Menu

Search results for “node/mandatory minimums”

  • Photo: David A. Litman / Shutterstock.com

    Protecting the health and rights of migrant agricultural workers during the COVID-19 outbreak should be a priority

    Manually skilled migrant workers contribute vitally to the Canadian food chain, including to agricultural and seafood industries. But food security cannot be achieved on the backs of workers who are denied equal access to social protections and benefits, and made uniquely vulnerable to coronavirus transmission. With news about this week’s community…

  • Can Democracy save Victoria and Favour?

    Today marks the National Day of Action for Victoria Ordu and Ihuoma Amadi, the two University of Regina students that have spent the past 14 months in sanctuary to avoid deportation. Both students made the honest mistake of working at a local Wal-Mart for two weeks, thereby violating the terms of their student…

  • Going… Going… Gone?

    Slowly, stealthily, progressive state is being dismantled Most Canadians, according to one poll at least, did not much like the recent federal budget, but still found it benign. No matter how often the government tells us it is changing the game, we seem reluctant to believe it. But governments rarely…

  • Selling the 2012 Federal Budget: Envy-nomics 101

    “It’s time for the public sector to have its 2008 recession,” proclaimed former RBC Chief Economist Patty Croft, impeccably dressed and looking admirably well-rested (early retirement seems to suit her), on CBC Newsworld’s The Bottom Line. We know that governments make budgets, and budgets are about choices, but her wish list struck me…

  • Fast Facts: Valley of Despair in Manitoba Health Care

    First published in the Winnipeg Free Press April 8, 2019 The overhaul of Manitoba’s health care system has been met with repeated calls to slow down from those on the front lines of care. The consistent and persistent stories from patients and front line workers alike detailing chaos and upheaval…

  • Fast Facts: Bill C-10 Fact Sheet

    The John Howard Society Bill C-10, an omnibus bill, contains nine separate pieces of previously failed legislation. In addition to creating a number of new mandatory minimum sentences for a wide variety of offences, it increases the use of denunciation and longer sentences for young offenders, makes it easier for…

  • Saskatchewan child care gets a failing grade: report

    READ THE FULL REPORT HERE. Regina — Canada ranks very poorly among peer nations for overall quality measures and rates of access to regulated child care, and Saskatchewan ranks the lowest of all Canadian provinces. A new report from the CCPA-Saskatchewan explores the piecemeal way in which child care policy…

  • What’s Wrong With Harper’s Omnibus Crime Bill

    Prime Minister Harper will be launching his tough-on-crime agenda today. Our criminal justice system is by no means perfect, but the omnibus crime bill will send us back to a 19th century punishment model. Here are some reasons why Canadians need to speak out against this legislation. The former U.S.…

  • Economic Security Project (BC)

    Getting by is getting harder for those in “casual” jobs

    Many experts are puzzling over a paradox in BC’s economy — why have years of solid growth and low unemployment failed to translate into improved earnings for those in lower end jobs? One piece of the puzzle can be found in the growth in casual work. “Casual” means you have…

  • Public Interest Research Project (BC)

    BC’s minimum wage should not be a poverty wage

    Labour and social justice groups in BC have long urged the provincial government to increase the minimum wage to a level that guarantees a path out of poverty for a single person working full-year, full-time. Year after year, the government has turned them down with the argument that BC already…

  • Will Harper Support Hudak’s Chain Gangs?

    Ontario Conservative leader Tim Hudak has promised to introduce what the Toronto Star calls “modern day chain gangs.” “The Progressive Conservative leader said Thursday that if a Tory government is elected Oct. 6, about 2,700 inmates serving sentences in provincial jails will be forced to work up to 40 hours a week, replacing the…

  • Silencing Dissent: The Conservative Record

    Over the past five years, exercise of the fundamental freedom of speech in Canada has been curbed and discouraged by a federal government increasingly intolerant of even the mildest criticism or dissent. Particularly affected have been organizations dependent on government funding which advocate for human rights and women’s equality. Their…