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Greed loses its glamour, even on Wall Street
Thursday, April 26th, 2012
Apr 24 2012
… a few isolated voices — left-wing economists, academics, social activists, labour organizers, church leaders and corporate renegades — warned that Canada was becoming a highly inequitable nation… The volume went up a couple of notches last fall when thousands of young people took to the streets chanting: “We are the 99 per cent.” … Last week brought two developments that couldn’t be shrugged off or attributed to left-wing agitation. The first was a shareholders’ revolt at one of Wall Street’s biggest banks… “This is a shot across the bow of every corporate boardroom in America,”
Tags: economy, globalization, ideology, participation, rights, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
Hopes fade for humane welfare system in Ontario
Wednesday, April 25th, 2012
Apr 22 2012
Initially, the 880,000 people who depend on social assistance — which includes welfare and disability support — regarded Lankin, former president of the United Way of Greater Toronto, as their champion in the corridors of power. She knew they couldn’t live on the province’s meagre allowance. She knew they needed affordable housing and child care. She knew the system stripped them of their privacy and their dignity. But in recent months, doubts have set in. The commission’s discussion paper in February was vague and unsettling. Last month’s provincial budget was ominous.
Tags: budget, disabilities, featured, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Dalton McGuinty and Andrea Horwath have cut a sensible deal to avert an election.
Tuesday, April 24th, 2012
Apr 23 2012
The wealth surtax is projected to affect a mere 0.2 per cent of taxpayers and will raise $470 million next year. But the money won’t go to new programs as the NDP wanted. McGuinty plans to use it, conservatively, to pay down the deficit. “We all gave a little bit,” said McGuinty, calling the surtax a “sensible compromise” to make minority government work. It’s more than that; it’s good policy. But the only reason he’s agreeing to it now is that recent polling has shown it to be a popular idea. Support for higher taxes for the very wealthy runs in the 80 per cent range. There are few things that any government, anywhere can do to generate public support numbers like that.
Tags: budget, child care, disabilities, featured, Health, ideology, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
The most expensive copyright insurance policy in Canadian history
Sunday, April 22nd, 2012
April 22, 3012
The new fees are likely to be passed along to students, who will ultimately bear the burden of the copyright arrangement with higher tuitions… Universities already pay millions of dollars for these licenses with the money flowing to database companies, publishers, and authors… it defines copying as including “posting a link or hyperlink to a digital copy”, yet linking to content can hardly be described as copying materials. Moreover, the licence comes packed with onerous restrictions such as blocking the ability to store articles in online services.
Tags: ideology, rights, standard of living, youth
Posted in Education Policy Context | No Comments »
Thousands descend on Queen’s Park to protest McGuinty budget
Sunday, April 22nd, 2012
Apr 21 2012
More than 15,000 protesters from labour unions and community organizations across the province rallied outside Ontario’s Legislature Saturday afternoon to vent their fury over the minority Liberal government’s austerity-focused budget. “We’re sending a signal to Dalton McGuinty that the budget he’s introduced is grossly unfair”… “They need to step back. Touching pensions, it’s just not the right way to go”… “All we want to see is a little bit of fairness. The very least we can ask for is that the very top earners in Ontario put in a little bit more when times are tough.”
Tags: budget, economy, featured, ideology, participation, pensions, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | 1 Comment »
A call for Canadian charities to become politically active
Sunday, April 22nd, 2012
Apr 21 2012
Even among those charities that have an interest in public policy, there is a reluctance to engage, and few play anywhere close to the 10 per cent level… Since governments have shed much of their policy capacity in the last few decades, they need good ideas from outside, and particularly from those working close to the coal face of society’s problems… Many charities who weren’t aware of the 10 per cent rule can now gear up to add a public policy dimension to their work, to begin to get a grip on one of the biggest levers of change for the better.
Tags: participation, philanthropy, rights, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion Policy Context | No Comments »
NDP’s Horwath wants more from McGuinty before backing budget
Saturday, April 21st, 2012
April 21, 2012
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath says the Liberals’ surprise $275 million boost for child care and disabled benefits is “a very positive sign” on the eve of Tuesday’s key budget vote… Horwath said a sticking point remains the Liberals’ opposition to a wealth surtax on people making more than $500,000 a year… The levy is also hugely popular with Liberal MPPs, but McGuinty himself is wary of the scheme.
Tags: budget, disabilities, ideology, poverty, standard of living, tax
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Key decisions involving the Charter of Rights and Freedoms
Saturday, April 21st, 2012
Apr 21 2012
Among the highlights: … • If you’re charged with a crime, you have a right to see all relevant evidence in your case; police and prosecution cannot withhold information that could potentially work in your favour. • Police can’t search your home without a warrant, but they’re free to go through your garbage if it’s on your property line. If you’ve thrown a tissue in a garbage can, police can take it for DNA testing. • Elementary or high-school officials can search student backpacks or lockers for illegal drugs, without a warrant. • You cannot help another person commit suicide…
Tags: rights, standard of living
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »
Stephen Harper’s attack on charities doesn’t go far enough
Saturday, April 21st, 2012
Apr 20 2012
… you and I are both on the hook for a portion of $2.8 million in so-called charitable donations that the Fraser Institute raised in 2010. Its donors too received charitable tax receipts. I don’t know about you. But I resent having to subsidize an organization that spends much its time fulminating for neo-liberalism. For the same reason, I have no interest in helping to fund the Canadian Constitution 2005 Foundation, which agitates against medicare… So what is to be done? The simplest answer is to scrap charitable tax receipts entirely. Distinguishing between real and bogus charities is an almost impossible task. Even established charities can be controversial.
Tags: featured, ideology, philanthropy, rights, standard of living, tax
Posted in Inclusion Policy Context | No Comments »
Canada’s non-profit sector invents a solution to gaps in funding
Friday, April 20th, 2012
Apr 19 2012
The recession hit Canada’s non-profit sector hard. Demand surged. Donations shrank. Foundations suspended grants to protect their endowments. Government support held up for a time as Ottawa and the provinces poured money into the moribund economy, then it too was cut… Innovative non-profit organizations shelved groundbreaking projects and went into survival mode… In 2010, the Community Forward Fund (CFF) was born. It took another two years of work — painstaking legal work — to build Canada’s first non-profit lending institution.
Tags: budget, participation, philanthropy, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion Delivery System | No Comments »
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