Archive for the ‘Equality’ Category
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Study finds being poor places heavy burden on mental capacity
Poverty… imposes a measurable burden on the mental capacity of those who must struggle with it day after day. The result… may explain why low-income people seem to have a harder time with certain tasks that require focus or planning and appear to make decisions that work against their best interests. It also suggests that policies and programs designed to help the poor improve their lot may not be successful if they do not take into account how much brain power is used simply in the act of trying to get by with scarce resources.
Tags: featured, ideology, mental Health, poverty
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Ottawa urged to better fund legal aid
… the federal government has gradually reduced its share of funding for both criminal and civil legal aid. Up until 1995, the report argues, the federal government split the cost with the provinces and territories 50-50. It now contributes just 20-30 per cent of the cost. “Like health care, justice is a shared governmental responsibility,” says the report. “A reinvigorated federal role is imperative if we are to reach equal justice.”
Tags: budget, featured, ideology, jurisdiction, poverty, rights, standard of living
Posted in Equality Delivery System | 1 Comment »
Report says access to justice in Canada ‘abysmal,’ calls for change by 2030
“Inaccessible justice costs us all, but visits its harshest consequences on the poorest people in our communities”… many people earn just enough money so they don’t qualify for legal aid, but they also don’t make enough to pay for a lawyer. Those people often find themselves on their own in court… that also puts more of a burden on the system.
Tags: budget, ideology, jurisdiction, participation, poverty, rights, standard of living
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How Austerity Chokes Canada’s Down-and-out
Harper and Flaherty will chop another $11.8-billion from government spending by 2014-15; job losses in both the public and private sectors will be 90,000 by 2014-15; and there will be 1.4-million unemployed workers in the country in 2015… to balance the budget and look after people at the margins, they could work harder to collect the billions of dollars the government is owed by the rich and corporations in unpaid taxes
Tags: budget, economy, globalization, ideology, poverty, standard of living
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Aboriginals threatened by present, not past
Instead of telling aboriginal people to “quit blaming the past” and take “responsibility,” perhaps the rest of Canada should stop ignoring the past and take some responsibility for the present, to ensure that we may actually have a future, not simply as a nation, but as a species. Perhaps it’s time for the rest of Canada to become Idle No More.
Tags: economy, featured, Health, ideology, Indigenous, participation, rights, standard of living
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Wake up to the aboriginal comeback
The political, legal and bureaucratic cringing, prevarication, negotiating over which documents to release, when, in what conditions, only make the whole tragedy more humiliating for all Canadians, aboriginal and otherwise… But I have never heard a First Nations, Métis or Inuit person say they wanted to be seen primarily as a victim. That would be marginalizing and demeaning… What indigenous peoples are after is their full and proper place on this territory.
Tags: ideology, Indigenous, jurisdiction, participation, rights, standard of living
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The middle class is good politics but a curious crusade
… Canada has not experienced the same wage polarization that has led to rising income inequality south of the border. Social mobility is higher here and our tax system is more progressive. The after-tax income of the top 10 per cent of Canadians was 4.1 times that of the bottom 10 per cent in 2010. The U.S. ratio was 6 to 1… globalization’s upsides outweigh its downsides. And Canadians, among the best-educated people on the planet, stand to benefit.
Tags: economy, ideology, standard of living
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Poverty is still a problem
The LIM, the measure used internationally, while also demonstrating a slight decrease, still shows that over four million Canadians live in poverty. Meanwhile, child poverty across the country has increased, moving from 8.2% in 2010 to 8.5% in 2011… What I would like to see is meaningful engagement from the federal government to address poverty, and the creation of a federal poverty strategy grounded in human rights, in keeping with our international obligations.
Tags: economy, ideology, jurisdiction, poverty, rights, standard of living
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There’s been no ‘extraordinary’ drop in poverty
… questions of income distribution, including how much poverty a society will tolerate, are basically political choices. Other countries, while facing the same supposedly unstoppable forces of globalization, have done much better than Canada in terms of poverty and inequality, without sacrificing productivity or international competitiveness… The bottom line is that a more fair and inclusive society is no less affordable than a meaner and more unequal one – in fact, it’s more affordable.
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, ideology, poverty, standard of living
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Child poverty increasing
… there has been no improvement concerning child poverty, which is on the increase. Mr. Coyne states that the 2011 report shows that the Low Income Cut Off fell to its lowest level ever, which is indeed good news. That said, according to newly-released figures from Statistics Canada, the child-poverty rate in British Columbia rose from 10.5 per cent in 2010 to 11.3 per cent in 2011. In Quebec, the story is basically the same, with approximately one-in-10 Montrealers relying on social assistance for income support, including 46,500 children per month.
Tags: economy, poverty, standard of living, youth
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