Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Crawford Kilian writes that even if the Omicron variant of COVID-19 doesn't prove as dangerous as it appears, it should serve as a reminder as to why we should be careful to protect everybody's health and safety. And Andrew Nikiforuk examines the evidence that Omicron is going to lead to the most dangerous wave yet, while Virginia Harrison reports on the exponential spread it's causing in South Africa.

- Nick Dearden discusses how big pharma's profiteering paved the way for variants to emerge. And Ketty Nivyabandi, Madhukar Pai and Christina Warner push for Canada to stop obstructing the availability of vaccines in the countries where they're needed most.

- Jim Stanford writes that the case for 10 paid sick days (rather than any lesser sop to corporate interests) is particularly compelling when that time frame matches the incubation period for COVID.

- Andrew Jackson argues that our response to inflation should be focused on making essential goods affordable, not on trying to funnel money to the owners of capital. And Paul Krugman highlights how the increases in prices people are facing result from supply chain limitations and corporate profiteering, not the printing of money.

- MiningWatch maps out the impacts on communities around the globe if new mining plans are allowed to run roughshod. And Pam Palmater discusses how the RCMP's role is still fundamentally one of clearing Indigenous lands for the benefit of corporate interests. 

- Meanwhile, James Whittingham challenges the Moe government's pathetic excuses for standing in the way of any transition toward electric vehicles in Saskatchewan.

- Finally, Amir Barnea encourages workers to organize in order to put their relatively high level of bargaining power to the best possible use.

#Elxn44 Roundup

News and notes from the aftermath of Canada's federal election.

- Christo Aivalis is the latest to point out that nobody emerged from the election as a winner. And John Packer writes that there's an ever-stronger case for a coalition government given the low level of popular support for the party with a plurality of seats. 

- Katrina Miller notes that the idea of taxing the rich isn't about to disappear anytime soon, and that it makes sense for it to be one of the outcomes of Monday's election. 

- Karl Nerenberg writes about the multiple barriers to voting which limited turnout and affected the fairness of the election. And Ole Hendrickson argues that the low turnout also serves as evidence of discontent with an electoral system which fails to reflect the will of voters. 

- Pam Palmater highlights why we need to be worried about the PPC's increased number of votes as an indication of a dangerous far-right movement. 

- Finally, Nia Williams writes about the demand by Canadian fossil fuel workers to see the Libs make good on the promise of retraining as part of a just transition. 

Thursday Morning Links

This and that for your Thursday reading.

- Cameron MacLean reports that Manitoba is providing incentives to overcome vaccine hesitancy. But Guy Quenneville reports on the Saskatchewan Party's refusal to consider anything of the sort even as new vaccinations grind to a halt. 

- Djaffar Shalchi writes about the need to revamp our revenue collection systems to make sure the wealthy contribute their fair share. And NUPGE joins the movement for a 21% global minimum corporate tax rate to ensuring businesses do the same. 

- Meanwhile, Miriam Lafontaine reports on the dangers of allowing corporate donations to influence police decision-making. And Jeremy Appel points out how Calgary's police have been quicker to hand out tickets to human rights protesters than to anti-maskers who are actually threatening public health. 

- Aaron Wherry discusses how a combination of Lib slow-playing and Con delay is leaving MPs with a choice between passing weak climate change accountability legislation, or getting nothing done at all. 

- Meanwhile, CBC News reports on the demise of Keystone XL - and the billion dollars thrown away by the Kenney UCP in an effort to posture about fealty to the oil industry. And Michael Buchsbaum calls out subsidies for carbon capture and storage as paying the fossil fuel sector to keep burning the planet.

- Finally, Cindy Blackstock and Pam Palmater remind us that the horrific discovery of child graves at Kamloops' residential school is just the beginning of the buried evidence of genocide against Indigenous peoples. 

Sunday Afternoon Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Bill Blaikie discusses how our growing inequality and precarity is the direct result of harmful policy choices:

By 1985 we were five years into the neo-liberal era brought on by the election of Margaret Thatcher in the UK and Ronald Reagan in the U.S.  They advocated policies like cutting taxes for the rich, cutting social assistance for the poor and the working poor, reducing the role of government in providing for the common good, reducing the power of unions to advocate for adequate wages, and basically letting the "market" decide.

Over the next forty years the " market" decided that the rich would get richer, the middle class would struggle, and the poor would get poorer. The current rate of economic inequality makes the seventies look like an egalitarian dream. CEOs that only made $500,000 back then might make 5 million or a lot more today.

Cutting taxes for the rich did not lead to economic investment that would cause economic benefits to " trickle-down". The only thing that trickled down was you know what, while power and income trickled up, and up, and the adequacy of wages shrunk, and shrunk.
Hence the fact that many who need and use food banks, and even some of the homeless are. people with jobs.

...

All this by way of explaining, in an obviously limited way, to younger people who surely must wonder why there are encampments of the homeless in their city, and in bus shelters, that it didn't have to be so, and it doesn't have to be so in the future. The current situation is a choice.  Our common responsibility, young or older, is to make our politicians make the right choices, and to support those who already advocate such choices.

- Thomas Walkom highlights how compulsory licensing would ensure that Canadians have access to COVID-19 vaccines (and other desperately-needed medical products), while Karl Nerenberg highlights how the NDP is looking to prioritize people over profits in both pharmaceutical production and long-term care. And John Miller notes in the wake of Bell's mental health whitewashing that the telecommunication sector represents another area where public needs and resources have been turned into a source of private profiteering.

- Ben Parfitt examines how British Columbia offer dirty industry the chance to use massive amounts of water at cut-rate prices. 

- Pam Palmater writes about Jason Kenney's litany of failures since taking power in Alberta. And Sara Birrell discusses the embarrassment that was Regina City Council's exercise in oil-worshipping self-flagellation.

- Finally, Brian Platt examines what an effective response to COVID-19 would look like - in stark contrast to the murderous insistence on doing as little as possible (particularly among right-wing premiers). And Kirby Bourne reports that independent restauranteurs are among the people begging for a COVID-zero strategy to replace the expectation that businesses will stay open regardless of the cost to public health.

Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Jeff Spross discusses the effectiveness of a wealth tax both in generating revenue, and in reducing inequality. David Leonhardt notes that a wealth tax will actually boost the economy by putting to use assets which are otherwise idle (if not being used for outright counterproductive purposes). And Jonathan Ruga and Scott Young write that they and many other wealthy people recognize the need for higher taxes on those who can most afford to pay them.

- Bob Weber reports on Clean Energy Canada's study showing how clean energy projects to create far more future employment than fossil fuels. And Sandy Garossino's must-read report examines the utter lack of a basis in fact for Jason Kenney's conspiracy theories about environmental activism.

- Meanwhile, Drew Anderson takes the closest look we've yet been offered at the UCP's rigged leadership race - and the inclusion of high-ranking provincial and federal politicians in Kenney's scheme.

- Ed Broadbent writes that in an election where many parties are seeking to divide based on race and region, the NDP is leading the way in running a slate of candidates which reflects the full diversity of Canada. And Pamela Palmater points out the importance of recognizing and countering the interrelationship between individual and systemic racism.

- Finally, Garima Talwar Kapoor and Elizabeth McIsaac compare the tax tinkering on offer from the Libs and Cons, but ultimately recognize that both promises serve mostly to shovel money to relatively well-off families while neglecting the people who most need help.

Sunday Morning Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Michal Rozworski examines the factors which have contributed to Canada's ongoing housing crisis, including public austerity, consumer debt and undue speculation. Dan Fumano points out how homelessness is growing in Vancouver despite a few preliminary steps being taken to provide long-absent housing, while Jennifer Ackerman notes that the same goes for Regina where increased vacancy rates haven't helped matters for people who can't afford the units left empty by the market. And Fatima Syed notes that multigenerational homes may play a role in ensuring that more people have access to the housing they need.

- Morris Pearl wonders why anybody still attempts to claim that trickle-down economics produce anything but an increased concentration of wealth at the top in the face of decades of evidence to the contrary. And Andrew MacLeod reports that George Abbott, a prominent B.C. Liberal cabinet minister, is finally recognizing the folly of declaring that tax giveaways for the rich somehow pay for themselves (if only long after holding the power to do something with that knowledge).

- Meanwhile, Margaride Jorge theorizes that it should be possible to ensure that U.S. politicians begin to act on the public's desire for more taxes on the rich and a more egalitarian economic system. 

- Pam Palmater offers a needed reminder that Indigenous rights aren't contingent on public opinion. Daphne Bramham writes that one of the key takeaways from the report of the inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women should be increased recognition of the ongoing reality of human trafficking in Canada. And Kyle Edwards points out that another area demanding followup is the link between resource extraction and the exploitation of Indigenous women.

- Finally, Chris writes about the importance of acting against homophobia in all of its forms, not only the most extreme examples such as the violent attack against her on a UK bus.

Sunday Morning Links

This and that for your Sunday reading.

- Jake Bittle writes about rural homelessness as a seldom-discussed issue which calls out for a strong policy response to ensure the right to housing is met regardless of whether one's community is urban or rural:

While the trigger events that cause homelessness are similar everywhere—foreclosure, unemployment, addiction, illness—small towns have far fewer job opportunities and mental-health resources. And although the housing shortage in rural areas is not as severe as in large cities such as New York City, Seattle, or San Francisco, rural houses are older and more dilapidated on average than urban houses, according to HUD data. As a result, even though the housing crisis left thousands of vacant homes in rural areas, service providers often have trouble finding housing that meets HUD’s standards. This leaves advocates with an uncomfortable choice: Work with the limited resources available in their area, or advise homeless individuals to relocate, which can mean leaving their families and social networks behind.
...
(U)nless the federal government makes an attempt to tackle rural homelessness as a distinct problem, the issue will only worsen. Roman said NAEH helped Congress sketch out a special HUD program to solve rural homelessness, but that Congress never actually gave the department money to set the initiative up. Under President Barack Obama, the department reversed a years long rise in homelessness, and homeless aid is one of the few parts of the HUD budget that the Trump administration has not slashed. Still, Roman says, without a concerted effort to tackle rural America’s “hidden homeless,” the question of shelter in the United States will only be partially answered.

- And Bernie Sanders notes that the gap between the rich and the rest of us applies to agricultural communities, as agribusiness giants are extracting massive profits from increasingly precarious farms.

- Luke Savage discusses how the real working class - as opposed to an all-white male version of the same - receives virtually no attention from the U.S.' media. Andrew Coyne comments on Quebec's blatantly discriminatory Bill 21, and wonders whether Canada's federal politicians will start talking about what can be done at the national level to restrain bigotry at the provincial level. And Salimah Kassam writes about the dangers of white supremacists and the politicians who enable them, while Chauncey DeVega highlights the connection between Donald Trump's campaign appearances and racist violence.

- Pamela Palmater points out how the Libs' budget has once again put off the urgent needs and glaring disparities facing Indigenous women and children.

- Finally, Lana Payne rightly calls out the Cons as being the most faux of feminists - though it's worth noting that their obvious lack of genuine interest in addressing inequality doesn't mean there isn't ample reason to criticize the Libs' track record.

New column day

Here, on how the federal Liberals and provincial Saskatchewan Party are both unduly concerned with optics around "balance" rather than budgeting for the good of their constituents.

For further reading...
- Pamela Palmater writes that the Libs' budget continues to neglect Indigenous women and children. Katherine Scott points out the absence of child care funding in the federal budget (which is even more glaring in light of cuts from Saskatchewan's already-meager resources). Paul Willcocks notes that one of the Libs' new spending items will result in lower-income renters subsidizing people who can afford to buy a house. And Joel Lexchin notes that when it comes to pharmacare, the Libs are doing nothing by eights which can be done by sixteenths instead.
- Meanwhile, CBC examines the Saskatchewan Party's tenuous claim to balance in any form. But more importantly, NUPGE recognizes that any nominal fiscal balance is based solely on Scott Moe imposing unacceptable burdens on the public service and the people who rely on social supports.

Saturday Morning Links

This and that for your weekend reading.

- Trish Hennessy examines the aftermath of Ontario's provincial election, while Andrew Mitrovica traces the spread of Trumpian antisocial populism. And Doug Nesbitt offers some lessons for workers based on the province's previous PC government.

- David Roberts takes a look at our economic assumptions behind climate change policy, and notes that they're thoroughly distorted toward a lack of action.

- Linda McQuaig criticizes the Trudeau Libs for prioritizing the oil industry's profits ahead of the national interest. And Mitchell Anderson notes that the Canadian public is now one of the few actors foolish enough to spending large amounts of money trying to continue inflating a clearly-bursting oil bubble.

- Pam Palmater reminds us that Indigenous rights aren't subject to popular whims - even if public opinion still includes far too much baked-in racism. And Murray Mandryk comments on the Justice for our Stolen Children camp which is being evicted by the Saskatchewan Party in the name of  Canada Day festivities.

- Finally, Gary Mason is duly incredulous at the whining of multimillionaire Vancouver homeowners at the prospect of paying something closer to their fair share of the cost of a functioning community.

New column day

Here, on how the Libs' willingness to throw tens of billions of public dollars at the Trans Mountain pipeline (and its corporate partners) confirms the broken promise that infrastructure money would serve the public interest.

For further reading...
- Campbell Clark wrote about the slow pace of the infrastructure spending which was put forward as evidence of the Libs' supposed vision for the public good. And Mia Rabson reports on the Canada Infrastructure Bank which will divert public infrastructure funding toward the generation of corporate profits. 
- David Ljunggren, Liz Hampton and Gary McWilliams document how Kinder Morgan schemed its way into a no-lose situation while making laughable pleas of hardship. And Robyn Allan has previously written about Kinder Morgan's refusal to contribute its fair share to the government which has now decided to pay it off. 
- Paul Willcocks takes a look at the combined cost of buying Trans Mountain and planning to fund its expansion, while Perrin Grauer examines a few of the other ways the Libs could be spending the same money to meet far more urgent and important social priorities. And both Matt McClure and Vanmala Subramaniam find that experts see the purchase as indefensible.
- Finally, Pam Palmater points out a few of the additional promises the Libs are breaking by buying Trans Mountain.

Saturday Afternoon Links

Assorted content for your weekend reading.

- Rachel West charts how higher wages and improved social supports can reduce crime rates and their resulting costs.

- Lana Payne comments on the glass ceiling still limiting the wages and opportunities available to women in the workplace. And Stephanie Langton highlights how a combination of student loan rules and income support clawbacks can stand in the way of students seeking to improve their education and career prospects. 

- Pam Palmater discusses some of the more important areas where the Libs' planned inquiry into murdered and missing indigenous women looks to fall short of what's needed. And Jonathan Sas recognizes that there's far more to be done to respond to the recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on residential schools and repair the damage from a legacy of discrimination against First Nations.

- Carol Linnitt writes that two years after the Mount Polley tailings pond spill, British Columbia is far behind where it should be both in making up for the damage, and in preventing similar disasters from happening again. And Tara Scurr wonders why the province doesn't have any interest in protecting people's rights against corporate contamination. 

- Meanwhile, D.C. Fraser reports that Saskatchewan's pattern of regular oil spills has continued this week - and that once again, a major operator's leak detection system did nothing to identify the problem. And Mike De Souza exposes the National Energy Board's undisclosed meetings with multiple corporate leaders to grease the skids for Energy East, while Jesse Feith notes that Montreal has no plans to deal with the aftermath of a major oil spill.

- Finally, Fran Quigley discusses the unconscionable prices being charged for prescription drugs which drive massive rents to big pharma for the product of research funded by the public.

New column day

Here, on what the Trudeau Libs' first budget tells us about the difficulty turning around a government - and how Saskatchewan voters should take the lesson to heart in deciding whether to settle for four more years of an anti-government governing party.

For further reading...
- I linked to plenty of reviews of the Libs' budget here. And to add a few more to the list, see Paul Wells on the Libs' half-measures and incomplete tasks, John Geddes on their deferred promises in general, Pam Palmater on the especially galling broken promises to First Nations, and Hugh Mackenzie on how the budget backtracks on a promise to close the stock option loophole.
- Meanwhile, we're into the home stretch of the Saskatchewan election after last night's leaders' debate. And I'll have more to say about the debate and how it fits into the broader campaign in a future post.

Sunday Morning Links

Assorted content for your Sunday reading.

- Pam Palmater explains the historical background to Idle No More:

(M)ost Canadians are not used to the kind of sustained, co-ordinated, national effort that we have seen in the last few weeks — at least not since 1969. 1969 was the last time the federal government put forward an assimilation plan for First Nations. It was defeated then by fierce native opposition, and it looks like Harper’s aggressive legislative assimilation plan will be met with even fiercer resistance.

In order to understand what this movement is about, it is necessary to understand how our history is connected to the present-day situation of First Nations. While a great many injustices were inflicted upon the indigenous peoples in the name of colonization, indigenous peoples were never “conquered.” The creation of Canada was only possible through the negotiation of treaties between the Crown and indigenous nations. While the wording of the treaties varies from the peace and friendship treaties in the east to the numbered treaties in the west, most are based on the core treaty promise that we would all live together peacefully and share the wealth of this land. The problem is that only one treaty partner has seen any prosperity.

The failure of Canada to share the lands and resources as promised in the treaties has placed First Nations at the bottom of all socio-economic indicators — health, lifespan, education levels and employment opportunities. While indigenous lands and resources are used to subsidize the wealth and prosperity of Canada as a state and the high-quality programs and services enjoyed by Canadians, First Nations have been subjected to purposeful, chronic underfunding of all their basic human services like water, sanitation, housing, and education. This has led to the many First Nations being subjected to multiple, overlapping crises like the housing crisis in Attawapiskat, the water crisis in Kashechewan and the suicide crisis in Pikangikum.

Part of the problem is that federal “Indian” policy still has, as its main objective, to get rid of the “Indian problem.” Instead of working toward the stated mandate of Indian Affairs “to improve the social well-being and economic prosperity of First Nations,” Harper is trying, through an aggressive legislative agenda, to do what the White Paper failed to do — get rid of the Indian problem once and for all.

- And Native Writes Now notes that Christie Blatchford for one isn't shy about saying that she considers the project of eradicating any distinct First Nations culture to be complete:

What Christie Blatchford wrote is offensive to the highest degree; but it should be remembered as the most honest interpretation in a national journal of the ultimate goal of the last 150 years of cultural genocide. Once Native Peoples no longer have any of the characteristics of a nation their claim to any Aboriginal Rights and Titles no longer exist. Christie Blatchford is laying claim to the success of the Canadian governments policy of cultural genocide through assimilation.

They haven't won, but we cannot deny that they are winning. We have to acknowledge Christie Blatchford for publicly announcing the motive. We have another battle and that is the one within our communities, our homes and our minds and spirits. It is our responsibility as Native people to remain idle no more in reclaiming, protecting and preserving our identity by learning and sharing our languages, cultures, traditions, rights and history. This is where most of the battle lies, this is the victory that cannot be taken away. This is it. This is the line in the sand. Idle no more.

- Meanwhile, Naomi Wolf writes about how the previous movement which rallied significant numbers of people in pursuit of a fairer and more equal society was systematically dismantled through collaboration between governments and the corporate sector.

- But Hugh Mackenzie points out that the right-wing propaganda mills seeking to declare inequality a dead issue don't have any basis in fact for doing so:

One of the hallmarks of liberal democracies post-Second World War has been the shared sense that we are all in this together. The breadth of the middle class meant that while there are differences in the way people live, people could still remain connected to one another in fluid social relationships. The middle class has been the glue that binds.

As income inequality worsens, Canadians have become increasingly polarized. We’re divided between a tiny but immensely powerful elite that consumes a wildly disproportionate share of society’s resources and the rest of us.

We are losing that connectedness. We tend not to live in the same neighbourhoods, and when we do, figurative and literal gates that separate us mean that we might as well be living on different planets.
Our kids don’t go to the same schools. They don’t study the same things in college or university. They move into the workforce with wildly disparate life expectations and graduate with wildly different debt burdens.
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There has also been a dramatic shift in the share of those costs borne by different social groups: Elite Canadians are paying less at the same time they are castigating our public programs. They also happen to be largely insulated from the impact of the decline of public service in Canada. They don’t feel our pain.

Most Canadians, however, are affected by reduced investments in education, which has long been cast as the ticket to income mobility. The majority are affected by inflation in tuition. But those at the top of the income scale have choices. They can pay the higher fees. They can avoid the consequences of under-investment by sending their kids to private schools or to private universities in the United States.

The rest of us have to live with the consequences.

And the richest of the rich have the ultimate social choice. They can choose what society to be part of.

Thanks to global economic integration and the greater mobility that goes with it, those with means can choose which country to live in, which country to earn their living in, which country to send their children to school in, and which country to pay their taxes in, and there is no need for those countries to be the same. They have similar options in terms of gated communities and private programs tailored to those with deep pockets.

This matters at an individual level, because it says to the 99 per cent that the system isn’t fair. The physical and social infrastructure that makes our society work depends on everyone contributing their fair share of the cost, so that the majority benefits from this collective investment in one another.

- And Jordan Brennan and Jim Stanford also argue that broad-based prosperity makes for a better result for everybody than a society that exacerbates the gaps between social classes:

(T)he growing gap in income distribution — and the myriad costs it imposes on society and our governments — is not inevitable. It reflects changes in economic and political power among the different stakeholders in society. Measures that limit the power and wealth of those at the top, and reinforce the structural bargaining position of those at the bottom, can ensure a broader distribution of incomes and wealth, and allow us to capture an important economic and fiscal “equality dividend.”

Inequality need not be a partisan, left-right issue. If we learn from the scientific evidence regarding the multi-dimensional costs of inequality, we will realize that creating a shared prosperity benefits all sectors of society (not just poor people). And then policy-makers from both ends of the political spectrum can join in building a more balanced and efficient society.