Learn these three simple numbers to help prevent suicide
Responders at 9-8-8 are trained in suicide prevention and are based at existing helplines across the country. They will listen with compassion and empathy and give callers and texters space to share without being judged. Responders will work with callers and texters to explore ways to cope and pathways to safety when things are overwhelming… It is important to note that while 9-8-8 will help keep people safe in the moment, it is not a replacement for mental health care provided in primary care, in communities and in hospitals.
Child & Family
Ontario needs to remove barriers to child-care subsidies for low-income families
Ontario’s current implementation plan for child-care and early-learning agreements runs the risk of leaving disadvantaged families further behind, rather than closing gaps in opportunities and outcomes for their children. To prevent this, Ontario, and indeed all provinces, need to double down on removing barriers to child-care subsidies for low-income families.
From ‘tough on crime’ to a new transformative vision for Canada’s justice system
… compassionate, evidence-based policies… make us safer at a fraction of the cost of ineffective “tough on crime” approaches. We don’t have to let fear win. We don’t have to tolerate an ineffective status quo. There’s a better way and it involves a new transformative justice vision: to transform the trauma in our society, rather than continue to transmit it.
Education
Admitting women into English Canadian Universities: A short history
Systemic inequities have shaped Canadian higher education, and much more transformative change is necessary before all students can exercise their right to equal education in a supportive and inclusive environment. But the history of women’s admission to universities offers us the important reminder that even the most rigid institutions can change.
Ontario’s colleges and universities are strapped for cash. A panel has wisely proposed a fix
… salary and benefit costs in Ontario’s universities are, per full-time equivalent student, among the lowest of any province. And as the report said, all organizations that made submissions “emphasized the value of post-secondary education in creating and maintaining a highly qualified and relevant talent pipeline in Ontario.” As has become obvious, the government’s lack of vision on this file does not just fail a sector. It fails the future.
Employment
Federal government’s new fiscal guardrails ‘helpful’ for monetary policy: Macklem
The fall economic statement made new commitments on how the federal government will approach its finances, including setting a goal to keep deficits below 1 per cent of the GDP beginning in 2026-27… The governor said Canada has two advantages today compared with the 1970s. The first is that people expect inflation to come back down in the long run; the second, that the Bank of Canada responded forcefully this time with aggressive rate hikes.
Canada poised to create public company registry to curb financial secrecy
The new registry will require companies to publicly disclose beneficial ownership information of federally registered companies — a move experts say will help expose criminals and tax cheats who anonymously create companies or purchase property… Panama Papers dataset, revealed how Canada had emerged as a popular tax haven, touted by corporate service providers as a “reputable” destination to hide wealth.
Equality
Time to hit the rich with a wealth tax
… in their budget last March, the Liberals proclaimed they were “ensuring the wealthiest Canadians pay their fair share,” as they brought in income tax changes that will raise another $525 million a year from high-income earners. But these changes will have little impact on the wealthiest Canadians, who are largely able to avoid income taxes. To tax the truly wealthy – and only them — a wealth tax is far more effective… A wealth tax would apply exclusively to those with net assets of more than $10 million…
Alternative Federal Budget 2024 – Building Momentum: A budget for now and the future
The AFB will tax extreme wealth by introducing a progressive wealth tax… restore the corporate income tax rate… to 20 per cent… [and] implement a windfall profits tax… Canadians really can have nice things – if we make our tax system more progressive and make smart investments in public services, income supports, and social and physical infrastructure.
Health
Learn these three simple numbers to help prevent suicide
Responders at 9-8-8 are trained in suicide prevention and are based at existing helplines across the country. They will listen with compassion and empathy and give callers and texters space to share without being judged. Responders will work with callers and texters to explore ways to cope and pathways to safety when things are overwhelming… It is important to note that while 9-8-8 will help keep people safe in the moment, it is not a replacement for mental health care provided in primary care, in communities and in hospitals.
… making alcohol cheaper and easier to purchase unsurprisingly leads to higher levels of drinking and increases in harm… Our drinking is big business — almost $10 billion a year — and multiple players are fighting to grab a larger slice of that pie. And while the industry winners may be about to waltz off with a record windfall, the likely losers — the Ontario taxpayers — may be left to deal with increasing social and health harms, all on a shrinking budget.
Inclusion
Toronto is getting a fourth emergency service. That’s vital for helping people in crisis
The service, which offers a non-police, community-based response to people experiencing mental health crises… will soon cover the entire city… Police are, after all, not trained mental health professionals, and police involvement has all too often ended in tragedy. In contrast, 93 per cent of the crisis calls were successfully completed, and 95 per cent of people served by crisis teams said they were either satisfied or very satisfied with the service.
Montréal’s ‘mixed’ police squads don’t help the city’s unhoused people — they cause more harm
The squads add a layer of surveillance and harassment that leads unhoused people to leave the spaces they know best and distance themselves from their support network in order to avoid police… the report calls for a new approach to homelessness, including abolishing mixed squads and reallocating their funding to two types of interventions.
Social Security
Social-assistance rates in Ontario should ‘set off alarm bells’: Report
Researchers have found that being on social assistance in Ontario is correlated with a higher likelihood of poor health outcomes, homelessness, and food insecurity, among other things… In fact, the “Welfare in Canada” report finds that both OW and ODSP rates have been below the deep poverty line since 2008… “You show how you value people through how you budget.”
Governments should see social assistance as a solution, not a problem
Shouldn’t social assistance prevent poverty? At minimum, it should be a net that prevents people from falling into abject poverty. But it should also provide a ladder, something that people can use to help them up. By failing to deliver social assistance that performs either of these functions, governments are squandering the opportunity to improve people’s lives, their health, and, where possible, their ability to get and maintain paid work.
Governance
Seeking common ground at the Thanksgiving table
We need to understand that the anger that folks are feeling… is based on real issues – even if the target of that anger is, to put it charitably, misplaced. That misdirection is often fed by politicians, capitalists, and the well-funded propagandists whose job is to keep the working majority squabbling amongst ourselves… we also have a responsibility to try to move the needle a little bit towards justice.
Pierre Poilievre: Same old guy, same old policies
Despite all the hype about his image makeover and how he’s a changed man… he continues to fuel the rage and hate that resides in many of his hard-line followers who despise Trudeau, the federal government and, in many cases, anything that they believe restricts their “freedom.” … his lack of policy specifics to date on key issues facing Canada is stunning.
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