Mid-life men struggle with identity, have higher suicide risk
Saturday, September 22nd, 2012
Sep 20, 2012.
Middle-aged men from disadvantaged backgrounds are 10 times more likely to commit suicide, often because they have lost a sense of identity and masculine pride… “While suicide is mental health issue…. it is also a social and health inequality issue. This is unjust and unreasonable… we need to acknowledge that men are different to women and design services to meet their needs, so they can be more effective.”
Tags: Health, mental Health, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
Ontario’s embarrassing social decline
Saturday, September 1st, 2012
August 31, 2012
The bad news is found in the report, Falling Behind: Ontario’s Backslide into Widening Inequality, Growing Poverty and Cuts to Social Programs, released on Wednesday by the Ontario Common Front, a coalition of community groups, labour unions and students… “Ontario has sunk to last place in Canada when measured against every important social indicator,” says a news release about the report… • Ontario funds all its social programs — from health care to education — at the lowest rate in Canada;.. • Ontario has led Canada on cuts to corporate and incomes taxes.
Tags: budget, featured, ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
End prohibition against drugs, regulate their use
Saturday, October 8th, 2011
October 8, 2011
Study after peer-reviewed study has proven that Insite saves lives, but an even more effective harm reduction strategy would be to eliminate entirely the current prohibition against drugs and regulate their use. It is hypocritical of a society to legally prescribe certain powerful drugs for dealing with pain and mental anguish, while banning others that are often chemically similar. It is the black market on drugs that makes Insite necessary. It is poverty and mental health problems that lead people to black market drugs…
Tags: crime prevention, Health, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
Liberals eye hard-hearted fraud policy
Friday, August 12th, 2011
August 12, 2011
… welfare fraud, although “characterized as pervasive,” was actually “exceptionally low”… In 2001-02, the waning years of the PC government, convictions represented roughly 0.1% of the social assistance caseload… “Simply being on social assistance results in one being positioned as a penal object in a climate of moral condemnation, surveillance, suspicion and penalty. This criminalization is particularly gendered in that the majority of people on social assistance are women, and the majority of them are single parents.”
Tags: crime prevention, ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Hunger a real concern for too many Canadians
Thursday, July 28th, 2011
July 26, 2011
Hunger and poverty are not winter problems. They aren’t Thanksgiving and Christmas problems. Yet Canadians are more inclined to dig into their pockets and help the needy at holiday and festive times of the year. Perhaps that’s for no other reason than it helps push some of the guilt to the background… As Canadians, we are blessed with an abundance of agriculture, fruits and vegetables, meat, dairy and grain. Still, more than five million Canadians find themselves standing on the outside and looking in…
Tags: budget, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | 1 Comment »
Helping homeless also helps the giver
Tuesday, June 7th, 2011
June 6, 2011
Abuse, alcohol and drug problems, and mental disorders play a role in the lives of some homeless people, just as they do in the lives of Canadians who sleep every night in penthouse suites… Homelessness has many causes, driven primarily by a lack of affordable housing and low social assistance rates. The solutions demand a national strategy on housing and a serious commitment from government to eradicate poverty.
Tags: disabilities, homelessness, mental Health, poverty
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
London tests power of prayer in bid to close rich-poor gap
Sunday, April 17th, 2011
April 17, 2011
leaders from several major faiths in London have joined forces to preach the same message at the same time to Christians, Muslims and Jews. The message: Vote and vote for the person or party you believe does the most to bridge the growing gap in Canada between the rich and the poor. It’s likely the first time leaders of different religions in London have blanketed their followers with one message, and a political one at that… “We are one family at the end of the day,” Imam Jamal Taleb of London Muslim Mosque said Friday.
Tags: ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion Debates | 1 Comment »
A good start for our kids will keep them out of jails
Thursday, March 24th, 2011
March 22, 2011
They need proper nutrition and educational supports, better access to subsidized childcare as well as geared-to- income housing. Their caregivers need better training to create new employment opportunities. Help the parent, help the child. For everything Canada has to brag about on the world stage, at home we are failing our children, and they deserve better. More police and more guns on our streets, or harsher sentences for criminals, will never prevent crime. Until we are ready and financially committed to addressing the root causes society’s ills, they will continue to make victims of us all.
Tags: child care, crime prevention, housing, ideology, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
Balance needed in wage debate
Friday, February 25th, 2011
February 23, 2011
… the Canadian Federation of Independent Business… study, Minimum Wage: Reframing the Debate, is not persuasive enough to end minimum-wage policies… It concludes that, rather than use minimum wage hikes to help low-income people, governments should use tax policies such as increasing the basic personal exemption and lowering personal income tax–as well as retraining programs–to help those on minimum wage. It is, in effect, an argument to allow businesses to employ more people at lower wages, while governments pay more.
Tags: economy, ideology, rights, standard of living
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
Eggleton speaks out on poverty Report: The Liberal senator is urging action
Wednesday, February 23rd, 2011
February 22, 2011
Sen. Art Eggleton told The Free Press Monday it’s “disgusting” that more than one million Canadian children live in poverty and it’s time to fix the system that keeps them poor… The report offers 74 recommendations, which include raising income supports for people on welfare and the working poor; a national housing strategy; and a national child-care system… Eggleton said the business community in several municipalities across the country has embraced the need for change, recognizing that “poverty costs a lot,” but the programs in place are ineffective.
Tags: child care, homelessness, ideology, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
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