2022-11

Thursday March 31, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday March 31, 2022

It’s past time for action on payday loans

Sometimes, requests made of governments seem so eminently reasonable that it’s amazing they need be repeated over and over again.

March 6, 2021

In a report last week, ACORN, a non-profit group advocating for low- and moderate-income Canadians, once again asks the federal government to crack down on exorbitant interest rates charged by high-cost lenders.

The gaudy outlets offering payday loans and other such provisions of quick money at high cost are symbols of desperation on the main streets of almost all towns and cities.

They are the physical manifestation of an inequitable society — a divide both highlighted and aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

As ACORN has long argued, the lenders profit off the most vulnerable.

The pandemic has worsened things for those on the margins, it said. Many of those trying to pay their bills turn to so-called payday loans — small, short-term loans with extremely high annual interest rates.

These loans don’t exceed $1,500, must be repaid within 62 days, and can carry interest as high as 500 per cent in some provinces. They are regulated by provincial governments and lenders are exempt from even the 60 per cent limit on interest.

Wednesday March 30, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Wednesday March 30, 2022

Bob Bratina announces plans to run for Hamilton mayor, says he offers ‘veteran knowledge’

Bob Bratina says he suspects there will be new faces around the council table come October and is making the pitch it would help to have a familiar one too — his.

The veteran politician said he plans to run for mayor when nominations open in May, promising a positive, forward-looking campaign.

“There needs to be a little bit of stability in terms of veteran knowledge of how a city council works,” he told CBC Hamilton Tuesday morning, the day after announcing his intentions to run during an interview on CHML.

“I think it’s hard to disagree with the fact that you can’t just completely throw everybody out and start all over again. There are ramifications to that.”

Bratina, a former broadcaster, previously served as Hamilton’s mayor from 2010 to 2014.

He was elected as MP for Hamilton East-Stoney Creek for the Liberals in 2015 and again in 2019, but broke with the party over its support of Hamilton’s light-rail transit (LRT) project.

Bratina has been a vocal critic of LRT since his time on council. In May last year, he announced he wouldn’t run federally again, and teased then about the possibility of throwing his hat back in the ring for mayor.

LRT Gallery

On Tuesday Bratina said he thinks people are “tired” of hearing about LRT, noting it’s “on a course of its own” and in the hands of councillors.

“If I were to become mayor, with the council, I would have one of 16 votes.”

Bratina joins Keanin Loomis, who stepped down from his role as the CEO of Hamilton’s Chamber of Commerce in January to run for the top job on city council.

Fred Eisenberger, Hamilton’s current mayor, said Tuesday that he hasn’t made a final decision on whether to run again, but “I would not bet against it.”

He added the window for nominations runs from May to August and he will make a decision during that time.

On Tuesday Bratina declined to speak about it in depth, saying “the past is for memoirs” and adding that he believes that council at that time functioned well.

January 12, 2012

He did say most of the “antagonists of the past” have moved on, describing the municipal officials of those days as “an old boys group who were around since roughly the beginning of the century.”

Now, Bratina said, he’s focused on the future.

He’s 77, but said he views any suggestion that could preclude him from running as “ageism,” noting with a laugh that he’s healthy and even considered running Around the Bay this year.

“The main thing I have … is the passion for it,” he said. “If the electorate decides it’s time for me to go, that’s fine. It’s up to them. But it’s not up to pundits to say what I should or shouldn’t do.”

Municipal elections will be held on Oct. 24. All potential candidates have until Aug. 19 to file nomination papers. (CBC) 

 

Tuesday March 29, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday March 29, 2022

Pope meets Canada Indigenous groups seeking apology for abuse of children

June 3, 2021

Pope Francis has heard first-hand the horrors of abuse committed at church-run residential schools in Canada, as Indigenous delegations pressed him for an apology.

Indigenous survivors are visiting the Vatican this week for meetings with the pope about the scandal that has rocked the Catholic church.

More than 1,300 unmarked graves have been discovered since last May at church-run schools attended by Canada’s Indigenous children as part of a government policy of forced assimilation.

“The pope listened … (he) heard just three of the many stories we have to share,” Cassidy Caron, president of the Métis National Council, told journalists in front of St Peter’s Square. “While the time for acknowledgment, apology and atonement is long overdue, it is never too late to do the right thing.”

Saturday March 26, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday March 26, 2022

Neo-colonialism and the Covid response

February 4, 2022

Approximately 35 per cent of the world’s population has not received at least one dose, while more than 42 per cent of the world’s population has not been fully vaccinated. One can easily observe the inequitable distribution of vaccines between the Global North and the Global South.

In a globalised world, the Covid19 pandemic tested human immunity and the relevance of global international health regulations to fight it at the individual and global levels, respectively. The pandemic has demonstrated how unprepared we were, as warned by public health experts, and it should be a wake-up call to not let it happen again.

The pandemic has also exposed that control and power do not necessitate invasion or military control over poor and less developed countries. In the modern world, power and control exist in different forms, unlike in the old history of colonialism.

One can observe significant distinctions regarding the emergence of global health in the 1990s and early 2000s, which has become a tool for influencing country-led decisions (primarily rich countries) in favour of aid-giving countries – a sort of soft power political control. These relationships built on reliance, subjection and Shylock-like indebtedness are problematic in their intent and consequence.

Friday March 25, 2022

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Friday March 25, 2022

Ukraine refugee crisis exposes racism and contradictions in the definition of human

May 9, 2019

Not only has the Russian invasion of Ukraine brought to light the awful tragedies that accompany armed conflict, but the subsequent refugee crisis has also uncovered deeply seated racism in the country.

Reporters have documented dehumanizing treatment against international students from Africa, South Asia and the Middle East in Ukraine. This treatment also extended to racialized permanent residents of Ukraine, including a long-time practising Nigerian doctor.

While white women and children were given priority on vehicles departing the country, African women were barred from trains leaving Kyiv even though there were empty seats.

These incidents demonstrate a racist logic that positions some people as vulnerable, and others as beyond the realm of moral obligation to receive protection. Black and racialized people, it seems, are not as deserving of care.

As Black Studies researchers in the field of education, we study how colonialism and anti-Blackness shape what we know. Although some have been shocked by these reports, we are not surprised.