Archive for the ‘Child & Family Debates’ Category
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Let’s build opportunity, not prisons
Sunday, February 20th, 2011
Feb. 18, 2011
Even if all of the government’s criminal justice bills were sensible, taken individually (and frankly, we have no philosophical objection to Truth in Sentencing), the costs need to be known and weighed, on their own merits and against other uses for that money. If Canada has money for an expansion of the jails, which is doubtful, it should think instead about ambitious ways of investing in productivity and people.
Tags: corrections, crime prevention
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Tough on poverty, tough on crime
Sunday, February 20th, 2011
Feb 20 2011
Debates about whether approaches to crime and corrections in Canada are too soft or too tough are ongoing and endemic… the real issue is why prisons disproportionately house our most vulnerable citizens… Less than 10 per cent of Canadians live beneath the poverty line but almost 100 per cent of our prison inmates come from that 10 per cent. There is no political ideology, on the right or left, that would make the case that people living in poverty belong in jail… If crime abatement is the goal, it is time for all Canadians and their governments to become tough on poverty.
Tags: budget, crime prevention, featured, ideology, poverty, standard of living
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McGuinty must fixsignature program [child care]
Monday, February 14th, 2011
Feb 14 2011
McGuinty has acted only on that part of his plan and left aside the rest of what was supposed to be a much broader push to meet all the needs of young children and their families… The original plan put forward by Charles Pascal, Ontario’s early learning adviser, would have ended the patchwork of programs and created a seamless education and child-care system. But without that integration, we are seeing the chronically underfunded child-care system crumble from the loss of 4- and 5-year-olds. Their fees have always subsidized younger children.
Tags: budget, child care, participation, standard of living, women
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Liberals come out against Tory ‘dumb on crime’ legislation
Wednesday, February 9th, 2011
February 9, 2011
“We’re all in favour of cracking down on serious criminals, but this bill doesn’t distinguish between massive grow-ops and a first-time offender with a small amount,” he said. “What’s more, the Conservatives won’t tell us what the fiscal implications of this bill are. How many billions will it cost? How many mega-prisons will have to be built? For these reasons, we just can’t support it.” … That looming expense has convinced Liberals they can safely vote against S-10 without suffering political consequences.
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, ideology, youth
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Chantal Kreviazuk on her family’s struggle with mental illness
Wednesday, February 9th, 2011
February 8, 2011
… it’s hidden – the mental health world. There are limited treatments available… the cycle of the stopwatch medicating, stabilizing the patient and then throwing them back out to the conscious world… there has to be a better way… If your instincts tell you that the treatment doesn’t feel right, it might not be right. Great treatments involve the individual recognizing and taking responsibility for themselves, their disorder and their medication. The individual must “unlearn” their attitude of entitlement, and shift it to one of overall responsibility and service.
Tags: disabilities, Health, mental Health
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For parents, a pittance and sneers
Monday, February 7th, 2011
Feb 07 2011
How I wish Stephen Harper hadn’t killed the Liberal daycare plan. The Conservative approach — $100 a month whether you need it or not — shows both disdain and cluelessness. That money wouldn’t buy me a roll of TTC tokens and a snow shovel to get the stroller out of the driveway. Ottawa offers a pittance and a series of sneers. Then it frets about the aging population and how there won’t be enough young people working to pay for their hip replacements and dementia therapy. Do we really wonder why people don’t have more children?
Tags: child care, economy, ideology, participation, standard of living, women
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The child-care challenge: Parents deserve a real choice
Sunday, February 6th, 2011
Feb 04 2011
No one wants a one-size-fits-all model in which children are rounded up into daycares every morning. But the fact that not everyone wants or needs it is no reason to deny it to those who do. The 1950s are over. Stay-at-home moms are an increasing rarity. And, despite what Finley may think, mothers (or fathers) don’t give up being parents by putting their kids in child care… choice in child care is important. But it must include affordable, regulated child care. For far too many parents, that will never be an option without a national plan.
Tags: budget, child care, featured, ideology, participation, women
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Dust-up over daycare
Sunday, February 6th, 2011
Feb. 5, 2011
While 33% of respondents would give a high priority to child care for working parents, 32% would give a high priority to financial support for stay-at-home parents. And so, rather than shove a massive Liberal coast-to-coast daycare program down Canadian taxpayers’ throats, wouldn’t it be better to provide any new funding to the parents themselves — as the Tories argue — and let them make up their own mind? … instead of finding ways to push more babies out of the nest, politicians should look at ways to support all parents’ choices…
Tags: budget, child care, ideology, participation, women
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Liberals promise child-care revival
Thursday, February 3rd, 2011
Jan. 3,2011
Federal Liberals are vowing to revive the national child-care program that Prime Minister Stephen Harper scrapped exactly five years ago this week… Dryden said that the $100 payments don’t even come close to meeting the child-care costs of the average Canadian family, which he put at roughly $8,000 a year… Though the party has unveiled a $1-billion program to help families caring for sick and elderly relatives – the so-called Family Care proposal – all the Liberals’ promises in the realm of education are being held back for announcement during a campaign.
Tags: child care, ideology, participation, women
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Build families, not prisons to reduce crime
Monday, January 31st, 2011
January 30, 2011
We know that prisons have little effect in reducing crime. Those who might be deterred by prison, such as criminal corporation executives, rarely end up in prison. Some offenders become more involved in crime because of their prison experiences. For decades, however, we have known that a better quality of life for children reduces crime. Research on child development shows that support to vulnerable first-time mothers helps children become less troublesome young adults.
Tags: crime prevention, ideology, poverty
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