Ontario premier-designate Doug Ford has said again his first act in the Legislature will be to scrap the cap-and-trade program. The legislation is little understood by taxpayers who nonetheless feel the increased cost of goods and services of a tax nominally intended to help improve the environment. If it does what it is reputed to do, cap-and-trade lowers greenhouse gas emissions by setting limits and letting companies that exceed them purchase so-called allowances from other emitters whose emissions fall below the cap. Maybe that creates a net benefit. Some feel it does but many are befuddled by it.
YORK CONTRACT FACULTY BACK TO WORK
Contract faculty at York University have voted a second time to return to work and will do so Monday, according to York University. The employees, members of a single unit (#2) of CUPE Local 3909 have been on strike since March and voted earlier in the week to end their strike. Union headquarters nullified that vote and ordered a re-vote because “the number of ballots did not match the number of signatures of eligible voters.” In the end, contract faculty voted a second time to accept the university’s offer.
SCOC UPHOLDS LAW SOCIETIES AGAINST CHRISTIAN SCHOOL
The Supreme Court of Canada has voted 7 to 2 to permit law societies in Ontario and BC to deny membership at the bar to graduates in law of Trinity Western University. TWU is an unaffiliated Christian school which holds that marriage is only legal between a man and woman, specifically barring LGBTQ students. The court’s majority rested its case on the social imperative of inclusiveness. The two-judge minority made its case on the need for society to tolerate many opinions.
