FROLITICKS

Satirical commentary on Canadian and American current political issues

Dec 5

Two Top News Topics in 2021: The Global Pandemic and Climate Change

by bcurry

Anyone who has been closely following the main street news media will highlight the fact that the two most written about news topics during the past year were the global pandemic and climate change.  The main difference between these two topics is that the impact of climate change was foreseen for some time, and the global pandemic came out of nowhere.  On the one hand, the impact of COVID-19 was immediate and introduced serious economic consequences in the short-term.  On the other hand, the impact of climate change is expected to be more long-term and will affect different regions in different ways at different times.

The big news was that several vaccines were quickly developed for COVID-19 and appeared to offer an effective means to ending the pandemic, especially in the more industrialized countries.  There is however no short-term fix to tackle the consequences of climate change, including the needed reduction in greenhouse gases.  The World Health Organization (WHO) is the one primary body that can address pandemic issues for both industrialized and emerging countries.  The WHO is leading the charge to get vaccination rates up in the emerging and poorer countries.  There really is no primary international body that can speak to climate change, with individual countries having to develop their own initiatives.  The agreement coming out of the COP26 conference in November does not achieve the most ambitious goal of the 2015 Paris accord — to limit Earth’s warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.  Instead, delegations left Glasgow with the Earth still on track to blow past that threshold, pushing toward a future of escalating weather crises and irreversible damage to the natural world.

However, the differences between industrialized and emerging countries are quite stark for the socio-economic impact of both the pandemic and climate change.  In both cases, the lesser developed countries in Africa, Asia and the Americas will suffer greater consequences from any failure to adequately address both issues.  What is common about both topics has been the extensive use of statistics by news outlets and government bodies to track such consequences, including fatalities and economic impacts.  Moreover, politicians and heads of state have had to take a back seat to climate scientists and epidemiologists when it came to the development and implementation of policies and initiatives.  For the most part, science took the lead over current and future efforts.  Repeatedly, politicians were forced to rely on the results of scientific study and research, a novelty in some countries. 

Of course, there are always the deniers and conspiracists who oppose the conclusions of scientific research as it applies to COVID-19 and climate change.  Unfortunately, among the first deniers on both issues were such political leaders as U.S. President Donald Trump and Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.  Initially, both the U.S. and Brazil had had what was arguably the worst pandemic policy response in the industrialized world.  Under both administrations, environmental laws and initiatives were negatively affected.  President Bolsonaro, who has pushed to open more of the Amazon rainforest to mining and agriculture since taking office in 2019, has been criticized at home and abroad for increased deforestation under his government.  Interestingly enough and ironically, both Presidents became sick with COVID-19 while in office.

Something tells me that by this time next year, both of these major issues will continue to dominate the global news.  There are still further economic, social and political consequences that will attributed to these two issues.  The pandemic most likely and hopefully will evolve into a more localized endemic problem.  More extreme weather will continue to plague several regions of the world, including in the U.S. and Canada.  Unless there is the unleashing of a Third World War, the headlines will no doubt continue to focus on the issues surrounding climate change and COVID-19.

Climate Change Climate Change Coronavirus COVID-19

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Nov 26

When It Comes to COVID-19, We’re Not Out of the Woods Yet

by bcurry

Global health leaders are urging caution as the holiday season gets underway, pointing to a 23% spike in coronavirus cases across the Americas in the past week, a surge that follows similar spikes in Europe.  In the U.S., new daily reported cases have increased 8% in the past week, and deaths have grown 9%, according to tracking by the Washington Post.  The U.S. is closing in on a total of 800,000 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.  In Canada, compared with the previous two weeks, there was a 5% increase as of November 24th in new confirmed cases recorded over the past two weeks.  Some states and provinces have higher numbers of COVID-related hospitalizations and deaths than others.  Again, over ninety percent of those hospitalized are among the unvaccinated in both countries.

What one has to understand is that these horrific numbers have occurred even before the end of the festive season and the end of this year.  No one can actually determine when Americans and Canadians will arrive at what is called “herd immunity”.  Experts are now stating that we may need to reach over 90 percent in full vaccination rates to do so.  This includes the vaccination of children aged five to eleven which has just begun in both countries and will not be completed until early in 2022.  Even then, there is still a fair amount of vaccine hesitancy among certain groups, especially when it comes to vaccinating younger children.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is now assessing the emergence of a new COVID variant in South Africa and several other African countries.  The concerns are such that the United Kingdom has banned flights from those countries, and it can be expected that other European Union (EU) countries and the U.S. and Canada will follow suit.  Indeed, COVID outbreaks have occurred in most EU countries, leading some like Austria to re-introduce a full lockdown of the country. 

Throughout Central and South America, the vaccination rates have remained low, especially in rural remote regions of each country.  For example, as of November 25th, Mexico has a full vaccination rate for the coronavirus of about 49%, the majority of which is in and around Mexico City.  The Washington Post notes that: “Containment measures in Latin America and the Caribbean have been uneven and largely lackadaisical as governments have had to grapple with financial devastation and poor health infrastructure, and have long wanted to jump-start the languishing economies.”  Moreover, countries like Mexico are open for business, especially tourism, much of which comes from the U.S. and Canada.

The WHO is expressing concern about a “false sense of security” when it comes to the lifting of COVID prevention measures and the apparent increased complacency among people.  Sorry folks, we are nowhere near being back to “normal”!  Epidemiologists, health and other science experts agree that there will be a fourth wave in both Canada and the U.S. early next year.  We can only hope that, with increased vaccination rates and control of any new variants, both countries can eventually arrive at a sense of normalcy sometime in 2022.  Until then, we are not out of the woods when it comes to this global pandemic.

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Nov 20

U.S. and Canada Unlikely to Boycott 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing

by bcurry

The unknown whereabouts of Chinese tennis player Peng Shuai once again has raised the spectre of multiple human rights issues in China.  Peng, one of the country’s most recognizable tennis stars, has not been seen publicly since November 2nd, when she accused a top government official of sexual assault.  Back in 2020, the Australians exposed the fact that a network of nearly 40 internment camps had been constructed or were under construction in China’s far west, used to detain Uighurs and people from other Muslim minorities.  Chinese authorities said that the camps were part of their “re-education” system, which they claimed was about to be phased out.  Then of course, there was the forced closure of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy newspaper the Apple Daily in June 2021, just eight months after the Communist Party of China (CPC) leadership imposed a new national security law on Hong Kong.  The new law was aimed at quelling pro-democracy rallies that started in the summer of 2020 in response to China’s proposed extradition law.  Then there was the arrest of two Canadians Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig who were imprisoned in China on trumped up charges for nearly three years, as part of China’s retaliation for the arrest in Canada of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou for possible extradition to the U.S.  Of course, in each and every case the Chinese authorities have denied accusations of human rights abuses.

Make no doubt about it, all powerful President Xi Jinping and the CPC desperately want the winter Olympics to go ahead, putting China once again on the world’s stage.  Now we hear that President Biden is considering a U.S. diplomatic boycott of the 2022 Winter Olympic games in Beijing to protest China’s treatment of its Uyghur Muslim minority and other human rights violations.  Some experts suggest that Canada would most likely follow his lead.  Nevertheless, the games would no doubt proceed with the full participation of American and Canadian Olympians.

Six times in the past, countries officially boycotted the Olympic Games, with as few as three countries refusing to compete in 1964 and as many as 65 nations in 1980, led by the U.S., staying away from Moscow, Russia, as a result of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.  Just as Adolf Hitler tried to use the 1936 Olympic games in Berlin to raise the stature of Nazi Germany and Aryan race, President Xi Jinping and the CPC are anxious to use these Olympic Games to highlight China’s achievements.  Politically, Xi’s expected to break precedent and secure a third term to extend his indefinite rule and certainly doesn’t want to be embarrassed by any boycott.

In light of the current situation involving Peng Shuai, there is increasing political pressure on both the U.S. and Canada to at least promote a diplomatic boycott of the winter games.  However, Canadian lawyer and International Olympic Committee (IOC) member Dick Pound notes that implementing such a boycott won’t make any difference to China if only one or two countries are involved.  Certainly, no one wants to penalize the athletes who have trained and competed for years to participate in the Olympics.  Given China’s international initiatives, especially those in developing countries, it would be next to impossible to obtain widespread political support for any full-blown boycott.  As the world’s second most powerful economic entity, China has a tremendous amount of clout.

For this reason, Xi Jinping will have his day in the Chinese winter.  Once again, concerns about human rights will take second place to economic and political matters.  For what it’s worth, this past week, the Washington Post reported that the White House is expected to announce that neither President Biden nor any other U.S. government officials will attend the Beijing Games.  I this is the cases, one can expect that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would shortly follow the President’s lead.  However, China will proceed with the games and its athletes will prevail in many sports.  Americans and Canadians can be expected to watch in awe as China displays its culture, technologies and athleticism.   As an avid China watcher, I’ll be looking forward to the show!

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Nov 17

COP26 on Climate Change Resulted in just a Lot More Hot Air

by bcurry

Nearly 200 nations gathered at a conference in the Scottish city of Glasgow, known as COP26, and struck a deal intended to propel the world towardmore urgent climate action.  Proposals aimed at reducing methane emissions, a potent greenhouse gas that contributes significantly to global warming, and to end deforestation in the coming decade were considered big achievements of COP26.  However, climate change experts noted that such promises have been made and broken before.

The hard-fought agreement doesn’t go nearly far enough.  The agreement does not achieve the most ambitious goal of the 2015 Paris accord — to limit Earth’s warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.  Instead, delegations left Glasgow with the Earth still on track to blow past that threshold, pushing toward a future of escalating weather crises and irreversible damage to the natural world.

In the streets of Glasgow, over an estimated 100,000 protesters marched to get the conference’s delegates to walk the talk and come to an agreement that included more concrete targets and specific funds to combat climate change.  Due to the objections of countries such as India, Australia and China, the agreement could not even target a phasing out of coal burning and fossil fuel subsidies.  Instead, the agreement only proposed to “phase down unabated coal”, most likely over the next fifty years.  Too little, too late.

Yes, the industrialized countries, such as the U.S., Britain and Germany, pledged funds to help the poorer, lesser developed countries cope with the environmental and economic consequences of climate change given that natural disasters are expected to escalate.  For example, President Biden has pledged to boost U.S. climate aid to poor nations to more than $11 billion a year — a promise that will require help from Congress.  However, the proposed funding amounts are nowhere near enough to effectively reduce the real impact on these developing countries, particularly from severe droughts and crop-destroying floods which could put millions of people at risk of starvation.  Then there are the environmental migrants, people who are forced to leave their home region due to sudden or long-term changes to their local environment.  For example, there is the devastating drought that has gripped Syria since 2006 and reportedly has driven more than 1.5 million people from the countryside to cities in search for food and economic normality.  The International Organisation for Migration estimates that there are now several million “environmental migrants”, and that this “number will rise to tens of millions within the next 20 years, or hundreds of millions within the next 50 years”.

The protesters, many of them representing today’s youth, shouted: “Hurry up please. It’s time.”  Unfortunately, all one what got was more “blah, blah, blah”.  Cautious optimism about the potential outcome of the talks gradually turned into overt pessimism.  Clearly, many participants, including delegates, left Glasgow with feelings of dismay and regret.  Once again, it’s now up to each individual country to sort out its “climate change” policies and the allocation of its resources.  No doubt, President Biden and Prime Minister Trudeau will be discussing their plans at a joint meeting today in Washington.  It will be interesting to see if anything concrete comes out of the discussions given their shared mutual political and economic concerns about the impacts associated with climate change and fossil fuels.  We’ll just have to wait and see, but I wouldn’t hold my breath!  I’m expecting a lot more “hot air”.

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Nov 13

Hyperinflation Could be the Death Knell of Current Federal Administrations

by bcurry

According to just released U.S. Labor Department data, the consumer price index (CPI) increased 6.2 percent from October 2020.  The CPI in Canada was not far behind, rising almost 4.5 percent on a year-over-year basis in September, the fastest pace since February 2003.  In general, monetary authorities like to keep the annual inflation rate at somewhere between 2 to 3 percent.  What one is seeing now could certainly be described as ‘hyperinflation’, which causes all kinds of major issues for governments.  Experts also predict that this current belt of inflation is not going to go away any time soon because of a number of underlying factors, many attributed to economic consequences related to the pandemic.

You don’t have to be an economist or a political scientist to figure out the daily concerns caused by the current inflation rates throughout both economies.  The average American or Canadian sees these concerns on a daily basis when they purchase a house or pay rent, go shopping for food, put gas in their vehicles, buy new vehicles, pay their electricity and heating bills, etc., etc. 

While wage rates have been climbing in recent months, higher consumer prices are eroding peoples’ buying power.  In the U.S., inflation-adjusted average hourly earnings fell 1.2 percent in October from a year earlier.  The longer high inflation continues, the more pressure will be put on Federal Reserve and Bank of Canada officials to end near-zero interest rates sooner than expected.  With the increase in interest rates, people with mortgages and outstanding debt will be faced with the greater cost of borrowing and additional debt-related issues.

One must remember that when George H.W. Bush was president, one of the major reasons that he was unable to win a second term in 1992 was because of the early 1990s economic recession during his administration.  Some suggest that he forgot about the most important political maxim that: “It’s all about the economy stupid!”  The impacts of the recession also included the resignation of then Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney.  Administrations cannot ignore a situation of hyperinflation for very long.  Both President Biden and Prime Minister Trudeau are caught in between a hard place and a rock.  With the end to financial assistance related to the pandemic and the economy’s lockdown, people are going to suffer.  Tough choices are going to have to be made, whether to put nutritional food on the table or cut back on medications and basic entertainment. 

Yes, the economy does appear to be opening up.  However, new COVID cases are on the rise once again in certain regions in North America.  Indeed, in these regions one has what is being referred to as “a pandemic of the unvaccinated.”  Consequently, should governments choose to renew or introduce new financial assistance measures, this will only exacerbate the current economic situation by further increasing the ratio of government debt to revenues.  If interest rates increase as expected in light of inflation, the future interest on government debt will also increase accordingly.  Under these extraordinary circumstances, governments can only do so much.  If the current frustrating situation continues, we would most likely see a change in federal administrations in future elections, as was the case in the early 1990s.

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Oct 30

Student-led Movements Urging Canadian Universities to Divest from Fossil Fuels an Inspiration

by bcurry

In the late sixties, I can remember as a student a number of protest movements on university campuses, one being a campaign by students to increase their voice on university boards and policy bodies.  Marches on campus and sit-downs outside administrators’ offices occurred, until eventually student bodies were granted more access to administrative boards.  The student initiatives were in line with several active movements which attacked the absolute power of the authorities during this period and expressed a desire for greater decision-making powers and representation by citizens in general.  Since then, universities have conceded greater input by student unions and representatives in the operation and administrative policies on campuses across the country.

Frustrated by the slow pace of halting dangerous climate change, in the last few years we have the student divestment effort, demanding that post-secondary institutions across the country fully divest all investment funds from the fossil fuel industry.  This movement in Canada has been around for almost a decade.  Several major Canadian universities, including the University of Victoria, Carleton University, the University of British Columbia, Laval University, the University of Waterloo and Canada’s largest university, the University of Toronto, have been significantly influenced by the students’ divestment movement.  In September 2020, a movement called the Divestment Canada Coalition (DCC) was launched.  DCC is made up of 30 groups from institutions across the country, making it Canada’s largest group of students calling for divestment from fossil fuels.

The students’ movement has met with some noteworthy success.  In just over a year, at least five schools in Canada pledged to at least partially divest from capital funds primarily comprised of fossil fuels.  There have also been pledges to reinvest funds supporting sustainable alternatives and renewable energy.  Consideration of environmental, social and governance factors have increasingly become integral to their investment processes.  The DCC emphasizes the importance of giving people of colour, low-income people, Indigenous communities and others a seat at the table, given how the fossil fuel industry disproportionately affects these particular groups.

It is encouraging that the students’ divestment effort has generally been met so far with a positive reception by most university administrators, who understand that the issue of climate change is one which has a great deal of potential impact on future generations.  Hopefully, as institutions responsible for developing Canada’s future political and business leaders, they will continue to be receptive to this important cause.  In order to sustain the effort’s current momentum, they should help to encourage future students who are passionate about divestment to run for their student union board.  These institutions owe it to their students, staff and alumni to support this important and inspirational student driven initiative.  After all, their futures are in the balance.

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Oct 26

Attempts by Governments to Reduce Consumption of Soda Pop Drinks Deemed Unsuccessful

by bcurry

Just recently, Canada’s first soft drink tax came to the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, and already critics are arguing that it may do surprisingly little to combat obesity.  Instead, the tax is seen as imposing disproportionate costs on rural communities where soft drinks are one of the only reliable forms of hydration.  Data indicates that Newfoundland and Labrador has Canada’s highest rates of both adult and childhood obesity.  Sugary beverages have been linked directly to obesity, diabetes and heart disease, which is why public health agencies have gone to great lengths to discourage their consumption.  Governments around the globe, such as California, New York City, Mexico, and New Zealand, have attempted in one way or another to examine ways in which to reduce the consumption of sugary beverages. 

Some of us may remember one such attempt by Mike Bloomberg, as mayor of New York, who in 2012 proposed a ban that would have prevented food-service establishments in the city from selling sugary beverages larger than 16 ounces and sweetened drinks with more than 25 calories per eight ounces.  The ban was set to take place in 2013 and failure to follow the ban may have resulted in a $200 fine.  However, the ban was reversed because the courts declared that the city’s Board of Health had “exceeded the scope of its regulatory authority” by adopting the ban.  Few experts believed that such a ban would have worked anyway.

Then there are those American state laws that banned soda in schools — but not other sweetened beverages.  California, for example, became the first state to ban the sale of soft drinks in grade schools, in 2003.  However, a 2011 study showed that this ban had virtually no impact on the amount of sugary drinks middle school students buy and consume at school.  In states that banned only soda, students bought and consumed sugary drinks just as frequently at school as their peers in states where there were no bans at all.  Even in states with policies banning all sugary drinks in schools and where students had less access to them on campus, their overall consumption of the drinks did not fall — suggesting they were getting the drinks elsewhere.  In addition, there are a lot of misconceptions about which beverages are healthy.  For example, many kids think beverages like Gatorade are a healthy alternative to soda.

For years, the U.S. and Canadian dietary guidelines urged Americans and Canadians to drink fewer sugary beverages.  However, it would appear that the simple banning or increase in taxing sugary beverages may not be the answer based on past experiences.  Most health experts will argue that increased education and the availability of healthier alternatives is a better alternative, especially among people with lower levels of education and income.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that adults and children are both consuming roughly the same number of calories from soda, sports drinks and other sugary beverages now as they did in 2009-2010.  While soda sales are down, Americans and Canadians may be turning in growing numbers to teas, flavored waters and other energy drinks with plenty of sugar added.  Among the reasons soda taxes might have such a mixed record is because margins for the drinks are so high that manufacturers, such as Coca-Cola, can easily absorb the cost of a tax and keep the price the same.

Millions of North American adults and kids still drink at least some sugar-sweetened beverage daily.  Obesity continues to be issue, especially since it leads to other significant health issues later in life.  More children today are found to have Type 2 diabetes then ever before.  For parents, that makes education and nutrition awareness all the more important, particularly in schools and community bodies.  Efforts to further reduce sugary drink consumption rely on reaching them, especially those in rural and lower income urban communities.  Subsidizing healthier alternatives to soda pop and other sugary drinks may be a better option, providing more affordable and healthier beverages to families.  Unfortunately, in communities under boil water advisories, such as those in parts of Newfoundland and Labrador, soda is often seen as the cheapest option for hydration.  An additional soft drink tax really doesn’t help!

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Oct 20

Major Obstacles in Unionizing Private Sector Workers in the U.S.

by bcurry

No one denies that attempts at unionizing some of the biggest American employers in the private sector — Walmart, Amazon and Starbucks — can be hazardous to one’s job.  The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the union membership rate of private-sector workers was just 6.3 percent in 2020, down from 6.6 percent last year and from 6.9 percent in 2011.  Labor specialists cited several reasons for the continuing steep decline in private sector union membership.  Among the factors were new laws that rolled back the power of unions in Wisconsin, Indiana and other states, the continued expansion by manufacturers like Boeing and Volkswagen in nonunion states and the growth of sectors like retail and restaurants, where unions still have little presence.  Among those larger employers noted above, there is also the fact that companies engage in numerous anti-union initiatives to persuade or obviously prevent their workers from organizing at the plant, warehouse or local outlet levels.

Earlier in the past two decades, it was at Walmart in the U.S. and Canada that clearly intimidated its so-called “associates” from organizing at the local level.  For example, in April 2005, Walmart simply closed it store in Jonquière, Quebec, when workers there attempted to organize.  Nine years later the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the move was improper, illegal and contrary to section 59 of Quebec’s Labour Code and turned the case back to an arbitrator to determine the appropriate remedy.  Walmart at no time told anyone that the Jonquière store intended to go out of business or that it was experiencing financial difficulties.  On the contrary, from a perspective of five years, the store was performing very well and its objectives were being met.  Let’s face it, the closure was a clear warning to other communities and Walmart workers of the evident consequences of attempting to organize.

In another example, in April 2021, a vote on whether to form a union at the Amazon’s warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, became a major labour showdown.  Unfortunately, the workers voted down the union drive following pressure from Amazon management.  The company’s decisive victory dealt a crushing blow to organized labour, which had hoped the time was ripe to start making inroads at Amazon.  Amazon is a rich entity.  Propelled in part by surging demand during the pandemic, people spent more than $610 billion U.S. on Amazon over the 12 months ending in June 2021.  This is even more than that spent by people at Walmart during the same period.  Amazon also added hundreds of new warehouses and hired about 500,000 workers since the start of last year, none of which are unionized.

More recently, some Starbucks Buffalo-area locations filed for a union election in late August of this year.  None of the nearly 9,000 corporate-owned Starbucks locations in the country are unionized.  However, a Starbucks-owned store in Canada did manage to recently organize, a first for Starbucks.  Starbucks has faced union campaigns before, including an effort in 2019 in Philadelphia where the firing of two employees involved in union organizing was deemed unlawful by a labour board judge.  Starbucks of course has appealed the ruling.  According to union officials, Starbucks management has employed other intimidation and often subtle methods to discourage employees from organizing.  The measures include holding meetings with employees in which company officials question the need for a third party to represent them.

As an apparent shortage of workers in certain private sectors due to the pandemic, unions may see an opportunity to assist in organizing workers because of the competition among employers for workers.  If anything, the situation has forced many employers to improve their working conditions and raise the wages offered in order to retain workers and to recruit new workers.  This is particularly the case in the retail, services and restaurant sectors.  Nevertheless, the ability to organize workers in the private sector still obviously faces numerous hurtles in the U.S.  Hopefully, as economies improve, current labour shortages may benefit all workers, whether unionized or not.

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Oct 16

When It Comes to Schools, A Latent American Parents’ Movement Emerged Partly Due to COVID

by bcurry

There appears to be a powerful frustration among American conservative mothers, who feel increasingly sidelined by school administrators and teachers.  Their targets tend to be sprawling — not only mask mandates but also curricula that touch on LGTBQ rights, race and discrimination, and even the way schools define a scientific fact.  Unlike in Canada, there has been more opposition against mask mandates in schools among certain American groups.  This despite the fact that a Washington Post-ABC News poll released in early September found that two-thirds of Americans support mask mandates in schools.  One of the parents’ groups that emerged recently is calling themselves “Moms for Liberty”.  According to the organization’s founders, in 10 months the Moms for Liberty grew to 135 chapters in 35 states, with over 56,000 members and supporters.

Like many American protest movements, Moms for Liberty believe they don’t co-parent with the government.  Restrictions implemented by school boards because of COVID-19, such as mandated masking in schools, brought such latent groups before the boards in protest, often using very outspoken tactics. They closely scrutinize the curriculum and textbooks used to educate students. They particularly attack any semblance of teaching related to “critical race theory” — an academic framework for examining systemic racism — which school boards have flatly stated is not part of any curriculum.  Needless-to-say, the Republicans quickly aligned themselves with such movements, hoping to garner political support for the GOP.  In Florida, for example, they are closely allied with Republican Governor Ron DeSantis. 

What I find interesting is that, if parents are dissatisfied with the teaching in public schools, there is always the option of “homeschooling”.  Indeed, according to the most recent federal data, 3 to 4 percent of the school-going population in the U.S. is currently homeschooled.  Homeschooling is the practice of educating a child at home without enrolling him/her into a formal school.  Homeschooling is also permitted in Canada, but only about .7 percent of Canadian students are currently homeschooled.  There are a number of organizations in both countries that assist parents in setting up homeschooling for their children.  There are a whole slew of reasons why parents choose to homeschool their children, including the provision of a safe environment, a need for individual attention, crowded schools and religious/morality beliefs.  One study indicated that some 25 percent of homeschooling parents surveyed felt that schools simply did not meet the needs of the children.

While homeschooling may not be advisable for every family, particularly where both parents are working and there are monetary costs involved, the choice is there.  In the U.S., some states even offer tax breaks for homeschooling families.  COVID-19 actually forced more parents to take a greater interest in their kids schooling, particularly where the students were forced to undertake on-line learning as a result of school closures.  However, the vast majority of parents really wanted their kids to return to in-person learning, often for mental health reasons and the benefits of socialization in a school environment.  School boards have done a lot to ensure the health and safety of the students and staff, including masking, mandated vaccination for the staff and physical distancing measures.  A great deal of credit needs to be given to the boards, school administrators and teachers for their roles in continuing to educate our children under very extraordinary and difficult circumstances.

Instead, we find groups such as “Moms for Liberty” attempting to politicize the teaching of children and adolescents for all the wrong reasons.  Instead of trying to undermine the critical role of schools in our society, disenchanted parents are free to turn to homeschooling as a legitimate alternative.  After all, one can’t please all of the parents all of the time!

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Oct 8

Emergence of Mandated Vaccination for Workers in Certain Sectors in Canada

by bcurry

Back in July, I blogged briefly about the issues of Mandatory COVID Vaccinations vs. Civil Liberties in North America  and To Mandate COVID Vaccinations or Not?.  At the time, these issues had more to do with colleges mandating full COVID vaccinations for students in residence or on campuses and with governments requiring proof of vaccination for citizens to enter certain establishments such as bars and restaurants.  Now, an additional issue has increasingly emerged as the result of employers and governments requiring COVID vaccination for employees in selected sectors, especially in Canada.

For example, on October 6th, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau unveiled Canada’s new mandatory vaccine policy.  It requires the core public service, air travel and rail employees to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by the end of this October.  The federal vaccine mandate mirrors provincial policies, such as in Nova Scotia where all school and health-care workers are required to have two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine by the end of November.  In the health care sector, several hospitals across the country have implemented mandated vaccination requirements for all employees.  Such policies often have deadlines after which unvaccinated employees will face suspensions without pay and possibly termination down the road.  In Ontario, the government has now mandated that all workers in long-term care residences must be fully vaccinated in order to continue working in such facilities.

Needless-to-say, Canada is facing a potential wave of terminations tied to mandatory workplace vaccine policies as a growing number of employers require workers to be fully inoculated against COVID-19 — or risk losing their jobs.  Most legal experts believe that the rights of individual workers will be overridden by the employer’s obligation to make sure the workplace is safe and meet their health and safety obligations toward staff, clients and the public.  It is recognized that there is a delicate balance between the individual rights of workers, such as by offering reasonable accommodations and maintaining a safe work environment.  Recent reviews of Canadian cases involving the balance between individual rights and public health have sided with the latter.  It is noted that while tribunals recognize that rights of individuals are important, in the time of a pandemic reasonable limits are going to be given broad scope.

This situation has led to two additional issues: one being the terminated individual’s right to some form of compensation (e.g. severance pay), and the other being related to workers simply quitting their jobs and thus creating a shortage of skilled labour for employers.  Fortunately, given the current rate of COVID vaccination in Canada for adults 12 and over (slightly more than 80 per cent of all Canadians), the impact on most sectors will be lessened.  Except for a few workplaces, the majority of health care workers, education workers, federal and provincial public servants have received a least one dose of a COVID vaccine.  Even public and private sector unions have generally supported vaccination policies for their workers, while ensuring that reasonable accommodation for unvaccinated workers is part of those policies, particularly where exemptions are granted for medical reasons.  Where mandated vaccination by an employer is seen as imposing a new rule and one that was not part of the original employment agreement, some legal experts believe that the policy’s implementation may be determined to be a termination without cause.  This becomes a case under contract law whereby severance pay would most likely have to be paid to the worker.

Overall, mandating vaccination for workers in certain sectors and by employers with particular valid health and safety considerations should not be taken too lightly.  Such policies represent one of many implemented to control the spread of the delta variant, and can be justified as another temporary public health measure.  In most cases, employers will have to continuously consult with existing employee representatives and unions to ensure that individual rights are being respected where reasonable.  Otherwise, numerous cases involving unvaccinated employees may end up before labour tribunals or the courts.

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