Canada Politics

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If Trudeau says something shouldn't be criminal in a year, then people shouldn't be getting criminal records for it now - especially when most of those people are folks who don't enjoy his family's privileges of being white and wealthy. A criminal record traps people in the country and traps them in poverty. Almost every job does background checks, even volunteer organizations. It deeply impacts lives and when that record is due to nonviolent pot possession, it amounts to cruel and usual punishment.

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Many countries, such as Canada, are focused on implementing the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals and universalizing coverage. Others, pushed by the WHO, are leading anti-tobacco efforts. But many are seeking a reduced role for determining health policy at the very top level.

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In Ontario, a single adult on disability benefits can receive a base rate of up to $1128 a month to live through the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP) as well as support for drug, dental and disability related costs. Sounds OK at first glance -- until you look at the cost of living.

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As I watch Donald Trump giddily dropping the "mother of all bombs" on Afghanistan, or bombing Syria, or sending a U.S. soldier to his death in Yemen, or threatening war with North Korea, I think of a bearded guy in New Hampshire, washing his pickup truck one sunny Saturday morning in August. He warned us.

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The Ontario government just announced a pilot project to test a basic income for low-income earners in Hamilton, Brantford, Lindsay and Thunder Bay. Will the program be successful? I have no idea. The answer will, in large part, depend on what will be measured.

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In 2017, sex workers in Canada continue to live and work in unsafe conditions, face predatory and state violence, immigration raids, deportation, surveillance and arrest as well as see their human rights violated. Meaningful sex work law reform in Canada is long due.

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The Brad Wall government had some difficult choices to make. It could have asked the rich to pay a little more. Instead, it told the poor to pay a lot more. Though this budget may help reduce the provincial deficit, it will be bad for poverty and for the long-term health of the Saskatchewan economy.

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Unless something galvanizes Trudeau, Trump and other Western leaders to action, we may soon observe another sad anniversary of Israel's ongoing military occupation. If so, Israelis, and especially Palestinian civilians, will continue to pay a heavy price for our indifference.

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A stock epinephrine and mandatory food allergy education program for the hospitality industry in the City of Toronto is the right thing to do. It has huge benefits for the safety of the general public and increases public awareness of food allergies.

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Kathleen Wynne may very well owe Unilateral Eric big for making her premier. But if Wynne is serious about governing the province properly, her next step must be to shuffle the most disastrous health minister Ontario has had in recent memory out of his portfolio.

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The results of the recent Turkish referendum reveal a lot about the success of different countries' immigration and integration policies. In this referendum, Turkish expats abroad were eligible to vote. Strikingly, the results were completely opposite to that reasonable expectation.

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The Cruelty-Free Cosmetics Act (S-214), a bill to end cosmetic animal testing in Canada, passed its second reading in the Senate and is being studied in committee before making its way to the House of Commons. It's currently the only piece of legislation that addresses a very specific (and unnecessary) area of animal testing.

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"I'll watch you for a while. I know you like that." I recoiled slightly as those words were spoken, as I imagine many women did. I wasn't the one being patronized, but I still felt it. Women everywhere have at one point or another endured condescending, dismissive, creepy remarks designed to "put us in our place."

UNCCD

On this Earth Day, Canada is proud to re-establish its support for the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification. It is key to our commitment to the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. We want to help affected communities develop resilience in the face of the effects of climate change.

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Alberta's first ever NDP government, have refreshingly opened the door to hear from the public; including working people, labour law professionals from all sides, and business stakeholders as they begin the process of updating the 30-year-old Employment Standards and Labour Relations Codes.

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When Prime Minister Trudeau stated in 2015 that "Canada is back," many observers were hopeful that this would mean a Canadian foreign policy in which Canada took its historic place as an honest mediator. The hope was that Canada would help usher in an age of diplomatic solutions and peace: reducing conflict and standing up to tides of war.