Wednesday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- The Associated Press reports on how the climate breakdown is producing every form of extreme weather everywhere all at once, while E.M. Fischer et al. study how even more intense heat waves are an imminent possibility. And Brishti Basu points out how younger people are trying to cope with a future steeped in climate anxiety, while Kiffer George Card and Kalysha Closson warn of the problems with letting a climate calamity drive people apart. 

- Meanwhile, Michelle Woodhouse highlights how we don't need Line 5 and other dangerous fossil fuel infrastructure to meet our energy needs. 

- Erika Morris reports that every single developer in Montreal has chosen to pay a fee rather than meeting standards for affordable housing - signaling how futile it is to pretend that profit-motivated corporations are any part of the solution to the provision of human needs. Ximena Gonzalez writes about Calgary's failure to implement recommendations to encourage the supply of affordable homes. And Zane Woodford reports on the particularly callous comments from one Lower Sackville councillor that ending homelessness just isn't going to happen - though it's hard to see much distinction between that position and the policy choices of Regina and other municipalities. 

- Finally, Marcus Baram reports on the tens of millions of dollars in unpaid wage assessments in New York which are still outstanding due to a lack of enforcement capacity. And Zak Vescera reports on the B.C. government's choice to shut down its fair wage commission even in the face of strong recommendations that its work is far from done. 

Sunday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Stephanie Nolen examines (PDF) some of the inequality revealed and exacerbated by the COVID pandemic. Bonnie Allen reports on the tragic story of a Yorkton woman who died as a result of neglect and misinformation. Nancy Lapid points out the health risks caused by breakthrough infections even in people who are fully vaccinated. And Brian Goldman interviews Sheila Singh about the delays in diagnosing childhood cancers as a result of the pandemic - both in the strain it's placed on health care providers, and people's reluctance to seek out care.

- Cheryl Mack and Jennine Wismark discuss how homelessness in Alberta is also a public health emergency. And Scott Schmidt writes that while it's for the best that Alberta has finally signed on to a child care agreement with the federal government, it's still problematic that the UCP seems entirely uninterested in the "care" part of it. 

- Nicholas Kusnetz offers a reminder of the deep ecological damage done by the tar sands. And Jeffrey Jones notes that Alberta's best hope to reinvigorate Calgary's hollowed-out downtown is to become a hub for renewable energy development.

- Finally, Donald Cohen and Allen Mikaelian discuss how the privatization of public assets undermines the possibilities for democratic decision-making.

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Tenille Bonogoure writes about the human costs of Canada's choice to respond to a deadly infectious disease with polite deference rather than a determined effort to stamp it out. Matt Rivers notes that Brazil's outright denial has led to even worse, including the emergence of a variant which threatens people around the globe. And Sumathi Reddy points out that while access to a vaccine may slightly alter the calculus involved in personal decision-making, it doesn't affect the ultimate need for people to keep COVID-19 locked down to the greatest extent possible.

- The Globe and Mail's editorial board discusses the growing case for capital gains taxes on real estate based on wildly inflated housing prices in Canada's largest cities. 

- The Manitoba Organization of Faculty Associations calls out Brian Pallister's utter obeisance to the U.S. conservative group American Legislative Exchange Council in preparing his hidden legislation, while Lucas Edmond calls out Pallister's authoritarian neoliberal education plan in particular. And Jeremy Klaszus and Jeremy Appel uncover the secretive, big-money campaign to reject any housing in Calgary other than developer-friendly suburban sprawl. 

- But lest anybody think it's only the corporate sector looking to rally voters toward alternative choices, Alexander Kaufman notes that municipalities are serving as a focal point for climate organizing in the U.S. And Robert Reich writes that the unionization push at Amazon may represent the start of a new progressive era.

- Finally, Guy Quenneville reports on the findings of the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission  on the RCMP's racism and neglect in response to the killing of Colten Boushie. And Joe Friesen reports that even that damning report was based on incomplete information as the RCMP destroyed evidence about its actions.

Deep thought

In general, we should be appalled by the idea of letting catastrophic climate change run amok and force people to abandon their homes and communities.

But for a few self-selected people, it's tough not to see some poetic justice in the possibility.

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Linda McQuaig responds to the CCCE's tax spin by pointing out what's likely motivating the false attempt to be seen to contribute to society at large:

Seemingly out of the blue this week, the head honchos of Canada's biggest companies, the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, put out a media release insisting that their taxes are not too low.

This defensive posture -- who mentioned murder? -- reveals they fear others may be slowly catching on to the massive transfer of wealth to the richest Canadians that's been going on for the past 14 years due to the systematic cutting of corporate tax rates.

If Canada's corporate tax rate was the same today as it was in 2000, we'd be collecting roughly an extra $20 billion a year in taxes -- enough to fund national child care, free university tuition, children's dental care or other programs that have long existed in other advanced countries but that no one here, in these lean and mean times, dares to be caught dreaming about anymore, let alone advocating out loud.
...
(T)he CBC's interview with Howlett sparked gasps of rage from the bowels of the business press, notably Terence Corcoran in the National Post -- even though a detailed description of the Cameco case and other tax avoidance schemes had just appeared in a special issue of Canadian Business under the cover headline: How to pay no taxes -- Many of Canada's largest companies pay almost no tax: What's their secret?

Of course, that report, directed towards a business audience, is seen as harmless. It's quite another matter when that information is used by the likes of Howlett to wake up the Canadian public to this wealth grab by some of our biggest corporations -- companies which pushed governments to slash taxes and then largely avoided even those lower rates by shifting their profits offshore.

- David McKie reports on the PBO's latest study - which shows that the federal government has once again been underestimating the cost of cleaning up contaminated sites by billions of dollars (which will have to be funded out of the public purse).

- Dr. Dawg discusses the Fort Chipewyan cancer cluster - and the even more cancerous attitude on the part of the Alberta government which is looking to silence the victims rather than acknowledge any health problems which might be caused by the tar sands. And David Climenhaga wonders what comes next now that we know about both the cluster and the province's disdain for those affected.

- Jason Markusoff reports on Calgary's work in figuring out the costs and benefits of new construction - which lead to the conclusion that newly-developed suburban neighbourhoods tend to be a cost sink for at least 11 years, with the cost of repaying the resulting debt eating up any tax revenues for another ensuing decade.

- Finally, Andrew Coyne weighs in again on the Cons' combined refusal to try to justify anything within the Unfair Elections Act, along with their choice to instead declare war on Elections Canada as a diversion from the bill. Anita Vandenbeld describes the bill and its ramming through Parliament as global disgraces. Lawrence Martin notes that the Cons' attacks on Marc Mayrand are mostly a matter of fear that the truth about 2011 electoral fraud is about to be revealed. And Adam Bunch nicely summarizes what's at stake as the Unfair Elections Act is considered by Parliament.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Mark Gongloff reaches the unsurprising conclusion that a tax system warped to favour the interests of the wealthy leads to greater inequality (but not the promised growth):

Slashing top tax rates has had none of the positive effects on economic growth that the supply-side economists promised us, the NBER paper points out. Instead, it has just worsened income inequality.

There are other factors driving income disparity, including a rise in investment income (think stock dividends) compared to earned income (think wages). The recently soaring stock market, helped along by the Federal Reserve, is only pushing investment income higher. Wage income, in contrast, has been stagnant -- making income inequality even worse.

As if that weren't enough, investment income is typically taxed at lower rates, further amplifying the disparity. That means this chart doesn't begin to tell the full story of just how little the top one percent are paying in taxes. Mitt Romney isn't paying 35 percent on most of his income. He's calling his private-equity income "carried interest" and paying just 15 percent on it.

While Congress frantically finds ways to slash spending to close budget deficits, it has shown little interest in tweaking the tax code to make it more fair. Efforts to impose a minimum tax on millionaires, as Warren Buffett has suggested, have gone nowhere, as have efforts to do away with low carried-interest income tax rates. President Obama this year made permanent many of the top-rate tax cuts of President George W. Bush, while a payroll-tax cut that most benefited the poor was allowed to expire.

- Erica Alini notes that ill-thought-out austerity programs have produced massive increases in suicides - even as Jim Flaherty expresses his preference for general slashing regardless of the human cost. And Thomas Walkom writes that the Cons are designing Canada's Employment Insurance system to provide cushy patronage jobs for their friends rather than any useful support for workers.

- But lest we forget that it's possible for governments to actually improve the lives of citizens, Jason Markusoff reports on the City of Calgary's push to halve poverty in ten years (primarily by better applying the resources it already has). And Don Lenihan discusses Nunavut's new collaborative poverty reduction strategy.

- Finally, if anybody hasn't yet seen Tom Mulcair's devastatingly direct question-period back-and-forth with Stephen Harper, it's well worth a look:

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- The Broadbent Institute's "Union Communities, Healthy Communities" report discusses the significance of the labour movement in achieving positive social outcomes. And Rick Smith concurrently writes that the right's attacks on unions represent a solution in search of a problem:

(W)hen unions are strong, the gains that they make for their members in terms of decent wages and benefits spill over into non-union workplaces. In the face of Canadian conservatives trying to portray unions as some kind of impediment to economic growth and productivity, actually examining this empirical evidence is instructive.

Economists agree that the rapidly rising share of all income going to the top 1% in the US and Canada since the early 1980s is explained in significant part by declining unionization. US-style de-unionization would clearly make Canada a much more unequal society than is already the case.

And calculations by respected international organizations such as the OECD and the World Bank also show that countries with strong labour movements are more equal and inclusive, and often have very successful economies. Unions recognize that high productivity is the key to decent wages and good jobs, and many successful companies recognize that good labour relations benefit both parties to the agreement.

- But then, it's probably true that the most fervent union-bashers are among those who see democracy itself as a problem. In that vein, Doug Vaessen and Tamara Elliott report on one developer's explicit plan to take over Calgary's city council with pawns who won't "(forget) to vote the right way". And there looks to be an obvious connection between the corporate takeover of a city council, and the tens of millions of corporate dollars funnelled to the likes of the B.C. Libs.

- Meanwhile, the Star reveals another example of the illusion of participatory democracy - finding that the Cons' goals in dealing with First Nations consist primarily of ensuring that the corporate sector gets what it wants, while responsibility for any social issues gets downloaded onto the same chiefs who are supposed to forfeit any control over resources.

- Finally, Scott Stelmaschuk nicely analyzes the Saskatchewan Party's inability to accept LGBT2Q students:

We need to break down this idea that there is anything wrong or 'sinful' about homosexual behaviour; and more importantly, we need to let LGBT2Q youth know that there are people out there who care for them and support them exactly as they are. These kids need to know that they are 'normal', and that there is nothing wrong with them, and GSAs provide the best venue to create such a system.

We have a Premier who seems to be unable to even say the word 'gay', and was evasive on the question of whether he believed homosexuality was a choice. (He did hem and haw, though he did eventually concede that from what he 'knew' of it from people that it wasn't....though it still left quite a bit of doubt over whether or not he actually sees it as a choice as he never actually gave his opinion...)

We don't need to let another generation grow up where 'gay' is muttered as an insult; or worse, where people can't even mutter the word at all.