On March 7th and 8th I was in Ottawa with other faith leaders, urging the government to adopt the recent recommendations of a multi-party parliamentary committee report entitled Federal Poverty Reduction Plan: Working in Partnership Towards Reducing Poverty in Canada.

Quoted Directly From the Globe and Mail, November 24, 2010

Number of seniors living in poverty soars nearly 25%
JOE FRIESEN — DEMOGRAPHICS REPORTER
 

The number of seniors living in poverty spiked at the beginning of the financial meltdown, reversing a decades-long trend and threatening one of Canada’s most important social policy successes.

I often speak about how people of faith provide the impetus for national discussions and dramatic shifts by appealing to heart and soul. I love recalling the leadership of, among others, William Wilberforce, Nellie McClung, Tommy Douglas, Martin Luther King Jr., and Desmond Tutu.

There was a time when Haiti was front page news. Then, quite suddenly, it stopped. There was a magic moment when it appeared just for one day on the front page of The Globe. The story was a very misleading one about how the Haiti schools are helping the children deal with the tragedy. It neatly failed to point out this was one school, for rich kids, and that most Haitian children have no schools at all.

There has been almost no dicussion of why the US aid (and some others) consisted so largely of soldiers.

It's interesting to read conservative newspapers, and to see how they blame our economic woes on social spending. That is, they blame the recession on the poor. That''s surely remarrcalbe that such a disorganized and, well, poor group could have such an effect on national and international affairs.

The reality is that such opinion is as silly as anything Marx wrote. It's quite the same sort of one sze fits all nonsense. Most isms, liberalism, conservatism, capitalism, communism, socialism are pretty silly in their one size fits all approach.

I was helping a friend of mine do his taxes this evening and I am steaming mad!!!!  This man makes less than the low income cut off (poverty line) and after already having paid over $2300 in taxes over the year, he owes $76.  Is that insane or am I insane for thinking it is?

Lower and middle income seniors in care in BC are having their rates increased in public-funded spaces. (click bolded for CBC story) As if the situation isn't bad enough with our provinces having the fewest number of these spaces available, per capita, in the country, the BC Liberal government is going to raise the rates for seniors in care by between $120 - $160 or so per month for seniors whose annual income is $22,000 per year and up.

Social Justice in Canada and Disability

• Canadians with disabilities disproportionately live in poverty.
• Canadians with disabilities lack basic disability related supports to participate in community life including religious life.
• Canadians with disabilities want jobs, access to education, the right to l