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Native education must be funded equally with public schools
Friday, March 23rd, 2012
Mar 01 2012
… to actually improve the situation the upcoming federal budget needs to include new, dedicated funding. Right now, Ottawa provides thousands of dollars less per student than provinces spend to educate non-native kids. Fewer than 40 per cent of native students – half the rate for non-natives – graduate from high school. It’s a tragedy for them and a terrible waste of potential for the country.
Tags: budget, Indigenous, participation, standard of living
Posted in Equality Delivery System | No Comments »
Supreme Court ruling in case of disabled woman admirable
Monday, February 13th, 2012
Feb. 13, 2012
Not all testimony is equal; a judge decides how much weight to give it. But to cut off the possibility of testimony from disabled adults because they have trouble verbalizing what they understand of truth and lies is an arbitrary approach. It doesn’t get at what they know, just at what they can explain about what they know… mentally disabled adults should not be arbitrarily denied…
Tags: crime prevention, disabilities, mental Health, rights, youth
Posted in Inclusion Policy Context | No Comments »
Stephen Harper’s scary scenario about Old Age Security is wildly overblown, budget watchdog argues
Sunday, February 12th, 2012
Feb 11 2012
After parsing the numbers, Page concluded that the crisis is a manufactured one. “You cannot argue the government has a fiscal sustainability problem”… There’s talk of hiking the OAS eligibility age to, say, 67 from 65. Ottawa could also claw back more benefits from better-off retirees. Or partially de-index benefits that now rise to offset inflation… Making seniors wait until 67 for OAS could mean that the very poorest would have to wait longer to get the Guaranteed Income Supplement, a linked benefit. The cost of helping these neediest may then fall to the provinces.
Tags: budget, pensions
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
National panel on native education gives Ottawa a failing grade
Saturday, February 11th, 2012
Feb 10 2012
… this government, the one before it, and so on, know everything that’s in this report. Native education is a disaster and always has been. Ottawa basically hands off far too little money to hundreds of reserves (regardless of their capabilities) to operate individual schools and pays no attention at all to the terrible outcomes for children. Less than 40 per cent of native students — half the rate for non-natives — graduate from high school. It’s a tragedy for them and a terrible waste of potential for the country.
Tags: budget, Indigenous, participation, rights, standard of living, youth
Posted in Education Delivery System | No Comments »
Canada’s Charter of Rights: a global model
Saturday, February 11th, 2012
Feb. 10, 2012
As Canada was founded on compromise and dialogue, so are those qualities woven into its rights charter. And so it offers a structure for working through the competing interests found in any sophisticated, multicultural nation… The structure for balancing opposed interests is found in three key sections. Section 1 sets out that rights are not absolute; governments may limit them, as long as they have evidence to justify those limits… Section 15, the equality-rights section, is open-ended, and new groups, such as gays and lesbians, have been brought under its umbrella by the Supreme Court…
Tags: disabilities, featured, multiculturalism, rights, standard of living, women, youth
Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »
Toronto police ‘whitewash’ crime statistics by hiding race, study says
Monday, February 6th, 2012
Feb 05 2012
the Toronto Police Service got the go-ahead to collect race-based criminal justice statistics in 2010. But they’re still not releasing them publicly to help people determine whether there is a racial bias in policing… Police policy is to make the data public only “when deemed necessary.” And though there have been requests for the statistics, a police spokesperson says, “to date, they have never been released.” … Keeping the data secret does nothing to reduce the stigma suffered by young black males but it does make “quantitative anti-racism research impossible.” That’s not good for anyone.
Tags: crime prevention, ideology, multiculturalism, rights
Posted in Equality Delivery System | No Comments »
Stephen Harper’s ‘tough-on-crime’ laws are more misguided than ever
Tuesday, January 31st, 2012
Jan 29 2012
As more Canadians awake to declining crime rates, they will become less tolerant of senseless, ideologically driven justice policy and of bids to garner votes by fear-mongering. Provincial deficits and the prospects of cuts to health and education will reinforce that trend. Canadians might still rank crime as a big concern but it doesn’t top health care. Few will thank any government that closes a hospital to pay for a new prison.
Tags: budget, corrections, crime prevention, ideology
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | 2 Comments »
Canadian bilingualism a blessing not a curse
Monday, January 23rd, 2012
Jan. 23, 2012
Canada, an officially bilingual country, is a leader in the promotion of second-language knowledge. Ottawa and the provinces together spend more than $2-billion a year offering government services in both French and English… learning a second language should be viewed as a gift society which confers significant global advantages, and bridges cultural divides… The ability to speak French, English – as well as Spanish or Mandarin – should be seen as a source of pride and as an investment in the future that will yield dividends over a person’s lifetime.
Tags: economy, immigration, multiculturalism, rights, standard of living, youth
Posted in Inclusion Policy Context | No Comments »
Innovative ideas for protecting dementia patients
Monday, January 23rd, 2012
Jan 23, 2012
… the Halifax Regional Police force… is launching a trial program to affix GPS tracking bracelets — which look similar to digital wrist watches — to dementia patients at risk of wandering off. Such a program, once implemented, will allow the police to rapidly locate, and one hopes rescue, any dementia patient who is able to slip off unattended. The technology has the potential, not only to save resources required by a traditional search operation, but also to save lives.
Tags: disabilities, mental Health, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
Premiers don’t need slush fund to innovate in health care
Tuesday, January 17th, 2012
Jan. 17, 2012
Financial necessity is the best spur to innovation, not a slush fund labelled Innovation. But the premiers, even those who had seemed to welcome a unilateral federal funding plan, can’t seem to focus on the next steps to building a more innovative, agile, cost-effective health-care system. Not to mention one of higher quality… An Innovation Fund is not the mother of invention. Necessity is.
Tags: budget, Health, rights, standard of living, tax
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
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