Roadmap To Ruin

Heading up Toronto's Bay Street yesterday en route to the massive gathering at Queen's Park to protest the savage surgery the Ford regime is conducting on public education was something of a revelation. Within a half-mile radius of the GO Station, I encountered six people in their sleeping bags, clearly living on the street. It was a jolting scene, one I do not encounter where I live (although I have also seen it extensively in London, Liverpool and even Canterbury). It seemed to me that this major urban artery and its environs constitute a roadmap of our society's descent into indifference, disenfranchisement, even cruelty.

That reality was on my mind as I made my way on a sunny April day to the legislature; I decided to attend the protest for a number of reasons: I am a retired teacher; I wanted to stand in solidarity with my former colleagues; and most importantly, I went because I have long understood that if the poverty and disenfranchisement bedeviling our society is ever to be contained and even reduced, nothing other than education can offer a realistic lifeline.

Which is not to say that path is an easy one, either for the teacher or the student. The effectiveness of classroom instruction is dependent, not just upon the skill, knowledge and dedication of teachers, but also the relationship they are able to foster with the students. Under optimum conditions, the relationship is one that requires daily, hard work. And the primary ingredient of those optimum conditions is reasonable class size.

Doug Ford's cost-cutting regimen, i.e., the slashing of teaching jobs, means class sizes will increase substantially; in high school. it will rise to an average of 28, which in actual practice could mean classes as high as 40. (Remember, non-classroom teachers are part of that average, which includes guidance, resource, and library.) Tell me how the aforementioned relationships can continue to flourish in such fraught and constrained conditions.

As well, many optional courses (no doubt considered frills by the under-educated ilk populating Ford's government) will be jettisoned, the very courses that can give so many students their raisons d'etre: examples range from drama to music to art to shop, classes where passions and purpose are often ignited, thereby providing a solid direction for a life beyond high school. Take away those opportunities and you not only have a more sterile school experience, but, for some, also less reason to stay in school.

Another massive mistake the government is making is the new requirement for students to take four e-learning courses. While such a stipulation must hold massive appeal to the bean-counters ("Think of how many classroom positions we can eliminate!"), it will be disastrous for those whose families can't afford a computer or Internet access, have caps on their Internet usage, are not self-directed learners, or who need the kind of help only a classroom teacher can provide.

The graduation rate will fall; more kids will drop out; as conditions in our public schools deteriorate, there will be a clamoring for charter schools, as one speaker yesterday suggested. Without an ounce of hyperbole, I believe this government has set out to systematically compromise, and ultimately destroy public education, the only real leveller we have in society.

Something wicked has come to Queens Park. It is incumbent upon everyone who cares about their fellow citizens' present and future quality of life to resist and, ultimately, eradicate it.

Christine Elliott's Debasement

There was a time I had a measure of respect for Christine Elliott. She seemed to me to be someone largely above the toxic politics that now ensnares public discourse and office. However, after her leadership loss to Doug Ford, she changed. Now she is just one of the many who are content to march to the discordant music of Pied Piper Ford and applaud his every move as he leads Ontario into division and disaster.

If you start the following clip at the 28-second mark (be sure to expand the screen while watching), Elliott's self-induced debasement is there for all to see.

To attack public education in the way Ford is doing is to show contempt for the future of the province. But I suppose, given his own very limited education and the fact that he could go directly into Daddy's business when academics proved too much for him, this 'self-made' man presumes he is the smartest person in the room, and that book-learnin' is ultimately a waste of time, eh?

Sacrificing Isaac

Yesterday's post dealt with the fact that climate change has thus far resulted in Canada warming twice as fast as the rest of the world; of course, much worse is to come.

Today's post deals with the group who will be most devastated by the catastrophe now enfolding the world: our children. But they are not taking their cruel fate lying down, as you will see in the following report, which starts at the 18 minute mark:



The Mound recently wrote a post called Crimes Against Humanity, about our willful acceleration of climate change. I highly recommend it. All things considered, our species has proven itself to be a short-sighted one. And now we can add infanticide and genocide to our impressive curriculum vitae.

Running Out Of Time

These days, when it comes to issues like democracy's health and catastrophic climate change, I am feeling pretty much spent, so much so that I find it hard to write about them. Therefore, I encourage you to watch the following, which shows how Canada is warming at twice the rate of the rest of the world.

The puny efforts of the Trudeau government to slow the pace of this unfolding disaster should be obvious to all but the most ardent of Liberal cheerleaders. Of the Conservatives, and their political posturing around this issue, I will not even speak:



You can learn more about this sad situation here.

Corporate Extortion

Two noteworthy revelations in the SNC-Lavalin scandal have come to light. The first deals with impropriety, and the second with what can only be called corporate extortion.

First, The Star reports the following:

As former justice minister Jody Wilson-Raybould debated whether to intervene in the corruption prosecution of SNC-Lavalin, she received legal advice from her department that underscored what an unprecedented move that would be.

The legal advice prepared by the department set out her possible options on the SNC-Lavalin prosecution, including the ability to seek outside legal advice, but it stressed that no chief prosecutor has ever intervened in a specific case, and that any decision to intervene must be “hers alone.”

“Any decisions by the Attorney General of Canada are hers to make, independent of political considerations or processes, and in the public eye,” the document states.

Compounding the impropriety of the Trudeau government putting pressure on Wilson-Raybould to direct the Public Prosecutor to enter into a Deferred
Prosecution agreement with SNC-Lavlin is the revelation in documents obtained by The Canadian Press of the extortionate measures by the company to get what it wanted:

The documents... describe something called “Plan B” — what Montreal-based SNC might have to do if it can’t convince the government to grant a so-called remediation agreement to avoid criminal proceedings in a fraud and corruption case related to projects in Libya.

Under that plan, SNC would move its Montreal headquarters and corporate offices in Ontario and Quebec to the U.S. within a year, cutting its workforce to just 3,500 from 8,717, before eventually winding up its Canadian operations.

“The government of Canada needs to weigh the public interest impact of the prosecution of SNC-Lavalin,“ the presentation reads.

The company’s board and senior management were prepared to quickly bundle parts of the business that had no role in the Libya case into a new entity, putting the “trio of possibly convicted entities” into another organization that would operate “on a reduced business level in Canada or heading into eventual wind-up,” they read.

The details appear to contradict public statements by chief executive officer Neil Bruce, who has denied both that the company threatened to move its headquarters, and that the company cited its some 9,000 Canadian jobs as a reason the construction giant should be granted a remediation agreement.

The company walked back the comments days later in a statement, saying a remediation deal was the best path to protect its Canadian workforce.

A recent news report, which I am not currently able to find online, cited the commitment that SNC-Lavalin made to stay in Quebec after receiving a huge loan/grant from the Quebec government, so clearly, this threat was a thuggish bluff. As well, as I outlined in a recent post, there is plenty of current work federally for the company, even if it is barred for 10 years from bidding on federal contracts, and nothing in a conviction would prevent it from getting provincial contracts, of which it also currently has many.

Trudeau enthusiasts will continue to see his pressure on Raybould-Wilson as a noble expression of economic nationalism. More critical thinkers may draw the conclusion that the Liberal government was simply being cowed by the thuggish tactics of a corporate extortion artist.

The Truth Is Out There

Actually, it is much closer than that, hiding in plain sight.

Judged And Found Wanting

If the true measure of a society is to be found in how it treats its most vulnerable members, Ontario, under the Doug Ford regime, and all those who voted for it, must be found wanting.

Perhaps it is a function of age, but the older I get as I continue to enjoy a comfortable retirement, the more my thoughts turn to the less fortunate in our society, a segment that was enjoying demonstrable improvement in the quality of their lives thanks to the basic income project imitated under the former Wynne government. Unfortunately, despite his campaign promise to continue with the experiment for its intended three-year term, Doug Ford broke his word and cancelled it early, the final cheque being sent out this month.

And the consequences will be severe:

Under the pilot project, individuals received up to about $17,000 annually while couples could get up to about $24,000. A top-up of $6,000 was available for those with disabilities.

In addition to fewer rules and surveillance, basic income was more generous than social assistance, which provides an annual income for basic needs and shelter of almost $9,000 for individuals, $13,600 for couples and just over $14,000 for a person with a disability.

Consider a few of the people whose lives were starting to show measurable improvement under the program, as reported last year:

Wendy Moore, who has been homeless for almost two years, is looking for an apartment.

After couch-surfing for almost two years, Moore, 60, is using her basic income payment to look for stable housing.

“My biggest focus is getting my own place and giving poor John his apartment back,” said Moore, who has been sleeping on her friend’s living room sofa for about a year.

Before joining the program in October, the single mother of six and grandmother of 12 was “barely surviving” on $330 a month in basic needs allowance from Ontario Works, the province’s welfare program for people without disabilities. [Because she was homeless, she did not qualify for a shelter allowance]

But under the basic income experiment, Moore receives $1,416 a month, an amount that remains constant no matter where she lives.

“It is giving me back my independence,” she said. “I don’t feel so backed into a corner. If I want to eat, I can afford to buy something instead of going to a food bank or a soup kitchen.”

Or consider Lindsay resident Kathy Mahood, 53:

When she joined the pilot project in October [2017], she was living on about $735 a month in federal Canada Pension Plan disability benefits and proceeds from the sale of her house.

“I figured I had a year and a half left before I would lose my apartment and have to rent a room. It was pretty frightening,” she said.

But with $1,200 in basic income every month on top of her disability benefits, Mahood has money for rent and healthy food — and has begun making regular payments to clear her credit card debt.

“If I am careful, I should be debt-free when the program ends in three years,” she said.

Mahood was able to buy modest Christmas gifts for her four grandchildren in December. She could afford to buy ingredients for Christmas baking. She can put gas in her car and has money for repairs.

“I feel healthier and I am not stressed all the time about money,” she said.

But those dreams are all over for many, many people. Here is how a few beneficiaries of the project plan to spend their last cheque this month:

Carmen Lord, 46, of Hamilton, who works part time in a dry-cleaning shop.

Monthly basic income: $1,415

Last payment will be spent on making extra car and auto insurance payments so she doesn’t lose her car.

“When I got the basic income in April (2018) I used the extra money to buy a car so it would be easier to get to work,” said Lord, who had a full-time job at a tech-support company at the time. “When I was laid off last fall, the basic income helped me stay ahead of my bills. But now I’m panicking. If I can’t find a full-time job, I will lose my car.”

Tracey Crosson, 47, of Thunder Bay, who moved to Toronto in January for better medical care.

Monthly basic income: $1,916

Last payment will be spent on credit card debt and advance payments for hydro, phone and internet.

“I need to get ahead of my bills because I am going to be living on $168 after rent (in May),” said Crosson, who has relied on ODSP on and off for the past 20 years due to an accident and will return to the program in April. Her monthly income will drop to just $1,169.

“It’s going to be tight. I need to pay ahead on my bills and get some extra food so I’m not starving. If I don’t do this, I’m either going to be dead or starving in six months.”

Dana Bowman, a 57-year-old grandmother from Lindsay.

Monthly basic income: $1,916

Last payment will be spent on grocery cards, advance payments for phone and internet, and household basics like toilet paper.

“The basic income gave me more courage to talk about poverty. It gave us a chance to give our input on what works for us instead of (the government) sticking us in boxes that haven’t worked in the past,” she said. “It’s going to be hard to go back to living on just $667 a month for basic needs … and not being able to afford healthy snacks when my grandchildren come to visit.”

Broken political promises are nothing new, of course, but to break a commitment on the backs of the most vulnerable surely tells us everything we need to know about the Doug Ford government and those who voted for, and continue to support, it.

All in all, not a pretty snapshot of our species.