In March 2020, over 2000 people called for the University to waive summer tuition in recognition of the immense impact COVID 19 was taking on SGPS members’ financial stability and wellbeing due to changes to educational delivery that affected us both as students and as labourers. This request was met with a stern “no.” Since then, graduate students have been working overtime to continue their studies and employment responsibilities at Queen’s. Many graduate students faced significant delays in receiving ethics approval and access to archives and had to adapt their research proposals due to restricted possibilities for in-person research. They also had to go above and beyond with their commitments to RA/TAships with the switch to online delivery. While the School of Graduate Studies is working to approve a policy about extensions for completion time, funding extensions should not be made on a case-by-case basis. Pressure needs to continue to be placed on the decision-makers at Queens to come up with a cross-department plan to ensure funding for all students who need additional time to completion. We the undersigned endorse this campaign and demand a one year funding extension guarantee for all graduate students currently enrolled in Queen’s. This provision will come with the option to opt out upon completion of research. We call for faculty members, faculty associations, department stakeholders and all graduate students to sign this letter and show our strength behind this much required change. Important: Add your designation alongside your last name in the box below with no special characters. For example, Jane (first name) Doe Graduate Student (last name and designation).

CBC reports that 9 Toronto residents have been kicked out of their homes with just 24 hours notice, after learning that the units had been illegally built in unsafe conditions - which almost led to death by carbon monoxide poisoning for several tenants. The landlord, Brad Lamb, is reported to have installed ineffective monoxide detectors that would, according to firefighters, have failed to protect the residents. With those tenants out on the street in the midst of the pandemic through no fault of their own, it's up to Brad Lamb to fix the situation he created. Lamb runs Toronto's top condo and loft brokerage. A search of his website reveals hundreds of available properties. He has the means to offer shelter to the people whose lives he almost destroyed and who he has evicted overnight. Send Brad's company an email demanding that they make some of their open units available to the evicted tenants immediately and for at least three months to give them time to find a new place. CBC article: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/west-end-apartment-residents-given-24-hours-to-vacate-1.5949249 (Comic art by @CarymaRules)

Climate change is catastrophic, we have to work together to save our planet. There is no planet b. Every industry that does more harm than good, specifically the animal industry and fossil fuel industry, should not be subsidized by taxpayers.

The University of Toronto likes to publicize its ranking as one of Canada’s top 100 employers. However, the truth is, in any given month, U of T, one of the richest (if not the richest) publicly funded education institutions in the country, hires more than 5,000 people on casual contracts – many working at or near full-time hours – with no guarantee of hours of work, no health benefits and no paid sick days. The University administration recently granted support staff three temporary, paid “Staff Wellness Days.” However, only a small percentage of those on casual contracts actually qualify for such paid leave. There exists at U of T and other post-secondary institutions an ingrained staff stratification where University management, with their inflated salaries and perks, argue that workers on casual contracts, many of whom are also students, somehow don’t deserve the health and income protections afforded by paid sick days. When sick and without paid sick days, these workers must make the difficult choice of going without income or else potentially infecting their fellow workers by going in to work. No person, especially during a global pandemic, should have to make such a choice. Right now, the union that represents many of these workers – United Steelworkers Local 1998 (Casual Unit) – is currently bargaining with U of T management, and one of the asks is paid sick days. Based on our initial meetings, we are expecting the University’s negotiators to reject this reasonable and necessary proposal. This is not what we should expect from a “model” employer. As one of the biggest employers in Toronto and amid a growing call for paid sick days for all, the U of T administration has an opportunity to show leadership on this issue and implement paid sick days for all employees at U of T. To that end, we encourage you – whether or not you are a part of the U of T community – to sign the petition.

Until we have a national livable basic income guarantee for everyone who needs it, regardless of their work status, many of us will continue to be left behind living in poverty. We need a renewed social safety net for the 21st century that includes both income security and the social supports and services we need. We are facing turbulent times: climate change; energy transition; employment transition; racism and discrimination; vast income inequality; deep poverty; pandemics; an opioid crisis and food insecurity. Any one of us can fall into poverty at any time. To successfully adapt to all of the challenges of the 21st century, we need a social safety net that will catch not just some of us - but all of us. We each deserve to live with sufficient income and the supports and services we need to live with dignity.

Workmans cottages should have a blanket protection in the City of Toronto as very few remain. Developers have taken advantage of too many loopholes provided by the city to destroy these historic homes. This would be a similar blanket protection that Montreal imposed for their "Shoebox homes" https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/shoebox-bylaw-referendum-1.5076513 . The essence of the workman's cottage was to provide affordable housing, with land, to the lower working class which is still relevant and needed today, allowing three stories to be built from a one-story defeats the whole purpose of what these homes represented over a century ago, and is a strong historic icon that needs to be protect.

We certainly are nowhere near rich if we're on PWD. A sudden deduction is felt by us in a powerful way. This drop in assistance is disorienting and problematic for people, especially who go just a modest amount over the limit and who do so at the end of the year, when the seasonality of things can also increase expenses and decrease work income. It can be really bad timing! Covid-19 just makes this all harder to deal with, too. Costs and expenses typically do not go down, but suddenly a PWD client can be without that extra money earned through their hard work, through their disability. In fact, the actual work might be continuing the same, but suddenly there is a loss in access to otherwise available resources. It's not a smooth transition for us. Things someone might buy with this extra income if it weren't clawed back: It could go toward a doctor recommended supplement which is not covered, toward a psych or physio therapy session which is not covered but does wonders for overall management of stress and health issues, toward a meaningful gift to a loved one at Christmas, or toward something otherwise out of reach but which afforded increases one's quality of life and health. Like mentioned, on PWD we are not rich, so these small amounts mean a lot to us.

As a self-employed business owner, I was out of work due to the lockdown for Covid-19 and I followed the rules for applying for CERB in order to not only survive, but to keep my business afloat because my landlord didn’t bother with the rent subsidy. I realize that there were many who may have accidentally applied, but we self-employed had no other option and now are being told we were not eligible all because the word “net” was inferred and not actually stated on the website or the automated recordings when filing by phone. This is going to further destroy many small businesses and their owners more than this pandemic already has. To reduce us below eligibility for net profits after our deductions is beyond unfair and seems as though the rules are being changed to benefit CRA and the economy.

The purpose of the inquiry we request is to determine the extent of harms put upon injured, ill and/or disabled Canadians in provincial and territorial jurisdictions nationally. We raise these concerns to ensure as well our own full and fair redress in the form of workers compensation benefits as we are entitled to receive and rightly, legitimately deserve. We believe that only with a National investigation of provincial law, policy and regulations that govern provincial/territorial occupational health and safety can troubling issues be properly rectified. Those agencies and agents so empowered by law, policy and regulations have not responded to our direct engagement to address these issues with integrity. As these issues are of long-standing national concern, we assert that the concerns receive the attention that these matters require as it is in the National interests of all Canadians to do so.

The pandemic has laid bare exactly who the truly essential workers are. While many well-paid workers work from their homes, it is the bravery and determination of front-line workers that are keeping our nation moving through the pandemic. That includes grocery store workers, many of whom make barely above minimum wage. At the start of the pandemic, Loblaws guaranteed those workers a $2/hr increase in "hero pay" - a modest increase for people who are literally putting their lives on the line so that we can eat. But Loblaw's cancelled the hero pay when cases declined over the summer of 2021. Now, we face an overwhelming wave of a dangerous new variant, and cases are reaching new heights never before seen in Canada - but not only has Loblaw's refused to reinstate the hero pay, they've instead chosen to increase the amount of money going to their wealthiest shareholders through dividends, and reward their CEOs with bonuses. It couldn't be clearer: Loblaws executives call the work essential but treat the workers as expendable. Call out their greed and demand better. Sign your name to demand Loblaw's reinstate hero pay immediately for the essential heroes keeping food on our tables.

*UPDATED April 16th, 2021* Ford's response to the pandemic has only gotten worse. In February, as variants of concern (VOC) began to take off, Ford's own doctors predicted a total catastrophe in Ontario if he didn't expand public health protections. Not only did he fail to do so, he actually reduced those protections. The result: Ontario is now facing a completely predictable, completely preventable humanitarian disaster. Other nations, states, even other provinces in Canada have managed to avoid the third wave. Ontario has plunged head-first into one, and the worst is yet to come. Ford's only strategy is to attempt to shift blame and point fingers. It is clear that the only way out of this pandemic is with new leadership. Doug Ford must resign and make way for someone capable of managing an effective public health response to the pandemic. *End of updated text* In early November, Doug Ford introduced new guidelines for COVID restrictions. He claimed to have consulted public health professionals in devising the guidelines. However, the guidelines had thresholds for activation that were *four times higher* than public health doctors had actually called for. In other words: Ford lied, and put all our lives at risk. This latest outrage is the last straw. From the beginning, Ford has mismanaged the pandemic. He's given mixed messages that insist we must keep businesses open yet scolds people for visiting those businesses. He's refused to offer supports for small businesses or employees, passing the buck to the federal government. He's refused to address the crisis in long term care, instead passing the buck to local public health agencies. His "COVID relief bill" does things like interfering in local democracy, and he's rescinded paid sick leave guarantees passed by a previous government. He refused to adequately support schools or to close them when they proved to be vectors for transmission. The result? Under Doug Ford's watch, cases have reached record numbers and every day more people die. This is a crisis of negligence and incompetence and it cannot be tolerated any longer. It's time for Doug Ford to resign.

The B.C. government must stop throwing good money after bad into the unneeded Site C dam. In July, BC Hydro belatedly admitted that serious geotechnical issues had materialized at Site C and that the fix was unclear. Before any more work continues, and any more of our billions are potentially wasted, the Premier must call for an independent expert review with full public transparency. BC taxpayers and Hydro ratepayers deserve to know what they are paying for. If the independent expert panel finds that this project can't be fixed or that attempted fixes will cost billions more, cancellation of the project must be on the table. These billions can be put to much better use helping families, businesses and all British Columbians to weather the Covid-19 pandemic. For more information on the Site C dam, see https://stopsitec.today/site-c-faq/