IT’S CLEAR WHO OUR POLITICIANS LIKE MOST. It’s not us. All us everyday working folks have been jilted for the banks and big business

BILL DETRIGHT HAD NO DOUBT. He walked of the job. Hao Di stayed. Juilia B can’t decide. They all work construction. They are among the thousands of workers on construction sights all across Canada left on their own to decide: Will going to work increase my risk of getting the Corona virus?

WOULD YOU LIKE IT IF COCA-COLA OWNED YOUR TOWN WATERWORKS? The Canadian Infrastructure Bank (CIB) thinks you would. The bank thinks the best way to repair, rebuild and expand our public infrastructure is to privatize it, to sell if off to Coca-Cola, or any other huge for-profit corporation, ready to buy in.

“FORD WANTS TO PUSH THE POOR OUT THE DOOR. And give an American corporation a chance to make a lot of money doing it,” says Smokey Thomas.

A BATHROOM IS NO PLACE TO TREAT A PATIENT. But kitchens, conference rooms hallways and even bathrooms are where treatment happens in more and more Ontario hospitals these days. It’s clear proof that more people need care than hospital emergency rooms can handle. The Ford government keeps promising to fix it. But doesn’t.

DON’T FORGET ABOUT THE BUILDING TRADES. Doug Ford hasn’t. The Ontario premier has it in for them every bit as much as he does for Ontario teachers, nurses and health care workers. For the exact same reasons.

VANCOUVER COULD USE A LITTLE JIMMY McMILLAN. Jimmy ran for mayor of New York City in 2005 and 2009 as the founder and leader of the Rent Is Too Damn High Party. He didn’t win, but the passion and outrage of his message then captures the way most renters in Vancouver feel now.

FOOD BANKS DON’T WORK; MONEY DOES. Yet we cling to the belief that food banks are a good way to end hunger. They aren’t. Hunger is a symptom of poverty. And no one even pretends food banks can eliminate poverty.

“WHY DOESN’T HE JUST KILL YOU?” Halima Alari* had no answer. But, being alive didn’t help. The man with the gavel just took it as more proof that Halima was a liar. It was enough for the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) judge to reject her claim to enter Canada as a refugee.

THEY WERE THE PERFECT MARKS. Just what Esvin Paredes was looking for: few of the eleven men could read or write, most couldn’t speak English, they were “foreigners”, over 3000 kilometres from home, the law gave them no rights. Paredes swooped in.