Motion 46, COVID-19 Concerns related to School in the Fall & Sacha Bond
The Good, The Bad & The WTF | Canada News & Opinion | Micah Dewey
In today’s article, I will be going over the details of Motion 46, Canada’s first legislative action towards Universal Basic Income. Of course, not a day goes by that we don’t see new coronavirus cases so that unfortunately is also a topic for today. I will also be talking about the horrible story relating to the fate of a Canadian man, Sacha Bond, who was in prison in Florida for crimes he committed years prior, however, the crime that he committed is not the story here. The story is the lack of governmental intervention in his case, the fact that he was confined to a bed by chains after he was concerned about COVID-19, and the lack of safety precautions that were allegedly not taking place.
THE GOOD
So let’s jump right into Motion 46, Canada’s first official national Basic Income motion in the House of Commons. The motion was put forth by NDP MP from Winnipeg Centre, Leah Gazan, and seconded by Green MP from Nanaimo-Ladysmith Paul Manly.
The motion reads.
That, in the opinion of the House, the government should introduce legislation and work with provincial and territorial governments and Indigenous peoples to ensure that a guaranteed livable basic income (i) accounting for regional differences in living costs, (ii) for all Canadians over the age of 18, including single persons, students, families, seniors, persons with disabilities, temporary foreign workers, permanent residents, and refugee claimants, (iii) paid on a regular basis, (iv) not requiring participation in the labour market, education or training in order to be eligible, (v) in addition to current and future government public services and income supports meant to meet special, exceptional and other distinct needs and goals rather than basic needs, including accessible affordable social housing and expanded health services, replace the Canada Emergency Response Benefit on an ongoing and permanent basis in a concerted effort to eradicate poverty and ensure the respect, dignity and security of all persons in respect of Canada’s domestic and international legal obligations.
Let’s break this down point by point.
1. Accounting for regional differences in living costs.
This makes sense for plenty of reasons, some obvious and some not so obvious. We can start with the obvious reasons. The cost of living is higher in places like Toronto and Vancouver than it is in a place where I live, Rural Manitoba. It makes sense to have a sliding scale of benefit connected to the Cost of Living. One of the less obvious reasons would be that if a location has significantly higher unemployment, natural disaster, or even if it’s just a locale that has a lower level of economic development, this will allow for some amount of discretion by the law that will eventually be passed. I would assume that this may be a benefit that gets updated on a year by year basis or in emergencies, allows for a direct influx of cash to easily be transferred by the government to people and regions that are especially struggling.
2. For all Canadians over the age of 18, including single persons, students, families, seniors, persons with disabilities, temporary foreign workers, permanent residents, and refugee claimants.
There are many groups in this motion that would receive the support that under normal circumstances are unable to receive support or enough support. Disabled and Elderly folks often have to live in poverty or near poverty conditions or be forced to live with family, taking away any dignity that either disabled people deserve or that seniors paid into their entire lives. The one sticking point for some people may be the last three categories of eligible peoples: temporary foreign workers, permanent residents, and refugee claimants.
On one hand one could argue that these people may not have paid into our systems and therefore should not receive the relief provided to them under this motion. On the other hand, it can be argued that if we are unwilling to offer aid to people who chose to come to our country, or who have fled terror and wars, we don’t deserve their admiration that makes Canada one of the best nations on Earth. It is important to offer these aid programs to the least of us in our society because Canada is only as great as the worst off person in Canada.
If we have the means and ability to ensure that no person, regardless of race, nationality, religion, physical or mental ability, or age can live in dignity, we have the moral obligation to pass this motion and to represent what could be to the rest of the world.
One final note on Section 2 of the motion. We already have the Child Tax Benefit which acts as a de-facto Basic Income for peoples aged under 18. Traditionally this benefit has gone to the parental guardians and has done wonders for our nation, both economically and on the personal freedom front. It has allowed guardians to stay at home and care for their children without the dread that if they don’t work, their children will starve.
The point is, we already do this for minors, and to some lesser extent disabled folks and seniors, what this motion is truly calling for is that we open that kind of benefit up to every single person within our borders.
3. Paid on a regular basis
This is probably the easiest section of the motion to defend. If you don’t know when you will have money to pay bills, it doesn’t matter if it is promised. Landlords, banks, and other institutions have set dates that they must receive their money, it is only right that we have those same precedents applied to us the people.
The only real question on this topic is what does “regular basis” actually mean? Would we be looking at a monthly cheque like CERB or would it be more along the lines of the quarterly GST refund, or god forbid on an annual basis like tax refunds? I think it is most likely that it would be written as a monthly stipend, however a biweekly or quarterly stimulus may not be out of the question.
4. Not requiring participation in the labour market, education, or training in order to be eligible.
This has been one of the biggest criticisms of the CERB program specifically. The idea that once an individual makes $1,001 that their benefits disappear, has been an issue of contention on the basis that, in a pandemic, the employment requirement or hindrance of the CERB has made it less likely for people to return to full-time work, when safe to do so because if they do they will lose the additional $2,000 a month. The Conservatives put out a proposal that would extend CERB as a Back-to-Work Bonus that specifically addresses the problem that CERB put on employees and employers, allowing the benefit to be scaling after an individual makes over $1,000 a month and does not disappear until they are making $5,000 a month.
With a Basic Income in place, people would not have the fear of losing benefits for bettering themselves whether that be through employment, education, or additional training. It also allows for people who are working for poverty wages, to not have to worry as much about paying their bills, but on top of that, it will also make it possible for people in abusive situations, whether that be relational or employment-based to be able to leave and try to find a better living situation or job without the fear of becoming homeless.
It is vital for our society to make this program available to anyone and everyone who needs it because sometimes, even those who have done everything right get blindsided by a loss, natural disaster, or in this specific case today, a pandemic.
5. In addition to current and future government, public services and income supports meant to meet special, exceptional, and other distinct needs and goals rather than basic needs, including accessible affordable social housing and expanded health services, replace the Canada Emergency Response Benefit on an ongoing and permanent basis in a concerted effort to eradicate poverty and ensure the respect, dignity, and security of all persons in respect of Canada’s domestic and international legal obligations.
This is so monumental. The government has finally decided to try to eradicate poverty in this country. This is a specific motion that replaces the CERB that we are currently used to with a Basic Income. This means that under MP Gazan’s proposal, social housing, health services, and other specific programs targeting basic needs, will not be eliminated by the enactment of the Basic Income proposal known as Motion 46.
This may be a point of contention with deficit hawks and Conservatives as a whole, however, the mission and goals of Motion 46 are to eliminate poverty in Canada and to make us an example for other nations to follow.
So, should we all get excited and promote this motion and get people to sign the Parliamentary Petitions? Absolutely. Is it the perfect motion? We will have to wait and see. And I suppose the most important point, do people support this, and would you specifically support this motion to become law? Let me know in the comment section down below. I will have a link to the petition at the bottom of this article.
THE BAD
Ugh, the Coronavirus is seeing a resurgence in Canada over the past week or so. There was an additional 390 cases reported today with nine more deaths. To date, there have been 121,174 lab-confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Canada, and a death toll of 9,015 brining our mortality rate of confirmed cases to deaths at just above seven percent. Of the over 121,000 cases, over 60,000 of them have been in Quebec. Quebec has yet to dip below 100 cases a day in many months and it appears to only be accelerating.
Despite the numbers continuing to rise, local and provincial governments have continued to push for in-person classes in September. The new school year could theoretically cause the second wave to come sooner rather than later.
We can look at what happened in Georgia over the past week or so to see what the effects of having students packed into school hallways around the country might look like. In one county in Georgia, over 100 students and staff have already tested positive for COVID-19 and those numbers seem to be getting larger by the day not smaller.
If we are going to reopen schools in September we must be very careful as to not to expose students and teachers to health risks associated with the novel coronavirus. The problem is, that right now, despite the calls for mandatory masks, online classes, and numerous other demands the provinces, bar BC have failed to issue mandates that will keep children, teachers, and other education staff safe.
We are coming up to 3 weeks before school is scheduled to start in most places in Canada and the lack of actionable plans, with government funding and oversight, has yet to happen.
In Manitoba alone, we have had per capita confirmed case numbers higher than BC and Ontario in the past week and a half, and yet the Pallister government has not responded with a meaningful plan other than, schools and school boards can decide what to do.
No, Mr. Pallister, it is you and your government’s responsibility to come up with an actionable plan to keep students and staff safe and to ensure that we do not become the next hotbed of COVID-19.
Parents and Teachers alike are both looking for more guidance from the provincial government, there was a report that there will likely be more students homeschooled in Manitoba this coming school year than in the past 5 years combined. The Teachers Unions may have to make a stand on keeping their workplaces safe, and that they are actually capable of providing the education and respite that students dearly need.
What is your province’s plan for the upcoming school year? Do you agree or disagree with my opinions here? Let me know in the comments down below.
THE WTF
Finally today we need to talk about the lack of action taken by the Canadian Government in regards to the Sacha Bond case. For those of you who are unaware of his story lets go back to 2004, when Sacha was just 19 years old.
Sacha Bond was allegedly in a bar fight back in January of 2004, when he got angered and returned to the bar with a firearm. He reportedly brought said firearm into the bar and attempted to fire it, unaware that the weapon was not loaded. According to friends and family, he was arrested and convicted on four counts of attempted murder and was handed a 20-year prison sentence. This case however only starts here in what could have been a tragic shooting but wasn’t. I am in no way trying to defend his alleged actions, however his prison sentence that was carried out brings us to the current situation.
His family and lawyers attempted to have Bond transferred back to Canada to serve the remainder of his sentence and to get mental health support for his bipolar disorder diagnosis. Two times the Canadian Government approved his transfer and two times the Americans refused.
Now we arrive at the current situation which has gone from bad to worse for Mr. Bond. According to his mother, Diane Levesque, Bond was doing alright and had come to terms with his sentence, awaiting release in September of 2022, and then Coronavirus happened. Bond told his mother that he was very concerned with the living conditions in the Florida prison, and once again asked Canada to transfer him to a Canadian prison to serve the remainder of his sentence, this time his request was refused citing COVID-19 concerns, and the fact that he was currently in a Florida hospital, which I will get to in a minute. The irony of the situation is that that was exactly why Sasha wanted to return to Canada, and also to get better mental health care than what he was receiving in Florida.
According to a report by CTV News, Bond was diagnosed with a rare reaction to drugs related to his bipolar disorder, known as neuroleptic malignant syndrome or NMS for short, and was in turn put into an isolation segment of the prison.
A few days after the request was denied, he petitioned the Florida Dept of Corrections to allow him to isolate from the greater prison population. That request was denied and instead, he was put into confinement with one other inmate for 45 days. At the end of the 45 days, he refused to be reintegrated into the greater prison population and was moved from his two-person cell to solitary confinement.
Just to put to bed his concerns about COVID and how real they were, the prison that he was housed in has about 150 inmates plus staff. On the day of this reporting, there was a confirmed 152 inmate cases and 25 staff cases. It’s also worth remembering that some areas in Florida have stopped testing in the last few weeks so that number may very well be higher at this point. Needless to say, his concerns about the coronavirus were not without merit.
Sacha and his mother were no longer able to communicate due to him being in solitary. In his last letter to his mother on July 3rd, he stated that he was breathing in black mold, had a rash from head to toe, and had been running a temperature, but was denied medical assistance.
On July 13, 2020, Sacha Bond was found in his isolated cell with a temperature of 40.5 C after spending nearly three months in solitary confinement. According to the family, he was able to walk out of the cell then collapsed into a coma, where he has been since that date.
His mother was able to go to Florida but was only notified two weeks after he had fallen into the coma. She is currently sitting bedside with Sacha while he is being watched 24/7 by armed correctional officers while being chained to his bed, all while being in a coma.
The absolute lack of human decency is what is truly shocking in this whole situation. Canada has failed this mother and family, Florida has put his life in danger for no discernible reason, and is continuing to treat him as if he is inhuman.
This is a situation where there truly is no good side to the story, according to Sacha’s brother Eric Bond;
“I’m 100% going to lose my brother. I’m really scared of losing my mother in this whole process.”
So now, Diane and Sacha are stuck in a Florida hospital being watched and followed unable to connect with Eric in Canada, and are both in grave danger. Sacha may not, and according to his brother will not make it, but there is still time for our government to bring him and his mother home so that he can pass in dignity. It’s literally the least we can expect from our leaders.
Let me know what you think about this situation. Contact your MP, Link to this story, and the Original CTV story will be below, ask for them to move to allow Sacha to come home to spend his last days.
