Radical Trust: Basic Income for Complicated Lives

Radical Trust: Basic Income For Complicated Lives explores the notion that a basic income is a compassionate and dignified response to poverty and income inequality in Canada. Through extensive testimonials with those that the "social safety net" fails most dramatically, it tells the stories of lived experience, as individuals navigate the complicated circumstances of their lives. The myth of meritocracy creates distinctions between the deserving, a distinction that is the basis on which Canada?s entire income support system rests.

It's become apparent that Canada?s current income support systems do not work.

The COVID-19 pandemic shattered the illusion that income support will be there when you need it. But this shattered illusion isn?t new for those with lived experience in these systems. Many have suffered persistent, and generational poverty. For years, Canada?s income support schemes have failed Children in foster care, Indigenous women, girls and Two Spirit persons, people who struggle with addiction, and many others who are left on the fringes of our society.

Evelyn Forget is an economist in the School of Medicine at the University of Manitoba. Several years ago, she began researching the data associated with a Basic Income field experiment conducted in Manitoba in the 1970s. She has been consulted by governments and researchers in Ontario, British Colombia, Quebec, Finland, the Netherlands and Scotland on this topic. Dr. Forget?s latest work is titled Basic Income for Canadians: From the COVID-19 Emergency to Financial Security for All.

Hannah Owczar is a writer and communications specialist in the department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba. She is a graduate of the Creative Communications program at Red River College where she majored in journalism. Owczar?s work has appeared in several major news outlets in Manitoba including the Winnipeg Free Press and CBC Manitoba. She also holds an undergraduate degree in Human Rights from the University of Winnipeg.