement."   see why gordo isnt exactly crapping his pants.

if youre going to judge bakan and his book by its cover, "the corporation," which had a briefcase man sporting devil horns, could possibly convince you that joel bakan is a raging leftista. i could buy him some pan-partisan cred by saying he is a law prof who is approaching the issues purely to ascertain their legal ramifications, but some people just want to believe some lawyers are wickedly socialist judicial activists who have spent too much time in red-as-stalin university settings to think for themselves.   his disdain for the bc liberals stems from their refusal to adhere to ILO treaties which canada has signed, but some people like to shit on the UN every chance they get, so maybe theyll oppose his assertions on those grounds. 

basically, if youre going to play the partisan card and say his criticisms are horseshit because of who he is, go right ahead.  i just happen to be old fashioned and think that canada, in most cases, should live up to treaty obligations.  i fail to recognize multilateralism as satans own doing. 

if we are multilateral enough to do international business, then we are multilateral enough to obey international law. 

Comments

[BZA]

Thanks for pointing this out Ainge. That didn't really dawn on me until you posted it.

Abiding my the ILO leads to good labour rights.

Joel Bakkan definitely gets brownie points in my book.

[ainge]

he r0x0rs