Ever since reading, in 2006, The National Dream and The Golden Spike, Pierre Berton’s books about the building of the Canadian railroad, I’ve been interested in the Chinese railroad workers. Two details stuck in my memory: Chinese workers retaining their food traditions (and the racism and abuse they encountered over
Continue readingTag: labour.
Accidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to start your week. – Scott Gilmore discusses how our elected leaders have failed us in responding to COVID-19. Shannon Devine offers a warning to the Ford PCs about their insistence in putting workers’ lives and health at risk in the midst of a pandemic. And Christy Somos
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – The Globe and Mail’s editorial board asks whether Doug Ford will again fall painfully short in responding to the public health threat posed by COVID-19 – though at this point the questions appears to be entirely rhetorical. Murray Mandryk discusses the lives
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Saturday Morning Links
Assorted content for your weekend reading. – Jesse McLaren offers a reminder that a COVID-19 vaccine isn’t a cure-all, as measures to help people through the pandemic (including paid sick days) remain a must. – Aris Roussinos writes about the UK’s “guilty men” responsible for a feckless response to a
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Andre Picard warns not to expect the end of the COVID-19 pandemic (however distant that may be) to result in any particular triumph. And Reuters reports on the looming possibility that the vaccines developed to date may not protect against the coronavirus
Continue readingThings Are Good: Google Workers Create Union
Unions are a reaction to poor working conditions, and it’s clear that some Silicon Valley companies have created the need for unions. Google, which has been actively suppressing workers who stand up against injustices are now seeing their workers unionize. This is a symbolic victory for the labour movement in
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – Fran Quigley interviews Joanne Goldblum and Colleen Shaddox about the entirely feasible steps which could be taken to eliminate poverty in the U.S.: FQ You devote a good deal of the book to reviewing the data and the stories that describe US
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Noah Smith examines how even leaving aside such trifling considerations as human welfare, it’s a better economic proposition to provide money to people with less money than those with more. And Matt McGrath highlights how any hope of averting a climate breakdown requires
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – John Klein points out how Doug Ford’s combination of abject failure and laughable deflection in response to the avoidable spread of COVID-19 is par for the course among Canada’s conservative premiers. And Graham Thomson discusses Jason Kenney’s opportunistic use of the pandemic
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
This and that for your Tuesday reading. – Katherine Scott and David Macdonald take a look at the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on Canada’s labour force survey data – confirming that employment dominated by women has seen the most severe losses, and figures to take the longest to recover.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Steven Lewis writes about the need for firm and decisive public health action to stop the spread of COVID-19, rather than the excuse-making and bothsidesing that have come to be the norm. And Kaitlin Peters discusses how the people already dealing with long-haul
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Afternoon Links
This and that for your Thursday reading. – David Hope and Julian Limberg study (PDF) the effects of tax cuts for the rich – concluding that they lead to worsened inequality while generating no significant benefits for anybody but the few who are able to hoard wealth as a result.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Afternoon Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Elisabeth Rosenthal writes about the need to ensure that our public health messaging includes the graphic details of the severe threat of COVID-19. And Josh Kovensky points out one of the crucial questions still unanswered about the vaccines we’re hoping to rely on
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – Andrew Jackson summarizes and discusses Lance Taylor and Ozlem Omer‘s new book showing how the combination of wage suppression and growing inequality is the result of the conscious policy choice to weaken workers’ collective bargaining power: Taylor and Omer argue that the
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week. – Daniela Gabor writes that there’s no reason to treat the spending needed to allow people to survive a pandemic-induced recession as an excuse for avoidable austerity. – Seth Klein comments on the need to treat climate change as an emergency rather than a
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
This and that for your Sunday reading. – In the absence of leaders at any level of government willing to act on the scale needed to stop the coronavirus pandemic in much of Canada, Amir Attaran helpfully provides some minimum standards which could be applied across the country. And Nathaniel
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Friday Morning Links
Assorted content to end your week. – Michael Fraiman discusses how far too many leaders have failed or refused to live up to the title when their authority was needed to respond to the coronavirus pandemic. And Canada News Central reports on the findings of Ontario’s Auditor-General about Doug Ford’s
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Grocery’s long war: Part II
A group of Dominion employees block the entrance to the parking lot as they strike at the Blackmarsh Road location in St. John’s, Newfoundland. Photo by Andrew Waterman/The Telegram. In part one of this series, we explored how good jobs turned bad in the grocery sector as a result of
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Umair Haque highlights how European and North American states have failed to control the coronavirus compared to other developed countries. And Ian Austen discusses the prospect that Canada could get to the COVID-zero state achieved by Australia. – And in case there were
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Monday Afternoon Links
Assorted content to start your week. – Jim Harding writes about the Saskatchewan Party’s politically-driven lack of action to get COVID-19 under control. Gillian Steward discusses how empty any bleating about “freedom!” sounds when it means needlessly exposing people to a deadly virus. And David Climenhaga calls out Jason Kenney
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