Archive for the ‘Equality’ Category
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Food tax: Adding GST to food will benefit the poor, economists say
Sunday, February 26th, 2012
Feb 24 2012
Smart and Mintz estimate the federal government could raise $39 billion annually if it eliminated the exemptions that now exist on politically touchy items such as medicine, tuition, financial services and especially food. Those new revenues can be used to cut income taxes, fund social services or both, or even to reduce almost in half the 12- to 15-per cent harmonized taxes consumers pay.
Tags: economy, ideology, poverty, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
The ‘freedom’ show on the Rideau
Friday, February 24th, 2012
Feb. 24, 2012
Conservatism has contradictory impulses. The pursuit of freedom and the pursuit of order run at cross-purposes… the Conservative government has a nationalist bent, evident in its elevation of military values, populist anti-intellectualism, moral certitude on foreign policy, law-and-order fixation and message-control mania. This kind of nationalism requires state-driven conformity, not liberty. And so, while Conservatives are supposed to cherish government that is off the backs of the people, what we have is something closer to the opposite.
Tags: featured, ideology, participation, rights
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Mentally ill win right to challenge their lawyer’s performance
Wednesday, February 22nd, 2012
Feb 21 2012
While effective legal assistance is seen as crucial at a criminal trial, where an accused person’s freedom is at stake, it is no less serious in the mental health context, where treatment decisions affecting a person’s liberty, dignity and right to self-determination are also at issue, said Justice Eleanore Cronk, writing for the appeal court… Without “the availability of effective assistance of counsel who is prepared to undertake fearless advocacy for the allegedly incapable patient at the board capacity hearing, the right of self-determination in respect of medical treatment becomes illusory,” she said.
Tags: disabilities, rights, standard of living
Posted in Equality Delivery System | 2 Comments »
The have-nots always suffer
Tuesday, February 21st, 2012
Feb 18 2012
Why must the poor, the young, the old always suffer while the rich never do? While the Drummond report has some good ideas, the well-to-do remain, as usual, untouched. Not even asked to do without luxuries, perks and tax breaks all subsidized by taxpayers who cannot even afford to make their own ends meet. Where is leadership by example?
Tags: budget, ideology, poverty, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Policy Context | No Comments »
The next generation gap: equity and fairness
Tuesday, February 21st, 2012
Feb. 21, 2012
Crises in inequality and governability increasingly feed social instability… meaningful reforms must be both political and economic… perhaps the time has come to develop a more applied principle of intergenerational equity – requiring legislatures, judges, pension fund trustees and, yes, corporate CEOs and boards of directors to consider and be held accountable for the impact current decisions have on future generations’ interests
Tags: economy, ideology, standard of living, tax, youth
Posted in Equality Debates | 1 Comment »
Supreme Court ruling gives Canadians with mental disabilities full equality in court
Wednesday, February 15th, 2012
Feb 14 2012
The law is finally fair. In a landmark judgment last week, the Supreme Court ruled that Canadians with mental disabilities have the same right to testify in court as everyone else… It also said adults with mental disabilities should be subjected to no higher test of truthfulness than any other witness: Can they tell their story coherently and do they swear to tell the truth?
Tags: disabilities, mental Health, rights
Posted in Equality Delivery System | No Comments »
Rich have succeeded in keeping tax hikes off the political agenda
Tuesday, February 14th, 2012
Feb 13 2012
Drummond’s long-awaited report… will lay out a deficit-shrinking program of austerity that is expected to have harsh implications for public employees from hospital cleaners to daycare workers, as well as delivering service cuts with devastating impacts on the poor, the sick, women in shelters and the disabled… But… he presents a friendly banker’s face to the affluent, who are to be spared paying any additional taxes as their contribution to the province’s deficit fight. Premier Dalton McGuinty made that clear when he declared tax increases off the table in Drummond’s search for ways to reduce Ontario’s $16-billion deficit.
Tags: budget, ideology, poverty, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Government faces Aboriginal challenge
Tuesday, February 14th, 2012
Feb. 14, 2012
Facts that could prove the federal government is discriminating against aboriginal children by underfunding child-welfare services on reserves need to be heard in court, said lawyers for the Canadian Human Rights Commission… The complaint argued the underfunding of child-welfare services on reserves leads to poverty, poor housing, substance abuse and a vast overrepresentation of aboriginal children in state care. However, the federal government argues that because it sends funds to band managers – who administer the services – the government cannot be held responsible for the services delivered.
Tags: Indigenous, participation, rights, standard of living, youth
Posted in Equality Delivery System | No Comments »
Top court orders new trial in sex attack on developmentally challenged woman
Friday, February 10th, 2012
Feb. 10, 2012
… the ruling simply means that persons with mental disabilities are not required to meet a more onerous test than any other witnesses before they are allowed to enter the courthouse door and take the stand… “So that persons with mental disabilities report sexual abuse, that it will be treated even more seriously by police and by prosecutors, with some assurance that when their evidence comes before the court, it will be accepted and heard.”
Tags: crime prevention, disabilities, rights
Posted in Equality Delivery System | 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 »
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