Archive for the ‘Equality’ Category
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Fresh thinking on native policy
Thursday, July 22nd, 2010
Jul. 22, 2010
Shawn Atleo… the charismatic young entrepreneur, who is National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations (AFN), told his organization’s annual meeting in Winnipeg this week that it was time for Canada’s aboriginals to agree to a dismantling of the Indian Act and the federal Indian bureaucracy created in the Act’s image. It was time for greater independence. But then in the next breath, he called for new federal agencies that would ensure the provision of land, health care, education and other items promised in treaties.
Tags: Indigenous, rights, standard of living
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
The Martin Luther King for the disabled
Sunday, July 18th, 2010
Jul 16 2010
In Canada, the Americans With Disabilities Act helped spark the Accessibility for Ontarians With Disabilities Act —this is still the only province with specific legislation — and continues to be “a model for many other countries,” says Penny Hartin, CEO of the World Blind Union. The union, whose headquarters are in Toronto, has members in 190 countries… Roberts’s campaign to live independently, with paid attendants, began California’s groundbreaking policy of supportive services for people with disabilities.
Tags: disabilities, rights, standard of living
Posted in Equality History | 1 Comment »
First Nations’ well-being gap getting worse
Saturday, July 17th, 2010
July 13, 2010
In a report quietly released recently, the federal government acknowledged that “there has been little or no progress” in overall community well- being among First Nation and Inuit communities since 2001… Among the bottom 100 Canadian communities, 96 were First Nations… there’s what Graham describes as the “curse of aid” — that large fiscal transfers to reserves have created dependency and fostered unaccountable governance… “If this isn’t the top issue of our social policy agenda, what is?”
Tags: Indigenous, poverty, standard of living
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The Rise and Fall of Economic and Social Rights. What’s Next?
Monday, July 12th, 2010
July 12, 2010
He’s watched Canada move from a “sharing and caring” society to the “new barbarism.” Now Ed Broadbent comes out swinging. In this article based on his address to the Congress of the Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences on May 29th, the former leader of the NDP summarizes the journey of generations and issues a challenge to today’s leaders: stop ignoring the threat of rising inequality, tackle poverty, and show Canadians your progress.
Tags: poverty, rights, standard of living
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It’s time to focus on healing
Sunday, July 11th, 2010
July 9, 2010
The reconciliation acknowledges that tragic negligence and affirms that such things should never happen again. But its value has been questioned in some quarters. Enough is enough already… constantly revisiting incidents of abuse is like repeatedly picking a scab… It reignites anger slowly and distorts the healing process… Promotion of the negative through the past 20-some years has led many aboriginals to blame the residential schools for all of life’s hardships and miseries… our background and circumstances may have influenced who we are, but we are responsible for who we ultimately become.
Tags: Indigenous, participation
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Ontario Ombudsman to probe controversial G20 ‘five-metre rule’
Friday, July 9th, 2010
July 9, 2010
… a change to the Public Works Protection Act made behind closed doors by Premier Dalton McGuinty’s cabinet applied only to the inside of the security fence, which stretched around a large section of the city’s core. The Act, which dates back to 1939, governs most public space in Ontario and is applied every day in courthouses and other designated public areas. The chief of police had originally said there was a five-metre zone around the security barrier where police could ask people to produce identification, explain why they were there and allow officers to search their bags… but the police force and provincial government made little effort to correct the record.
Tags: rights
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Supporting human rights is good business
Monday, June 28th, 2010
June 24, 2010
A decade ago, few companies saw human rights as relevant to their operations, let alone had made a public commitment to respect them. I saw this begin to change during my term as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights… Today, we are getting closer to a tipping point when private sector leaders from all industry sectors will recognize that their companies need to engage proactively with human rights issues and demonstrate they are doing so in practice.
Tags: rights, standard of living
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Late fees for legal aid
Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010
Jun 23 2010
To its credit, Ontario has recently moved to make legal aid more financially sustainable through increased funding and rule changes. But as Attorney General Chris Bentley pursues his commitment to “renew” legal aid, he can’t let the existing system — which low-income Ontarians rely on — fall to pieces while the transformation takes place… The poor and criminals may not be the most popular of clients but our justice system must treat them equally. For that to happen, they need access to legal representation.
Tags: rights, standard of living
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
G20 Girls: Sandy Lake a world away from G8 or G20 summits
Monday, June 21st, 2010
Jun 18 2010
Aboriginal girls face more gender discrimination than their non-aboriginal counterparts. With a lack of proper health care on many reserves, young women have less access to birth control, medical help during pregnancy and pediatric attention for their babies… one in four aboriginal adults lives in an overcrowded dwelling, and 5,486 of 88,485 houses on reserves do not have sewage… Nearly 70 per cent of on-reserve Indians will not finish high school.
Tags: housing, Indigenous, poverty, standard of living, women
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Messages of equality and justice
Monday, June 21st, 2010
Jun 21 2010
“… a few propositions that have emerged loud and clear from my working life and to which I am deeply committed. That all people are born free and equal in rights and dignity, and that most of them have to spend the rest of their lives fighting to remain so. That fundamental rights don’t have to be earned. But that the exercise of power does. That we are only as safe and as free as everybody else is.” (Louise Arbour, former Supreme Court justice and current president of the International Crisis Group)
Tags: ideology, rights, standard of living
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
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