Only weeks ago, we were told that a 75% vaccination rate is the minimum required to move to Phase 5 in Nova Scotia, and we would like to see that target remain a priority, and reassessed consistently, as we move through the beginnings of the latest wave of this pandemic. Schools and the Covid protocols applied there should be strengthened based on being proactive and the highest standard of protection for our students and their families, our teachers, and every staff member who is present in our public schools. Regardless of the vaccine numbers, other jurisdictions are showing that removing masks increases cases in the unvaccinated. We call on the government to maintain this important safety measure for our young children in schools. 

NS Parents for Public Education also calls on the government to restore the public notice policies that were in place in the prior school years, returning to making school cases publicly known, and maintaining a publicly accessible list of current school cases and any

closures. While there is a continued publication of possible exposure sites, where 15 minutes is deemed a risk, a list that is growing longer and wider everyday, it makes no sense that schools and buses, where children and teachers and other school staff exist in crowded environments for up to several hours a day, are not treated in a like manner, and perhaps with some more importance. 

Nova Scotia Parents for Public Education was started in 2016 by parents concerned with the government’s deteriorating relationship with teachers. They have 18,000 members on Facebook, and use their platform to promote and protect public education. 

The post Press release: NS parent group calling for minister and public health to leave mask mandate intact in NS public schools appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.

This article was originally published in the Chronicle Herald. It is republished here with the author’s kind permission.

KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – At the outset of the pandemic in spring 2020, “Stay the blazes home!” — a phrase uttered by former premier Stephen McNeil — became a rallying call across all corners of Nova Scotia.

Lost in this call to action was the acknowledgement that for hundreds of women and children across our province, home is the farthest thing from the safest place to stay.

“Stay the blazes home;” it’s a phrase that offers up not only a conundrum for women and children facing daily domestic violence, but also a quandary for those whose “homes” don’t meet societal expectations.

We were reminded of this earlier this month, as we watched protesters, arms linked, standing in front of tent encampments set to be torn down by the city, trying to protect the spaces that a number of our fellow Nova Scotians call “home.”

It was a poignant image to behold, leading to the amplification of a message that so desperately needs to be heard: Housing is a basic human right, and without it, no other social issues — including mental health, addiction, domestic violence — can be effectively addressed.

The member organizations of the Transition House Association of Nova Scotia (THANS), which run supports and services across the province for women who have experienced violence, have noticed that omitted from the current conversation around homelessness and access to safe affordable housing is the acknowledgement that the issue of housing is gendered, and must address violence against women.

The inaccessibility of housing options is a key factor preventing women from leaving abusive relationships, and in many cases contributes to their choice to return to their abusers after they have left.

We need to emphasize that homelessness is not just isolated to our province’s capital city. Truro, for example, has more homeless people per capita than Halifax at this time, according to the Truro-Colchester Affordable Housing Needs & Supply Study.

We know this reality, we live and breathe this reality, and we are working tirelessly to help others fully understand and appreciate this reality as well.

Our service providers supporting women and children in rural areas of the province tell us affordability is a major obstacle for women and children to not only leave an abusive situation, but to transition out of one of our facilities. As a result, there are families living in tents, campers or cheap motels — a temporary solution that is entirely unsustainable.

These situations are often experienced by women looking to start the next chapter of healing after leaving an abusive relationship; knowing that not only is the living situation not ideal, but that it also puts them at greater risk for the Department of Community Services to become involved if the housing isn’t “suitable” for children.

It should come as no surprise that what is typically deemed suitable for children is not aligned with the trend for affordable housing — which is offering one bedrooms or bachelors. One of our executive directors calls this irony a “dire situation, with no end in sight,” describing a scenario where previously affordable rentals are being sold because of the hot housing market, with long-term tenants being evicted and faced with homelessness. Rentals that aren’t being sold are taking advantage of the market in other ways, increasing rent for tenants who fall within the low-income bracket. The obvious result is a dramatically reduced supply of that “suitable” and safe space for children.

And while, yes, affordability is a significant barrier to renting, there is also the aspect of applications requiring rental history or employment history — and if you have none, it’s borderline impossible to proceed to the next step.

The current situation means that our work at THANS, sadly, continues to be indispensable. The necessity of our services have never been more apparent than when gaps in our social system were exposed during the last year and a half of a global pandemic.

The forced isolation due to COVID-19 brought a new urgency to our work. And while short-term funding was provided to amplify support through the pandemic, it is our hope that our province’s newly sworn in government will make a longer-term strategy a priority.

That long-term strategy must also recognize that housing is just part of the solution in addressing violence against women, and the issues women and children face in removing themselves from domestic violent situations are vast and complex.

Last August, in a letter written to the Hon. Bill Blair, federal Minister of Public Safety, providing concerns regarding the province’s handling of the Portapique tragedy investigation, Tim Houston, then leader of the official opposition, urged a “broader review of domestic violence in Nova Scotia.” Just over a year since that letter was issued, Mr. Houston has been sworn in as premier of our province, and now has the ability to not only conduct that broad review, but act on its findings.

One of which, we are sure, will be our failure to offer so many of our neighbours, our community members, the women and children living in dire situations, a safe and “suitable” roof over their heads.

Premier Houston campaigned on a platform titled, “Solutions for Nova Scotia;” we anxiously await for him to secure a solution here.

Shiva Nourpanah is provincial co-ordinator, Transition House Association of Nova Scotia.

If you are concerned that someone you know may be experiencing violence, please call or text 1-855-225-0220, toll-free and open 24/7, for safe and confidential information on how to best support them.

See also: Sorry, no kids. Adult only rentals counter to Nova Scotia Human Rights legislation

The post Shiva Nourpanah: Addressing housing crisis means also addressing violence against women appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.

We agree that the best place for our students is in the classroom with our peers and teachers. However, with our elementary students unable to be vaccinated, and many previous concerns unaddressed, we believe this plan does not go far enough. We were hoping to see the continuation of Nova Scotia’s cautious approach to COVID, but instead feel like yesterday’s briefing was a “COVID is over” announcement.

With the rise in the Delta variant, and a fourth wave started in other parts of Canada, we are concerned that the decision to end mandatory COVID protocols as students are back in classrooms is short-sighted and unnecessarily risky. Mr. Houston and Dr. Strang continue to peddle the lie that schools are safe if communities are safe, when data  clearly indicates schools as the second-highest source of transmission in the province during the third wave.

Delta is demonstrably more risky to young children, and their lack of eligibility for vaccination make the layer approach to mitigation even more important. To date, Nova Scotians were told that masks were an important part of that layer approach, including physical distancing, staying home when sick, and good hygiene:

• Last year demonstrated that we cannot rely on goodwill to keep students home when sick, especially in the absence of government-mandated sick days for workers who would need time to care for their child.
• Ventilation systems in Nova Scotia schools are still non-existant or in disrepair, and the information from last year’s audit gives no details on whether they function at levels recommended for COVID mitigation — where they exist at all.
• Nova Scotia classrooms continue to be overcrowded. We appreciate the new government’s commitment to the inclusion report, but our students and school staff need space now, for optimal safety.
• Handwashing was not handwashing. In some cases, schools went to lengths to provide breaks where students could use soap and running water to wash their hands. In more cases, alcohol-based hand sanitizer was used as a substitute. When improperly used, hand sanitizer is known to contribute to the proliferation of superbugs, where bacteria become resistant to usual treatments. Handwashing does not carry this risk, and is proven more consistently effective.
• Teachers and other school staff are supposed to be our front line protection for unvaccinated students, yet there is no mandate or tracking to ensure they are safe to be in schools. We appreciate that it is likely that the vast majority of teachers feel it is their duty to be fully vaccinated, given the lack of other safety measures in schools. We believe in personal choice regarding the decision to be vaccinated. However we would like to see mandatory testing for school staff who aren’t vaccinated.
• Masks have been promoted by governing health bodies around the world as one of the most effective ways to prevent the transmission of COVID and other droplet- or aerosol-spread viruses. A strong mask mandate has helped keep our transmission rates at an enviably low level, even where there have been known exposures in public spaces, such as retail settings. We appreciate that many in the public are eager to see an end to masking, but in jurisdictions that prematurely ended these mandates, COVID numbers climbed immediately. We have only to look to our neighbours in New Brunswick as an example. Especially in Pre-Primary to 6 settings, it would be strong public policy to continue the mask mandate to protect those youngest citizens from the immediate and long-term effects of a COVID infection. 

With two weeks remaining until school resumes for students, and 22 days until the projected move to Phase 5, there is time to revise the Back-to-School plans, to increase the success and safety of a full year of in-person learning in our schools.

The post PSA: Nova Scotia Parents for Public Education statement on 2021 back-to-school plan appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.

In light of recent developments in the COVID landscape and the lack of satisfactory safeguards and information provided by Dalhousie Administration with respect to a safe return to campus, the DFA Executive Committee has met and agreed to the following list of demands: 

• mandatory vaccinations for all faculty, students and staff;
• mandatory masking in all indoor public spaces;
• mandatory physical distancing where possible; and
• ventilation that meets public health guidelines.

The DFA is the certified bargaining unit representing the interests of more than 950 professors, instructors, librarians and counsellors at Dalhousie University.

The post Media Advisory: DFA demands mandatory vaccination and other safety protocols appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.

KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – Regardless of what party forms government in Nova Scotia tomorrow, the Premier will have some time-sensitive decisions to make when it comes to back-to-school.

As anxious parents wait and children question if schools are safe to return to, classes are set to begin just three weeks away.

Paul Wozney, President of the Nova Scotia Teachers’ Union, says staff met with the province’s Chief Health Officer, Dr. Robert Strang, early this month. Wozney confirmed a plan wouldn’t be announced ahead of the election, adding, “it could be several days after the election winner is announced.”

According to Wozney, all teachers and early childhood educators in the province under the NSTU have been fully vaccinated, with exceptions for those with underlying health risks for immunization.

Wozney says 66 per cent – or two thirds – of the school population in the province remain unvaccinated. The ineligibility of children below 12 poses an increased risk of both exposure and spread of COVID-19 from classrooms into communities.

“This is the largest population of unvaccinated people in the province,” Wozney said, “and we are going to send them back into cramped classrooms where they can’t be physically distanced, where nothing has been done to improve ventilation.”

The lack of direction has caused confusion, chaos, and concern for families, says Wozney.

Wozney says he’s concerned about the lack of correspondence about masking in classrooms, or what the threshold is for a school to close in-person learning. Teachers are also looking for guidance on class sizes and social distancing.

“Almost none of the $50 million we got from the federal Liberals last year was deployed to provide in-room air filtration, even though that was one of the major purposes of that money,” he said.

Wozney is disappointed none of the parties running offered a comprehensive back-to-school plan. He says the province should take a proactive approach, considering there is so little known about the effects of long-COVID in children.

While Public Health will ultimately make the call, Wozney believes in an in-school vaccination program where COVID-19 vaccines are offered in a similar rollout to HPV or Hepatitis B. 

694 cases of COVID-19 linked to school exposures in province

In Ontario, officials are worried about missing the deadline to complete air ventilation upgrades before schools open in September.

The situation is even more grim in the United States, where 1,900 children were hospitalized on Saturday alone. The state of Florida reported nearly 500 cases of COVID-19 in just the first week back to school. 

But in Nova Scotia, a familiar strategy of last-minute decision-making continues to reign supreme.

The Nova Scotia Advocate wrote about the return to in-school learning in June, months after teachers were told to pack up their classrooms until September:

Less than a week into in-school learning, a record-breaking heat wave loomed over the province, creating unsafe conditions for children and teachers alike. Additionally, at least five schools have reported COVID exposures in the week since reopening.

Air ventilation and circulation systems are turned off at the end of the day and only turned back on at 7 a.m. of a school day, making buildings like a greenhouse for staff and students alike.

Even hydrating students can be a challenge. Many schools in Nova Scotia do not have safe drinking water. Additionally, the returns of rented water supply equipment and emptying of inventory in cafeterias further limits students’ access to drinking water. 

The hot September weather will continue to pose a challenge, as windows in most classrooms cannot be opened without interfering with air ventilation systems. 

“Because we see the Delta variant having such a severe impact on children, children being a driver of an uptick in case counts and new cases in various jurisdictions, the lack of a return to plan school is a deep concern,” Wozney said.

A freedom of information request filed by the Nova Scotia Teachers’ Union earlier this year found a total of 694 cases of COVID-19 linked to school exposures. 

A communications spokesperson for the Department of Environment and Early Childhood Development tells the Nova Scotia Advocate “we look forward to sharing more soon,” indicating public health measures and in-class guidelines won’t be relayed until after the election.

“[We] are working together [with Public Health] on a back-to-school plan that will reflect Nova Scotia’s path towards Phase 5 of re-opening the province,” the spokesperson said.

See also: Brooklyn Connolly: After years of neglect, a safe return for students mostly out of reach

The post School is only three weeks away. Why hasn’t Nova Scotia announced a pandemic plan? appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.

KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – Just about a year ago, on July 22, 2020, Nova Scotia’s Department of Education announced a plan with a promise: for a safe return to school for all students, teachers and staff. The plan was weak, and many promises made by the Department remained empty. 

Students, teachers and staff embarked on a trying year ahead. Educational centres became a provincial epicentre for COVID-19 exposures. They accounted for 694 exposure locations – the highest number of exposures in the province, outside of household transmissions. 

For me  this came as no surprise. The first five-years of my education were spent in an elementary school that was literally falling apart – I remember the ceiling that was heavy with water, and the teachers who’d announced yearly that the province would replace the building ‘next year.’ That was 17-years ago, in 2004. It wasn’t until the summer following my high school graduation, in 2018, that the school got replaced; the same year that the government, under McNeil, took authority over the province’s seven elected school boards. 

And then, things got worse.

Water filtration, ventilation, and classroom size are just some of the growing concerns within Nova Scotia schools that are getting lost in austerity and departmental bureaucracy. Without boards to help address and mediate the needs of schools, teachers, and students, all problems pile on the Department. Which, too often, get lost in the rut.

Now, with weeks to go before the 2021 school year begins, it seems that a safe return is the latest task to be ignored. Perhaps this is because making a plan means addressing its years of non-action, the ones that money could have solved: if only that new school was built, if ventilation was replaced, if teacher’s concerns hadn’t gotten lost.

But this is a province that promises to invest in its future while making its youth pay for its debt. And it’s always been this way.

Until the COVID-19 pandemic, Nova Scotia had among the lowest population growth in the country. According to a 2016 census by Statistics Canada, the province was second last, just below New Brunswick, with a growth of 0.2 per cent between 2011-2016. The numbers mirror a pattern that the maritimes know well, that being: the brain drain. This is when youth, commonly aged between 15-29, emigrate following their education. Quite often, these are post secondary-school graduates that go on to pursue college and university elsewhere. This happens around when  they reach voting age. 

Left behind are the folks that make up the majority of the province’s population: adults and seniors. Sure, they’re family. They’re our parents and grandparents – some of them  demanded a safer return to school plan – but there’s more that goes into their vote. Parents can wait for their children to age out of a falling down school. Elections are as strategic as voters, and those without a vote too often get left without a voice. 

The state of public education begs the question, posed by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ 2020 report on child and family poverty: is it willful neglect? It found that last year more than 41,000 – almost one in four – children in the province were living in poverty. These are children in families that likely cannot afford childcare, and depend on a return to school, be that safe or not. It’s a cycle that will continue until we invest in young people and the equitable, and safe education they deserve. .

Until then, politicians will debate. Votes will be cast. And Nova Scotians will wait: for ventilation test results, for lead in school water to be remediated, for schools to be built, teachers to be heard, and for the next back-to-school plan to be announced.

See also: Pandemic challenges inclusive education policies in Nova Scotia, and parents are worried

The post Brooklyn Connolly: After years of neglect, a safe return for students mostly out of reach appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.

KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – I find it interesting that a piece in the August 7 issues of the Herald and Cape Breton Post “Where is my Server” is so one-sided. Just because the Restaurant Association and the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) keep repeating the same mantra doesn’t make it true. COVID has changed things and they will not be the same and it’s time we wake up to that fact.

Blaming the workers and the minimal government benefits they receive is unfair. It is also unfair to portray workers as lazy and unproductive. It is fair to say that today’s workforce wants better than low-wage part-time jobs without benefits. They will no longer tolerate being called part-time while working full-time hours. They want paid sick leave and other workplace benefits. Employers must wake up to these facts.

Businesses that offer full-time work at a living wage and some benefits will survive. Those who don’t will crash and burn. Fact is wages in retail and food services remain very low and are not rising. When workers are in short supply, wages usually increase. Fact is if you’re an employer and offering the minimum wage or slightly above, it will be hard to get and retain workers.

Employers can keep whining about the Canada Response Benefit (CRB) all they want. Workers deserve to be looked after by taxpayers just as employers are looked after with wage subsidies, rent programs, interest-free loans and the many other programs they received.

Businesses have received billions of dollars of taxpayer dollars courtesy have not had to prove their need. But as of July 17, workers had their (CRB) reduced from $500 a week to $300, a 40% reduction for unemployed workers. Canada Revenue will withhold 20% tax on this amount which means $270.00 after-tax.

A minimum wage worker in our province who gets 40 hours a week will gross $518.00 a week or $26,936 gross income per year. An eligible Canadian can get a maximum CRB of $21,060. Those who received the CERB before the Emergency Response Benefit would get $500 a week before the reduction – $24,000 in an annual income., The business community keeps saying that workers have it so good, they don’t want to work for minimum wage, and the $2000 a month keeps workers from returning to the job.

We have been living in a low-wage economy for far too long. Many workers today are fed up with their mistreatment, and the pandemic has exposed many realities. Many front-line workers put themselves and their families at risk while working through the pandemic. While some received a boost in pay for a few short weeks, they soon realized that boost was about keeping them on the job. During the pandemic, many people were grateful to see the help provided to workers and the business community. People didn’t like how profitable corporations lined up at the trough and received cash from the government even though they remained open and prosperous.

The pandemic has shown we all need to make a living wage. Let’s try better work schedules to give workers predictable shifts and full-time jobs and get out of the culture of precarious work. It’s a proven fact that when people have more, they spend more in the local economy.

The federal minimum wage is set to increase to $15 an hour on December 29 of this year. That will put full-time workers in the federal sector to an annual income of $31,200. The reality is that the CRB at $2000 a month pre-tax is a low wage and inadequate, let alone a cut to $270.00 a week after-tax or $1080.00 monthly. We can’t pretend the pandemic is over. We need a plan to create better jobs and get our economy working properly.

Danny Cavanagh is president of the Nova Scotia Federation of Labour

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KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – A new report, No Nova Scotian should have to work sick, by the Nova Scotia chapter of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) makes an excellent case for what should be so obvious, that nobody in Nova Scotia should have to go to work sick, ever. 

Going to work sick is bad for you, it’s bad for the people who sit next to you on the bus, and it’s bad for your co-workers. It’s also incredibly mean-spirited to force people to go to work sick.

Yet, in Nova Scotia people had no paid sick day coverage except for a flawed federal program until the province put a temporary and insufficient program in place in May of this year, and it only happened after lots of public pressure. Later this week, on July 31, that program comes to an end. 

It doesn’t have to be that way.  For example, in Holland, where I am from, every worker, part time, full time, unionized or not, gets paid when sick as a matter of course, for as long as two years. That’s what strong unions and socialist presence throughout its history will do for a country. 

In contrast, in Nova Scotia, on July 31st we will be back to three unpaid sick days per year. That also implies that if you are sick beyond those three days (or you must take time off because of a sick child) you can be fired just like that!

The report, written by Rebecca Casey, Rachel K. Brickner, Jesse Carlson, Sarah Rudrum, and Jenn Munroe, provides detail around the kinds of Nova Scotia workers who are affected by this draconian rule, and how many of those there are.

In Nova Scotia 54% of workers do not have access to paid sick leave. That goes up to 67% for people who work fewer than 30 hours per week, and to 72% for non-permanent employees. 

Large or small companies are equally bad. Only 41% of large firms with 500 or more employees in Nova Scotia provide paid sick days. 

It does help if you are a full time employee, and unionized workers tend to do much better. But surprisingly, even there it’s not a given, only 64% of unionized workers in this province are fortunate enough to have access to paid sick leave.  

Of course the people who are paid the least, our heroes who kept things from falling apart during the pandemic, are also the people who have least access to paid sick days. Only 31% of people earning less than $25,000 per year are so fortunate, while 61% of those making more than $100k get paid sick days. 

The report contains more than statistics.

The report’s authors, all from Acadia University, studied work and health during COVID-19 through the experiences of grocery and retail workers, long-term care workers, and teachers in Nova Scotia. Lisa Cameron wrote about the important study here.

The intent of the study was to identify the ways in which labour has changed since the onset of the pandemic, and the consequences on the health and wellbeing of our essential workers. How access to paid sick days affected their working conditions was part of the study, and the results provide a more qualitative insight.

Among the groups retail workers had by far the least access to paid sick leave.   

Among retail workers without paid sick leave who participated in the study, 41% reported going to work when sick. Of these, 88% reported going to work when sick because they needed the money!

Permanent paid sick leave in Nova Scotia should be universal, adequate, accessible and employer-provided, the report’s authors argue.  

Why employer-provided?

Employers should not have the right to employ workers under conditions that compromise health and safety and then pass the costs off to the public. From a logistical perspective, when employers provide paid sick leave, it reduces the possibilities of gaps or delays in pay, which is particularly important for precarious workers and low-wage workers,” the report states.  

Meanwhile, here in Nova Scotia, come August 1st we will lose the little access to paid sick leave that was granted. Only the Nova Scotia NDP is proposing that paid sick leave become a permanent part of the provincial Labour Code. 

As if people will no longer get sick. As if Covid-19 is now a thing of the past. As if we learned nothing from the pandemic.

If you can afford it you should support the Nova Scotia CCPA. They do so much great work.

See also: Halifax Labour Day rally demands 10 paid sick days for all workers, now more than ever

The post News Brief: Report highlights urgent need for universal and permanent paid sick leave appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.

KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – After a judge struck down a challenge of the injunction on public gatherings last month, calling the matter “moot,” a non-profit organization is determined to have their day in court.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) is continuing a challenge to the ethics of an injunction against public gatherings to the province’s court of appeals. 

In a hearing Thursday, Nasha Nijhawan, representing the CCLA, requested an extension of time to file a notice of appeal. 

On behalf of the Attorney General, lawyer Duane Eddy argued that the injunction is a dead issue, saying the challenge has no standing because the original order has been vacated. 

The injunction has been subject to both public scrutiny and pause from legal experts, who raised concerns about the scope of the gathering ban.

The injunction, ordered by the provincial government and granted by the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia, took effect on May 14, the day before an anti-mask and anti-vaccine disinformation campaign, “Freedom Nova Scotia,” planned to deliberately violate public health orders in a demonstration at Citadel Hill. 

The May 14 news release from the Nova Scotia Government was specifically titled, “Injunction Granted to Stop Anti-Vaccine, Anti-Lockdown Protests.” 

“Our collective responsibility is to keep everyone safe,” Premier Iain Rankin said at the time.

The injunction “prohibits any rally that would contravene the province’s public health directives.” The injunction goes further, “also prohibit[ing] organizers from continuing to promote the rallies on social media.”

It didn’t take long for things to go wrong. As I wrote in May: 

“The injunction signifies an escalation by the provincial government and police; an escalation so sweeping that in the same day, the injunction was used as justification to ticket and arrest demonstrators at a Free Palestine caravan rally in Halifax’s south end. 

In total, more tickets were issued at the Free Palestine (17) car rally than an anti-mask rally (11).”

The injunction was lifted on June 22, a week before the decision was scheduled to be challenged in court, at the request of the provincial government. The timing around the injunction ending left a roadblock for challengers of the order, forcing the CCLA to challenge an order that no longer exists. The CCLA argues, however, that its implementation creates a precedent in Nova Scotia that ought to be reviewed by the province’s Supreme Court. 

In a July 19 press release, the CCLA said of the injunction:

“It effectively barred all public protest activity and made anyone in breach of the order immediately subject to arrest for contempt of court. Importantly, the public health measures could already be enforced by ticketing, but the province’s injunction provided a new and harsher instrument for enforcement, likely designed to deter protesters. 

While the injunction is no longer in force in the province, we remain concerned about the circumstances that led to such a broad injunction being obtained without the Court hearing any arguments from any party other than the government. The order curtailed fundamental freedoms under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and we do not believe that there was a legal basis for granting this kind of order.”

A major legal issue raised by the CCLA and law experts alike revolves around the procedures of an “ex parte” hearing, used to implement the injunction in the first place. “Ex parte” or “for one party” hearings are usually reserved for emergency restraining orders or temporary custody. The orders remain in place until a formal hearing, where both parties can argue their case, and a judge can weigh the evidence.

Nijhawan argued Thursday that the challenge is not seeking a “de novo” hearing, where a judge looks at the matter with a fresh set of eyes. Instead, the CCLA wants to appeal the underlying order, made by the Attorney General, to seek the injunction to begin with. 

The question the Justice must answer is whether they have discretion to hear an appeal on an order that has already been vacated. The request, for an extension to file an appeal, is set to be reviewed in two weeks, after additional submissions from the CCLA and a response from the Attorney Generals’ Office.

See also: Judy Haiven: Halifax police not letting a good injunction go to waste

The post Challenge of Nova Scotia’s sweeping injunction against public gathering continues appeared first on Nova Scotia Advocate.

KJIPUKTUK (Halifax) – While many Nova Scotians are getting their second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, there are migrant workers who want to be vaccinated and who haven’t yet received their first dose. At the same time, there are migrant workers who are being pressured to get the vaccine. 

For this racialized workforce with precarious immigration status, vaccine access is an urgent issue of racial inequity that must be addressed.

For the past few months, No one is illegal — Halifax / Kjipuktuk has been on the front lines, filling gaps in the province’s vaccine rollout for migrant workers. Through our Migrant Workers Program, we have supported migrant workers throughout the province in accessing the COVID-19 vaccine. This has included fielding countless questions from migrant workers about the vaccine, being on hold for hours on end to make vaccine appointments, helping them to fill out required forms, providing interpretation and accompaniment during vaccine appointments, and more.

Many of the migrant workers we have supported are Jamaican and Mexican workers in the Seasonal Agricultural Worker Program (SAWP). They are the backbone of the agricultural sector in Nova Scotia. Under this program, migrant workers must live in employer-provided housing. These shared living quarters are often overcrowded and in poor condition, putting migrant workers at increased risk of COVID-19. For this reason, Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) recommended that migrant workers in shared living settings be a priority for early COVID-19 immunization.

While Nova Scotia made a commitment in January 2021 to prioritize migrant workers in our vaccine rollout, this never materialized. Nova Scotia’s vaccine plan provided early immunization to other essential workers and vulnerable communities, but this was not the case for migrant workers. Instead, migrant workers have had to wait for their age group to be called. This, in addition to many other barriers, has led to a major delay in vaccine access, which has put some in jeopardy of not being able to access the second dose before the end of their seasonal contracts. 

On June 9, the province’s chief medical officer, Dr. Robert Strang, commented that the province would work to make sure that migrant workers receive access to their second dose. However, when questioned, officials did not share their plan for ensuring this; and time is running out.

The province has not made vaccine bookings accessible to migrant workers. Since SAWP migrant workers don’t have access to provincial health care in Nova Scotia, they must book their appointments by phone. However, most migrant workers do not have phone plans in Canada, making it impossible for many to do so on their own.

Nova Scotia’s vaccine plan for migrant workers hinges on employers. For example, the province hired a third party to assist employers with vaccine booking for migrant workers. In some cases, vaccinations for migrant workers have been done in hotels, after the 14-day isolation period. Again, these bookings have been through employers.

Can you imagine as a Nova Scotian having to rely on your employer to book your vaccine for you?

Such an approach doesn’t take into account the unique vulnerability faced by migrant workers. Migrant workers come to Canada on closed work permits, which means they are tied to one employer. This increases the risk of employer abuse. If they stand up for their rights, they can be fired, sent back to their home country and barred from returning through the SAWP. Putting vaccine bookings in the hands of employers increases the risk of coercion and reprisals against migrant workers.

We have heard numerous reports of migrant workers whose employers have threatened to either send them home or not call them back again to work next season if they do not get the vaccine. One Jamaican migrant worker who was pressured by his employer to get the vaccine told me: “It’s because I’m Black.” 

Indeed, while Nova Scotians are able to make their own health decisions freely, including with regards to the vaccine, this is often not the case for racialized migrant workers. Migrant workers, for example, must rely on their employers to access medical attention, including for transportation and in some cases permission. 

It’s incumbent upon health officials to provide migrant workers with accessible vaccine education to support their decision-making. This was one of the recommendations in a letter we and other members of the Migrant Worker Rights Working Group sent to provincial officials in May 2021, when we outlined the many barriers to vaccine access faced by migrant workers. 

So far, the province has simply translated some documents on the vaccine in different languages. However, there is an ongoing lack of culturally relevant materials, as well as alternate formats for those who may have varying levels of literacy. For this reason, we hosted online vaccine education workshops geared towards Caribbean and Latin American migrant workers last month. 

We continue to call for mobile vaccine clinics near where migrant workers live and work. This approach would ensure low-barrier access to the vaccine, without relying on employers for transportation or to make the booking. We are also urging the province to ensure that migrant workers can attend vaccination appointments without loss of pay, and to enact anti-reprisal protections for migrant workers in relation to the vaccine. In addition, we continue to advocate for access to public health care for all migrants, as well as full and permanent immigration status for all migrants.

To date, our ongoing advocacy around vaccine access for migrants has resulted in some changes. For example, we were informed by provincial officials this past week that a phone-based interpretation service, which was previously only available at 10 clinics in Nova Scotia, will finally be available in pharmacies throughout the province. 

The ongoing de-prioritization of migrant workers in Nova Scotia’s vaccine rollout, the ability for employers to exercise such control over the health decisions of migrant workers, lack of access to public health care for people with precarious immigration status and an exclusionary immigration system that keeps migrant workers as temporary residents despite the fact that many have been coming here for years — these are all examples of racial injustice that must be addressed by provincial and federal officials. During the upcoming election cycle and beyond, let’s ensure that racial justice for migrant workers is a priority. Migrant workers have waited long enough.

Stacey Gomez is a migrant justice organizer with No One Is Illegal – Halifax/K’jipuktuk and active in the Latin American solidarity movement.

See also: Nova Scotia’s vaccine access not working for migrants, advocates and health experts say

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