Friday Morning Links

Assorted content to end your week.

- Elian Peltier reports that Denmark's message that the COVID pandemic is over has predictably given rise to a new - and particularly dangerous - wave as people abandon even the most elementary care to avoid community transmission. And Brittany Gervais reports on the justified outrage of immunocompromised Albertans who have been told the new normal involves their being unable to participate in society due to uncontrolled viral spread. 

- Cindy Blackstock, Leilani Farha, Monia Mazigh and Alex Neve offer some important questions about how we treat protests generally in the wake of the #FluTruxKlan being allowed to lay siege to Canada's capital. Doug Cuthand discusses how the deference shown to violent extremists shows the operation of white privilege in action. And Justin Ling points out the role of QAnon and other conspiracy theorist groups in driving the convoy. 

- John Anderson discusses what Canada has lost through two decades of corporate tax revenue lost to tax slashing and loopholes. 

- Meanwhile, Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood notes that workers predictably haven't benefited from yet another temporary boom in oil prices. And Marc Lee, Tom Green, Peter McCartney and Anjali Appadurai discuss the need for British Columbia's royalty regime to take into account the transition away from relying on carbon pollution for energy. 

- Alyshah Hasham writes about a new learning hub intended to ensure that people facing criminal charges aren't trapped in a cycle of poverty and recidivism. 

- Finally, Lee discusses the need for more medium-density not-for-profit housing to ensure that a fundamental right isn't left to the whims of market forces and exclusionary zoning. 

Wednesday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- David Climenhaga writes about the need to investigate the U.S. funding which seems to have built the #FluTruxKlan's profile, while Saba Aziz discusses how the cross-border extremist ties have only become tighter as Ottawa has been occupied. Arwa Mahdawi discusses how the threat raised by the violent occupation in Canada may reverberate around the globe. Anna Drake notes that both the convoy itself and the kid-gloves treatment it's received from police reflect profound inequalities. PressProgress offers an introduction to some of the hateful extremists responsible for the siege. And Michael Coren writes that the convoy is using religious symbols to propagate a message antithetical to anything remotely Christian. 

- Meanwhile, Clifton van der Linden and Alexander Beyer find that contrary to the convoy's assumptions, the general public remains strongly in favour of public health protections. And Sasha Abramsky discusses how one town managed to fend off a hostile QAnon takeover attempt. 

- Justin Ling notes that the Cons stand to make their party utterly toxic by enabling what's recognized to be an illegitimate and destructive attack on democratic institutions and vulnerable people. And Heather Mallick writes that if Pierre Poilievre seems like a prohibitive favourite for the Cons' leadership, it's only because his substance-free nastiness fits a party which has no interest in building anything other than resentment. 

- Michael Mann and Susan Joy Hassol highlight how delaying action only makes our path to averting climate breakdown steeper. And Ryan Heath reports on new polling showing that people around the globe recognize that our political leaders are falling far short of their responsibility to respond to a world on fire. 

- Finally, Laszlo Radvanyi argues that Canada needs a national strategy for early cancer diagnosis - even as the collapse of COVID control measures reflects the distaste the Cons and their provincial cousins have for anything resembling preventative and precautionary action. 

Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Lauren Krugel reports on a push by Alberta doctors to avoid the further lifting of public health restrictions which will increase the risk of COVID-19 transmission. Sarah Zhang notes that we're just now seeing a return to widespread recognition of the importance of ventilation in protecting against community spread - though of course more forward-thinking people have been pointing it out since last summer, particularly in trying to keep schools safe. And Jennifer Yang reports on research showing that vaccinations targeted by postal code as well as age can be far more effective in improving health outcomes.  But Robert Hiltz writes that conservatives have effectively given up on doing anything to stop the pandemic, choosing instead to focus on finger-pointing and false hopes that vaccines alone will restore us to normal.

- Robinson Meyer writes about the obvious planning failures which left Texas unprepared to cope with foreseeable changes in weather. And Molly McCracken responds to Brad Wall's attempt to push Manitoba toward the type of privatized and fragmented power system which led to that tragedy.

- Colin Gordon rightly questions the subsidies the U.S. hands out to agribusiness giants.

- Nicholas Kusnetz highlights how the UCP's anti-environmental inquiry mirrors the worst of the U.S.' climate denialists.

- Gary Mason writes that Alberta's claim to have some inherent fiscal advantage has been exposed as a lie. And Scott Schmidt points out that we shouldn't trust right-wing excuses to use deficits as a basis to slash needed services and supports.

- Finally, Amira Elbaghawy discusses how the reported data on hate crimes - worrisome as it is is - severely understates the real damage hate groups inflict on communities. And Osita Nwanevu warns that it's wrong to presume white supremacism and conspiracy theories are spreading only among lesser-educated populations.

On consistent standards

It's certainly for the best that Scott Moe has removed at least one Saskatchewan Party candidate based on the recognition that the people running to govern the province should be held to a standard which precludes pushing easily-discredited conspiracy theories.

But we'll have to wait to see when he follows up by repudiating and retracting the patently false "Ryan Meili = TRUDEAU CARBON TAX!!!" big lie at the core of his own party's campaign.