From border closures to relief programs like the Canada Emergency Response Benefit, we witnessed governments react swiftly to curb the worst of the pandemic and introduce cash transfers that replaced lost income—all with significant public support. We have conclusive proof that urgent action is possible to stem the destabilization of entire economies. Now, we must demand that governments employ the same urgency to tackling the climate crisis.

As patriarchy is profoundly harmful to both men and women, we ought to be working together to challenge it. The epidemic of gendered violence needs to be publicly acknowledged and named. Further, this acknowledgement is an imperative in a context where solidarity is desperately needed to engage in political struggles against the destruction and existential threat posed by capitalism and xenophobia.

While it is undeniable that the virus has reached a critical stage in recent weeks, the adoption of authoritarian measures ought to be viewed critically. With this latest lockdown, the Québec government has failed to show humanity by policing the health crisis and putting vulnerable people at increased risk. In particular, Legault’s refusal to exempt unhoused people from the curfew only accentuated the inequities spawned by the pandemic.

Progressive International acts as a conduit for progressive political organizing, providing tools and knowledge to local movements, thus empowering effective mobilizations. Most importantly however, it acts as an echo chamber, demonstrating the extent of global solidarity and highlighting the struggles and victories of progressive movements and campaigns throughout the world.

MeToo is attempting to redress a miscarriage of justice that stems from systemic inequity and a lack of recognition. Like any social movement, this mobilization should be viewed critically. However, it must also be viewed in the context of a failed justice system that is currently unable to restore justice and dignity to survivors of sexual violence.

As the COVID-19 crisis has amplified existing inequalities and accentuated the asymmetry of political and economic power in Québec and Canada, it is of vital importance to ensure that it is not exploited by the ruling and corporate classes to further disenfranchise those already with little power.

Québec premier François Legault often speaks of “two Québecs” in his near-daily press briefings on the COVID-19 crisis. To be sure, however, we should also speak of two Montréals: one that is home to the (predominantly white) middle- and upper-classes, and the other, to poverty-stricken neighbourhoods which are currently experiencing the worst of the crisis.

The risks of allowing this industry to consolidate intimate ties with state institutions are immense and should be of urgent concern to all those who value a free and democratic society. We need to recognize that these Canadian AI research campuses are not working in the interest of Canadian “innovation”, but in the service of surveillance capitalism.

The disinformation surrounding the Syrian civil war appears to have been lifted from the Iraq/Afghanistan playbook. It is all the more disgraceful that the media that participated in selling those wars (now recognized as catastrophic failures) is engaging in the same manipulative tactics to encourage ongoing suffering and destabalization in Syria.

The people who stand to gain the most from leaders like Corbyn and Sanders are being fed increasingly ruthless lies about these candidates by the elites who fear their progressive policies. The extent to which the democratic process is being hijacked by these monopoly interests in deeply troubling and should be a focal point of public debate.