Unpaid Internships In Canada

My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.
2 Corinthians, 12:9, The New Oxford Annotated Bible

The Oracle of Ottawa has done many things in his long life so far, but one thing he has never done and never will do, is work for nothing. Even in the times of the basest and most unrestricted capitalism as it existed in the England of Dickens, Marx and Engels, even Scrooge paid Bob Cratchit  the minimum sustainable wage. It appears to the Oracle of Ottawa that we have even sunk beneath that bench mark in present day Canada at the time of this writing.

Soon, Comrade, soon...

The issue of unpaid internships is one that the Oracle of Ottawa has been meaning to address for some time, but even thinking about it makes the Oracle so hot, that he is in fear of popping a blood vessel or slipping his clutch plates. But it welled to the surface again today as the Oracle was in transit up to the Ottawa Valley to see a great wise man. And as per usual the Oracle was listening to Cross Country Check Up on the CBC radio.

The lick spittle lackey of the Prime Ministers Office, Rex Murphy, was on the job again with today's assignment; What do you think of unpaid internships in Canada? You could tell right away, that today's mission was to sell working for nothing as a really good idea that will somehow benefit you and your way in the world! Oh, it was of course very subtle, every twist and turn of good and expert communications technique was employed. And the Oracle swears that the first several calls were placed shills. Someone should investigate this someday. The Oracle of Ottawa just cannot see any one that is in their right mind agreeing to this insane practice.

It seems to the Oracle of Ottawa that some investigation of students today would go a long way to stopping this insane practice. Much of the anguish could be prevented by good planning while still in high school. The Oracle of Ottawa wonders why any youngster would go into a profession or line of work that required any form of unpaid internship at the end of the program. There is information in the fact that after getting an honors commerce degree you will be expected to work for nothing contains the signal that perhaps working for a large financial institution is really not in your interest! Perhaps it would be better for the youngster to get into a journeyman trade.

All this insanity has started in the period of the 'Harper Government' time in power. Combined with the bullshit volunteer wave, the corporate whores will soon only have to pay themselves, and we all know how good they are at that, don't we? Why even to get out of high school now, a student has to rack up a certain amount of unpaid work to graduate! The Oracle of Ottawa only sees this as a ploy to precondition your little bastards to get used to working for nothing. And you gutless lackey play along - go along parents eat it up!  

As the Oracle continued upon his way up the Valley he was struck with an epiphany. If this is the future for our youth what is the point of living in a capitalist society at all? What is in it for our youth to put up with this? If the worker is never going to see the fruit of his labour, what is the point of continuing with this capitalist lie? What is the point of continuing to support this dying society? If all the wealth of a nation is going to be only enjoyed by the 1% perhaps it is time to try something new, what the 'Harper Government' calls a reckless social experiment. 

The Oracle of Ottawa hates to face the realization that perhaps it is time to again introduce the dictatorship of the proletariat. As time goes on we seem to have less and less to lose and certainly nothing to look forward to, do we? Perhaps we should bring down the whole stinking marketed mess and start over again, it is not like it has never been done before, right?