The Ontario government had all the knowledge it needed to make better and faster decisions that would have saved lives in long-term-care homes.

In the last couple of months, we have been inundated with media accounts framing older people in long-term care (LTC) as uniquely vulnerable to COVID-19. They are a “risky population” that needs extra protections from the virus. Indeed, long-term care residents make up close to 80 percent of the COVID-19 death toll in Canada and in many other countries around the world.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to massive work interruptions in Canada and several other countries since mid-March 2020. The resulting economic lockdown has raised concerns about the ability of Canadian families to meet their financial obligations and essential needs.

This study shows that lone-mothers, recent immigrants, Indigenous people living off-reserve and individuals living in families where the main income earner has little education would be quite financially vulnerable during temporary work interruptions if they did not receive any government transfers. For many of these families, liquid assets and private sources of income other than earnings are not sufficient to keep them out of low income during a two-month work stoppage.

The Cargill meatpacking plant in High River re-opened this week after the largest COVID-19 outbreak in North America infected nearly half of the 2000 people who work at the plant. But despite promises from Cargill to pay workers during the shutdown, workers haven’t been paid--some for weeks.

21st century lynching.

Who Will Shape the Future of Work? PowerShare is a multi-year independent research project to study workers’ collective voice and agency in the future of work. Work is changing due to many forces: technology, business models, labour regulations and policies, and social attitudes. Will workers have a real say in what work becomes?

"Luke Denman was one of two US citizens seized this week after what appears to have been a bungled bid to overthrow Maduro ... Denman said he had been working for Silvercorp, a Florida-based private security firm run by Jordan Goudreau, a former US special forces soldier who on Sunday claimed his 60-man team had launched “a daring amphibious raid” designed to overthrow Maduro and “liberate Venezuela”."