Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Yasmin Tayag discusses the progress being made in determining how long COVID is caused - though the only point that appears beyond dispute for now is that avoiding infection is the only sure way to escape it. And Theresa Kliem reports on the swift response from experts calling out Scott Moe's science denialism in declaring that vaccines don't help stop community transmission. 

- Meanwhile, Supriya Dwivedi is appalled by conservative politicians' embrace of the racism and violence at the root of #FluTruxClan, while Max Fawcett suggests they'll end up paying an appropriate price. And Michael Harris rightly argues that the lunatic fringe have no right to impose their destruction on everybody else. 

- Julia Rock discusses how the U.S.' regulatory state is encouraging the funding of obsolete pipelines at public expense. 

- Umair Haque writes about the need to start building effective global systems to ensure people have even the most basic necessities met. 

- Finally, as a prime example of how warped our current service structures are, Alexandra Levine reports on the collection and sale of data from a suicide hotline to turn pleas for mental health assistance into a profit centre. 

Sunday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Ian Austen takes Alberta's shame to the international stage by pointing out how the UCP's "best summer ever" has given rise to the fourth wave of COVID-19. Adam Hunter points out how similarly disastrous pandemic mismanagement hasn't yet produced the same political consequences for Scott Moe as for Jason Kenney, while Doug Cuthand calls out Moe for putting politics over public health. And Zak Vescera reports on the Moe government's decision to start withholding modeling information which has demonstrated how reckless it's been.

- Meanwhile, Mackenzie Read talks to Nazeem Muhajarine about the need for more public health steps to get Saskatchewan's fourth wave under control. Lynn Giesbrecht reports on the hundreds of cases already known to have arisen in two weeks following the return to schools this fall. Dan Jones reports on the responses to Moe's attempt to point fingers at other for his failure to get people vaccinated in Northern and rural areas. And Jaela Bernstein discusses how underpaid frontline workers are bearing the brunt of anti-vaxxer rage.

- Supriya Dwivedi writes that the recent federal election highlighted the Canadian media's lack of recognition of how to deal with far-right disinformation. And Michael Spratt notes that while a manufactured controversy over a question about discrimination was turned to the advantage of right-wing parties, it also served to confirm the distinct and ongoing problem of racism in Quebec.

- Aaron Saad discusses how Canada's governing political parties have prevented their bases from fully understanding and engaging with the climate crisis. And Chris Hatch comments on the climate implications of the federal election.

-Finally, Loren Balhorn writes about the continued importance of working-class political parties to provide voters with a plausible mechanism for social change.