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The article reviews the book, "Penal Servitude: Convicts and Long-Term Imprisonment, 1853-1948," by Helen Johnston, Barry Godfrey, and David J. Cox.

The article reviews the book, "Facteurs en Europe. Le syndicalisme face à la libéralisation et aux mutations des activités postales : Belgique, Bulgarie, Espagne, France et Royaume-Uni," edited by Paul Bouffartigue and Jean Vandewattyne.

La question de la représentation collective des cadres a été remise à l’ordre du jour récemment, à la suite de l’initiative de l’Association des cadres de la Société des casinos du Québec ainsi que de l’Association professionnelle des cadres de premier niveau d’Hydro-Québec, qui ont obtenu l’autorisation du Tribunal administratif du travail de se constituer en syndicats, malgré le statut de cadre de leurs membres. Cette décision, qui a été confirmée en février 2022 par la Cour d’appel du Québec, soulève de nombreux questionnements sur le futur de la représentation collective de cette catégorie de travailleurs. Cet article entend contribuer à la réflexion sur ce thème, en mettant en lumière les attentes qu’entretiennent les cadres du secteur parapublic québécois à propos de leurs associations représentatives et de leurs modes d’action. Pour ce faire, nous mobilisons des résultats provenant de deux recherches réalisées auprès de cadres du secteur de la santé et des services sociaux, membres de l’AGESSS, et du secteur de l’éducation, membres de l’AQCS. Ces cadres expriment leur accord face à d’éventuelles modifications de l’encadrement législatif de leurs relations de travail. Cela dit, ils ne manifestent pas pour autant une volonté de se syndiquer. Qui plus est, ils sont ambivalents quant à l’utilisation éventuelle de modes d’action revendicateurs. Nous posons l’hypothèse que ce rapport au syndicalisme est une affirmation identitaire, qui s’explique, entre autres, par la façon dont le Code du travail définit les acteurs des relations du travail.

The article reviews the book, "Petite histoire politique des banlieues populaires," by Hacène Belmessous.

A close reading of the report of the Royal Commission on the Status of Women in Canada (RCSW 1970) makes visible its views on women’s organizing for social justice and strategies to this end. These issues have garnered little attention, but as this chapter shows, the report comments on the role of unions in Canada, the importance of demographic representation of women in positions of power, the lobbying work of professional women’s organizations, and the advocacy of the emerging community-based women’s movement. My focus is on the fndings of the RCSW ( 1970 ) on women and unions, and on union women’s organizing in recent decades. This examination is framed by four proposals for elaborating new feminist paradigms to promote justice for women. --Introduction

The first full-length treatment of Ed Broadbent's ideas and remarkable seven-decade engagement in public life. Ed Broadbent is unique among living political leaders of international stature in offering a fully developed analysis of social democracy and its relevance in the 21st century. His career as a political philosopher, activist, and politician and his conversations with contemporaries such as Willy Brandt, Pierre Elliot Trudeau, Fidel Castro, and Mikhail Gorbachev inform his analysis of the struggles for social justice in the long 20th century. Having come to the socialist and social democratic traditions by way of academic study, Broadbent tested and tempered his ideas in the great postwar struggles over social rights, gender and racial equality, workers' rights, the containment of capital, and reversing the commodification of private life. The book explores the roots of his egalitarianism and the formation of his social democratic ideas, Broadbent's engaged internationalism and relationship with key historical figures, and his experiences and reflections in practical politics and pursuit of government across several of the most momentous decades in the history of Canada. He was a Member of Parliament for over two decades and was, for most of this period, leader of the New Democratic Party. He remains to this day an important social democratic voice in the public debates of the nation. Part political history, part intellectual biography, part manifesto for social democracy this first-ever full-length treatment of Broadbent's thought will be animated in dialogue with three collaborators from different generations, each similarly immersed in the history of social democratic ideas--the result being a fresh analysis of social democracy, Canadian politics, and a lively contribution to current debates and dilemmas. -- Publisher's description

Cet article met en lumière la façon dont les actions et revendications des collectifs de coursiers et de chauffeurs de plateforme bruxellois s’articulent avec les stratégies syndicales et les modèles de régulation de l’économie de plateforme, à l’échelle nationale et internationale, ainsi que les différentes lignes de tension que cette articulation suscite. En Belgique, les mobilisations dans la livraison et dans le transport de personnes par plateforme numérique s’inscrivaient jusqu’il y a peu dans des dynamiques sous-sectorielles distinctes, mais des développements législatifs récents et un accord de partenariat syndical ont créé les conditions de rapprochement des collectifs de ces deux sous-secteurs autour d’objets de contestation communs, sans pour autant aligner leurs intérêts sur le plan du statut d’emploi.

The article reviews the book, "Les plateformes de travail numériques. Polygraphie d’un nouveau modèle organisationnel." edited by Mircea Vultur.

...The articles in this special issue attempt to account for these emerging dynamics of workers struggle in platform capitalism through a comparative analysis of the relations that impel autonomous groupings and other protest initiatives towards more structured collective representation and unionization.

...L’ambition de ce numéro thématique est ainsi de rendre compte des dynamiques de lutte et de syndicalisation au sein du capitalisme de plateforme, à travers une analyse comparative des rapports qui unissent ou non travailleurs, collectifs et autres structures de contestation avec les organisations syndicales.

A poignant memoir of a rough-and-tumble boyhood on the streets of Toronto's Cabbagetown. When the Burke family left Ireland in 1959, they thought they were leaving the trials and tribulations of the Dublin slums behind. Instead, Molly, Bill, and their nine children found the same poverty and hardship awaiting them in the east end of Toronto. For their sixth-born son, Terry, growing up in Cabbagetown was a daily struggle to survive. Whether it was the bullies on the street or the gangs in Regent Park, fights were an everyday occurrence. School should have been a refuge, but some of the priests and nuns were more terrifying than any street bully. The only escape for Terry was to find his way down into the Don Valley, where he could search the river for muskrat or imagine himself escaping on one of the freight trains, chucking north, up the valley floor. But a childhood in Cabbagetown didn't seem to last very long. Forced into adulthood and driven from home in the wake of tragedy, Terry struggled to survive on his own and find a way back to his family. In this touching memoir, Terry Burke tells a poignant story of hunger, pain, love, and loss, and the enduring bonds of family. --Publisher's description

Tracing the history of gendered working-class responses to deindustrialization in the Montréal neighbourhood of Saint-Henri reveals that many of the local political initiatives of the 1960s and 1970s were connected to longer-term working-class efforts to navigate shifting patterns of capital accumulation extending back to the 1940s. The gendered tradition of territory-based organizing in this community encouraged women workers’ shop-floor militancy and was foundational for new forms of local political advocacy around issues like health care and housing. In deindustrialization’s moment, the concerns of a precariously employed, feminized working-class population spurred a crossover of industrial struggle with survival-focused reproductive labour issues, centred around a grassroots organization called the popir (Projet d’organisation populaire, d’information, et de regroupement). This pattern of gendered working-class militancy and solidarity persisted throughout the 1980s and shaped resistance to Saint-Henri’s subsequent gentrification at the turn of the new millennium.

Cet article part du constat que les travaux s’intéressant à la variation des réponses syndicales aux changements initiés par les dirigeants d’entreprises, en ne se concentrant que sur les différences entre syndicats et en analysant les réponses de chaque syndicat à l’aune d’un seul des différents types de réponse possibles, présentent une vision relativement statique de l’activité syndicale en période de changement. En s’appuyant sur les notions de pouvoir discursif/narratif (Geelan, 2022 ; Schmalz et al., 2018 ; Lévesque & Murray, 2013), de cadres de l’action collective (Snow & Benford, 1988) et de ressources de pouvoir (Lévesque et Murray, 2010), l’article cherche à voir comment l’intersyndicale de NRTV, une entreprise audiovisuelle française, confrontée au pouvoir formel des dirigeants du Groupe pour orchestrer leur projet de restructurations avec suppressions d’effectifs, a réussi à modifier les structures de pouvoir (Kaplan, 2008) et à peser dans les négociations. L’analyse du discours de l’intersyndicale, entre l’annonce du projet de restructuration et la fin des négociations, nous a permis d’identifier quatre stratégies de cadrage utilisées pour faire face aux significations fournies par les dirigeants du Groupe (la réfutation, l’euphémisation, le dévoilement et le recadrage). Ce positionnement discursif, combiné à l’utilisation d’une stratégie de diffusion des cadres interprétatifs et d’action aussi bien informationnelle qu’interprétative (Demers, 1996), lui a permis de mobiliser ses soutiens internes et externes autour et même au-delà des actions qu’elle a menées et d’exercer une influence sur le processus et les résultats du changement.

Feminism's Fight explores and assesses feminist strategies to advance gender justice through Canadian federal policy from the 1970s to the present. It tells the crucial story of a transformation in how feminism has been treated by governments and asks how new ways of organizing and emerging alliances can advance a feminist agenda of social and economic equality. This timely collection examines the ideas that feminists have put forward in pursuit of the goal of equality and traces the shifting frameworks employed by governments in response. The authors evaluate changing government orientations through the 1970s to 2020, revealing the negative impact on women's lives and the challenges posed for feminists. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the sexism, misogyny, and related systemic inequalities that remain widespread. Yet it has also revived feminist mobilization and animated calls for a new and comprehensive equality agenda for Canada. Feminism's Fight asks two key questions: What are the lessons from feminist engagement with federal government policy over fifty years? And what kinds of transformative policy demands will achieve the feminist goal of social and economic equality?-- Publisher's description

...The growth of the gig economy presents a number of opportunities for workers, with a potential for added flexibility and freedom in how, where, and when they choose to work. However, gig workers can also face a number of challenges, putting many of them in difficult working conditions and precarious economic positions. Recognizing these challenges, the Prime Minister mandated the Minister of Labour to improve labour protections for gig workers, including those who work through digital platforms. --From introduction

Les cadres de pensée et d’action qui structurent la prévention des risques professionnels forment aujourd’hui un dispositif au sens de Foucault. Ce dispositif, qualifié de « doctrine de prévention », s’est construit en référence aux classes de situations industrielles et se retrouve aujourd’hui remis en question par les activités de service. À partir d’une analyse ergonomique du travail et de la conduite de projet de prévention dans une structure de médiation sociale, cet article cible un point spécifique de la doctrine qui s’inscrit en décalage avec l’activité des médiatrices : la subordination. En effet, le lien qui s’établit entre subordination et prévention amène à penser cette dernière dans un périmètre et sur un modèle du pouvoir éloignés de l’activité réelle des travailleuses. Cet article fournit ainsi des connaissances spécifiques sur l’écart entre la doctrine de prévention et les activités de service, mais ouvre également des perspectives de recherche au travers de la conceptualisation de la prévention en tant que dispositif.

Drawing on engaging case studies, Essays in History of Canadian Law brings the law to life. The contributors to this collection provide rich historical and social context for each case, unravelling the process of legal decision-making and explaining the impact of the law on the people involved in legal disputes. Examining the law not simply as legislation and institutions, but as discourse, practice, symbols, rhetoric, and language, the chapters show the law as both oppressive and constraining and as a point of contention and means of resistance. This collection presents new approaches and concerns, as well as re-examinations of existing themes with new evidence and modes of storytelling. Contributors cover many thematic areas, from criminal to labour, civil, administrative, and human rights law, spanning English and French Canada, and ranging from the mid-eighteenth century to the late twentieth century. The legal cases vary from precedent-setting cases to lesser-known ones, from those driven by one woman’s quest for personal justice to others in which state actors dominate. Bringing to light how the people embroiled in these cases interacted with the legal system, the book reveals the ramifications of a legal system characterized by multiple layers of inequality. -- Publisher's description

Throughout Canada, the need for care provision services is on the rise. The number of people willing and able to provide these care services is insufficient to address the growing need for care. Care work is provided by a mix of paid workers and unpaid family members. The majority of both these groups of care workers are women. Care work has long been undervalued as feminized labour, resulting in insufficient government support for family caregivers, and persistent labour issues within paid care sectors. In this thesis, I explore two distinct sets of Canadian federal policies related to care provision – Employment Insurance (EI) benefits for unpaid family caregivers, and the Home Child Care Provider and Home Support Worker Pilot Programs, which facilitate the immigration of private in-home caregivers to Canada – in order to discover whether they are underpinned by a shared set of similar assumptions about the nature of care work, who is best suited to perform it, and how it should be provided. In examining the assumptions about care that underpin and shape these policies related to care provision in Canada, I identify a number of consistent gendered themes about care and care providers and analyze their impact on policy outcomes.

Chinese Canadians are one of the largest ethnic groups in the country. In the 2021 census, more than 1.7 million people reported being of Chinese origin. Despite their importance to the Canadian economy, including the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), many European Canadians were historically hostile to Chinese immigration. A prohibitive head tax restricted Chinese immigration to Canada from 1885 to 1923. From 1923 to 1947, the Chinese were excluded altogether from immigrating to Canada. (See Chinese Immigration Act)....

The Chinese Immigration Act of 1923, known also as the Chinese Exclusion Act, banned the entry of virtually all Chinese immigrants for 24 years. Although migration into Canada from most countries was controlled or restricted in some way, only Chinese people were singled out completely from entering on the basis of race....