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Carbon pricing is good for the climate and affordability 

Saturday, April 6th, 2024

To keep the planet livable for humans and most other life forms, we can’t keep burning fossil fuels, which are becoming scarce and costly… Climate-related damage to everything from agriculture to human health also drives up costs for everyone… This is no time to get rid of effective policies, or even water them down. Those attacking the carbon levy with false and misleading information offer no alternatives, especially ones as cost-effective as carbon pricing.

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Indigenous child welfare Act is constitutional, says Supreme Court of Canada

Monday, February 19th, 2024

Canada’s highest court has unanimously ruled that First Nations, Métis, and Inuit rights to self-government include jurisdiction over child and family services, throwing out the attorney general of Quebec’s 2022 appeal… Section 35 of the Canadian Constitution affirms and recognizes Indigenous peoples’ right to self-govern. Bill C-92 additionally affirmed that the right to self-govern included “jurisdiction in relation to child and family services,” meaning Indigenous communities have sole authority over the care of their children.

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What stands between you and your health information 

Friday, August 18th, 2023

… individual providers are proprietary about their patient data. Confidentiality is crucial. Different providers have different guidelines for accessing records, to both other providers and to patients. Legal ramifications are top of mind and the risk of inappropriate access to patient records is a nightmare that providers do not want to face. Finally, there is the issue of funding…

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Private health care in Alta. is harming the public system – new report 

Friday, May 19th, 2023

The expansion of private health care in Alberta has lead to longer wait times in the public system and fewer surgeries overall… The rest of Canada, and especially Ontario, should pay close attention to what Parkland has to tell us about the validity of the idea of resorting to the private sector to cut healthcare wait times.  The bottom line is that the private health care appears to be a false Messiah when it claims it can miraculously cure what ails our public health system.

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Doug Ford’s private surgery plan is driven by ideology not innovation 

Sunday, January 22nd, 2023

… the government will expect the private facilities to take it upon themselves to prevent the luring of medical professionals from the public system. The foxes will be charged with guarding the henhouse… When the auditor general can find widespread abuse in the current limited private surgery sector, we can only shudder at what she’s likely to see after the government implements its plan to vastly expand private, for-profit surgeries.

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Don’t be fooled by Ontario’s ‘minimum wage’ for gig workers

Friday, March 4th, 2022

Ontario’s manipulative ‘minimum wage’ is an attempt to forestall genuine legislative and regulatory changes… workers at gig platforms already have the right to unionize through normal channels, and achieve genuine collective bargaining rights—they don’t need any special ‘law’, just clarification that they are indeed workers (whether employees or dependent contractors) not independent businesses.

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Laurentian University crisis a story of political interference and defunding of education

Friday, April 23rd, 2021

After Romano’s hatchet job, what’s left standing is a business plan barely disguised as an educational mandate…. The grim reality is that Laurentian isn’t an isolated case. When you squeeze public funding from universities, administrators turn to revenue sources that are unstable, and threaten equitable access, academic freedom and quality. Increasingly, universities have had to rely on tuition, the labour of underpaid contract instructors, international students and private donors to replace government funding.

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Liberals rhetorically support NDP pharmacare bill, then vote against it

Friday, February 26th, 2021

The bill did not have specific dollar amounts in it. It was merely a statement of principles to guide the federal government in consultations with the provinces — if and when such talks occur. The purpose of the bill was to advance a process to which the Trudeau government claims it is fully committed, namely, to expand Canada’s public and universal health-care system so that it includes prescription drugs. There was no timeline in the measure. The bill would not bind the government in any way… Why the Liberals voted “No” remains a mystery.

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Misspeaking childcare: The Ford government’s evidence vacuum

Friday, May 31st, 2019

Taken together, this brew of rapid-fire cuts, chipping away, and misrepresentation of Ontario childcare add up to a picture of a childcare future that isn’t good for anyone — not children, parents, educators — but could be great for investors. Fortunately, the childcare community, together with supporters and political allies from across parties are speaking up to set the record straight on what accessible, affordable, high quality child care actually is, what’s needed to get it, and why Ontario families today recognize, need, want and demand it.

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Why is Doug Ford so mean to children?

Friday, March 22nd, 2019

According to Thompson, larger class sizes will build “confidence and resiliency” in children who must learn to cope in “the world of work.” This despite solid research showing that kids build resiliency through positive and stable relationships. As a result, Twitter erupted with mocking posts using the hashtag #moreresilient. She’s only repeating the lessons being taught in caucus.

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