Thursday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Omar Mosleh discusses the growing damage being caused by repeated wildfires in Canada, while David Wallace-Wells writes that there's no escape from the air pollution being spread across the continent. And Don Pittis points out how public accounts which don't assess the non-pecuniary costs of climate change have resulted in a grossly distorted framework for discussion of climate policy.  

- Meanwhile, Frank Corini discusses Rhode Island's version of secretly-funded fossil fuel lobby groups who are polluting any effort to move to clean energy. 

- Angela Symons reports on a new UN Environmental Programme report showing how an 80% cut in plastic waste is entirely feasible by 2040 - though again getting there will require pushing back against the self-serving spin of the pollution industry. 

- Charles Rusnell offers a reminder that the UCP's history of bullying and dehumanization dates back to its founding and entire time in office. And Joel Dryden reports that even a normally-placid ethics commissioner accepting the UCP's preferred version of events without question has found Danielle Smith to have violated conflict of interest legislation by attempting to interfere in the prosecution of anti-public health extremists. 

- Finally, Cory Doctorow discusses how the U.S. has eventually reached the point of providing a free tax filing service (over the furious objection of the corporate monopolist which was otherwise taking a massive tithe on mandatory tax returns). And Tom Malleson writes that Canada has the ability to ensure that the wealthy pay their fair share of taxes - as long as we don't accept the excuse that it's not worth the political will to make it happen. 

Sunday Morning Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Tara Kiran et al. examine the use of virtual care in Ontario, and find no evidence to support the anti-public-health claim that interactions being pushed back in person served any purpose in avoiding emergency room visits. And CBC News reports on a whooping cough outbreak in Alberta as one of the actual health crises caused by anti-vax extremism.

- Stephen Magusiak reports on the reality that the UCP's education plans involve starving the public school system in order to funnel money to the wealthy and their exclusive private enclaves. Matt Gurney discusses how Doug Ford (like Danielle Smith and other anti-social rightists) is destroying any hint of accountability in order to grease the skids for a kleptocracy. And Allison Jones reports on the documents available for now which show that Ford's excuses for trashing the Ontario Science Centre have no basis in fact.

- Emma Paling highlights how the National Farmers Union can show the windfall profits being squeezed out by corporate giants (through both their food processing operations and their retail grocery stores) while the people who grow the food have seen virtually no increase in income.

- Aaron Clark reports on the satellite surveillance showing that the fossil fuel sector is dumping far more methane in the atmosphere than it's reporting. (Though I'd be worried the policy outcome will be a ban on accurate satellite imagery in the name of corporate privacy, rather than any steps to deal with the actual carbon pollution being emitted by the oil and gas sector.)

- Finally, Pete Evans reports on the prospect of a tax filing system which makes it easy and free for people to file their returns - with the goal of ensuring people have access to tax-based benefits rather than being denied for a lack of past filings.

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- The John Snow Project discusses how government minimization of the ongoing risk of COVID-19 - including the removal of what few policies remained to limit its spread - is pushing people to neglect the continued danger. And Josh Lynn reports on the latest data which shows that COVID remains a threat to Saskatchewanians, with 18 deaths in the last two-week reporting period alone. 

- John Burn-Murdoch examines why life expectancies in the U.S. are falling from their already worrisome levels. And in a couple of prime examples of the risks which have been deemed acceptable to impose on the public, Jake Johnson reports on the leak of a radioactive compound from a nuclear power plant, while Holly Yan et al. report on a train derailment and ethanol spill resulting in a fire and evacuation. 

- All of which makes it particularly damning that the Libs are throwing public money at the nuclear and fossil fuel sectors. Bill McGuire points out the folly of the UK's similar attempt to brand subsidies for increased oil and gas development (and associated carbon pollution) as somehow being part of a net zero emissions plan. And Nils Markusson discusses the utter failure of carbon capture and storage to meet even its selective promises to reduce emissions.  

- Luke Mari writes about the need for middle-density development to make communities walkable and liveable. And John Lorinc reports on the Ford PC's plan to put Ontario Place - including its nominally public areas - fully under corporate control. 

- Finally, Luke LeBrun reports on the Canada Revenue Agency's own recognition that Canadians want to see far more action to confront tax dodging by wealthy people and corporations. 

Sunday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- The Economist reports on new research estimating that COVID-19 vaccines saved 20 million lives in their first year of availability - though that reality makes it all the more galling that there's been so little progress both in ensuring greater availability of existing vaccines for lower-income people, and developing new versions to address the flood of variants. Alice Park discusses why it's important to vaccinate the young children whose doses have only recently been approved. And Rick Howe writes that the elimination of any public health measures in the midst of a raging pandemic leaves the inescapable impression that we don't value the lives of immunocompromised people.

- Stephen Wentzel reports on Niki Ashton's push to ensure that the Canada Revenue Agency uses its resources to crack down on tax avoidance by the wealthy, not to add injury to insult for CERB recipients. 

- Sam Pizzigati offers a reminder that obscene wealth is invariably the result of a combination of luck and ruthlessness. And Michael Grabell reports on a stark example of both being torqued to extreme levels, as shipping and transportation magnates are extracting massive windfall profits from their own refusal to cooperate with customers. 

- Qingchen Chao and Wang Yang estimate China' viable renewable energy production at four times the amount of power needed to meet all current global electricity demand. And Simon Evans reports on the latest UK wind power contract which has produced prices a fraction of the cost of fossil fuel gas generation.

- Finally, Umair Haque discusses how the U.S.'s obsession with constant self-reliance and competition leads to ambient stress for everybody.

Friday Morning Links

 Assorted content to end your week.

- Carly Weeks examines why so many Canadian children still haven't been fully vaccinated against COVID-19. John Loeppky asks that we not eliminate the digital solutions which have allowed people with disabilities to participate on somewhat more equal ground. Zak Vescera reports on Saskatchewan's ballooning waitlists for surgery and other medical treatment as the Moe government piles more and more COVID cases on the health care system. And Sean Amato reports on the Kenney UCP's plans for privatized surgeries in Alberta - and the fact that Saskatchewan is already serving as a cautionary tale.   

- Abacus Data examines the widespread burnout among Canadian workers. And Quentin Fottrell writes that the large number of resignations in the U.S. can be traced to an attempt to regain some agency and time. 

- Cameron Fenton makes the case for a just transition to undercut the rage machine funded in part by and for the fossil fuel sector. And Harvey Kaye and Alan Minsky call for an economic bill of rights to ensure everybody has a base level of economic security. 

- But Mark Melnychuk reports on changes to CRA requirements which are making it needlessly difficult for homeless people and people living in poverty to file their taxes - creating a gratuitous obstacle to the receipt of benefits which depend on tax returns being filed.

- Paul Krugman suggests that money laundered overseas may be a crucial weakness for Vladimir Putin and his cadre of oligarchs. But Julia Rock and David Sirota note that sanctions won't be effective as long as corporate lobbyists undermine them with carve-outs for the schemes and sectors which benefit the wealthy the most. 

- Finally, the Associated Press reports on the International Energy Agency's recognition that methane emissions from fossil fuel production are far more severe than admitted by the fossil fuel industry or the governments who are supposed to be regulating it. 

Sunday Morning Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Fiona Harvey reports on the warning from climate scientists that a 1.5 degree target is non-negotiable. Adam Tooze explains why we shouldn't let fossil fuel flacks convince us to mistake a temporary price fluctuation for a reason to entrench our reliance on dirty energy. And PressProgress notes that the UCP's anti-environmental inquiry inadvertently exposed how much foreign money actually got poured into fossil fuel astroturf projects.

- Meanwhile, Scott Neigh discusses the oil sector workers looking for a transition to more sustainable jobs. 

- Mohamed Adow discusses the growing climate debt as wealthier countries (and people) continue to blow through our planetary carbon budget while expecting people with less resources to absorb the cost and risk. And Phillip Inman notes that colonial debts are keeping poorer countries from investing in any mitigation or adaptation (among other vital priorities).

- Kenny Thomas highlights a new tool to expose UK corporations which have committed regulatory offences. But in case we needed a reminder that we shouldn't presume malfeasance by the wealthy has actually been investigated and prosecuted, the Canadian Press reports on the continued failure of CRA audits of ultra-wealthy people arising out of the Panama Papers to produce a single prosecution.  

- Finally, Eric Levitz laments how the U.S.' Congress has chosen to learn nothing from the COVID-19 pandemic. And Umair Haque discusses how the UK has eliminated its own capacity to function as a state - while choosing in response to keep up appearances even as essential services disappear.

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- The Canadian Press reports on new Leger polling showing that over two-thirds of Canadians want to see COVID-19 protections remain in place - even as Scott Moe and Jason Kenney barge ahead in slashing public health measures. Mark Lautens warns against treating vaccinations as a matter of consumer choice rather than social importance. And Christopher Whaley, Jonathan Cantor and Megan Pera study the effect of small household gatherings on the spread of COVID-19. 

- Members of the Alberta Nurses Coalition for Harm Reduction highlight how shutting down harm reduction sites is an utterly counterproductive response to the opioid crisis. 

- Joshua Posaner reports on the EU's draft policy which figures to presage a complete shift away from the use of combustion engines in vehicles. Rebecca Leber writes about the self-serving attempts of fossil fuel producers to hype miniscule differences in production emissions as an excuse to keep pushing consumers to pollute. And Robert Tuttle reports on CCPA research showing that Canada's managed forests are actually a major source of greenhouse gas emissions rather than a sink.  

- David Sirota duly questions the assumption that whatever billionaires do to avoid paying taxes must be legal. And Christopher Reynolds reports on the CRA's failure to manage a single prosecution or conviction after auditing 44 ultra-wealthy individuals. 

- Finally, Mariana Mazzucato examines how to build a political economy which facilitates sustainable and public-focused development rather than short-term profit-seeking. 

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Katherine Scott and David Macdonald take a look at the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on Canada's labour force survey data - confirming that employment dominated by women has seen the most severe losses, and figures to take the longest to recover. Joel Dryden and Sarah Rieger offer a look at the large number of people with "co-morbidities" which are being cited by the likes of the Kenney UCP as reason not to worry about COVID-19 deaths. And Zak Vescera reports on the acute effect of the coronavirus on First Nations and their residents.

- Stephen Buranyi writes that we shouldn't be fooled by the spin of pharmaceutical companies seeking credit for COVID-19 vaccines developed with public support.

- Martin Lukacs highlights how the Libs' insistence on putting a carbon tax at the core of their climate change policy - rather than a Green New Deal which would include tangible benefits for most people - only figures to make the Cons' job easier in obstructing any progress. And Beth Gardiner notes that the best we can say about climate action globally in 2020 is that we didn't quite extinguish any hope of the transition we need.

- Jolson Lim reports on new research by the CRA showing that individuals pay their taxes far more quickly than corporations. And PressProgress highlights a new poll showing how Manitobans are rightly skeptical of for-profit care home operators.

- Finally, Nick Wells reports on the push for a safe national drug supply as the prospect of an even more deadly year looms. And Heidi Atter reports on the work being done by the Nēwo Yōtina Friendship Centre to set up a community-based supervised consumption site in Regina as the provincial government continues to drag its heels.

Monday Evening Links

Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading.

- John Paul Tasker reports on the final report of the Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. And Kenyon Wallace highlights the need for meaningful federal action in response - though if the Libs are deviating at all from their usual all-talk-no-action stance, it's by trying to avoid even the plain wording of the report.  

- Emma McIntosh and Mike De Souza report on the reality that the reclamation of the environmental destruction wrought by Alberta's oil sector could take thousands of years. But Nafeez Ahmed warns that if we don't stop the damage to our planet from carbon pollution, human civilization as we know it may not last more than a few decades.

- Meanwhile, Geoff Dembicki points out how the Green New Deal concept which holds out the promise of just transition to clean and sustainable energy sources has built on the work behind the Leap Manifesto. And Elise Stolte theorizes that the regular spread of wildfires and blankets of smoke should jolt Alberta to recognize the need to join in the effort.

- Canadians for Tax Fairness highlights the unfairness of the Canada Revenue Agency striking secret deals with systematic tax evaders while directing its enforcement activities toward people who don't have money to stash offshore.

- Finally, Matthew Klein observes that the best way to reduce crime - and particularly recidivism - is to invest in legitimate social supports for people who would otherwise lack legal means to provide for themselves.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Sara Mojtehedzadeh reports that the Ford government's move to strip sick days away from workers was made without any attempt to consider the consequences for public health. And Emma Paling reports on how public protests at least delayed the final passage of the bill designed to attack employment standards and reduce the planned minimum wage, while Michal Rozworski debunks the Montreal Economic Institute's propaganda piece intended to criticize any minimum wage increases. 

- Rachel Aiello reports on the Auditor General's findings that the Canada Revenue Agency grants more leniency to large corporations and wealthy people with offshore dealings than to the general public. And D.C. Fraser notes that the Saskatchewan Party is refusing to provide any information about the money being gifted to Nutrien in "head office" giveaways even as its executive functions move out of the province.

- Jim Harding offers a reminder that time isn't on our side in trying to combat climate breakdown - and that every day of delay only makes the fight more difficult. And Mike Crawley points out that the apparently climate change policy model for the Ontario PCs (and other right-wing governments) is an Australian scheme which has led to greenhouse gas emission increases.
 
- Robert Fife, Steven Chase and Xioa Xu report on the Cons' use of related non-profit corporations to avoid federal spending limits.

- Finally, Mattha Busby discusses how safe injection sites are saving lives across Europe, even as the UK and other regressive jurisdictions insist on maximizing the harm done to drug users.

Friday Evening Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- A new IMF working paper confirms the connection between employment deregulation and workers' share of income. And Jennefer Laidley points out the all-too-imminent danger that the Ontario PCs are about to undo what little belated progress had been made in making social assistance more effective, while Teviah Moro notes that social housing is bearing the brunt of cuts linked to Doug Ford's denial-based climate change policy. 

- Dean Beeby reports on a new survey showing that Canada Revenue Agency employees are as concerned as the general public about a tax system that favours the rich over everybody else. And Alex Hemingway offers this year's customary rebuttal of the Fraser Institute's oft-debunked spin on taxes.

- The Globe and Mail's editorial board recognizes that Doug Ford's attack on harm reduction in the name of nonexistent controversy about its impact on health outcomes will lead only to preventable deaths. And the Stoney Creek News explores the public health harms which can be expected to result from artificial reductions in alcohol prices.

- Lucius Couloute examines the close link between past incarceration and present-day homelessness in the U.S.

- Finally, Charlie Angus calls out John Baird for using his former role in government as an excuse to make money for his Saudi-connected employer. But it's worth being surprised that any former member of Stephen Harper's cabinet is managing to be an even more unprincipled shill after leaving that role.

New column day

Here, on how Canada is falling further behind the rest of the world on ensuring corporate transparency and recovering income stashed offshore.

For further reading...
- Transparency International's most recent report on beneficial ownership is here.
- Zach Dubinsky reported on both the UK's move toward transparency in its offshore territories, and Canada's complete lack of progress on the same issue at home. And lest anybody think the government hasn't been pressed on the issue, see the submissions of Canadians for Tax Fairness to the Finance Committee as discussed here.
- Dubinsky has also contrasted the hundreds of millions of dollars recovered by other countries in the wake of the Panama Papers against the lack of any definite numbers from the CRA.
- Finally, the study by Annette Alstadsæter, Niels Johannesen and Gabriel Zucman on the amount of money stashed offshore by the .01% is summarized here. And CTF's latest Canadian numbers based on traceable assets can be found here.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Anna Coote discusses some of the potential problems with a universal basic income on its own - particularly to the extent it takes momentum away from the prospect of universal basic services.

- Scott Sinclair examines how little has changed - and how many substantial dangers haven't - in the latest iteration of the Trans-Pacific Partnership.

- Joan Bryden reports on the Parliamentary Budget Officer's five-year fight for information to allow it to assess the money Canada loses to offshore tax evasion. And the report from Alex Boutilier, Marco Chown Oved and Robert Cribb highlights other available estimates suggesting the Canadian public loses from 6 to 15 billion dollars every year to tax havens.

- Rob Ferguson reports on the billions in costs to Ontario from its privatization of Hydro One, while Aaron Derfel notes that P3 hospitals and other projects are getting more and more expensive. Kate Osamor discusses how privatization schemes are diluting the effects of foreign aid funding. And Rob Merrick points out UK Labour's plan in the wake of the Carillion collapse to develop worker-run public services to ensure that the public sector isn't so easily sold off or outsourced in the future.

- Meanwhile, Eli Day comments on the role younger workers are playing in rejuvenating the U.S.' labour movement after finding that they need a collective voice to stand up for their interests.

- Finally, John Anderson discusses the importance of a strong left-wing message from the federal NDP. And Zi-Ann Lum reports that Jagmeet Singh isn't being shy about reclaiming the ground on electoral reform which the Lib falsely claimed in 2015.

Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Gwynn Guilford discusses how dependence on coal and other resources has left the U.S.' Appalachian region both poor and ill-equipped for the future after enriching a few corporate owners. And David Dayen notes that a national tax giveaway to the rich is leading to a new round of layoffs and attacks on workers papered over with one-time announcements:

(T)his may end up being the most aggressive corporate public relations scheme we’ve seen in America since a bunch of movie studios got together during the Great Depression to run attack ads smearing Upton Sinclair’s progressive campaign for governor of California. The money flowing to workers in these announcements are like a nickel in a tin can compared to the bounty rushing into corporate treasuries. In many cases, they seem to have been pre-planned prior to the tax bill, done to reap a tax write-off, or announced to mask layoffs elsewhere in the business.

Consider the one-time, $1,000 bonuses for employees that many companies, like Comcast and AT&T, have announced. First of all, one-time bonuses, while nice to have, are not wage increases. The promise of the tax cut was not that it would let companies throw a few bucks in the employee tip jar, but permanently raise pay. Bonuses don’t make up for stagnant wages, as Southwest Airlines’ mechanics union, which has been locked in a contract battle for over five years, told the company.

The Comcast and AT&T bonuses were also announced late last year, allowing them to be written off as a business expense in 2017. If a business gave a bonus in 2017, it went against the 35 percent corporate tax rate then in effect. If were to give one this year, the bonus would only go against the new 21 percent rate. In other words, it was cheaper for businesses to announce bonuses in December than January, suggesting we may not see much of their kind again.

But Comcast and AT&T in particular serve as the poster children for dishonesty in this matter. Because around the same time that they made a big show of rewarding employees with bonuses, both companies quietly engaged in layoffs. Comcast fired 500 members of its sales department before Christmas, and AT&T is eliminating “thousands” of jobs, according to its union, the Communications Workers of America. “We believe there's more than 4,000 people AT&T has (notified of layoffs) across the country,” Larry Robbins, vice president of CWA Local 4900, told the Indianapolis Daily Star.

Just to do the math on this, $1,000 bonuses to 200,000 AT&T workers is $200 million. Cancelling 4,000 jobs at the median US compensation of $59,000 per year (some of the workers affected likely earned less) would actually amount to a higher number, and unlike the bonuses, those layoffs are permanent. More to the point, any $1,000 bonus for workers is a drop in the ocean compared to chopping the corporate tax rate by 40 percent, as the Trump tax cuts will. AT&T, according to calculations from economist Dean Baker, will see $2.4 billion in annual savings from that tax cut, more than ten times the likely cost of its the one-time bonus.
...
(T)hese announcements are worse than a joke. They represent a deliberate strategy to curry favor with the public and President Trump while executives gorge themselves on tax cuts, most of which won’t trickle down to anyone. Corporations simply don’t make decisions based on taxes, and certainly not decisions to benefit workers over the long-term. These corporate PR departments are deceiving America to preserve an ideology of ultra-low taxes, and hoping nobody notices the truth.

- Erica Alini reports on the lack of uptake on Canada's disability tax credit (and associated benefits) due to the difficulty involved in applying. And Julie Ireton exposes the reality that the Phoenix pay system was designed all along to fail - including by using customized settings to pay employees the lowest possible salary for their pay band, rather than the amount actually offered.

- Jessica Ross points out why Ontario's plan to limit prescription drug coverage to people under the age of 24 falls far short of both keeping people healthy and making effective use of public resources.

- Finally, Richard Power Sayeed reports on Jeremy Corbyn's plan to ensure that UK Labour is a constantly-active mechanism for community activism - not only an electoral machine to be brought out of mothballs every few years.

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Jerry Dias writes that a new year has already seen far too many examples of corporate greed rampaging out of control. Elizabeth Bruenig highlights the contrasting treatment of poor people who face increasingly stringent requirements to access even meager benefits, and the wealthy who are being handed billions for doing nothing. And Elizabeth Kolbert discusses the psychological underpinnings of inequality - including the predictable harm done to people who face less than fair treatment.

- Meanwhile, Roderick Benns looks at some early data on Ontario's basic income pilot which shows low-income workers as the primary registrants so far.

- Philip Oltermann reports on the push by German workers for reduced hours in a standard work week.

- Danyaal Raza weighs in on the need for plasma collection to serve the public interest, not a profit motive. And Melissa Davey discusses the possibility of a sugar tax to raise revenue and improve public health.

- Finally, Zach Dubinsky compares the effects of the Panama Papers on tax enforcement in several countries, and notes that Canada is far behind our international peers in recouping money sent offshore.

Saturday Evening Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Brian Bethune interviews Joseph Stiglitz about his longstanding recognition that an international economic system biased toward capital could lay the groundwork for Trump-style demagoguery.

- Kristin Annable reports on the Manitoba PCs' steps toward for-profit health care as an alternative to properly funding and managing the public system. But Keith Gerein notes that the Alberta NDP is instead developing public-sector senior care alternatives where the private sector is falling short of meeting people's needs.

- David Hardman defends the concept of a basic income by noting that our sleep cycles are at best an awkward fit with even standard full-time work. David Rosen discusses the end of the true 40-hour work week due a combination of undercounting work time and the need for multiple incomes to stay afloat. And Colin Gordon notes that U.S. laws have been undercutting the labour movement's ability to defend workers' rights for the past 70 years. 

- Angela Wright points out that a serious effort to combat offshore tax evasion needs to deal with prominent developed countries which choose to act as tax havens.

- Finally, Brent Richter offers a good-news story as to how a single tax return gave one marginalized citizen a chance for a genuine fresh state - while noting that many people would benefit similarly from a concerted effort to prepare returns for people who aren't currently submitting them.

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Tom Parkin writes that the Trudeau Libs and Bill Morneau have taken the side of wealthy shareholders over workers who want only the secure retirement they've already paid for through deferred wages:

Morneau should be requiring companies to tell Canadians’ pension regulator about their dividend plans. He should be setting processes and rules that get healthy companies to fully fund pensions — before there’s another Sears-type pension fiasco.

Instead, Morneau is sponsoring Bill C-27. True, it does help eliminate pension liabilities — but not by funding them. Morneau’s bill would help employers permanently shift potential liabilities onto workers by replacing defined benefit plans with “target” plans.

On pensions, tax havens and private infrastructure finance, Bill Moreau has shown he’s a rich guy’s rich guy. That’s what he was as leader of a C.D. Howe Institute, which is little more than a CEO lobby group. That’s what he is as Finance Minister. He can’t be gone soon enough.

- And Alan Freeman echoes the view that Morneau can't be kept in a position which he's used mostly to enrich his own class of vulture capitalists.

- Meanwhile, Chris Varcoe reports on the Notley government's push to make sure that federal bankruptcy law doesn't leave the public on the hook for the costs of remediating abandoned oil wells.

- Alex Hemingway discusses the role tax fairness can play in reducing inequality - and how to make that work in British Columbia's next budget. And Dean Beeby reports on the Canada Revenue Agency's first steps toward cracking down on tax avoidance in the country's wealthiest neighbourhoods.

- Finally, Ed Finn writes that citizen happiness correlates far more strongly with genuinely democratic and responsive government than with raw GDP.

Saturday Morning Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Danny Dorling sets out how a more equal society leads to benefits for everybody. And Annie Lowrey discusses Richard Reeves' take on the separation between the top 20% of the income spectrum and the rest of the U.S. - particularly in preventing social mobility.

- Meagan Gilmore points out how the Libs' sad excuse for a child care plan falls short of the principles of universality and accessibility which would actually result in a fair start for children across Canada. And Peter Whitaker writes about Bill Morneau's plans to further erode workers' retirement security by attacking their pensions.

- Raisa Deber raises the broad question of what we should be funding through our public health care system, while Amy Corderoy looks at Australia's similar issues with medical care being treated increasingly as a profit centre rather than a matter of social justice. The CP reports on the needless prescription drug costs we're paying due largely to a failure to adequately regulate or negotiate drug prices. And Jason Chung and Kelvin Ian Afrashtehfar highlight the consequences of dental care being unaffordable for many Canadians - including the development of more serious problems due to a lack of access to preventative care.

- Ipsos examines the generally positive view Canadians have of the concept of a basic income. And Insights West surveys the public's impressions of professions - with business and political professions ranking well toward the bottom.

- Finally, Samuel Hyman comments on the need to call out tax evasion for the socially-destructive activity it is, rather than burying it in euphemisms and excuses. But Marco Chown Oved reports that the Libs are backtracking on their past promises to start coming clean about how tax havens are used to siphon money away from Canada's public purse.

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Michal Rozworski highlights how UK Labour's platform provides for a needed move toward the democratization of economic activity along with an end to gratuitous austerity. And a distinguished group of economists has signed on to support the plan.

- Charlie Skelton examines how this year's Bilderberg conference is making a mockery of issues of inclusion and fairness. And Scott Sinclair and Stuart Trew point out why there's no reason to think a free trade deal between a capital-focused Justin Trudeau and an authoritarian Chinese regime will do anything but serve corporate interests at the expense of the public.

- Meanwhile, G. Elijah Dann comments that Trudeau's legacy looks to be one of empty political theatre.

- Dean Beeby reports on the Canada Revenue Agency's calculation that the federal government lost $13.6 billion in uncollected domestic revenue in 2014 alone.

- Finally, Murray Mandryk writes that the Wall government's decision to shut down the Saskatchewan Transportation Company (among other budget cuts) looks to have caused a sea change in rural support. And the fact that the Saskatchewan Party is more focused on trying to justify continued cash-for-access fund-raisin than doing anything to benefit Saskatchewan's citizens figures to make it all the more difficult to reverse that trend.

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Annette Alstadsæter, Niels Johannesen and Gabriel Zucman examine (PDF) the size and distribution of tax evasion and (not surprisingly) find it clustered at the top - with the wealthiest .01% dodging 30% of its obligation to society at large. And Marco Chown Oved reports that the Canada Revenue Agency is finally pursuing criminal investigations into offshore tax evasion.

- Meanwhile, Paul Buchheit rightly questions why any government would want to hand tax cuts to businesses who are already refusing to pay their fair share.

- Angela Rayner writes about UK Labour's plan for a truly universal child care system. And Max Shanly and Ronan Burtenshaw highlight the drastic change for the better on offer from Labour's policy platform - along with the strong public support for improved redistribution of wealth:

But it wasn’t just the manifesto that was popular, it was also the kind of politics that has been used to communicate its ideas. For months, Corbynism has tried to build a radical politics from the halls of Westminster, playing a game of high politics at which its enemies are more adept. In this campaign, Corbyn’s team have thrown off the shackles of that environment — holding large rallies around the country, sharing the stage with campaigners from a wide range of social causes, taking socialist politics to the people who are its concern. This dynamic, grassroots campaign has helped to transform public opinion of Corbyn and engage thousands in his project of social transformation.
...
None of this could have happened if the battle had remained confined to the stage-managed theater of Westminster, with scripts written by the mainstream press and an ill-fitting costume of respectability draped around Corbyn’s shoulders. It is with mass politics that the Left can win — and the same will be true for this manifesto.

No significant program of redistributing wealth and power can be achieved through parliament alone. Even if Labour was to win on June 8, its manifesto would face significant opposition — from the right-wing of the Labour Party, the press empires, elite civil servants, and the business class. The only way to see it implemented would be to organize for it outside of parliament, through social movements that demand its proposals, trade unions that fight for them in the workplace, and a revitalized Labour Party that becomes a vehicle for popular power at a local as well as national level.

In the more likely circumstance that Labour is defeated in the election, the party’s right will immediately argue that it was because its leadership was too left wing. But we now know this is not true. The vast majority of the country supports left-wing policies — it is the Labour right and their allies in the political, business, and media elite who are in the minority. The next battle will be to defend the manifesto from their attacks.

- CBC reports on the progress made as a result of Ontario's workplace review (and the public pressure which caused it to happen), with a $15 minimum wage and improved protections for part-time and precarious workers among the gains.

- Finally, the Star's editorial board asks what it will take for the federal government to live up to its obligation not to discriminate against Indigenous children - though the obvious answer is a party in power which actually cares about substantive change enough to dedicate resources to it, rather than seeing photo ops and empty announcements as accomplishments.