PovNet News

Federal election resources about poverty issues

kara — Sun, 7 Sep 2008 22:23:45 -0700

Since the government has called a federal election for October 14th, various news and blogs sites will have resources, opinion pieces, news stories and more about the election and poverty issues.

P.E.I. minimum wage increase still not enough

kara — Sun, 5 Oct 2008 17:45:46 -0700

PEI raised its minimum wage from $7.75 to $8.00 but advocates and poverty organizations say that it is still not enough for the basic necessities. A Statistics Canada report says average weekly wages on PEI total only $644.32, well behind the national average of $791.48.

Activists propose opening hotels to homeless

kara — Sun, 5 Oct 2008 11:26:49 -0700

Last month the Carnegie Community Action Project (CCPA) surveyed the hotels in the Downtown Eastside and found 486 privately owned empty housing units. They did not count the many empty government-owned that may be ready to open soon. CCPA has proposed that the city and BC Housing should get short term leases with private hotel owners to upgrade and manage these buildings as shelters for the homeless. Non-Partisan Association mayoral candidate Peter Ladner has rejected this proposal but Vision Vancouver candidate, Gregor Robertson expressed support for the CCAP proposal.

Aboriginal women call on candidates to protect women

kara — Sun, 5 Oct 2008 10:28:03 -0700

Indigenous women's organizations are calling on all candidates in the upcoming federal election to stop the violence against indigenous women and children and to uphold and promote the rights of all Indigenous women and girls whether they live on reserve or in other communities ("No More Stolen Sisters: Open letter to all candidates in the 2008 Federal election" in PDF). Over 500 indigenous women are either missing or murdered in Canada and many of these cases remain unsolved. In September, the Walk4Justice, a 5000 km trek across Canada to raise awareness of the high number of missing and murdered aboriginal women, concluded in Ottawa with a rally and by presenting a petition to Parliament calling for action on the unsolved cases.

Legal aid and the election

kara — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 15:42:09 -0700

West Coast LEAF has put together a short educational pamphlet on family law, access to justice and specifically legal aid to be used all candidates meetings or other election events.

PovNet nominated in best of Vancouver

kara — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 21:32:13 -0700

Thank you to everyone who voted for PovNet in the Georgia Straights' best of Vancouver issue. We tied for second in the category, Local Activists' Web Site.

Coalition urging premier to stay course on poverty reduction

kara — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 21:20:48 -0700

The 25 in 5 Network for Poverty Reduction, a coalition of over 100 organizations across Ontario is urging the premier of Ontario to follow through on his promise of reducing poverty in the province. The network has put forth a plan that focuses on ensuring sustaining employment, so that people who work don’t live in poverty; reforming social assistance, so that people who can’t work get the support they need; and providing for strong community supports, to give opportunity and inclusion to all.

New York settles homeless lawsuit

kara — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 12:58:06 -0700

After more then twenty-five years the New York City municipal government has finally decided to settle a lawsuit filed by the Legal Aid Society to draw attention to homeless families. The lawsuit argued that the city failed to provide adequate shelter or develop standards of shelters for families and was based on previous litigation that had unusually, established the right to shelter in New York City. The New York based, Coalition for the Homeless applauded the decision but said that, "Over four years have passed since the mayor announced his ambitious Five Year Plan to end homelessness, and the numbers of families with children in New York City shelters has grown dramatically. Tonight, over 14,400 children are homeless, a 31% increase since Bloomberg took office. There are over 9,000 families in shelter tonight, fully twice the number the mayor had predicted in his plan."

Housing experiences of refugees in Winnipeg

kara — Mon, 8 Sep 2008 13:06:07 -0700

The Prairie Metropolis Centre which is dedicated to research on immigration, integration and diversity has recently produced a report, The Housing Circumstances of Recently Arrived Refugees: The Winnipeg Experience (in PDF) on a two-year study of recently arrived refugees in the city of Winnipeg and the significant housing challenges they face. They found refugees faced high levels of poverty, affordability and crowding problems, high level of displacement, and unsafe and unhealthy housing.

Vancouver's community court

kara — Mon, 8 Sep 2008 12:45:57 -0700

BC's first community court has opened in downtown Vancouver. The goal of the Vancouver Downtown Community Court is to reduce harm caused to the community by crime. The community court integrates justice, social and health services agencies so together they can manage offenders and address the underlying health and social problems of individuals that can lead to crime.

Vancouver's Downtown Community Court

Vancouver Sun - "B.C.'s first community court opens in Vancouver"

Canadian Press - "Community court to change 'culture' of justice in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside"

The Tyee - "Canada's First 'Community Court': Can It Help Addicts?"

Global TV (broadcast September 17, 2007) - Vancouver's Downtown Community Court Video

Immigrant women engagement in the legal system

kara — Mon, 8 Sep 2008 10:55:28 -0700

Battered Women's Support Services (BWSS) Immigrant Women Engagement in the Legal System project has released their first report, Engaging Immigrant Women In The Legal System-Community Engagement Report. The BWSS project is engaged with immigrant women who have experienced violence in their intimate relationships, who may be bisexual or lesbian, who are dealing with the legal system and who may have to self represent in court. The project hopes to review and analyze current legal issues through a women-centered, ethnic/cultural/language lens and to create and develop legal resources from that lens to increase the accessibility of the legal systems they are coming into contact with.

New Book: From Poverty to Power

kara — Sun, 7 Sep 2008 23:18:54 -0700

Oxfam has just released a new book called, From Poverty to Power (full text online in PDF) which gives an analysis world economic, finicial and state systems and how they can be changed and are being changed by people to reduce global poverty and injustice. You can also read a number of From Poverty to Power background papers. Watch a introduction of the book below:

BC bureaucrats get huge raise; no increase & little protection for lowest paid workers

kara — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 11:47:39 -0700

While the BC Liberal government refuses to increase the minimum wage and protect some of the most vulnerable workers, they did decide to give senior government beaurocrats a massive pay raise -- an increase from between 20% to 43%, and up $348,600 a year. An article in the Tyee, "Working Below the Poverty Line" argues that the BC government needs to raise the minumum wage to $10 so that the 300,000 BC residents who work for less $10 per hour could benefit from a much needed raise.

The BC government has also neglected the rights of migrant and resident farm workers in BC. Although recently for the first time a group of seasonal farm workers voted to unionize on a farm in Surrey ("Foreign Farm Workers Unionize: A First in BC"), the majority of farm workers have little formal protection.

United Food and Workers - "B.C. FARMWORKERS JOIN UFCW CANADA!"
CBC - "B.C. bureaucrats get huge pay raise"

Ontario food banks' plan to cut poverty

kara — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 10:48:37 -0700

The Ontario Association of Food Banks (OAFB) has released a report, Our Choice for a Better Ontario: A Plan to Cut Poverty in Half by 2020 (in PDF). The report includes thirty concrete recommendations including:

establish a fair minimum wage that is permanently indexed to half of the average hourly wage;
provide universal preventative health and dental benefit coverage to all low-income Ontarians;
build 100,000 new units of affordable housing by 2020;
build community food centres to build food security in remote reserve communities focusing on harvesting, preparation and consumption of local traditional foods;
guarantee child care and access to any form of post-secondary education for all single parents in Ontario.

For more information read two stories in The Star, "'Time to be bold' in poverty fight" and "Ontario food banks seek 'guerrilla war' on hunger."

Canadian government policy and seniors living in poverty

kara — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 10:30:00 -0700

A blog post on the Progressive Economics Forum, "Falling Poverty Among the Elderly - A Canadian Success Story," describes how the poverty rate for seniors has fallen from 11.3% in 1989 to just 5.4% in 2006 (3.4% for elderly men, and 7.0% for elderly women.) This puts the average poverty rate for seniors in Canada lower than Sweden (6.6%) and way below the U.S. (21%). The author speculates that the senior poverty rate has fallen due to progressive social policies such as the Old Age Security and Guaranteed Income Supplement, as well as high private pensions during the 1970s and 1980s. But poverty among seniors still disproportionately effects women, people of colour, immigrants and people with disabilities. A 2006 report from the National Advisory on Aging, Seniors on the Margins: Aging in poverty in Canada looks more seniors in the next decade, especially marginalized seniors, may not have access to the resources they need. For more information on government policy and seniors see:

National Seniors Council - advises Canada's Government on all matters related to the health, well-being and quality of life of seniors.

Disability activist wins apology from restaurant

kara — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 18:30:03 -0700

A disabled activist and member of the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty has received an apology from a Toronto restaurant who discriminated against him. The manager at the Everest restaurant had told Aaron Shelbourne's assistant that they were not welcome back after they had finished a meal because wheelchairs could damage the newly renovated restaurant. Read a more, watch a video, and see some pictures of Aaron's campaign on the OCAP website.

Gordon Campbell grilled about homelessness, poverty during 2010 Olympics

kara — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 18:08:15 -0700

During a press conference in Beijing, BC Premier Gordon Campbell was asked by international journalists about homelessness, addiction, poverty and protest during the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. Gordon Campbell claimed that the province has invested hundreds of millions of dollars into housing and that there will be significant improvments by 2010. But advocates in Vancouver such as the Citywide Housing Coalition, say that homelessness is only increasing and this has been proven by the most recent Greater Vancouver homeless count. Residents of the Downtown Eastside are afraid that addicts, the poor and homeless will be jailed or forced out of town during the 2010 Olympics.

For further reading check out the following news stories:

Olympic-sized displacements and evictions

kara — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 13:24:43 -0700

According to a report, One World, Whose Dream? Housing Rights Violations and the Beijing Olympic Games (in PDF), released by the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions, 1.5 million people have been displaced by the Beijing Olympics. The report claims that since China started implementing economic reforms, the Chinese government has committed large scale human rights violations, illegal evictions and displacement and this has only increased in preparation for the Olympics Games. The COHRE report says that the International Olympic Committee is also responsible for the violation of housing and human rights in China because they were aware of the violations and still claim the human rights have improved.

Groups file human rights complaint against Vancouver business association

kara — Mon, 4 Aug 2008 16:23:08 -0700

Pivot Legal Society, the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) and the United Native Nations have filed a human rights complaint against the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association and Geoff Plant, the former Attorney General of British Columbia and presently acting as the Civil City Commissioner in Vancouver. The complaint alleges that the Downtown Ambassadors run by the DVBIA under the guidance of Geoff Plant, discriminate against homeless people, particulary aboriginal people and people with disabilities. The complaint alleges that the Ambassadors rountinely tell homeless people to move along regardless of their location which denies them equal access to public space. Read more in a press release by Pivot, "Groups say DVBIA, Civil City actions discriminatory"

The inside and out of BC's welfare time limits

kara — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 21:48:43 -0700

The Vancouver Island Public Interest Research Group has published a report, The Rise and Fall of Welfare Time Limits in BC (in PDF), which offers an inside look at what was going on within the Ministry of Human Resources after the BC government passed legislation that gave welfare recipients a two year time limit for benefits. The authors have drawn on documents acquired through a Freedom of Information request to show that while many anti-poverty advocates, community groups and activists were fighting the welfare time limits, many people in the ministry were also opposed to the limits, though for different reasons. Read more in an article in the Times Colonist, "Stopping the Clock: A Time Limit on Welfare" (in PDF) and in an article in the Tyee, "Why Welfare Time Limits Never Flew".