Archive for the ‘Equality’ Category

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A just recovery

Wednesday, September 2nd, 2020

… a basic income standard for the unemployed and people receiving social and disability assistance… [would improve]… their standard of living, their hope and trust in the future would grow, and their ability to participate… would increase… we need a basic services guarantee that helps every Canadian secure affordable housing, nutritious food, pharmacare, dental care, mental health care, and specialized support for people with complex needs.

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Race does not determine health outcomes — racism does. As medical professionals we see this reflected in stark COVID-19 realities

Thursday, August 13th, 2020

… employment, income, wealth, education, housing and so on — are what ultimately determine who survives or how long we live. In many ways, the single most important protective factor in this pandemic was having the privilege to stay at home. But that’s if you had a home and a job that would allow you to work remotely and take paid leave if sick or unwell.

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Universal, permanent paid sick days needed now

Wednesday, August 12th, 2020

… from personal support workers staffing long-term-care homes, to meat processing workers, grocery store workers and migrant farmworkers… COVID-19 thrives where racialized workers are denied paid sick days… Restricting paid sick leave to a temporary measure for reasons “related to COVID-19” undermines its effectiveness… Paid sick days must be permanent and ensure workers can stay home at symptom onset, regardless of the ultimate diagnosis.

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It won’t be popular, but we should scrap the homeowner tax break

Friday, July 31st, 2020

Sell your principal residence for more than you paid for it, and in most cases you will pay no tax on the gain at all. Indeed, until 2016 you didn’t even have to report the transaction on your tax return. Neither is there any limit on the exemption – as there is, for example, in the United States. The bigger the gain, the bigger the tax benefit. You can guess which income groups benefit the most.

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We must go back and fetch our forgotten Black history

Friday, July 31st, 2020

Canada’s strategically crafted narrative has created a framework within which racial inequities have simultaneously been upheld and delegitimized through the erasure of Black experiences. It’s actually quite ingenious. If we can’t identify the roots of our systems of oppression, we will never dismantle them. If we don’t recognize the whole of our history, we will never learn from it.

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Inequality means we’re not all in this together

Thursday, July 30th, 2020

The pandemic showed us that challenging the status quo is essential in tackling the inequalities we see today across Canada. Certain policies and interventions implemented at different scales across North America have proven both feasible and practical… They should not disappear after the pandemic subsides. There is nothing radical about housing the homeless, preventing drug overdoses, feeding the hungry, increasing minimum wages, or reducing prison populations. These measures are urgently needed and are simply humane. They should be our “new normal” in Canada moving forward.

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We can’t let COVID-19 destroy economic gains for women

Saturday, July 25th, 2020

To ease the load on women, governments need to find a way to get schools back full-time as soon as possible… Second, for women to participate fully in the workforce, affordable, quality childcare, under new safety protocols, is essential… $2.5 billion is required to meet the need. In an era of crisis, when money has seemed to be no object, it would be dollars well spent.

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Genetic Non-Discrimination Act upheld by the Supreme Court of Canada

Thursday, July 23rd, 2020

A majority at the SCC found that genetic privacy is part of core biographical information and as such, its protection is a valid criminal law objective… that individuals have legitimate privacy, autonomy and dignity interests in their own genetic information. They held that forcing people to undergo genetic testing and to face the results is a clear threat to these values; that genetic identity is at the heart of a biographical core of information and its protection is warranted.

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Why assume Indigenous peoples speak with one voice?

Thursday, July 23rd, 2020

… while many Indigenous communities might share certain cultural traits or values, our experiences and approaches remain distinct from one another… And, by virtue of the broad diversity of experiences and histories, Indigenous nations will have different needs and priorities… it’s normal, and even healthy, to see these diverging opinions and approaches. Nations’ different economic, cultural and spiritual considerations will inherently lead to different thoughts and opinions.

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Canadian court says Safe Third Country Agreement with U.S. violates charter

Wednesday, July 22nd, 2020

“The ‘sharing of responsibility’ objective of the STCA should entail some guarantee of access to a fair refugee process.” The court said the fact that STCA returnees are jailed by U.S. authorities, does not immunize the actions of Canadian officials from consideration… critics have long argued that the U.S. asylum system is cruel and inhumane, especially under the Trump administration.

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