Search results for “site/human rights”

  • Sweet heart, bitter pill: Rising, dancing, and costing violence against women in Canada

    On Valentine’s Day this year women around the world will be dancing. One Billion Rising, a new initiative from Vagina Monologues’ author Eve Ensler, calls on women to dance their way to a future without violence. Now, I’m all for dancing, but I’d like to add a little counting into the mix. …

  • Cheap Power for Jobs (Except it Ain’t Cheap)

    It has a nice political ring to it — “power for jobs”. That is what Glen Clark wanted to do with the Columbia River Treaty power that was returned to the province in the late 1990’s. And that is what Vaughn Palmer argues B.C. should do today with the hydro…

  • 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…

  • Treat intimate partner violence as the pandemic it is

    We’ve all heard it a million times during the COVID-19 pandemic: for your own safety, stay home.  To many of us, this is excellent advice. For others—almost all of them women—the combination of long hours at home and new stresses brought on by the pandemic will lead to control and…

  • Our Deadliest Addiction

    Oil drives our commerce, but could drive us to extinction “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.” – Heraclitus, 535 BC-475 BC *     *     * When European explorers first sighted a pristine Gulf of Mexico 500…

  • Labour Matters

    Work Life: Honouring Ellen Olfert, founder of SAFE Workers of Tomorrow

    Honouring Ellen Olfert, founder of SAFE Workers of Tomorrow In 1995, 19 year old Stephen Nicholson was on the job site working in a paint booth. He was working on the exhaust system and had been lowered into the vent when suddenly paint residue ignited and engulfed Stephen in flames.…

  • Trade and Investment Research Project

    PEI and the CETA

    Remarks by Scott Sinclair, to a public meeting on the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) in Charlottetown, PEI Introduction No one questions that international trade is vital for the Canadian and PEI economies. But there are legitimate questions that need to be asked about who benefits from trade…

  • The Perils of CETA

    Proposed Canada-EU trade deal a bad deal for most Canadians As its name suggests, the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (or CETA) is intended to be an ambitious agreement that will affect matters beyond international trade. In every bilateral trade negotiation since NAFTA, Canada has been the larger party, able…

  • Cropped shot of a senior man at home

    Des soins qui comptent, combien ça coûte?

    Le système de soins de longue durée nécessite 1,8 milliard de dollars pour atteindre des niveaux d’effectifs sécuritaires en personnel : rapport TORONTO— Dans la tourmente, le système de soins de longue durée de l’Ontario nécessite un investissement supplémentaire de 1,8 milliard de dollars par an pour atteindre les niveaux…

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    Why has UBC divested from fossil fuels but UVic has not? The high cost of industry influence

    The death and disruption wrought by COVID-19 is calamitous. The bad news is that climate change will be worse. It is easy to forget that 2020 began with Australia burning in a brutal wildfire season. Like the current pandemic, Australia’s disaster was predicted years in advance by ecological science. As…

  • Fast Fasts: Manitoba Wage Wars

    First published in the Winnipeg Free Press February 12, 2021 Since forming government in 2016, the provincial Conservative government has aggressively pursued a policy of austerity. Working people in particular have been the targets. Yet during the pandemic, it has become fully apparent to everyone how crucial “ordinary” day-to-day workers…

  • Time to push back against short-term rentals to help balance Vancouver’s rental market

    COVID-19 has decimated tourism and business travel, posing huge costs onto workers in those industries, but a fascinating side effect has been a more balanced rental market for Vancouver’s long-term renters. Asking rents for vacated units in Vancouver fell by 9 per cent in April compared to a year earlier,…