Archive for the ‘Inclusion Debates’ Category
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The disabled are the forgotten poor
Wednesday, July 7th, 2010
Jul 07 2010
[a} quarter of a million disabled Ontarians who live in government-imposed poverty. They receive welfare under the Ontario Disability Support Program (ODSP), but it doesn’t bring them up to the poverty line. It leaves a single person 30 per cent below the low-income cut-off set by Statistics Canada; a couple 10 per cent below; and a couple with a child 5 per cent short. The government’s solution: employment incentives. The trouble is, the vast majority of these people cannot work full-time. Many can’t work at all.
Tags: disabilities, poverty
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Unwelcome policy at recreation centres
Monday, July 5th, 2010
Jul 05 2010
… downloading and funding cuts continue to affect our daily lives. As workers at community agencies, we cannot do our jobs without looking at the larger structures affecting communities. We are beginning here by articulating a vision for accessible recreation. But that’s just a start. Across the city, community workers and residents are looking past the city they’ve given us to the city we want. We will build it, together.
Tags: participation, poverty, standard of living
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Where’s housing plan?
Sunday, July 4th, 2010
Jul 04 2010
… the government continues to dither on the one policy that could make a real difference: an affordable housing strategy. Just one week before announcing the rent increase guideline, the government again postponed its long-awaited strategy… The landlords say they won’t be able to maintain buildings because the guideline is too low to recoup the increased costs related to the harmonized sales tax (HST), which came into effect July 1… But the rent guideline is not the cause of all these problems any more than it is the solution to Ontario’s affordable housing crisis.
Tags: housing, standard of living
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The G20 summit’s grim lessons for civil liberties
Saturday, July 3rd, 2010
Jul 03 2010
… the state blatantly abused its powers. Summits legitimately require security; but in this one, governments went over the top. The federal government transformed the city’s downtown into a no-go zone. The provincial government secretly passed new regulations to give police extraordinary search and seizure powers and then, when citizens found out, pretended that it hadn’t. The police used their authority to prevent breaches of the peace as an excuse to jail citizens who were committing no crimes. The second is that most people don’t care.
Tags: participation, rights
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Conspicuous donation
Wednesday, June 30th, 2010
June 30, 2010
A couple of weeks ago, the world’s richest men, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, launched a scheme to “invite” America’s billionaires to give away half or more of their wealth… Capitalism and philanthropy have in fact always been closely allied since the days of John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie (whose reward was to be dubbed “Robber Barons”)… Unfortunately, universal support for the idea of “giving something back” implies that business fortunes were the result of “taking something away.”
Tags: ideology, participation
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Reflections on poverty and family, from Canadian writer Lorna Crozier
Tuesday, June 29th, 2010
June 28, 2010
Celebrated, award-winning Canadian poet and writer, Lorna Crozier[‘s]… memoir…Small Beneath the Sky, published in 2009… allows the reader, through a beautifully written narrative, to explore issues of poverty in a working family… “Too easily the working poor are invisible. Growing up with parents who could barely pay for the rent of a derelict house had its effects on me… most of my life I’ve carried the shame of not being as good as many other people in my small town. It’s taken me many years to shed that sense of shame.”
Tags: participation, poverty
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Policy change aims to boost access to affordable housing
Saturday, June 26th, 2010
June 25, 2010
The City of Kawartha Lakes has established a policy under the Social Housing Reform Act that officials say will enhance and expedite access to affordable housing units in its service area for people with special needs… The participating agencies are hopeful that further support service funding will be approved by the Central East Local Health Integration Network for the special needs groups that rely on their services.
Tags: disabilities, housing, poverty, standard of living
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The world would love to be Canadian
Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010
Jun. 22, 2010
Given the choice, 53 per cent of adults in the world’s 24 leading economies said they would immigrate to Canada, according to an international survey… It’s a startling finding, one that is reinforced by respondents’ overwhelmingly positive attitudes about Canada’s welcoming and tolerant treatment of newcomers. The results bode well for Canada’s efforts to attract highly educated immigrants as the global search for talent heats up in coming years.
Tags: immigration, multiculturalism, participation, standard of living
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In the depth of a recession the rich got richer
Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010
Jun. 22, 2010
The rich grew richer last year, even as the world endured the worst recession in decades. A stock market rebound helped the world’s ranks of millionaires climb 17 per cent to 10 million, while their collective wealth surged 19 per cent to $39-trillion, nearly recouping losses from the financial crisis, according to the latest Merrill Lynch-Capgemini world wealth report… In North America, the ranks of the rich rose 17 per cent and their wealth grew 18 per cent to $10.7-trillion.
Tags: economy, participation, tax
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Put poverty on agenda
Saturday, June 19th, 2010
Jun 19 2010
Tony Martin’s bill would require the government to set out targets to reduce poverty… and to appoint an independent “poverty elimination commissioner” to hold it accountable…
What makes the initiative of the Sault Ste. Marie MP stand out is that he has drawn support across party lines. Liberal and Bloc Québécois MPs seconded the bill in the Commons this week, and a Conservative senator, Hugh Segal, said he supports Martin’s “intent and purpose.” Many business leaders have also begun to recognize that poverty not just bad for the poor; it also holds back the country by dragging down productivity and keeping us from reaching our full potential.
Tags: featured, poverty, standard of living
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