Ford’s war on the poor: Tories slash welfare, cancel UBI program
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- M. A. Olanick
During the Ontario provincial election campaign, the 4,000 participants in Ontario’s Universal Basic Income (UBI) pilot program were eager to know whether the program would survive if Doug Ford’s Conservatives were elected to form the next government. These individuals had planned their lives with the expectation that they would receive three years of guaranteed income. Some made decisions to return to school or to move into better housing. The statement from Ford’s campaign was reassuring: that the Tories were “looking forward” to seeing the results of the program. Some individuals on UBI voted for Ford with that promise in mind.
On Aug. 1, 2018 the Ontario Public Services Employees Union (OPSEU) President Warren “Smokey” Thomas published a piece on the union’s website entitled “Steadiness, Strength and Discipline: A Winning Combination”. The article acknowledges a wave of “anxiety” among members since the election of a Conservative majority government led by Doug Ford, but instead of encouraging them to prepare for a fight against the Conservatives, Thomas calls on activists to stop any form of action that they are doing and to rethink their approach. 
The ongoing dispute between the governments of Saudi Arabia and Canada continues to escalate. In the latest development, Saudi state television channel Al Arabiya aired a segment criticizing Canada’s human rights record, making a number of false claims—such as that Jordan Peterson had been arrested for his political views—while also pointing to real issues such as Canada’s abysmal treatment of Indigenous people. Though Saudi Arabia itself is one of the most repressive and reactionary regimes in the world, its televised broadside against Canada underscores the severity of the recent quarrel between the two countries. What is the meaning of this unprecedented breakdown in relations?
While workers are repeatedly told there is no money for living wages, proper health care, school repairs and the like, the net worth of Canada’s richest 87 families, on average, has risen by $806 million in a period of just four years. The average wealth of these 87 families rose from $2.2 billion to nearly $3 billion from 2012 to 2016, Global News reports. Each of these 87 families are, as a result, 4,448 times wealthier than the average Canadian family. All told, the aggregate wealth of this tiny elite is around $259 billion.
This week, we learned that the four members of the Sears board of directors have pocketed a total of $600,000 in salaries and another $600,000 in professional expenses, despite the fact that all stores have been closed since January. You may recall that the company announced on June 22, 2017 that 59 of its Canadian stores would be closed due to restructuring, which led to the loss of 2,900 jobs in a few months. Later that year, on Oct. 13, they made the announcement that they were closing all 130 stores in Canada. According to Radio-Canada, approximately 17,000 employees lost their jobs at Sears.
In the latest in a series of attacks against workers and the poor in Toronto, Doug Ford has announced he will table legislation to slash the number of city councillors nearly in half, from a proposed 47 to 25. This announcement comes halfway through the ongoing municipal election campaign and mere months in advance of Toronto’s election day.
