It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Saturday, April 01, 2023
Chinese Canadians worry foreign interference probe could stigmatize politicians, candidates
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Some fear racism resulting from reports, investigations could mean less representation in public office
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau speaks during a news conference on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on March 6, 2023. Trudeau is calling on the committee of parliamentarians that reviews matters of national security and the national intelligence watchdog to independently investigate concerns about alleged foreign interference in Canada. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)
Chinese Canadians in public office and academia are warning the recent claims China interfered in Canadian politics could stigmatize an entire community and dissuade them from running for public office or taking on public-facing roles.
"There is a lot of fear," said Keren Tang, a city councillor in Edmonton.
Tang and others in the Chinese Canadian community are worried racism resulting from the federal investigations into the alleged Chinese government interference could roll back years of progress of getting more diverse voices in all levels of government. While they support an investigation, they're hoping the work is done with care and transparency to mitigate any unintended consequences.
Edmonton City Councillor Keren Tang is worried allegations of foreign interference will result in racism against Chinese Canadians. (Hannah Hamilton)
An immigrant to Canada herself, and one of the first diverse women elected to council in her city, Tang wonders if she could be accused of having links to Beijing simply because of her background.
"I can almost sense some of the stereotypes that might come with it," she said. "Or the questioning and skepticism: 'Oh, are you one of them.'"
Politicians accused of ties to Beijing
The concern comes on the heels of several media reports China meddled in Canada's last two elections; Justin Trudeau has tasked former governor general David Johnston with deciding whether there should be a public inquiry into the possible foreign interference.
Meanwhile, Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim, the city's first mayor of Chinese descent, denounced what he called "insinuations" made in a Globe and Mail report linking him to claims Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) found evidence the Chinese consulate in Vancouver interfered in last year's municipal election.
"If I was a Caucasian male, we're not having this conversation," Sim said at a news conference on March 16.
Han Dong celebrates with supporters while taking part in a rally in Toronto on May 22, 2014. The Toronto member of Parliament is denying a report that alleges China helped him win a 2019 Liberal candidate nomination contest. (Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press)
Most recently, Don Valley North MP Han Dong was named by Global News, alleging he advised a Chinese diplomat that Beijing should hold off on freeing Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor — two Canadians being held by China at the time.
Amidst these reports, academics are warning that the leaks to media, and the ensuing investigations, are a "slippery slope" that's leading to "suspicion and a climate of fear."
"It will create a chilling effect for anyone considering running for office … anyone actually considering being in the public eye," said Henry Yu, a history professor specializing in migration, race and colonialism at the University of British Columbia.
Yu warns that Chinese Canadians face some unique hurdles because of the way they look and their family background, using the rise in racism during the COVID-19 pandemic as an example.
"It doesn't happen in the same way to people from other countries," he said.
University of British Columbia history professor Henry Yu warns fewer Chinese Canadians will want to risk the scrutiny in public office in light of allegations of foreign interference. (Submitted by Henry Yu)
He says that will ultimately dissuade Chinese Canadians from pursuing public life.
"What we don't want is for people to understand running for public life as a negative — that your life is potentially going to be ruined by people besmirching you and accusing you."
Yu is one of nine signatories of an open letter to David Johnston, expressing concern any investigation into foreign meddling in Canadian elections could trigger "toxic" discussions against people of Chinese descent.
The scholars, who are advisers for the University of Victoria's discussion forum on Canada-China relations, argue the investigations led by Johnston may "further indiscriminate and unsubstantiated accusations of loyalty, subversion or treason against Chinese Canadians."
They are calling on Johnston to promote anti-racism education for all public servants and expand the investigation to include other countries that could be doing the same in Canada, as to not single out China.
Other academics warn Ottawa needs to strike a balance between getting to the truth of the meddling while getting out the message that not all Chinese people in Canada are complicit, since the diaspora is comprised of many diverse views on the Chinese government.
"There needs to be proactive measures to encourage Chinese Canadians to participate in politics without fear," said Diana Fu, associate professor of political science at the University of Toronto.
Fu points out ethnic Chinese are already reluctant to participate in or discuss politics openly because of the "cultural legacy" that politics is dangerous and risky, considering China's history.
While the investigation won't dissuade Jack Yan from considering another run, the former Toronto mayoral candidate in the 2022 municipal election is certain it will affect others' decisions.
Claims that China’s government interfered in Canadian politics has some Chinese-Canadian politicians and candidates worried that public perception could roll back years of progress of getting more diverse voices at the table.
"If there is this misconception that you're somehow being controlled by some foreign government, then you know there's less chance of winning," he said.
For Edmonton councillor Tang, it's also about undoing the hard work of getting more representation at all levels of government — and in the community. She said she has even heard from people organizing cultural events in the city who say they're afraid.
"I would hate for something like this to set back the progress we have made," she said.
High inflation has been good for Dollarama's financial results, as the chain is seeing booming customer demand. (Michael Wilson/CBC)
Inflation has helped fuel booming business at Dollarama as sales at the discount retailer have increased by almost 17 per cent in the past year.
The Montreal-based retailer released earnings results on Wednesday, numbers that show just how strong the demand for bargains is from cash-conscious consumers.
Sales at the chain grew by 16.7 per cent to $5.05 billion in its last fiscal year, which ended on Jan. 29. Net earnings per share grew from $2.18 last year to $2.76 in 2022. Same-store sales, a key metric for retailers, increased by 12 per cent.
Stronger profits have compelled the company to hike its quarterly dividend to shareholders by 28 per cent, with the payout rising from $0.0553 to $0.0708 starting next month.
The chain announced plans this time last year to raise its prices on some items to up to $5, but Dollarama's financial performance doesn't seem to be due to customers spending more money on every visit.
The average transaction size only grew by 1.6 per cent during the fourth quarter, but the number of transactions mushroomed by more than 14 per cent. That's a sign the chain had more people coming through its doors, either loyal customers or first timers.
To Ken Wong, an associate professor in marketing at the Smith School of Business at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., the reason the company has more customer visits coming through its doors is obvious.
"In these inflationary times, with interest rates being so high, a lot of Canadians are feeling the economic pinch, and so Dollarama is looking very much like their salvation," he said in an interview. "Customers believe that Dollarama is going to have lower prices."
While all retailers are laser-focused on costs, Wong says Dollarama has been successful by thinking differently. "Everybody else prices their products based on their cost, but Dollarama starts with a price point and then works backwards to figure out what's the most they could afford to buy that product for," he said.
Last year, Dollarama increased its top pricing tier to $5. (Laura MacNaughton/CBC)
Given the scrutiny on rapidly rising food costs, Dollarama has even started to expand its food offerings. But even there, Wong notes the company proceeds cautiously, only offering items where it can ensure it will maintain its margin, and minimizes losses or unexpected expenses.
"There's no perishables, there's no dairy, nothing requiring refrigeration or freezing — those are very expensive items," he said. "These are all shelf-stable products."
The chain has opened 65 locations in the past year, and now has 1,486 across the country. More are expected, too. It expects to open another 60-to-70 stores this year and by 2030, the chain says it is on track to have 2,000 locations.
While Dollarama's business model has been a success of late, that ambitious growth plan could be their undoing if they make too many missteps, said retail consultant Bruce Winder.
"With any expansion plan you have to walk a fine line," he told CBC News in an interview. "There is a risk when [you] have too many stores and saturate."
As it grows, Dollarama will face stiff competition from foreign chains like the U.S. Dollar Tree, which has 227 locations in Canada and more than 4,000 overall — and Chinese based Miniso, which has expanded into the U.S. and Europe.
"It's not a landscape that Dollarama will have a monopoly on," Winder said. "As this sector grows, more people will enter this sector and more retailers will go for it as well."
The big problem for Pacific Northwest’s endangered orcas? Inbreeding
ORCAS TOO INBRED?
The Associated Press - Mar 27, 2023 / | Story: 418104
Photo: The Canadian Press
People have taken many steps in recent decades to help the Pacific Northwest’s endangered killer whales, which have long suffered from starvation, pollution and the legacy of having many of their number captured for display in marine parks.
They’ve breached dikes and removed dams to create wetland habitat for Chinook salmon, the orcas’ most important food. They’ve limited commercial fishing to try to ensure prey for the whales. They’ve made boats slow down and keep farther away from the animals to reduce their stress and to quiet the waters so they can better hunt.
So far, those efforts have had limited success, and research published Monday in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution suggests why: The orcas are so inbred that they are dying younger and their population is not recovering. Female killer whales take about 20 years to reach peak fertility, and the females may not be living long enough to ensure the growth of their population.
While that news sounds grim for the revered orcas — known as the southern resident killer whales — it also underscores the urgency of conservation efforts, said Kim Parsons, a geneticist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s NOAA Fisheries who co-authored the study. The population is not necessarily doomed, she said.
“It’s not often inbreeding itself that will result in a shortened lifespan or kill an individual,” Parsons said. “It’s really that inbreeding makes these individuals more vulnerable to disease or environmental factors. We can support the population by supporting the environment and giving them the best chance possible.”
The struggles of the charismatic population of orcas that frequent the waters between Washington state and the Canadian province of British Columbia have been well documented — including in 2018, when one grieving mother carried her stillborn calf for 17 days in an apparent effort to mourn or revive it.
The southern resident population comprises three clans of whales known as the J, K and L pods. They are socially distinct and even communicate differently from other orca populations, including the nearby northern residents, which are listed as threatened and which primarily range from Vancouver Island up to southeast Alaska.
While the southern residents’ range overlaps with other populations of orcas, they haven’t regularly interbred in 30 generations, the researchers said.
In the 1960s and 1970s, dozens of Pacific Northwest orcas were caught for display in marine theme parks. The whale-capture industry argued that there were many orcas in the sea, and that some could be sustainably caught.
At least 13 orcas died in the roundups, and 45 were delivered to theme parks around the world — reducing the southern resident population by about 40 per cent. The brutality of the captures began to draw public outcry and a lawsuit to stop them in Washington state.
Today only 73 southern residents remain, according to the Center for Whale Research on Washington state’s San Juan Island. That’s just two more than in 1971. Of those captured, only one — 56-year-old Lolita, at the Miami Seaquarium — survives. The Seaquarium announced last year it would no longer feature Lolita in shows.
Prior studies have suggested that inbreeding was a problem, including a 2018 study that found just two males had fathered more than half the calves born to the southern residents since 1990.
For the new research, NOAA geneticist Marty Kardos, Parsons and other colleagues sequenced the genomes of 100 living and dead southern residents, including 90 per cent of those alive now. Those whales had lower levels of genetic diversity and higher levels of inbreeding than other populations of killer whales in the North Pacific, they found.
The capture of the whales decades ago, as well as the geographic or social isolation of the animals, likely explains the inbreeding, the researchers said.
Meanwhile, conservation efforts have helped other North Pacific orca populations thrive. The northern resident killer whales have increased from about 122 animals in 1974 to more than 300 by 2018. Like the southern residents, they only eat fish, primarily salmon — unlike many other killer whales, which eat mammals such as seals.
The Alaska resident killer whale population is estimated to have doubled from 1984 to 2010. According to the researchers, the southern residents would likely be on a similar trajectory if not for their elevated levels of inbreeding.
Inbreeding has also afflicted other populations of isolated or endangered animals, such as mountain lions in California, gorillas in Africa and bottle nose dolphins off western Australia. In some cases, scientists may be able to improve the gene pool in one population by capturing and introducing animals from another.
That’s not the case for orcas, which are massive and free-swimming. Further, the southern residents already have opportunities to interbreed — they just haven’t done so, Parsons said.
“We really have to leave it to those whales to mate with whom they choose and support the population in other ways,” Parsons said.
US says China can spy with TikTok.
It spies on world with Google
Lawmakers’ push to ban the app comes as they mull extending powers that force tech firms to facilitate mass snooping for the United States.
Taipei, Taiwan – During a five-hour grilling of the chief executive of TikTok last week, United States lawmakers railed against the possibility of China using the wildly popular, partly Chinese-owned app to spy on Americans.
They did not mention how the US government itself uses US tech companies that effectively control the global internet to spy on everyone else.
As the US considers banning the short video app used by more than 150 million Americans, lawmakers are also weighing the renewal of powers that force firms like Google, Meta and Apple to facilitate untrammelled spying on non-US citizens located overseas.
Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which the US Congress must vote to reauthorise by December to prevent it from lapsing under a sunset clause, allows US intelligence agencies to carry out warrantless spying on foreigners’ email, phone and other online communications.
While US citizens have some protections against warrantless searches under the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution, the US government has maintained that these rights do not extend to foreigners overseas, giving agencies such as the National Security Agency (NSA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) practically free rein to snoop on their communications.
Information may also be turned over to US allies like the United Kingdom and Australia.
The US National Security Agency collects the communications of countless internet users around the world [File: Larry Downing/Reuters]
Though it is common for governments to spy abroad, Washington enjoys an advantage not shared by other countries: jurisdiction over the handful of companies that effectively run the modern internet, including Google, Meta, Amazon and Microsoft.
For billions of internet users outside the US, the lack of privacy mirrors the alleged threat that US officials say TikTok, owned by Chinese company ByteDance, poses to Americans.
“It is a case of ‘rules for thee but not for me,'” Asher Wolf, a tech researcher and privacy advocate based in Melbourne, Australia, told Al Jazeera.
“So the noise the Americans are making about TikTok must be seen less as a sincere desire to protect citizens from surveillance and influence operations, and more as an attempt to ring-fence and consolidate national control over social media,” Wolf added.
US President Joe Biden’s administration is pushing for both the power to ban TikTok and the renewal of Section 702, which it has described as an “invaluable tool that continues to protect Americans every day”.
Despite Tiktok’s efforts to assuage national security and privacy fears, including working with US tech giant Oracle to store American data on US soil in a $1.5bn initiative known as “Project Texas”, a ban or forced sale of ByteDance’s stake appears increasingly likely amid growing bipartisan antipathy toward the app in Congress.
In an appearance before Congress on Thursday, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew failed to satisfy both Republicans and Democrats with his answers to a barrage of questions about data privacy and national security concerns stemming from a Chinese law that requires local companies to “support, assist and cooperate with the state intelligence work”.
TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testified before the US Congress last week [File: Alex Brandon/AP]
Over the weekend, US House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy, a Republican, said his colleagues “will begin moving forward with legislation to protect Americans from the technological tentacles of the Chinese Communist Party.”
The app has already been banned on US government devices, as well as official devices in countries including Canada, Belgium, Denmark, and New Zealand, although an outright ban is seen as more legally fraught due to possible conflict with the First Amendment of the constitution that safeguards free speech.
Amid the growing chorus of voices casting TikTok as a threat, the privacy rights of non-Americans have received little mention.
In a recent article about the reauthorisation of Section 702, The New York Times described non-US citizens’ privacy as having “played little meaningful role” in the debate.
In 2021, the most recent year for which data is available, the US targeted 232,432 “non-US persons” for surveillance, according to government data.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) estimates that the US government has collected more than one billion communications per year since 2011, based on how the number of targets has grown since that year.
“They’re making a big stink about TikTok and the Chinese collecting data when the US is collecting a great deal of data itself,” Jonathan Hafetz, an expert on US constitutional law and national security at Seton Hall University in New Jersey, told Al Jazeera.
“It is a little bit ironic for the US to sort of trumpet citizens’ privacy concerns or worries about surveillance. It’s OK for them to collect the data, but they don’t want China to collect it.”
Edward Snowden revealed the existence of mass spying programmes operated by the US in 2013 [File: Brendan McDermid/Reuters]
China, which itself has often been accused of spying on a mass scale, has said it would “firmly oppose” a forced sale of TikTok and that basing such an action on “foreign ownership, rather than its products and services” would damage investor confidence in the US.
China has also in the past accused the US of hypocrisy on the issue of cybersecurity, pointing to spying programmes like PRISM, which was first revealed in 2013 by former NSA analyst and whistle-blower Edward Snowden.
There have been some indications that US officials see China, not TikTok itself, as the ultimate concern.
When cybersecurity officials in the US state of Connecticut last year reached out to the FBI for advice on whether to ban the app on government devices, an agent reported back that inquiries with HQ indicated that bans introduced in other states appeared to be based “on news reports and other open-source information about China in general, not specific to Tik Tok.”
“The big concern there that people seem to have is that the Chinese government can access data on [TikTok’s Chinese] servers like it has in the past, or that that data may be misused,” Cooper Quintin, a senior staff technologist at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told Al Jazeera.
“All of that is true and all of that is bad, but all of that is also true of most of the other major social media apps and US-based social media companies.”
While Section 702 has been renewed twice since its original passage in 2008 with large votes, in 2012 and 2018, its prospects for reauthorisation this time around appear less certain amid waning support for the law – although criticism of its provisions has focused squarely on the rights of US citizens.
US Senator Ron Wyden is among a number of lawmakers who have expressed concerns about Section 702 [File: Joshua Roberts/Reuters]
Some Republicans have signalled their opposition to renewing Section 702, unless this is done with significant changes, amid growing scepticism of US intel agencies among conservatives following the FBI’s illegal spying on Carter Page, a former campaign aide to former President Donald Trump.
Some Democrats, such as Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, have also long raised concerns about the sweeping nature of the law. Last week, Representative Pramila Jayapal, a Democrat from Washington, said the law should be reformed to “overhaul privacy protections for Americans”.
Meta, Apple and Google parent company Alphabet have also been lobbying for changes to Section 702 behind the scenes, Bloomberg News reported last week, including the requirement for a warrant for searches involving US citizens and the ability to publicly disclose how often they are asked to hand over data and what kind of information they must provide.
Although intended to target communications between foreigners, Section 702 in practice also captures the communications of US citizens who interact with foreigners.
The NSA and CIA are allowed to carry what critics describe as “backdoor” warrantless searches of US citizens’ communications that are collected incidentally if they believe it will yield information about foreign intelligence.
The FBI can also search through these communications, but is required to obtain a warrant for criminal investigations not related to national security.
US officials have repeatedly claimed that the law has been instrumental in safeguarding national security, citing its use in thwarting cyberattacks by adversaries such as China and Iran and the assassination of al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.
While US officials insist that their focus is on national security threats, civil liberties advocates say “foreign intelligence” could include effectively any communications, including those of journalists, human rights advocates and ordinary citizens, deemed of interest to the US government.
“The problem is that fundamentally the standard is extremely low, it’s a very broad authority,” said Ashley Gorski, a lawyer at the ACLU’s National Security Project, adding that “targets” do not have to be suspected of any crime.
“They don’t have to have any connection to terrorism. They can be journalists. They can be human rights workers abroad.”
Critics of the push to ban TikTok in the US say the app is being unfairly singled out [File: Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters]
Some critics argue that TikTok’s collection of data is little different from other platforms and that the push for a ban is a distraction from a far bigger problem which Washington has shown little appetite to address: a glaring lack of legal protections for personal data.
A US ban on TikTok would do nothing to stem the rampant sale of personal information and metadata that is collected by all social media companies, including those based in the US. US tech companies’ relatively lax privacy norms remain a sticking point in Europe, which has much stronger data protections.
“When somebody puts the TikTok app on their devices, it’s known to collect certain information about the user just as any other app made by a company based in the United States,” Mike German, a former FBI special agent and fellow at the Brennan Centre for Justice’s Liberty and National Security Program, told Al Jazeera.
“To the extent that a hostile foreign power could get access to that information, I’m sure there’s some use they could make of that information,” German said. “But why wouldn’t they just buy it on the open market like the American government does?”
Vedran Sekara, an assistant professor at the IT University of Copenhagen, said the moves to restrict TikTok appeared to be “more political than good policy”.
“If politicians and lawmakers really were interested in protecting people from ‘evil’ or ‘nefarious’ tech companies, they should instead focus on regulating the entire tech and social media industries rather than just focusing on one company,” Sekara told Al Jazeera.
US social media platforms like Facebook, Google, and Instagram have themselves landed in hot water over their handling of their customers’ data, from hacking-related leaks to improper access by employees.
Facebook is among a number of social media platforms whose data protection policies have come under scrutiny [File: Michael Dwyer/AP]
Some platforms have also faced scrutiny over their human rights records, much like TikTok, which has been known to censor content deemed sensitive to the Chinese government, including information related to LGBTQ issues.
Both Twitter and YouTube recently censored a BBC documentary that was critical of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the request of New Delhi. Facebook also faced blowback for allowing its platform to be used to promote violence and ethnic cleansing in Myanmar.
Also troubling to some observers is the precedent a US ban on TikTok would set for other countries.
“Essentially, the US is creating a template for other despotic authoritarian or even protectionist governments to use national security as a guide to prevent competition in the market and to lay claims over proprietary technologies,” Jyoti Panday, an India-based researcher at the Georgia Institute of Technology’s Internet Governance Project, told Al Jazeera.
Washington giving US tech companies a “free card” while restricting foreign companies would be “basically signalling to other countries or nations that sovereignty is the ultimate game in regulating cyberspace”, Panday said.
SOURCE: AL JAZEERA
AI-generated pic of Pope Francis in bougie puffer jacket goes viral | Latest English News | WION
AI-generated image of Pope Francis wearing a fashionable long, white puffer jacket is making the rounds on the internet. On Twitter, a user named Nikita S shared the now-viral image. Pope Francis was photographed wearing a posh puffer jacket and a zucchetto skull cap.
Why Are Viral Infections More Severe in Men? Researchers May Have Solved the Mystery
ByUNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - LOS ANGELES HEALTH SCIENCESMARCH 25, 2023
A new study suggests that a gene linked to an additional X chromosome may be responsible for the milder symptoms of viral infections observed in females.
For a long time, it has been known that viral infections can be more severe in males than females, but the question as to why has remained a mystery – until possibly now. The answer may lie in an epigenetic regulator that enhances the function of specific anti-viral immune cells, referred to as natural killer (NK) cells.
A research team from UCLA has recently published a study in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Immunology. The study revealed that female mice and humans possess an additional copy of a gene called UTX, which is linked to the X chromosome. UTX functions as an epigenetic regulator that enhances the anti-viral function of NK cells while suppressing their numbers.
“While it is well-known that males have more NK cells compared to females, we did not understand why the increased number of NK cells was not more protective during viral infections. It turns out that females have more UTX in their NK cells than do males, which allows them to fight viral infections more efficiently,” said co-senior author Dr. Maureen Su, professor of microbiology immunology and molecular genetics, and of pediatrics, at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
The researchers noted that this held true whether or not the mice had gonads (ovaries in females; testes in males), indicating that the observed trait was not linked to hormones. Furthermore, female mice with lower UTX expression had more NK cells which were not as capable of controlling viral infection.
“This implicates UTX as a critical molecular determinant of sex differences in NK cells,” said the study’s lead author Mandy Cheng, graduate student in molecular biology at UCLA.
The findings suggest that therapies involving immune responses need to move beyond a “one-size-fits-all” approach and toward a precision medicine model, also known as personalized medicine, that tailors treatments that take into account people’s individual differences, such as genetics, environment and other factors that influence health and disease risk, the researchers write.
“Given the recent excitement with using NK cells in the clinic, we will need to incorporate sex as a biological factor in treatment decisions and immunotherapy design,” said co-senior author Tim O’Sullivan, assistant professor of microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics at the Geffen School.
Reference: “The X-linked epigenetic regulator UTX controls NK cell-intrinsic sex differences” by Mandy I. Cheng, Joey H. Li, Luke Riggan, Bryan Chen, Rana Yakhshi Tafti, Scott Chin, Feiyang Ma, Matteo Pellegrini, Haley Hrncir, Arthur P. Arnold, Timothy E. O’Sullivan and Maureen A. Su, 16 March 2023, Nature Immunology. DOI: 10.1038/s41590-023-01463-8
The study was funded by the National Institutes of Health, the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases, UC CRCC, UCLA CFAR, the Department of Defense, Ruth L. Kirschstein National Research Service Awards, the National Organization of Rare Diseases, Whitcome Fellowship from the Molecular Biology Institute at UCLA, and the Warsaw Fellowship from the UCLA Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics.
Even with pay bumps, Canada's minimum wages aren't "living" wages — here's why
Isabelle Docto | Mar 28 2023, Kamil Zajaczkowski/Shutterstock
Canada’s federal and provincial governments have announced a minimum wage boost in the coming months.
Ottawa announced that federally regulated private-sector employees would get around a one-dollar pay increase on April 1. Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) says this increase is to keep pace with inflation, which rose by 6.8% in 2022.
Provinces across Canada, including the Yukon, Manitoba, and Nova Scotia, are also set to bump their minimum wage in April and October.
While a pay raise may sound promising for Canadians working minimum-wage jobs, it isn’t necessarily enough to battle the rising cost of living. This is where discussions surrounding paying people a living wage come in.
As parts of Canada gear up to increase its minimum pay for workers, we spoke with experts about why considering a living wage is important and why the minimum wage is just that — the bare minimum. Minimum wage vs. living wage
Let’s start with the basics — what is the critical difference between making minimum wage and living wage?
According to the Cambridge English Dictionary, the definition of a living wage is the minimum income necessary for a person to meet their basic needs.
“The minimum wage can go up to $18 an hour, and if you’re working full-time, you’d still be unable to live,” Ontario Living Wage Network spokesperson Craig Pickthorne told Daily Hive over the phone.
Pickthorne says the minimum wage is politically set by legislation, sometimes influenced by inflation.
The Ontario Living Wage Network is one of many non-profit organizations across Canada that calculates local living wage rates yearly.
Pickthorne says they consider the current costs of goods, services, shelter, food, transportation, childcare, medical, internet and cellphone plans, and more.
“So, what we get after all that is an amount that someone must earn per hour to make ends meet,” he said.
“That’s deeply in contrast to the minimum wage, which is just a number… It’s somewhat arbitrarily set in that it’s what the current government, whoever they may be, thinks that they can get away with and still be on the right side of certain interest groups.”
BC and Manitoba were the first provinces to introduce a minimum wage in 1918.
While it was first used to acknowledge that you can’t have free child labour, Pickthorne says minimum wages haven’t kept up with the times.
“That was from the previous century. The majority of minimum wage workers now are not teenagers with no bills and living at home,” he said.
“Seventy-five percent of minimum wage earners are people over 20. They have households to support; they have bills to pay.”
Will the upcoming minimum wage bumps be enough?
Pickthorne says the simple answer is no, especially when considering inflation.
According to Statistics Canada’s latest report, housing costs continue to rise, and last month marked the seventh consecutive month of double-digit increases in grocery prices.
While inflation drives up the living wage rate for Canadians, Pickthorne says it essentially nullifies minimum wage increases.
“Even if you get a raise by 50 cents, which was last year in Ontario, the inflation just eats it up entirely, and your real wages have gone down,” he said.
“If you measure how far your money can go as far as buying goods and services, you’re actually getting a pay cut.”
How much must you earn to make a real “living” wage?
As of 2022, the living wage rate is as low as $18.05 in London, Ontario, and as high as $23.15 an hour in the Greater Toronto Area, according to the Ontario Living Wage Network.
“It’s a modest existence; it doesn’t take into account debt servicing or savings for retirement or homeownership,” stressed Pickthorne.
Ontario Living Wage Network
In British Columbia, the living wage is as low as $19.14 in Kamloops, BC, and as high as $24.29 in Victoria, according to Living Wage for Families BC.
The minimum wage in BC is predicted to increase by one dollar to $16.72, according to Living Wage for Families BC spokesperson Anastasia French.
“There is still a $7/hour gap between the legal minimum you must pay workers and what they actually need to survive,” she told Daily Hive over email.
According to Alberta Living Wage Network coordinator Ryan Lacanilao, the living wage rates are between $19.65 and $22.50 per hour.
Updated living wage rates will be released in November 2023.
What we need from governments and employers
Organizations like the Ontario Living Wage Network also certify employers who have agreed to pay the local living wage.
Pickthorne says they’ve currently signed up 560 employers in Ontario. In BC, French says there are nearly 400 companies that are paying staff a living wage.
While some employers are doing the work, Lacanilao says there are still more ways these workplaces can advocate for their employees.
“Advocate [the] government for policies that lower the cost of living for those who need it in your community,” he told Daily Hive over email.
And, of course, governments have a long way to go.
“This is a conversation about the value of work,” said Pickthorne.
He says the last few years have destroyed the myth of unskilled labour or menial jobs.
“Most any job that someone is doing, if you remove them from that job, we’re going to have problems,” he added. “So, if you need the job done, then pay at least a living wage because if you work full-time and can’t make ends meet where you live, what else is work for.”
