The financialization of housing is a result of policy choices made by successive federal and provincial governments over decades. The Federal Housing Advocate points to three major policy drivers: the retreat of the welfare state in Canada, the removal of rent control and tenant protections, and financial liberalization and deregulation.

It may appear that European unity on Ukraine is crumbling. This would be a false conclusion. Hungary and Slovakia are very much outliers. Elsewhere in Europe, political leaders remain utterly committed to the Ukrainian cause, and perhaps rather oblivious to the military realities, continuing to talk of supporting Ukraine for “as long as it takes.”

The Democratic Party has done little to save face with this quick shift in the presidential slate. Kamala Harris will surely prove a more than worthy debate foe to Donald Trump than Joe Biden, but her nomination, as symbolically important as it is, will still have to grapple with a vast divide in the Democratic Party base.

What does windfall spending on NATO do for Canada’s national security? As the militarization of the North proceeds against an inflated eastern threat, eroding Canadian sovereignty through Cold War aerospace programs such as NORAD, it remains difficult to portray Canada’s increasingly assertive global deployments as a matter of national defence.

In 1941, the RCMP recruited Frank Hadesbeck, a Spanish Civil War veteran, as a paid informant to infiltrate the Communist Party. For decades, he informed upon hundreds of people who held progressive views. Hadesbeck’s “Watch Out” lists on behalf of the Security Service included labour activists, medical doctors, and anyone involved in the peace and human rights movements.

Instead of prioritizing the unhoused and undoctored, and responding to the mounting climate challenge, the government of Justin Trudeau recently committed to a massive boost in military spending. As Yves Engler writes, the security of Canadians would be better served by allocating resources to housing, health, and mitigating the climate crisis.

When Pierre Poilievre talks about homelessness as a public safety issue he brings forward implicit and explicit solutions that simply will not work. Criminalization, forced recovery, and institutionalization will not end homelessness. These ‘solutions’ do not address the economic root of the crisis—they seek only to punish its victims.

Old journalists need to get over their resistance to press subsidies, writes CD media columnist Marc Edge. The real threat to press freedom is not subsidies, but in how they are provided. Canada, and especially its most hide-bound old journalists, could learn a lot from other countries about how to foster a healthy news ecosystem through smart media subsidies.

How does activism and policy that opposes systemic racism get redefined as its exact opposite—namely antisemitism or anti-Jewish racism? How does the language of anti-racism get deployed in defense of the actions of an apartheid ethnostate? Vincent Wong on how the redefinition of racism is a cardinal threat to all racially subordinated and dehumanized groups the world over.

Reducing alcohol harms is about recognizing that risk exposure exists on a spectrum, with even marginally less regular consumption leading to significant health improvements. Conversely, further unleashing the rapacious forces of capital through this massive privatization scheme will only increase alcohol consumption and resulting harms.