Top Stories
Daily Bread’s “Who’s Hungry” report shows the percentage of people with disabilities using food banks in the GTA has doubled since 2005:
http://www.thestar.com/life/health_wellness/2014/09/25/disability_makes_poverty_likelier_than_ever_report.html
ISAC op-ed in the Star: The new Social Security Tribunal demonstrates Ottawa’s unjust approach to disability insurance:
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/commentary/2014/09/12/ottawas_unjust_approach_to_disability_insurance.html
The Social Security Tribunal was launched to reduce the number of appeals hearings by 25%:
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2014/09/22/social_security_tribunal_saving_money_but_hearing_fewer_appeals.html
Sun Media on ODSP rates:
http://www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/sunnews/straighttalk/archives/2014/09/20140916-071810.html?fb_action_ids=10152694860537184&fb_action_types=og.comments
Ontario
Letters to the Editor on the recently released Ontario Poverty Reduction Strategy:
http://www.thestar.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editors/2014/09/08/more_needed_to_help_poor_homeless.html
- Ontario Campaign 2000 responds to the PRS: http://www.campaign2000.ca/Ontario/OntC2000on2014PRS.pdf
- As does Put Food in the Budget: http://salsa3.salsalabs.com/o/51055/t/0/blastContent.jsp?email_blast_KEY=1295606
- TVO’s The Agenda panel on Poverty Reduction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGW4PuiZqgk&list=UUu_u-P3cBFO7D-sAjxd_I-w
The province’s spending on business is dwarfed by what they spend on people who are poor:
http://www.thestar.com/news/insight/2014/09/05/what_the_poor_need_business_gets_in_spades.html
Resources
Working While on Social Assistance – What You Should Know: from CLEO
http://us4.campaign-archive2.com/?u=acaece29df8d07c95ef84a763&id=3377bf9dc3
The Colour Coded Labour Market By the Numbers: Sheila Block analyzes Ontario’s labour market from a racialization perspective and finds NHS data doesn’t meet the test:
http://www.wellesleyinstitute.com/publications/the-colour-coded-labour-market-by-the-numbers/
Around the Province
Halton Legal Clinic’s Legal Health Checkup for people living on low incomes evaluates more than just legal health:
https://www.legalhealthcheckup.ca/
St. Catherines needs leadership on poverty:
http://www.stcatharinesstandard.ca/2014/09/21/we-leadership-on-poverty
http://www.wellandtribune.ca/2014/09/19/social-housing-a-provincial-priority
Poverty should be a municipal election issue in Niagara:
http://www.niagarathisweek.com/opinion-story/4878229-poverty-should-be-election-issue/
20% of people in Hamilton are living on low income:
http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/2217622
Utility companies in Grey Bruce helping low-income families reduce their energy costs:
http://blackburnnews.com/midwestern-ontario/midwestern-ontario-news/2014/09/12/grey-bruce-energy-audits-for-low-income-families/
National: Private Members Bill C585
ISAC calls for action on Bill C585:
http://us4.campaign-archive2.com/?u=095b12c98935ecaadd327bf90&id=29d9e3cfe4&e=f67f28a7b9
The Star: Bill C585 will restrict refugees’ access to social assistance benefits:
http://www.thestar.com/news/immigration/2014/09/14/bill_tabled_to_ban_refugees_from_social_assistance.html
Marie Chen of ISAC explains the Bill and its implications in a Rabble.ca audio blog:
http://rabble.ca/podcasts/shows/john-bonnar-audio-blog/2014/09/bill-c-585-could-strip-social-assistance-benefits-thos
NDP MP Andrew Cash asks a question in the house; Minister Alexander, not the Bill’s sponsor Corneliu Chisu, defends it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bUeUCl-Wm4
The Bill could cause chaos and hardship, say service providers and refugees themselves:
http://www.thestar.com/news/immigration/2014/09/22/banning_refugees_from_assistance_could_cause_chaos_hardship_critics_say.html
Letters to the Editor say the policy is shameful:
- http://www.thestar.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editors/2014/09/18/refugee_policy_shameful.html
- http://www.thestar.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editors/2014/09/25/tories_waging_war_on_the_poor.html
Rabble.ca says C585 reflects a federal government war on refugees:
http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/karl-nerenberg/2014/09/conservative-war-on-refugees-continues
ISAC reports that the Bill has delayed but is not yet defeated:
http://us4.campaign-archive1.com/?u=095b12c98935ecaadd327bf90&id=2a9cfd898e&e=f67f28a7b9
Other coverage:
- Metro Newspapers across the country: http://metronews.ca/news/canada/1154740/bill-c-585-to-ban-refugees-from-social-assistance/
- Le Devoir, Montreal (but it’s behind a paywall!): http://www.ledevoir.com/politique/canada/419080/des-refugies-prives-d-aide-sociale
- Canada Without Poverty’s June blog on C585: http://www.cwp-csp.ca/2014/06/bill-c-585-an-act-to-exclude-refugees-from-social-assistance/
- A related early blog from Joe Gunn of Citizens for Public Justice:http://www.wcr.ab.ca/Columns/OpinionsStories/tabid/70/entryid/5677/Default.aspx
Other National Issues
Did corporate tax cuts really pay for themselves, as Stephen Harper and others claim?
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/toby-sanger/corporate-tax-cuts_b_5844710.html
Opinion: We need citizens, not just taxpayers and bookkeepers:
http://www.vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/Daphne+Bramham+need+citizens+just+taxpayers/10203291/story.html
Six million Canadians a year avoid seeing a dentist because they can’t afford it:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/health-and-fitness/health/cost-of-dental-care-in-canada-keeps-patients-away/article20590523/
Why should dental health should be included in the public health system? Equity. That’s why:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/why-dental-care-should-be-included-in-the-public-health-system/article20614696/#dashboard/follows/
The last accepted prejudice – people who are homeless in Canada:
http://www.brockpress.com/2014/09/the-last-accepted-prejudice-the-homeless-in-canada-and-the-unforgivable-stigmatization-of-our-most-vulnerable-citizens/
Age, not gender, is the new income divide in Canada:
http://business.financialpost.com/2014/09/23/age-not-gender-is-the-new-income-divide-in-canada-new-study-finds/
International
The OECD proposes rules to curb corporate tax evasion:
http://cir.ca/news/international-efforts-to-curb-tax-evasion
More on these international rules from the Tax Justice Network:
http://www.taxjustice.net/2014/09/16/country-country-reporting-comes/
People who are homeless in New Zealand made criminals by having friends:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/the-press/10535365/Homeless-friends-can-t-hang-out