Infrastructure investment needed to emerge from pandemic stronger than before
The coronavirus pandemic presents a daunting challenge. Around the world, governments and decision makers have had to choose between health measures aimed at protecting human life and the economic measures typically given pre-eminence in public-policy making. While our current priority must be bringing the pandemic under control, people are also rightly worried about what the […]
Finance Minister Morneau names press secretary
Finance Minister Bill Morneau and team have been busy of late, with the 2020 federal budget delayed as the federal government works to see through economic relief and other measures announced in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and now helping the minister communicate with the public and media alike is new press secretary Maéva Proteau. […]
Praising rapid Taiwanese response to COVID-19, MPs call for post-pandemic WHO inquiry
MPs on both sides of the aisle are calling for greater scrutiny of health information coming from Chinese authorities, with Liberal MP John McKay saying Taiwan recognized the true threat of the COVID-19 pandemic much earlier than other governments and “took appropriate measures,” while Conservative MP James Bezan says Canada should be working “hand in […]
Crisis or not, Canada’s right-wing sticks with the politics of anger and division
OTTAWA—Despite the need for the country to pull together in this emergency, Canada’s right-wingers appear incapable of resisting a Donald Trump-style campaign of inflammatory, xenophobic hype designed to spark anger and divide Canadians. At the federal level, it’s obvious the Conservative can’t stand it that the COVID-19 crisis has deprived them of the opportunity to […]
Make personnel safety during coronavirus crisis the top priority
OTTAWA—Earlier this month the Royal Canadian Navy took the precaution of placing two ships’ companies—HMCS Ville de Quebec and Moncton—into a 14-day quarantine at the Westin Nova Scotian in Halifax prior to their operational deployments. While this course of action meant an additional two weeks of separation from family and friends during this stressful period of pandemic […]
Infrastructure programs rarely stimulate growth
As the true scale of the economic disaster due to the coronavirus pandemic lockdown becomes apparent, there are renewed calls for increased government spending on infrastructure. This has been the reflexive response to every economic slump dating back to the Keynesian proposal to fight the Great Depression by paying unemployed people to dig holes and […]
Everyone should be working to combat COVID-related anti-Semitism, hate, say advocates
Re: “MPs join fight to stamp out COVID-19 disinformation that’s ‘spreading faster than the virus’,”(The Hill Times, April 8, p. 1, 15). Parliamentarians are to be commended for action to combat the “infodemic” of misinformation and disinformation around COVID-19, just as this publication is to be applauded for covering it. Those of us who confront […]
In a post-COVID-19 world, a smart, simplified infrastructure plan is key
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis, the world has changed significantly. Communities are devastated, six million Canadians are out of work, lives have turned upside down, and many sectors of the economy are on hold, including infrastructure. In a post-COVID-19 world that will gradually return to normal, investments in infrastructure will be crucial to […]
First, do no harm: Canada’s COVID-19 crisis management
At a certain point in the saga of the 2008-09 financial cataclysm, I ran out of synonyms for cataclysm—calamity, catastrophe, disaster—as nothing seemed to capture the rolling tsunami of that contagion and the same inadequate words became repetitive very early on. Writing about it weekly from Washington between the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September […]
Prison farm program should be broadened to increase prisoner distancing amid COVID-19, advocate argues
Prison farm programs in two Ontario institutions could be broadened to help alleviate the impact of COVID-19, says an advocate whose call is bolstered by two Parliamentarians, who say the Correctional Service of Canada needs to do a better job protecting prisoners from the virus. Between the two southern Ontario prisons in question—Collins Bay Institution […]
