Garth Frazer: Punishing Bangladesh over factory disaster will only add to workers’ woes (in The Toronto Star)

"... not buying Bangladeshi apparel will not help the workers in Bangladesh. Buying from a company with stronger worker protections operating in Bangladesh will help Bangladeshi workers more than buying from a company with weak worker protections, but buying from any company operating in Bangladesh will help Bangladeshi workers more than not buying Bangladeshi clothing."

Full article: Punishing Bangladesh over factory disaster will only add to workers’ woes (in The Toronto Star).

Haroon Siddiqui: Canada’s flawed national census (in TheToronto Star)

"The voluntary survey drew a response rate of only 68 per cent, not the 95 per cent and more that the mandatory form routinely elicited. Those who did not respond were most likely those about whom Ottawa most needs the information — aboriginals, low-income people, etc. — to fashion informed public policy. Perhaps Harper is happy not to know much about them.

"The latest data, released Wednesday, is good enough to capture national trends but it becomes less reliable as you drill it down. That’s why StatsCan has refused to release data from as many as 1,100 smaller communities — ironically, the bedrock of Conservative support in many parts of the country.

"More egregiously, the new information cannot be compared to previous census data. That’s why the agency is warning against comparing apples and oranges. This is nothing short of tragic. A treasure trove of past knowledge can no longer be put to continuous comparative use."

Full article: Canada’s flawed national census (in The Toronto Star).

Rick Salutin: Let’s not be stupid together (in The Toronto Star)

"... we lack any self-interest in policies for which U.S. leaders are clearly willing to pay a price. We simply pay the price, with no benefits. That makes us double stupid, in Sontag’s sense.

"Causes are weird. Root or not, they’re easier to see in others than oneself. The National Post’s Andrew Coyne, defending Justin Trudeau’s query about root causes in Boston, asked why “extreme ideologies . . . take root in some people but not others.” But you could ask the same about the extreme free market ideologies that have taken root in Coyne and his colleagues at the Post. Were they “self-radicalized” — or seduced by devious outsiders? ..."

Full article: Let’s not be stupid together.

Heather Mallick: Justin Trudeau digs deep on terrorism, Harper draws a cartoon (in The Toronto Star)

"Hardline conservatives are hostile to science, art, literature, history, foreign cultures, courtroom trials, criminal rehabilitation, spending on preparation for the future, and most of all, root causes, the things that one has to dig very deep to comprehend. It’s like a surgeon removing metastasized tumours without checking the site of the original cancer.

"Terrorism is the most complicated of tangles but trying to untangle it is a potential lifesaver."

Heather Mallick: Justin Trudeau digs deep on terrorism, Harper draws a cartoon (Toronto Star).

Haroon Siddiqui: Stop importing temporary workers into Canada (in The Toronto Star)

"The arrangement [temporary workers] suits both the workers and the host society, in the short term. But it is exploitative of the former and debilitating to the latter, in that it creates a two-tier society, of varying severity and duration. ...

"... given the extent of the problem here, Ottawa should end the temporary worker program — forthwith — and forbid businesses from paying 15 per cent less to those already here.

"That would force employers to pay what they must to attract Canadians to unattractive jobs, and also invest time and money in developing high-end skills among Canadians, especially the young."

Full article: Stop importing temporary workers into Canada.

Thomas Walkom: RBC offers lesson in how to curb job outsourcing (in The Toronto Star)

"To deal with the war on wages, the entire economy, including free trade, must be rethought."

Full article: RBC offers lesson in how to curb job outsourcing: Walkom | Toronto Star

Wormwood tea to treat malaria: The WHO is opposed to an effective preventive medicine (Slate Magazine)

"The tea comes from sweet wormwood (Artemisia annua), the Chinese plant that is a source for the world's most powerful anti-malarial treatments, which combine artemisinin derivatives with an older class of drugs. It can also be grown in wetter parts of Africa, and a year’s supply costs no more than a few dollars. Although the tea itself has traditionally been used in treatment, not prevention, in China, a randomized controlled trial on this farm showed that workers who drank it regularly reduced their risk of suffering from multiple episodes of malaria by one-third."

Full article: Wormwood tea to treat malaria: The WHO is opposed to an effective preventive medicine.