April 7, 2003
Yes, Sid Ryan is indeed coming to town. More specifically, to my town, Oshawa. And better yet, only two minutes away from where I live. Yes, Sid Ryan, with whom I have crossed swords on several occasions, from his trying to have me barred from a CUPE Ontario convention to the Days of Action in late 1996, has decided to run against my MPP Jerry Ouellette, the provincial Minister of Natural Resources. Sid has set up his tent on King Street West, only 15 minutes by bus from where his OCAP buddies trashed Jim Flaherty’s office in Whitby a couple of years ago.
Oshawa, the Canadian home of "Generous Motors", is a blue-collar town run as much by the Canadian Auto Workers as by its elected officials. The one-time stomping ground of the Pilkey family, and a city with one of the highest per-capita incomes in Canada, Oshawa is home to several thousand well-paid homeowners all carrying CAW membership cards. This is union heaven, or so one would think. The problem is that these well-heeled brothers and sisters do not regularly vote for the NDP, the traditional political vehicle of the labour movement. On the contrary, these hard-working production line employees tend to vote either Liberal federally, or Conservative provincially. Unimpressed by cradle-to-the-grave welfare services, these feet-firmly-on-the-ground workers don’t like to waste their money on malingerers and connivers.
Sid Ryan is an Irish-born Catholic who studied the methods of Protestant firebrand Rev. Ian Paisley because of the latter’s ability to get people to riot in the streets. He thinks nothing of using the hard-earned dues money of the workers to indulge in trips to Texas to protest the death penalty, or to go to Ulster as an "international observer," and he obviously believes that the workers owe him a good living in addition to financing his various political adventures and funding his political career. Thousands of dollars were spent by CUPE Local 79 alone in providing support and in booking off "social activist" union members to work on his election campaign in Scarborough East a few years ago.
People can be judged by the company they keep, and Ryan’s company includes several startling examples of political extremism. These include Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP)’s John Clarke, presently on trial for the Queens Park riots, who once remarked that "Private property is an obstacle to social justice." Clarke made bail with financial help from several activists, including Toronto "street nurse" Cathy Crowe and Communist Party executive David Kidd, who was an OCAP spokesman in the early 90s. Additionally, OCAP has always been able to count on CUPE for a cheque or two whenever the need arises. In a CUPE Ontario press release dated July 24th, 2000, Ryan is quoted as follows: "John Clarke and OCAP activists are no threat to the community. It’s the unfeeling Harris Tories and their hard-line policies that are hurting vulnerable people in this province. …John Clarke is a true champion of the poor and homeless." (Emphasis added). In a CUPE Ontario "media advisory" dated November 18th, 2000 regarding a social workers convention at which the proposed mandatory drug testing of welfare recipients was discussed, we are told "…those attending the conference heard speeches from (Sid) Ryan and anti-poverty activist John Clarke (Ontario Coalition Against Poverty). The two encouraged the CUPE members to take a stand against a government that revels in intimidating the poor and that is escalating its attack on working people." (Emphasis added).
CAW leader Buzz Hargrove has expressed deep concern about OCAP, and actually withdrew his union’s support a while ago in an apparent split with Ryan. However, he may have little choice but to throw Local 222 solidly behind Ryan despite the center-right voting habits of his members.
We shall see! More on this next week.
Jeff Goodall worked for the Metro Treasury and City Finance Departments for 25 years, and served as a member of the CUPE Local 79 Executive Board for 14 of those years.