CONTENTS

1. CALLS TO ACTION
2. EVENTS
3. ARTICLES

We need a zero-carbon electricity system

The federal government has released its plan for how Canada can move to a zero-carbon national electricity system by 2035. Ontario is a major obstacle to achieving this goal thanks to its plan to increase gas plant use by more than 600%.

We need a strong set of federal rules to stop this huge increase in polluting gas use in Ontario. In particular, we need a ban on the construction of new gas plants, and we need to ensure there are no loopholes for substituting grey and blue hydrogen.

cleanairalliance.org

Picket Line Solidarity

When: Aug 19th, 10am-6pm
Where: Canadian National Exhibition (CNE), Exhibition Grounds Princes’ Gates

OPSEU Local 546 safety inspectors have been on #StrikeforSafety since July 21, when the employer walked away from the bargaining table. The inspectors have been trying to negotiate a first contract since November 2021.

opseu.org

CORW Region 5 Cook-Out!

When: August 20th, 11am
Where: Christie Pits (Bloor St W at Christie)

Join OPSEU/SEFPO’s Coalition of Racialized Workers for the return of the annual CORW Region 5 Cook-Out! Planning to come? PLEASE RSVP to R5CORW@gmail.com.

Facebook

TTCriders Youth Leadership Conference

When: August 20, 1pm
Where: Scarborough Civic Centre

Calling all youth! Do you want to improve our public transit system and make a difference?

RSVP for the TTCriders Youth Leadership Conference on Saturday, August 20th 1pm-4pm at the Scarborough Civic Centre.

ttcriders.ca

Decent Work Organizing Meeting

When: Tuesday, August 23rd, 7pm

We are fighting for a $20 minimum wage; 10 paid sick days; increasing social assistance rates; equal pay; and real protections for frontline workers, including gig workers, temp agency workers, part-time workers and casual workers.

Because of workers across the province, governments and the big business lobby are feeling the pressure. So let’s keep up the fight! Don’t miss this decent work organizing meeting. Your participation is crucial to improving working conditions in Ontario.

justice4workers.org

The Nature of Neoliberalism

When: August 24th, 3pm

A conversation with Binizá feminist scholar and activist Dr. Isabel Altamirano-Jiménez that will explore feminism and indigeneity and how its intersections can improve the way we relate with our natural world and resources.

eventbrite.ca

#BetterMedicare: Virtual Care

When: August 25th, 7pm

It’s clear that virtual care is here to stay. How can we leverage its advantages, while staying cognisant of its limits, to prevent exacerbating inequities in access to care? At CDM, we’re continuing to ask these questions.

CDM Board Member Dr. Boluwaji Ogunyemi, one of co-authors of our recently-published “Position Paper on Virtual Care,” will be walking participants through CDM’s position.

Dr. Sheryl Spithoff will be joining us once again to talk about the implications for patient data privacy in the context of for-profit virtual care.

zoom.us

Launch of ‘Enough Is Enough’ Campaign

Enough is Enough is a campaign to fight the cost of living crisis in Britain. It was founded by trade unions and community organisations determined to push back against the misery forced on millions by rising bills, low wages, food poverty, shoddy housing – and a society run only for a wealthy elite.

Source: LeftStreamed

National Strike Called on Cost of Living Crisis in South Africa

By South African Federation of Trade Unions

On August 5, the South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) held its second Working Class Summit. This was the first gathering since July 2018, and since the COVID-19 pandemic, economic instability, and continued government incompetence and political incoherence has made things worse. Inequality, job loss, and social polarization are all heightened. The first summit’s declaration called for a mobilization of workers in opposition to the “crisis of late stage capitalism.”

Source: The Bullet No. 2669

Ontario Government Refuses to Address the Healthcare Crisis

By Doug Allan

The Doug Ford government re-released its spring Budget this week with a new first quarter fiscal and economic update providing a little bit more information – albeit from a government with a track record for wildly inaccurate Budget plans. The increases in spending announced (e.g. for people with disabilities on a fixed income) are so insignificant in the scheme of things that they can be handled within government contingencies.

Source: The Bullet No. 2670

‘The Canary in the Coal Mine’: Sri Lanka’s Crisis is a Chronicle Foretold

Sri Lanka’s acute economic crisis and sovereign debt default, along with its people’s uprising in 2022, has drawn attention across the world. It is described as the ‘canary in the coal mine’, that is, a harbinger of the likely future for other global south countries. Eric Toussaint, spokesperson for the Committee for the Abolition of Illegitimate Debt (CADTM) interviewed via email Colombo-based Balasingham Skanthakumar of the Social Scientists’ Association of Sri Lanka and the CADTM’s South Asia network.

Source: The Bullet No. 2671