Please sign our petition to keep RATs free for all Canadians who need them. Many people who are at highest risk of being exposed at work or school cannot afford to purchase RATs to test themselves for covid so they can avoid exposing others. Much of our transmission is still occurring from those who are asymptomatic, presymptomatic, or post-symptomatic. Many people are contagious for days, and sometimes even more than a week, post-symptoms. RATs can help you determine if you're no longer infected before you return to work or visit someone at high risk for severe disease. Since the easing of many mitigation efforts, spread of covid plateaued at a high level over the summer, but is now creeping up again. We have also already surpassed the number of covid deaths we had in either of the first two years of the pandemic. The federal government is considering halting the supply of free RATs to the provinces at the end of the year. This will result in people losing yet another tool that allows them to responsibly manage their own risk. With every tool we lose in our mitigation toolkit, the burden on our strained healthcare system and the effect of widespread workplace illness on the economy becomes greater. Let's do what we can to prevent 2023 from being even more deadly and costly than 2022 is shaping up to be.

For far too long, sexual harassment and sexual violence has been covered up and dismissed in a sport that you proudly sponsored. For far too long, survivors have been disbelieved, especially when speaking out against the culture of professional hockey. For far too long, gender-based violence has been a pervasive reality in Canada. The level of violence that women and girls experience in Canada has barely changed over the past two decades. Recent statistics show that more than 4 in 10 women has experienced some form of intimate partner violence in their lifetimes. Indigenous, Black, immigrant and refugee, racialized, and low-income women, young girls, and gender-diverse people face the highest rates of compounding violence. Last year, 173 women and girls were violently killed in Canada. Ending gender-based violence is a pressing priority. Yet, support services, such as sexual assault centres, gender-based violence organizations, transition homes, and VAW shelters, are grossly underfunded and under-resourced. Canada’s ambitious declaration of “a Canada free of gender-based violence” and the first-ever National Action Plan on Violence Against Women and Girls has no actual timeline for implementation. We urgently need a universal, coordinated, and integrated system of anti-violence programs and support services that are adequately funded and offered across all geographic locations, and accessible to all women and gender-diverse people who have experienced any form of gender-based violence in Canada.

Low wage workers should not be subjected to employment scams by powerful and rich employers.

Books, are resources. A local school trustee, and prospective politician amongst six people made it their mission to remove three books from the South Central Regional Libraries (WinklerLibraries) https://www.facebook.com/100063668588322/posts/pfbid0dzTMwbQReZ6zfppKbknM3C3VVE4MDsh8LTkCmySWhN1E5gpSKUdmzkoUPDPaKz61l/. They claim the books are pornographic and are against the law, when however the books are there for families and children to read together, and cover a wide range of sexual education and health information. Parents might use these resources to know how to talk to their children about sex, sex organs, identities, and sex terminology. Learning these things in part help keep children safe, knowing how to properly label their sex organs, parents might want to teach their children these things because it helps teach them what their privates are, and that they aren't bad words and that if someone is violating them they can properly identify the parts, as cute names for sexual parts can be misinterpreted, a vagina is a vagina and a penis is a penis, and can't be confused with a cookie or any other terminology that makes adults feel more comfortable. Two of these three books that are titled It's perfectly normal by Robie H. Harris and Sex is a funny word by Corey Silverberg. These books are more informative but sex is a funny word has a blend of a story infused in it, book exerpts can be found on these links provided: https://sexedrescue.com/its-perfectly-normal/ And https://youtu.be/h_si_7xB_3k The third book being called to be banned is called All boys aren't blue by George M. Johnson, It is written by a queer black author, he says his book is not pornographic in nature, age appropriate and helps children to identify sexual abuse and see themselves represented within literature as the novel is about growing up queer. More can be read at this link regarding this teenage novel: https://time.com/6120915/george-m-johnson-all-boys-arent-blue-book-bans/ These books are optional, they're offered as reading for both education and enjoyment. Not everyone has the same view points, and that's but speaking for diverse families, speaking for diverse readers is a problem, especially when these politicians claim to say less government involvement, and more freedom to make choices for yourself and your family or when they come from a veiwpoint that isn't based in current information and claim otherwise. They're making a choice on behalf of many without providing information as to why many of the reasons they have provided caters to the feelings they have about the particular books in question. These books deserve a proper fight, to be protected, because it's not the books that are being let down, it's children, families and people. Please sign this to keep these books an option for many and offer a wake up call to school trustees and politicians alike.

STROKE survivors of all ages are being left behind in Canada and are prevented from recovering and re-entering society again. At present approximately 5,000 young adult stroke survivors in Ontario are denied more services because of age.

It takes a lot of people to counter the prevailing pressures that have gotten us to this place. Thankfully, so many people in this region are joining the call to prioritise affordable and non-profit housing. If we stay silent and fail to act urgently and boldly now, we will continue to see a loss of families and diversity in our communities. We will continue to see increasing hardship in our streets and parks. We are a wealthy province and country. Working together with purpose and courage, we can build communities that provide homes for all.

There are over 500,000 people, including families, living in Canada without any valid immigration permits and this number is increasing. In addition, 1.2 million people are on work, study or refugee claimant permits, most of whom have no opportunity to remain permanently in Canada. Permanent resident status is the mechanism through which all other rights are accessed. Undocumented people, migrant workers and refugees are being exploited in substandard working conditions, because regressive immigration and labour laws restrict their agency and leave them open to abuse. Lack of permanent resident status makes it difficult, and often impossible, for migrants to speak up for their rights or access services, including those they may be eligible for, because of a well-founded fear of reprisals, termination, eviction and deportation. Migrants experience insecure housing, abuse at work, poverty and fear. The uncertainty about the future, constant stress of making ends meet and risk of detention and deportation negatively impacts their health. Canada, like most of North ​​America and Europe, has not seen a real inclusive regularization program for undocumented people in decades. Moreover, migrants on work and study permits in low-waged industries, like care workers, farmworkers and gig-workers, have only a few tiny and difficult-to-access immigration programs to get permanent residency. The vast majority of undocumented and temporary status migrants living and working in the country are excluded from permanent residence. Together, we can change that. Together, we can win equal rights for 1.7 million people. Together we can ensure permanent resident status for all now and in the future.

Children suffering from seizures require access to life saving rescue medication in the event that the seizure becomes a medical emergency. Legislation needs to be enacted to protect educators from liability in the event that these medications need to be administered to ensure the health and welfare of these children is of the highest priority in our school systems.

Seniors are suffering much stress to catch up with their monthly bills and payments for their necessities. They are deep under the poverty line in Canada.

Workers' rights abuses must be taken seriously by the City Council. With the upcoming municipal election, future City Council members need to be aware that this issue is one that needs to be on their agenda. The longer that the City of Vancouver takes to properly enforce its Ethical Purchasing policy, the longer it fails to support the rights of workers. For example, in 2021, the Workers Rights Consortium reported that two employees from Palm Apparel and Sewing International had died due to the companies' refusal to pay legally mandated medical benefits. One woman (and her newly born child) died due to lack of access to maternity care. The hospital told her that she would need to pay more than five months' wages for the care she and her child needed, all because Palm Apparel did not bother to pay its employees' healthcare coverage. The City of Vancouver has contracts with both Palm Apparel and Sewing International. However, due to the passive complaints-based approach, the City was not immediately aware of these infractions and therefore could not work with either company to meet the ethical purchasing policy in a timely manner. The lack of support (and seemingly awareness) for workers' rights internationally is disheartening. People should not have to die to bring attention to these abuses, and yet the City of Vancouver has not acted regardless of these deaths. The City of Vancouver must take a stronger and more pro-active approach to ethical purchasing.

Earlier this year, Premier Ford prematurely ended universal mask protections in Ontario. The result has been a catastrophe - an overburdened healthcare system, thousands of COVID hospitalizations, an increasing toll on the economy. [1,2] When school boards resisted the move, Ford stripped them of the ability to set their own COVID policies and forced them to end mask protections - needlessly infecting more kids. [3] Now, with cases still high and a fall surge looming - and in the total absence of any effective government response - school boards must be equipped to take care of their students. Doug Ford must lift the prohibition on school boards setting their own COVID policies, and allow them to reinstate masking and other protections for themselves based on conditions locally. Sources: [1] CTV: "The COVID-19 pandemic continues, and it contributes to Ontario’s growing number of health system crises," https://toronto.ctvnews.ca/ontario-science-table-to-be-dissolved-next-month-as-director-warns-that-pandemic-will-continue-to-be-a-daunting-challenge-1.6043546 [2] CIBC: "Dropping mask mandates may actually be working to prolong COVID's economic costs" https://economics.cibccm.com/cds?id=69e88cfb-7f52-4ff4-b8e9-f52fd983a1df&flag=E [3] CTV: https://toronto.citynews.ca/2022/03/11/tdsb-mandatory-mask-extension/

Poor housing and homelessness is costly for cities and taxpayers. The average monthly costs of shelter beds are $1,932, almost ten times higher than the average monthly cost of social housing of $199.92. In addition, homeless people and those poorly housed have a higher rate of illness. The monthly cost of a hospital bed is $10,900. Preventing eviction is often the most effective way to prevent homelessness. If the next Owen Sound mayor and city council chooses to continue to be inactive in addressing attainable housing and homelessness, they must be held accountable for the additional individual and societal costs to health and justice services associated with an increase in homelessness. Join the Movement! Add your voice to hundreds of neighbours and community members who want our next City Council to support a bold vision for solving Owen Sound's housing and homelessness crisis - starting with an Affordable Housing and Homelessness Plan.