September 11, 2020

From tech-billionaires to socialist leaders, Universal Basic Income (UBI) has caught the imagination of many across the political spectrum. This mechanism, which would give everyone regular cash payments that are enough to live on, regardless of income or work status, is increasingly promoted as a key policy to maintain social stability and ensure a decent standard of living.

Sept. 10, 2020

September 10, 2020

[See video at link.] Court ruling on private healthcare challenge

The B.C. Supreme court has ruled private healthcare is not a constitutional right if wait times are too long in a years-long case that will likely have implications across Canada’s health-care system.

Aug 15, 2020

Will Gov't Act to Curb Housing Crisis?

Canada's housing shortage is almost at a "crisis level," said the CEO of an investment firm that owns dozens of B.C. apartment buildings. "The good news for investors is there is no easy solution in sight.”

In early March, Mark Goodman flew to Toronto to meet with CEOs of six of that city’s  seven biggest institutional investors in multi-family residential real estate.

Sept. 8, 2020

On Aug. 22, Vancouver immigration officers quietly deported a Danish journalist making a film about opposition to the Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion (TMX). He was told that, during COVID, media is not an essential service.

As a public health physician and scientist blocking the TMX, I would disagree.

Sept. 3, 2020

Unsafe school openings remind us how easily we become expendable

My mother holds her grandson more tightly and for a few moments longer than usual, reminding him she won’t be able to do this once he’s returned to school.

My partner, a teacher, worries that it will be months before she can be in the same room as her own family, fearing she’ll expose them to something contracted from students.

September 6, 2020

AUGUST 31, 2020

Sept. 5, 2020

There won’t be any Labour Day parades this weekend, due to physical distancing. Instead, trade unions in Canada will celebrate workers’ annual day with online events and other COVID-aware activities. But the absence of physical crowds should not be taken as some kind of metaphor for unions’ declining visibility. To the contrary, the pandemic actually corresponds with a surprising rebound in unions’ size and importance. There’s nothing like a crisis, it seems, to remind workers that when times are tough it helps to have a powerful ally at your back.

SEPTEMBER 4, 2020

Thirteen groups representing 180,000 post-secondary students across the country are backing a call by SFU’s student union for the federal government to reconsider the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion.