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Bare-knuckle capitalism has no place in nursing homes
Thursday, January 14th, 2021
Over the past decade, Chartwell has distributed $798 million to shareholders and paid its executives $47.3 million, including an annual salary of $229,500 for the former premier’s part-time chairmanship, which he still holds. Mike Harris’ involvement in the dubious rise of privatization — and financialization — in the long-term care industry makes it all the more outrageous that the Ford government recently awarded him the Order of Ontario, even as the pandemic continues…
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
When Canada was a world leader in vaccine research and production
Thursday, December 3rd, 2020
… scientists are permitted to take out patents on the products they develop (with our money), and then sell them to pharmaceutical manufacturers, who sell the products to the public — often at great profit. Even though our public investment paid for the original research, Canadians have no say over the products nor the price at which they are sold to us as consumers. Canada also has no share in the profits. We’ve ventured a long way, unfortunately, from the days when we had a publicly owned and medically innovative enterprise that dazzled on the world stage and kept Canadians at the front of the line for vaccines.
Tags: Health, ideology, pharmaceutical, privatization, standard of living
Posted in Health History | No Comments »
Long-term care fiasco a warning about private ownership
Thursday, November 19th, 2020
Over the past decade, Chartwell paid its executives $47.3 million and distributed $798 million to shareholders. Meanwhile, in the 28 nursing homes Chartwell owns or operates in Ontario, the COVID-19 infection rate has been 47 per cent higher and the fatality rate 68 per cent higher than the provincial average… Contrary to business mythology, the private sector doesn’t always do things better. Rather, it always does things to make a profit
Tags: disabilities, Health, ideology, privatization, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »
Ottawa should produce vital products — like it did in the Second World War
Wednesday, April 8th, 2020
… many companies have signalled a willingness to produce materials for the pandemic. But, without a powerful government agency overseeing production and distribution, we’ve been left scrambling to buy scarce equipment in a chaotic private marketplace, bidding against U.S. states and governments all over the world. If the Trudeau government seems unable to break out of its subservience to the marketplace, some in the labour movement are showing more vision.
Tags: economy, globalization, Health, ideology
Posted in History | 1 Comment »
The public lab that could have helped fight COVID-19 pandemic
Thursday, March 12th, 2020
… our willingness to go along with the privatization cult in recent decades has left us weaker and less protected than we could be. Not only do we no longer have Connaught Labs, but Canada spends $1 billion a year funding basic medical research at Canadian universities, yet relies on the private marketplace to produce, control — and profit from — the resulting medical innovations… With a surge in future global pandemics expected, it might well be time to rethink Canada’s foolhardy attachment to the notion “the private sector always does things better.”
Tags: featured, Health, ideology, pharmaceutical, privatization, standard of living
Posted in Health History | No Comments »
Stop celebrating capitalism and start celebrating sanitation for saving humanity
Thursday, January 16th, 2020
… things only truly got better… after ordinary people won the right to vote and to join unions that pushed for higher wages and helped secure public access to health care, education and housing… over the fierce objections of capitalists… it’s not capitalism but rather the forces fighting to curb capitalism’s worst excesses — unions and progressive political movements — that have improved people’s lives.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
How $15 billion in bonuses leaves bankers gloomy
Wednesday, December 18th, 2019
The country’s six largest banks are dishing out $15 billion in bonuses this year. But, in the eyes of some, this isn’t enough… It… reveals how misleading media reports can be, particularly about high finance, with insiders allowed to peddle their self-serving agendas unchallenged… Canada’s big six banks have gotten away with paying extremely low taxes — the lowest in the G7.
Tags: featured, globalization, ideology, jurisdiction, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Policy Context | No Comments »
Ontario’s healthcare spending lowest in Canada — but going lower
Thursday, November 21st, 2019
These cuts, totalling about $360 million, will affect everything from mental health care to cancer screening, according to Natalie Mehra, head of the Ontario Health Coalition… Their impact will likely be profound, since… Ontario’s health-care spending is only $3,903 per person — the lowest of the ten provinces — and $487 per person lower than the Canadian average…
Tags: featured, Health, ideology, philanthropy, privatization, tax
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
Tax on super-rich a popular idea, except in the media
Thursday, August 29th, 2019
Given that 26 individuals now have as much wealth as the bottom half of humanity (3.8 billion people), one wonders at what point conservative commentators might consider this a problem… Let’s not forget that the super-rich typically made their fortunes by selling products built by employees we all paid to educate, and shipping those products on roads we all paid to build.
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Policy Context | No Comments »
Ford’s deficit hype conceals Ontario’s dirty secret
Thursday, May 9th, 2019
… Ontario already has the lowest program spending (per capita) among Canada’s 10 provinces — before Ford’s spending cuts click in… While the provincial average for revenue (per capita) is $12,373, Ontario only collects $10,415 (per capita) — a significantly smaller amount… And Ford is making the problem worse by cutting taxes a further $3.6 billion a year… Ford’s measures — despite his claim to be acting “for the people” — redirect resources from ordinary people to corporations and the rich.
Tags: budget, featured, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Debates | 2 Comments »
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