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We know police can’t solve the root causes of Toronto gun violence. What’s stopping us from doing what can?
Saturday, December 19th, 2020
Invest early in terms of education, child supports, health, daycare — try holistic approaches to decrease poverty and disparate outcomes for Black, Indigenous and other racialized groups — and you’ll not only improve lives, but you’ll also save money. On health care, on police, on courts, on jails.
Tags: budget, crime prevention, ideology, Indigenous, multiculturalism, participation, poverty, youth
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
Want to tackle COVID-19 in low-income neighbourhoods? Let’s start with paid sick leave
Saturday, December 12th, 2020
… taking a day here to get tested or a couple days there to self-isolate eats up half the two-week entitlement… Plus, the benefit does not always offer enough money to make up for lost wages… But tweaks won’t do much about the power relationship between boss and employee. That fix can only come through provincial governments enshrining stronger worker protections and employer-paid sick leave into law…
Tags: economy, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, rights, standard of living
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
With a little help for his friends, Ford steals Christmas
Saturday, December 12th, 2020
The owners and directors of long-term-care (LTC) home corporations (including Mike Harris) are off the hook for liability for their well-documented shoddy operations during COVID-19. Ford’s friend and funder Charles McVety will, somewhat magically, likely get his Christian College turned into a university. His developer buddies will like Ford’s new rules for Conservation Authorities whose authority is now much diminished… Every one of these treats was snuck into omnibus bills designed to deal with the pandemic.
Tags: Health, ideology, jurisdiction, privatization
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Spare some pity for right-wing premiers in the time of COVI
Friday, December 11th, 2020
… a global pandemic isn’t the best circumstance for invoking libertarian individualism and the all-purpose value of the private sector, then standing aside. Active government has its problems, but someone has to do something right now, not just wait for the invisible hand to generate profitable solutions… Doug Ford… more a right-wing populist than an ideological conservative… is about “the little guy,” by which he means small business owners, never their employees.
Tags: economy, ideology, privatization, rights
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Basic income hailed as key in kickstarting the economy in a post-pandemic Canada
Wednesday, December 9th, 2020
A universal basic income would not only lift more than 3.2 million Canadians out of poverty, it would also create hundreds of thousands of new jobs, grow the economy by tens of billions of dollars and eventually pay for itself with increased tax revenues… the biggest message coming out of this (report) is that a basic income program can be designed in a sustainable way,” said Paul Smetanin, CANCEA president and one of the report’s authors. “It can be thought of as an investment as opposed to a cost.”
Tags: economy, featured, Health, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, poverty, standard of living, tax
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Liberals set to kick-start talks on new child-care system and funding, Hussen says
Wednesday, December 9th, 2020
… a national system could take years to create, including building new infrastructure to accommodate the more than two million spaces that are estimated to be needed for widespread coverage… The Liberals have promised $420 million to train and retain early childhood educators, the specifics of which will be subject to negotiations with provinces… provincial needs would determine how many staff get retained through wage increases, or students trained through the help of bursaries… current agreements could be used as a platform for a national system
Tags: child care, jurisdiction, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »
In 2020, the anniversary of the Montreal Massacre is a call to action
Sunday, December 6th, 2020
Now it’s time to move forward on a Canada-wide action plan that makes gender-based violence a national priority. Reflecting on lives lost to preventable violence is important. But the greatest way to honour stolen lives is through concrete action.
Tags: crime prevention, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, women
Posted in Equality Policy Context | No Comments »
Deliver on national child-care this time, please
Sunday, December 6th, 2020
For now, all the Trudeau government has put up for a national child-care system is a down payment and a promise… The down payment includes $420 million to help provinces train and retain qualified early-childhood educators and $20 million over five years to fund a secretariat to craft its national “child care vision.”
Tags: budget, child care, economy, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, standard of living, women
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
Ontario’s attorney general says COVID-19 has jumpstarted justice system modernization
Thursday, December 3rd, 2020
Remote attendance at court, digital signatures where only hard copies had previously been mandatory, electronic issuance and sharing of court documents, as well as service by email without consent or court order are some of the innovations… broadcasting court proceedings on video streaming websites had increased participation in the justice system… the Superior Court reported that 50,000 hearings had been conducted virtually in a province where the technology was brand new.
Tags: budget, ideology, participation, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | 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 »
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