September 23rd, 2009 Andrew Cash
T.O.’s got one of the highest urban jobless rates in the country — but guess what? We’re copping fewer EI benefits.
By Andrew Cash
I started the day Monday (September 21) sitting at the back of a banquet hall at the downtown Hilton watching 1,000 T-dot business folks give a lukewarm welcome to what had been billed as a major speech by Michael Ignatieff outlining his economic vision.
Maybe they were just eager to dig into their lunch.
By the end of the day, I was at the back of another room, this one a town hall meeting organized by the Good Jobs for All Coalition at Ryerson, listening along with about 75 others to some hair-raising stories of big-city unemployment.
The two events seem to encapsulate the disconnect I’ve been feeling over Ottawa’s hot potato: Employment Insurance. At the beginning of the summer, the Liberals stepped up to the plate demanding EI changes – or else.
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Posted in All Blog Posts, Canadian, Now Magazine, Politics, Toronto | No Comments »
September 9th, 2009 Andrew Cash
I’ve lost friends as “collateral damage” in a war that badly needs peace
By Andrew Cash
I didn’t know Darcy Allan Sheppard, but our household has mourned the death of two close friends in the last few years who were killed riding their bikes – one a gifted photographer, the other a budding musician, both unwitting “collateral damage” in a war that badly needs some peace.
But this war isn’t really just about competing modes of transportation. It’s a contest between top-down and bottom-up power, one that, as in the altercation between Sheppard and former provincial attorney general Michael Bryant, sometimes ends in tragedy.
The car is quintessentially top-down: it’s about status, speed, steel, ego, privacy, convenience, the individual and entitlement to space and resources. Not to mention it’s a brilliant example of human ingenuity.
Grassroots power has no better symbol than the humble two-wheeler, which is simple, accessible, communal, public, physical and a light touch on dwindling resources.
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Posted in All Blog Posts, Environment, Now Magazine, Transit | No Comments »
