“He who pays the piper calls the tune.” Never has this saying proved more true than in a recent case from the University of Toronto. Last year, one of the U of T’s major donors learned that the university was about to hire a scholar whose ideas (supposedly pro-Palestinian) he disapproved of. Journalist Linda McQuaig […]
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The Afzaal family: Yumna Afzaal, daughter, aged 15 – killed Madiha Salman, mother, aged 44 – killed Salman Afzaal, father, aged 46 – killed Talat Afzaal, grandmother, aged 74 – killed Fayez Afzaal, son, aged 9 – seriously injured Sunday, June 6, in London, Ontario saw a sickening, mind-numbing event – the premeditated, cold-blooded killing […]
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Ditch the patents, Nationalize Big Pharma Canadians have understandably been concerned first and foremost with fighting the virus in their own backyard. But COVID is a worldwide threat and there won’t be a real victory, or real safety, until it’s won around the world. Vaccination in Canada has been moving along at a steady pace […]
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Doug Ford began his press conference Friday, April 16 with “we’re losing the battle.” Knowing Ford, many expected him to continue with “but we’re winning the war.” Mercifully, he spared us that. It would have been more than a stretch to make that claim given the latest grim figures from Ontario for the virus. The […]
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How Canada lost its publicly owned vaccine producing facilities Phew! The vaccines have arrived. Notwithstanding the conflicting and confusing information regarding AstraZeneca, most Canadians are relieved to be seeing that the vaccination program, having previously experienced some hiccups, is now rolling out relatively efficiently, although unevenly and with the risk of more bumps in the […]
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“You don’t get me, I’m part of the union.” The Strawbs, 1973 Something is stirring among Canada’s workers. The percentage of unionized workers is up. This might seem surprising given the widespread closures and hundreds of thousands of layoffs due to COVID and the world recession. Jim Stanford (former economist at Unifor) wrote in the […]
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In Lewis Carrol’s book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland there is a character, the Queen of Hearts – a foul-tempered monarch who takes offence easily and is quick to hand out death sentences. One of her most famous lines is “Off with their heads!” From all reports, it seems that Ms. Payette, even though supposedly a mere representative […]
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“We’re all in this together” has been a constant refrain from politicians during the course of the pandemic. From the beginning, there was never any truth in this. In the same storm, yes, but the boats that became available for this storm ranged from yachts, to rowing boats, to scraps of wood. Given what’s happened […]
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Ford and for-profit homes to blame At the height of the first wave of COVID-19 in Ontario, the Canadian army released a searing report of what the troops found when deployed in some of the worst affected long-term care (LTC) homes. Nearly 77 percent of total COVID-19-linked deaths in the province were residents in LTC, […]
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There was that old Victorian, moralistic saying of drink being the curse of the working classes. Oscar Wilde wittily turned it around to read that work is the curse of the drinking classes. Can we consider work as a curse? A recent US survey found that 36 percent loved their job and was meaningful, nearly […]
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