Wartime brings with it more than just death and carnage. In the difficult choices that must be made for the good of a country, it gives leaders a choice. They can continue being politicians, worrying about the next election, or they can seize the moment. Justin Trudeau has chosen the former, and Canadians are paying the price with their civil liberties and their lives. Now is the time to invoke the Emergencies Act.

The key consideration is how the left should orient itself in the period that is now opening up. The concessions that employers and states make aren’t driven by wishes and hopes; they hinge on the willingness of those in power to provide them. The post-war approach was based on a capacity to broker social peace, while ensuring a robust flow of profits. There is no such prospect before us at present.

Today, the world faces a terrible pandemic, the deepening and disastrous effects of climate change, and an increasing danger of global war. We are concerned about Xinjiang and welcome ongoing investigations to determine what is actually happening and what might be done. But we should align ourselves with emancipatory goals, and not fall into the trap of reviving a declining, imperial ‘West’ against the rest.

Purported ‘reforms’ to the Canadian Environmental Protection Act amount to little more than nice words, with little to none of the material change that working Canadians need from environmental legislation. Real reform would recognize that the working class bears the brunt of industrial capital’s impact on the environment and resultantly faces disproportionately poor health outcomes.

Does the NDP want Canada to ratchet up tensions with Russia? Unfortunately, this seems to be the notion at the heart of a recent statement by the party’s Deputy Foreign Affairs Critic. In an interview on April 14, McPherson said the Canadian government ought to promote Ukraine’s membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and that Ottawa should expand its military presence in the eastern European nation.

Yesterday’s 2021 federal budget tabled by Liberal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland fails to meet the needs of Canadians during the greatest crisis facing this country since the Second World War, writes Christo Aivalis. While there are certainly decent elements in this budget, the flaws and omissions are too significant, leaving notable space on the left to critique and improve upon it.

Over 75 years after the only wartime use of nuclear weapons, it is time for Canada to lead in banning them. Even a limited use of the world’s 13,000 nuclear warheads could kill billions from radioactive fallout, crop failures, and starvation. Signing the nuclear ban treaty is not merely a measure in arms control, it is a moral imperative for our planet.

If social media is any barometer, there is hunger for change across Ontario. All factions of the left need to propose an alternative agenda at the scale of the crisis that prioritizes public health over profit and police. Only then can we break with the lethal logic underpinning the Ford government: that death and disaster are an acceptable cost in the pursuit of profit.

Doug Ford’s latest measures to fight COVID-19 will do nothing to actually stem the tide of the pandemic, but they will put the blame on working class people, steal their public spaces, allow profiteers to enrich themselves off employee suffering, and give the police dangerous powers which will almost certainly be levied against the most vulnerable Ontarians.

Proper respect is earned, not given or forced. Increased police force whether through the use of violence in response to protest speech, as a result of perceived disrespectful encounters with citizens, or labeling public criticism of police actions that result in death as “hate speech” will never bring any moral authority or more respect to police. Indeed, it will surely do just the opposite.