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Welcome to SocialCommons.ca

SocialCommons.ca seeks to build engaging conversations and support transformative change. All stories will be framed by our five pillars that provide the foundation for all of our work. Together with our partners, we are committed to creating a future society based on stronger human rights and social protections, revitalized communities, and a more democratic economy. We seek to build an active and engaged civil society, an enlarged social commons with more shared community assets, and systems of production and distribution that ensure a sustainable eco-sphere on which all life depends.

In many ways we are at a crossroads.  The choices we make in the next ten to twenty years will either see us embrace a profoundly different path founded on human needs and ecological sustainability, or continue to founder under the weight of failing global systems based on an endless growth mindset and the ceding of more and more political influence to large multi-national corporations.

Working from within our five pillars, we seek to join with others in mapping out the path forward.  We are all on this journey together.  It involves exposing and recognizing the failures within our current systems that are holding us back. It means articulating needs and expectations, both of ourselves and each other, as we think through what must be protected, what needs to change and what we need to create together.  Finally, it means painting a picture of the future world we wish to inhabit in a way that both reflects the values and aspirations we share, and shows concrete examples of how it is feasible and can be done.  We invite you to join us on the journey.

The Social Commons: Our Five Pillars

Inclusive, Equitable Communities: Ensuring Human Rights

As we contend with the ravages of a global pandemic and plan our recovery, Canadians have discovered, as in...

Social Rights and Protections

The foundation laid for social rights and a social contract In the mid-20th century, after fifteen years of the Great...

The Social Commons: Our Five Pillars

Where We Started From Our journey began with the planning of a fall 2019 symposium exploring the relevance of the...

Sustainable Eco-Systems: Economies Living in Harmony with Nature

How Do We Ensure Sustainable Eco-Systems? Living through the pandemic has exposed how precarious so much of our social and...

Creating a Human Needs Economy

The post-pandemic economy: More of the same? As the disruption of the pandemic nears its end, we begin to imagine...

Deepening Democracy: Strengthening Democracy and Civil Society

What Is Democracy’s Place in the Commons? Living through the pandemic has exposed how precarious so much of our social...

Latest Articles

Kelp forests contribute $500 billion to global economy, triple earlier estimates, study reveals

Click here to view original web page at news.mongabay.com New research suggests that kelp forests generate up to $562 billion each year by boosting fisheries...

Grocery giants are exploiting Canadians—and farmers have proof

Click here to view original web page at breachmedia.ca The main cause of rising food prices is the small bloc of powerful companies who control...

Emissions are declining but Canada needs to pick up the pace to achieve 2030 climate targets

Click here to view original web page at www.pembina.org National Inventory Report suggests Canada’s climate policies are starting to work Data released in Canada’s latest National...

The World Has Learned the Wrong Lessons From the Rana Plaza Disaster

Click here to view original web page at jacobin.com “The fire in the garment factory began on the fourth floor, where polo shirts, neatly folded...

Price and profit curbs—or how really to fight inflation

Click here to view original web page at www.socialeurope.eu A crude, one-club monetary policy has already caused bank collapses. ...

Bill 7: the no to more beds, no to better care act

Click here to view original web page at rabble.ca Bill 7 perversely incentivizes seeking hospital care as a means to jump ...

Inflation is coming down – but interest rates have nothing to do with it

Click here to view original web page at rabble.ca While inflation is slowing down, the Bank of Canada’s steep interest rate ...

It’s Getting to Look a Lot like Degrowth: Part 1

Click here to view original web page at www.resilience.org This is the first post of a three part series on the existential problem of degrowth...

Community self-determination can address the Northern housing crisis

Click here to view original web page at policyoptions.irpp.org Leadership from Northern communities and a strategy to build homes – not just houses – is...

Heath care will only succeed through collaboration, not competition

Click here to view original web page at spon.ca In the real world of health service delivery, the last three years have taught us a...

From scarcity to abundance: The secret of the ‘peace farmers’ of Colombia

Click here to view original web page at news.mongabay.com During the 1990s, in Colombia’s Meta region, paramilitaries and guerrilla groups fought a bloody civil war....

Investing in employee ownership could help the Canadian government meet its sustainability goals

Click here to view original web page at theconversation.com Buried deep in the Canadian government’s 2023 budget, and overshadowed by other announcements, is a plan...

The world can’t afford more fossil fuels

Click here to view original web page at rabble.ca Support for oil and gas projects is often justified on economic grounds: they fuel the economy...

Profile: the Netherlands – Avoiding the Social Backlash on Sustainable Policy

Click here to view original web page at www.socialeurope.eu The Netherlands has become the latest country to face a public backlash to environmental policy. In elections...

Why We Need Social Justice in the Just Transition

Click here to view original web page at thetyee.ca B.C. has endured heat domes, atmospheric rivers, forest fires and increasingly dangerous extreme weather in recent...

Partnerships and governance in the Next Economy

Click here to view original web page at www.shareable.net Shareable is partnering with LIFT Economy to share the audio recordings from the Next Economy MBA...

Universal public services: the power of decommodifying survival

Click here to view original web page at www.resilience.org One of the central insights emerging from research on degrowth and climate mitigation is that universal...

Evictions of the houseless is state violence

Click here to view original web page at rabble.ca Evicting the houseless from encampments is state violence and ignores the real solution of...

What Does a Prudent Budget Look Like in these Challenging Times?

Click here to view original web page at afhimelfarb.wordpress.com I have been trying to sort out why I so dislike the recent federal budget. The...

Ford’s health care privatization opens door to corruption

Click here to view original web page at rabble.ca Ontario’s privatization director will have sweeping powers ...

Limits of the Shift to Renewable Energy: The Rising Chorus of Skeptics

Click here to view original web page at thetyee.ca “Sometime during this century, it is highly likely that worldwide depletion of natural resources will force...

Community, Belonging and the Polycrisis

Click here to view original web page at www.resilience.org Wherever I go and ask people what is missing from their lives,the most common answer (if...

Shaping the Climate Of Democracy

Click here to view original web page at www.noemamag.com Inviting the broader civil society into governance can cool the polarized political atmosphere and lead to...

Transition to Just and Sustaining Communities: Commoning in the City

Click here to view original web page at www.resilience.org How might the commons paradigm be applied to cities in a more focused, effective way? ...

The Solution to AI-Driven Job Displacement Is a Robust Welfare State

Click here to view original web page at jacobin.com The recent splash of Large Language Model (LLM) applications like ChatGPT has generated considerable discourse around...

Global Capital and the Captive State: “Retirement Reforms” in France as an Omen of Authoritarian Capitalism

Click here to view original web page at www.e-flux.com This article was originally published in Persian (see here) two weeks ago. Following its translation into...

Ageism and the pandemic: How Canada continues to let older adults suffer and die from COVID-19

Click here to view original web page at theconversation.com Three years into this pandemic, most Canadians have taken off their masks and many have stopped...

Building a livable Ontario means addressing the housing and climate crises

Click here to view original web page at rabble.ca Editors Note: SocialCommons.ca is a member of the Alliance for a Livable Ontario. This is...

Cruel health care cut targets the most vulnerable

Click here to view original web page at spon.ca Note: the following is an editorial which appeared in TheStar.com on March 31, 2023. To have...

IPCC: Separating the science from the politics?

Click here to view original web page at www.resilience.org The fact that the IPCC incorporates in its core business risks of failure to the Earth...

Is Canada and Ontario’s investment in Volkswagen’s battery plant prudent or a massive subsidy with few benefits?

Click here to view original web page at theconversation.com Volkswagen recently announced its intention to build a plant in St. Thomas, Ont. for electric vehicle...

The Problems With AI are the Problems With Capitalism

Click here to view original web page at jacobin.com Lately, I have been experimenting with artificial intelligence image-generating programs. Their power is astonishing. They’re not...

Stories You May Have Missed

An Ontario doctor’s wait-list database is saving patient lives. It’s madness a doctor had to do it himself

Click here to view original web page at www.thestar.com The first time Niagara family physician Ali Qamar looked at the database he and his team...

The EU’s Green Deal Industrial Plan Is a Windfall for Corporations

Click here to view original web page at jacobin.com Responding to the Inflation Reduction Act, the EU has unveiled its own green industrial plan. It...

The new Ontario budget meant little for those struggling to survive on social assistance

Click here to view original web page at www.tvo.org In Thursday’s budget, Ontario’s Progressive Conservative government earmarked funding for annual inflation adjustments to the core...

Thousands march for migrant and foreign worker rights across Canada

Click here to view original web page at ricochet.media Thousands took to the streets across the country this weekend to demand permanent status for all...

Can we fix our failing food systems? Agroecology has answers

Click here to view original web page at news.mongabay.com The U.S. has an industrialized and unsustainable food system that depletes non-renewable resources such as groundwater...

Creating Breakthroughs: How to accelerate the net zero transition

Click here to view original web page at www.resilience.org The consultancy SystemIQ, working with University of Exeter, Simon Sharpe and the Bezos Earth Fund, has...

Western Canada’s experience with for-profit surgery clinics offers a cautionary tale for Ontario

Click here to view original web page at policyoptions.irpp.org In January, the Ontario government announced plans to increase the number of cataract surgeries and diagnostic...

“From Below” explores mutual aid & community responses during the pandemic and beyond

Click here to view original web page at www.shareable.net Mutual aid groups were a lifeline for many during the pandemic. In the face of near-constant...

Canada has committed to protecting nature. Are we up to the challenge?

Click here to view original web page at policyoptions.irpp.org In December 2022, decision-makers from around the world came together to draft and adopt a global...

The World Needs Just Green Trade, Not ‘Free Trade’

Click here to view original web page at fpif.org "Corporations are using...

Report Calls for Water to Be Treated as ‘Global Common Good’ as Supply Crisis Looms

Click here to view original web page at www.commondreams.org Water overuse and a failure to recognize that countries are interdependent when it comes to the...

Ontario’s five year hospital and LTC staffing and capacity plans: going from bad to worse

Click here to view original web page at ochuleftwords.blogspot.com By 2027 the PC health care funding plan falls $21.3 billion short, their hospital bed plan...

Who got help, who lost out with the Canada Emergency Response Benefit

Click here to view original web page at policyoptions.irpp.org The federal government launched the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) on April 6, 2020, as part...

The Next Two Decades Will Be The Most Pivotal in History: This is the Global Phase-Shift

Click here to view original web page at www.resilience.org A Nasa space scientist, water management engineer and AI chatbot programmer walk into a bar. It...

The federal budget has to fund housing and shelter rights

Click here to view original web page at rabble.ca “home is the comfiest place to be” -Winnie the Pooh. Home. What does it mean to you? If...

Canada Take Note: Privatization Is Slowly Bleeding Britain’s NHS To Death

Click here to view original web page at jacobin.com Editor's Note: Pay Attention Canada. Conservative Premiers in various parts of the country are using the...

Three Years Into Covid Pandemic, World Leaders Say ‘Never Again’ to Vaccine Apartheid

Click here to view original web page at www.commondreams.org "These past three years should act as a warning for future pandemics," said former U.N. Secretary-General...

Labour Shortage, or Crappy Jobs?

Click here to view original web page at thetyee.ca BC promises training, help for employers to add staff. The B.C. government is offering the first look...

Indigenous funding model a win-win for ecosystems and local economies in Canada

Click here to view original web page at news.mongabay.com First Nations in the Great Bear Rainforest and Haida Gwaii of Canada, have successfully invested in...

To Strengthen Women’s Resilience to Disasters, Make the Wealthiest Pay Their Fair Share

Click here to view original web page at www.commondreams.org Progressive taxation — making the richest people and multinationals pay their fair share — is one...

Digging into the mining impacts of renewable energy

Click here to view original web page at rabble.ca "You can’t make something from nothing, and like all products, wind turbines, solar panels,...

These Rare and Beautiful BC Reefs Fight Climate Change

Click here to view original web page at thetyee.ca Glass sponge reefs, only found in the cool waters of the Pacific northwest, help mitigate global...

The Hammer is coming down hard on Ford on urban sprawl

Click here to view original web page at rabble.ca “The Minister took the view that Hamilton was wrong that they could accommodate some of it...

Vancouver’s Decision to Abandon Living Wage Program Creates Shockwaves

Click here to view original web page at thetyee.ca The city ends its six-year commitment as inflation rises and ...

A new UN report offers businesses a template for achieving true sustainability

Click here to view original web page at theconversation.com Not a day goes by without hearing about the fragility of our natural ecosystems and the...

Stop Rewarding Destroyers of Our World and Punishing Those Who Defend It

Click here to view original web page at www.commondreams.org "Under our outdated economic systems, those who knowingly fuel a crisis that threatens human health and...

‘The Biggest Conservation Victory Ever!’ Global Treaty to Protect Oceans Reached

Click here to view original web page at www.commondreams.org "This is a historic day for conservation and a sign that in a divided world, protecting...

Canada Doesn’t Need More Renters, It Needs Public Housing

Click here to view original web page at jacobin.com Housing is in the news in Canada. Housing is always in the news in Canada. Because...

supporting the shift

What’s driving higher living costs? Who loses and benefits from inflation

Click here to view original web page at monitormag.ca Executive summary This report creates a new dataset to better understand what is driving inflation in Canada—workers’...

How We Converted to a Cooperative—and How You Can, Too

Click here to view original web page at www.yesmagazine.org The healthiest and happiest companies in the world are democracies. At Louder Than Ten, the project management...

What Does An Ecological Civilization Look Like?

In this far-reaching and well presented outline, Yes! Magazine gives shape and substance to a groundswell of ideas that could form the foundation of...

Four Views on Basic Income, Job Guarantees, and the Future of Work

This insightful summary includes four short commentaries on basic income, job guarantees, and the future of work by four leading Australian experts. It's a...