Archive for the ‘Equality’ Category
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Troublesome use of stats for poverty figures
… LICOs are not the best calculators of poverty. Any measurement of poverty needs to look at single parents, immigrant families, refugees and others as independent groups. LICOs oversimplify the complex issue of poverty by combining all these groups with the population as a whole, then coming up with an average. They do not separate single-parent families from two-parent households, or profitable provinces from those that are struggling. To boot, LICOs ignore on-reserve First Nations altogether.
Tags: ideology, Indigenous, poverty, standard of living, youth
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
For Canada and First Nations, it’s time to end the experiments
The experiments are part of a long, sad pattern of federal policy that stretches through residential schools, forced relocations and the ultimate social experiment, the Indian Act, which overnight tried to displace ways of life that had been in place for generations. All of these experiments are abject failures… there is a way forward that requires a dedicated commitment across three key areas: respect, fairness and reconciliation.
Tags: Health, Indigenous, poverty, rights, standard of living
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Why wealth must be included in the inequality debate
Analyzing inequality is extremely complex. It matters greatly whether you study individuals or the family unit; use incomes before or after taxes and transfers; measure consumption rather than income; adjust incomes for wealth; and how upper and lower incomes are defined. There is no simple answer to the question of whether inequality is rising, much as some reduce such complex matters to simple sound-bites… properly assessing trends in income distribution requires adjusting incomes for changes in wealth.
Tags: economy, ideology, pensions, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | 1 Comment »
Fewer people sit below the poverty line now than ever before. Why are we not talking about it?
In 2011, the latest year for which StatsCan has figures, the proportion of the population living on low income — that is, with incomes below the agency’s Low Income Cut-off (LICO) — fell to its lowest level … well, ever. At just 8.8%, it beat the previous record of 9.0%, set in 2010. As recently as 1996, it was at 15.2%. In 1965, the first year for which LICO rates were calculated, it was 25%.
Tags: economy, featured, ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Equality Delivery System | 1 Comment »
Canada’s legacy of abuse
… that native peoples were once regarded as lower beings with no basic rights who couldn’t hire a lawyer, vote, or leave their reserve without permission, who were relocated and dislocated by government diktat, ignored, dismissed as children, starved, robbed of their land and even their children, who were physically and sexually abused… is not new… The abuse fits into a historical context, which needs to be understood, but it does not wipe the slate clean or absolve Canada and Canadians of their responsibilities to a people who have been repeatedly victimized
Tags: child care, featured, ideology, Indigenous, poverty, rights, standard of living, youth
Posted in Equality Debates | 1 Comment »
A Canadian genocide in search of a name
It is time for Canadians to face the sad truth. Canada engaged in a deliberate policy of attempted genocide against First Nations people. And the starvation experiments were only the first of a litany of similar such attempts to control, delegitimize and, yes, even annihilate First Nations to suit the needs of a growing Dominion… a genocide that began at the time of first contact and that was still very active in our own lifetimes; a genocide… no longer in search of historical facts.
Tags: child care, ideology, Indigenous, poverty, rights, standard of living, youth
Posted in Equality History | 4 Comments »
Best amends would be more aid for kids: Atleo
The head of Canada’s largest aboriginal group says Prime Minister Stephen Harper must acknowledge the “horrors” of nutritional experiments once done on hungry children by increasing support for native child welfare… Well aware that the children and adults were hungry and living on starvation-level diets, the researchers chose to use them as unwitting subjects for tests on the effects of nutritional supplements instead of recommending they be properly fed.
Tags: ideology, Indigenous, participation, poverty, standard of living, youth
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First Nations urged to implement their own education acts
The proposed federal act threatens the self-determination goal of Indian control of Indian education… “They’re going to say, ‘We passed legislation and if you don’t abide by us we’re going to withhold your funding.’ It’s disrespectful.” The federal government honours and respects francophone language and culture, providing around $18,000 per year per student, he noted. Meanwhile, it provides around $6,500 per student to on-reserve schools
Tags: budget, Indigenous, jurisdiction, poverty, rights, standard of living, youth
Posted in Equality Delivery System | No Comments »
Income growth for Canadian middle-class families lags behind other groups: report
The lower wage growth for middle-class workers can be attributed partly to technological changes that have increased the demand for skilled workers… For the average male worker, the median annual wage has declined 19 per cent in real terms from 1976 to 1996 (from $42,000 to $34,000), before rebounding by only two per cent from 1996 to 2010. However, the median annual wage for women has steadily increased by 28 per cent from 1976 to 2010 as more women entered the workforce.
Tags: economy, globalization, standard of living, women
Posted in Equality Delivery System | No Comments »
National chief Shawn Atleo joins activists in call to action
Mr. Atleo… said he sees a growing awareness on the part of business leaders and the public at large that there needs to be a more equitable relationship between aboriginal people and the government, especially when it comes to the sharing of resource revenues. But so many other points of disconnect remain and “it doesn’t have to be this way,” Mr. Atleo said. “It’s not what our collective ancestors thought we’d be doing at this juncture in our history.”
Tags: Indigenous, participation, poverty, rights, standard of living
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
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