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Canadian deadbeats suing because some of their gibs are being cancelled


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2019 Feb 12, 10:55am   1,358 views  5 comments

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https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/canadian-basic-income-recipients-are-suing-their-government/ar-BBT9Ls6

Members of an internationally lauded basic income pilot project in Canada are taking their province to court over its surprise cancellation, arguing that the Ontario government’s decision is unethical and that it was made in bad faith.

On Jan. 27, a three-judge legal panel heard arguments in a Toronto courthouse. They ultimately reserved judgment, meaning they haven’t yet decided whether to uphold the government’s decision or accept the recipients’ request to quash the cancellation.

The heat is on; right now, the cancellation is scheduled to take effect at the end of March. “I’m hoping they understand how sensitive the timing is,” says Tracey Mechefske, a basic income (BI) recipient in Lindsay, Ont., who is one of the plaintiffs in the case.

She and her (employed) husband receive CDN $2,803 a month, part of which enabled her to start a handmade bath and body products company. Now she’s worried she’ll have to give up her business. “Everything is resting on this judgment,” she says.

Basic income is catching on around the world as a way to help people exit chronic poverty, and in some cases help offset unemployment caused by growing job automation. Last week, India’s main opposition party made an election promise to introduce BI. Not to be outdone, the ruling party quickly announced it would give 620 million people a basic income effective immediately.

Publications around the world picked up on Ontario’s BI experiment, which was first announced in 2017 and began sending checks in 2018. It enrolled 6,605 participants in three Ontario communities where poverty is a huge problem: Thunder Bay, Hamilton, and Lindsay. In the first two, about half of participants received BI while the other half were part of a control group and got nothing. Lindsay, however, was a “saturation site” where all roughly 2,000 participants got checks. People living alone were promised up to $16,989 a year, while couples got a maximum of $24,027. People with disabilities each got an extra $6,000 per year.

His government cancelled BI a month after he assumed office, saying that the project was “failing.” Central to his rationale for the cancellation was that the previous government said the pilot would run for “up to” three years, though most recipients understood that it would run the full three years.

Recipients were shocked. “We found out it was cancelled through the media,” says Tracey Crosson, a participant in Thunder Bay. “Shouldn’t we have been told first?”

She wondered how they could have possibly known the pilot was failing, if they hadn’t yet bothered to poll recipients to measure its success. “I never got a survey,” says Crosson.

The idea of a court challenge began percolating almost immediately.

The recipients I spoke with reported feeling depressed and anxious about the pilot’s uncertainty. If the court sides with the government, members of the BI pilot can expect their last cheque to arrive at the end of March.

Comments 1 - 5 of 5        Search these comments

1   RWSGFY   2019 Feb 12, 4:00pm  

"Universal income" (and "self-driving cars") were supposed to usher in bright new future for all of us any moment now... And now the former is proven to be a failure and the latter is still in the (same) diapers.... What's going to save us all now? Why, "The Greeen New Deal", of course!
2   Ceffer   2019 Feb 12, 4:06pm  

Where are my reparations for being a Worthless Cunt?
3   NDrLoR   2019 Feb 12, 7:10pm  

You give me $1,000, I'll give you $1,000.
4   Ceffer   2019 Feb 12, 7:21pm  

Taxes just increased $10,000 for every $1000 paid in stipend, through the Great Maths of The Great Socialist Pradise!
5   Al_Sharpton_for_President   2019 Feb 13, 3:53am  

Also joining the lawsuit - the Canadian marijuana industry, Netflix, and Frito-Lay, Inc.

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