vocabulary definition homework

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Definition of homework noun from the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary

• acquire/get/lack experience/training/(an) education
• receive/provide somebody with training
• develop/design/plan a curriculum/course/program/syllabus
• give/go to/attend a class/lesson/lecture/seminar
• hold/run/conduct a class/seminar/workshop
• moderate/lead/facilitate a discussion
• sign up for/take a course/classes/lessons
• go to/start preschool/kindergarten/nursery school
• be in the first, second, etc. grade (at school)
• study/take/drop history/chemistry/German, etc.
• finish/drop out of/quit school
• graduate from high school/college
• be the victim/target of bullying/teasing
• skip/cut/ ( informal ) ditch class/school
• cheat on an exam/a test
• get/be given a detention (for doing something)
• be expelled from/be suspended from school
• do your homework/a project on something
• work on/write/do/submit an essay/a dissertation/a thesis/an assignment/a paper
• finish/complete your dissertation/thesis/studies
• hand in/turn in your homework/essay/assignment/paper
• study/prepare/review/ ( informal ) cram for a test/an exam
• take/ ( formal ) sit for a test/an exam
• grade homework/a test
• do well on/ ( informal ) ace a test/an exam
• pass/fail/ ( informal ) flunk a test/an exam/a class/a course/a subject
• apply to/get into/go to/start college
• leave/graduate from college (with a degree in computer science)/law school
• study for/work towards a law degree/a degree in physics
• major/minor in biology/philosophy
• earn/receive/be awarded/get/have/hold a master's degree/a bachelor's degree/a Ph.D. in economics

Questions about grammar and vocabulary?

Find the answers with Practical English Usage online, your indispensable guide to problems in English.

• 2 ( informal ) work that someone does to prepare for something You could tell that he had really done his homework (= found out all he needed to know) .

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homework noun

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What does the noun homework mean?

There are three meanings listed in OED's entry for the noun homework . See ‘Meaning & use’ for definitions, usage, and quotation evidence.

How common is the noun homework ?

How is the noun homework pronounced?

British english, u.s. english, where does the noun homework come from.

Earliest known use

The earliest known use of the noun homework is in the mid 1600s.

OED's earliest evidence for homework is from 1653, in the writing of Edmund Chillenden, parliamentarian army officer and General Baptist leader.

homework is formed within English, by compounding.

Etymons: home n. 1 , work n.

Nearby entries

• homeward-bounder, n. 1837–
• homeward-bound pennant, n. 1853–
• homewardly, adv. 1797–
• homewards, adv. & adj. Old English–
• homeware, n. 1782–
• home waters, n. 1838–
• home wear, n. 1836–
• home-whining, n. a1657
• home wind, n. 1732–
• home-woe, n. 1838–
• homework, n. 1653–
• homework club, n. 1900–
• homework diary, n. 1973–
• homeworker, n. 1843–
• homeworking, n. 1844–
• home-working, adj. 1850–
• home worship, n. 1849–
• homewort, n. Old English–
• home-wreck, n. 1845–
• home-wrecker, n. 1878–
• home-wrecking, n. 1878–

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Meaning & use

Pronunciation, compounds & derived words, entry history for homework, n..

homework, n. was revised in September 2011.

homework, n. was last modified in June 2024.

oed.com is a living text, updated every three months. Modifications may include:

• further revisions to definitions, pronunciation, etymology, headwords, variant spellings, quotations, and dates;
• new senses, phrases, and quotations.

Revisions and additions of this kind were last incorporated into homework, n. in June 2024.

Earlier versions of this entry were published in:

A Supplement to the New English Dictionary (1933)

• Find out more

OED Second Edition (1989)

• View homework in OED Second Edition

Please submit your feedback for homework, n.

Please include your email address if you are happy to be contacted about your feedback. OUP will not use this email address for any other purpose.

Citation details

Factsheet for homework, n., browse entry.

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home•work

An assignment is a task that someone is given to do, usually as part of their job.

An assignment is also a piece of academic work given to students.

In American English, an assignment is also a piece of work given to students to do at home.

Work given to schoolchildren to do at home is also called homework .

Be Careful! Homework is an uncountable noun. You do not talk about 'homeworks' or 'a homework'. Note that you do not say ' I have made my homework '. You say 'I have done my homework'.

Homework is work that school pupils are given to do at home. You say that pupils do homework. Don't say that they ' make homework '.

Housework is work such as cleaning or washing that is done in a house.

Be Careful! Both homework and housework are uncountable nouns. Don't talk about ' a homework ' or ' houseworks '.

• assignability
• best of all
• brain-teaser
• change magnitude
• concentrate
• homeshoring
• homesickness
• Home-speaking
• Homestead Act
• homestead exemption
• homestead law
• homesteader
• homesteading
• homestretch
• Homeward bound
• homeward(s)
• homeward-bound
• homework problem
• homeworking
• homewrecker
• homichlophobia
• homicide bomber
• Homicide by misadventure
• homicidomania
• homiletical
• homing adaptor
• homing device
• homing guidance
• hometraining
• Hometronic Internet Module
• HomeVestors of America, Inc.
• Homeward Bound
• Homeward Bound (disambiguation)
• Homeward Bound Animal Rescue Inc.
• Homeward Bound Greyhound Association
• Homeward Bound Theatre Company
• Homeward Trail Bible Camp
• homeward-boundly
• Homewood City Schools
• Homewood Institutional Review Board
• Homewood Maitland Safety Association
• Homewood Musical Instrument Co.
• Homewood-Flossmoor Swim Club, Inc.
• Homework Access Line
• Homework assignment
• Homework Assistance Hotline
• Homework Center
• Homework Diary
• Homework help
• Homework hotline
• Homeworkers
• Homeworkers Organized for More Employment
• Homeworkers' Union and Small Business Association
• Homeworking
• Homeworld 2
• Homewrecker
• Homewrecker (MTV series)
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November 7, 2018 VG Teaching Resources Vocab & ELA Res , Vocab Gal , ELA K-5 , ELA Seasonal Back to School , ELA 6-8 , ELA Resources - Activities , ELA 9-12 , ELA PD - Classroom Management , ELA PD - Vocabulary , ELA Focus - Writing with Vocabulary , ELA Focus - Vocabulary

11 vocabulary homework ideas and how to motivate students to do it, by: vocab gal.

Homework is such a valuable formative assessment for both teachers and students, and yet students are motivated* by many different factors when it comes to their desire to actually complete the work. In this article, I'm sharing how to motivate students to do their homework and 11 vocabulary homework ideas and worksheets that work in grades 1–12. Plus, preview and grab my 7 Options for Vocabulary Homework Kit .

Keep scrolling to find vocabulary homework ideas! 

How to motivate students to do their homework.

As a teacher, I try to concentrate students’ learning on activities done in class, because asking some students to complete work at home can be daunting. Many times in my career I have been discouraged when more than half the class does not return to class with their homework assignment complete.

Yet we only have so many minutes with our students, and we need them to practice the concepts and skills they are learning until the knowledge becomes ingrained. Most students have a homeroom, study hall, or other downtime during the day in which they could complete activities, they just have to be motivated to do it.

Many studies cite “student choice” as one of the most important factors in inspiring students to learn. When students have the opportunity to select what questions to answer, what activity to complete or what role to play, they tend to feel more comfortable and confident about performing.

Additionally, research shows that when students are dedicated to a task important to them, like improving their video game scores, or optimizing their success on a playing field, they will go to great lengths to improve. While probably not as meaningful as their video game level, students will be more excited to answer questions about themselves than a generic worksheet.

By providing students with both choice and a topic that is personally meaningful, homework can be a great learning exercise as well as an important formative assessment.

Steps to Ensure Students Complete Homework

There are a few other motivating factors that can help establish homework as a meaningful part of a student’s educational experience. Here are suggested steps a school, parish, department, or teacher might take to ensure successful homework completion.

Step One First, confirm that students have a strong rapport with their teacher(s). While it is difficult to cultivate a deep relationship with each student, teachers should strive to show students that they value their students and are committed to helping them learn and grow to their fullest potential. I would encourage teachers not to assign homework for the first few weeks of school until they develop a classroom community of respect and appreciation for learning.

Step Two Second, once the classroom community has been established, teachers should specifically explain the importance of homework as a way of deeply ingraining knowledge. Teachers should also make it clear that homework is a meaningful formative assessment where both they and their students can understand what students know and where there are knowledge gaps.

Step Three Third, some students may be quite unhappy when being mandated to do specific work. Therefore, teachers should stress the choices a student gets when completing their homework and that students get to complete the work that best reflects their own sense of self.

Step Four Finally, the teacher should praise students individually, as well as praise the class when homework is turned in on time. Many students thrive on positive reinforcement and also many may feel guilt if they let their classmates or teacher down. Additionally, as many teachers know, a word of encouragement or a small sticker can make the difference to many.

How to Respond When Homework is Not Completed

When at last it comes time for homework collection, there will be students who did not complete the assignment, no matter how well it was set up. Teachers can again encourage students who did not complete the homework in time to think about what may motivate them to complete it. If a student seems to dislike direct mandates, providing support such as, “I know that you value your learning and will find a way to demonstrate your abilities,” might be more effective than, “Turn in your paper by Thursday or it’s a zero!”

For others who seem driven by the need to please or help others, teachers might encourage students by stating, “I’m disappointed that you weren’t able to complete your work on time, and I know you will submit your work in order to show us both what you know and understand,” might work better than, “Don’t you want the credit for this assignment?”

Vocabulary Homework Ideas for Students

For this post, I have a few homework assignments that model these ideas. Both in my new It's All About Me vocabulary practice page, and my tried-and true,  7 Options for Vocabulary Homework bundle, students are motivated to continue their learning because they have both choice and a focus on themselves, a topic in which they are already invested.

My new It's All About Me Vocabulary Activity tasks students with answering a series of questions about themselves using vocabulary words in context. On the first page of this download students will list their vocabulary words and write their own brief definitions. On the second page student will answer eight prompts. Each response should include at least one of the vocabulary words from their list in context . In each of their answers students must underline the context clues that would help someone unfamiliar with the word understand what it means.

With the 7 Options for Vocabulary Homework bundle, students can choose from a variety of fun and engaging activities for learning or reviewing vocabulary words. In addition to the homework selection sheet, the bundle includes worksheets for vocabulary homework ideas number five and six. The other vocabulary homework options can be completed on a plain piece of paper or in student workbooks.

Here are the vocabulary activities listed on the 7 Options for Vocabulary Homework handout:

#1 Say Your Words

Do you love the sound of your own voice? Do you tend to learn information by teaching others? Then try saying each of the vocabulary words, out loud and in context, to friends, family, strangers, etc. Use either your flashcards or your list of words, and make sure to get initials from someone who heard you say your vocabulary sentence. If you can’t get a signature, just explain when and how you said the sentences and we will invoke the HONOR SYSTEM! Create two sentences per word.

Do you love to write? Do you copy your notes to help you remember information? Then try writing two sentences for each vocabulary word. These can either be two individual sentences for each word or you can put all of your words together in a story. (If you write a story, you only have to use each word once). Have fun and get creative – amuse me and impress me, but make sure you use your vocabulary words in context!

#3 Write Your Words in Other Classes

As an alternative to the above “Write your Words,” use your vocabulary in your assignments for other classes – social studies essays, science notes, art descriptions, etc. Write down the vocabulary you used for this assignment (For example: On my science test I said “Newton was meritorious,” etc.). You can abbreviate your explanations slightly, as long as I understand you know the word’s meaning; remember to use each word twice.

#4 Become Your Words

Do you gesture when you talk? Is it hard for you to sit still? Then consider creating motions to go along with your words. Cry for lament , raise your arms in praise for approbation , etc. See me during class to “perform” your motions, or write them down, making sure that the connection between word, meaning, and gesture makes sense.

#5 Draw Your Words

Are you an artist? Do you constantly doodle? Then create cartoons or drawings that illustrate each word’s meaning. Create one drawing or cartoon per word and make them neat, using clean white paper (consider using recycled paper that has printing on the other side). Paperclip all your drawings together for the end of the week.

#6 Sing Your Words

Do you love to sing? Are you constantly creating your own raps? Try rewriting the lyrics to a song to incorporate each of your vocabulary words or write your own song, rap, etc. You can also write poetry; regardless of the form you choose, the words should be used in the correct context.

#7 Test Your Words

Do you want to play teacher and write the test as well as take it? Now you can! Create a vocabulary test using all the words in a variety of different types of questions. Make sure to create the answer key to the test as well.

Download the 7 Options for Vocabulary Homework bundle and have students keep the selection sheet in their binders. Now they have seven weeks of vocabulary homework assignments!

Additional Vocabulary Homework Ideas

Ultimately, establishing a culture of community and trust in the classroom, explaining the reasoning behind and the benefits of homework, and providing choice and meaningful topics can make a significant difference in completion rates. Even if homework is not completed on time, teachers can still work to connect with each student to provide motivation to complete the assignments.

As educators, we all strive to make learning exciting and applicable to our students. By setting up clear expectations and providing interesting options, we can make any homework, including vocabulary homework, meaningful and valuable to students.

 *I have recently completed Gretchen Rubin’s audiobook The Four Tendencies about what motivates different groups of people. Many of the ideas about motivating students come loosely from her book as well as my own observations. I highly recommend the book to anyone wanting to learn how to better motivate themselves and others.

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36 Meaningful Vocabulary Activities for Every Grade

These activities are the definition of fun!

Learning new words is like adding to your writing toolbox. The more tools available, the more interesting and engaging your writing becomes. Check out these fun and engaging vocabulary activities for kids in grades K-12, and supply your students with the tools they need to build their wordsmith skills.

1. Write vocabulary stories

Using vocabulary words in writing shows mastery. Challenge your students to use all of their vocabulary words in an original short story. Allow students to pair up and share their stories with a partner.

Learn more: Vocab Short Story 

2. Put your students in the hot seat

Divide your class into two teams. Choose one student from one team to go to the front of the room and sit in a chair facing the class with their back to the board. This person is “on the spot.” Place a word on the board so everyone can see it except the person in the chair. One at a time, team members give the person a clue about the mystery word. If the word is guessed before two minutes are up, the team gets a point and play turns to the other team.

Learn more: On the Spot at Upper Elementary Snapshots

3. Match up words and definitions

Download these vocabulary words and matching definitions. Distribute one card to each student (either a word or a definition). Allow students to circulate in the room and find their “match.” Switch cards and repeat.

Learn more: Dictionary Sort

4. Sketch up word maps

Creating word maps from vocabulary words encourages students to find the relationships between the vocabulary word and other words. Have them include words, pictures, examples, real-world connections, definitions, descriptive words, etc.

Learn more: Word Map

5. Create Post-it stations

Post vocabulary words around the room, then have students circulate and write an original sentence using that word on a sticky note. Follow along and make sure students use the words correctly.

Learn more: Post-it Stations

6. Play a game of Pop!

Kids draw cards out of the bag and attempt to correctly spell them. But be careful, you don’t want to draw the Pop! card.

Learn more: Pop!

7. Take a gallery walk

Hang six to eight large sheets of chart paper in various places around the room. On each sheet, write one vocabulary word. Have students work in small groups, rotating between stations. At each station, ask students to come up with a different, original way to use each word. Continue the activity until all students have visited every station.

Learn more: Gallery Walk at TeachWriting.org

8. Play a round of Pictionary

This fun activity requires students to draw a picture for each word to create their own visual dictionary. When students create their own visual representations, they develop an association with the word that they will be able to tap into when needed.

Learn more: Pictionary

9. Make a word map

Word maps help deepen understanding of a vocab word by relating it to other words and concepts students already know.

10. Use the Frayer model

Frayer models are a popular way to learn new words and concepts. Kids define the word in their own terms, then list facts and characteristics, examples, and non-examples.

Learn more: Frayer Model

11. Draw vocabulary Sketchnotes

Kids and teachers love Sketchnotes ! Rather than writing out definitions, have students draw a sketch that sums up each word instead. It’s a lot more fun and gives kids an image for visual association to help them remember the meanings.

Learn more: Sketchnotes

12. Bump words along

Group vocab words together with a few other words with similar meanings and one that’s an antonym. Students identify the antonym and “bump” it to the next box, filling in the next group of words. They continue until the worksheet is full.

Learn more: Bumper Words

13. Post a graffiti wall

Think of a vocabulary graffiti wall like a collaborative word wall. In the classroom, post the words on the wall and have kids add sticky notes to illustrate the term (they can use words or pictures). Online, try a tool like Padlet or Google Slides.

Learn more: Graffiti Wall

14. Match words to describe character

This is a terrific way to practice vocab words pulled from books you’re reading. Ask students to use various words to describe the different characters in the book and their feelings, thoughts, and actions.

Learn more: Vocabulary Activities

15. Fill in words from A to Z

This vocabulary game is fun and challenging, and it can be played by kids of any age. Choose a word, then challenge kids to come up with related words for as many letters as possible. These could be synonyms, antonyms, examples, and more. Trickier letters are worth more points!

Learn more: A to Z

16. Try Flip for vocabulary activities

Are you on the Flip (formerly Flipgrid) bandwagon yet? It’s perfect for vocabulary activities! Have kids record a quick video for each word, using their creativity to make it fun and meaningful.

Learn more: Pop-Up Pods

17. Battle it out in Vocabulary Jeopardy

Good vocabulary activities encourage more than just memorization of definitions. That’s why we like this Jeopardy game idea. It explores synonyms and antonyms and how words are used in real sentences.

Learn more: Not So Wimpy Teacher

18. Use RAFTs to write vocabulary stories

Writing a story using vocab words is a perennial favorite, but the RAFT method gives it a new twist. Students are assigned a Role (the point of view from which they’ll tell the story), an Audience, a Format, and a Topic. For instance, they might be an astronaut (Role) writing a postcard (Format) to their friends back home (Audience) about what they’ve seen on Mars (Topic). RAFTs are especially great for kids who claim they don’t know what to write about.

Learn more: RAFTs

19. Discover the power of words

Vocabulary words take on greater meaning when students incorporate them into their daily lives. Challenge kids to use their vocab words in conversation and writing outside the language arts classroom. Use the free printable worksheet here to help them keep track of how often they use them.

Learn more: Downloadable Vocabulary Activities

20. Create graphic organizers

Colorful organizers like these are terrific vocabulary activities. Want to go digital? Have kids make a slideshow, one slide per word. They can include the same information, but instead of drawing a picture, have them find one online that illustrates the concept.

Learn more: Graphic Organizers at Upper Elementary Snapshots

21. Focus on a Word of the Week

Give really important terms the attention they deserve. Choose a new vocab word each week, then explore it in depth day by day.

Learn more: Word of the Week

22. Join the Million Dollar Word Club

Post a list of target vocab words. If a student uses one of the words in class (outside of vocabulary activities), they become a member of the Million Dollar Word Club! You can have them sign their name on a wall in the classroom or award a badge online. You could even develop this into a reward system for homework passes or extra credit.

Learn more: Million Dollar Words

23. Explore shades of meaning

This is a cool idea for exploring synonyms and the slight differences that make words unique. Ask for paint sample strips at your local hardware store, or buy a clip art set .

Learn more: Shades of Meaning

24. Personify a word with social media

This is one of those vocabulary activities kids will want to do over and over again! Assign each student a word and have them create a faux Facebook, Instagram, or other social media page for it. They can draw them freehand or complete a template like these from Teachers Pay Teachers . Post the images to a shared Google slideshow so other students can use them for review.

Learn more: Social Media Vocabulary

25. Create vocabulary cards

Have students draw a diagonal line across an index card. On the top half, have them write the vocabulary word and definition. On the bottom half, have them draw a picture of the word and use it in a sentence. Cards can be joined together in a strip for easy review.

Learn more: Index Card Vocabulary

26. Play vocabulary word Taboo

In this game, the goal is for one student to get their partner to guess the word by describing or giving examples of it. The trick? There’s a list of additional words they’re not allowed to use! Let other students see the card in advance to help keep the players honest. (Flash it on a whiteboard and have the guesser face away.)

Learn more: Don’t Say It! Vocabulary Game

27. Roll a die for vocabulary activities

Choose a vocab word, then have a student roll a die ( these virtual dice are handy ) to see which activity they get to complete.

Learn more: Roll a Word

28. Write an acrostic

Write an acrostic poem for each vocab term, using the letters to determine the first word in each line. This can get really challenging when words are longer!

Learn more: Acrostic Poem

29. Play vocabulary board games

Everyone knows that playing games is the best way to learn. Try some of these fabulous board games with your students and watch their vocabularies grow.

Learn more: 11 Vocab Games To Make the Learning Stick

30. Become a Word Collector

This is one of those picture books that grown-up kids will enjoy as much as little ones. Use it to remind your kids that they don’t need a vocabulary list to learn new words—new words are all around them. Encourage them to keep a word list or journal of their own to record new words they want to explore and use more often.

Buy it: The Word Collector

31. Play Vocabulary Headbanz

Make or buy headbands with a notch on the front designed to hold a card. Create cards with vocabulary words on them. To play, each student gets a card but can’t see it. Other students will describe the word, trying to get the one wearing the headband to guess the correct word.

Learn more: Vocab Headbanz

32. Go Fish!

A fun and lively way to practice vocabulary words. Create a deck of vocabulary words with two of each word. Explain the rules of Go Fish to students and let them loose!

Learn more: Go Fish Vocab Game

33. String three-letter words

Using wooden letter beads and pipe cleaners, students will form three-letter words that match vocabulary cards.

Learn more: Three-Letter Busy Bag

34. Play vocabulary charades

Everybody loves an exciting round of charades. Break your students into groups, provide them with a stack vocabulary cards, and watch them learn!

Learn more: Word Charades

35. Make words

Use plastic letters, magnet letters, or letter blocks to make words. Play it mentally with older kids, or with paper and pencil. Simply give your children some letters and challenge them to make words from those letters.

Learn more: Make a Word

36. Do a dictionary dig

Send your students on a scavenger hunt … in the dictionary! Exposing kids to the thousands of words in our language is both inspiring and fun. Download the free task cards below.

Learn more: Dictionary Dig

Reading poetry also helps students expand their vocabulary. Check out these must-share poems for elementary school and middle and high school .

Plus, get all the latest teaching tips and ideas when you sign up for our free newsletters .

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Meaning of homework – Learner’s Dictionary

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• Go upstairs and do your homework.
• For your homework, please do exercise 3 on page 24.
• When I finish my homework, can I watch TV?
• Get on with your homework.
• She was trying to duck out of doing her homework.

(Definition of homework from the Cambridge Learner's Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Translations of homework

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to move something by pulling it along a surface, usually the ground

Treasure troves and endless supplies (Words and phrases meaning ‘source’)

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writedictionary

Write dictionary to file

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Description

writedictionary( d , filename ) writes the contents of dictionary d to a file with the name and extension specified by filename . For example, the writedictionary function writes the input dictionary to a JSON file when .json is specified as the file extension in filename .

writedictionary( d , filename , Name=Value ) specifies options using one or more name-value arguments. For example, you can export the contents of the input dictionary as a JSON file regardless of the file extension specified in filename by calling writedictionary(d,filename,FileType="json") .

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Write Dictionary to File

Create a dictionary and write it to a JSON file.

Display the created file.

Write Dictionary to File Without Indentation

Create a dictionary and write it to a JSON file without indentation.

Input Arguments

D — input dictionary matlab ® dictionary.

Input dictionary, specified as a MATLAB dictionary. A dictionary is a map that stores data as values , which can be accessed using corresponding unique keys . Each pair of keys and values is an entry . For more information on dictionaries, see dictionary .

When creating JSON files, writedictionary writes missing values as null values and NaN values as null or NaN values depending on the PreserveInfAndNaN name-value argument.

filename — Name of file to write string scalar | character vector

Name of the file to write, specified as a string scalar or character vector. If filename does not exist, then the writing function creates the file. If filename is an existing file, then the function overwrites it.

Depending on the location you are writing to, filename can take one of these forms.

For more information, see Work with Remote Data .

Example: "s3://bucketname/path_to_file/my_file.json"

Name-Value Arguments

Specify optional pairs of arguments as Name1=Value1,...,NameN=ValueN , where Name is the argument name and Value is the corresponding value. Name-value arguments must appear after other arguments, but the order of the pairs does not matter.

Example: writedictionary(d,filename,PreserveInfandNaN=false) writes all Inf and NaN values as JSON null values.

FileType — Type of file "auto" (default) | "json"

Type of file, specified as one of these values:

"auto" — Automatically detect the file format to write from the extension specified in filename .

"json" — Export the contents of the dictionary as a JSON file, regardless of the file extension specified in filename .

If you specify a file extension in filename that is not .json , you can specify FileType as "json" to write the contents of the input dictionary as JSON.

PrettyPrint — Indent text true or 1 (default) | false or 0

Indent text in the output file, specified as a numeric or logical 1 ( true ) or 0 ( false ). If you specify the argument as true , then writedictionary writes the JSON text with an indentation of four spaces. If you specify the argument as false , then writedictionary writes the JSON text without spaces or line breaks.

PreserveInfAndNaN — Preserve Inf and NaN values in JSON file true or 1 (default) | false or 0

Preserve Inf and NaN values in the output JSON file, specified as a numeric or logical 1 ( true ) or 0 ( false ). Specify this argument as false to write all Inf and NaN values as JSON null values.

Version History

Introduced in R2024b

dictionary | readdictionary

MATLAB Command

You clicked a link that corresponds to this MATLAB command:

Run the command by entering it in the MATLAB Command Window. Web browsers do not support MATLAB commands.

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The Anti-Capitalist Dictionary: How to Read Between the Lies

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Why was a level 4 microbiology laboratory allowed to transfer a dangerous virus to wuhan, fanon’s fanboys: how the violent decolonization movement was brought to canada, “genocide” canada’s government wanted to close every indian residential school in the 1940s, the housing market isn’t racist. blame your parents instead.

‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean – neither more nor less.’

—Alice Through the Looking Glass , by Lewis Carroll

Words can be like tiny doses of arsenic; they are swallowed unnoticed, appear to have no effect, and then after a little time the toxic reaction sets in after all.” That is how Victor Klemperer, a German Jew who miraculously survived Hitler’s Germany, described the Nazi regime’s manipulation of words and their meaning in his 1957 book The Language of the Third Reich . The endless public repetition of fascist idioms and phrases regarding race, duty and country, Klemperer argued, turned the German population into unthinking servants of the Nazi cause.

The approach in the Soviet Union was different in tactics but no less destructive. “Total power over the Word gives the Master of the Word a magical power over all communications,” wrote Russian historian Mikhail Heller in his 1988 book Cogs in the Wheel: The Formation of Soviet Man . By using fear and intimidation to control what its citizens could say, the Communist regime was able to control what they thought as well. “The Soviet language became the most important means of preventing people from acquiring more knowledge than the state wished,” explained Heller.

Western democracies crushed Nazism and then faced down the Soviet Empire through intense military and economic competition as well as the promise of freedom. Today, however, these forces of linguistic control are again being wielded by propagandists embedded deep within our own society. It is now common for words to be assigned meanings that either signify the opposite of what they once did, or are bastardized in some way as to be unmoored from any permanent or coherent definition. And always with political purpose.

The redefinition of sex as socially-constructed gender and the creation of a multiplicity of gender identities – enforced by intense institutional pressure but lacking any scientific evidence or logic – is just one example of this destructive wordplay. The poisonous concept of “anti-racism”, which has become cover for the implementation of many explicitly racist policies, is another.

What were once benign notions of markets, entrepreneurship and the free exchange of ideas, goods and services have been corrupted and/or smeared by the left. Tweet

As Trent University historian Christopher Dummitt recently pointed out in the National Post, a blizzard of new terms has been invented to remove the concept of personal responsibility from all public discourse. The homeless, once “vagrants”, are now referred to as “the unsheltered”, the free distribution of harmful illegal drugs has become “harm reduction”, and self-administered drug overdoses have been rebranded as “accidental poisonings”.

The underlying purpose, Dummitt explains, is ideological. “The intention is clear: to remove stigma and any overt suggestion of personal responsibility,” he wrote. “The new names are meant to reorient our thinking so that we understand that the real causes of misfortune to be societal or systemic. If a word has shameful connotations, that seems to be enough to warrant change.”

The same conceptual reorganization is at play with how Canadians discuss fundamental economic and intellectual concepts as well. What were once benign notions of markets, entrepreneurship and the free exchange of ideas, goods and services have been corrupted and/or smeared by the left in the same way that personal responsibility has been erased from public conversations through the appearance of new words and meanings for drug use and other individual failings.

With this damaging process threatening the very conception of private property and individual economic freedom, C2C Journal has curated a list of 11 terms currently being used propagandistically by the left. It includes long-established words redefined in deliberately unsettling ways and tired old socialist objectives disguised as market-friendly innovations as well as some outright fabrications. We call this our “Anti-Capitalist Dictionary”. Each word or phrase listed below is introduced with an example of its typical current usage (that is to say, its misusage ), along with the source of the example, and then a discussion/deconstruction of its flaws. Finally, we offer a truthful alternative to use in its place. As they say, forewarned is forearmed.

Child Care Deserts

Typical usage: “Saskatchewan has the highest proportion of children living in child care deserts by far.”

— Not Done Yet: $10-a-day child care requires addressing Canada’s child care deserts , by David MacDonald and Martha Friendly, May 2023

A “child care desert” refers to an area that is said to be short of daycare spaces. And while the federal government’s heavily subsidized, $10 per day child care program was promoted as the means to create a jungle of new spaces at a phenomenally low cost, Canada appears strangely awash in “deserts” as parents everywhere complain about a worsening shortage of spaces . Among child care advocates, this situation is cause for even greater government spending (or “investment” as they misleadingly put it). The desert must be defeated!

As previous C2C Journal articles have shown, however, this rampant desertification is a direct result of a federal plan that explicitly discriminates against for-profit daycare providers. In many provinces, private operators deliver the majority of child care spaces. If the goal is to boost the supply of practically anything, the private sector is nearly always nimbler and more cost-effective than the public or non-profit sectors. For this reason, Ottawa’s attack on private child care providers is doing great harm to parents. It’s no coincidence that Saskatchewan is the Sahara of Canada’s child care deserts; it also has the nation’s lowest share of for-profit child care . By treating Canada’s child care shortages as some sort of external force of nature – one that only governments can withstand and conquer – child care activists are deliberately ignoring the importance of private capital and entrepreneurship to the daycare ecosystem.

Accurate alternative: “An absence of private sector supply.”

Typical usage: “Residential school denialists employ an array of rhetorical arguments. The end game of denialism is to obscure truth about Canada’s Indian Residential School system in ways that ultimately protect the status quo as well as guilty parties.”

— Truth before reconciliation: 8 ways to identify and confront Residential School denialism , by Daniel Heath Justice and Sean Carleton, University of British Columbia website

“Denialism” is frequently used as a slur against anyone who questions an established narrative. Most recently it has been applied to those who challenge claims that Canada’s Indian Residential School system was a deliberate program of genocide. But it also serves to advance numerous other ideological agendas. For example, Ross McKitrick, an economist at the University of Guelph, Ontario well-known for his rigorous, science-based approach to climate change , notes that he’s often denounced as a “denialist” when he uses evidence to point out holes in accepted green energy policy orthodoxy. This includes revealing the true (and often astronomical) cost of policies to “fight” climate change.

“The facts are clearly on one side, but if you stand up and point this out, you get called a denier,” McKitrick says in an interview. The insult’s impact is intensified by the fact the term originally stems from denial of the Holocaust. Observes McKitrick: “Opponents are thus treating you like a psychology case, rather than engaging with you on the merits of your argument.” It is a thoroughly nasty dodge for activists who are unprepared to defend their own position. Asked whether he has a preferred term for someone who questions established beliefs from a fact-based perspective, McKitrick suggests, somewhat wryly, “glorious truth-teller.” That works for us.

Accurate alternative: “Glorious truth-telling.”

Environmental Racism

Typical usage: “Environmental racism is a direct by-product of colonialism.”

— Fast Talk on Environmental Racism in Canada , Canadian Human Rights Commission, February 16, 2023

“Environmental racism” is a deliberately provocative term invented to explain why low-income individuals and families tend to live in less desirable (and hence cheaper) neighbourhoods or areas. Given that black and Indigenous families have a greater likelihood of having low incomes than other groups, this outcome is now declared racist.

Prior to the modern-day habit of labelling every situation of unequal outcomes in this way, such a scenario was known to economists as Ricardian land rents , after 19 th century British economist David Ricardo. It was Ricardo’s insight that the price of land is determined by its most productive use. If land on the outskirts of town or nearer a pulp mill is less desirable or less productive than land in a city’s downtown core or beside a lake, then it will also be cheaper – and thus more affordable for people with lower incomes.

“Most people don’t want to live adjacent to heavy industry et cetera, so people with lower incomes tend to move into those areas,” economist McKitrick observes. But calling this process environmental racism “gets the cause and effect backwards,” he says. There is no prejudice at work; low-income people moving to cheaper areas is simply a demonstration of the market at work.

Accurate alternative: “Cheap land means cheap rent.”

Typical Usage: “Equity: the principle of considering people’s unique experiences and differing situations, and ensuring they have access to the resources and opportunities that are necessary for them to attain just outcomes. Equity aims to eliminate disparities and disproportions that are rooted in historical and contemporary injustices and oppression.”

— Guide on Equity, Inclusion and Diversity , Government of Canada, 2022

Not that long ago, equity was defined as “the quality of being impartial; fairness,” as a desk copy of the 1988 Collins Concise Dictionary of the English Language explains. More recently, however, this definition has been turned on its head. “Equity”, as currently employed by governments, activists and other woke-infected institutions, entails the deliberately unequal treatment of individuals in order to fabricate uniform outcomes between groups . Instead of being fair to all job candidates, for example, equity now requires that individual applicants be treated very differently based on group membership or characteristics such as race, ethnicity, sex, gender or disability.

“My own school is a great example of this inherent unfairness,” says William McNally, a business professor at Wilfrid Laurier University’s Lazaridis School of Business and Economics in Waterloo, Ontario and an outspoken critic of diversity, equity and inclusion policies. “We now have teaching positions that are only available to black or Indigenous applicants. Whites are not allowed to apply,” he says in an interview. By suppressing or even abandoning the key criterion of individual merit, the school’s hiring process is being manipulated to achieve a particular, ideologically-driven outcome that is unfair to most potential candidates. In similar fashion, McNally observes, diversity has come to mean “people who look differently, but all think the same.” And inclusion now means the deliberate exclusion of many qualified candidates.

Accurate alternative: “Blatant favouritism.”

Excessive Net Profits

Typical Usage: “The Committee recommends that the Government of Canada consider implementing policies to effectively tackle excessive net profits in monopolistic and oligopolistic sectors in the food supply chain, which are driving up prices for consumers.”

— Report of the Standing Committee on Agriculture and Agri-Food , House of Commons, May 2024

A recent House of Commons Agriculture and Agri-Food subcommittee report on food prices concocted the phrase “excessive net profits” to attack grocery companies. While politically useful, given popular concern over rising food costs, it betrays a fundamental lack of knowledge about accounting and prices. It is redundant to refer to “net profits”, as profits are already calculated on a net basis. If the intent is to examine some share of those profits, the term unhelpfully fails to indicate which items should be netted out .

As for the concept of what constitutes an excessive level of profits, that is an entirely subjective matter beyond the ken of any subcommittee. The profit margin (net earnings divided by gross revenue) at Loblaw Companies Ltd., the corporation at the centre of today’s political ire about food inflation, is a measly 3.4 percent , based on its most recent financial statements. By way of comparison, the profit margin at online retailer Amazon is a robust 9.1 percent, while at computer chip manufacturer Nvidia it’s an eye-popping 55 percent. How excessive is that? With store-bought food inflation peaking at 11.4 percent in 2023 , the rising cost of food would be a problem for Canadians even if Loblaw operated on a break-even basis.

By misidentifying the problem of profits, the Liberal-dominated subcommittee promotes the socialistic notion that government has a legitimate role in setting prices and establishing an appropriate level of income across industries. As the devastating effects of rent controls on the supply of rental housing readily illustrate, this is complete folly. Profit is the essential inducement for entrepreneurs to provide needed goods and services. And rising profits in a given industry or in the production of a given good or service signal that there is opportunity for additional profitable competition; this, in turn, brings prices back down. Canada is already experiencing a productivity crisis driven by a lack of capital and investment in productivity-enhancing machinery; telling entrepreneurs there is a government-mandated upper limit on their profitability will only exacerbate this potentially catastrophic problem.

Accurate alternative: “There is no competition without profit.”

Financialization

Typical usage: “The financialization of housing is recognized as a trend that is undermining the realization of the right to adequate housing.”

— The Financialization of Housing: A Summary Report for the Office of the Federal Housing Advocate , by Martine August, June 2022

What used to be known as ready access to capital – and considered a good thing – has been ominously relabelled as “financialization”, and become the all-purpose boogeyman of Canada’s housing crisis. Rather than pointing to the obvious imbalance between constrained housing construction and soaring demand caused by runaway immigration, the Office of the Federal Housing Advocate (FHA) repeatedly claims that housing-industry investors seeking to earn a return on their capital are the true cause of Canada’s housing affordability crisis. And the FHA’s solution is to eliminate the profit motive from the housing supply by advocating for a government/regulatory takeover of the industry which would make it impossible for entrepreneurs to survive.

The fight against financialization also has the FHA demanding that Ottawa erase any tax benefits associated with real estate investment trusts (REITs). Such a policy, as an EY consultancy report (link requires signing in) found, would “slow growth in the supply of available rental units” and thus worsen the housing crisis. Despite an earlier promise to stamp out financialization, however, Ottawa recently promised not to levy any new taxes on REITs . This was a rare wise move by Ottawa on housing policy. Canada requires more investors, more real estate developers and more property managers. Without the enormous financial resources and deep expertise of motivated real estate investors, including REITs, it will be impossible to meet the country’s need for 3.5 million new homes by 2030 .

Accurate alternative: “Building a lot of homes requires a lot of money.”

Living Wage

Typical usage: “The living wage is a bare-bones calculation that looks at the amount that a family of four needs to earn to meet their expenses.”

— Living Wage for Families BC website

Promoted by social advocacy groups as a replacement for the minimum wage, a “living wage” is always much higher than the legal minimum since it is intended to allow a sole earner to support a family not merely with bread on the table and a roof over their heads, but with other amenities such as holidays, a savings account and a gift budget. In other words, it is intended to provide a single-income household with a middle-class lifestyle.

Yet research by the Canadian Federation of Independent Business shows that only 1.5 percent of minimum-wage earners are single parents with a child to support. Presumably, even fewer comprise a 1950s-style nuclear family with one wage-earner and one stay-at-home parent. The vast majority of minimum-wage earners are actually under 25 and living with their parents. Accordingly, replacing current minimum wages with a living wage of $25 per hour or more will not make life better for struggling families. Rather, it will harm the economy’s youngest and least employable workers by making them too expensive to hire. A better approach can be found in Alberta, where the minimum wage for workers under 18 years is two dollars less per hour than for adults, reflecting their lower productivity and greater need for training.

“Living wage” is also an example of the left’s frequent linguistic tactic of framing market-based alternatives to their favoured policies as despicable, if not deadly. What is the opposite of a living wage? It must be a death wage.

Accurate alternative: “Youth-employment-reducing wage.”

Organizational Elder Abuse

Typical usage: “Lions Housing Centres and the Lions Club of Winnipeg have been accused of inflicting ‘organizational elder abuse’ on seniors because of the way they sold Lions Place to a for-profit real estate company in 2023.”

— “Tenants of former Lions Place victims of ‘organizational elder abuse’: report” by Kevin Rollason, Winnipeg Free Press , April 23, 2024

This phrase appears to have been invented by the left-wing lobby group Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) in a report on the sale of a Winnipeg seniors’ home run by the Lions Club, a charitable organization, to a private firm earlier this year. A Betrayal of Trust: Exploring the Financialization of Lions Place in Winnipeg as a Case of Organizational Elder Abuse offers no evidence that residents of the home have been mistreated in any way. Rather, the mere fact that the new owner, Mainstreet Equities, intends to make a profit while continuing to operate the facility amounts to “elder abuse” in the CCPA’s eyes. (Note that the report also makes use of the bogus term “financialization” for a twofer of leftist linguistic misdirection.)

“Organizational elder abuse” is an insult to the entire private sector and reminiscent of campaigns that seek to banish for-profit operators from other sectors dominated by high-cost, inefficient public-sector unions, such as health care and child care. The fact that actual elder abuse is a criminal act promotes the left-wing notion that even the most basic economic function of earning a profit is somehow illegal or immoral.

Wordplay aside, the private sector has a critical and successful role to play in the provision of assisted-living and long-term care for seniors in a number of provinces, as this and this C2C article described. And, judging by the long waiting lists for obtaining residency in many of these centres, seniors generally like what these companies are offering.

Accurate alternative: “Asset sold by a motivated seller to a willing buyer.”

Renoviction/Demoviction

Typical usage: “Renoviction is a huge source of housing loss.”

— Ontario Renoviction Report 2024 , ACORN Canada, February 2024

So far, the anti-capitalist terms evaluated have employed real English words that can be compared to their ordinary, historical or technical meanings. Here, we encounter complete gibberish. “Renoviction” or “demoviction” are portmanteaus invented to describe the situation in which a landlord evicts existing tenants in order to clear the way for a substantial renovation to an apartment that can then be re-let at higher rent, or tears down the entire building to put up something new, again to generate greater revenue.

While these processes are perfectly legal under certain conditions – and wholly understandable given the need for constant housing renewal – they have lately become nasty insults used by housing advocates and politicians to denigrate landlords generally. Some cities are even enacting bylaws to prevent both practices, erasing landlords’ property rights as owners and putting tenants in control of buildings they do not own. Such policies will clearly discourage further investment in housing at a time when the country desperately needs more and better houses. Investing one’s own money to improve the local stock of housing was once considered a good thing for everyone. Today, however, some politicians would rather let it all rot. The solution lies in recognizing landlords as the best-situated and most-effective custodians of the country’s rental stock.

Accurate alternative: “Improving Canada’s housing stock at no cost to taxpayers.”

Responsible Investing/Sustainable Investing/Impact Investing

Typical usage: “Responsible investment (RI) refers to the incorporation of environmental, social and governance factors (ESG) into the selection and management of investments. RI has boomed in recent years as investors have recognized the opportunity for better risk-adjusted returns, while at the same time, contributing to important social and environmental issues.”

— Responsible Investment Association website

“Responsible”, “sustainable” or “impact” investing holds that investors should weigh a variety of non-financial goals when choosing where to put their money. The goal is to “do good” with one’s investments by, for example, choosing green energy firms over those in the oil and natural gas sector. But adding moralistic objectives to one’s investment mix is “delusional”, writes Aswath Damodaran , a widely-respected guru of financial valuation at the Stern Business School at New York University. It is also another example of the twisted language of ideologically-driven alternatives, similar to “living wage” as discussed above. Having identified a practice as “responsible” investing, all other forms of investing – every stock, every bond, every mutual fund, every holding in every pensioner’s retirement fund – must implicitly be irresponsible .

While the vast majority of impact investors believe their ESG-flavoured decisions are costless – that is, have no effect on their overall investment returns – diverting their focus away from financial performance inevitably lowers returns because it constrains the list of potential investment opportunities, as Damodaran points out . It also leads investors to tolerate inefficiency and costly diversions among the “sustainable” companies they favour. As Damodaran observes, “After 15 years and trillions invested in its name, impact investing, as practiced now, has made little progress on the social and environmental problems that it purports to solve.” As he concludes, “Is it not time to try something different?” Pushback against these investment techniques is well underway in the U.S., and just beginning in Canada.

Accurate alternative: “Making less money while doing no good.”

Stakeholder Capitalism

Typical usage: “Stakeholder capitalism is not about politics. It is not a social or ideological agenda. It is not ‘woke.’ It is capitalism.”

— The Power of Capitalism , by Larry Fink, 2022 letter to Blackrock shareholders

Popularized by World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab , “stakeholder capitalism” involves corporations making decisions that may go against the best interests of their shareholders by pursuing the interests of other groups – or “stakeholders” – such as government regulators, community activists, fashionable global causes or the public at large. This can include accommodating the demands of organizations explicitly hostile to the company and its industry, as well as a multiplicity of other targets comprising social and environmental indicators unrelated to the firm’s core business. Climate-related “Net Zero” commitments by various corporations are an obvious current example.

“Under stakeholder capitalism, CEOs and boards are supposed to weigh all these different competing interests,” says Laurier finance professor McNally in an interview. “But they get to choose which ones – it could be gender equity or decarbonization or racial social justice. And this is a profoundly undemocratic process. The shareholders who actually own the company don’t have any say in it.” Not surprisingly, these corporate fetishes rarely come cheap, and there is evidence that stakeholder-focused companies earn lower returns than good old-fashioned shareholder-driven ones.

For the alternative viewpoint, McNally points to a famous 1970 New York Times essay by Nobel Prize-winning economist Milton Friedman. In it, Friedman argued that executives who allow political or social justice interests to distract them from pursuing their shareholders’ best interests – above all, safeguarding their capital – are “spending someone else’s money” on pet projects and should be considered guilty of theft. Nonetheless, advocates such as Fink are now promoting stakeholder capitalism – what Friedman called “pure and unadulterated socialism” – as the only true form of capitalism. It is a complete inversion of reality.

Accurate alternative: “Playing politics with other people’s money.”

The above list is obviously not exhaustive. Indeed, it is barely a beginning. The primary purpose of the Anti-Capitalist Dictionary is to remind readers that words matter and alert them to the widespread presence of corrupted, concocted or bogus terms in general usage. Calling wind turbines “green” or “sustainable” energy, to mention some additional possible entries, not only engenders positive feelings among many people, but influences their thinking about what these things actually are and how they work. It is thus useful that Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, for example, now refers to wind and solar power as – entirely accurately – “intermittent and unreliable” . This draws attention to the fact they cannot be relied upon to serve as base-load power in the way that nuclear, natural gas-fired or hydroelectric facilities can and do. There is nothing sustainable about an energy source that cannot be trusted when needed.

Having identified a practice as ‘responsible’ investing, all other forms of investing – every stock, every bond, every mutual fund, every holding in every pensioner’s retirement fund – must implicitly be irresponsible. Tweet

Beyond these specific examples, the Anti-Capitalist Dictionary’s other purpose is to reveal the damage being done to fundamental economic concepts that are crucial to the flourishing of a democratic society. It has been proven time and again throughout history (and often at great cost) that markets – the free and open exchange of ideas, goods or services – are the best and most efficient method of determining values, assessing needs and allocating resources. Today, however, as in totalitarian regimes of the past, we are witnessing a determined effort to replace time-proven market mechanisms with systems that impose government interference and diktat as the operating devices.

One of the main tools for this revolution is language. In this way, landlords have become cold-hearted “renoviction” machines, corporations stand accused of earning “excessive net profits” at the expense of hapless families, capital investment in new housing – “financialization” – is to blame for Canada’s housing crisis, the legitimate sale of a building is “elder abuse”, heterodox thinkers are “denialists”, socialism is really capitalism, and so on down the rabbit hole. Words have become weapons aimed at destroying markets and individual freedoms. This must be resisted.

In his famous 1946 essay Politics and the English Language , George Orwell anticipated many of the linguistic tricks and falsehoods described above. “Political language,” he wrote, “is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. One cannot change this all in a moment, but one can at least change one’s own habits.” The truth starts one word at a time.

Peter Shawn Taylor is senior features editor at C2C Journal . He lives in Waterloo, Ontario.

Source of main image: Shutterstock.

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The Vials and the Damage Done: Canada’s National Microbiology Laboratory Scandal, Part II

In China, minor security infractions are routinely punished with lengthy jail terms in dreadful conditions. In Canada, it’s just the opposite. Clear evidence of espionage is rewarded with a free pass back home after the mission is complete. Neglecting our national security in this way may suit the Justin Trudeau government, but it is doing great harm to Canada’s relationship with its most important allies. In the concluding instalment of his two-part series, Peter Shawn Taylor examines the many ways in which the spy scandal at the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg has damaged Canada’s international standing and contributed to the growing perception that Canada is a foreign agent’s happy place. ( Part I is here. )

The Scientists Who Came in From the Cold: Canada’s National Microbiology Laboratory Scandal, Part I

In a breathless 1999 article on the opening of Canada’s top-security National Microbiology Laboratory (NML) in Winnipeg, the Canadian Medical Association Journal described the facility as “the place where science fiction movies would be shot.” The writer was fascinated by the various containment devices and security measures designed to keep “the bad boys from the world of virology: Ebola, Marburg, Lassa” from escaping. But what if insiders could easily evade all those sci-fi features in order to help Canada’s enemies? In the first of a two-part series, Peter Shawn Taylor looks into the trove of newly-unclassified evidence regarding the role of NML scientists Xiangguo Qiu and Keding Cheng in aiding China’s expanding quest for the study – and potential military use – of those virus bad boys.

Want to Fix Canada’s Screwed-Up Income Tax System? Start By Taxing Families

Equity has lately become the quintessential goal of all government policies. Every Canadian, regardless of position, place or identity, must be seen to be treated fairly by their public institutions. But how can a tax system – surely the most central of all government activities – be considered fair if it requires some families to pay thousands more in taxes than other families with exactly the same income? With Ottawa eagerly adding to the bloat of its ludicrously-complex and costly Income Tax Act , it’s time to confront the glaring inequity at the heart of Canada’s tax system. Peter Shawn Taylor looks back to the last time someone offered a solution to this problem – and finds we need this wisdom now more than ever.

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