Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Jessica Wong et al. study the risk of hospitalization and death from  the Omicron strain of COVID-19, and conclude (contrary to the spin of denialist governments) that it was just as severe as the original version. And Lindsey Wang et al. find (PDF) that prior COVID infection can be traced to more severe respiratory infections among children in 2022. 

- Meanwhile, Alexander Rabin and Lisa Patel point out how children are particularly susceptible to damage from wildfire smoke. And Carly Weeks examines how inadequate pediatric care can have long-term consequences for any child whose health isn't treated as worth prioritizing. 

- Lydia DePillis comments that contrary to the spin of fossil fuel shills and science denialists, a climate breakdown has severe consequences for Canada. David Shearman discusses the climate grief we can expect as the breakdown becomes more obvious and less avoidable. And Madeleine Cuff writes about the consecutive days of record-breaking global heat this week.  

- Carl Meyer reports that the tar sands operators who have been trying to put on a veneer of interest in climate solutions have in fact been lobbying to tear them down at every opportunity. 

- Finally, Emily Leedham exposes the connections between socon groups seeking to take both the U.S. and Canada back to the dark ages. And Susan Delacourt rightly points out that the real threat of foreign interference comes from the Cons' U.S. puppet-masters looking to impose bigotry and theocracy in Canada. 

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Andre Picard writes that COVID-19 remains an imminent and severe threat to our health - no matter how many people are choosing to operate in denial. Jianlyu Lai et al. examine how COVID has been transmitted, and find that aerosol transmission has been the dominant source of spread throughout the pandemic. Wency Leung writes that vaccines alone don't have any realistic prospect of bringing the pandemic to an end. And Brendan Ellis reports on a spike in COVID rates in Regina's wastewater.

- Brian Callaci and Sandeep Vaheesan discuss how a moment of inflation should represent an opportunity to consolidate gains for workers, rather than an excuse to shackle them to real income losses. And Bradley Hughes offers a reminder that strike activity may be needed to ensure workers can pursue their fair share. 

- Meanwhile, Carl Cannon examines Americans' attitudes toward billionaires - which include a stark rejection of the "greed is good" mantra which serves as the primary underpinning of capitalist planning. 

- Hamilton Nolan writes that there's an inescapable "us or them" choice between the oil companies profiting from carbon pollution and political instability, and the rest of humanity which needs a life-sustaining planet to have any future. And Jasper Jolly confirms that fossil fuel concerns themselves have no interest in averting climate breakdown. 

- Stan Cox writes about the connection between the extraction economy, white supremacism and creeping fascism. And Susan Delacourt discusses how the forces behind the Flu Trux Klan's violent occupation of Ottawa are now trying to establish a permanent presence in the city (and elsewhere). 

- Finally, Jason Warick reports on both the Saskatchewan Party's funneling of public money toward a private school with a history of abusing students, and the government's false denial of being aware of the problem. 

Wednesday Afternoon Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Dimitri Lascaris argues that while Donald Trump has lost the presidential election, the unfair society which allowed him to take power in the first place remains. And Susan Delacourt offers her take on the spread of Trumpism to Canada.

- The Star's editorial board writes that the future of work can't be limited to finding loopholes to continually increase corporate exploitation of workers. Michelle Bellefontaine reports on the Kenney UCP's moves to limit compensation for injured workers in Alberta. And Eric Blanc highlights the need for the labour movement to work on striking and winning in order to win concessions out of employers and governments alike.

- Linda Silas offers a warning about the dangers of relying on private funding and delivery of health care. Kenyon Wallace reports on how the theoretical regulation of private care homes rarely gives rise to enforcement, meaning that vulnerable people are left at the mercy of even the greediest and most negligent of private interests. And Janice Johnston reports on the COVID-19 outbreak at an Edmonton long-term care facility which serves as just the latest example of how the pandemic is taking advantage of poor protection for residents.

- Fair Vote Canada highlights Jagmeet Singh's effort to get the Libs to allow citizens a voice in how we're governed.

- Finally, CBC News reports on the failure of Quebec, Alberta and Saskatchewan to bother sending government representatives to a human rights meeting dealing with systemic racism.

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Eric Cadesky writes about the psychology behind adherence to - and deviation from - the social distancing rules needed to keep us all safe.

- Nora Loreto discusses how COVID-19 has exposed the lethal problems with Canada's long-term care system. Karl Belanger points out that among the other warnings, Howard Hampton tried to highlight the neglect of residents in 2007 - only to see austerian governments continue to hold power. And Susan Delacourt discusses the role the federal government can play in ensuring that seniors are treated with care, while Scott Schmidt calls out Jason Kenney's UCP for declaring it's willing to sacrifice residents' lives if it means profits keep flowing.

- Kelly Grant and Carly Weeks examine Ontario's hot spots for community transmission of the coronavirus - as well as the social inequalities they reflect. And Jennifer Yang discusses the prospect that workplaces will be the new danger zones.

- Fair Vote Canada makes the case to restore democratically-determined per-vote funding to our federal political parties.

- Finally, Sandy Garossino discusses how Stephen Harper has cemented his place as an embarrassment since being voted out of office.

Saturday Morning Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Bethany Lindsay reports on the start of B.C.'s inquiry into money laundering through casinos. And PressProgress offers a reminder as to how the Saskatchewan Party has chosen to operate under the "Wild West" of election financing rules to ensure it can rely on big corporate donations from out of the province.

- As for what those donations have secured, Arthur White-Crummey reports first on the remarkable declaration that a multi-million-dollar investment fund for First Nations and Metis run by a Saskatchewan Party insider was never intended either to make money or to create jobs, and then on the multi-billion-dollar backlog of maintenance in schools resulting from the Sask Party's focus on tax slashing and corporate giveaways.

-  Meanwhile, Susan Delacourt writes that a pandemic should be the type of event which reminds us of the need for a functional government. And Tara Carman reports on the national crisis of under-resourced shelters which leave people attempting to flee violence with nowhere to turn.

- Finally, Mitchell Anderson ponders how our political and economic standing would look better if we'd spent the last few decades focused on pursuing treaties rather than gambling on fossil fuel subsidies.

Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Lana Payne comments on the war being waged by Canada's right-wing governments against workers.

- Dion Rabouin writes about the product of decades of giveaways to the rich - as the obscenely wealthy literally can't find any use for massive amounts of money other than to hoard it, even while refusing to pass any of it along. And Elizabeth Capelle discusses both how housing has become financialized, and how to reorient our view of it to serve the interests of people beyond the 1%.

- Frederick Hewitt points out how some of the most several long-term dangers of a climate breakdown involve the types of food supply disruptions which proved the undoing of past civilizations. Christopher Flavelle notes that the increasing recognition of the dangers of climate change is leading to higher costs and lower use of insurance to guard against foreseeable risks. And while Susan Delacourt wonders whether the climate crisis will lead to full social mobilization, the most telling part of her column is the thoroughly uninspired (and uninspiring) response from the Lib government:

My colleague here in the Star’s Ottawa bureau, Alex Ballingall, asked Environment Minister Catherine McKenna this week about whether wartime examples could inspire more collective public action on climate change.

“Look, I mean, I am very supportive of more ambition on climate change. I hear good ideas every single day. I mean I think the idea that you need to link climate action with people and making sure that you are focused on how do you improve lives is critical,” McKenna told Ballingall. But the minister also said that any ambition has to be tempered with, yes, affordability. “People want action on climate change but they want life to be affordable and at the same time creating good jobs.”

So, not exactly Dunkirk or D-Day, at least not yet. Bill Nye may need a bigger blowtorch.

- Finally, Bruce Campbell comments on the need for a public inquiry into the Lac-Mégantic disaster and points out some of the questions which remain unanswered to this day. And Penelope Simons notes that the Libs' distaste for corporate accountability is endangering Canada's global reputation.

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Campbell Robb laments the persistence of in-work poverty in the UK - though it's of course worth noting the reality that poverty of all kinds is worth combating. Pat Thane points out that increasing poverty can be traced directly to deliberate and avoidable austerity, while the Real News talks to Matt Gardner about the U.S.' exacerbation of inequality through tax giveaways to the rich. And Susan Delacourt wonders what happened to Justin Trudeau's supposed interest in alleviating inequality in Canada.

- Jesse McLaren points out how Doug Ford's attacks on workers will only make the hallway medicine problem worse by foisting more social problems onto the health care system. And Martin Regg Cohn writes about Ford's choice to target younger Ontarians.

- David Climenhaga comments on Jason Kenney's used-car-salesman brand of politics. And Murray Mandryk discusses how the Saskatchewan Party is refusing to cut the province's losses on the Global Transportation Hub by throwing busing subsidies at Loblaws even after cutting off transportation for Saskatchewan's citizens.

- Finally, James Wilt interviews Bruce Campbell about his new book on the Lac-Mégantic explosion - and the real danger to the public posed by continued regulatory capture.

Saturday Morning Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Lee Drutman points out that Donald Trump's presidency represents an entirely foreseeable result of a two-party, first-past-the-post electoral system:

(C)ontrary to claims that American political parties have to appeal broadly to win, they only need to win a quarter of the voting-age population to gain unified control of government in Washington, and their presidential nominee needs to win far less than that. Lest you think I’m picking on Republicans, the same was true (roughly) of Democrats in 2008.

Part of this is because unlike in Germany, where voter turnout hovers closer to 80 percent, American voter turnout is usually in the mid-50s in presidential elections, and closer to 40 percent in midterms (an international laggard). Many US voters don’t bother to vote because neither of the two parties appeals to them, or because they live in a safe state where their vote doesn’t matter, or because by comparative standards, there are significant hurdles to voting in the United States (such as more complicated registration, or voting being on a workday instead of on a weekend).

In short, there is nothing structural about a two-party system that guarantees moderate parties that have to appeal broadly.
...

In the debate about whether democracy is in decline in the West, there’s some important cross-national variance. In a response to the widely discussed democratic decline findings of Roberto Foa and Yascha Mounk, Pippa Norris compared support for democracy across Western democracies and found whatever cohort decline existed, it was largely limited to Anglo-American democracies, which tend toward two-party systems.

By contrast, in parliamentary democracies with proportional voting, there has been no consistent erosion in support for democracy. As Norris argues by way of explanation, “parliamentary democracies with PR elections and stable multiparty coalition governments, typical of the Nordic region, generate a broader consensus about welfare policies addressing inequality, exclusion, and social justice, and this avoids the adversarial winner-take-all divisive politics and social inequality more characteristic of majoritarian systems.”

- Joe Romm notes that any business case for fossil fuel power continues to crumble based on the decreasing cost of both solar and wind power, and the battery storage needed to use them most effectively.

- Ben Parfitt highlights the illegal building of 92 fracking dams in British Columbia - along with the province's disappointing response which seems limited trying to validate their construction.

- Susan Delacourt discusses the potentially large - but difficult-to-verify - role that big data plays in Canadian politics. And Colin Horgan offers an unnerving look at the type of personal information collected by Facebook and Google.

- Finally, Sandy Hudson comments on the unfair and racially-tinged burden the corporate press has placed on Jagmeet Singh (but not on his fellow federal leaders). But it's particularly worth noting - contrary to the spin being placed on Singh's leadership by other commentators - that Singh has the highest net public impression among the leaders of the official federal parties, and that the NDP is near the upper end of its typical polling range.

Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material to start your week.

- Karl Russell and Peter Goodman note that lower unemployment rates in the U.S aren't translating into higher wages. Alena Semuels points out the barriers preventing people from moving in order to pursue a higher income. And Kevin Brice-Lall interviews Jonathan Rosenblum about the need for activism to push beyond the initial fight for a $15 minimum wage:

What can you tell us about the business backlash in Seattle — how did they fight the movement for a $15 minimum wage? Given the Ontario Liberal Party’s promise of a $15 minimum, what advice do you have for activists currently fighting against business lobby?
...
It’s critical for us to recognize what produces concessions in the first place. In my experience bargaining union contracts and negotiating with politicians, I’ve found that it’s easy to overestimate the importance of what happens at the bargaining table. When I’ve led union negotiations I’ve emphasized to bargaining team members that what we win in the end depends 90 percent on what we do outside of bargaining, and only 10 percent on what takes place inside the room.

There are three related principles that constitute the bedrock of effective movement work in politics. First, a clear recognition that anything and everything we win in the political arena isn’t the product of political enlightenment by the establishment; it’s a concession to our power.

Second, a recognition that power — the ability to shape and influence things — is what we get when we band together and take action, whether in the streets, workplace, in halls of parliament, or through political campaigns. Our power is a function of our demonstrated ability to harm, punish, or embarrass our adversaries, to disrupt their agenda. There are no gimmicks or shortcuts to building collective worker power. And third, an understanding that the balance of power is not static, and we have to keep organizing or we’ll lose whatever gains we’ve achieved.

- Meanwhile, Susan Delacourt discusses how the decline of retail sales (at least through many familiar businesses such as Sears) figures to affect political dynamics in Canada.

- Joe Gunn highlights how Canadians are still waiting for a federal government to start fulfilling the promise of reducing poverty.

- Sara Mojtehedzadeh reports on Ontario's new guidelines for mental health claims which (like those of too many other provinces) establish an unfair double standard. And Benoit Denizet-Lewis points out the alarming increase in anxiety among teens.  

- Finally, Alex MacPherson reports on a legal opinion from Manitoba showing (to nobody's surprise) that Brad Wall's posturing against federal climate change policy has no basis in reality.

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- David Leonhardt looks at the glaring growth of inequality in the U.S., while Matt Bruening charts how that trend is based entirely on capital ownership. And in the face of the Republicans' plan for another round of giveaways to the rich, the New York Times' editorial board discusses what tax reform could (and should) mean.

- Torsten Bell argues that the 2007 financial crisis represented a lost opportunity to build an economy that works for workers. And Ann Pettifor laments that the political response to a global financial crisis was limited to lining the pockets of the wealthy, while reminding us that people ultimately hold the power to set the terms of market operations:

In the real economy, those who do not own and rent out income-earning assets like rental property, bonds (government debt), stocks and shares (that earn dividends) have become poorer, and inequality has rocketed. To raise incomes many have joined the rentier economy by renting out their homes (Airbnb) their cars (Uber, Lyft) or bikes (Deliveroo and other couriers). This is an extraordinary development. Workers invest in the ownership, maintenance and insurance of the capital asset (the home, car or cycle) – while the rentier class based in Silicon Valley, having invested in, borrowed or stolen open source software, almost effortlessly extract rent from the worker and her asset. It is these developments that in my view have led to the dramatic rise in inequality worldwide.
...
So what is to be done? Challenging and dismantling gargantuan financial markets that operate beyond democratic regulatory oversight will not be easy, but it is long overdue. Some believe that the management of financial markets by governments will never be restored. I do not agree. Because of global imbalances, economic and financial tensions could lead to the onset of wars. These could dismantle global financial markets just as the two world wars did.

There is a more peaceful way of restoring finance to the role of servant to, and not master of, economies and regions. For that to happen the public must realise that citizens can exercise economic power over global financial markets. The global ‘House of Finance’ is almost entirely dependent, and indeed largely parasitic, on the public sector. In other words, private finance is largely dependent for its capital gains on taxpayers like you and me.
...

Neither politicians nor mainstream economists will hold the out-of-control finance sector to account until citizens make that case. The people must lead, so that leaders can follow. We must use the powers of taxpayer-backed central banks and finance ministries to demand a transformation of the global financial system. If our demands are ignored, then we must demand the withdrawal of massive subsidies provided to the private finance sector by our publicly-financed and taxpayer-backed institutions.

Nothing less will do if we are serious about creating an economy that works for people and the planet.

- Andrea Bellemare reports on the ubiquity of Airbnb and other short-term rental services - and how they're leading to needed rental housing being diverted to the app market. And James McCandless points out the end result of anti-government zealotry run amok by writing about the failed libertarian experiment in Von Ormy, Texas.

- Kristian Foden-Vencil discusses the importance of social factors in affecting individual health.

- Finally, Susan Delacourt examines personal examples of people changing their minds on some of the big issues in Canadian politics.

New column day

Here, on the first few steps of the federal NDP's leadership race.

For further reading...
- CBC News reported on Peter Julian's campaign launch, while Alex Ballingall covered Charlie Angus' and Aaron Wherry wrote about Guy Caron's. And Mia Rabson reports that Niki Ashton will officially announce her candidacy next week.
- So far Peter Julian looks to be the only candidate with an active leadership website, which is worth a visit particularly for its forum for policy discussion.
- John Paul Tasker also took a general look at the campaign. Chantal Hebert discussed the importance of a focus on policy, while Ed Broadbent offered some advice for the candidates.
- And finally, Susan Delacourt expands on the role Caron's basic income proposal may play in the wider political scene.

New column day

Here, on how Justin Trudeau is about the least plausible possible advocate as to the importance of building trust in leaders and public institutions.

For further reading...
- The text of Trudeau's Hamburg speech is here. And both Paul Wells and Susan Delacourt wonder whether it signals a shift in the Libs' plans, though the more plausible reading looks to be that it merely reflects the gap between their rhetoric and actions.
- Daniel Tencer rightly argues that if Trudeau was serious about empowering the public, the last thing he'd be doing is pushing the CETA and other trade deals designed to give businesses a veto over public policy.
- And Duncan Cameron also addresses the Libs' predictable choice to govern from the corporate right, no matter how much progressive posturing they offer on the stump (or when they're spouting empty words).

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Tom Parkin calls out the Libs' latest laughable excuse for breaking their promise of electoral reform - being the threat that a party like the one which just held power for 10 years might win a few seats. Andrew Coyne notes that we shouldn't accept Justin Trudeau's bogeyman as an excuse for doing nothing. And Abbas Rana and Derek Abma report that the focus of Lib MPs is to avoid political fallout from their party's betrayal of voters, rather than to try to live up to their commitment.

- Meanwhile, Susan Delacourt sees the electoral reform farce as a prime example of the Libs using a surface consultation process to paper over their basic lack of interest in actually listening to the public.

- Ellen Smirl examines the conservative voting patterns of many rural residents despite their commitment to co-operatives, credit unions and other collective alternatives to domination by the market. 

- Conor Dougherty hypothesizes as to how our economy would be different - and fairer - if we didn't rely so heavily on housing as an investment.

- Finally, Carole Cadwalladr interviews Daniel Dennett about the costs of declining co-operation and trust. And Trevor Hancock comments on how increasing inequality eats away at both:

“When inequality becomes too great, the idea of community becomes impossible”. If you want to create a healthier community, you need to address this issue head-on.
...
It’s hard to imagine the super-wealthy, or even the wealthy, having much shared understanding of the situation of their fellow citizens. This is compounded by the deliberate strategy, coming from the right, of labelling people as taxpayers rather than citizens. As taxpayers, people focus on their taxes, and are encouraged to resent paying them; this makes tax dodging and even tax-evasion socially acceptable.

Yet the whole point about community is a sense of shared identity and interest. But when the gap between the wealthy and the poor becomes so great there is no ‘we’, just ‘them’ and ‘us’. And pretty quickly ‘we’ don’t want to pay for ‘their’ children’s education, ‘their’ health care, ‘their’ public transit, roads or pavements.

But citizens, seeing themselves as part of a community, focus on their shared interests, common purpose and the common good. They understand, as US Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes put it a century ago, that taxes are the price we pay for civilisation.

Revolution is an understandable response to exclusion and unacceptable inequality. Arguably, what we have just seen in the US is a revolution, although in this case a revolution from the right, as was the case in Germany in the 1930s. But it’s not the best or healthiest way to change society. Here in Canada, we still have time for evolution and reform. If we want healthier communities and a healthier society, we need to embrace that opportunity.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- The Star argues that a crackdown on tax evasion and avoidance is a crucial first step in reining in inequality. Susan Delacourt wonders when, if ever, Chrystia Freeland's apparent interest in inequality will show up in her role in government. And Vanmala Subramaniam reminds us why the cause of developing a more equal society is such a vital one:

So what?

If you’re upper middle-class or rich in Canada, that’s a question you might find yourself asking. Being rich-ish means that you will, for the most part, live a materially comfortable existence, relatively shielded from the day-to-day struggles of the bottom 40 percent of Canadian society. You’ll be able to save and invest a substantial chunk of money, live in a safe, quiet, green neighbourhood with good schools, travel, and put your kids through university so that they don’t graduate saddled with tens of thousands in debt. Inequality, in the short or even medium run, will probably not affect you. 

But if you’re at the two lowest rungs of the income ladder, the impact of inequality is what you see and feel and breathe every single day. Despite those 60 hour work weeks, you continue living paycheque to paycheque. You wonder why your hard work is deemed significantly less valuable than those in the upper echelons of the professional world. Your consumption patterns are, almost always, short-term. When it comes to spending, you cannot see beyond a month, or a week even. Forget saving or investing — those are goals as unattainable as being a unicyclist for Cirque Du Soleil. 

One of the biggest problems with living in a society with a massive income gap is that on an economic level, at least, growth will become unsustainable. “The rich cannot eat away all the money they’ve got because they have too much, but you can be sure that the poor will spend every penny they have because they have so little to begin with,” Armine Yalnizyan, Senior Economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives told VICE Money.

Indeed, increasing inequality reduces demand for basic goods since consumption levels depend more on the wages of those at the lower end of the income scale than the profits of the rich. When households struggle to consume on steady but low wages, they will increasingly rely on debt to maintain their lifestyles, worsening their long-term ability to consume, and save

- Mark Bulgutch warns against the dangers of running government (or public institutions) based on business principles. And Simone Chiose reports on a prime example, as Ontario universities are being required to justify higher education in terms of immediate economic outcomes.

- PressProgress examines how Christy Clark's government has pushed the cost of living ever higher in British Columbia, while Tara Carman discusses the advantages of making child care affordable and accessible. And Sean Boynton examines the public embarrassment arising out of the New York Times' report on the Libs' cash-for-access party operations.

- Reuters reports on China's massive shift away from dirty coal power - including by stopping construction which had already begun in order to move toward cleaner and more affordable alternatives. And James Wilt offers a quick look at the effects of coal power in Alberta, along with the health benefits of shifting away from it.

- Finally, Geoff Leo reports on the Saskatchewan Party's continued stonewalling of any attempt to investigate the Global Transportation Hub scandal.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Jacob Levy highlights the importance of "identity politics" - or more specifically, the willingness to fight against systematic inequality of all kinds - as part of an effective progressive movement. And George Monbiot writes that we should be returning to first principles when it comes to the economy, starting with a renewed commitment to rebuilding the commons. 

- Dean Burnett rebuts a UK report which attempted to detach mental health from underlying social issues including poverty.

- Karri Munn-Venn points out that last week's climate change announcement from Canada's federal government falls far short of meeting the world's commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

- Robert Fife and Steven Chase report on Justin Trudeau's galling claim that in granting pay-for-play access to billionaires, he's not only avoiding being influenced personally, but taking wealthy donors' money to lobby them. And Susan Delacourt sees the cash-for-access system as a strong indication that the Libs haven't changed an iota from their history of backroom politics.

- Finally, Daniel Tencer writes that the Libs are planning far worse systematic intrusions into Canadians' privacy than were ever included in Bill C-51, while also highlighting some needed pushback by Canada's tech industry against yet another round of unjustified and unaccountable online surveillance. And Tonda MacCharles reports on the predictable results of a security state deciding whether or not to be publicly accountable, as CSIS has scrapped a promise to open up about past (and apparently ongoing) spying on journalists.

Monday Evening Links

Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading.

- Brent Patterson criticizes the Libs' short-sighted plans to privatize public services in lieu of any coherent economic policy. And Tom Parkin calls out their bait-and-switch approach to infrastructure.

- Robin McKie reports on Nicholas Stern's recognition that his much-cited work on the impacts of climate change only underestimated the damage we're doing to our planed. But Carol Linnitt writes that you'd never know the Libs had agreed to the Paris climate agreement from their destructive choices while in office.

- Gordon Kent points out that for all the implausible attempts to paint the oil industry as primarily providing jobs (rather than easy returns on capital), the workers actually making a living there are asking for more sustainable alternatives. And Samantha Page highlights the devastating environmental impacts of fracking.

- Kyle Curlew discusses Bill C-51 as a byproduct of Canada's long and embarrassing history of overreacting to minimal threats with extreme restrictions on our civil rights. The CP reports on the NDP's efforts to ensure at least a somewhat more effective system of parliamentary oversight than the Libs are prepared to offer - though even that falls short of the accountability we should expect of an agency which has taken on the right to disrupt citizens without warning. And Ian MacLeod reports that in addition to setting up an additional "oversight" mechanism which sees and reports only the information which the government wants to share, the Libs are slashing resources from existing watchdogs including SIRC.

- Finally, Susan Delacourt discusses the understandable frustration many Canadian have with our electoral system. And Susan Bradley reports that Prince Edward Island voters have expressed their preference for a mixed-member proportional system in a plebiscite.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Terry Pedwell reports that young workers who were apparently expected to provide Justin Trudeau with a public relations backdrop instead delivered an important dose of reality by protesting his appearance. And Angella MacEwen points out that contrary to the Libs' spin, there's in fact plenty a government can do to combat precarious work and financial insecurity:

I would advise the economic council to take a look at Senator Bellemare’s work on full employment, and Professor Marc Lavoie’s work on wage led growth. It might lead them in a policy direction that will benefit both growth and well-being.

For example, transfers such as the Canada Child Benefit will help to reduce poverty and inequality. Expanding the Working Income Tax Benefit would help make work pay, and make life a little easier for the working poor.

Expanding the social safety net by improving CPP will help down the road, and it absolutely reduces the stress of precarity when workers know they will have that pension when they retire.  The current design of Employment Insurance amplifies and exacerbates labour market inequalities, and ideally a social insurance system would work to dampen existing inequalities. A lower entrance requirement & minimum benefit level would go a long way to doing that.

The federal government could use Labour Market Development Agreements (LMDAs) with the provinces to provide more opportunities for training and re-training – and better supports for non-EI eligible workers who need access to basic numeracy and literacy training through Labour Market Agreements (LMAs).

High quality public services and social services are critical. I cannot overstate the need for more affordable childcare spaces in Canada, and the beneficial impact this would have on precarious workers.

- Thomas Walkom suggests that some of the federal-provincial tension on health care can be alleviated by including home care under the list of core services administered under the Canada Health Act.

- But sadly (if less than surprisingly), the Libs couldn't seem less interested in public solutions to social problems - as Brent Patterson highlights the latest indication that Justin Trudeau has decided to ignore the anti-social nature of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, while David McDonald points out that the Libs' push toward privatization and outsourcing is contrary to the international trend in public service delivery.

- Susan Delacourt notes that amidst plenty of valid concern about the influence of money on politics, we could substantially eliminate that problem by restoring public funding.

- Finally, Monia Mazigh rightly argues that it's long past time to repeal Bill C-51. Craig Forcese examines (and offers some important warnings about) the use of secret national security laws in Canada. And Jeremy Nuttall offers some suggestions to modernize public access to information.

Sunday Morning Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Jake Kivanc points out that what little job growth Canada can claim primarily involves precarious work. And Nora Loreto discusses the crucial link between labour and social change:

(T)o confront climate change, we must imagine the role of workers in the transition to an oil-free economy: how would energy workers, those in the skilled trades, public sector workers, and retail workers engage in this struggle from their workplace?
 

If we want a national child-care system, we must talk about work: both working parents and the childcare workers required to deliver a new system.

If we want community food centres, we must talk about how workers could be engaged in designing, delivering, and resourcing such a program. 

If we want radical health care reform, we must place patients alongside nurses, doctors, cafeteria workers, social workers, secretaries, archivists, maintenance staff, and everyone else who makes the health care system operate to achieve our radical reforms.      

  

If we want to enact the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, we must include workplaces as a site of reconciliation, both to deliver on the commission’s recommendations but to also reach Canadians where they spend most of their waking lives.

There is no new internet without tech workers, there are no alternative food systems without farmers and grocers, there are no new Canadian films without actors and crew, there is no support for artists without funding artists to do their work and paying people to promote and help them out. 

And, within our workplaces, there is no shortage of things we need to fight to improve. We need better pay. We need (better) workplace protections. We need (better) pensions. We need (better) jobs.

- Michelle Chen points out how privatization results in degraded services for the people who need then, while rewarding nobody other than rent-seeking corporations.

- Pete Evans reports on the OECD's look at Canada's appallingly high child care costs.

- Bill McKibben writes that any serious effort to combat climate change requires that we not only elect governments willing to speak about the issue, but pressure them to live up to their promises - a lesson which many within the Libs might want to take to heart. And Lauri Myllyvirta and Joanna Mills expose the utter futility of Brad Wall's attempt to pitch "clean coal" as a technology worth developing for export, as the key market in China is slashing planned coal plant construction.

- Finally, Susan Delacourt challenges the conventional political wisdom that young citizens aren't interested in how they're governed.

Saturday Afternoon Links

This and that for your weekend reading.

- Naomi Klein discusses how Canada's longstanding - if far from inevitable - identity as a resource economy is standing in the way of both needed action on climate change and reconciliation with First Nations:

In Canada, cultivation and industrialization were secondary. First and foremost, this country was built on voraciously devouring wildness. Canada was an extractive company – the Hudson’s Bay Company – before it was a country. And that has shaped us in ways we have yet to begin to confront.

Because such enormous fortunes have been built purely on the extraction of wild animals, intact forest and interred metals and fossil fuels, our economic elites have grown accustomed to seeing the natural world as their God-given larder.

When someone or something – like climate science – comes along and says: Actually, there are limits, we have to take less from the Earth and keep more profit for the public good, it doesn’t feel like a difficult truth. It feels like an existential attack.

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The trouble isn’t just the commodity roller coaster. It’s that the stakes grow larger with each boom-bust cycle. The frenzy for cod crashed a species; the frenzy for bitumen and fracked gas is helping to crash the planet.

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Today, we have federal and provincial governments that talk a lot about reconciliation. But this will remain a cruel joke if non-Indigenous Canadians do not confront the why behind those human-rights abuses. And the why, as the Truth and Reconciliation report states, is simple enough: “The Canadian government pursued this policy of cultural genocide because it wished to divest itself of its legal and financial obligations to Aboriginal people and gain control over their land and resources.”

The goal, in other words, was to remove all barriers to unrestrained resource extraction. This is not ancient history. Across the country, Indigenous land rights remain the single greatest barrier to planet-destabilizing resource extraction, from pipelines to clear-cut logging.

- Susan Delacourt highlights Charlie Angus' frustration with the Libs' Teletubbie political style, while Tony Burman notes that Middle East relations represent just one more area where Justin Trudeau's actions couldn't be much further from his rhetoric. 

- But Ethan Cox' report on an Indigenous treaty alliance also signals what may the most effective response - as rather than allowing the Libs to feign friendship while pursuing another agenda, First Nations are presenting a united and direct contrast to Trudeau's plans. And Doug Cuthand points out the widespread protest against the Dakota Access pipeline as the latest and largest example of that solidarity being put into action.

- Meanwhile, Marc Lee signals what we might expect from a federal climate change action plan based on the working groups currently reviewing the options.

- Laurie Monsebraaten reports on a needed push to ensure that child care funding is used to create not-for-profit spaces. And Ashifa Kassam points to Wellington's loss of water rights to Nestle as a prime example of what happens when corporate dollars trump public needs.

- Finally, Alon Weinberg discusses why now is the time to implement a proportional electoral system in Canada. And Craig Scott makes the case for mixed-member proportional over the other options under consideration.

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Caroline Plante reports on Quebec's scourge of medical extra-billing and user fees (as identified by its own Auditor General). And Aaron Derfel notes that the federal government has done nothing to apply the Canada Health Act to rein in the practice.

- Erika Shaker highlights how federal funding for post-secondary education serves mostly to provide further advantages for students who already have the most.

- The Star makes the case for the Communications Security Establishment to answer for breaches of Canadians' privacy. And Kaveh Waddell discusses how big data in the hands of the corporate sector can lead to systematic discrimination against poor communities, while Dennis Howlett challenges KPMG's claim that confidentiality entitles tax cheats to avoid exposure.

- Susan Delacourt offers a few suggestions as to how Justin Trudeau could usefully use some political capital - with a particular focus on reversing the Cons' attacks on the political system. And Kelly McParland notes that the Cons themselves may be continuing down the path of artificial barriers against experience and competence with internal leadership term limits.

- Finally, Trish Kahle discusses the shared interest of the labour and environmental movements in a sustainable economy.