Amazon’s rise from online bookseller to trillion-dollar global logistics, internet, merchandising and entertainment behemoth was fast and ferocious. Behind the same-day deliveries and trend-setting television series is a company committed to ruthlessly destroying productive economic activity and debasing workers. It is helped along in this pursuit by aggressive (but legal) tax…
Read more
The Saskatchewan government often explains its approach to climate change policy as one of “balance,” concerned that any environmental regulations do not do undue harm to Saskatchewan’s economy. This of course has been the primary argument behind the government’s opposition to a federal carbon price, or what Premier Scott Moe…
Read more
Since the birth of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 1995, most member states have had to abide by the Agreement on Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), which protects patents and copyrights including those applicable to new diagnostics, vaccines, medicines and medical supplies. In early October, India and South…
Read more
A few years ago, the idea of “straight pride” had its moment in the sun. Hetero cis men took to their various soapboxes and asked why, if 2SLGBTQ+ folks had Pride events, were there not equivalent events for heterosexuals? Similar arguments regrettably, but unsurprisingly, have been made comparing Black History…
Read more
The federal government tabled its long-awaited climate legislation in the House of Commons today. Bill C-12 places legal obligations on the Minister of Environment to set greenhouse gas emission reduction targets for the years 2030, 2035, 2040 and 2045 with the ultimate goal of achieving a net-zero carbon Canadian economy…
Read more
U.S. President-elect Joe Biden is an unabashedly moderate politician. During the Democratic Party primaries last year he often found himself on the defensive as more progressive candidates challenged his record and his priorities, including on climate change. Yet after securing his party’s nomination this spring en route to winning the…
Read more
Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s desire to keep small businesses afloat and the economy open through the pandemic–even as COVID-19 cases soar–is evident in his government’s budget. Unfortunately, there is a fatal flaw in Ford’s approach. It won’t work. In the spring, the first-wave lockdown in Ontario targeted those businesses where…
Read more
We’re months into the school year amid COVID-19 and the failure of the Ontario government to do what it takes to guarantee a safe reopening continues to impact the quality of education that students are receiving. How did we get here? Facing a global COVID-19 pandemic that closed schools and…
Read more
Outwardly, election night looked “normal”. The polls were pretty reliable, the pundits offered their usual platitudes, politicians appeared jubilant or contrite in front of the cameras depending on how voters had treated them. But while it looked mostly familiar, there were a few signs that things weren’t quite the same….
Read more
People everywhere should be watching what’s happening on Haudenosaunee (Six Nations) territory at 1492 Land Back Lane in Caledonia, Ontario. The basic facts of this latest confrontation are plain enough. In 2015 Foxgate Developments paid $4 million for 10 hectares of land bordering the town of Caledonia. The development company…
Read more