B.C. pledges to introduce permanent paid sick leave program in January
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Labour Minister Harry Bains arrives at B.C. Legislature in Victoria, B.C., on Monday, June 26, 2017. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito
VICTORIA – Workers affected by COVID-19 in British Columbia will qualify for up to three days of paid sick leave under proposed legislation that Premier John Horgan says will plug holes in a federal plan and lay the groundwork for a permanent program.
Horgan said Tuesday that the program would bridge the gap for workers between the time they first feel sick and when they can access the federal benefit, a pledge that some critics say doesn’t go far enough.
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At least 30 cities and over a dozen unions across the country have joined a grassroots movement calling for a day of action against racism as a result of a Burnaby woman’s efforts to combat the deep-seated anti-Asian racism exposed during the pandemic.
Doris Mah, co-founder of the Stand With Asians Coalition (SWAC) and a member of the Social Planning Committee of the City of Burnaby was moved to action following reports that anti-Asian hate crime in her city jumped by 350 per cent in 2020 as COVID-19 spread around the world.
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But she added that they are not necessarily surprising. COVID-19 variants, which arrived in B.C. at the end of 2020, have been found to be more contagious than the original strain.
And while B.C. made it easier for workers to receive compensation by adding COVID-19 as a presumptive occupational illness last summer in other words, workers are presumed to have been infected at work if they are in a higher-risk industry unless there is contradicting evidence Skidmore said these figures again highlight the need to stop the spread in the first place.
To her, the solution is obvious and long-standing: paid sick days.
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With the realities of climate change, inequality and the pandemic, one could be forgiven for choosing despair. But the world is no better off for that, so I choose to study hope, a discipline that requires practice. Here, treat yourself to a few minutes of joy in the next instalment of my series profiling amazing and yes, hopeful young people contending successfully with the climate justice crisis in Canada.
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Nahira Gerster-Sim gives a speech about the Vote 16 BC campaign at the 2019 BC Green Convention. Photo submitted by Nahira Gerster-Sim