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

CKUT, a community radio station out of McGill University, is hosting a Winter 2008: Homeless Marathon The sixth annual Homelessness Marathon will serve up 14 hours of people-powered radio, broadcasting this year from outside of the Native Friendship Center. With the goal of the Marathon is to provide an opportunity for homeless people and their supporters to take to the airwaves, and allow a nationwide discussion on homelessness issues and possible solutions.

The Strategic Research and Analysis Directorate at Indian and Northern Affairs Canada has released a report called Levels and Sources of Individual and Household Level Income for Inuit in Canada, 1980-2000. It focuses on income-related indicators for the population with Inuit ancestry. The report finds that although average incomes increased from 1980-2000 for Inuit people, they remained much lower than those of all Canadians.

According to a Statistics Canada report, A Portrait of Seniors in Canada (in HTML and in PDF) although the financial situation of seniors has improved over the past quarter century, senior women who live alone are more likely to be low income. As well Quebec and BC have the highest percent of low income seniors. Read a CBC article, "B.C., Quebec have highest percentage of poor seniors: report" and a Statistics Canada summary, A portrait of seniors.

June 12, 2002
Vivian Labrie, spokeswoman for a coalition seeking the elimination of poverty

QUEBEC (CP) -- The Quebec government introduced legislation Wednesday that would see it spending $1.5 billion over five years to fight poverty. But the province's poor likely won't see any effect until 2003, when the law is expected to be passed after committee hearings in the fall.

Dans la Loi sur le soutien du revenu pour assurer la couverture des besoins essentiels de tous en tous. Visitez le site web d'un barème plancher.

During Montreal's summer festival businesses are pressuring the government to remove the city's homeless from the streets. As a result, the local police are handing out more tickets to homeless people, for such things as panhandling and loitering. Most of the homeless people who recieve these tickets cannot afford to pay their fines and so, end up in jail. The director of RAPSIM (a Montreal advocacy group for the homeless) says that ticketing is not the solution to homelessness; in fact, evidence has shown that it costs more to keep the homeless people unable to pay their tickets in jail, than the amount of the ticket they were charged. Although the Quebec Human Rights Commission is looking into the situation, no solutions have been put forward. For more information read the CBC article on the jailing of homeless people.

Quebec's minimum wage increased by 15 cents today. Workers are criticizing this so-called wage "hike" saying that it is not high enough to cover their basic costs of living. See the Montreal Gazette story for more information.

Quebec's minimum wage increased by 15 cents today. Workers are criticizing this so-called wage "hike" saying that it is not high enough to cover their basic costs of living.

Vivre Saint-Michel en Santé, a community revitalization initiative in the Montreal neighbourhood of Saint-Michel, has created a new offshoot organization to work specifically on projects that will address poverty and social exclusion. Launched in March 2003, Le Chantier de revitalization urbane et social (Le Chantier) is helping create a sense of optimism among the residents of this densely-populated, culturally diverse part of Montreal.

Réseau Solidarité Itinérance du Québec (RSIQ) is distributing a petition, of sorts, in the form of a declaration that asserts "By collective responsibility, we also understand that a person is not solely responsible for his or her state of homelessness. On the contrary, homelessness is a result of a combination of vulnerabilities and of structural and collective factors for which we can and must individually and collectively act upon." Read the declaration: Homelessness: A Right to All Rights (in PDF); the organizers are asking for signatures to be faxed to them at (514) 879-1948 by November 30, 2005.

The Liberals put forward a bill whose intent is to provide financially rewards to those individuals on welfare who re-enter the work force or who try to find a job. However, it has been criticized by anti-poverty groups and the Parti Quebecois for not helping those who really need it the most. For more information read the CBC article on the Liberals' welfare bill.

The Quebec government is cutting welfare payments to those recipents who are young, able bodied and living with their parents. The government says that the cut is a money saving measure and a way to encourage unemployed youth to work. However, the Parti Quebecois argued against the cut because in certain areas in Quebec work is very difficult to find and many young people are not unemployed by choice. For more information read the CBC story regarding Quebec's welfare cuts.

Substance use and homelessness are factors associated with death among street youth in Montreal, according to a study in the August 4 issue of JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association, a theme issue on Violence and Human Rights. The full text of report is still under embargo but JAMA's press release is available and there's also CBC news story on the issue.

Quebec's Liberals suggested that Landlords may have the ability to take welfare checks away from tenants who are benhind on their rent payments. Many people are horrified by this suggestion. Many critics argue that it discriminatory against one group of tenants and suggest that if they want to solve the problem of tenants not paying their rent, the government should increase welfare payments and fund more social housing. For more information read the CBC article about the Liberals' proposition.

In what it calls a revolution in the way it deals with poverty, the Quebec government will start offering cash incentives rather than coercion to get welfare recipients into the work force. The Liberal government's anti-poverty strategy ensures a minimum annual guaranteed income that will take effect April 1, 2005. Read a CBC story on the announcement, or the official Québec Government press release. The press release is in French; to translate Google provides an online translation tool. Also in French, a critique of the new plan by the Collectif pour un Québec sans pauvreté and a press release by Front d'action populaire en réaménagement urbain - both of which have concerns about the impact on the poorest of the poor. For other related links in French see the Canadian Social Research's webpage.

What are the implications of the Supreme Court of Canada in decision in Gosselin, for future anti-poverty litigation? In an upcoming issue of Canadian Journal of Women and the Law, a case comment by Gwen Brodsky criticizes the majority decision in Gosselin: "The challenged social assistance regulation embodied a negative stereotype of young men and women who are reliant on social assistance, which, sadly, the majority of the Court embraced." However, Brodsky also shows that "the decision is deeply divided, and the majority decision turns on a finding that the evidence was insufficient. Therefore, as precedent," argues Brodsky, "the outcome of the Gosselin case may not be particularly significant." Gwen Brodsky's case comment (in PDF) is available online.

Quebec's government is struggling to keep the cost of Universal Daycare to $5 per day. The government has come up with serval different plans to enable the continuation of the program. However, all of these plans see the cost to families rising. Some plans have everyone paying more, while others keep the price the same for low income families. For more information, read the CBC story on the issue.

"Premier Bernard Landry had poverty on his election campaign agenda Monday, saying his government has one of the best records of fighting poverty in North America." Charest's party would cut $1 billion per year in taxes over five years. Landry says his PQ would invest another $22 million per year for disadvantaged families with young children. "The object is to lower the child poverty level," he says, "to one of the lowest in the world." See the CBC story on the issue.

Bill 112, a law drafted by community groups, and designed to cut poverty in half over the next ten years, was passed unanimously by the National Assembly. The new law commits the provincial government to establishing an anti-poverty action plan within two months and to giving a progress report on its fight against poverty every three years. It also sets a minimum level for social assistance payments, creates a monitoring agency, and provides funds for special anti-poverty initiatives. That success story is the subject of a background paper written Alainn Noël of the Université de Montréal. The paper, A Law Against Poverty: Quebec’s New Approach to Combating Poverty and Social Exclusion (Dec 2002), (in PDF) can be downloaded from the Canadian Policy Research website.