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Timely warning for Canada about prisons
Friday, September 9th, 2011
Sep 08 2011
Between 1980 and 2009, America’s prison population quintupled. It now has the highest rate of incarceration in the world (715 inmates per 100,000 people). What makes all this relevant to Canadians in September of 2011 is that Prime Minister Stephen Harper is poised to embark on the same path the U.S. took a generation ago… here is what Canadians can expect: • An exponential growth in prisons… • A deterioration of the social structures that communities need to prevent crime… • A disproportionate increase in the number of poor, non-white people behind bars…
Tags: budget, corrections, crime prevention, featured, ideology, rights, tax
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | 1 Comment »
Conrad Black’s broadside against Canada’s prison plan
Thursday, September 8th, 2011
Sep 05 2011
To Black, Canada is about to model the U.S. prison system — which he describes as an inhumane and unjust factory farm that dehumanizes inmates, breeds an underclass that can never reintegrate and will exact a long-term toll on society… the penal system isolates and punishes for life “a very large number of people who have been for the most part socioeconomically comparatively disadvantaged.” … More important than how such treatment “festers in their minds” is how “great a social damage a country does or society does to itself by pursuing that kind of penal and justice system,” he said.
Tags: budget, corrections, crime prevention, ideology
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
Workers call for tougher labour laws to end wage theft
Monday, September 5th, 2011
Sep 05 2011
Last year, Ontario workers were entitled to $21.4 million in unpaid wages against solvent companies and almost $43 million in unpaid wages against bankrupt or insolvent employers, according to labour ministry documents… Ontario’s Employment Standards Act sets out the province’s minimum workplace regulations and is the only protection against abuse for low-paid, vulnerable workers. Since the act is more than 40 years old, Ladd says it never contemplated the complex work environment that includes temporary employment agencies, sub-contractors, franchises and live-in caregiving.
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
Few cracks in the glass ceiling
Monday, September 5th, 2011
Sep 04 2011
A new Conference Board of Canada study shows that women’s advancement to the top echelons of business came to a dead halt in the mid-1980s. It has been stalled ever since… The mainstream think-tank did not call for a radical shakeup of corporate culture… It merely stressed that “fostering gender diversity is a natural extension of good business practice.” … the report does serve one valuable purpose. It shatters the long-standing myth that time corrects gender equities. It’s true that a few female stars have cracked the glass ceiling. But the path to the top is still blocked for most women.
Tags: economy, ideology, participation, rights, women
Posted in Equality History | 2 Comments »
Global revolt of the have-nots
Monday, September 5th, 2011
Sep 04 201
“All the action of the American economy was at the top; the richest 1 per cent of households earned as much each year as the bottom 60 per cent put together; they possessed as much wealth as the bottom 90 per cent; and with each passing year, a greater share of the nation’s treasure was flowing through their hands and into their pockets.” … The evasions of conservative governments, tellingly articulated by Britain’s prime minister, include ascribing the unrest to greed, gangs and the failure of parents to control their children…
Tags: economy, ideology, participation, poverty, standard of living
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
The kids aren’t all right
Sunday, September 4th, 2011
Sep 03 2011
I never dreamed that after 35 years in medicine I would now find so many children in worse shape than when I started. Three years ago, I was asked to set up a social pediatrics program at the Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids). Social pediatrics recognizes that poverty places children at high risk for current and future health problems… The experience is transformative. One young doctor had to examine a sick child in a dim apartment because the electricity had been cut off. She said she’d never again do an assessment or write a prescription without wondering if paying for the antibiotic might mean no food on the table.
Tags: featured, Health, poverty, standard of living, youth
Posted in Health Delivery System | No Comments »
Education and productivity
Saturday, September 3rd, 2011
Sep 02 2011
Each child motivated by the Canada Learning Bond to pursue university will earn, on average, over $800,000 more during a working life than someone who ends their education with a high-school diploma. A third of this will go right back into government coffers in the form of higher income taxes. Solid returns on a $2,000 investment. And this doesn’t count the avoided costs of social supports for those left behind or the greater productivity and innovation from the Canadian businesses that will employ them.
Tags: economy, featured, participation, poverty, standard of living, tax
Posted in Education Policy Context | No Comments »
Liberals promise ‘summer school’ for primary grades
Friday, September 2nd, 2011
Sep 01 2011
Children in Grades 1 to 3 who are struggling with reading, writing and math could go to summer school next year if the Liberal government is re-elected… The voluntary $9 million program would create spaces in 250 schools across Ontario for 7,500 pupils who rank below the provincial average in their test scores. The tutoring would last two weeks and be offered free of charge. Teachers will help get kids “over the hump” with more solid skills on the basics as they move to higher grades.
Tags: standard of living, youth
Posted in Education Debates | No Comments »
Did we learn nothing from the recession? [Employment Insurance]
Friday, September 2nd, 2011
Sep 01 2011
Our budget is $30 billion in deficit, our employment insurance account has a $10.4 billion shortfall and we have the highest level of household debt in our history. If Canada falls back into a recession — or if we’re already in one that hasn’t shown up in the statistics — millions of families will have no cushion… here are some of the [Mowat Centre] report’s major thrusts: • Treat all laid-off Canadians equally… • Extend EI coverage to everybody who pays into the fund… • Change the rate-setting mechanism… • Allow older workers to job share and reduce their hours gradually…
Tags: budget, economy, ideology, rights, standard of living
Posted in Policy Context | No Comments »
More school, better teachers
Thursday, September 1st, 2011
Aug 31 2011
Now, teachers must figure out the best way to reach – and teach – each of their students whether they get straight As or are struggling to learn basic English.
That’s why the Ontario Liberals’ election promise to extend teacher college from one year to two years “with an emphasis on in-classroom learning” makes good sense. An increasing number of students have a learning disability, a behavioral problem or come to school hungry. Problems in a student’s home or community often spill into the classroom affecting their ability to do well. Teachers are expected to juggle all this.
Tags: standard of living, youth
Posted in Education Debates | No Comments »
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