#canada employment rate

[regularmailrates]

The Cost of UK to Canada Postage Rates

The cost of uk to canada postage rates is one of the biggest obstacles when it comes to exporting to the United Kingdom. There are a number of factors that impact the price including weight, shipping timescales and exact destination address.

Individuals can send small packages and personal items to the UK via Canada Post surface options and locally at post offices. For e-commerce businesses with large volumes of goods to ship to the UK, airfreight and direct ocean freight are usually the most economical options if booked well in advance.

Customs duties and taxes are another big factor for companies exporting to the UK. Goods must be declared correctly to avoid any delays or fines. It is recommended that all imports to the UK are accompanied by an HMRC (Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs) invoice or other customs documentation to help with smooth clearance. For lower value shipments, the de minimus duty threshold of PS135 is often enough to prevent duties and taxes from being assessed.

The UK and Canada have a long history of trade and investment and both countries are strong economic partners. There are numerous benefits for British companies to export to Canada, from accessing its large and growing consumer base to taking advantage of tax breaks and incentives like the Enhanced Investment Allowance.

Jet Worldwide is a leading logistics company that offers reliable express delivery and dependable sea and air freight services to the UK from Canada. Our decades of experience and high standards offer our customers transparency and best-in-class logistics support.

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Regular Mail Rates – BLogSPot

[inc-immigrationnewscanada]

Canada Unemployment Rate Steady at 5%

In March, employment in Canada increased by 35,000 (+0.2%) while the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 5.0%.

In March, employment in Canada increased by 35,000 (+0.2%) while the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 5.0%. Transportation and warehousing had an increase in employment of 41,000 (+4.2%), business, construction, and other support services saw an increase of 31,000 (+4.4%), and finance, insurance, real estate, rental, and leasing saw an increase of 19,000 (+1.3%). Employment fell in…

[the-final-sif]

There's a post from someone outside of the US about how people in the US don't put their country down and just put down their state and something about US people being US centric, and part of it has always kind of bothered me because I think that people outside of the US don't really understand how states work for us or why people think their state should be enough. Some of it is being US centric for sure, but I honestly don't think that's the main reason.

It's because the US is a bunch of countries in a trench coat. I've compared it before to the EU, and I really do think that's accurate. It's literally a union of states. Each state has it's own government and laws and we have the federal government too but day to day a lot more of your life comes down to the state laws. Your driver's license, license plate, wage and a lot of employment protect (and enforcement), vast majority of court experiences, etc all go through the state. Moving to different states can mean being subject to wildly different laws, tax rates/methods, and forms of discrimination (ie florida trying to ban queer people while other states are explicitly adding protections for them).

Like, you'll notice that streamers often tend to be clustered in certain states in the US, and a lot of that has to do with certain states not having an income tax. Depending on what state they're registered in, companies can be subject to wildly different laws. Hence why Delaware is so popular for businesses. Bankruptcy law works differently in every state.

Lawyers are licensed to practice by state, and while they can move to different states, it's difficult and depending on their area of law they may be totally out of their field. Even small states like Delaware have totally different laws from a place 15 minutes to the left like New Jersey.

The largest single state by population is California which has nearly 40 million people. That is more than the entire population of Canada. It's roughly on par with Poland. Give or take a million people.

Ohio has about 11 million people, about 1 million more than Sweden. Florida has 22 million, over double Greece's population. New York and Romania both come out to about 19 million each.

Our smallest state by population, Wyoming, which has about 500k people, still has about 200k more people than Iceland.

Fucking Russia literally does not have half the population of the US. It sits at 144 million while we're at 333 million.

To give a sense of landmass/scale, France is the largest EU state by landmass with 630k square km. Texas alone is 695k. Alaska is 1.7 million square km. The US in total is 11.3 million square km. The entire EU has 4.2 million square km.

The US is 1) fucking huge and 2) so much less cohesive than a lot of non-Americans assume.

So why would someone from the US just put down their state? For the same reason that most people from the EU don't write down "Germany in the EU". Your state is where you're actually from, the USA is the weird umbrella you live under.

[zvaigzdelasas]

[Reuters is Canada-Based Private Media]

Bangladesh will raise the minimum wage for garment workers by 56.25%, the first hike since 2019, the junior labour minister said on Tuesday after a week of protests calling for higher salaries. The minimum wage for workers will be increased from 8,000 taka to 12,500 taka ($114) per month from Dec. 1, State Minister for Labour and Employment Monnujan Sufian said. There will also be a 5% annual increment. The protests, which led to clashes with police that killed two workers and wounded dozens more, pushed the government to form a panel of factory owners, union leaders and officials to consider the demand for higher pay.[...]

"(Government welfare) cards will be provided to the workers, later the ration cards will be given to them so they can buy essential commodities at cheaper rates," Rahman, also a former president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, told Reuters. Workers, however, are not happy with the rise at a time when inflation is running at 9.5%.

7 Nov 23

[TheDailyStar is Bengali Private Media]

The wage board for garment workers has set the minimum salary at Tk 12,500, a little over half of what workers demand. Union leaders have rejected the new minimum wage put forth by the wage board, which accepted the proposal of factory owners’ representative Siddiqur Rahman. The current starting wage is Tk 8,000. Union leaders yesterday threatened to go for tough demonstrations. Workers had demonstrated for 12 straight days.[...]

Before the announcement, members of the Minimum Wage Board, formed on April 9, held a meeting at its office. While the meeting was going on, union leaders outside chanted slogans demanding a minimum wage of at least Tk 23,000. Demanding a starting salary of Tk 25,000, Montu Ghosh, president of Garment Sramik Trade Union Kendra, said the measly amount set was not enough to lead a good life. Inflation and high prices of essentials have made things worse for garment workers. Ghosh along with other union leaders of the Mojuri Briddhite Garment Sramik Andolon, a platform of workers’ unions, in a statement rejected the new minimum wage and called for a rally on Friday where they would announce tougher programmes[...]

If the workers’ unrest continues, the responsibility will lie with the wage board, Nazma said.[...]

[The] president of the Bangladesh Apparel Workers’ Federation, said the prime minister’s intervention is needed in setting the new minimum wage. He demanded ration cards, not the family cards of the TCB, for the garment workers.[...]

The new minimum wage is much less than those offered in India, Cambodia, Vietnam, China and Indonesia. Only Pakistan has a lower minimum wage. Early last month, the Centre for Policy Dialogue, after a survey, interviews and research, estimated that the minimum wage for an RMG worker should be Tk 17,568. The new minimum wage falls short of that. The think-tank had delved into food and non-food expenditure patterns of 228 workers from 76 factories and even considered how many earning members an average RMG worker’s family had. The CPD had stated that the food cost for an RMG worker family was at least Tk 9,198 a month but notes that the standard food expenditure for a family of four would be Tk 16,529 and that the garment workers have to cut corners to make ends meet.

It said 12 percent of the workers’ families do not buy milk at all, 5 percent do not buy sugar, and 5 percent do not consume fruits.

8 Nov 23

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Workers in Canada just got a bump in their pay.

The Canadian government raised the federal minimum wage from $15.55 to $16.65 per hour on April 1.

Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) says this increase was to keep pace with inflation, which rose by 6.8 per cent in 2022.

"The cost of living is rising, so we're making sure that wages keep going up too," said Minister of Labour Seamus O'Regan Jr in a statement. "We're looking after workers, because that's how you grow the economy and create more prosperity for everyone."

The government says this raise aims to make life more affordable for approximately 26,000 Canadian workers who earn less than the current rate.

Federally regulated private-sector employers will need to adjust their payroll information with the new rate to ensure employees and interns are paid correctly as of April 1, says the ESDC. [...]

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[errorid-mt7lt7k7unfr9ttfua5]

shabbat shalom, jumblr, i have a heavy question:

due to many factors, i have decided to leave the United States once it becomes feasible, and i want some suggestions on safe places. ultimately, nowhere will be completely safe, but ideally somewhere with either low*er* rates of antisemitic violence, robust legal protection of jews specifically, low rates of violence in general, and ease of migration. (also, preferably a decently sized jewish population)

i am going into cybersecurity and speak english, spanish, french, ASL, and japanese; and am currently learning german, hebrew, and mandarin

my research is going fairly poorly due to a lack of recent (post-october 7th) studies beyond anecdotes.

my thoughts and research so far:

germany

*more* robust legal protections against antisemitism than other countries

excellent quality of life and cost of living

potential mobility to other European Union countries in the event i must flee again

i speak several European languages, which will make travel (which i want to do extensively) easier

japan

difficult to migrate to

excellent quality of life and cost of living

extensive overworking

i speak japanese

very low rates of violence, and while there are definitely antisemitic sentiments and a history of such; there are Very few jews anywhere in japan, they are primarily located in tōkyo and ōsaka, and the worst incident i have found to have happened recently was vandalisation of several copies of the diary of anne frank in a public library, and that was prior to october 7th

rampant discrimination against non-japanese individuals, especially in employment and housing

Canada

america lite™ my beloathed

proximity to where i live now, which would allow me to see my partner more frequently

i speak english, french, and ASL

lower potentiality for culture shock

i want to do more research, but I want advice from jumblr, especially from Jews who live outside the united states.

i specifically want to avoid the levant given how unsafe it is at the moment

if there are any jews who live in latin america, please let me know if there are safe places, as spanish is the language i am most fluent in besides english

[fairandfatalasfair]

By September of 2023 initial meetings took place between WestJet and AMFA where the union’s negotiating committee identified major concerns with the workplace and ultimately some of the reasons they decided to unionize. They identified that the company did not respect seniority, the irregularities in pay scale and some work privileges were eliminated without notice or rationale.

Many of the union’s proposals were “boilerplate” and quickly agreed to tentatively, however there were serious concerns and discussions around staffing still being below pre-COVID levels causing “levels of fatigue that are detrimental to aviation safety.” These concerns continued into December, when further charges were filed against WestJet for staffing concerns and significant changes to the positions inspecting the aircraft.

Throughout bargaining WestJet has been in the driver’s seat getting closer and closer to a labour dispute. It was the company that put the parties on course for a lockout or strike by filing for mediation with the CIRB. It was also the company that alluded to outsourcing the jobs during the collective bargaining process. ...

Following multiple negotiation dates, the employer decided to further the adversarial approach and delivered a 72-hour lockout notice to the negotiation committee and would commence if the parties did not reach a deal by May 7th. A tentative deal was in fact reached by May 5, 2024, which avoided any work stoppage at that time. Throughout the month of May employees reviewed and discussed the tentative agreement which resulted in an overwhelming rejection of 97.25% of employees stating no with a 99% participation rate.

The union took this direction from their membership seriously. They began immediately providing a survey to their membership to get clear direction from them on what they would need for a fair collective agreement. A 97.25% rejection sends a clear message to an employer that they have missed the mark, this is also incredibly important when looking at the participation rate. These employees are involved in their union and are affected deeply by the negotiations of their first collective agreement.

“Members were particularly bitter with the bad faith at the negotiating table.  For months at a time, WestJet refused to respond to Union proposals.  Frequently, WestJet rejected our proposals without an explanation or with the disdainful rationale that AMEs were not entitled to the same benefits or work rules as pilots.  The airline violated the status quo mandated by the Canada Labour Code by outsourcing maintenance work and reducing benefits. WestJet’s lack of respect for its AMEs [Aircraft Maintenance Engineers] contributed mightily to the contract rejection.” Bret Oestreich – AMFA National President

The employer’s response? Cancel scheduled bargaining dates and request the Canadian government to impose a collective agreement on the workplace rather than negotiate a deal between the parties. ... The CIRB has ultimately made the right decision to force the employer to continue with collective bargaining as intended.

[darkmaga-retard]

Kamala Harris's big night.

John Ellis

Aug 22, 2024

1. There’s a saying that economic expansions don’t die of old age: They’re murdered by the Federal Reserve. Fed Chair Jerome Powell has spent the past two years determined to beat inflation even if it resulted in recession. Now he’s on the brink of winning the battle without bringing down the economy, but the next few months will be crucial. If he succeeds and maneuvers the economy to a soft landing that brings inflation down without a big rise in unemployment, it’ll be a historic achievement worthy of the central banking Hall of Fame. If he fails, the economy will slide into recession anyway under the weight of higher interest rates—and he’ll have proved the old maxim about the Fed. Powell and his colleagues have signaled in recent weeks that they’re ready to start cutting rates when they next meet in September, with price pressures now easing but the jobs market cooling. That’s put attention on how fast officials should bring down rates from a two-decade high. For Powell, the last phase of the Fed’s inflation fight marks a make-or-break moment. How he plans his approach will loom over the central bank’s annual conference in Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park this week, including during a widely anticipated speech tomorrow. (Source: wsj.com)

2. The U.S. economy added far fewer jobs in 2023 and early 2024 than previously reported, a sign that cracks in the labor market are more severe — and began forming earlier — than initially believed. On Wednesday, the Labor Department said monthly payroll figures overstated job growth by roughly 818,000 in the 12 months that ended in March. That suggests employers added about 174,000 jobs per month during that period, down from the previously reported pace of about 242,000 jobs — a downward revision of about 28 percent. The revisions, which are preliminary, are part of an annual process in which monthly estimates, based on surveys, are reconciled with more accurate but less timely records from state unemployment offices. The updated numbers are the latest sign of vulnerability in the job market, which until recently had appeared rock solid despite months of high interest rates and economists’ warnings of an impending recession.  (Source: nytimes.com)

3. Canada’s two main railroads earlier today locked out over 9,000 employees after they were unable to reach new labor deals with a Teamsters union, the start of a work stoppage that threatens to stanch hundreds of millions of dollars in daily cross-border trade and upend North American supply chains. The simultaneous moves by Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Kansas City sent the country’s businesses and policymakers scrambling to limit the fallout, as they warned of serious harm to the world’s 10th-largest economy unless the railroads and the Teamsters Canada Rail Conference clinched new agreements. The companies had set a deadline of 12:01 a.m. Eastern time today. (Source: wsj.com)

[persimmonlions]

Food is a human right. Ensuring that Nunavummiut have reliable access to nutritious and culturally appropriate food will create a healthier and stronger Nunavut. Being food insecure has impacts on a person’s health, mental health, and education and employment achievements. These impacts are long-term. For instance, a child who lives in a food insecure household is more likely to experience poor mental health in adulthood. Recent data shows that 70% of children in Nunavut are living in food insecure households. Future Nunavummiut cannot afford for us to wait to address this human rights crisis.

Strong and adequate income security programs are critical towards ensuring that everyone in Canada can realize their human right to an adequate standard of living, including the right to food. Yet Inuit in Canada experience the highest rates of food insecurity of any Indigenous population living in an industrialized nation. Over half of households in Nunavut are food insecure. Women and children are disproportionately affected with the least access to food, health, education, training and opportunities for employment and other needs.

[despazito]

i have lived in canada for a while (not as a citizen) and i'm wondering if it's worth it to move up there permanently. You said it's p bad there but I'm in the states. I don't often hear criticism but what do you think? Better or worse overall than the states?

you'll have better rights theoretically but

most of our progressive policies were ratified on the federal level, but provinces are in charge of their own healthcare and education for instance. and most provincial govts now are conservative. so most provinces rn are in a battle/stalemate between ottawa trying to improve shit like hospitals and sending funding to the provinces while the provincial government hoards it and keeps making cuts and taking things away. for instance abortion is legal in canada but my home province of NB has whittled it down to like a single clinic bc of our fundamentalist premier

housing is less affordable, there's fewer huge cities so many careers pigeonhole you into settling in either toronto,montreal, or vancouver so competition for rent can be insane

a lot of shit is more expensive here, telecom is monopolized by 3 corpos and has like the highest data rates in the world. same with our major grocers

a lot of fields like tech will pay lower wages than the same position at an american company so much that some Canadians purposely seek out american employers

our healthcare system is currently being starved in an effort to begin privatizing it, so we don't really have private options atm so you'll wait forever to see a doctor

abortion and gender affirming care is theoretically legal everywhere but NOT equally accessible everywhere. local govts are usually regressive.

if you're disabled and want accommodations they may politely ask whether you'd like to kill yourself instead

its not great but anything looks nice in comparison to a steaming dog turd. there's really no winning unless you have the capital and sadism to become a gentrifier in some poor rustbelt town lol

[regularmailrates]

USPS Canada Postage Rates

If you’re a business looking to ship packages to Canada, usps canada postage rates can be an important thing to consider. While the price of mailing items to Canada is generally quite low compared to other international destinations, you’ll still need to factor in customs fees and duties. Fortunately, you can find many resources online to calculate the cost of shipping your package.

The first step in determining your package’s rate is to determine the size and shape of it. This will help you select a mailing option that’s most appropriate for your shipment. You’ll also want to take into account the estimated delivery timeframe. For example, if you’re sending direct mail to customers in Canada, you should know that the country name must be written below the postal code in the address line.

For a quick and simple way to figure out the cost of your package, you can use an online USPS postage calculator. This will give you the exact postage rates based on the weight and dimensions of your item. It will also give you a breakdown of the total cost, including any applicable taxes and fees.

In addition to the USPS, FedEx and UPS are great options for shipping packages to Canada. However, it’s important to note that FedEx and UPS have a 66-pound limit for their less-urgent international deliveries, so you might need to consider a different carrier if your package is weighing over this amount.

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Regular Mail Rates – BLogSPot

[mediaevalmusereads]

Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands. By Kate Beaton. Drawn and Quarterly, 2022.

Rating: 4.5/5 stars

Genre: graphic memoir

Series: N/A

Summary: Before there was Kate Beaton, New York Times bestselling cartoonist of Hark A Vagrant fame, there was Katie Beaton of the Cape Breton Beatons, specifically Mabou, a tight-knit seaside community where the lobster is as abundant as beaches, fiddles, and Gaelic folk songs. After university, Beaton heads out west to take advantage of Alberta’s oil rush, part of the long tradition of East Coasters who seek gainful employment elsewhere when they can't find it in the homeland they love so much. With the singular goal of paying off her student loans, what the journey will actually cost Beaton will be far more than she anticipates.

Arriving in Fort McMurray, Beaton finds work in the lucrative camps owned and operated by the world’s largest oil companies. Being one of the few women among thousands of men, the culture shock is palpable. It does not hit home until she moves to a spartan, isolated worksite for higher pay. She encounters the harsh reality of life in the oil sands where trauma is an everyday occurrence yet never discussed. Her wounds may never heal.

Beaton’s natural cartooning prowess is on full display as she draws colossal machinery and mammoth vehicles set against a sublime Albertan backdrop of wildlife, Northern Lights, and Rocky Mountains. Her first full-length graphic narrative, Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands is an untold story of Canada: a country that prides itself on its egalitarian ethos and natural beauty while simultaneously exploiting both the riches of its land and the humanity of its people.

***Full review below***

CONTENT WARNINGS: sexual harassment, rape

I was familiar with Kate Beaton's series Hark! A Vagrant before reading this book. I didn't know much about her or her life, but I was charmed by her comics, so I decided to pick up this memoir to see what she could do with a related genre (through still graphic in nature).

The first thing I was struck by was Beaton's masterful depiction of identity and community. Where a person is from in Canada matters more than I realized and is integral to one's sense of self, and I admire the way Beaton reflects that on the page through things like accent, music, etc.

Another thing that struck me was Beaton's sense of empathy. The camps, as she describes, are liminal spaces that wreak havoc on mental health, and I think Beaton portrayed that deftly without sensationalizing it. I was also touched by the way she portrayed trauma and how she portrays herself grappling with the after effects of her assaults, highlighting how people's lives can be changed in an instant.

I'm also glad that Beaton took the time to acknowledge the harm oil sands do to Indigenous communities. In her afterward, Beaton talks about how her experience was overwhelmingly male and white, and that it is just one way white supremacy/settler colonialism manifests.

Lastly, I think Beaton did a wonderful job integrating her personal art style with a structured narrative. I like the way Beaton's simple style delivers a lot of pathos through expressive body language, and the almost monochrome color palette creates a kind of hazy mood. Beaton also has a good sense of pacing and how to set up a scene, so the reading experience is fluid and easy to follow.

TL;DR: Ducks is a graphic memoir that takes a hard look at the effects capitalism has on the working class, noting how oil companies exploit itinerant workers and create both environmental and mental health problems.

[blairstales]

The Dark History Magdalene Laundries

I believe that remembering dark times in history is important so we recognize when similar situations are proposed. So, today I will share one of these dark histories.

⚠️Do note that it is a story with abuse, imprisonment, and more. I feel like this post will be particularly triggering to residential school survivors.

I will try to keep this post brief and fairly censored, while providing videos with more information.

Magdalene Laundries (also called Magdalene Asylums and Magdalene Institutions) were institutions primarily run by the Roman Catholic Church. These institutions could be found in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden, Canada, the USA, and Australia. The ones in Ireland are regarded as the most notorious.

The people confined to these institutions were “fallen women,” which meant any women who were outside of what society deemed appropriate.

According to survivors, you might find yourself in a laundry if you…

Are suspected of being a sex worker

Got pregnant outside of marriage

Got pregnant from an affair

Are an orphan

Ran away from your abusive husband

Have a mother deemed unsuitable to raise you

Have a mental illness

Are deemed too flirtatious

Are the victim of assault

Have an abusive father

Have struggling parents who want one less mouth to feed

Have a mother who remarried and her new husband does not want you

And some were sent with no known reason at all

“A "voluntary" committal was the label given to any woman surrendered by family, a doctor, her employer, the police, or a social worker.” Owlcation

The women were a source of free labour, primarily through a laundry business(hence the name). Little care was given to these women and children, and survivors report many levels of abuse.

"Ireland's first mother and baby home, at Bessborough, in Cork, had an even worse infant mortality rate of around 82 percent: In the year ending March 31, 1944, 124 children were born or admitted there, and 102 died." NBC News

Only some deaths were reported, and the number of remains found in mass graves in Ireland is around 1000.

Babies that survived would be given to new families.

Some women would be stuck in the institutions for their entire lives. An estimated 30,000 women were victims of these institutions in Ireland alone.

For a long time, the rumours were that the laundries were “only” for prostitutes. Now the rumours say that only those in Ireland were harmful. However, locations elsewhere in the world, such as Australia, Canada, and the USA, also have stories of abuse in the forced-labour institutions.

[zozo-01]

wip wednesday (university edition)

So, @darlincollins, @konnorhasapen and my darlin' @gingerbreadmonsters tagged me for today. After asking Gingerina if I can post an assignment wip instead, because homegirl has notttt been writing, she said "lmao, do it," SO HERE WE ARE!!!! A lil ting from my econ assignment!!!

--

According to Dinner Party Economics, the Human Development Index (HDI) is defined to be a tool to help governments measure several quality of life aspects of a country. This includes life expectancy, education and income.[1] Canada’s current HDI Index was 0.937 in 2022, which is considered to be a good score.[2] However, a study done by Indigenous Service Canada found that across the board, Indigenous peoples score a lower HDI number compared to other Canadians. The most recent and lowest score belongs to Indigenous peoples who live on reserves, with a score 0.69.[3] This score is to be expected as reserve communities are faced with the water crisis the hardest. However, this score can be improved and lead to economic growth. A study done by Harvard University found that the economy is does better when the health of its citizens is at their best.[4] Improving the HDI score for Indigenous folk can drastically affect the Canadian economy in a beneficial way.

The labour force participation rate is the rate of the population who are currently employed by an organization.[1] Overall, the labour force participation rate of Indigenous peoples is lower than those who aren’t of Indigenous descent.[2] Ted Wannell and Sheila Currie did some preliminary research and found that there was a correlation between the infrastructure of water treatment systems and the employment of the Indigenous peoples in that communities.[1] While there is more research that needs to be done, this idea is not an unfounded one. Many Indigenous travel far distances to get fresh and drinkable water, as is the case with Ashley Sakanee.[2] The time spent getting water can be used to looking and working a job. Improving the water quality can increase the labour force participation rate of Indigenous peoples.

To put simply, the multiplier effect is the proportional amount of spending (or lack thereof) that an organization does that causes other organizations to spend as well. This can be beneficial to restart the economy during a recession period. Since one company is spending money, another company may also spend to keep up, giving the economy a boost.[1] The government is clearly willing to spend money into this cause, as stated by their federal budget.[2] The government money used in this solution will be given to manufacturing companies to the spending more to build water treatment facilities. This extra spending done by the government and these companies can kickstart the economy further to recover from the downturn brought by the pandemic. 

[allthecanadianpolitics]

An Ontario man says he’s been asked to pay back $12,000 of his COVID-19 benefits years after he used them.

“I’m between a rock and a hard place. I don’t have that money now. It’s long gone,” Eduardo Tso told CTV News Toronto.

Tso said he worked in retail during the COVID-19 pandemic. Even though he worked during that time, Tso’s hours and shifts were reduced, which he thought made him eligible to apply for the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB).

But the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) told him he earned more than $1,000 of employment or self-employment during the payment periods he applied for CERB. [...]

"This has to be some kind of mistake. This is like three years ago. How can you possibly tell me I owe this money now when things are so expensive and interest rates are so high,” Tso said. [...]

Continue Reading.

Tagging: @politicsofcanada

[thebibliomancer]

What If? Vol 2 #7: “What If… Wolverine Was an Agent of SHIELD?”

I assume the show would have had higher ratings, hey ooooooooh!

Also, I thought Wolverine was an Agent of SHIELD at some point. He’s been everything else.

This What If? specifically means what if Nick Fury showed up right after Wolverine’s first appearance in Hulk #180-181.

This What If? is also aggressively Liefeld. He did the art and he came up with the story idea.

So, What If? Wolverine was scooped up by SHIELD instead of the X-Men? Would things be better forever or worse forever? Lateral move?

So, Nick Fury shows up to borrow Wolverine from Canada to help him with a little LMD problem.

Hydra has co-opted SHIELD’s Life Model Decoys and Fury suspects SHIELD has gotten super-infiltrated by them.

Because SHIELD is always infiltrated by something.

In fact, the problem is so bad, even Fury’s second-in-command has been find replaced.

Fury asks Wolverine and What-is-That-Haircut Black Widow to take care of the LMD’s while he tracks down Hydra.

Since Logan and Natasha are both super competent, they do it easily.

Wolverine even has time to give Natasha a haircut mid-mission and they still don’t break one hour to hunt down every LMD that is pretending to be a real boy on the Helicarrier.

With that done, Fury organizes a raid on the secret Hydra base to save real Dugan.

Baron Strucker tries to use Dugan as a hostage but he’s so bad at killing hostages that Wolverine jumps across the entire room and cuts off Strucker’s robot arm before he can hurt Dugan.

Then Nick Fury tells Wolverine he needs to personally fist fight Strucker and he does that.

Completely wild. Wolverine just sitting and watching, nodding approvingly, while Fury proves he’s cool and manly too by beating up a one-armed Nazi. And then kills said guy by jamming his robot stomp into a power outlet.

After this successful mission, Fury offers Wolverine full employment as a SHIELD agent. He even cuts through the red tape to get the Canadian government to let him go.

Xavier does show up at some point, trying to recruit Wolverine. But he’s perfectly happy as a SHIELD agent and declines. But he does promise he’ll use his sway to help out the X-Men.

Which he gets a big chance to do when a Strucker LMD attacks Fury’s flying Ferrari, causing it to crash and kill the SHIELD director.

Fury apparently made arrangements for his death that would allow Wolverine to become the new director. Despite being Canadian and the newest recruit.

So on the scale of worse, lateral, or better, SHIELD Agent Wolverine lands on better.

He uses his position as Director of SHIELD to stop the Sentinel program from being re-started and ruins Senator Kelly’s whole career so the Mutant Registration Act never picks up any steam.

This version of humanity learns to co-exist peacefully with mutants. All thanks to Wolverine saying yes to a job offer.

Which creates the weird implication that Nick Fury could have done all these things in the 616 but just didn’t want to.

Damn. Can’t believe Nick is a mutantphobe. Tsk tsk.

This was a breezy What If to read and explain because it was mostly interested in having cool action scenes where Wolverine, Black Widow, and Nick Fury kick ass.

Even for a What If, robot Strucker randomly showing up to kill Fury so Wolverine can get fast-tracked into being Director of SHIELD is pretty arbitrary.

And while it’s nice to see an alternate world doing better, Wolverine single-handily solving prejudice against mutants by falling assbackwards into being in charge of the intelligence community sure is something.