Occupy

Friday, January 3, 2014

Friday, January 3, 2014By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday, January 3, 2014

Top Canadian CEOs earn annual worker’s salary by lunchtime on Jan. 2

By the time you finish lunch on Thursday, Canada’s top paid CEOs will have already earned the equivalent of your annual salary.

It may be hard to swallow, but according to an annual review by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, by 1:11 p.m. on Jan. 2, the average top paid Canadian CEO will have been earned as much as the average full-time worker’s yearly income.

The review found the average compensation among Canada’s top 100 CEOs was $7.96 million in 2012. This compared with the average annual Canadian worker’s salary of $46,634.

The centre says CEO pay for Canadian public companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange has ballooned by 73 per cent between 1998 and 2012, the latest figures available.

In contrast, the average Canadian full-time worker’s annual salary has only grown by six per cent during this period.

This amounts to the country’s top 100 highest-paid CEOs making 171 times the earnings of an average Canadian wage — a jump from 105 times in 1998. (Source: CBC News)

SOCIAL MEDIA

Thursday May 24, 2012

By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Thursday May 24, 2012

Occupy Montreal movement joins Quebec student protesters

Occupy Montreal has passed to the next level.

Thanks to the student protests, organizers say the movement now occupies the city in a way it never dreamed before – every day and every night.

“Participants in Occupy Montreal have been helping out with the student protests since the beginning of the strike,” said Paul Bode, 31, an Occupy activist who has a long association with the movement.

“It’s a common cause, and we’re happy to go back and forth between the two,” said Bode, a Westmount-raised community activist who teaches English, works in construction and lives in St. Henri.

“But in fact, we view Occupy Montreal as a verb, right? And basically, right now the students are occupying Montreal, and we’re helping out with that,” he added before heading out to join Tuesday’s march at Place des Festivals.

So does that make Occupy itself a bit redundant?

Not at all. It means the movement can now shift its focus away from downtown, Bode and other organizers say.

Instead of squatting in Montreal’s financial district for weeks like it did before being evicted last fall – and did again for a few days earlier this month, minus any overnight stays – Occupy activists will target Montreal’s boroughs over several weekends this summer.

In each instance, their occupation will serve to highlight a local issue, such as social inequality, and to “act locally.” First up: a neighborhood of the Plateau Mont-Royal in June. (Source: Montreal Gazette)

 

Saturday October 15, 2011

Saturday October 15, 2011Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday October 15, 2011

Hours later, Occupy Toronto takes to the streets

After nearly a three-hour discussion of if and when they should march, Occupy Toronto demonstrators finally took the streets and marched to Dundas Square. Their occupation lasted only 10 minutes, before the group walked back to St. James park.

The group chanted “we say fight back” and “we are the 99 per cent” as they marched on the roads, while also stopping at traffic signals.

The next general meeting at 6 pm will likely focus around plans for Monday as the financial district reopens for business.

Jim FlahertyOccupy Toronto demonstrators want to discuss and make decisions collectively, but the large group size without a hierarchy speaking order means discussions frequently are tangential and meander between logistics, political rhetoric and procedural issues.

As one participant said in frustration, “I’m not even sure what we are discussing right now.”

“This is really frustrating,” said another participant Michael Goodbaum, 23. “I don’t even know why we are trying to reach consensus on the structure of the protest, when we should actually be out protesting. But I don’t really want to criticize the movement, because these are just growing pains.”

The group also ditched the people’s mic system – where the crowd repeats everything a speaker says – for a short while in favour of using a megaphone for “accessibility issues” for people who find the repetition distracting and difficult to understand.

Others were concerned that some of the participants might have more control over the group’s actions, because of their involvement in the action or facilitation committees. (Continued: Globe & Mail)