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Justice tempered with compassion
Wednesday, May 18th, 2011
May 17 2011
On April 29… the Federal Court of Appeal ruled that Ottawa cannot reject an immigration application from an individual who is too poor to pay its $550 processing fee. “The Minister is obliged to consider a request for an exemption from the requirement,” the court said in a unanimous judgment… To immigrant groups, it is a legal breakthrough. To critics of the court, it is a retrogressive judgment that will drive up costs and unleash a flood of applications from illegal immigrants… Federal bureaucrats will no longer be able to deport would-be immigrants because they can’t afford Ottawa’s steep application fees
Tags: ideology, immigration, rights
Posted in Equality Delivery System | No Comments »
Why the poor cast votes for Conservatives
Wednesday, May 11th, 2011
May 10 2011
Despite the fact that Harper has announced his priorities — which don’t include poverty reduction — anti-poverty groups are busy writing articles and circulating studies that bolster their case. But neither rationalization nor wilful blindness will get them far in the next electoral showdown… After being sidelined twice in the past eight months, anti-poverty campaigners need to figure out how right-wing cost-cutters connect with voters — especially low-income voters. My soundings are limited, but a few themes keep popping up…
Tags: ideology, participation, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion Policy Context | No Comments »
Broken democracy can be fixed
Friday, April 29th, 2011
Apr 28 2011
Is it possible to bring democracy back to health? Yes, but it would require radical surgery, enlightened leadership and a core of Canadians committed to rebuilding the electoral system from the ground up… Step 1: Reduce campaign spending limits drastically… The current maximum… encourages the practices that alienate voters and subvert democratic principles… Step 2: Scrap the $2 per vote subsidy to political parties… Step 3: Create an independent public commission to organize and run weekly televised election debates.
Tags: ideology, participation, rights
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Harper or Armageddon? Let’s be serious
Wednesday, April 27th, 2011
Apr 26 201
Harper is right on three counts. There are economic storm clouds on the horizon. The opposition parties would seek to govern collaboratively if the Conservatives lost the confidence of Parliament. And we may have to endure a few more minority governments before a stalemate-breaking leader emerges. We have coped with far bigger problems than these. The only “black hole” that exists is in Harper’s imagination. There is no reason to vote in fear.
Tags: ideology, participation
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Judge Ted Ormston is on a mission to change lives [mental health reform]
Friday, April 22nd, 2011
Apr 21 2011
The Toronto judge is making life better for millions of Canadians affected by mental illness… In 1998, he… propos[ed] that the Ontario government create a special court for mentally ill offenders.. The new court quickly proved its worth. It steered thousands of sick offenders into treatment, not jail… In 2006, he was seconded from the court to head Ontario’s Consent and Capacity Board… that decides whether individuals involuntarily living in psychiatric institutions can safely be released… His aim: to transform the mental health system.
Tags: crime prevention, disabilities, ideology, mental Health, rights
Posted in Inclusion Delivery System | 3 Comments »
More money is not the answer for medicare
Wednesday, April 20th, 2011
Apr 19 2011
… no matter whom we elect on May 2, we’ll be locked into a costly federal-provincial deal that does nothing to fix medicare. We already know what high-priced intergovernmental accords produce… We need leadership. What we’re getting from the men seeking to be prime minister are identical promises to throw more money at the problem… ad hoc initiatives won’t fix an overstressed health-care system. Nor will they induce the provinces to make badly needed improvements. But the federal leaders have spent our money and squandered their leverage with the premiers.
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, mental Health, standard of living
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
A door opens for the mentally ill
Monday, April 11th, 2011
Apr 11 2011
For the first time, an individual living openly with mental illness was appointed to the Consent and Capacity Board, the powerful tribunal that determines whether Ontarians receiving psychiatric treatment are capable of living outside an institution without endangering themselves or others… The board has 131 members: 45 lawyers, 44 psychiatrists and 42 members of the public… What it didn’t have until last week was anyone who had been institutionalized for mental illness, labelled, stereotyped and limited by the opinions of doctors and the fears of society.
Tags: mental Health, participation, rights, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion Delivery System | No Comments »
Here’s $5.92 — make it last a month
Wednesday, April 6th, 2011
Apr 05 2011
… an individual who is now living on $592 a month — $368 for shelter, $224 for everything else — will get $597.92, starting in November. That is 61 per cent below the poverty line set by the National Council of Welfare. A single mother raising a child will get an additional $10.14 a month, bringing her welfare cheque up to $1,024. That falls 45 per cent below the poverty line. And this is a province with an official poverty reduction plan; with a premier who challenged Ontarians in his last election campaign to “show that we care about one another…
Tags: budget, featured, ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
How to navigate a thicket of polls
Friday, April 1st, 2011
Apr 01 2011
… here is a rudimentary guide to election polls: • Don’t assume they’re all equal… • The way polls are reported can matter as much as their content… • The way polls are interpreted can set off unwarranted stampedes… They signal important trends. They allow people to vote strategically. They’re right more often than they’re wrong. But don’t let any poll supplant your instincts and don’t let anyone tell you tell polling is a sure science.
Tags: participation
Posted in Governance Debates | 1 Comment »
A savvy but short-sighted political budget
Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011
Mar 22 2011
… it is a stark reminder of how much Canada has changed under Prime Minister Stephen Harper. The old “Canadian way” — sharing the risks and benefits of nationhood — has given way to a new imperative: warding off threats at home and abroad. This means pouring public money into crime suppression and national security, while cutting or freezing virtually all other programs… The only significant risk is that a majority of Canadians will decide their tax dollars have become so disconnected from their values that they can no longer tolerate the Harper government.
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
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