Tuesday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Tuesday reading.

- Paola Frelich writes about the uber-rich whose habit of being strictly isolated from anybody else has allowed for life to continue as usual while workers face the risks of a pandemic. And Dominic Rushe comments on the split in the U.S.' economy between those with concentrated wealth which is only growing thanks to massive capital injections, and those scrambling to make ends meet as minimal benefits have been allowed to expire.

- Patrick Butler reports on the results of an inquiry finding a direct link between poor housing and COVID-19 death rates in the UK.

- Lynn Giesbrecht reports that Saskatchewan's pediatricians are just the latest group of experts to raise the alarm over the province's lack of a plan to ensure student and staff safety as schools reopen. Arthur White-Crummey reports on the concerns of Saskatchewan teachers about the risks of poorly ventilated schools. Kristin Rushowy reports on Doug Ford's rejection of any attempt to reduce class sizes to protect against the spread of COVID-19. And Rachel Mendleson and Jennifer Yang highlight the need to ensure that before- and after-school programs don't become an unaddressed source of viral spread. 

- Finally, J David Hughes discusses how massive subsidies to British Columbia's liquid natural gas industry have proven disastrous both for the environment and the economy. 

New column day

Here, questioning why so many of our political leaders spend so much time talking about pipelines which are neither economically necessary nor environmentally sustainable.

For further reading...
- J. David Hughes' study cited in the column is here (PDF). And Bruce Cheadle reported on the federal government's internal analysis showing that Canada's current transport capacity is plenty until at least 2025.
- Jason Proctor reported on the Federal Court of Appeal's decision finding the Cons' approval of Northern Gateway to be unconstitutional due to the lack of dialogue with First Nations during the assessment process. 
- Don Pittis points out why we can't realistically expect oil prices to rise to any point which would make substantially greater production feasible.
- Finally, Peter Prebble argues that it's long past time for Saskatchewan to start taking climate change seriously.

Update: Or, to more concisely sum up the entire case for pipelines at this point:

The message, [said TransCanada CEO Russ Girling about Energy East], is "build it and we'll see what happens."

Your mileage may vary as to whether that should represent anybody's top public policy priority.

[Edit: updated link.]