pressure

Thursday April 29, 2021

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday April 29, 2021

Ontario details plan for 3 paid sick days after a year of mounting pressure

April 23, 2021

After months of urgent calls about the need for paid sick leave by medical professionals, labour advocates, political leaders and even top doctors from some of the province’s hardest-hit regions, the Ontario government has announced a plan to provide three paid sick days through a temporary program ending in September.

The proposed Ontario COVID-19 Worker Protection Benefit Program would pay up to $200 per day for workers who are sick, have symptoms, have a mental health issue or need to be vaccinated, and will be retroactive to April 19. The sick days would not need to be taken consecutively and no sick note is required.

If the legislation is passed, the program will be administered through the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board and employers will be reimbursed in full, the province says.

April 16, 2020

Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Ontario Labour Minister Monte McNaughton also said the province has offered to provide funding to the federal government to double the Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit payments, adding an additional $500 per week to eligible individuals, for a total of $1,000 per week.

Ottawa earlier this week rejected an offer by the province to top up the program, saying the federal benefit is designed to support workers who don’t have a regular employer, or as a stop gap until their province mandates paid sick days.

Last week, Premier Doug Ford pledged that Ontario would soon unveil details of a paid sick leave program, claiming it would be “the best program anywhere in North America, bar none.”

But as reported by CBC News, the Ford government initially sought to top up the federal program, rather than create its own. On the same day as Ford’s emotional news conference, Ontario’s finance minister wrote a letter to the federal government proposing to top up Canada’s sick leave benefit. 

October 8, 2020

Critics have long pointed out the federal benefit pays less than a full-time minimum wage job, involves days, if not weeks, of processing time and doesn’t guarantee job security for workers who use it.

The cost of the proposal announced today was not included in the provincial budget, unveiled in March.

Unlike Quebec and Prince Edward Island, where sick days are in place permanently, Ontario’s proposed program ends in just five months. The province has has passed legislation that protects workers’ jobs if they can’t work due to a COVID-19 diagnosis. (CBC)

Letters to the editor –  The Hamilton Spectator – Saturday May 1, 2021

Blame Trudeau, not Ford

I have to say I was aghast at the editorial cartoon of Doug Ford being whipped. It is no secret that The Spec is no fan of Mr. Ford, however to publish him being whipped and the prime minister watching is way over the line of decency and respect. Has he made mistakes, of course, some big ones, however keep in mind it is the prime minster, who you show sitting eating popcorn, who is ultimately responsible for this mess, due to poor vaccine procurement. There is enough blame to go around these days. I fail to see what this piece of work does to move anything forward.

Robert Hague, Burlington

Outraged at cartoon

I usually enjoy Mr. MacKay’s editorial cartoons, although he can push the envelope at times.

But I must profess my outrage at Thursday’s depiction of the premier of Ontario being publicly flogged. We are constantly preaching about being against violence and hate in our province but here is a depiction of an act of torture aimed at the leader of the province. People may or may not like Doug Ford and have their own opinions but this is going too far!

Rick Allen, Hamilton Mountain

Trudeau didn’t belong there

This cartoon was spot on about Ford. But putting Trudeau in was unfair. Dealing with employers is provincial jurisdiction and it’s Ford’s problem to solve, not Trudeau’s.

Sarah Mueller, Burlington

Thursday July 25, 2019

Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Thursday July 25, 2019

History the best teacher on dealing with China

While everyone’s attention has recently been focused on events of 50 years ago —i.e., the Apollo 11 mission —the world has continued to turn. Canada’s problems with China have not gone away.

October 2, 1999

So it might be wise to focus less on the moon than on more recent historic events. In May 1999, during the heat of the war in the former Yugoslavia, NATO accidentally bombed the Chinese Embassy there. Tensions between China and the U.S. escalated, negotiations to get China into the World Trade Organization failed, and it took some time for diplomacy to right itself. China joined the WTO in 2001.

The finance minister of Singapore at the time, Heng Swee Keat, took Bill Clinton’s secretary of state, Madeleine Albright, aside and offered a few words of wisdom. It was not in the best interest of the United States to adopt an adversarial stance with China. Heng had more significant pearls to offer Beijing: Tap western markets, western technology and western capital and develop your own economy.

March 24, 2008

Twenty years is not a long time, particularly not when dealing with China, which has always played a long game. But Beijing took Heng’s advice and we are watching that long game unfold. Over several decades now, China has made inroads in the West —in technology specifically — and dumped a lot of capital in the developing African countries.

China’s “Belt and Road Initiative,” launched in 2013, is yet another example of the country’s strategic goals: A trade infrastructure costing anywhere between $1 trillion and $8 trillion and involving 70 countries that will tie China to Europe and other Asian nations through a “belt” tying together China, Eurasia and Russia, and a maritime “road,” across several oceans and seas to the Suez Canal and up into Europe.

June 17, 2017

The plan is to end Chinese dependence on the United States. After decades of accumulating capital and technological knowledge, China is in a position to fundamentally alter the way global trade works.

Canada will, inevitably, be affected, especially if, as predicted, China expects the road part of its initiative to include an Arctic pass. This new Silk Road will not be the stuff of Marco Polo, which benefited the West immensely, but will be a huge boon to China and the allies it creates through the initiative.

All the more reason, then, that Canada must resolve its strained relationship with China sooner than later.

December 12, 2018

The present conflict stems from the arrest of Meng Wanzhou, a senior executive of Huawei, China’s big tech firm. She is wanted in the United States on fraud charges and, under a U.S.-Canadian extradition treaty, she is under house arrest here. China subsequently imprisoned two Canadian citizens and threatens to execute a third already in prison. How we got to this point matters less than how we get out of it.

International pressure, and a wider agreement involving the United States, could free the Canadians, get Meng out of Canada, and resolve this issue. That pressure can also see Canada, as a participant in dialogue with the 10 members of the ASEAN, using diplomacy within the organization to work with China on an amicable solution.

December 5, 2017

Canada must follow the advice of Singapore in 1999 and not adopt an adversarial stance with China, but at the same time it cannot be so naive as to think that an economic solution — like the U.S. imposition of tariffs — will work either.

China saw that move coming a long time ago and has been defending itself against it. Prosperity did not lead to a more politically liberal China. Ask the pro-democracy protesters right now in Hong Kong.

“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” Lao-Tze wrote 2,500 years ago. Canada must be careful not to trip. (Hamilton Spectator Editorial)