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Countering political disinformation campaigns requires transparency
Thursday, January 31st, 2019
… if the purpose is to catch foreign efforts to sway the campaign with disinformation and divisive message, the definition of political ads is too narrow. Those Russian-paid ads didn’t always mention a candidate or a party. A real effort to try to counter disinformation campaigns would require some broadly open-source transparency for a larger class of paid messages. The big social-media companies seem to believe that clashes with their business model.
Tags: featured, ideology, participation, privatization, rights
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Canada must set a higher bar on data protection in an era of ‘surveillance capitalism’
Thursday, January 31st, 2019
Companies should protect the data they manage, not exploit it. Every individual should own their own data. It should be yours, and yours only. Data protection and security should be paramount. Privacy should be embedded by design in the development of products and services… Now is the time for a robust discussion between policy-makers and the tech sector about how much regulatory oversight is needed, both to protect privacy and to spur innovation and competition.
Tags: crime prevention, globalization, participation, rights
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
People with mental illness don’t need more talk
Monday, January 28th, 2019
It does no good to raise awareness if you have an underfunded mobile crisis team that only has the capacity to go out on calls for 12 hours a day, or if patients wait months for assessment, or if you can’t provide stable, supportive housing for those who need it so they can recover and carry on with happy and productive lives. Let’s talk about that.
Tags: disabilities, homelessness, housing, ideology, mental Health, standard of living
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Removing caps on class sizes is a failure of both education and economics
Friday, January 25th, 2019
Research on the correlation between class size and student achievement… determined that children in classes with fewer than 20 students learn more, learn better and are less likely to fail… and that the investment required to maintain this ratio more than pays off in the reduction of remedial supports and student’s higher economic performance as adults… The educational case against the removal of caps is damning, but so too is the economic one.
Tags: budget, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Education Policy Context | No Comments »
The new Canada’s Food Guide explained: Goodbye four food groups and serving sizes, hello hydration
Tuesday, January 22nd, 2019
The new guide is distilled into one strikingly simple image: a plate of food filled with roughly half fruits and vegetables, and the remaining half divided into whole grains and proteins. The image is meant to convey a simple message, according to Health Canada: Eat a diet made up of roughly half fruits and vegetables, and half of the remaining two categories… the new version also includes specific warnings about what not to eat – namely, processed and prepared foods that are high in sodium, free sugars and saturated fats.
Tags: Health, standard of living
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
First Nations to have more control over on-reserve education as Ottawa looks to close funding gap
Tuesday, January 22nd, 2019
The new approach, which will take effect April 1, will not see Ottawa spend any additional money over what has previously been committed. The government says the gap core funding between the funding for provincially run schools and reserve schools has already closed in some provinces, is not far apart in others, and will cease to exist entirely over the next two years as a result of the investments that have already been committed in previous budgets. It also recognizes that there are additional gaps in needs that will be addressed separately.
Tags: budget, featured, Indigenous, participation, rights, standard of living, youth
Posted in Equality Delivery System | No Comments »
Changes to Ontario tuition are unfair and short-sighted
Friday, January 18th, 2019
Despite the superficial appeal of the tuition cut, the reality is that the families who will benefit the most from it are higher-income ones that currently do not qualify for any tuition fee grants… A 10-per-cent decrease in tuition fees is a drop in the bucket of the costs… less than 2 per cent of the estimated financial costs of attending college and university associated with attending college or university…
Tags: budget, featured, ideology, youth
Posted in Education Debates | No Comments »
Ontario Tories rolling back Liberal-era student-aid reform
Friday, January 18th, 2019
Ontario is reversing unexpectedly costly student financing initiatives, cutting tuition and allowing students to opt out of campus fees as part of a package of changes to postsecondary education funding that drew criticism from students and universities… The loss of tuition revenue for the schools will not be covered by the government, and universities and colleges will need to adjust their budgets. Ms Fullerton said the changes might mean a budget gap of 2 per cent to 4 per cent at most schools.
Tags: budget, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, poverty, youth
Posted in Education Policy Context | No Comments »
For Indigenous kids’ welfare, our government knows better; it just needs to do better
Thursday, January 17th, 2019
The over-representation of First Nations children in care is a problem with a solution. There have been numerous reports over the years calling for the same things… Unless the public puts pressure on provincial, territorial and federal governments, the good solutions on the books will not be implemented. We must tell our politicians: literally thousands of children need our help.
Tags: budget, Indigenous, jurisdiction, participation, standard of living, youth
Posted in Equality History | No Comments »
Sex-ed critics fear that it may ‘give kids ideas.’ But that would be a good thing.
Tuesday, January 15th, 2019
The fundamental complaint of those who oppose modernizing sex-ed seems to be that it will “give kids ideas” – in other words, that teaching about sexuality will lead to sexual experimentation… Parents absolutely have a right to inculcate values on their offspring. But that does not extend to imposing ignorance on others. That is especially true because we know that unawareness and naïveté do not prevent young people from having sex – it simply makes them more likely to make poor choices.
Tags: featured, Health, ideology, youth
Posted in Education Debates | No Comments »
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