Posts Tagged ‘women’
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Premier says two birth centres will create ‘new option for our moms’
Sunday, March 25th, 2012
March 20, 2012
… the decision to invest $6 million in the pilot centres, which will be run by midwives and promote natural childbirth in a community setting, “marks the beginning of an important evolution in how we deliver babies in Ontario.”… Midwives at the centres will care for mothers from conception through to six weeks post-partum and serve as community hubs for prenatal education, breastfeeding and parenting support… Currently, four out of every 10 Ontario women who want a midwife can’t get one, largely because midwives are restricted in the number of hospital births they can attend.
Tags: economy, Health, women
Posted in Health Debates | No Comments »
It takes two to raise a child
Wednesday, February 15th, 2012
Feb 15, 2012
… the U.K. government announced its intention to amend the 1989 Children’s Act. Changes will include a “presumption of shared parenting” to ensure that children’s relationships with both parents continues after separation. Under the current adversarial system, as in Canada, legal custody battles almost invariably end with mothers gaining sole custody… ESP is objectively fair to both sexes and to children, and thus a win-win-win policy. Over 70% of ordinary Canadians prefer it.
Tags: ideology, rights, standard of living, women, youth
Posted in Child & Family Policy Context | No Comments »
Is all-day kindergarten really a leg up?
Tuesday, February 14th, 2012
Feb. 14, 2012
According to its advocates, all-day kindergarten… offers a crucial leg up for disadvantaged children. For this reason alone, it’s essential to our economic prosperity… In 2002, the U.S. government launched the massive Head Start Impact Study to determine how well the program worked. The final report… found that the modest gains achieved by Head Start students wore off by the end of Grade 1 – they wound up no further ahead than those who weren’t in the program… the benefits of early childhood education have been vastly overstated. It’s not a magic bullet.
Tags: budget, poverty, standard of living, women, youth
Posted in Education Policy Context | No Comments »
Canada’s Charter of Rights: a global model
Saturday, February 11th, 2012
Feb. 10, 2012
As Canada was founded on compromise and dialogue, so are those qualities woven into its rights charter. And so it offers a structure for working through the competing interests found in any sophisticated, multicultural nation… The structure for balancing opposed interests is found in three key sections. Section 1 sets out that rights are not absolute; governments may limit them, as long as they have evidence to justify those limits… Section 15, the equality-rights section, is open-ended, and new groups, such as gays and lesbians, have been brought under its umbrella by the Supreme Court…
Tags: disabilities, featured, multiculturalism, rights, standard of living, women, youth
Posted in Governance Policy Context | No Comments »
Liberals must commit to protect vulnerable
Monday, January 30th, 2012
Jan. 30, 2012
Protecting the vulnerable is what liberalism is all about. In today’s terms, it means improving the level of support to those who must rely on social assistance. It means increasing the inventory of affordable housing for low-income tenants. It means assisting those who face a future perplexed by dementia. It means generating meaningful employment opportunities for the unemployed and under-employed. It means helping those criminal offenders who are candidates for rehabilitation to find a productive and law-abiding future. It means a health-care system that provides quality care to all our citizens…
Tags: disabilities, homelessness, ideology, Indigenous, poverty, standard of living, women, youth
Posted in Inclusion Debates | No Comments »
Why care less about the disabled fetus?
Monday, January 30th, 2012
Jan. 19, 2012
… if sex selection can be characterized as a social or cultural practice informed and perpetuated by demeaning attitudes toward women that many of us can agree is discriminatory, what about the selection of fetuses on the basis of disability? For those of us living with, or living with someone with, Down syndrome, a cleft lip or a missing limb, the selection against fetuses with these characteristics is as troubling as the selection against female fetuses.
Tags: disabilities, Health, ideology, standard of living, women
Posted in Equality Debates | 2 Comments »
Parliament fails native women
Wednesday, January 4th, 2012
Jan 03 2012
Three days before the House of Commons rose for its Christmas recess, a parliamentary committee quietly tabled a shocking report. It was called Ending Violence Against Aboriginal Women and Girls. But it wasn’t a plan of action. It wasn’t even a commitment to do better. It was a self-congratulatory compendium of existing programs… The Conservative government, which controls Parliament, can do as it wishes. It is clear it does not consider the disproportionately high rate of violence against aboriginal women a priority.
Tags: Indigenous, rights, standard of living, women
Posted in Inclusion Delivery System | No Comments »
Women see the other side
Wednesday, December 28th, 2011
Dec 27 2011
The Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program allows those in prison who never dreamed of going beyond high school to achieve that seeming impossibility. It is rehabilitative, character-changing and confidence-building. It has been shown to reduce crime and violence. It also engages regular college students in a world they may only have encountered through TV or film and deepens their understanding of social problems. It pushes them to work for changes in their communities to reduce crime and recidivism. Inside-Out is a program that should be emulated in prisons across the country.
Tags: corrections, crime prevention, poverty, women
Posted in Child & Family Debates | No Comments »
Three women who fought back against the Conservatives
Monday, December 19th, 2011
Dec 18 2011
Franke James… is third person to pass through this column in recent months who feels she has been spied on, smacked down or targeted by a mean-spirited, micromanaging government or Conservative party always on the lookout for enemies of the state. One is an artist, one an aboriginal advocate and one a widow. All three have fought back. And all three are women… There really is no evidence the Conservatives actually target women or that women have proved more adept at getting up off the canvas and fighting back. But there are enough signs out there to raise the question.
Tags: participation, rights, standard of living, women
Posted in Governance Debates | No Comments »
Harper’s unlikely social breakthrough [family caregiver tax credit]
Sunday, December 18th, 2011
Dec 15 2011
Approximately half a million caregivers — people who voluntarily look after infirm spouses, frail, elderly parents and children with serious health problems — will soon get Canada’s first Family Caregiver Tax Credit. It is extremely modest: less than $1 a day. It is regressive; high-income caregivers get maximum credit, low-income caregivers qualify for little or nothing. And it is selective; 82 per cent of the 2.7 million Canadians who sacrifice their income, career prospects and sometimes their health to care for loved ones, aren’t eligible.
Tags: budget, disabilities, ideology, standard of living, tax, women
Posted in Child & Family Delivery System | No Comments »
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