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It’s time to close Canada’s food banks
Monday, July 25th, 2011
Jul. 25, 2011
Food banks have become a serious obstacle in the fight against poverty. By promising to “end hunger” by feeding hungry Canadians, they provide a comforting illusion that no one is hungry – or if they are, it’s their own fault. They shelter us from the harsh reality that millions lack the basic necessities of life… It’s time to hold our governments accountable to their obligation to ensure that all Canadians have a standard of living adequate for health and well-being… Tackling poverty means wrestling with diverse ideas about causes and solutions. It’s time to begin that political conversation.
Tags: ideology, poverty, rights, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Policy Context | 1 Comment »
Canadians need more clarity on how government spends
Friday, July 22nd, 2011
Jul. 18, 2011
Kevin Page, the Parliamentary Budget Officer, is right to have drawn attention this month to a recent OECD survey, which found Canada’s interim reporting of government spending to be slower and less detailed than most of the 24 other countries considered… the PBO will be supplying quarterly reports from its new database, with a time lag of about 60 days… The true purpose of prompt interim reporting is to allow parliamentarians to compare the estimates that MPs had previously voted on with the government’s actual spending – or lack of it – comfortably inside one annual budgetary cycle.
Tags: budget, participation, rights
Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »
Statistics Canada to stop tracking marriage and divorce rates
Friday, July 22nd, 2011
Jul. 21, 2011
Statistics Canada will no longer collect and crunch numbers on the country’s annual marriage and divorce rates, a sign both of cost cuts at the agency and the changing nature of relationships, as definitions get fuzzier and harder to track… The absence of data will make it difficult to assess how the recession affected divorce rates because it ends at 2008. It will be harder to compare Canadian marriage or divorce rates… And policy makers say they will have a tougher time assessing where and how marital breakdown is affecting child poverty, housing, education and health care
Tags: Health, housing, poverty
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »
Do we care that Canada is an unequal society?
Wednesday, July 20th, 2011
Jul. 20, 2011
Canada, it turns out, ranks 12 among 17 comparable countries in income inequality… The United States and Britain, two countries against which Canada measures itself, are the worst performers – that is, the most unequal societies of the 17… The Conference Board notes that government transfer programs flatten out some inequalities, but not as effectively as 20 years ago. Unemployment benefits go to fewer people; welfare rates haven’t always kept up with the cost of living. Many of the Harper government’s tax cuts… have disproportionately benefited those better off, since they’re not geared to income
Tags: ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Equality Policy Context | No Comments »
The enlightened path against youth crime? Prevention
Wednesday, July 20th, 2011
Jul. 20, 2011
… we must set aside polarizing positions and identify the common ground around which an intelligent approach to youth justice can be crafted… evidence-based crime prevention… criminal justice policy must be led by prevention, not policing or incarceration… years of service downloading have left community agencies without the resources they need to intervene – the most acute problem being the utter deficit of mental health services for children – and are left to watch their young charges descend into a youth criminal justice system that often fails to rehabilitate them.
Tags: budget, crime prevention, youth
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »
Ontario couples must attend information session before divorce
Wednesday, July 20th, 2011
Jul. 17, 2011
Couples will have to attend the information session before they can file a divorce case in court. If they still insist on going to court after that, they will then be given the option to attend a mediation session organized by the attorney general’s office to try settling their differences. Couples will now be able to attend the mediation session at any family court across the province for free. They would have needed to pay it for themselves before the changes were introduced.
Tags: budget, rights, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | No Comments »
The national shame of aboriginal incarceration
Wednesday, July 20th, 2011
Jul. 20, 2011
Federal correctional investigator Howard Sapers, in his 2009 report, says that the gap between aboriginal and non-aboriginal offenders continues to grow and that the rate for aboriginal incarceration in 2008 was nine times the national average. This gap will widen and these numbers will increase with the Harper government’s proposed crime bill. The ugly reality is that aboriginals will be especially hard hit by this legislation… Among women offenders, the overrepresentation is even more dramatic – one in three federally sentenced women is aboriginal.
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, Indigenous, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Canada’s youth crime plans bewilder international observers
Tuesday, July 19th, 2011
Jul. 19, 2011
Judges, criminologists and policy-makers in the United States, Britain and Australia – countries whose systems, for the most part, closely resemble Canada’s – can’t figure out why this country is planning to shift toward a jail-intensive approach. Everyone else seems to be doing the opposite, not for ideological reasons, but because evidence shows it works… “I don’t think it deters anything,” he said. “You have to look at what type of community are you building by constantly sending kids to jail.”
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, youth
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »
Tough guys
Tuesday, July 19th, 2011
July 19, 2011
The Conservative government suggests its crime bill will be “tougher on youthful offenders.” It’s hard to imagine how anyone could make things tougher for the young men I’ve spoken with. More than half have had contact with the Children’s Aid Society. Nearly one-third have been removed from their families and/or been made a ward of the court. Most have substance abuse problems or mental health issues. Many come from a background of poverty and violent neighbourhoods… a sentence of custody… should be reserved for the most serious of crimes and serious of offenders.
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, ideology, mental Health, youth
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
A prescription for reining in drug costs
Monday, July 18th, 2011
Jul. 18, 2011
Approximately 98 per cent of Canadians benefit from some sort of drug insurance plan – either a provincial government-funded public plan or an employer-funded private-sector plan. Canadian drug prices have been rising steadily for decades, to the point where they are now the second largest health-care expense after hospitals. They have become the elephant in the room – unavoidable and unmanageable. As a result, drug plans have become incredibly expensive to run… Fortunately, just as the public sector moved to bring costs under control, the private sector can as well.
Tags: budget, Health, pharmaceutical
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
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