TELL FORD WE NEED PAID SICK DAYS NOT POLICE
COVID-19 numbers are out of control and ICU beds are full. Instead of implementing sick days and making workplaces safe, Doug Ford is giving police the authority to stop people on the street just for being outside. Giving police more power is not a public health policy. We know frontline workers and racialized communities will be most impacted by this even as these communities are hardest hit by COVID-19.
Take action and send a clear and urgent message to Premier Doug Ford and your MPP to reverse this decision and implement real public health measures that will keep us safe from COVID-19.
Ford is purposefully blaming individuals rather than implementing public health measures that will actually help save lives. We know that:
48% of Toronto’s cases have been people on low incomes;
77% of cases are racialized people;
67% of workplace outbreaks have been in frontline settings like food processing and warehouses.
We echo the calls of our allies in the Decent Work and Health Network and the Fight for $15 and Fairness campaign that have been calling for provincially legislated paid sick days since before the pandemic
It’s time for Ford to introduce measures that will keep people alive. We call on the provincial government to:
Provide permanent, accessible, universal and fully paid sick days provided by employers for all workers in Ontario;
Immediately scrap new police powers;
Enforce essential workplace safety;
Close all non-essential warehouses and provide supports for essential workers to stay home;
Immediately vaccinate priority hot spots in Toronto;
Provide more bus services on busy routes and in hot spots;
Enact a full moratorium on evictions for the duration of the pandemic;
Provide full rent relief for people in rent arrears.