Tim Heffernan and Jim Sugiyama Cockroaches, rotten food, patients with ulcers left bed-bound, staff moving from unit to unit wearing contaminated gear, staff afraid to ask for supplies for fear of increasing the costs to the home. Those were just some of the disturbing conditions detailed in a Canadian Armed Forces report based on the […]
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Written by a BC teacher. After weeks of hearing about the nightmare of states in the US reopening their economies amid the COVID-19 pandemic, we knew it was coming. The reopening of the Canadian economy! Granted, the pandemic has not been as devastating in Canada as in the US, but that doesn’t say much. The […]
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Whether we like it or not, whether it’s safe or not, and whether we’re comfortable with it or not, Canada is beginning to reopen. After roughly two months of comprehensive social and economic shutdown, the provinces are loosening restrictions despite widely varying COVID-19 circumstances. Québec is reopening, including sending children back to school on May […]
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One of the most blatant examples of capitalism’s relentless pursuit of profits at all costs is being played out in High River, Alberta. Cargill’s meatpacking plant in High River has had the largest single-site outbreak of COVID-19 in Canada. With links to more than 1,200 COVID-19 cases as of April 29, 821 workers have tested […]
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Two months into COVID-19, Manitoba has gotten off relatively unscathed. By April 28, the province has had just 272 cases and 6 deaths, numbers more in range of the smaller Maritime provinces. However, Conservative Premier Brian Pallister isn’t looking to sit idly by while a perfectly good crisis goes to waste. Pallister has proposed wide-ranging […]
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Alberta is, once again, being subjected to neoliberal policies that threaten our livelihoods, our economy and the future of our province. Led by the most recent iteration of conservative coalitions, the United Conservative Party (UCP) is a blend of the misnamed Progressive Conservative Association of Alberta, and the short-lived right-wing populist Wild Rose Party. In […]
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This article updates one from the same author from May 2019. The premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, would have us believe that the deaths of 249 people (April 20) in residential care homes are just an unfortunate aspect of the COVID-19 crisis. In reality, it’s a case of a chronicle of deaths foretold. Step back […]
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As we enter the second month of the COVID-19 lockdown, I will share my thoughts, as an inner-city general practitioner in Toronto. Firstly, I do not consider myself as working on the frontlines. I have the good fortune of a well-paying job, a home that I partially own, adequate food on the table, am a […]
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With this global pandemic, with so many people’s lives being thrown into flux and uncertainty, it can be nice to remind ourselves of things that have stood fast and unchanging, the familiar things that remind us of our lives before the crisis. Don’t worry. Canada’s government continues to buy weapons of war to kill people […]
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The Lynn Valley Care Centre in North Vancouver was the site of the first death in Canada attributed to COVID-19. As of April 6, there have been at least 15 deaths at the facility, along with 46 residents and 24 healthcare workers infected. The infection was brought into the care home by a staff member […]
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