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Harper creating 13 kinds of citizens
Saturday, January 21st, 2012
Jan. 19, 2012
During his years with the National Citizens’ Coalition… Stephen Harper refined his opposition to “big government,” particularly medicare, and formulated his “strict constructionist” approach to the constitution to better attack a Canada he once openly derided as “a second-tier socialistic country.”… His disrespect for the provinces is a clear violation of the Constitution Act of 1982. It is as much a part of Canada’s Constitution as the BNA Act. Sec. 36 (1) states that “Parliament and the legislatures… are committed to promoting equal opportunities for the well-being of Canadians…
Tags: budget, Health, ideology, rights, standard of living
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
New relationship needed with Crown or risk widespread unrest: chiefs
Thursday, January 12th, 2012
Jan.11, 2012
Native chiefs say Prime Minister Stephen Harper must come out of this month’s First Nations summit willing to forge a new relationship with aboriginals or risk widespread unrest… Many have concerns about the lack of housing, clean running water and education in their communities, but virtually all say they don’t expect to solve those issues in a day. They want the prime minister to commit to holding at least one first ministers meeting on aboriginal issues and to appoint a commissioner to ensure that treaties signed more than 100 years ago are being followed.
Tags: ideology, Indigenous, rights, standard of living
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
Expand CPP, experts urge
Wednesday, December 14th, 2011
Dec. 14, 2011
A group of pension experts, including a former chief actuary of the Canada Pension Plan, is calling on Canada’s finance ministers to commit to expanding the CPP. In an open letter Tuesday to Finance Minister Jim Flaherty and his provincial and territorial counterparts, the group said a growing body of research indicates many Canadians will likely have inadequate savings to maintain their standard of living in retirement.
Tags: pensions, standard of living
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Reduce income gap, think-tank says
Tuesday, December 6th, 2011
Dec. 6, 2011
The report found the gap between rich and poor in its member countries had reached the highest level in more than 30 years in 2008… The aim of the study is to dispel the assumption the benefits of economic growth trickle down automatically to those on the lower end of the earning spectrum… “Greater inequality does not foster social mobility,”… “Without a comprehensive strategy for inclusive growth, inequality will continue to rise. There is nothing inevitable about high and growing inequalities. Our policies have created a system that makes them grow and it’s time to change these policies.”
Tags: economy, featured, globalization, ideology, standard of living, tax
Posted in Equality Debates | 1 Comment »
Crime bill cuts concessions to aboriginal circumstance
Tuesday, December 6th, 2011
Dec. 6, 2011
… Canada has failed to come to terms with the over-incarceration of aboriginal offenders… The Gladue decision urges courts to be more creative with sentencing, to look deeper into causes and solutions and to draw from aboriginal traditions. One of these traditions is restorative justice, which seeks to bring victims and offenders together, enabling offenders to make meaningful amends for the harm they have done. The judicial tool that has allowed for such creative sentencing is the conditional sentence… Bill C-10, the Safe Streets and Communities Act, however, will continue to cut away at the ability of courts to impose these conditional sentences.
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, ideology, Indigenous, rights
Posted in Equality Delivery System | No Comments »
Try a ‘democracy fee’
Tuesday, November 29th, 2011
Nov. 28, 2011
There may be a simple solution to voter apathy by Canadians. Mine is to have a democracy fee. Here is how it would work. Every year of a four-year government term, citizens of voting age pay a democracy fee of, say, $5 that goes to Elections Canada. When an election is called, the citizen, upon voting, gets a refund of $10. Voter apathy solved. And if a person can’t be bothered to vote, to get their $10 back, the funds go to Elections Canada to offset the cost of the election…
Tags: ideology, participation, rights
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Tax-free savings accounts give wealthy access to poverty benefit: study
Tuesday, October 25th, 2011
Oct. 23, 2011
Wealthy Canadians are getting access to a retirement benefit that was intended for the elderly poor, suggests a new report on the country’s retirement-security system… Tax-free savings accounts, or TFSAs, allow Canadians to save up to $5,000 each year with all earnings and withdrawals exempt from taxation. FSAs also come with another big plus: none of the money counts when determining whether the account-holder is entitled to a retirement benefit for low-income seniors.
Posted in Social Security Debates | No Comments »
Crime bill unfairly targets women, aboriginals, critics say
Friday, October 21st, 2011
Oct. 20, 2011
The majority of women in jail are mothers, and they are usually the primary caregivers in their families… Elements of the new bill will result in more women being held behind bars… “It’s going to increase criminalization and marginalization, and this will certainly have a very negative impact on children,” Booth said. “No one’s really speaking about the impact (on) children when mom and dad are in jail, particularly for aboriginal people and for women… The crime bill means “taxes will need to be raised in order to care for children”…
Tags: crime prevention, ideology, Indigenous, rights, women
Posted in Equality Debates | No Comments »
Crime rate fell again in 2010, at lowest level since 1973: StatsCan
Saturday, July 30th, 2011
07/21/2011
Canada’s crime rate fell last year to its lowest level in nearly four decades — a statistic opposition MPs claim as proof the governing Conservatives need not spend billions on new jails… So what’s behind the drop? The experts point the finger at shifting demographics. Their theory goes like this: the number of young people in this country is shrinking. Younger people tend to commit more crimes than older people. So if there are fewer younger people, it follows there will also be less crime… The crime severity index is at its lowest point since 1998, the first year for which such data are available.
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, ideology
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
Native community sees rapid income growth
Monday, June 20th, 2011
06/18/2011
A surprising new report has found that despite significant poverty, total incomes in the aboriginal community have been growing at almost twice the rate of the country as a whole. The report… from TD Economics shows total combined income of households, businesses and government will be about $24 billion in 2011, double what it was in 2001. The number is predicted to grow to $36 billion by 2016… The average annual growth rate of total aboriginal income has been about seven per cent, whereas the Canadian nominal GDP has been growing by about four per cent.
Tags: economy, Indigenous, participation, standard of living
Posted in Debates | No Comments »
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