do — Courtney Jaye (@TropicaliJaye) June 20, 2020
Not sure if the youngsters below would agree, but they do validate the above, don't you think?
Reflections, Observations, and Analyses Pertaining to the Canadian Political Scene
do — Courtney Jaye (@TropicaliJaye) June 20, 2020
Despite soaring first-quarter profits ... Loblaw Companies Ltd. president Sarah Davis said stores and distribution centres are experiencing a “new normal,” now that COVID-related safeguards have been in place for several months.The Metro, Sobeys and Walmart chains are following suit in this retrenchment, a retrenchment that seems especially cruel given that Covid-19 is by no means conquered, and an effective treatment continues to elude the world. In other words, those same front-line workers lauded as heroes but a short time ago continue to be at risk as they perform their crucial work.
“With this stability and with economies reopening we have decided the time is right to transition out of our temporary pay premium,” Davis said in the note.
“Supermarkets and pharmacies are performing well ... And the leaders in our business wanted to make sure that a significant portion of that benefit would go straight into the pockets of the incredible people on the front line.”Star readers also weigh in on this shameful reversal. Herb Alexander of Thornhill writes:
Loblaw Companies Ltd. saw its first-quarter profits soar to $240 million, compared to $198 million in the same quarter last year. No doubt expenses have increased because of COVID-19 safeguards, but it’s hard to fathom how these stores are no longer benefiting financially, as Loblaw claims.
Galen Weston is quoted as saying now “is the right time to end the temporary pay premium we introduced at the beginning of the pandemic.”And Wesley Turner of St. Catharines, Ont. offers this:
I wonder which information source led Weston to this conclusion. I just checked; COVID will be not be ending soon.
So it seems this is not the time to be pulling money out of the pocket of his staff, who continue to make him richer by working on the front lines in his stores.
Weston, said to be the scion of the third-richest family in Canada, is quoted as saying he “would support any government effort to establish a living wage.”
This tells me two things about Galen Weston: First, he concedes that he is currently not paying a living wage. Second, he will only pay a living wage if government forces him to.
Major grocery chains Metro, Loblaws and Walmart, in the early days of the pandemic, awarded their hard-pressed employees an extra $2 per hour to continue working in what were dangerous conditions.The response to the Covid-19 pandemic has offered many moments when the best of human nature has shone forth. However, the actions of Galen Weston and his fellow-travellers are also a stark reminder that only rarely do the better angels of our nature prevail in the corporate world.
Their work inevitably exposed them to many possible sources of infection from COVID-19, and workers who had to use public transportation faced even more sources of infection.
They were frequently described as “heroes” for maintaining an essential service, providing food and other necessities to all.
So have they ceased to be “heroes?” Has the danger of catching COVID-19 ended? Are all safe to travel and work in grocery stores?
It would seem so in the eyes of their employers who can now lower labour costs and gain more profits. It looks like this increase in wages was no more than a gesture, motivated not by generosity, but by fear that employees would not come to work at the risk of their lives.
That danger remains and so should the wage increase. Indeed, a permanent wage increase would show that those companies really do value their “heroic” employees.
This is Fucking nuts! How is this even a reasonable thing to do by police. This was murder. https://t.co/HxKHVOhnaB
— Rick Barnes (@queerthoughts) June 15, 2020
Heartbroken and conflicted: Canada’s Black police officers open up about George Floyd’s death and anti-racism protests, June 7
Sorry, I am not buying the “Ninety-nine per cent … are good men and women police officers” and the “few bad apples” excuses.
The ninety-nine per cent continually protect the bad apples, so they are accomplices, and just as guilty as the bad apples.
Officer Cartright says he is being pulled in both directions.
Why?
There is only right and wrong.
There is nothing to wrestle with.
The Toronto Police are a disgrace. Phone video showed Consts. Piara Dhaliwal and Akin Gul lied about Abdi Sheik-Qasim’s arrest. Toronto Const. Robert Warrener had “deliberately fabricated” the drug transaction — “inexcusable deceptive conduct” in a case against Pankaj Bedi. The Star has had many, many other articles on corrupt police officers, most of whom are still employed by the force.
Despite all of the scandals and shootings, Toronto Police Association President Mike McCormack has never met a bad officer.
McCormack defends them …, even when there is irrefutable video evidence.
He does not recognize that keeping bad officers on the force tarnishes the reputation of all of the other officers.
If the ninety-nine per cent truly wanted to protect their reputations, they would vote McCormack out of office.
It is their own reputations that are at stake, and they should be proactive in wanting the bad apples removed.
The fact that they actually protect and defend the bad apples speaks volumes about these supposed “good men and women police officers.”
You can criticize the Americans all you want, but when they have bad cops caught on video, they fire them.
I don't know who needs to hear this, but refusing to disclose the corporations receiving $500,000,000,000 in taxpayer-funded bailouts is the real looting in America. pic.twitter.com/jg5kkDSGUh
— Robert Reich (@RBReich) June 12, 2020