The North Star is a new media led by a team of committed volunteers who believe in freedom of expression and the importance of a media that defends the interests of working people, their families and those who make this country what it is. There’s no pretentious language or snobbish chatter here, just raw, real information for real people.
We are not a toy of the multinationals, we do people’s journalism. No hidden agendas, just a relentless pursuit of the truth.
Over the past fifty years, Quebec has been the battle ground of five different united fronts, and this past year the province was shaken by a sixth wave of public sector strikes that reached… Read More
In his New Year's statement, Premier Doug Ford told Ontarians that he's "proud of what Team Ontario accomplished this past year" and that he "can’t wait to see what’s to come in… Read More
The Lalji family, billionaire real-estate oligarchs, were 2023's recipient of the Women's Health Champion award from the BC Women's Health Foundation, which is awarded annually to an "indivi… Read More
As many were scrambling to get their gifts together before the holidays, the staff of the sole Chapters Indigo store in Scarborough, Ontario were scrambling to figure out how they were going… Read More
Workers at the Sheraton Vancouver Airport hotel have been on strike since June 14 in a standoff against the billionaire real-estate oligarch Lalji family. The striking Sheraton workers… Read More
As workers at Sobeys-owned Pete's Frootique in Halifax near their second month of strike, information pickets were held across Canada by Service Employee International Union (SEIU) Local 2… Read More
In Canada, millions of workers have unknowingly and unwittingly contributed to the ongoing crisis in Palestine over the course of their careers. While some participate in the manufactu… Read More
Exasperated by the Quebec government's contempt for the public sector strike, over 5,000 Common Front workers gathered on December 12 at Montmorency College in Laval to express their frustra… Read More
Negotiations between Rogers sugar plant workers and Lantic Inc. have broken down, says Adrian Soldera, the president of Public and Private Workers of Canada Local 8. Employees of the sugar r… Read More
Last week, the Centre des services scolaires de Montréal (CSSDM), Quebec's largest school services center, obtained a Superior Court injunction against the union representing its teac… Read More
Despite the cold weather and snow, mobilization and solidarity on the picket lines are growing, as the 66,000 teachers of the Fédération autonome de l'enseignement (FAE) have b… Read More
Just over three weeks ago, workers at 26 Société québécoise du cannabis (SQDC) branches, members of CUPE-5454, ended one of the longest strikes in Canadian public… Read More
Just over three weeks ago, workers at 26 Société québécoise du cannabis (SQDC) branches, members of CUPE-5454, ended one of the longest strikes in Canadian public… Read More
More than a month of mass protests, blockades, and strikes have forced the Panamanian Government to begin shutting down the Cobre Panamá mine. The copper mine—by far the largest… Read More
Close to 100 workers at Sobeys-owned Pete’s Frootique in Halifax have launched a strike on November 18th asking for fairer wages. Workers are currently paid $15 an hour, the provincial… Read More
And that's it. For all the CAQ's efforts to pretend it was a conciliatory, attentive government during the COVID-19 crisis, it's over. We're back to the good old rhetoric of elites who don't… Read More
Following a demonstration for the liberation of Palestine in downtown Vancouver on October 28, Natalie Knight, a teacher at Langara College and member of the organization United in Struggle… Read More
After 18 months of tension, workers at 26 branches of the Société québécoise du cannabis (SQDC), members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees local 5454 (CUP… Read More
November 23, 2023 will go down in the history of Quebec and Canada, with 566,000 workers walking off the job. This marks the biggest strike since the AT&T strike in North America in 1983… Read More
Two weeks into Israel’s bombardment and invasion of Gaza that an increasing number of people are not hesitating to call a genocide, significant numbers of high school students i… Read More
Anger rumbles amongst Quebec’s bus drivers, hard hit by the general rise in the cost of living. Since October 16th, sixteen school bus unions, representing 182 members, have sent strik… Read More
The Autonomous Federation of Education (FAE), a federation of nine education unions representing 66,500 members, has announced that it will use its unlimited general strike mandate on Novemb… Read More
In the arsenal of weapons that the economic elites use to maintain their monopolies, an insidious, albeit lesser-known method of hoarding wealth is facing increased scrutiny. Stock buyback… Read More
Quebec's housing starts have fallen to a record low this year. In the Greater Montreal area, housing starts fell by 58%, the biggest drop in a quarter-century. For Quebec as a whole, the dec… Read More
A united front of four Belgian unions announced on October 31 that they would refuse to handle military equipment destined for war zones in Palestine. The unions - CNE, UBT, Setca and Transc… Read More
On Monday November 6, 420,000 public sector workers in Quebec, represented by a United Front of unions, took part in a half-day strike. Despite massive support for an unlimited general strik… Read More
Even before the current upsurge in Palestinian resistance and Israeli reprisal, there were more than 5000 Palestinians being held in Israeli jails, including 170 children and 33 women prison… Read More
On October 30, the United Auto Workers union (UAW) in the U.S. reached a tentative deal with General Motors (GM), ending an unprecedented six week-long strike against the Detroit "Big Three"… Read More
The situation is looking grim for the 214 workers at Vidéotron – Gatineau, trapped in a protracted dispute. The company prevented its workers from coming to work this morning in… Read More
With Canada poised to sign a new ‘enhanced defense cooperation’ agreement with the Philippines, human rights attorney and former Filipino congressman Neri Colmenares completed hi… Read More
This Saturday, October 21, around 100 demonstrators gathered outside the constituency office of Canada’s Immigration Minister, Marc Miller, to call for the immediate regularization of… Read More
On October 14th, members of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU) Local 107 and members of the Hamilton local community gave speeches and showed their support to keep management of the future… Read More
Over a month after the start of the historic United Auto Workers (UAW) strike against Detroit’s big three auto companies (Ford Motor Company, General Motors Company and Stellantis), au… Read More
On October 5th Ontario’s three big hospital unions announced the signing of a “ten-point solidarity pact” at Queens park. The unions resolved to combat further austerity an… Read More
Thousands have come out across Canada to attend various rallies following the unprecedented attacks on Israel from Hamas and other militant organizations in the Palestinian Gaza Strip. In ne… Read More
On October 7, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict erupted in a new cycle of devastating violence that captured the world’s attention. More than 2,000 civilians, including 500 children and… Read More
Last September, Tomoya Obokata, the UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery, visited Canada. Following his visit, the rapporteur published a report in which he warned against… Read More
Manitoba Public Insurance (MPI) workers have been on strike since August 28. Similar to the Liquor Mart workers and other public servants, MPI workers were affected by Bill-28 which all… Read More
At a press conference on Thursday, October 5, François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, proclaimed that his recent meeting with the monopolistic giant… Read More
On September 27th, five First Nations from Northern Ontario marched together demanding that Doug Ford stop the unwanted mining in their territories. The alliance of Asubpeeschoseewagong (Gra… Read More
On the morning of September 28th, heavy equipment was deployed to clear the remnants of a homeless encampment in Cambridge, which had been a temporary home for around 50 individuals. This to… Read More
Québec is boiling over at the start of October, in the face of one of the largest union mobilizations in decades. Since September 18, the 420,000 Quebec public sector employees repres… Read More
Every Sunday morning last summer, seniors and family members have been protesting Global Kingdom Ministries (GKM), a Scarborough mega-church. In 2016, GKM advertised and started taking depos… Read More
In early September, hundreds of North Bay international students, mostly from India, spent their first week of school scrambling to find a place to live. Neither the federal government… Read More
The popular Winnipeg dinner theatre, Celebrations, opted to close down operations on September 8th after 3 days of strike action instead of bargaining with its workers. The workers h… Read More
Three thousand workers at Safeway stores in the Lower Mainland have voted 98% in favour of a strike madate for their union local, currently in negotiations with Safeway’s parent compan… Read More
In a recent twist in Canadian politics, the Speaker of the House of Commons, Anthony Rota, bid farewell to his post. A gesture which, it seems, will not be enough to make us forget the play… Read More
On Saturday September 23, 100,000 Quebec public sector workers converged on the streets of Montreal to express their anger with government offers in the current round of union negotiations… Read More
Only days into the United Auto Workers historic strike against the Big Three, the auto monopolies have retaliated by laying off workers at several factories. GM halted production at its plan… Read More
Just seven months after workers at Starbucks’ Dunbar location successfully unionized their workplace, becoming the first Starbucks in Vancouver to form a union, Starbucks Canada is set… Read More
The residents of a homeless camp in Cobourg, Ontario, have been forced to move three times since their initial settlement on a rocky beach in early August. Eviction notices, backed by the ri… Read More
Metro Ontario workers recently went on strike in the Greater Toronto Area. Some 3,700 members of Unifor Local 414 walked off the job at 27 branches in the region. They were demanding fair wa… Read More
Scotiabank has recently found itself in the spotlight for its role as the largest foreign investor in Elbit Systems, an Israeli arms manufacturing company that produces 85% of the drones use… Read More
On September 15, the United Auto Workers union (UAW) in the U.S. launched a major strike against the “Big Three” — Ford Motor Company, General Motors Compan… Read More
Tenants at 71, 75, and 79 Thornecliffe Park Drive in Toronto have entered the fourth month of their rent strike against an Above Guideline Increase (AGI) by Starlight Investments and th… Read More
On August 25th, hundreds of Montreal residents took to the street to denounce Bill 31, a bill which was proposed in the Quebec parliament back in June by France-Élaine Duranceau of th… Read More
The RCMP has begun a possible criminal investigation into the handling of the Greenbelt by the Ford government. The move comes in the wake of allegations of corruption in how the Ford govern… Read More
In late July, over 4000 people came out to Angrignon Park in Montreal for the city’s first ever Palestinian festival. Organized by the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM), a grassroots yo… Read More
Last Spring the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) launched a crackdown on so-called “violent shoplifting” called Operation Barcode. The operation, in which the VPD partnered with… Read More
As the new school year approaches, marked as it is by a historic teacher shortage in Quebec and the threat of a strike in the province’s public sector, a more insidious crisis is takin… Read More
In Québec, the teacher shortage denounced for years by education unions has just reached a new peak. Just a few days before the start of the school year, Bernard Drainville, Minister… Read More
Three years after the grand opening of Amazon’s first warehouse in Quebec in July 2020, the glowing promises of quality jobs and the enthusiasm displayed by elected officials appear to… Read More
The strike underway since July 19 at Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries (MBLL) reveals a latent tension in Manitoba. The North Star gathered testimonies from anonymous workers, evoking a confli… Read More
August 5th marked the one year anniversary since 100 Amazon workers at the BHX4 fulfillment centre in Coventry, England walked off their job and became the first Amazon workers to go on stri… Read More
Twenty-seven branches of the Metro grocers and pharmacies have gone on strike in the Greater Toronto Area. Since July 27, 3700 workers have been on rotating picket lines demanding increased… Read More
With more than 420,000 members, the “Front commun des syndicats” (United Front of Unions in Quebec) representing employees in Quebec’s public sector, in negotiations for al… Read More
The start of the 2023 school year is likely to be a bumpy ride. Bill 23, tabled last spring in the Quebec National Assembly, has been widely denounced by teachers and their unions. Minister… Read More
Since July 19, the Manitoba Liquor and Lotteries (MBLL) distribution centre in Winnipeg has been on full walk-out strike. Retail workers across the province however, joined the walk-out once… Read More
In April 2022, Quebec’s three main labor unions (CSN, FTQ, CSQ) announced the formation of a united front to tackle renegotiations of public-sector collective agreements which are expe… Read More
The tenants fears about new management taking over the Guelph Stationview Apartements have become reality. The Apartments were sold at a closing price of $8 million dollars on March 8, 2023… Read More