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. 

Friday Evening Links

 Assorted content to end your week.

- Alex Hemingway examines how a wealth tax could raise substantially more money than assumed by the PBO. And Caterina Lindman writes about the benefits of a basic income guarantee funded by progressive taxes.

- Stefan Nikola discusses how shortened work weeks are at long last - if still gradually - becoming more common. And Kaitlyn Matulewicz and Iglika Ivanova highlight how paid sick leave can help to close the gender gap (among other important benefits).

- Simon Enoch weighs in on the Saskatchewan Party's belated recognition that obsessing over balanced budgets is foolhardy in the midst of a health crisis. And Trish Hennessy offers a few reasons for hope as a path out of the coronavirus pandemic comes into sight.

- But lest there be any doubt about the consequences of relaxing public health measures too soon, Kate Kelland reports on research showing that the B.1.1.7 variant is more deadly as well as more susceptible to transmission - which makes it alarming that Regina is seeing that variant become the dominant strain of COVID-19, with dozens of cases confirmed and even more presumed. And James Keller and Ivan Semeniuk report on Jason Kenney's preposterous plan to prioritize social conservatives' vaccine choice over effective distribution to as many people as possible.

- Finally, Yvonne Hii and Henny Yeung discuss how COVID-19 has only confirmed the importance ensuring parents have access to child care.