Editorials - April 7, 2022

Here we go again  

A single-page pending bill, Bill S-233, has received so many calls, e-mails and even hand-written letters that the Senate of Canada’s servers have been, at times, overloaded. Senators are feeling overwhelmed by the flood of correspondence over a piece of legislation named “An Act to develop a national framework for a guaranteed livable basic income” that has only the power to compel the Department of Finance to investigate the concept of a basic income program and report its findings. 
   

While the term “basic income” and “universal basic income” can be scary for some, under parliamentary rule, a senator can’t propose any new spending or tax increases under this type of bill. Ontario Senator Kim Pate, who introduced the bill, considers it “one component of a robust, responsive, and comprehensive economic, health and social safety net that includes housing, child care, education, pharma, dental and mental health care, as well as programs like pensions, disability supports and EI.” Unfortunately, a few bad actors have taken the idea and used it as the basis of numerous ridiculous conspiracy theories saying that basic income will cause everything from an end to Old Age Security and Canada Pension Plan to the non-vaccinated being disqualified from social welfare programs or other government assistance.
   

The letter writers are accusing the bill of destroying the Canadian way of life and variously blame fascists, socialists, the Masons, billionaires like Microsoft founder Bill Gates or investor George Soros, or World Economic Forum (WEF) head Klaus Schwab. All of these accusations are fantastical and blatantly untrue, but something has broken in our society that would cause so many people to begin to buy into conspiracy theories that would have seemed ridiculous to them not so long ago.
   

Whether you agree with universal basic income or not, it is not a diabolical plot from the underworld that has been devised to enslave and control mankind. It is a theory that may or may not prevent certain segments of society from falling through the cracks. – DS

Arrested development

The charges levelled against and the arrest of Randy Hillier may seem to some like the reasonable culmination of years of misbehaviour by the disgraced politician, but it’s historically noteworthy that a sitting MPP and former Progressive Conservative Party leadership candidate has been arrested and is facing charges related to an illegal protest.
   

Hillier is charged with counselling an indictable offence, counselling an uncommitted indictable offence, mischief, assaulting an officer and obstructing/resisting an officer. He denies any wrongdoing and the charges have not yet been tested in court. 
   

A Global News headline on the story says that Hillier’s constituents were “unsurprised” to hear Hillier is facing charges in Ottawa. Hillier has been controversial for years and was eventually removed from the Progressive Conservative Caucus in 2019. When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, Hillier, now an independent MPP, was immediately critical of public health measures and became a stalwart of the “No More Lockdowns” movement and anti-lockdown rallies.
   

Now, many feel, the chickens have come home to roost for Hillier, after years of courting bad behaviour and keeping worse company. 
   

Interestingly, three of Hillier’s charges pertain to a Feb. 19 post on social media in which Hillier urged members of the public to “keep calling” 911 during the Ottawa protests, despite Ottawa Police issuing a statement asking protestors and supporters to stop clogging the lines. 
   

While the internet was once thought of as the “Wild West”, it may adopt a new reputation if the “trolls” are held accountable for their actions. Online or in-person, though, the rules are the rules. – SL 

A missed opportunity 

Late last week, Chartwell Retirement Residences inked a deal to sell 16 Ontario long-term care homes to AgeCare Health Services Inc. and Axium Infrastructure Inc., as well as the latter’s affiliates. Reports indicate the total value of the deal is $446.5 million, or just shy of one per cent of Ontario’s 2021 budget. The sale represented an opportunity for the province to bring long-term care facilities back into the fold.
   

According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information, the majority of long-term care facilities in the province are privately owned, either as for-profit organizations (57 per cent) or not-for-profit organizations (27 per cent) while 16 per cent are publicly owned. The sale represented a chance to return some of these essential facilities to being run for the people in them, not as a money-making operation. 
   

While there’s nothing wrong with turning a buck, healthcare is something that, as Canadians, we fund for ourselves and our neighbours, and there shouldn’t be a cut-off for that. Healthcare, in all of its stages, shouldn’t be a cash cow for private companies. The provincial government squandered this opportunity, which is only going to become more important as high-population demographics get older, focusing instead on refunding license plate fees and cutting the gas tax. – JDS