Archive for the ‘Inclusion’ Category

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Ontario has an accessibility crisis. It’s time Queen’s Park acted with urgency

Thursday, January 4th, 2024

First, avoid gathering any data that might indicate the scope of the problem, as well as how to solve it. Second, don’t put anyone in charge of remedying the problem. Finally, avoid employing any enforcement mechanism, so no one’s ever held responsible for failing to do anything. That… is precisely what the province has been doing for the past 17 years. The review, which is mandated by the act, found that more than three quarters of the province’s 2.9 million people with disabilities (PWD) reported negative experiences.

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Toronto is getting a fourth emergency service. That’s vital for helping people in crisis

Wednesday, November 29th, 2023

The service, which offers a non-police, community-based response to people experiencing mental health crises… will soon cover the entire city… Police are, after all, not trained mental health professionals, and police involvement has all too often ended in tragedy. In contrast, 93 per cent of the crisis calls were successfully completed, and 95 per cent of people served by crisis teams said they were either satisfied or very satisfied with the service.

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Montréal’s ‘mixed’ police squads don’t help the city’s unhoused people — they cause more harm

Monday, October 9th, 2023

The squads add a layer of surveillance and harassment that leads unhoused people to leave the spaces they know best and distance themselves from their support network in order to avoid police… the report calls for a new approach to homelessness, including abolishing mixed squads and reallocating their funding to two types of interventions.

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How Canada can make better progress on disability inclusion

Thursday, September 14th, 2023

Pervasive misconceptions about disabilities, flawed income support systems and inadequate enforcement of regulations are among the systemic challenges… A fully inclusive society could generate an economic benefit of $337 billion — the equivalent of approximately 17 per cent of Canada’s GDP. Moreover, when systems are designed to accommodate those facing the most significant barriers, everyone benefits.

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The Canada Disability Benefit Act is progress worth celebrating

Monday, July 31st, 2023

First, it is a measure to prevent poverty that is protected by law. It adds to our system of legal protections, which include laws such as the National Housing Strategy Act (2019) and the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (2005). These laws are important symbolically, as they codify our society’s commitment to uphold our economic and social rights. They are also important practically, as they require governments to set out rules about how they will put that commitment into action.

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How Toronto — and Canada’s — immigration landscape shifted because of one program

Thursday, July 27th, 2023

Provincial Nominee Program has diverted economic immigrants from Ontario, B.C. and Quebec to smaller provinces among other changes… first rolled out in Manitoba in 1998 and later expanded to the rest of the country… [Since PNP] applicants are selected specifically for their increased likelihood of participating in the labour force and establishing themselves economically, an increase in their share likely improved the collective economic outcomes of recent economic immigrants.”

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The National Housing Strategy won’t end homelessness without supportive housing

Wednesday, June 21st, 2023

We found that having both affordable housing and staff on-site who could meet a variety of needs proved transformational for the tenants… To address chronic homelessness, the federal government needs to include funding for longer-term supportive housing in its National Housing Strategy. And provincial governments must increase social assistance rates to provide more income towards housing.

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Ontario has made slow progress to accessibility

Tuesday, March 21st, 2023

… 77 per cent of people with disabilities report having a negative experience in public or at work, while only eight per cent describe their experience as positive. These negative experiences… are the result of a lack of leadership, enforcement, research and accountability, and of flaws in virtually every aspect of the system, including “services, products, technology, buildings, infrastructure, careers, processes and human imagination.” 

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We have a homelessness emergency in every part of Ontario

Tuesday, March 14th, 2023

… the cause and effect are apparent… Ontario would need to increase its budget by $28 billion a year to spend what other provinces are spending. This extreme underspending will be a disaster for our communities… Ontario municipalities are unique in Canada in that they pay all or part of the costs of a range of health and social services such as public health and social housing.

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It’s time to close the breach at Roxham Road and enforce Canada’s borders

Tuesday, February 21st, 2023

It’s not mainly a question of money. The people working to receive and care for asylum seekers are limited. The number of new classes we can add to accommodate children, many of whom are distressed or traumatized, is limited, and that’s not to mention the shortage of teachers… housing… We have therefore asked the federal government to settle new asylum seekers in other provinces that are capable of supporting them with dignity.

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