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Mental health must be part of curriculum as students cope with COVID-19, say experts
Saturday, August 21st, 2021
Mental health literacy must be at the top of the agenda as students return to school, say experts, calling for emotional skills to be taught as a core part of curricula… Emerging research suggests rates of anxiety and depression among Canadian youth climbed during the pandemic, prompting some advocates to warn of a mounting mental health crisis… mental health literacy is inconsistent across the country, and programs that are didactic or siloed off from normal coursework can do more harm than good. The Mental Health Literacy Project is striving to fill in these gaps with an evidence-backed curriculum
Tags: disabilities, ideology, jurisdiction, mental Health, youth
Posted in Education Debates | No Comments »
Liberals and NDP both have solid plans for child care. The Conservatives do not
Saturday, August 21st, 2021
O’Toole says his plan provides “flexibility” so parents can choose whatever child care they want and offers “extra support to those who need it most.” … A tax credit helps with affordability, certainly — if a family can find a child-care space in their area and if they can afford to pay the rest of the cost. It will not help create the hundreds of thousands of new spaces that are needed across the country to expand access to everyone who wants it. It will not bring down the high costs. And it will not boost wages for child-care workers, key to attracting the workforce to expand and stabilize the system.
Tags: budget, child care, economy, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, standard of living, women
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »
We broke down the hospitalization risk of going unvaccinated in Ontario. Here’s what the numbers say
Wednesday, August 18th, 2021
Unvaccinated Ontarians are ending up in hospital with COVID-19 nearly 20 times as often as fully vaccinated individuals and in the last week have been about 70 times more likely to end up in intensive care… there are more than six times as many unvaccinated patients currently hospitalized with COVID (68) as fully vaccinated individuals (11)… an unvaccinated Ontarian has been nearly nine times more likely to test positive for COVID than a fully vaccinated individual; they’ve been 19 times more likely to end up in hospital; and at the most serious end, the unvaccinated have gone to the ICU more than 70 times as often as the larger population with both doses.
Tags: featured, globalization, Health, participation, pharmaceutical
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Here’s what Erin O’Toole doesn’t understand about daycare
Tuesday, August 17th, 2021
There’s no doubt more money flowing to parents would help with affordability… [but] Spurring demand without building supply is not a balanced equation. That’s partly why the Liberal budget dedicated billions of dollars to agreements with the provinces to expand early learning and child-care capacity and to boost the wages of child-care workers — simultaneously lowering fees and creating more spots. The $30-billion price tag is enormous, but the Liberals — and many a public-policy researcher — argue that society will benefit handsomely over time and the net cost to Canadians will eventually be negligible.
Tags: child care, economy, featured, ideology, participation, poverty, tax, women
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
Ontario should sign on to Ottawa’s $10-a-day child care plan
Thursday, August 12th, 2021
When Ford’s PC government came to power in 2018 it killed the Wynne Liberals’ plan to provide free licensed care for preschool children in Ontario. When Stephen Harper’s Conservatives came to power in 2006 they killed a national child-care program proposed by Paul Martin’s Liberal government — even though all provinces had signed on. So it’s very concerning to hear O’Toole talk about wanting to kill the Trudeau program and replace it with more “flexible” options. In other words, not an actual child-care system at all.
Tags: budget, child care, economy, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, participation
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »
Ontario is ducking the biggest thing that would keep students safe this fall: mandatory vaccination
Thursday, August 5th, 2021
TheStar.com – Opinion/Editorials Aug. 4, 2021. By Star Editorial Board It’s safe to say that no education minister in the history of Ontario has ever learned more about school ventilation systems than Stephen Lecce. On Wednesday the minister spoke in great detail about all the money that’s being spent to ensure the highest quality filters are […]
Tags: featured, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, rights, youth
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
As a server, hearing others blame CERB for restaurant staff shortages is dehumanizing. If an industry is harmful, why blame low-wage workers?
Thursday, August 5th, 2021
Nobody wants to live in poverty. The idea that the government assistance available is more than what a business can pay makes you think: is it workers in the wrong or is the structure open to oppressive and abusive business models? I hear a lot of talk about how “this is just the way it is,” or “we’ll all go under if we raise wages.”
Tags: economy, ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Vaccine resisters are lazy and irresponsible — we need vaccine passports now to protect the rest of us
Sunday, August 1st, 2021
TheStar.com – Business/Opinion July 30, 2021. By David Olive, Star Business Columnist Vaccination passports are coming. Many Canadians object to getting vaccinated and bearing proof of their vaccination, but that’s where we’re heading. The vaccination rate among patriotic Canadians is higher than that of almost any country. But it’s much too soon to take a victory […]
Tags: economy, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, rights
Posted in Health Policy Context | No Comments »
If employers can’t find workers, they should stop complaining and start offering better jobs
Sunday, August 1st, 2021
The pandemic provided some unexpected benefits.
It freed workers from soul-crushing commutes. People found more time to prepare healthy meals, to get more exercise. They spent less on clothing and styling and worked harder to explore and support local businesses… Perhaps that is what the workforce is doing, imagining a better way to live. Rather than casting insults and wishing for the old normal, perhaps business should do some reimagining, too, about improving an economic model that left most people too stressed to live well and struggling to make ends meet.
Tags: economy, ideology, participation, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
We can re-define Canada’s health systems because we already have
Sunday, August 1st, 2021
We know we can build better health care because we did. When the pandemic forced us to pivot, our health systems learned quickly. This must continue… The best solutions are often the simplest, rooted in both evidence and common sense. We have seen care models that are trauma and culturally informed, offered by people who have roots in the community. We have seen a smarter use of existing resources, including a leveraging of virtual care.
Tags: featured, Health, ideology, Indigenous, multiculturalism, participation
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
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