The PIVOT Legal Society has started to hand out Tenant Rights cards (in PDF) to Downtown Eastside tenants. PIVOT hopes the cards can help tenants navigate interactions with landlords but PIVOT warns that there is not much legal protection for tenants. Read more about the cards on the PIVOT website.

The Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor, an international program hosted by UN, has released two reports, Making the Law Work for Everyone Volume I and Making the Law Work for Everyone Volume II that call on governments to make legal empowerment a key pillar of the anti-poverty agenda. The reports found that the majority of the world's people are excluded from the rule of law because the majority of poor people live and work in the "informal sector" and are therefore locked out of recognized legal protections and economic benefits of the formal sector.

Over one hundred Innu families who have been occupying their traditional territories are facing eviction by the Newfoundland and Labrador government. The evictions are seen as part of an ongoing effort by the government to push through resource development and hydroelectrical projects and ignore Innu land rights. For more information see the following articles and websites:

• Intercontinental Cry - Urgent: Innu People Threatened with Evictions
• CBC - "Williams defends Quebec Innu cabin evictions"
• Rabble Podcast - Government of Newfoundland Labrador Seeks to Evict Innu
• Indian Law Resource Centre - Innu People Struggle for Survival

Recently the Canadian government enacted legislation that gives the same human rights to First Nation members living on reserve as Canadians in the rest of Canada. Previously, native people on reserves were exempt from the Canadian Human Rights Ac. When the Act was passed in 1977, Native reserves were only going to be temporarily excluded from the Act while the federal government made significant changes to the Indian Act. This did not happen, leaving residents of reserves vulnerable to potential abuses by the federal government or their chiefs and council. For more information about the changes to the human rights legislation for reserve members, take a look at the following:

• Indian and Northern Affairs Canada - Repeal of Section 67 of the Canadian Human Rights Act - Frequently Asked Questions
• CBC story - Human rights protection extended to reserves

Various community groups are keeping a close eye on the ongoing consultation of the Ontario Cabinet Committee on Poverty Reduction. For a variety of informed viewpoints on Ontario's poverty reduction strategy and consultation, read the following:

• OCAP: Poverty reduction committee 'a distraction', an interview with an OCAP member
• Poverty Watch Ontario is a website that maintains a log of community events on poverty reduction and attempts to monitor cross-Ontario activity on the poverty reduction.
• OCAP - The Ontario Liberals and 'Poverty Reduction': Are they Trying or Lying?
• Toronto Star editorial - "Why we must talk about race when we talk about poverty"
• 25-in-5: Network for Poverty Reduction - Recent news, media and resources on poverty reduction.

In memory of all the missing and murdered women and children, aboriginal women are walking from Victoria, BC to Ottawa from June to September 2008. Gladys Radek, who lost a niece to the Highway of Tears, launched the Walk4Justice to draw attention to all the missing and murdered women across Canada. The website, www.missingpeople.net has more information and links about the walk. Walk4Justice has created an online petition to gather the names of all the missing and murdered First Nations women across Canada. If you know someone who has been missing or murdered, Walk4Justice asks you to sign the online petition. Also see a Working TV video of the start of the march.

CCPA has released a study called Cultivating Farmworker Rights: Ending the Exploitation of Immigrant and Migrant Farmworkers in BC. It reveals systematic violations of employment standards and health and safety regulations, poor and often dangerous working conditions, and dismal enforcement by government agencies. The authors propose comprehensive policy changes that would ensure farmworkers are no longer relegated to second-class status. The following links have more information about farm workers in BC:

• Justicia for Migrant Workers is a volunteer driven political non-profit collective which strives to promote the rights of migrant workers.
• BC Federation of Labour has information and background on farm worker's rights in BC.
• BC Government Farm Workers Fact Sheet

Vancouver's safe injection site, Insite, has been given respite from closure after a BC Supreme Court ruling found that it is protected by the Canadian Constitution. According to a press release from the Pivot Legal Society, the judge "found that the blanket prohibition against the possession of narcotics contained in the CDSA (Canadian Drugs and Substances Act) effectively prohibits health interventions such as InSite, and thus violates section 7 of the Charter; the right to life, liberty, and security of the person." You can read the entire Insite decision (in PDF). The judge has given the federal government a year to rewrite the drug laws to allow harm reduction measures and in the meantime has given Insite immunity from the drug laws to continue. While the federal government has said they will appeal the decision ("Feds to appeal B.C. court ruling on supervised injection sites"), other harm reduction advocates and health practicitioners are hoping that the decision will allow for more supervised injection sites and prescribed heroin (

A Fraser Institute, What is Poverty? Providing Clarity for Canada (in PDF), claims that despite recent census data that showed increased levels of poverty across Canada, poverty has remained between 4-6% for the past decade. A entry in the Wellesley Institute blog, claims the Fraser Institute is defining poverty out of existence with a measure that doesn't even make sense in real life.

On May 29th, Aboriginal people across Canada will hold the second National Aboriginal Day of in Action. The Assembly of First Nations (AFN) calls upon people in Canada to stand together to call on the federal government to ensure First National people are no longer living in poverty, that First Nations children are given equal opportunities as other Canadian children, and that the federal government "set aside the colonial Indian Act and dismantle the Department of Indian Affairs in favour of a new approach that provides First Nations with the right and responsibility to make the decisions that affect their lives." Read more about the demands and the National Day of Action on the AFN site and in an editorial in the Toronto Star, ""Protest message should be heard."

Listen to some interviews of people who live on the streets of Vancouver from CBC's Vancouver, The Early Edition - Homeless in Vancouver (audio).

According to the Wellesley Institute blog, the Toronto City Council's Executive Committee has adopted a panhandling strategy that ensures panhandlers have access to housing, supports and income. This buckles the trend of legislation that has tried to criminalize panhandling including Ontario's Safe Streets Act and BC's Safe Street Act.

In 2007, the city conducted a Panhandling Pilot Project (in PDF) to provide social services to people panhandling and to educate the public about urban poverty. The pilot project found that generally panhandling was unobtrusive, that many panhandlers experienced social isolation and loathed the fact that they had to panhandle. The project also found that an intensive social service response was more successful then criminalization. You can read a personal story about the Panhandling Pilot Project on the Toronto City website - "A story to tell : Retirement from Adelaide and York".

Read an article in the Toronto Star, "Poverty 'steals from your soul'" about a board member of the National Anti-Poverty Organization (NAPO) travelling to Ottawa to describe to the senators what it is like to live in poverty in Toronto's Regent Park neighbourhood.

An interesting article in the Tyee, "Dying for the Rich" looks into a widely researched correlation between a wide income gap and a shorter overall life expectancy. Although in Canada, public health care minimizes the gap, further erosion to public services means that the rich are in fact robbing the poor through tax cuts. For more information on equitable health care, go to the BC Health Coalition site.

Thanks to lobbying by anti-poverty advocates and activists, the Ontario government has invested $5 million dollars into rent banks to help renters who are facing eviction stay in their homes ("Families in need get help with rent"). A Rent Bank gives a short term loan or grant to eligible renters who are facing eviction. The Ontario Rent Bank Network has more information about the program.

In the last budget, the federal government promised to create a new independent body, the Canada Employment Insurance Financing Board to determine EI premium rates from 2009 and on. However, according to an article on the Progressive Economics Forum, "The “New” Employment Insurance Fund", the board only responds to employer concerns over paying EI premiums which are “too high” as opposed to worker concerns over access to benefits and benefit rates. The Canadian Labour Congress also criticizes the government for overlooking worker access, especially working women's access to benefits.

A payday loan is a short-term high-interest loan, typically marketed as easy cash to cover costs until the borrower’s next payday. Payday lenders have popped up all over Canada in the last decade. They often charge exorbitant interest rates for small loans and typically target poor neighbourhoods and working poor people.

• The Ontario government recently introduced legislation to curb abusive payday lending practices. Read about the Payday Loans Act, 2008, read an Ontario Government press release, "It’s about fairness: new payday lending law to regulate industry" an article in the Toronto Star, "Payday loan crackdown." As well, you can support ACORN's actions to regulate predatory payday lending.
  

On May 3rd, people around BC, from Prince George to Vancouver Island will be STANDing for housing. STANDs for Housing started in Vancouver over the closing of social housing in the Little Mountain neighbourhood of Vancouver. The Stands have spread around the province to reflect the growing crisis of homelessness and lack of affordable housing. For more information see the Community Advocates for Little Mountain (CALM) website.

A story in the Tyee, "A Welfare 'Savings' Boomerang" claims that two recent studies have shown that the BC Liberal's cuts to welfare in 2002 have drastically increased housing and health care costs, far more then the money saved cutting over 100,000 people off of welfare.

The Canadian Parliament has endorsed the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by a majority vote after Canada, along with the U.S., Australia and New Zealand voted against it in the U.N. in September 2007. The Declaration affirms the human rights of indigenous people based on indigenous origin or identity and affirms indigenous people's right to self-determination. The Conservative party has been opposed to the Declaration and voted against the endorsement. Read more on the Amnesty International Canada site and in an article on the site, Indian Country, "Endorsing their rights".