YOU HAVE TO DIE TO STAY HERE. That’s the harsh reality thousands of migrant workers in Canada face. Being “vital to the country’s food supply” isn’t enough.

WESTJET HAS DECIDED TO PLAY FAIR, KINDA. They have decided they will obey the labour law when it comes to worker layoffs. AirCanada not so much. Both airlines still want special treatment.

THINK AL PACINO IN DOG DAY AFTERNOON. The film where one man stands up to the banks to get justice. That was David Macdonald from the Canadian Centre of Policy Alternatives (CCPA) at the federal Standing Committee on Finance on June 18.

OVER 800,000 LOW-INCOME CANADIANS ARE UNDER THE GUN. Come September they could lose the financial life supports they count on to get by. They won’t if they file their income tax. Most of them don’t know how to do that.

SOME HALIFAX COUNCILLORS LIKE THE IDEA OF A LIVING WAGE. But not enough to actually make it a reality.

ASKING WORKERS TO BE OUR GUINEA PIGS IS ONE THING. Giving them no choice in the matter is quite another. But that’s the reality many thousands of our workers now face.

AMANDA MERLE THOUGHT SHE HAD LUCKED OUT. Her bank was going to let her defer her mortgage payments. When she read the fine print she didn’t feel so lucky.

IT’S EASY TO LOCATE GROUND ZERO FOR COVID-19 IN NOVA SCOTIA. It’s right there, bottled up in a single building on a busy street in downtown Halifax; right there at 2615 Northwood Terrace, proud of itself, with it’s name written in jaunty lettering on a cheery red and white portico over the front entrance; right there in Northwood Manor, a home to 585 old people. It’s a killing ground.

COVID-19 SEEMS TO HAVE A GOLD LINING IN NOVA SCOTIA. TV ads promoting the glories of gold mining pop up on TV in Nova Scotia now with as much regularity as McDonald’s ads used to. The ads feature a bevy of smiling workers touting the benefits of working at the Tuoquoy gold mine in Moose River about 95 kilometres northeast of Halifax on the Eastern Shore.

PROVINCIAL PREMIERS AREN’T SUPPOSED TO DO THIS. They aren’t supposed to add insult to injury. But Stephen McNeil did exactly that on April 7. The Nova Scotia premier added racism to the threat of the coronavirus pandemic.