Opinion

We have seen the importance of grocery store workers, truck drivers, warehouse workers and personal support workers during the pandemic. Let's not forget them after.

Government cuts to long-term care and outdated architectural design carry much of the blame for high infection rates at Nova Scotia long-term care home

Arts and cultural industries are Canada’s third-largest employer, but artists are the largest proportion of Canada’s working poor living below the poverty line.

Economists fear that bailing out Big Oil will worsen our chances of economic recovery post-COVID-19. And no one wants to point out that it will worsen our chances for the survival of human civilization.

Doctor and mom: this potent combination makes these women some of the most effective leaders in our fight against both the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change.

Are pipeline megaprojects worth adding public-health risks to their indisputable environmental costs? 

The pandemic climate is prime for the implementation of disaster-capitalism policies.

The United States’ uniquely bad private health-insurance system will ensure the COVID-19 crisis will ravage American society.

Rural municipalities have been suffering crisis-level budget shortfalls for years already, as zombie companies wage an escalating property tax strike forcing counties to cut hundreds of millions in services or raise taxes on everyone else.

Over the last two months, our food system has faced unprecedented challenges. Almost overnight, the food service industry, which usually consumes one third of produced, shuttered. Not only is this likely to destroy tens of thousands of small businesses, the supply chains that fed these bars, restaurants and cafeterias have gone through wrenching shifts.

“The 2019-nCoV outbreak and response has been accompanied by a massive ‘infodemic’ - an over-abundance of information — some accurate and some not — that makes it hard for people to find trustworthy sources and reliable guidance when they need it.”

A chain-smoker develops pneumonia and nearly dies — and quits smoking. An alcoholic is informed by his family they’re leaving — and sobers up. It is well-recognized that a sudden, unexpected shock — frequently painful — can terminate a long and apparently unshakable pattern of self-destruction.

The pandemic has revealed much that was fragile and dangerous in the old “normal” most took for granted only a few short weeks ago. The silver lining, if there is one, is laying bare so much we need to do, and why prompt action is critical.

Let’s remember something important: the pre-pandemic economy failed us all in many ways. The coronavirus revealed, with terrible consequences, the inequities, weaknesses and willful ignorance that had been built into the market.