Health

If you asked the average Canadian if they would rather reduce child poverty or have a new soccer field in their home town, what would they say? I would like to think that most would choose the former. However, this is not the choice politicians seem to think we would make. Read more »

On Friday September 27, Joe and I attended a workshop in Pembroke titled ‘Creating a Better Future for Our Children’ which was focussed on poverty and the Social Determinants of Health.  While I learned many interesting things and heard a lot of detailed statistics, the main theme of the day was definitely that poverty is bad for your health. Not surprised? Neither was I, but the information came from a perspective I had not considered before. Read more »

Last week Karri and I participated in Community Justice Camp in Hamilton, Ontario. An initiative of the Anglican Church of Canada, Justice Camp seeks to bring people together from across Canada to explore, promote and expand our knowledge of various issues of social and public justice, and Christ’s calling for us to participate in these activities. This year the focus was community development and how we can build community through our work in various aspects of justice. Read more »

Housing is a major concern for many social policy and charity groups across the country, especially those focused on poverty. Canada has been without a national housing strategy since the mid 1990s, making it the only country in the G8 to be without such a strategy. Housing has become the responsibility of provincial and municipal governments who can’t keep up with the demands and needs.

Recently the Salvation Army released a report, Poverty shouldn’t be a life sentence: A report on the perceptions of homelessness and poverty in Canada. In this assessment of the state of homelessness in Canada, the report looks at the many factors of poverty that lead to homelessness, some of which include unemployment, disability and/or mental illness, domestic abuse, addictions, poor education and little or no access to affordable housing. Read more »

Since the 1970s, Médecins sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders) has been working in crisis and emergency situations, providing care and helping those most vulnerable, including refugees and internally displaced people. MSF estimates that over 42 million people around the world have been uprooted by war, either as refugees or internally displaced persons.

But what do we really know about what experiences in these camps are like, and how can we become more informed and make a difference? Read more »

This week Joe, Karri and I attended the Parliament Hill launch of “Poor No More,” the documentary film hosted by Canadian television and film star, Mary Walsh. The film is aimed at exposing the challenges of the working poor in Canada and offering viable government solutions.

A common misconception among Canadians is that if people would just get a job and work hard, they won’t be living in poverty. But this is not the case. As the film illustrates, many low income Canadians are working for companies that pay very low wages, often keeping employees’ hour just below the full-time threshold, even after years of service to the company, where they receive little or no benefits, such as health and dental coverage, and sick or vacation days. Read more »

Last week, Chandra, Kathryn and I attended “Radically Ordinary: An evening with Shane Claiborne” at a downtown church in Ottawa. The sanctuary was packed with people of all ages representing a wide variety of churches and faith backgrounds.

A very dynamic speaker and co-founder of The Simple Way, a Philadelphia based movement promoting community living and care for one another, Shane challenged us to re-evaluate our own motives and actions in the mission of bringing love and hope to a broken world. Suffering is something most people try to avoid at all costs, but part of Shane’s challenge was for people to enter places of suffering and injustice to bring hope. Read more »

Recently, Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. David Butler-Jones, released the 2009 Report on the State of Public Health in Canada, Growing up Well–Priorities for a Healthy Future.

The report looks at a variety of indicators for measuring the state of child public health, as well as priorities for improving health. At the top of the list is the connection of socio-economic status to the state of health. Children born and raised in low income families are often impacted by inadequate access to food, affordable housing and other necessities. This can often lead to long-term health problems. 

Nevertheless, the report concluded that compared to “some” countries, Canada is doing pretty well in terms of fighting child poverty. But which countries are these? Read more »