While world leaders are increasingly saying out loud that the postwar liberal world order is dead, the ruling classes in the Global North have an answer for what will come to replace it: fascism. Will they be able to implement their vision?
A guide to standing up to book bans and beyond, and how to protect and strengthen public education in Canada
First published in the Winnipeg Free Press June 12, 2020 During the height of the global pandemic Canadian Premium Sand (CPS) released its plan B for their proposed frac sand mine and processing facility on the east side of Lake Winnipeg. Quite frankly plan B is even worse then their…
There is something great about summer in Canada; it’s hot but also full of promise with places to visit, camping, travelling, cottaging, trips to the beach and various summer events and festivals. For many of Canada’s students, however, summer has not been so great. New data from Statistics Canada’s Labour…
The BC government is holding its annual public consultation on Budget 2021 this June, inviting British Columbians to share their priorities for government investment next year. BC Budget 2021 will have to tackle the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis—the full extent of which are still largely unknown. It is hard…
Statistics Canada reported today that unemployment jumped by 25,700 in June because of shrinking employment and a growing labour force. Canada’s labour force expanded because of population growth, even though the participation rate did not increase. The combination of less employment and a larger working-age population depressed the employment rate to 61.4%…
The case for a Peoples’ Treaty On April 24, 2013, an eight-storey building known as Rana Plaza collapsed in Dhaka, Bangladesh, killing more than 1,100 garment workers and injuring thousands of others. The victims, mostly women, worked in factories owned by a number of companies (New Wave Bottoms, Phantom, Ether…
Last weekend, I spoke at a community event celebrating International Women’s Day in Vancouver. It got me thinking about the status of women in the Canadian economy, reflecting both on the successes over the last half century and on the areas where work is still needed to achieve gender equality.…
UBC professor publication highlights policy alternatives to achieve true sustainability in CCPA publication CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE FULL REPORT (Vancouver) In a new paper entitled Avoiding Collapse: An agenda for sustainable degrowth and relocalizing the economy, UBC Professor Emeritus William E. Rees, the originator of “ecological footprint analysis”, explores…
Winnipeg’s mayoral race is now officially underway. Any serious contenders are going to have to convince a very skeptical public that they can turn around what really has been a winter of discontent with City services. Unfortunately, problems that have taken years to accumulate are unlikely to be addressed overnight.…
The recent controversy over Temporary Foreign Workers (TFWs) highlights that companies can be profitable with very different approaches to wages and worker turnover. On one side of the spectrum are companies such as Lee Valley Tools, which treats its employees well in terms of wages, benefits, and training, and has…
First published in the Winnipeg Free Press May 1, 2020 Manitoba must help those being clobbered financially by the COVID-19 pandemic: it is the right thing to do, we can afford it and, as a diverse array of economists have noted, public spending is needed in a time of crisis.…
Today we released a new report, Path to Prosperity? A Closer Look at British Columbia’s Natural Gas Royalties and Proposed LNG Income Tax, about liquefied natural gas (LNG ) development in BC, and the public revenues that might be expected. So far, LNG has lacked a real public debate. On…
New report shows that $100 billion from liquified natural gas “not likely to be realized given real world conditions” READ THE FULL REPORT HERE. Vancouver-–A report released today finds that the BC government’s projection of a $100 billion “Prosperity Fund” from LNG exports is based on assumptions that are, in…