Leading team bosses back F1’s Saudi Arabia GP venture
Formula 1’s leading team bosses have cast a positive view on Saudi Arabia’s inclusion on the sport’s calendar in 2021, despite the news sparking heaving criticism from human rights groups. On Thursday, F1 confirmed that it had sealed a deal to stage a night race on the streets of Jeddah next year, an inaugural event…
Ontario Budget Revives $200 Child Benefit, Plans To Offer Staycation Rebate
Ontario parents, seniors and those looking to have a “staycation” amid the pandemic next year are all getting a boost from the provincial government. It’s giving parents with children aged 12 and under a $200 payment. The benefit is $250 for parents of children and youth 21 or younger who have special needs. The money…
British Columbia Mail-In Ballots Start Getting Counted Friday
Compared to the ongoing U.S. presidential election this week, British Columbia’s recent provincial election was a sleepy affair. There wasn’t a single broadcaster in khakis frantically pointing at individual electoral districts on some sort of giant hi-tech touch screen for 36-hours straight. But there is one thing both races have in common: record numbers of…
Poland Books Coal Industry Summit Alongside UN Climate Talks
In partnership with the Polish government, Big Coal will host its own global summit alongside the upcoming UN climate talks in Warsaw in an event that green groups say illustrates the industry influence in politics that is destroying the planet. “Hosting a coal and climate summit side-by-side is like throwing a cigarette expo next to…
Report Exposes 'Unprecedented, Corporate-Backed Attack on Workers'
A new report by the Economic Policy Institute released Thursday, examining the “unprecedented” attack on the rights of both unionized and nonunionized workers in states across the country, reveals how the right-wing machine in recent years has crippled the gains of a once prosperous middle class. “At a time when our focus should be reversing…
Fight for $12.50 Living Wage Begins in Nation's Capital
Joining the rising tide of communities fighting against vast income inequality in the U.S., activists and labor organizers in Washington, D.C. launched an initiative Tuesday to raise the minimum wage in the district to $12.50 per hour. To do so, the group which began the drive, D.C. Working Families, must collect 23,000 signatures in order…
ALEC Facing 'Funding Crisis' Following Public Scrutiny
On Tuesday, the day before the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) will convene with hundreds of state legislators and corporate representatives for a “states and nation policy summit” in Washington, The Guardian newspaper has published a series of ALEC documents that reveal the group is amidst a major funding shortfall and is scrambling to win…
Troubling Pattern as De Blasio Taps Goldman Sachs Exec
In his second appointment to raise eyebrows among his progressive supporters, Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio announced Monday that he was selecting a former Goldman Sachs executive to be the city’s deputy mayor of housing and urban development. “The question that even some de Blasio fans raise is, at what point do you surround yourself with…
Chrystia Freeland Says Her COVID-19 Test Came Back Negative
OTTAWA — Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland says her COVID-19 test has come back negative. Freeland reported the result on Twitter today, less than 24 hours after revealing that she had been tested and was self-isolating because she may have come in contact with someone infected with the illness. Freeland, who regularly meets Prime Minister…
Merrilee Fullerton’s Past Health-Care Views Spur Questions Amid Pandemic
TORONTO — An Ontario minister says her history of railing against Canada’s health-care system with talking points used by right-wing Americans is old news. But critics say her ideology is outside the Canadian mainstream and raises questions about her handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. For years, Ontario’s Minister of Long-Term Care Merrilee Fullerton, an Ottawa-area doctor,…