CANADIAN CENTRE FOR POLICY ALTERNATIVES JULY/AUGUST 2017 $6.95 Contributors Alyssa O’Dell is Media and Public Relations David Bruer Officer with the CCPA. works at Inter Pares where Peter Prontzos he is focused on food is Faculty Emeritus at Langara sovereignty and economic College in Vancouver, and Vol. 24, No. 2 justice. taught political science for Book reviews in the ISSN 1198-497X Monitor are co-ordinated Dennis Carr over 25 years. His articles Canada Post Publication 40009942 by Octopus Books, a has 27 years’ worth of have appeared in print and community-owned anti- The Monitor is published six times experience creating online, including in the oppressive bookstore in a year by the Canadian Centre for affordable housing and Monitor, and he has worked Policy Alternatives. Ottawa. social facilities in Ottawa in both radio and television. The opinions expressed in the and Vancouver, and is He is writing his first book, Monitor are those of the authors the recipient of the 2016 Remembering Our Humanity: and do not necessarily reflect Canadian Housing and A Better World Is Possible. the views of the CCPA. Renewal Association Lifetime Michal Rozworski Please send feedback to Achievement Award. Michal’s writing has appeared [email protected]. Kory Earle in Jacobin, Ricochet, the Editor: Stuart Trew is President of People First of Toronto Star, Briarpatch and Senior Designer: Tim Scarth The Tyee, among other places. Layout: Susan Purtell Canada/Personnes d’abord Editorial Board: Peter Bleyer, du Canada and a member He produces the Political Eh- Alyssa O’Dell, Seth Klein, Kate of the Council of Canadians conomy blog and podcast. He McInturff, Erika Shaker, Emily Turk with Disabilities’ executive currently works as a union researcher in Toronto and CCPA National Office: committee. is working on a book, The HELP US SHED LIGHT ON THE 500-251 Bank St., Ottawa, Alicia Elliott ON K2P 1X3 People’s Republic of Walmart, tel: 613-563-1341 is a Tuscarora writer living with Leigh Phillips. fax: 613-233-1458 in Brantford, Ontario. Her ISSUES THAT MATTER TO YOU. [email protected] writing has been widely Erika Shaker www.policyalternatives.ca published, most recently is Director of Education and Outreach with the CCPA and CCPA BC Office: receiving a National Magazine (we’ve got some bright ideas) editor of Our Schools / Our 520-700 West Pender Street Award. Vancouver, BC V6C 1G8 Selves. 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Paul Weinberg CCPA Saskatchewan Office: Meaghan Way EXPIRY DATE: SIGNATURE: Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood is a Hamilton, Ontario–based 2nd Floor, 2138 McIntyre Street This month’s cover artist is Regina, SK S4P 2R7 is a researcher with the CCPA freelance writer. His work has a Toronto-based illustrator tel: 306-924-3372 and author of the recent appeared in newspapers and whose clients include VICE, fax: 306-586-5177 report, Tracking Progress: magazines across the country, CONTACT INFORMATION REEL Canada, Indigo, Frontier [email protected] Evaluating government including NOW Toronto, Magazine, and Drake General plans and actions to reduce rabble.ca, the Globe and Name Return this form to: Store, among others. Her greenhouse gas emissions in Mail, Straight Goods and the work pairs bold, geometric 500-251 BANK ST. Canada. Monitor. shapes with bright colour Address OTTAWA, ON K2P 1X3 palettes; architecture, sculpture and set design City Province Postal Code Or donate online at: The Monitor is a proud member of serve as the primary sources WWW.POLICYALTERNATIVES.CA Magazines Canada. of inspiration for her designs. Telephone (Required) Email Yes, I prefer to receive my tax receipt Please do not trade my name with other and updates by email. organizations. REGISTERED CHARITY #124146473 RR0001 TABLE OF CONTENTS July/August 2017 Reading HE CCPA AND FRIENDS the GO BOOKISH FOR THE SUMMER, turning to recent releases to Moment Thelp understand our world today— from the rise of populism to the “sharing economy,” the future of 16 social democracy to Indigenous cultural appropriation, anti-women dystopias to the genetic case for equality, and much more. BEHIND THE NUMBERS FEATURES Ontario chooses $15 and Fairness International co-operation on Sheila Block 5 climate refugees could use a boost. Is there a role for Canada? Lessons on electoral reform for B.C.’s new government Paul Weinberg 46 Alex Hemingway 6 The case for deinstitutionalization and desegregation of people Will Nova Scotia turn the page with intellectual disabilities on austerity? Natalie Spagnuolo and Kory Earle 51 Christine Saulnier 8 The future is urban: Dispatches from How Canada should respond the UN Habitat III conference in Ecuador to Trump’s NAFTA renegotiation Bruce Campbell 9 Dennis Carr 56 Colombia’s peace deal on the precipice Asad Ismi 61 Canadian pension plans and land-grabbing in Brazil David Bruer 63 Editorial 2 | Letters 3 | Index 11 | New From the CCPA 12 | Alternate Futures 14 | Work Life 29 | Good News Page 45 From the Editor STUART TREW Reading the moment OR THE PAST three years around tent managers rather than transfor- italist order. Mitterand’s retreat from this time the Monitor has run a mational idealists. state intervention in the French econ- short summer reading guide as a Politicians and much of the news omy in the early 1980s, the inability of complement to our regular books media, who still by and large believe post-Pinochet Chilean governments to section. CCPA staff listed one or there is no viable alternative to neo- undo the neoliberal rules forced into Ftwo new releases they would final- liberalism, are fumbling to adapt lest place at gunpoint, and New Labour’s ly have time to get through over the they fall prey to a Trump-like populist embrace of Thatcher’s union-busting summer slowdown at the office. It was backlash. At the same time, new tech- market fundamentalism have left so- political, but only lightly so, which was nological developments—from AI to cial democratic parties struggling for the point. As readers sometimes tell big data to automation to the prolifer- relevance in an era when more and me, the Monitor can be a bit heavy. ation of the on-demand digital service more young people are rediscover- But hey, these are heavy times— economy—are forcing governments ing socialism. The lesson, especially af- heavy yet peculiarly disorienting. at all levels to anticipate what the ter Jeremy Corbyn’s surprise success Though our goals at the CCPA have economy might look like in 20 years, in June’s U.K. election, might be to get not changed—equality, social pro- where the jobs (and job insecurities) radical or get lost. gress, sustainability—the terrain of will be, and to regulate appropriately. Scott Sinclair tackles “the populist struggle feels different, almost unre- This expanded version of the Mon- explosion” head-on in his review of al, as if the ground has fallen out from itor summer reading guide takes a John Judis’s book by the same name, under our feet. An endless stream of break from frenetic social media feeds which came out before Trump was podcasts and think-pieces despair to assess the fluctuating political and elected but is no less important for that citizens of the West can’t agree economic landscape from a place of how it puts the rogue Republican’s even on the facts anymore, let alone relative stability: books. Rather than success in a historical context. Pop- a program for changing the world. We just telling us what they will be read- ulism of the right-wing and left-wing live, they suggest, in a post-truth era ing this summer, contributors ground varieties have always looked very dif- where one absurd tweet by Donald longer arguments about the state of ferent and will have different lasting Trump can throw the global order— the world in recent Canadian and in- effects, says Judis. But both symbolize and perhaps reality itself—into flux. ternational non-fiction releases with “tears in the fabric of accepted politi- These are, of course, exaggerations.