The Sport and Prey of Capitalists: How the Rich Are Stealing Canada’s Public Wealth Linda McQuaig Dundurn, August 2019, $28.99
Public services and privatization
It’s hard to believe that in 2020 there is still a stigma around menstruation. It is beyond clear that access to menstrual hygiene products and information about periods is a basic human right, not a luxury. As Jasmine Ramze Rezaee, manager of advocacy at YWCA Toronto, told me recently, no one "should go without access to menstrual products because of financial barriers [and] some menstrual products should be fully funded by the government.”
REUTERS/ERIN SCOTT
The idea of a Green New Deal—a radical and comprehensive transformation of the economy to cut greenhouse gas emissions while tackling inequality—has been gaining steam as an organizing principle for the environmental and social justice movements. Yet there are many questions that GND advocates have yet to think through or agree on. Like how can we produce enough electricity to rapidly replace all fossil fuels? Will new, green jobs be good, unionized jobs that are accessible in the places where jobs are needed most? Crucially, how will we pay for it all?
When the CCPA was founded 40 years ago, it was in direct opposition to a handful of right-wing, “free market” policy groups who, despite being on the political scene for only a few years, had become influential in the halls of government and the news media. From their earliest days, these think-tanks aimed to weaken public faith in government’s ability to do good in people’s lives.
Our Time at the September 27 Global Climate Strike (photo by Laura Cameron)
Photo by Hugo Morales, Wikimedia Commons
The Monitor starts off 2020—the CCPA's 40th anniversary year—with a direct attack on the Trudeau government's contradictory climate plans and the close connections between public officials and the fossil fuel sector. Will minority status and a rising Green New Deal movement change the government's course, or will it be just more business as usual?
Illustration by Remie Geoffroi
Are the priorities of the Manitoba government in line with Manitobans’ more broadly? This is the question asked last week by a diverse group of community volunteers, representing teachers, healthcare professionals and those concerned about climate change, poverty and income inequality. They were comparing the vision presented in the recent Speech from the Throne with what they have been hearing in workplaces and communities while working towards the upcoming 2020 Alternative Provincial Budget (APB).