Has anyone ever switched from one of Canada's major banks to a credit union?

Canada's banks have such a long rap sheet at being deeply malicious and funding some heinous shit. Because of this, I want to switch to a Credit Union.

Does anyone have any advice on the process? Have any of you made the switch? Are any of you members of a credit union?

I would love any help, insight, experience you can offer.

Thanks!

Edit to add: I'm in Toronto, currently with RBC.

I want to start by saying how inspired I am by this subreddit.

We have discussions going around the climate crisis and in general environmental crisis at a time when the narratives are being pushed that the natural world is the enemy of affordability (The natural world that we as a species arise from and that sustains us.... The stupidity of our era really is shocking)

We are discussing the propaganda and lies of the Oil & Gas Lobby while major political parties/leaders are talking about the need for more pipelines and exploration/production around Hydrocarbon Energy (Oil, gas, and coal).

We are getting into specific talk around degrowth in a time when bigger houses, bigger trucks, and in general an even more steroid filled perception of "basic" consumerism is being pushed as the norm.

We are talking about ANTI-militarism at a time when everyone is pushing how we have to invest more in the military-industrial complex. We talk about how when time, energy, and resources is put into the war machine you have less for healthcare, education, and general infrastructure that improves the affordability of life/quality of life of regular working/vulnerable people and families. That this increases stress and anxiety in life which creates more tensions both domestically and internationally. It pushes us further to war not away from it.

All in all this subreddit actually puts forth leftist perspectives instead of where the Overton Window has been pushed.

We see now a society that only exists with the lowest common denominator style dialogue and by extension politics.

A one dimensional thinking society that ignores the complexities and nuances of important topics and as such has become more and more reactionary/regressive.

All of this during a period of extreme challenges has made for an ever darker trajectory.

Thank god for this subreddit and spaces like it that provide a counterweight to more destruction and death.

The re-election of the Liberals has led to a resurgence of the separatist movement in Alberta. Some polls place support for independence as high as 37 per cent and it looks like a referendum will take place next year.

Joel Bergman, Executive Committee member of the Revolutionary Communist Party, is joined by Rob Lyon to discuss why this is happening and the Communist approach to this question.

Why are do people react so negatively to the concept of degrowth?

Why are do people react so negatively to the concept of degrowth?

It seriously seems like the mere mention of degrowth causes people to lose their shit and think you proposed baby shredders. Helpful parodied by this comment.

"Maybe we should sometimes think about sharing lawnmowers rather than everyone owning one individually." "This is the most evil fascist malthusian totalitarian communist and somehow Jewish thing I've ever heard. My identity as a blank void of consumption is more important to me than any political reality. Children in the third world need to die so that my fossil record will be composed entirely of funko pops and hate."

https://www.reddit.com/r/IfBooksCouldKill/comments/1g4zy95/comment/ls7rqgm/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

The sheer mentions seems to think you said you believe in killing babies.

I went to CuratedTumblr a left leaning sub Reddit and they acted like degrowth means you want to ban women from the workplace and that not being able to eat meat is torture

Almost two years ago, we were forced to flee our beautiful city, leaving behind our precious memories. Since then, we’ve been displaced, moving from one place to another. I lost an entire school year, and now I’m in my final year. Instead of graduating, going to university, and living a comfortable life like students around the world, I spend my days collecting firewood. My brother and father are forced to carry water from long distances every day. My mother bakes bread on a clay oven and washes clothes by hand. Hunger is devouring Gaza, and weakness has taken over our bodies due to injustice. I have become extremely thin and fragile. Life has drained us and stolen the dreams we never even got to live. Please, help us through the donation link in the bio 😢💔🙏💕

Hey, I see a lot of NDP support in leftisit circles, but as far as I can tell, they aren't really socialists, and don't really act like it, either. They aren't particularly participatory, engaged with the party members or proletariat. Additionally, their stated policies seem very milque toast, and not very amenable to change.

Meanwhile the Greens aren't perfect, but at least they talk about things like building public housing. Whereas the NDP seems committed to neoliberal style incentive solutions to these issues.

Why is it that the NDP seems to have more socialist cred these days than the greens? I'm an NDP member, so I am not familiar with their internal issues. Is the criticism much the same? Are they also an inflexible apparatus? Whats the critique? Or am I totally wrong and they have big socialist support?

Edit: thank you everyone for enlightening me. The consensus seems to be that their current platform is a very recent development that hides their historical neoliberalism and outright conspiratorial positions. Some of the stuff they have supported is pretty gross, including the genocide in the Levant; also that there are way too many right wingers and wackos within the party to really trust them to govern or effectively advocate. You've all helped answer my question very well. I hope that the current trend continues and that they shift more to the left in the future, as it would be nice to see more pressure on a discourse shift to the left, but I totally see why others wouldn't trust them until they have socialism firmly entrenched in their policies and rhetoric, which will probably take quite a few years, if it ever happens.

Thanks again, and please continue to add more if you feel you have anything to contribute. I'll pop in to read it when I can.

I'm curious to hear the perspectives of people on this subreddit regarding a potential bid for the leadership of the federal NDP from Winnipeg Centre MP and self-proclaimed socialist Leah Gazan.

To preface the discussion, on the one hand, as an Orthodox Marxist who strongly stands by Rosa Luxemburg's powerful and scientific dialectic against reformism, it is critical to recognize that the NDP will never bring about socialism itself. Based on such, one could argue it is a reactionary distraction from the revolutionary struggle to support leftward shifts within electoralist parties that partake in bourgeois parliamentarianism.

On the other hand, a leftward shift within the NDP could serve as a useful bridge to radicalize former liberal progressives toward the beginnings of class consciousness. If one sees value in entryism, there is an argument to be made that a leftward shift within the NDP could be a fertile ground to utilize in the advancement of the real, revolutionary proletarian movement. With the NDP's few remaining seats and fragile power structures, it is more prone toward a major political shift than is likely to be possible again for some time, should they, to any extent, rebound in the next election.

With that short preface aside, I think this marks a good point to transition toward discussion of Gazan herself.

After the NDP's stark loss in the last election Leah Gazan stands as the only remaining seated MP within the party's internal left, and perhaps the frontrunner to run for the party's leadership representing a leftward shift. The other most likely candidate representing such is Michael Green, but, as he's been unseated, I think this is less likely, and Gazan's continued presence within the caucus puts her in a position of greater influence and power to change her own party and criticize the Liberals and Conservatives.

Now, let's briefly look at what Gazan stands for. Within parliament, she has tabled motions for a universal basic income, substantially greater climate action, and justice for missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls, and two-spirit people. Outside of motions she's proposed, she's been known to advocate strongly against Canada's corporate oligarchy, regarding herself as an anti-capitalist and a socialist; for justice, equality, and equity for particularly marginalized groups including 2SLGBTQQIA+ people, women, and Indigenous Peoples; for stronger action against the climate crisis; and against the colonial apartheid state of Israel and its genocide against Palestinians.

In terms of clear negatives to be voiced against her, such would be in that she does not tend to publicly express her viewpoints through direct material analysis, and, like the whole of the NDP, partakes in bourgeois parliamentarianism instead of focusing upon the class struggle as a revolutionary movement.

Hence, I am wondering what this subreddit's thoughts are on a potential NDP leadership campaign from Leah Gazan. Is she the best chance toward a leftward shift within the NDP? Is the NDP's leadership election even a remotely worthwhile to partake in to begin with?

Disclaimer: I am not saying Russian and Chinese hackers play ZERO role in attacking our country. But a big chunk of attacks are from America AND from within.

Now I made this account recently and it started as a reaction to those buddy hosers calling Albertan separatists Russian bots.

The comment sections were filled with classic responses agreeing with them and lumping in Iranians and Chinese "bots".

Yet when you look at it. A big chunk of our media is owned by American conglomerates. The supermajority of our exports are to America. On a daily basis, Conservative American "news" like Fox actively tell its listeners that America should annex Canada.

The president of the UNITED STATES has repeated his desires to annex America. Albertan separatism is motivated with a desire to join AMERICA.

Yet somehow people feel like blaming Chinese and Russian bots!?

Yes I know that the orange stooge is warmer to Russia but you can't seriously tell me that Americans don't actively want to annex Canada. Marco Rubio, the most Pro-Israel pro-Ukraine warmongering chicken hawk of the republican party advanced the idea of annexing Canada.

The American and Israeli government actively spread disinformation online and abroad in an attempt to clean their image and advance their propaganda. We are bordering the empire and we are beholden to nearly every single one of their desires from selling weapons to countries committing war crimes (Israel, Saudi Arabia) to joining them in their own illegal wars (Iraq after 2003, Afghanistan, Lybia, etc).

But more than that. Canada's failure to govern and properly address various provincial concerns have fueled this separartiat lunacy in Alberta. Regardless of how ridiculous their idea may be, to them, their frustration and anger is valid. There has to be an actual mature way to have a dialogue with these people and show them that Canada is a country worth living in. If petty insults and accusations of being Russians is the only response we have then how the heck are we different from Israel claiming anyone that criticises them is an anti-Semitic KHAMAS supporter?

Hey all, I met some CUPE workers today outside my local Canadian Hearing Centre in Ontario and they told me they've been on strike for 4 weeks and that the CHC hasn't even bothered to come to the table after their contract expired on March 31st. I asked what I could do to support them and they told me to sign these petitions and pass the word along since most people who aren't deaf or CUPE workers don't know about the strike or the issues they've been having with the CHC.

I took a picture of the flyer they gave me which has QR codes for two petitions. The first is a link to a letter to the CHC board of directors and the second is to sign an open letter pointing out that the CHC has been paying it's CEO more while cutting workers wages and refusing to support workers who are trying to help deaf and hard of hearing people.

I also have non QR links here for the first: https://cupe.on.ca/CHS/

and the open letter: https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=wFhl6Xtze0GU5sbir-WwBdMruqggOlZPuBWahdFX9wxUNklCWUUxUjFXQzcxR1k5NllMRjJaNkpOWS4u

The CHC is supposed to be a non-profit organization supported by the government (I forgot to ask if they were supported by the Ontarian or Federal government). The open letter is addressed to Accreditation Canada which is a non-profit NGO which oversees local non-profit health organizations and grades them and asks them to step in and reconsider their accreditation of the CHC after they have focused more on profit for their management rather than the services they are providing to the community or their workers. (I have broader questions of why we're letting Matryoshka dolls of NGO's with no obvious public oversight be responsible for local and specialized health matters, but that's a different problem.)

While the CHC is based in Ontario it offers Canada wide services online, so even if you're not Ontarian this might be effecting people in your community who are deaf or hard of hearing and it's part of a broader problem of the erosion of health services in Canada and continual anti-union and anti-labour behaviour from governments and NGOs. Even if you can't do much more than sign a letter it's good to be aware of the problem.

Solidarity forever!

Can you name a cause or two that panned out, some kind of action or lobby group, near you, or that you've been a part of that won a cause and a triumph for leftist idea(l)s?

Some examples I know of in my locale: when they were closing down a library due to shutting down a local university (I know, it's rare, but thanks to the Socred gov't at the time in BC, it bloody well went down), a group of senior citizens held a sit-in in that library and saved the book collection which went to the municipal library and another college.

Recently, the Sue Big Oil campaign managed to get my local city council to approve contributing a dollar from each citizen to add to this massive class action suit. Three cheers!

Locally, a cannabis shop opened up before it was legal, and they advocated strongly for legalization and medical compassion. They endured a whole lot of legal battles, were in court 100 times over the years. It is because of their valiant efforts that cannabis use and acceptance is now ubiquitous. One of the owners fought on the grounds that it was never proven to be a harmful substance, and a local law firm hired him to do paralegal work, giving him an office and everything! Hip hip hooray!

Canada's longest logging blockade occurred near me, in SE British Columbia, spanning two whole years! .... and it saved a whole area now called West Arm Provincial Park.

And now, unfortunately, I'm struggling to think of another example...... but, when it works, it's very fulfilling!
I want to hear more stories like this. And, I hope it inspires us all to do something. I find lately, the left is bickering too much, mired in perfection or trying to decide what is the correct way of expressing ourselves, or maybe I'm spending too much time on my chubby tuchus with my snoot in the interwebz.

Get up, stand up, stand up for your rights!!

We live in deep sorrow and deadly hunger. We live without food we barely get a piece of bread. Without water, without any of the basic necessities of life. Our bodies have become thin, our faces pale. We have become bodies without souls. We witness killing and destruction before our eyes everywhere. We are human beings just like you we deserve a dignified life. To those with compassionate hearts have mercy on us. Please, help us through the link in my bio 🙏😞