Saturday Morning Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Aaron Derfel writes about the threat posed by the Delta COVID-19 variant. The Leader-Post and Star-Phoenix editorial boards point out the Moe government's rush to "normal" (which includes abandoning even the most basic protections including masking). And Heidi Atter reports on public health advice suggesting that parents remain far more responsible than the Saskatchewan Party intends to be.

- David Milliken and Kate Holton report on the G7's agreement on a global minimum corporate tax - though the modest rate so far leaves a large amount of room for improvement. 

- Christopher Nardi reports on the NDP's push to have the auditor general review the CRA's limited resources to audit the richest people and corporations. And Harvey Cashore and Frederic Zalac report on the continued and unchallenged use of tax dodges even after the CRA had labeled them as shams.

- Seth Klein makes the case for a Youth Climate Corps to both provide young people with needed opportunities, and ensure we start the work we need toward a just transition to a clean economy. And David Hughes highlights the stark contrast between the steps needed to avert climate breakdown, and the determination of so many Canadian elites to keep pushing fossil fuels.

- Damian Carrington reports on new warnings from scientists as to how climate-change tipping points may create a domino effect. Sally Brown and Robert James Nicholls explain why sea levels are rising particularly quickly in large cities. And Alexandria Herr reports on Lake Charles, Louisiana's steps toward a planned retreat from land facing regular flooding.

- Finally, Shree Paradkar discusses how the reminder of the genocidal policy behind residential schools should challenge any perception of the "good Canadian". Nancy Dyson speaks up as to what workers saw. within residential schools Justin Ling writes about the school death of Jonnish Saganash as just one of an unconscionable number. And Jorge Barrera reports on the federal government's latest attempts to avoid providing even compensation long after the fact for the cultural loss suffered by residential school survivors, while Brett Forrester points out its concurrent argument against any help for First Nations families who were denied essential services.

Musical interlude

Dirty Vegas - Lost Not Found

Thursday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Max Fawcett writes about Jason Kenney's reckless wager of countless lives in the unlikely hope that a Stampede can save his political hide. And Bartley Kives writes that while Manitoba may finally be seeing case counts drop following its devastating third wave, it's still facing severe demands on its health care system. 

- Linda McQuaig discusses how Bill Gates ensured that COVID-19 vaccine development was driven by the business interests of pharmaceutical companies rather than a focus on ensuring a people's vaccine was available to everybody. 

- Liz Walker and Shanice Regis-Wilkins talk to union activists about the best ways to improve wages and working conditions through collective bargaining. 

- Jon Woodward examines how bike lane construction - just like road construction - tends to result in induced demand and changes to transportation patterns. 

- Finally, Tria Donaldson writes about the importance of remembering the children buried at residential school sites and to finally end the ongoing discrimination facing Indigenous people. 

Wednesday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.

- Ivan Semeniuk writes about the changing COVID-19 pandemic as the primary threat becomes the spread of variants which weren't known or accounted for in the development of current vaccines.

- Christine Freethy discusses the experience of seeing a family member among the faces in an anti-mask crowd - including the question it raises as to how to encourage those close to us to act responsibly. And V comments on the disaster patriarchy which has used the pandemic as an opportunity to exploit and control women.

- Nicholas Lemann writes about the battle over the treatment of business which played out through the 1960s and 1970s - and the consequences of the choice to prioritize consumerism over the well-being of people which ultimately left powerful corporate bodies with little organized opposition.

- Daniel Alpert points out that many Americans are understandably electing not to accept unliveable wages and working conditions as the price of a return to work. And Anders Melin and Misyrlena Egkolfopoulou write about the workers choosing to leave jobs rather than losing the ability to work from home to the whims of inflexible employers.

- Finally, John Michael McGrath points out that we can't plausibly treat residential schools and other systemic discrimination against Indigenous people as merely a footnote to be left in the past. And Shreya Kalra examines the many options to reduce racialized poverty which the Libs are tragically neglecting.

Tuesday Night Cat Blogging

Cleanup crew cats.

 

Tuesday Morning Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Robert Hiltz warns against letting the leaders responsible for preventable COVID deaths off the hook as part of an attempt to turn loosened restrictions into a good news story. And Mickey Djuric talks to Nazeem Muhajarine about the dangers of prematurely lifting mask mandates.

- John Woodside offers a reminder that Canada's record on greenhouse gas emissions is the worst in the G7. And Ian Gill points out that we don't need to destroy our planet as the price of achieving any valid measure of well-being.

- Peter Goodman and Niraj Chokshi discuss how reliance on "just in time" supply chains in the interest of short-term profit-making has made us vulnerable to shortages of necessities. And Eric Atkins discusses the centralization of rail as yet another example of concentrated corporate power being used to squeeze profits out of everybody else.

- Matthew Yglesias examines the compelling case for higher taxes on alcohol in light of its damaging social effects. 

- Susan Prentice and Pat Armstrong highlight the problems with corporate models of child care and elder care. And Martin Regg Cohn comments on the need to focus on the delivery of services rather than profit motives.

- Finally, Tanya Talaga discusses the work still to be done in finding the Indigenous children buried at residential school sites across Canada. And Alex Boyd, Omar Mosleh and Alex McKeen point out a few of the most likely sites and the stories behind them.

Monday Afternoon Links

Assorted content to start your week.

- Bartley Kives discusses the Pallister PC's failure to respond to warnings about a new COVID wave (which of course reflects a pattern among conservative provincial governments). Julia Wong exposes the Kenney UPC's utter failure to organize the contact tracing needed to avoid additional waves in Alberta. 

- Meanwhile, Damien Gayle reports that the UK is looking at reversing its plans to relax public health restrictions based on the dangers of new variants - even as Luke Savage notes that its conservative elites too were perfectly happy to sacrifice large numbers of lives for their own convenience. 

- David Climenhaga writes that the the mass gravesite revealed at the Kamloops Indian Residential School is the latest evidence of the crimes against humanity at the heart of Canada's policy toward Indigenous peoples, while Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond reminds us that it represents just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the disappearance of Indigenous children. The Canadian Press reports on FSIN's call for immediate steps to investigate undocumented deaths and burials at Saskatchewan residential school sites. And CBC News reports on Cowessess First Nation's plans to use radar to begin the work. 

- Finally, Duncan Cameron discusses the need to work on constant organizing to counter the forces of corporate control - particularly among people now disaffected from political and activist involvement. And the Economist discusses Thomas Piketty's work examining the striking drift in education levels between political orientations over the past half century. 

Sunday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- John Michael McGrath highlights how the COVID-19 B.1.617 variant represents a serious threat to the prospect of safely relaxing restrictions over the summer. And Morgan Modjeski reports on the COVID outbreak at the Pine Grove Correctional Centre.

- D.T. Cochrane highlights a few of the major Canadian corporations which have seen massive windfalls as a result of the pandemic. And Grace Blakeley warns that we can't expect the temporary response to the coronavirus to represent the end of neoliberalism.

- Michael Geist has been reviewing some of the problems with the Libs' C-10 regulating online broadcasting - including its application to individual users as well as the tech giants, and its incompatibility with net neutrality. And Nikolas Barry-Shaw makes the case for nationalized telecommunications as an alternative to the cartel which controls communications infrastruction across most of the country.

- T. Cameron Wild et al. find strong support among the Canadian public for harm reduction sites. But Alanna Smith reports on the UCP's latest decision to slash life-saving services first and maybe consider developing an alternative later.

- Finally, Angela Wright discusses the lingering effect of discriminatory urban planning in the U.S. and Canada.