Trudeau’s reforms are far outweighed by his failures and his coziness with big business, clearing the way for Poilievre to monopolize anger against the cost of living crisis – but with no plan to support affordable housing or food.
Healthcare funding for the uninsured is an important step towards healthcare for all, and needs to be defended and expanded. Challenging these cuts helps build solidarity with the uninsured, promotes migrant justice, and supports public healthcare.
The public healthcare system is in crisis, with hospitals that are both overcrowded and understaffed. Governments are pushing privatization but their cure will make the…
Ford claims that public healthcare is failing of its own accord and that privatization will clear the backlog, complement public healthcare, relieve the pressure on healthcare workers, and support patient health and choice at no cost. But these are all myths that will lead to the further erosion of public healthcare, costing resources and lives.
Oil workers extract fossil fuels that are the life-blood of the system. But this work extracts a health toll from workers and surrounding communities, and contaminates the environment. When oil workers have moved into action to challenge these contradictions, they have helped topple regimes, win health and environmental regulations, and imagine a world beyond capitalism and oil.
In the middle of the seventh wave and under pressure from the decent work movement, the Ford government announced another extension of the Worker Income Protection Benefit (WIPB). But by simply extending the deadline without adding paid sick days, the government is diluting paid sick days until they finally cut them again. But if the movement can force the government to provide temporary and inadequate paid sick days, it can also make them permanent and adequate.
One of Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s first actions in his first term was to cut paid sick days, which fuelled the spread of COVID-19. Ford then promised “the best paid sick days in North America” but only provided three temporary days. Now one of his first actions during his second term is to let these days expire at the end of this month, which amounts to cutting paid sick days a second time.
After six waves and more than two years of COVID-19, the Ontario election on June 2 should be a referendum on Premier Doug Ford’s pandemic response. Based on his record a vote for Ford is a vote for COVID, but the Liberals are no alternative.
From border control to lockdowns, and from staying home sick to getting vaccinated and tested for COVID—Ford’s entire pandemic plan ignores inequities that preceded the pandemic. The result has been to fuel COVID inequities—scapegoating migrants, policing essential workers, sending sick workers to work, and keeping vaccines and tests out of the hands of those who need them most.
In Ontario the Conservatives declared themselves to be “working for workers” while yet again voting against paid sick days. While in BC, workers have won 5 permanent and employer-paid sick days, but the NDP government refused to provide 10. Both are signs of the movement pushing governments to provide rhetorical support or partial gains for workers, and the movement can continue towards winning 10 paid sick days for all.
The Liberals were re-elected on this promise, and this can’t wait. Justin Trudeau needs to translate words into action: immediately mandate 10 paid sick days for federally regulated workers, and convene the provinces and territories to develop a national action plan for similar legislation across the country. And provincial governments, from BC and Ontario to the rest of provinces and territories, need to follow.
In a society where health outcomes reflect social and economic inequalities, and where the uneven application of policies reinforces these inequalities, we need to centre equity and workers rights in any public health discussion.
