SHARES
Please note that Tyee Barometer polls are only intended as a quick and engaging non-scientific snapshot of our readers opinions on various topics that fit with The Tyee s very broad editorial mandate. They are not intended to be seen as a representative sampling of BC opinion.
Today, the average person in a rich country (Hello, Canada!) consumes 13 times as much as the average person in a poor one. Our consumption is fuelling climate change and making the whole world vulnerable to viruses like COVID-19. We are using up the planet at a rate 1.7 times faster than it can regenerate.
It s strawberry season. James and I are at the Ellis Farms u-pick on Delta s Westham Island, crouching between long rows of the bunchy green plants, plucking the big berries and dropping them gently into small buckets. We imagine their future with cream and in pies. I lick the sweet red juice from my fingers. If I make jam we can have strawberries all year, I say. James asks with what, exactly, I plan to make the jam? Sugar? One of the planet s most exploitative products, shipped in from thousands of kilometres away?
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Provincial government data shows that Alberta is on track to see more people leaving than arriving in 2021. It’s the first time since the 1980s that the former prairie powerhouse saw two consecutive quarters of negative net migration.
Kenney and his party have downplayed these issues. They have blamed the departure of companies like Encana on the Trudeau government. They have attacked the companies themselves, like Wattpad, which chose Halifax over Calgary for their second headquarters in 2019.
But people are leaving Alberta. And they may never come back. The loss of trained professionals, families and employers could lead to a bleak future and a permanent loss of its claimed “Alberta Advantage.”
Hotel Workers Turn to Courts to Fight Pandemic Firings
A former Pan Pacific employee’s bid to launch a class action lawsuit is the latest effort to protect workers in the sector.
Alex Nguyen is a Vancouver-based journalist with interests related to affordability, equity and health. Her work has appeared in the Globe and Mail, Ricochet Media and the Ubyssey. Find her on Twitter @alexnguyen2311. SHARES BC hotel workers protested their treatment last summer, calling for better job protection in the pandemic.
Photo via Unite Here Local 40.
A former worker is proposing a class action lawsuit against a major Vancouver hotel over alleged wrongful terminations during the COVID-19 pandemic.