An Open Letter to Our Governments on COVID-19Now is the time to collaboratively build a robust response to COVID-19 and to create the conditions that will make collective flourishing possible. Join the call for an equitable pandemic response by signing our petition.
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Art by N.O. Bozo.
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In Newfoundland and Labrador, the COVID-19 pandemic comes at a time of significant global and local uncertainty. |
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Across the world, communities are already strained under simultaneous unfolding threats to our physical, psychological, social, and financial health including climate change, economic crises, rising fascism, and ongoing austerity.
Here in Newfoundland and Labrador, we are just emerging from the upheaval of a historic storm and ensuing state of emergency. Our province has been wracked in recent years with poor governance, debt, austerity, and economic uncertainty. We have long known that our provincial healthcare system is overburdened and under-resourced, while Newfoundlanders and Labradorians suffer from the highest rates of chronic illness in the country.
Across the world, communities are already strained under simultaneous unfolding threats to our physical, psychological, social, and financial health including climate change, economic crises, rising fascism, and ongoing austerity.
Here in Newfoundland and Labrador, we are just emerging from the upheaval of a historic storm and ensuing state of emergency. Our province has been wracked in recent years with poor governance, debt, austerity, and economic uncertainty. We have long known that our provincial healthcare system is overburdened and under-resourced, while Newfoundlanders and Labradorians suffer from the highest rates of chronic illness in the country.
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Crisis is no longer approaching: it is at our door and it will impact the most vulnerable people in our province, and across the world, with the greatest intensity.
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As community members, we will respond with strong measures of physical distancing, social solidarity, and mutual aid.
We applaud the leadership that many individuals, organizations, businesses and governments have taken in imposing widespread precautionary measures.
We applaud the leadership that many individuals, organizations, businesses and governments have taken in imposing widespread precautionary measures.
But we know that our governments and service providers can do more to ensure an equitable response to COVID-19. As the pandemic evolves, our national, provincial and local responses must also evolve along with it.
The specific actions that we are calling for follow. None of these are fanciful -- many have been discussed and some have already been successfully employed elsewhere in Canada and across the world in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The specific actions that we are calling for follow. None of these are fanciful -- many have been discussed and some have already been successfully employed elsewhere in Canada and across the world in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In all responses to COVID-19 our governments and service providers must prioritize those who are most physiologically and socially vulnerable to this virus and the social response to it. These include:
It also includes people living in rural, remote, Northern and Indigenous communities within Newfoundland and Labrador, who face unique challenges including a lack of clean drinking water, food insecurity, and inadequate healthcare resources. |
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People must have security - in terms of employment, finances, immigration status and otherwise - to be able to stay home from work if they are sick, abide by public health measures, and protect themselves and those around them.To this end, we call upon all relevant levels of government to work together to:
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Many government institutions – especially the healthcare system – will require increased resources to deal with the COVID-19 crisis. We argue that the community sector also requires increased resources, financial and otherwise, as they are well poised to ensure a just response to the pandemic.To this end, we call upon all relevant levels of government to work together to:
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Further, we condemn racism towards Asian, Pacific Islander, Indigenous, and other racialized communities, and call on all Newfoundlanders and Labradorians to support those who are being targeted by hate crimes and discrimination.
This pandemic has laid bare the inequities at the root of our current social structures. In responding to it, we must continue to fight for the world we want to see. When we wake up from this current nightmare, we want it to be in the world of our choosing - not a world that a pandemic and an inadequate, unjust system chose for us.
Now is the time to collaboratively build a robust response to COVID-19 and to create the conditions that will make collective flourishing possible.
In Solidarity,
Addressing Islamophobia in NL Project
Anti-Poverty NL
Anti-Racism Coalition NL
Fight for $15 and Fairness
Graduate Students’ Union of Memorial University
Social Justice Co-operative NL