In the analysis article posted on CBC News on June 13, 2020, called, “One country, two pandemics: what COVID-19 reveals about inequality in Canada,” Aaron Wherry raises a crucial public topic. He dwells on the unexpected negative social consequences that the coronavirus has brought to Canada. In the first subparagraph of the article, Aaron Wherry talks about problems that were not so noticeable before but “worsened in the context of the pandemic. Among these problems is the difference in the provision of medical care, especially on racial and socio-economic grounds.
Further, the journalist notes that the pandemic increases the vulnerable layer of the population, negatively affecting the labor market. Widespread business closures and social distancing efforts have resulted in a record number of lost jobs (Wherry). Women and migrants, who were in a position of inequality even before the pandemic, suffered the most from job cuts. In the article, Aaron Wherry also talks about the reaction of minorities affected by the economic recession. Thus, increased economic inequality and the loss of jobs led to new protests against racism: several thousand people took to the streets of Toronto to restore social justice.
In the final part of the article, the journalist points out that the coronavirus pandemic hit the problem of social inequality the hardest. The author calls for “continuing efforts” (Wherry), at the international and national levels, to help groups of the population who are subjected to discrimination, even after the number of cases has decreased. The fact that the social issue sanctified in the article has acquired a large scale is shown by the activity of people in the comments. Thus, the reader Sam Black draws attention to the fact that most of the nation is subjected to racism and discrimination: “The entire nation is working its way towards poverty.” Another reader, Vladimir Smejkal, agrees with the author’s opinion, arguing that “inequality is a huge problem in this country.”
Work Cited
Wherry, Aaron. “One Country, Two Pandemics: What Covid-19 Reveals About Inequality in Canada.” CBC News, 2020.