Previous Newsletters
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GOOD WEDNESDAY MORNING, OTTAWA Your daily morning newsletter was just awarded a grant from the Facebook Journalism Network to expand our COVID19 coverage, particularly of those who stories are not being told. We’re excited to be able to soon increase our coverage and take this as an invitation to pitch us with suggestions of what to cover or stories that you would like to write. We have a new contributor page here. See you Thursday. — Martha and Darren
STATS Weather: Mainly cloudy with a high of 8° Quote: “What [Elana Crenna] did was neither secret, clandestine, surreptitious nor covert. Therefore, her action could not reasonably constitute espionage.” – Federal Court justice Henry S. Brown reads the dictionary to overrule Border Services who said Ottawa resident Elena Crenna was a Russian spy [Toronto Star]
FED UP IN AISLE THREE Today, we’re talking about our food and delivery heroes who have been going in every day at significant risk to themselves. But how heroic are we if these workers can’t make their own choice to quit? Yesterday, three IGA grocery store workers in Gatineau and an Amazon warehouse worker on Boundary Road were reported to be tested positive for COVID19. Like gig workers, these jobs are all minimum wage plus, somewhere in the $16 per hour range, including the raise that the major grocers have temporarily implemented. It’s hardly worth the risk to life and the lack of control over one’s safely. Yet, if someone feels unsafe, they have no real option. If a front line worker quits, EI and the new Canadian Emergency Relief Benefit are specifically denied to them. How then does one eat, much less pay rent for unknowing months ahead? It’s not as if there are other, safer jobs available. Allowing people to quit and sign up to EI or CERB would force the stores to improve the safety and increase the pay, if only to retain their staff. The next time you meet a cashier or a delivery person or a warehouse worker, ask them if they would rather be called a hero or if they would prefer a lot more money. |
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CORONAVIRUS UPDATE There have been 403 cases of COVID 19 in Ottawa and six deaths. |
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IN OTHER NEWS No Wifi? Do your homework in the parking lot +[Related] Councillor Jeff Leiper has had Byron Avenue closed between Redwood and Golden Avenues to local traffic only to create more space [Ottawa Citizen]
LIVESTREAMING ? 3 pm British singer- |
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