Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Bruce Arthur writes that Doug Ford's already-pitiful response to COVID-19 is getting worse as Ontario opens up businesses in the midst of a deadly wave. And Adam Hunter reports that Saskatchewan businesses are worried about Scott Moe's refusal to require masks anywhere other than Saskatoon, Regina and Prince Alberta - a limitation which is particularly noteworthy given that the Sask Party's previous refusal to allow municipalities to pass mask mandates of their own was supposedly based on a desire for consistency across the province. 

- George Monbiot's series of columns on the UK's privatized COVID response examines continues with a look at a failing attempt to outsource testing and tracing operations in schools. Beyhan Farhadi examines the failings of Ontario's "concurrent classroom" system. And Alex Antonyshyn reports on one Alberta school division's decision to provide wellness days to allow staff to recuperate somewhat from the combination of excessive work burdens and pandemic response duties.

- Jeffrey Jones reports on yet another example of oil-industry consolidation which will ensure that whatever operations continue in a dying industry will employ as few people as possible. And Andrew Jeffrey reports that the Kenney UCP's attempts to jump-start coal mining by gutting environmental protections are likewise being met with closures and job losses as businesses move past the dirtiest sources of energy.

- Finally, Nathan Robinson writes that any solace we take from Joe Biden's eventual victory in the U.S. election needs to be tempered by concern that a contest between democracy and fascism resulted in anything less than a landslide. And Ako Ofudike discusses the voting public's worrisome lack of regard for honesty and ethics in the U.S. and Canada alike.