On the Brink: A Nova Scotia family and the ‘never-ending struggle’ to survive

This is the first instalment of a Global News series called ‘On the Brink,’ which profiles people who are struggling with the rising cost of living. In this story, a Nova Scotia woman talks about the challenges of making ends meet while supporting her family.

Maria Burgess knows what it’s like to be on the brink.

After years of hardship, the 32-year-old has finally managed to carve out a happy life for herself and her family – but it wasn’t easy.

“Now we have a working stove, a working fridge, the clothes on our back and food in our cupboards, which is the big thing for me,” she said in an interview from her home in Moncton, N.B., where she recently moved after exhausting her options in Nova Scotia.

She recalls, not too long ago, having to choose between buying groceries, paying rent and letting a bill go. In their case, food always came first, so her children could eat.

“The struggle is real,” Burgess said.

Like a lot of families who are on the brink, Burgess’s troubles began with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, when the family lost their rented home of five years in Windsor, N.S.

“That’s when the landlord sold and the prices got jacked up,” she said.

Burgess said the search for affordable housing in a province with a sub-one-per-cent vacancy rate was hugely challenging.

“It’s hard to find housing nowadays. It’s usually like $2,800, plus utilities. It’s expensive,” she said. “And trying to survive, buying groceries which have also gone up – it’s just a never-ending struggle.”

After a year in a cramped hotel room, there was finally some good news. Burgess’s husband landed a new job in New Brunswick, and they made the move shortly after.

They spent some time living with a friend, before finally settling into a place of their own in Moncton – a huge upgrade from their tiny camper and hotel room.

“We actually have a private room now,” she said with a laugh. “Here, we can have our time, (the kids) can have their time, and they have space to roam.”

‘Still in that struggle area’

The couple have normal, working-class Canadian jobs. Burgess works at Tim Hortons, and her husband works in construction.

Though they are in a much better position than they were a year ago, Burgess said they still face challenges.

“We’re making more money, but with the amount of groceries, we’re still in that struggle area,” she said. “We’re making it, but we go without sometimes.… It’s tight.” |Read more https://globalnews.ca/news/10128874/on-the-brink-1-family-struggle/ | globalnews.ca/news/10128874/on…

#nspoli #inflation #covid #rent #IncreasingCosts #PoorWages #politics #NationWide #canada

Disinformation campaigns are undermining democracy. Here’s how we can fight back

Misinformation is debated everywhere and has justifiably sparked concerns. It can polarise the public, reduce health-protective behaviours such as mask wearing and vaccination, and erode trust in science. Much of misinformation is spread not by accident but as part of organised political campaigns, in which case we refer to it as disinformation.

But there is a more fundamental, subversive damage arising from misinformation and disinformation that is discussed less often.

It undermines democracy itself. In a recent paper published in Current Opinion in Psychology, we highlight two important aspects of democracy that disinformation works to erode.

Disinformation about climate change is a well-documented example. The fossil fuel industry understood the environmental consequences of burning fossil fuels at least as early as the 1960s. Yet they spent decades funding organisations that denied the reality of climate change. This disinformation campaign has delayed climate mitigation by several decades – a case of public policy being thwarted by false information.

We’ve seen a similar misinformation trajectory in the COVID-19 pandemic, although it happened in just a few years rather than decades. Misinformation about COVID varied from claims that 5G towers rather than a virus caused the disease, to casting doubt on the effectiveness of lockdowns or the safety of vaccines.

The viral surge of misinformation led to the World Health Organisation introducing a new term – infodemic – to describe the abundance of low-quality information and conspiracy theories.

Strikingly, some of the same political operatives involved in denying climate change have also used their rhetorical playbook to promote COVID disinformation. What do these two issues have in common? |Read more https://theconversation.com/disinformation-campaigns-are-undermining-democracy-heres-how-we-can-fight-back-217539 | theconversation.com/disinforma…

#world #cdnpoli #politics #misinforamation #democracy #infodemic #covid #ClimateChange

Poilievre’s Conservative party embracing language of mainstream conspiracy theories

Article published Aug. 13, 2023

OTTAWA – Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has been hitting the summer barbecue circuit with ramped-up rhetoric around debunked claims that the World Economic Forum is attempting to impose its agenda on sovereign governments.

It is, some experts suggest, another sign that some conspiracy theories are moving from the fringes of the internet to mainstream thinking, as people’s distrust of government grows.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TSscfaiTJJA

On digital IDs, the federal government has been looking at technology to create a national digital identification document to help people access government services. It has not been promoted as something that will become mandatory.

Last winter, a conspiracy theory circulating on social media suggested Trudeau was going to require provinces to sign on to digital ID systems for their residents in order to get billions in new health-care funding. That conspiracy was also debunked.

Duane Bratt, political science professor at Mount Royal University in Calgary, said some people have long embraced conspiracies, but now they have moved into mainstream politics.

“The big shift that we have seen is that it is now being promoted by someone who could be prime minister,” said Bratt.

Kawser Ahmed, a politics professor at the University of Winnipeg with a research specialty in conspiracy theories, said the number and uptake of conspiracy theories began to grow after the 2016 presidential election in the United States, aided by social media and encrypted messaging apps.

But Ahmed said the biggest trigger was the COVID-19 pandemic.

“There’s a lot of ideas that are now moving into the mainstream that are simply not supported by science, evidence or facts,” he said. “But it doesn’t matter and some of those politicians have been elected, like the current premier of Alberta.”

United Conservative Party premier Danielle Smith has said she is in lockstep with Poilievre, and will having nothing to do with the World Economic Forum.

Populism has driven politicians to feed into conspiracy theories because they need votes, and fear is a great motivator, said Ahmed. They get less interest peddling for votes using their record.

“It’s very easy to appeal to people that something is a threat,” he said. “For example your identity, your livelihood, your religious values.”

Ahmed said it is affecting our democracy, pitting groups against each other, creating suspicion and harming national security by spreading misinformation that eventually affects policy. |Read more https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/poilievre-s-conservative-party-embracing-language-of-mainstream-conspiracy-theories-1.6517247 | ctvnews.ca/politics/poilievre-…

#cdnpoli #PierrePoilievre #WEF #conspiracy #populism #conservatives #smith #abpoli

Extreme weather, driven by climate change, could shut down more than 16,000 hospitals worldwide: report

One in 12 hospitals around the world are at risk of partial or total shutdown from extreme weather events by 2100 if countries fail to curb fossil fuel emissions, a new report(opens in a new tab) warns.

Without a phase out of fossil fuels, a total of 16,245 hospitals could be somewhat or completely shut down by the end of the century, according to the report from XDI (Cross Dependency Initiative), a climate risk analyst, which looked at a total of 200,216 hospitals around the world.

The report was released in time for the COP28 climate summit’s health day(opens in a new tab), which saw global leaders come together in Dubai on Sunday to discuss how to strengthen the resilience of health systems in the face of climate change.

“Climate change is increasingly impacting the health of people around the world,” said Dr. Karl Mallon, director of science and technology at XDI, in a news release.

Of the 16,245 hospitals identified as at a high risk of shutdown by 2100, the report notes that an alarming 71 per cent (11,512) will be in low- and middle-income countries.

Currently, South East Asia has the highest percentage of hospitals at high risk of damage from extreme weather events, with close to one in five (18.4 per cent) hospitals considered high risk. It is followed by East Asia at 10.78 per cent and South Asia at 9.97 per cent.

Meanwhile, North America is projected to experience the greatest increase in risk of damage to all hospital infrastructure by the end of the century, with a 430 per cent increase in the amount of risk since 2020. It is followed by East Asia, at 412 per cent. |Read more https://www.ctvnews.ca/climate-and-environment/extreme-weather-driven-by-climate-change-could-shut-down-more-than-16-000-hospitals-worldwide-report-1.6671383 | ctvnews.ca/climate-and-environ…

#world #hospitals #COP28 #HighRisk #damage #ClimateChange #politics #environment

Conspiracy theories are popular in Canada, especially among conservatives: poll

Ottawa – The Earth is flat. We have been secretly contacted by intelligent beings from other planets. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin did not land on the moon in 1969. They may sound like bizarre statements, but a new poll suggests a sizable number of Canadians believe in these and other conspiracy theories.

About five per cent of us are flat-earthers, the poll suggests, while 11 per cent say they think the lunar landings were a hoax. And one-third of respondents say they think evidence that aliens have been in contact with our planet is being hidden from the public.

In all, 79 per cent of Canadians and 84 per cent of Americans reported believing in at least one of a list of conspiracy theories mentioned in the survey. In both countries, conservative-leaning voters were more likely to believe in conspiracies.

Just over a quarter of American respondents say they believe global warming doesn’t exist, compared to 16 per cent of Canadians.

A regional breakdown suggests Albertans are most likely to believe there’s a secret global elite working to establish a world government, at 44 per cent, and that feminism is a strategy to enable women to control society, at 19 per cent.

The feminism control theory was almost twice as popular among Canadian men than women. |Read more https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/conspiracy-theories-are-popular-in-canada-especially-among-conservatives-poll-1.6671603 | ctvnews.ca/canada/conspiracy-t…

##NorthAmerica #conspiracy #theories #canadians #americans #cdnpoli #Conservatives