The Conservative party has made a turn to the hard right. No doubt they want to swallow up lost voters further to the right that have turned to the PPC. What this means in practice is an outright rejection of any public health measures that actually prevent Covid infections and transmission.
Tag: far right
Making sense of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
What has become clear is that Canadian and American media are manufacturing consent, and presenting the Russian invasion of Ukraine outside of its historical context. The act of invasion is 100% Vladimir Putin’s decision, and the invasion was not justified. At the same time, the conditions that led to this were in part due to USA/NATO aggression toward Russia.
A left-wing case against Justin Trudeau invoking the Emergencies Act
The central issue with invoking the Emergency Act is twofold: First, it is a step too far in consolidating state power against dissenting citizens. Second, police already had the tools they needed to deal with the occupation in Ottawa but chose not to. If the police had exhausted all their options first (which are routinely used against Indigenous and climate change protestors) then Trudeau may have a case. This did not happen.
The Police Problem in Canada
The Emergencies Act sets a dangerous precedent- as does Bill 1 in Alberta, and we should not be encouraging their precedent-setting use. It is clear that the systems and leaders have not been listening. Legislation that allows the system to reproduce the same old issues is not going to bring our salvation.
The truckers convoy promotes social harm, not “mandating freedom.”
The organizers of the covid convoy have been demanding they speak to the manager of Canada. While they claim to fight for freedom and "vaccine choice," this couldn't be further from the truth. What all the elements within the spectrum of supporters of the convoy have in common is the promotion of social harm.
Where is the convoy to support workers in the trucking industry?
Wage theft is a major problem for workers in the trucking industry, yet the organizers of the so-called Truckers for Freedom Convoy are completely silent about this. How can the organizers and supporters of the convoy claim to support truckers, when they simply used them as a spectacle to draw attention to anti-vaccine and far-right ideology?
Right-wing news outlet “True North” posts misleading vaccination statistics
True North, a conservative-leaning news site, has published a highly misleading article that seems to attempt to undermine vaccine effectiveness. It's actually kind of shocking how bad it is. Putting True North's own numbers into context tells an entirely different story than the story its readers have heard. According to government data, the rates of hospitalizations and ICU visits are dramatically lower for fully vaccinated individuals. On average, unvaccinated individuals are going to the hospital 5.5 times more than vaccinated individuals. They are also going to the ICU 12 times more than vaccinated individuals.
Widely condemned ‘Truckers For Freedom’ rally features Trudeau figure in a noose
Aside from needless greenhouse gas emissions, the only accomplishment of the so-called Truckers for Freedom convoy is further consolidation and recruitment of the far-right. Whatever your stance on vaccines or vaccine mandate, the growth of these far-right conspiracy movements and the inevitable violence that goes along with it should be alarming.
How capitalism made the pandemic worse, every step of the way
The internal logic of capitalism has tainted our government's response to the pandemic. Corporate profits were preserved, while the interests of the working class were disregarded. Pandemic austerity and vaccine nationalism were the primary themes of government responses, and have grave consequences for the working class and health of humanity. An alternative solution, worker-ownership, is good public health policy as it would empower workers to create their own safe pandemic working conditions.
Should Leftists and Progressives trust Pfizer and Big Pharma?
The Left has always had a strong tradition of emphasizing the importance of science and empirical understanding of the world. Remember that foundational socialists such as Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Karl Marx, and Friedrich Engels considered their approach to economics as "scientific socialism." Marx himself admired the scientific advances made possible by Capitalism. As Leftists, we should not dismiss the labour of the workers of these pharmaceutical companies, nor should we align with conspiracists, conservatives, or fascists.