Atkinson Field Notes
Learning Through Action
News, presentations and reflections from Atkinson’s Chief Executive Officer Colette Murphy and the rest of the Atkinson team.
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by Category: Decent Work
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by Media:
11 Feb 22
This week, we heard that the Atkinson Fellow on the Future of Workers, Armine Yalnizyan, was named to Maclean’s 2022 Power List as “the caring person’s economist.” When I went to take a look at the list, I was so pleased that Bilal Baig, the creator and star of CBC’s Sort Of, also made the list. In the show, Baig’s character Sabi navigates their work as a nanny and bartender... Read more >
23 Dec 21
This latest variant of COVID arrived like a sudden blizzard: disorienting, frightening and all-too-familiar. Since then, we’ve been madly pumping our brakes, keeping a cautious distance, and rapidly recalculating routes. Some of us are, once again, getting organized to wait this one out from the safety of home – fully vaccinated, boosted, and compensated. Read more >
19 Nov 21
On Labour Day, I shared with you the news that Atkinson Fellow in Public Policy Stephanie Nolen’s series, What COVID Reveals, had been published a month earlier by the Toronto Star. The response was positively overwhelming! I received many requests for a bundled version to share Stephanie’s reporting more widely. Read more >
6 Sep 21
I’m standing on the shore of the great lake once known as Niigaani-gichigami at Point Petre, looking toward Soup Harbour where friends live. Their barn’s blue roof is barely visible against the summer sky. A flat limestone shelf stretches across the bay and suggests a footpath from one point to another. But things are not as they seem. Read more >
6 May 21
Documentaries take us into each other’s lives and workplaces, to learn and inspire action. Here is what Nora Cole, Atkinson’s Manager of Policy and Communications, is taking away about work today from her Hot Docs queue so far. Read more >
1 May 21
This pandemic continues to distort our sense of time. Scientists call it “temporal disintegration”. A feeling of living in the moment, day to day, unmoored from the past and unable to imagine the future. But also a feeling of living large, emboldened to act with moral purpose in the here and now. Read more >
18 Dec 20
2020 has been a year like no other in memory. Decent work activists and advocates have taken centre stage with hard-hitting campaigns for paid sick days, child care, employment insurance, and other income supports for essential workers and their families. Migrant workers Luis Gabriel Flores Flores, Blanca Islas Perez and many others have said: “This is enough... Read more >
13 Jul 20
Essential workers and their families continue to bear the brunt of COVID-19 for little more than our gratitude. It should be no surprise that these workers are mostly Black, Indigenous and people of colour. Read more >
30 Jun 20
When I heard about the gig worker wins in California, I thought again about what makes us stay and fight in the face of injustice, instead of packing up and leaving town for warmer and more hospitable places. Read more >
11 Jun 20
With the support of Shareholder Association for Research and Education (SHARE), Atkinson's Executive Director Colette Murphy filed a Restaurant Brands International (RBI) shareholder proposal on decent work practices at the company's annual general meeting on June 10, 2020. Read more >