Disorganized Labour: Canadian Unions and the Constitution Act

This article focuses on the Canadian labour movement's experience with constitutional reform in the early 1980s. Specifically, it argues that political divisions within the labour movement and the New Democratic Party (NDP) convinced the leadership of the Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) to exclude itself from the process of patriating the Constitution. Several scholars have previously argued that the CLC was either unaware of or genuinely disinterested in constitutional issues. However, primary sources strongly indicate that these explanations are simply insufficient. Although it is accurate to suggest that the CLC was not an active participant in the process of constitutional reform, inactivity should not be confused with disinterest. The Congress made a strategic political decision to exclude itself from the patriation debate in order to avoid an internal battle between its allies in the NDP and its affiliate, the Québec Federation of Labour. RésuméCet article porte sur les débats intervenus au sein du mouvement ouvrier canadien au moment de la réforme constitutionnelle qui a eu lieu au début des années 80. En particulier, l’auteur soutient que les divisions politiques à l’intérieur du mouvement syndical et du Nouveau Parti démocratique (NPD) ont convaincu les dirigeants du Congrès du travail du Canada (CTC) de s’exclure du processus de rapatriement de la Constitution. Plusieurs universitaires ont soutenu que le CTC n’était pas au courant des questions constitutionnelles ou s’en désintéressait. Cependant, selon des sources de premier plan, ces explications sont insuffisantes. Même s’il est exact de dire que le CTC n’a pas participé activement au processus menant à la réforme constitutionnelle, il ne faut confondre inaction et désintérêt. Le Congrès a pris la décision politique stratégique de s’exclure du débat sur le rapatriement afin d’éviter une lutte interne entre ses alliés au NPD et sa filiale, la Fédération des travailleurs et travailleuses du Québec

Strategic Electoral Dilemmas and the Politics of Teachers’ Unions in Ontario

AbstractThis article seeks to explain both convergence and divergence in Ontario teacher union electoral strategy. After coalescing around a strategy of anti-Progressive Conservative (PC) strategic voting beginning with the 1999 provincial election, Ontario’s major teachers’ unions developed an electoral alliance with the McGuinty Liberals designed to advance teacher union priorities and mitigate the possibility of a return to power for the PCs. The authors use campaign finance and interview data to demonstrate that this ad hoc partnership was strengthened over the course of several election campaigns before the Liberal government’s decision to legislate restrictions on teacher union collective bargaining rights in 2012 led to unprecedented tension in the union-party partnership. The authors adapt the concept of union-party loyalty dilemmas to explain why individual teachers’ unions responded differently to the Liberal government’s efforts to impose austerity measures in the education sector.RésuméCet article vise à expliquer les convergences et divergences au sein des stratégies électorales des syndicats enseignants en Ontario. Après s’être ralliés à une approche de vote stratégique contre le Parti progressiste-conservateur (PPC) à partir des élections provinciales de 1999, les principaux syndicats enseignants de l’Ontario ont par la suite développé une alliance électorale avec les Libéraux de McGuinty afin de faire avancer leurs revendications et éviter un retour au pouvoir du PPC. Les auteurs s’appuient sur des données de financement des campagnes électorales ainsi que des entrevues afin de démontrer que ce partenariat ponctuel a été renforcé au cours de plusieurs campagnes électorales jusqu’à la décision du gouvernement libéral de faire adopter, en 2012, des restrictions aux droits de négociation collective des syndicats enseignants, conduisant ainsi à des tensions inédites au sein de cette alliance syndicats-parti. Les auteurs adaptent le concept de dilemmes de loyauté syndicat-parti afin d’expliquer pourquoi des syndicats enseignants ont répondu différemment aux efforts du gouvernement libéral d’imposer des mesures d’austérité dans le domaine de l’éducation.Keywords: unions; education; elections; Ontario; strategic votingMot-clés : syndicats; éducation; élections; Ontario; vote stratégiqu

Improved Position Sensor for Feedback Control of Levitation

An improved optoelectronic apparatus has been developed to provide the position feedback needed for controlling the levitation subsystem of a containerless-processing system. As explained, the advantage of this apparatus over prior optoelectronic apparatuses that have served this purpose stems from the use of an incandescent lamp, instead of a laser, to illuminate the levitated object. In containerless processing, a small object to be processed is levitated (e.g., by use of a microwave, low-frequency electromagnetic, electrostatic, or acoustic field) so that it is not in contact with the wall of the processing chamber or with any other solid object during processing. In the case of electrostatic or low-frequency electromagnetic levitation, real-time measurement of the displacement of the levitated object from its nominal levitation position along the vertical axis (and, in some cases, along one or two horizontal axes) is needed for feedback control of the levitating field

Solidarity Revisited: Organized Labour and the New Democratic Party

This article seeks to engage Jansen and Young’s recent research on the impact of changing federal campaign finance laws on the relationship between organized labour and the New Democratic Party. Jansen and Young use models from mainstream comparative politics to argue that unions and the NDP retain links due to a “shared ideological commitment” to social democracy, rather than an expectation of mutual rewards and despite changes in the global economy. We critically assess the evidence, method of comparison, and theoretical assumptions informing their claims and find many aspects unconvincing. Instead, we propose that better explanations of this enduring yet strained relationship can be formulated by drawing insights from Canadian political economy, labour history and working class politics, and comparative social democracy

Cognitive and mood functioning in borderline and schizotypal personality disorders

Research suggests many shared clinical features across individuals with Schizotypal Personality Disorder (SPD) and Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), including problems with attention/ executive functioning and mood. Therefore, aspects of these areas of functioning were compared in SPD and BPD to better characterize their respective difficulties. BPD, SPD, and healthy control (HC) participants were administered measures of cognitive and mood functioning. Compared with healthy controls, SPD patients performed significantly worse on aspects of the Delayed-Matching- to-Sample task, a measure of short-term visual memory abilities; however, the individuals with BPD did not differ from healthy controls. Neither of the patient groups differed from HC’s on measures of processing speed or planning. With regard to mood functioning, the BPD group exhibited significantly higher levels of affective disturbance (e.g., sadness, fear, anger) compared with the SPD patients and HCs. Overall, findings suggest different patterns of fronto-subcortical weakness in each patient group. While SPD patients exhibited relative weakness with short-term memory, BPD patient performance on such measures did not reveal relative weakness compared with HCs but did implicate problems with mood

Global ozone and air quality: a multi-model assessment of risks to human health and crops

Within ACCENT, a European Network of Excellence, eighteen atmospheric models from the U.S., Europe, and Japan calculated present (2000) and future (2030) concentrations of ozone at the Earth's surface with hourly temporal resolution. Comparison of model results with surface ozone measurements in 14 world regions indicates that levels and seasonality of surface ozone in North America and Europe are characterized well by global models, with annual average biases typically within 5–10 nmol/mol. However, comparison with rather sparse observations over some regions suggest that most models overestimate annual ozone by 15–20 nmol/mol in some locations. Two scenarios from the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) and one from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report on Emissions Scenarios (IPCC SRES) have been implemented in the models. This study focuses on changes in near-surface ozone and their effects on human health and vegetation. Different indices and air quality standards are used to characterise air quality. We show that often the calculated changes in the different indices are closely inter-related. Indices using lower thresholds are more consistent between the models, and are recommended for global model analysis. Our analysis indicates that currently about two-thirds of the regions considered do not meet health air quality standards, whereas only 2–4 regions remain below the threshold. Calculated air quality exceedances show moderate deterioration by 2030 if current emissions legislation is followed and slight improvements if current emissions reduction technology is used optimally. For the "business as usual" scenario severe air quality problems are predicted. We show that model simulations of air quality indices are particularly sensitive to how well ozone is represented, and improved accuracy is needed for future projections. Additional measurements are needed to allow a more quantitative assessment of the risks to human health and vegetation from changing levels of surface ozone