The federal government has seized the occasion to deploy 12,000 Canadian troops - about 8,000 of them in Quebec - using the pretext that they are necessary to help with repairs and cleanup, while thousands of volunteering working people have been turned down and left unorganized by the authorities. Now the troops have been given police powers. Little else has been done to mobilize resources in the rest of Canada to help Quebec which has been by far the hardest hit. This contrasts with the millions that were spent to bring tens of thousands to Montreal for a rally against Quebec sovereignty just before the referendum on that question in October 1995.
Federal officials have used the deployment of troops to try to improve the image of the Canadian army, which suffered a major blow when it was involved in the murder of several Somalis in 1993. They are preparing for the day when they will once again be used against the Quebecois fighting for independence, as they were in 1970.
Using the pretext of preventing looting and making sure that people don't freeze to death, police patrols have been stepped up and the police have been given special powers to remove people from their homes by force and to control access to certain areas.
Working people have been at the forefront of responding to the crisis, from the efforts to repair the badly damaged electrical system, to clean up and staffing the hospitals. The labor movement needs to take the lead in calling for a massive Canada-wide effort to help those hit by the crisis. They should campaign for full compensation for all those who have suffered losses. This needs to include full payment of lost wages to workers and complete reimbursement to working farmers for losses in livestock, crops, machinery, and other inputs.
The unions need to call for a massive and immediate program of public works to repair the electrical system and other damage caused by the ice storm. Workers should be hired at union-scale wages to carry out the installation of electrical lines underground, which is much safer than the present system. The army should go back to the barracks. All attempts to increase the repressive powers of the police should opposed.
In Cuba - where working people hold state power -when a hurricane or any other natural disaster strikes, the whole population is immediately mobilized by the revolutionary government to save human lives and limit the impact. This points to the need for working people in Canada and elsewhere to fight to replace the capitalist regimes with workers and farmers governments that act to defend human needs, not profits.