A Women’s Studies professor who specializes in “gender and vulnerability” has taken a bold stand against her institution, Oxford, developing a vaccine for coronavirus.
You see, despite the fact that her own 72-year-old father has been struggling with his own isolation, and despite the fact that the world largely remains in lockdown as a result of the scourge that’s infected almost 3 million people and taken 189,099 lives, Emily Cousens would prefer if the cure was found elsewhere because… identity politics?
Cousens is of the opinion that if Britons are the ones who develop the vaccine, then they will disregard lessons learned, “forget the devastating delay of the UK government to take action,” and forget “that the UK and the US are in fact not exceptions on the global stage.”
What she means by this is that she doesn’t want the west to think too highly of itself, to ignore its privileged position, and to disregard what she sees as fact, which is that it is to blame for the world’s suffering. She actively wants the west to be less good at research and development of a vaccine because she wants the UK to think less of itself.
Her biggest fear is that if England were to develop the vaccine first, then the narrative would be this: “China, once again, has unleashed a threat to civilisation. But the best brains of the UK have saved the world.”
Cousens is also very concerned that if Britain were to develop a vaccine first, then people might forget that Prime Minister Boris Johnson is the bad guy. Heaven forbid the possibility that we may defeat this plague and all get healthy if that means that Johnson would receive any accolades.
Like many members of the identity politics cult, the narrative is more important than the wellbeing of actual people. In this case, this includes her father who she says is living “in a very rural village and is becoming increasingly worried that he won’t be able to return to his usual ways for years – until such a vaccine is developed.”
Cousens is the classic naysayer, the classic critical voice, that wants to see the west fail so that her ideology of identity politics proves out. She writes that “If my university is the first to develop the vaccine, I’m worried that it will be used as it has been in the past, to fulfil its political, patriotic function as proof of British excellence.”
What this neglects, of course, is that if Britain is the first to develop the vaccine, that would mean a substantial boon to the British economy. While economies are being devastated globally, the rush to make a vaccine isn’t only about saving lives but about saving civilizations.
Cousens concept of society is that it is stable to the point where we have numerous altruistic options as to how to vouchsafe our survival. We do not. If there’s anything this pandemic has taught us, it is that society and the social fabric is tenuous. A vaccine needs to be made, and all things being equal, it might be better if it were made by a western nation that values equality, jurisprudence, and global welfare more than it values its own supremacy.
The fact that Cousens cares more about China’s reputation or dunking on Boris Johnson than the health and wellbeing of her own family and country says everything you need to know about the social-justice driven agenda of the woke squad.
As the world struggles with this very real crisis, it has never been clearer that we need to walk away from this kind of delusional, virtue-signalling dreck and the people and institutions that spread it.
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the NDP is caving to political pressure from Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre when it comes to their stance on the consumer carbon price.
Trudeau says he believes Jagmeet Singh and the NDP care about the environment, but it’s “increasingly obvious” that they have “no idea” what to do about climate change.
On Thursday, Singh said the NDP is working on a plan that wouldn’t put the burden of fighting climate change on the backs of workers, but wouldn’t say if that plan would include a consumer carbon price.
Singh’s noncommittal position comes as the NDP tries to frame itself as a credible alternative to the Conservatives in the next federal election.
Poilievre responded to that by releasing a video, pointing out that the NDP has voted time and again in favour of the Liberals’ carbon price.
British Columbia Premier David Eby also changed his tune on Thursday, promising that a re-elected NDP government would scrap the long-standing carbon tax and shift the burden to “big polluters,” if the federal government dropped its requirements.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
Simon Jolin-Barrette, minister responsible for consumer protection, has tabled a bill to force merchants to calculate tips based on the price before tax.
That means on a restaurant bill of $100, suggested tips would be calculated based on $100, not on $114.98 after provincial and federal sales taxes are added.
The bill would also increase the rebate offered to consumers when the price of an item at the cash register is higher than the shelf price, to $15 from $10.
And it would force grocery stores offering a discounted price for several items to clearly list the unit price as well.
Businesses would also have to indicate whether taxes will be added to the price of food products.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
Quebec legislature member Youri Chassin has announced he’s leaving the Coalition Avenir Québec government to sit as an Independent.
He announced the decision shortly after writing an open letter criticizing Premier François Legault’s government for abandoning its principles of smaller government.
In the letter published in Le Journal de Montréal and Le Journal de Québec, Chassin accused the party of falling back on what he called the old formula of throwing money at problems instead of looking to do things differently.
Chassin says public services are more fragile than ever, despite rising spending that pushed the province to a record $11-billion deficit projected in the last budget.
He is the second CAQ member to leave the party in a little more than one week, after economy and energy minister Pierre Fitzgibbon announced Sept. 4 he would leave because he lost motivation to do his job.
Chassin says he has no intention of joining another party and will instead sit as an Independent until the end of his term.
He has represented the Saint-Jérôme riding since the CAQ rose to power in 2018, but has not served in cabinet.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
