Monday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Julia Horowitz discusses how the coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated wealth inequality in the U.S. And Jason DeParle writes that the U.S.' temporary COVID-19 relief resulted in a lower poverty rate in the midst of a pandemic-induced recession than would normally exist - signalling both how easy it is to ensure people have the necessities of life, and how inhumane it is to refuse to do so.

- Justine Hunter discusses how British Columbia's work on the health and safety of migrant workers - including by directly providing quarantine services rather than counting on employers to ensure the safety of people all too often seen as disposable - resulted in it avoiding the major outbreaks which have become commonplace in Ontario.

- Laurie Monsebraaten reports on Child Care Now's push for child care funding as part of any effective plan to safely reopen parts of the economy which depend on women's labour. And Barbara Biasi and Heather Sarsons study (PDF) both the continued gender pay gap, and the reality that employer "flexibility" serves only to exacerbate it.

- Finally, Fiona Harvey writes about the International Energy Agency's recognition that we only have a matter of months to chart a path toward avoiding a lost-pandemic surge in greenhouse gas emissions. And Mark Paul, Carla Santos Skandier and Rory Renzy make the case to nationalize the fossil fuel sector in order to eliminate its undue influence over public policy.