We should have a federal pandemic body
The federal government, the provinces, and the municipalities have been putting a wartime-like effort into preventing the spread of the coronavirus ever since the World Health Organization officially declared it a global pandemic on March 11. Canada is on lockdown, and so far, the federal government has spent, loaned, and deferred $262-billion to help people […]
Conservative MP Diotte also donating his $3,750 salary increase this year to charity
Re: “Some MPs donate their automatic salary increase to charities in effort to help fight COVID-19,” (The Hill Times, April 13). I think it’s absolutely fair game that your paper did an article about MP pay raises and highlighted some who will give the hike to charity. But as a former journalist with 30 years in […]
No evidence to back WHO director general’s accusations against Taiwan
OTTAWA—The pattern surrounding the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Beijing party-state’s ongoing influence over it continues. Taiwan, a nation that has shown impressive success in combatting the COVID-19 virus despite its exclusion from WHO, is now accused of racism by the organization’s director general. WHO Director General Tedros A. Ghebreyesus—an Ethiopian microbiologist and the […]
Canada’s dirty little secret is now out in the open
OTTAWA—Canada’s dirty little secret is now out in the open. While we all claim respect and reverence for seniors, when the time comes, they often find themselves in substandard conditions with little recourse or options. The number of COVID-19 deaths in institutions is a clear signal that we need to revisit the deficiency of end-of-life […]
Why we need race-based data on COVID-19
OTTAWA—With more than 30,000 Canadians tested or presumed to have COVID-19, we are facing a health crisis like no other. This crisis will also shine a light on a number of weaknesses and inequities in our society, some of which are delineated along racial lines. Twenty-nine states in the U.S. released a mix COVID-19 data […]
COVID and the environment: a rare opportunity
MONTREAL—COVID-19 may breed fear, but it also spells opportunity. Moments like these are ones where people are listening and change is imminent. But change can move in two directions—the better and the worse. We must push for the former. Above all, I believe we must look to ensure that the changes we make now will […]
COVID-19 crisis offers hope for a clean energy transition
WATERLOO, ONT.—Although the final pages on the unfolding human tragedy of the COVID-19 pandemic have yet to be written, the ‘tsunami-scale’ of economic disruption has led to responses by the federal and provincial governments that the most acclaimed of futurists could not have predicted even six weeks ago. If the adage, ‘Do not let a […]
The uncertainty embedded in oil and gas serves up another option
VANCOUVER—“This pandemic is like the appetizer to the effects of climate change.” This is the latest nugget from a series of recent dinner conversations with my roommate. We have discussions about apocalyptic sci-fi books sometimes, but this wasn’t one of them. (Though the other week I read Kevin Chong’s 2018 novel The Plague—based on Albert Camus’ […]
Canada and Ontario tell Trump to buzz off
HALIFAX—What do the governments of Canada and Ontario have in common with a coalition of states from both U.S. coasts and the Midwest? They have all told Donald Trump to go to hell. It was done on Canada’s behalf by Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland. Freeland, who has been doing most of the heavy lifting for […]
We need a bold new nation-building strategy
TORONTO—If we are to successfully transition from the current pandemic to future prosperity we need a bold new nation-building strategy. This is quite different from hoping that once the pandemic is over we will go back to where we were before the pandemic hit. That won’t happen. The world will be different and we will […]
