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The article reviews the book, "A Town Called Asbestos: Environmental Contamination, Health, and Resilience in a Resource Community ,"by Jessica Van Horssen.

Given the growing trend towards "fissured" employment structures char- acterized by the use of subcontractors and supply chains, the lack of any mech- anism for imposing third-party liability is a serious gap in employment standards legislation. By limiting liability to the direct employer, traditionally conceived, the legislation as it has been interpreted can leave victims of wage theft without recourse against a judgment-proof subcontractor. This paper seeks to address that deficiency by focusing on Ontario's successful experience with various statutory regimes that provide for third-party liability, including construction liens and trusts, the internal responsibility system under occupational health and safety legislation, and "cause or permit" regulatory liability in environmental and other public welfare legislation. Building on the key principles of these schemes, all of which create non-delegable responsibilities in the face of arm's- length subcontracted relationships, the author proposes the adoption of a system of joint and several liability for entities that "cause or permit" violations of employment standards. This would require lead companies to take some of the responsibility for compliance by subcontractors down the supply chain, thereby providing vulnerable workers with stronger protections against non-payment of wages. At the same time, the author argues, this approach would strike an appropriate balance with the needs of employers, because a number of low-cost tools would be available to lead companies to spread risk, and third-party lia- bility would not capture subcontracting arrangements that do not jeopardize the wage entitlements of vulnerable workers.

Going postal. We think of the rogue employee who snaps. But in [this book] Jeremy Milloy demonstrates that workplace violence never occurs in isolation. Using violence as a lens, he provides fresh and original insights into the everyday workings of capitalism, class conflict, race, and gender in the United States and Canada of the late twentieth century, bringing historical perspective to contemporary debates about North American violence. [The book] is the first full-length historical exploration of the origins and effects of individual violence in the automotive industry. Milloy’s gripping analysis spans 1960 to 1980, when North American auto plants were routinely the sites of fights, assaults, and even murders. He argues that the high levels of violence were primarily the result of workplace conditions – including on-the-job exploitation, racial tension, bureaucratization, and hypermasculinity – that made fear and loathing a shop-floor reality long before mass shootings attracted media attention in the 1980s. Workplace violence is typically the domain of management studies and psychology, but while we pass legislation and adopt best practices, the problem continues. Milloy’s explosive book reveals that workplace violence has been a constant aspect of class conflict – and that our understanding needs to go deeper. Blood, Sweat, and Fear will interest everyone concerned with the causes of workplace violence, and in particular scholars and students of labour history, sociology, sociological criminology, masculinity studies, and studies of race and of violence. --Publisher's description. Contents: Dripping with blood and dirt: confronting the history of workplace violence under capitalism -- Fights and knifings are becoming quite commonplace: Dodge main, 1965-80 -- The way boys and men took care of business: Windsor Chrysler plants -- The constant companion of all that earn their living here: workers, unions, and management respond -- Chrysler pulled the trigger: the courts and the press -- Out of the back streets and into the workplace: the discovery of workplace violence in the 1980s and 1990s.

On May 15, 2014, the Government of British Columbia apologized to its Chinese Canadian community for historical wrongs. It also committed to provide a legacy for all British Columbians so that we can learn more about a time we cannot and should not forget. This website is a part of that legacy. It offers resources that document the history of the discrimination, chronicle the consultation process and formal Apology in the Legislature, and provide updates on the many legacy projects that highlight the substantial contributions Chinese Canadians have made to the culture, history and economic prosperity of our province. --Website description

The article reviews the book, "Coxey's Army: Popular Protest in the Gilded Age," by Benjamin F. Alexander.

The article reviews the book, "Race, Nation, and Reform Ideology in Winnipeg, 1880s–1920s," by Kurt Korneski.

Thiis article reviews the book, "Réguler l’économie : l’apport des organisations patronales," edited by Danièle Fraboulet, Michel Margairaz and Pierre Verrus.

This article reviews the book, "A Place in the Sun: Haiti, Haitians, and the Remaking of Quebec," by Sean Mills.

The Gouzenko Affair is referred to as the event that started the Cold War. This article draws on recently declassified documents that shed new light on Britain's role in this affair, particularly that of the Foreign Office and the British High Commissioner to Canada. The documents reveal how the British had a major part in directing the response to Igor Gouzenko's defection in 1945. This event revealed the need for increased counterespionage security, but it also became a spectacle that directed the public's attention away from the British connection: specifically, the role of Alan Nunn May, a British nuclear scientist who had provided the Soviets with classified information. Instead, the public's interest was centred on Soviet spies, communism as a subversive force, and the brewing Soviet-US conflict. These newly declassified sources demonstrate how it was the British intelligence services and the British government that went to great lengths to help focus the public's attention in this direction. They took great pains to direct Canadian policymaking, which included working to discourage Canada's prime minister William Lyon Mackenzie King from handling the affair privately with the Soviet ambassador, and were likely behind the infamous press leak to US reporter Drew Pearson that forced King to call a Royal Commission and publicize the affair. With the help of the British government and intelligence services, the Cold War began.

During periods of intense conflict, either at home or abroad, governments enact emergency powers in order to exercise greater control over the society that they govern. The expectation though is that once the conflict is over, these emergency powers will be lifted. An Exceptional Law showcases how the emergency law used to repress labour activism during the First World War became normalized with the creation of Section 98 of the Criminal Code, following the Winnipeg General Strike. Dennis G. Molinaro argues that the institutionalization of emergency law became intricately tied to constructing a national identity. Following a mass deportation campaign in the 1930s, Section 98 was repealed in 1936 and contributed to the formation of Canada's first civil rights movement. Portions of it were used during the October Crisis and recently in the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2015. Building on the theoretical framework of Agamben, Molinaro advances our understanding of security as ideology and reveals the intricate and codependent relationship between state-formation, the construction of liberal society, and exclusionary practices. --Publisher's description. Contents: For the protection of people and state -- Defining suspects -- The trial -- Citizens of the world -- Outlaws -- Judgement.

Les métiers de service de primo contact avec un public révèlent la centralité de l’émotion dans l’interaction professionnels-usagers. À cet égard, l’institution policière représente un terrain d’étude archétypal du travail et de la régulation de l’émotion par les agents. Par une recherche qualitative menée au sein d’une brigade anticriminalité, la présente étude a pour dessein de modéliser le processus émotionnel au travail, en se fondant sur le cadre théorique de l’évaluation cognitive, des compétences émotionnelles, du travail émotionnel et des statuts de l’émotion au travail. Cette réflexion s’inscrit en réaction aux enjeux actuels de santé et de sécurité au travail, ainsi que la qualité du service offert, qui exigent de la Gestion des ressources humaines (GRH) une prise en compte manifeste du rôle des émotions au travail.

The article reviews the book, "Security/Capital: A General Theory of Pacification," by George S. Rigakos.

This paper evaluates the potential of the framework of reasonable accom- modation under Canadian human rights legislation to respond adequately to the workplace discrimination claims of minorities, particularly racialized Muslim women. Developing the premise that religious freedom and gender equality are not mutually exclusive, the author considers the legislative and judicial context of multiculturalism in Canada, as exemplified by the R. v. NS case (dealing with whether a witness in legal proceedings may wear a niqab while testifying) and by certain legislative initiatives (such as the federal Zero Tolerance for Barbaric Cultural Practices Act and the Quebec Charter of Values) that reflect a climate of growing xenophobia and islamophobia and that reinforce the "otherness" of minority racialized women under the pretext of secularism and gender equality. The paper then examines more closely the existing legal framework for rea- sonable accommodation in the workplace, arguing that the rigorous standard adopted by the Supreme Court in Meiorin was weakened and devalued in subse- quent decisions such as McGill and Hydro-Qu6bec. Ultimately, the author con- tends, state multiculturalism should be challenged and reconceptualized through the prism of critical multiculturalism, in order to move away from a simplistic emphasis on cultural difference and to address the underlying systemic issues of racism and discrimination. Furthermore, she argues, the notion of reasonable accommodation should be reformulated to shift the focus away from accommo- dation of minority women as tolerated exceptions to the norm, and towards the achievement of substantive equality through structural change.

This article reviews the book, "Working Through the Past: Labor and Authoritarian Legacies in Comparative Perspective," edited by Teri L. Caraway, Maria Lorena Cook, and Stephen Crowley.

Though rare in Canada, community benefits agreements (cbas) are now commonly being negotiated by labour-community coalitions in American cities. cbas require "urban revitalization" projects to provide living wages, affordable housing, and access to jobs for marginalized residents. Surprisingly little has been written about cbas within the labour studies literature, and most critiques of cbas correspond with private developments. This case study draws on three years of participatory, action-based fieldwork with a labour-community coalition, called the Toronto Community Benefits Network (hereafter, the Network). Formed in 2013, the Network tried to negotiate the first-ever cba with the Ontario government, linked to the $6.6 billion Eglinton Crosstown Light Rail Transit project in Toronto. The Network won discursive support for cbas from provincial policymakers, but demands for employment equity were met with only an ineffective workplace-development approach. I explain and evaluate the Network's "insider strategy" in relation to political vulnerabilities of the government of Ontario; the Network's efforts to mobilize resources and gain union support; and the changing labour-relations regime governing infrastructure projects in Toronto. I argue that while cbas open a new terrain of struggle for marginalized groups and unions to assert a right to the city, these struggles are being coopted by governments and used as political cover for deepening neoliberal governance.

This paper focuses on safety on multi-employer worksites in high-risk industries. Relevant industries are those that utilize flexible labour arrangements and specialization, such as construction, mining and petroleum production, and that traditionally have been high-risk due to hazards in the physical work environment and the occurrence of unsafe work processes and practices. These industries also share common characteristics in matters of overall work environments, multi-employer worksites (including subcontracting chains), as well as tasks performed by contractors, making it relevant to explore and clarify the situation regarding the safety of the affected groups. A comprehensive review is performed of 43 peer-reviewed research articles published up until early 2015, with a main focus on international studies covering safety issues on multi-employer worksites in construction and industrial work settings such as mining, petroleum production and manufacturing.The results show that previous research has focused on a number of key issues that may be divided into three broad categories: 1- contract work characteristics; 2- structural/organizational factors and conditions; 3- cultural conditions. Much of the focus is on structure and organization, for example, how multi-employer arrangements can lead to breakdowns in communication and overall disorganization effects in relation to safety. There is, however, a need for further studies on the nature of these structural and organizational factors and conditions, such as focused studies on the consequences of power asymmetry for the ability of contractors to adhere to safety laws and regulations. Furthermore, we argue that the development towards blurred organizational boundaries in these networks due to extensive outsourcing and long-term contracts may be a worthwhile avenue for future research into safety on multi-employer worksites.

This thesis explores the relationship between Newfoundland’s Irish Catholics and the largely English-Protestant backed Fishermen’s Protective Union (FPU) in the early twentieth century. The rise of the FPU ushered in a new era of class politics. But fishermen were divided in their support for the union; Irish-Catholic fishermen have long been seen as at the periphery—or entirely outside—of the FPU’s fold. Appeals to ethno-religious unity among Irish Catholics contributed to their ambivalence about or opposition to the union. Yet, many Irish Catholics chose to support the FPU. In fact, the historical record shows Irish Catholics demonstrating a range of attitudes towards the union: some joined and remained, some joined and then left, and others rejected the union altogether. Far from being beholden to the whims of clerics, political elites, or the structural dictates of the economy and of region, Irish-Catholic fishermen made their own decisions about membership. Nevertheless, the pressures of class and ethno-religious solidarities mediated their decisions to engage with the union. This thesis uses a combination of newspaper sources, church correspondence, oral histories, censuses, and election data to unearth the history of Irish Catholics’ complex relationship with the FPU, and argues that this relationship is an example of the entanglements of ethnicity and class in pre-Confederation Newfoundland.

Cet article s'intéresse à la façon dont les discours en circulation au Québec parlent de la pauvreté urbaine dans un contexte de prospérité. Il met en lumière la coexistence, pendant les années qui suivent la Seconde Guerre mondiale, d'une vision « individualisante » de la pauvreté avec une conception plus « socialisante » assimilant ce phénomène à une injustice. Il soutient aussi qu'un changement de paradigme s'effectue dans les années 1960 et 1970, la pauvreté commençant à être appréhendée en lien avec la société de consommation en voie de consolidation. Dans ce contexte, la pauvreté qui perdure en dépit de mesures prises pour l'enrayer dérange de plus en plus et en vient à être assimilée à un phénomène social dont l'injustice est exacerbée par les valeurs de la consommation de masse et la prospérité ambiante qui le rendent d'autant plus inacceptable.

This dissertation explores the effects of lack of citizenship on the wages of low-skilled Non-Permanent Residents (NPRs) in Canada—a category that includes temporary foreign workers, refugee claimants, and people with temporary resident visas on humanitarian grounds. The dissertation uses the 2006 census and quantitative methods (cross-tabulation and regression analysis) to evaluate wage differences between low-skilled workers without citizenship and low-skilled workers with citizenship or permanent resident status. Differences are calculated at the industry sector level and occupation level. The analysis further considers a set of intrinsic characteristics of low-skilled workers (including sex, level of education, official language ability and country of birth) and their occupations (provincial location, rural/urban setting). Empirically, this dissertation confirms that there is a penalty attached to lack of citizenship for low-skilled workers. In absolute terms, low-skilled NPRs earn low wages. In relative terms, these NPRs earn less than both the Canadian-born and immigrants low-skilled workers employed in the same occupations. Among low-skilled NPRs themselves, the Canadian labour market exhibits a hierarchy of wages and labour experiences on the lines of workers' country of birth, province of residence, and rural/urban place of work. Among low–skilled workers born in the same country, wages improve when either citizenship or the rights attached to permanent residence are acquired. From a policy perspective, the dissertation identifies the policy origins and drivers of low wages among low-skilled non-citizens. The thesis makes the case for the relevance of quantitative outcomes analyzed through a critical social lens. From a theoretical perspective too, the dissertation also shows how the state as a biased broker (towards capital) facilitates the implementation of non-citizenship as a means to accessing cheap labour.