The Leo Panitch School for Socialist Education is pleased to be hosting this launch event with the support of the book's publisher, Fernwood Publishing, and the Department of Politics and Public Administration at Toronto Metropolitan University.
The election of the Doug Ford–led Progressive Conservatives unleashed an aggressive and undisguised market fundamentalism. Ford’s government has taken the assault against the social welfare state, labour and environmental protections to new and unprecedented heights. Maintaining a permanent era of austerity has not only steadily reduced the public sector as a proportion of the provincial economy but has also reduced the social protections available to Ontarians.
Against the People is the first book of its kind to provide an in-depth look into the devastating policies of the Ford government across a wide range of public policy issues: from health care, municipal, education and judicial restructuring, to economics, arts, labour, environmental, housing and Indigenous lands. Written by on-the-ground experts and focused on the Progressive Conservatives since coming to power in 2018, this book showcases the politics of dismantling a province.
The panel will be facilitated by the book's editors Bryan Evans and Carlo Fanelli, and feature the following authors to speak to the issues raised in their respective chapters:
Chris Chandler - Schools for Sale
Katherine Nastovski - Unequal Ontario
William Paul - Riding the Gravy Train
Venai Raniga - Manufacturing a Fiscal Crisis
Maria Rio - Why Are People in Ontario Hungry?
Mark Winfield - Locking in Unsustainable Development
About the editors:
Bryan Evans is a professor in the Department of Politics and Public Administration, Toronto Metropolitan University, and is a member of the Steering Committee for the Ontario office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. His research focuses on political economy and public policy.
Carlo Fanelli is an associate professor of Work and Labour Studies, York University. He is the author of Megacity Malaise: Neoliberalism, Labour and Public Services in Toronto, co-author of From Consent to Coercion: The Continuing Assault Against Labour, and editor of Alternate Routes: A Journal of Critical Social Research.
