Canada works on trade instead of aid

Under the administration of Stephen Harper, Canada's government has made a big change on how it interacts with Africa. Simply put, they have concentrated more on trade than on aid. The focus on trade has ignored some African countries at the expense of others. Canada is doing trade primarily with resource rich nations such as Ghana and Nigeria for their minerals and oil. Meanwhile, the poorest countries on the continent are almost ignored by Canada. Still, such an approach can only accelerate Africa's economic growth.

From the Inter Press Service, writer Fawzia Sheikh takes a look at the pros and cons of each approach.

The Canadian International Development Agency ended bilateral programming in countries where aid efforts are hindered by high operating costs, including Rwanda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Niger. The agency also decided to reduce and concentrate its bilateral programming in five states, including Mozambique, Ethiopia and Tanzania.

Yet last month, after years of viewing the continent as mainly a foreign aid recipient, the Conservative government announced a trade mission slated for next January encompassing the extractive resource industries and the infrastructure sectors related to energy, power generation and mining.

The new-found attention is not that surprising, given that Africa appears to be in the midst of an upswing.

Between 1995 and 2010, Africa’s annual average GDP growth was 4.3 percent a year, making the continent one of the fastest-growing regions of the world, Rudy Husny, press secretary to Ed Fast, the Canadian minister of international trade, wrote in an email to IPS. Solid economic growth is expected to continue this year and in 2013, he noted.

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According to a report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development issued earlier this year, the drop in Canada’s overseas development assistance since 2011, as well as a decision to zero in on fewer countries that are predominantly middle income, “may undermine the support (Canada) has given in recent years to poor countries with weak capacity, especially in sub-Saharan Africa.”

In 2011, Canada’s net overseas development assistance fell to 5.3 billion dollars, a decrease of 5.3 percent from 2010, states the peer review published by the OECD’s Development Assistance Committee.

In the report, the OECD advised that Canada and other nations must ensure that development objectives and partner country ownership are key to the programmes it supports, and that there is “no confusion” between development aims and the promotion of commercial interests.

The struggle for Canadian single parents

New census data for Canada shows that the number of single parents jumped eight percent over the last five years.  Evidence suggests that many of them live just above the poverty level for the country. Despite earning an honest wage, many single parents are finding it hard to climb the income ladder due to the increasing gap between rich and poor.

From Metro News Canada, writer Micheal Tutton meets a few of the single parents living in a homeless shelter in New Brunswick.

At the First Steps Housing Project in Saint John, N.B., Amy Young cuddles her 15-month-old son Striker, weeping as she reflects on a troubled past of addictions and a broken relationship — and a future she’s determined to ensure means a better life for her baby.

“It’s not about you any more,” Young said, Striker happily playing nearby. “It’s all about your child and the good decisions you have to make for them.”

First Steps, a centre for homeless, single mothers, is a safe haven, a daycare and and a provider of in-house high school education to the dozen women currently living there.

For Young, the converted convent next to a city hospital seems like “a mansion” compared to the squalor of her old neighbourhood, where many of Saint John’s lone-parent families continue to live.

“There were stabbings,” she recalled. “You would find syringes in the street, crack pipes and stuff like that.”

Lone-parent families represented 16.3 per cent of all census families in 2011, nearly twice the percentage of 1961, before the advent of 1968′s Divorce Act and a steadily growing proportion of parents who never got married in the first place.

In 1961, roughly two-thirds of lone parents were widowed, and the rest were either divorced or separated, with a small percentage never having been married. Since then, the proportions have changed dramatically: half are either divorced or separated, while the ranks of those going it alone from the outset have grown tenfold.

Canada's indigenous people protest poor education services

We often talk about the need for education services in the under-developed world. In rich nations, there are still segments of the population that are unable to have this basic human right. Not all of the indigenous people in North America have access to schooling. Most of those who can go to school have to put up with broken down facilities.

From their Global Voices column at the Toronto Star, Craig and Marc Kielburger describe one native tribe that went to Canada's capital to gain more awareness for First Nation education.

In 2000, J.R. Nakogee School in the remote Attawapiskat First Nation on James Bay was finally shut down after a diesel spill 20 years earlier contaminated the grounds. Shannen and the village’s 400 elementary students were squeezed into nine makeshift portables on the same fouled land. It was meant to be temporary.

It’s one of 515 reserve schools overseen by Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC), the federal department responsible for provincial and municipal-type services for First Nations.

After eight years of government refusals and a few broken promises, students cancelled their Grade 8 grad trip to Niagara Falls and headed to Ottawa to demand a new school. Shannen led them in a rally on Parliament Hill.

They were told there wasn’t enough money—the government had other priorities.

Shannen and her classmates fought back. Their Education is a Human Right Campaign, launched via Facebook and YouTube, inspired the support of thousands of students, teachers and religious groups across Canada. Attawapiskat students became the face of a generation of forgotten First Nations children. Shannen, their voice.

In December of 2009, the government again promised to rebuild the school.

“Nobody knows how the funding decisions are made in Ottawa,” National Assembly of First Nations Chief Shawn Atleo told us recently.

Despite promissory notes from INAC, he says, there is still no permanent school. The election campaign is cause for delay and even more frustration. And even if party leaders were talking about Attawapiskat, which they aren’t, there are “about 60” First Nations communities that have never had a school, Chief Atleo told us.
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Reserve schools receive on average $2,000 less in annual funding per student than provincial schools, according to a study from the Caledon Institute of Social Policy. A fixed funding model covers the basics: teacher salaries and administration. Unlike provincial schools, there’s no money allocated for libraries, science or technology labs, athletic facilities or special education.

Worse, INAC’s regional offices each distribute funds differently, with little consistency and no transparency surrounding the process. And the kids feel the consequences.

More than half of First Nations youth on reserves don’t finish high school; kids in Attawapiskat start dropping out in Grade 5. These communities are often stricken by poverty, crime and high suicide rates.

Chief Atleo calls the policy failings that mire First Nations in poverty the country’s “perfect demographic storm.”

Overnight links for December 20th

The Pan American Heath Organization is getting ready to begin cholera vaccinations in Haiti. Jane Sutton from the Scotland Herald says that the PAHO still needs to raise more money to manufacture more vaccine before they begin.   

The latest U.S. Census Bureau numbers show that the Muncie, Indiana area has a higher level of poverty than state or even national levels. Seth Slabaugh of the Muncie Star Press looks into the reasons why poverty is so high for this rural area. 

Canada will soon be withdrawing troops from Afghanistan. The country is beginning to talk about how they continue to help human rights in Afghanistan after the troops are gone. From the Globe and Mail, writer Sarah Smiles Persinger examines the new debate.   

Overnight links for December 17th

Columnist Pam Strickland of the Knoxville News talks about the prevalence of food stamp usage in Tennessee. The state has the third highest food stamp usage rate in the US.  

 The Guardian's Poverty Matters blog examines the issue of celebrities getting involved in development aid. Madeliene Bunting says the issue is complex and it is impossible to say if all of the celebirites are really helping or just wasting time. 

Stephen Harper Prime Minister of Canada is signing up to lead the fund-raising efforts for the new U.N. initiative on maternal health. Globe and Mail writer Campbell Clark says that Harper will co-chair the committee with Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete.







 

Low-income levels unchanged in Canada

The statistics office of Canadian government says that low-income levels remain unchanged in Canada since 2008. The people considered to be poor in Canada is 9 percent of the population which amounts to three million people. Income levels for families are also unchanged since 2008.

From the CBC, we read more about the latest statistics from Canada.

Statistics Canada defines low-income as the level where a family spends 63 per cent or more of its income on food, clothing and shelter.

The dollar figure for what constitutes low income varies by family size and by the size of the community but is based on spending patterns studied in 1992 and adjusted each year since then for inflation.

About 606,000 children age 17 or under lived in low-income families in 2008. That also was unchanged from 2007 but was lower than in 2003, when 854,000 lived in low-income families.

The proportion of children in low-income families was 9.0 per cent in 2008, half the peak of 18 per cent in 1996.

Statistics Canada said about 218,000 of these children lived in single-mother families.

Of all children living with single mothers, 23 per cent were part of low-income families in 2008, well below the latest peak of 56 per cent in 1996.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2010/06/17/canadian-poverty-rate.html#ixzz0r8iHdF65

Canada will pledge 1 billion for maternal health

In a story that came out over the weekend, Canada announced it's development goal as host of the G-8 and G-20 meetings. The host country usually sets the agenda and a goal it would like to achieve during the meetings. Canada has said that it would pledge one billion dollars to fund maternal and child health, and will ask the other member countries to pledge big money as well.

From the Globe and Mail, we read more about the proposal and what may keep it from becoming a reality.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced in January that improving the health of mothers and their children in developing countries would be his signature initiative as host of the G8 summit next month.

Initially, the pitch was well received around the world. Concerns are on the rise that maternal health issues have been pushed aside in development assistance packages over the years.

But after Ottawa spent weeks sidestepping questions about whether the government would allow funding to go to groups or projects that encourage better access to safe abortion, Canada's maternal health idea lost momentum.

When G8 development ministers finally met in Halifax last month, they agreed on vaguely defined goals for the initiative, and made no mention of a target for funding.

Then Greece’s sovereign debt crisis spilled over its borders and dragged down Europe. The burgeoning deficits of G8 countries have now become a policy priority, prompting many anti-poverty advocates and experts to question whether the leaders would find the wherewithal to support a new aid project in poor countries.

“There’s nothing on the table. How serious are they about this?” NDP foreign-affairs critic Paul Dewar said last week.

One mother's eviction story makes news in Toronto

The story of mother's possible eviction from her apartment is receiving the attention of the media in Toronto.

Bsra Nor had unemployment insurance benefits taken away from her by the Toronto city government, so she is unable to afford her rent. Her husband lives in the states and is not supporting her financially. Social service advocates are storming city hall to plea Nor's case before she gets evicted.

From Rabble, writer John Bonnar describes Nor's situation.

Bsra Nor’s payments were stopped at the beginning of April after Social Services told her the week before that she no longer qualified for Ontario Works because she is married, even though her situation had remained unchanged since she started receiving benefits almost a year ago.

“I told them from the beginning that I’m married and at my six month interview when I went to update everything was okay,” said Nor. “My husband is not supporting me financially, but now social services wants my husband to come in and sign documents saying that we’re a family.”

Nor was married in Toronto but her husband resides in the United States, where he is still applying for sponsorship to live in Canada.

She said that once the sponsorship process has begun it is illegal to try and enter the country. But without his presence, Nor has been told she can’t continue to receive social assistance.

In the meantime, Nor’s landlord has told her that if she doesn’t pay April’s rent before the end of the month she has to vacate her unit.

“He’s been nice to me for waiting for the last month,” she said. “I don’t know where to go.”

Nor’s mother, who sponsored her eight years ago when she first came to Canada, has a small home and six children living with her. So there’s no room for Nor and her 10-month-old baby boy.

If she were single, Nor said she would couch surf until she can find something permanent. “But since I have a kid I cannot do that,” said the 21-year-old.

OXFAM says fix aid then commit more money

To coincide with the G-8 financial ministers meeting in Canada, OXFAM is saying that international aid needs fixing and more money.

The development ministers of the G-8 nations are meeting in Halifax, Nova Scotia to set the agenda for when the heads of those states meet later this year. As chair of the G-8 this year, Canada wants to push aid development onto the forefront of the agenda, so OXFAM's report gives some suggestions.

OXFAM is now agreeing with those that say that international aid is broken, wasteful and need of repair. However, the charity does not agree with those who think we should get rid of it entirely. OXFAM is urging the G-8 to not only tackle the waste but then to commit more money to aid

From this Canwest News Service article that we found at Canada.com, writer Richard Foot tells us more about the statement from OXFAM.

Oxfam, an independent aid agency with decades of experience in the world's poorest regions, says rich governments need to drastically increase funding to maternal health care and numerous other social and economic aid projects.

In 1970, developed countries agreed through the United Nations to spend 0.7 per cent of their gross national income on foreign aid. Oxfam says that since 2008 only Denmark, Luxembourg, Holland, Norway and Sweden have met that goal, and that the global shortfall in aid commitments now amounts to roughly $3 trillion U.S..

Canada spends 0.33 per cent of its gross national income on foreign aid, mostly in Afghanistan, our largest aid recipient.

While calling for such spending to rise, Oxfam also acknowledges what a growing chorus of critics are saying: that foreign aid efforts are often beset by waste, corruption and outright failure.

"Clearly it is impossible to argue that no aid is wasted," says the report, 21st Century Aid: Recognizing Success and Tackling Failure.

"Aid is touched by corruption . . . (and) aid dependency is an issue that needs attention."

Oxfam agrees that too much aid spending is determined by the wishes of donors, rather than the needs of recipients.

It says aid efforts also fail when development spending is coupled with military goals — such as in Afghanistan — or handed over without accountability to corrupt governments, or misspent on third-party consultants rather than actual projects on the ground.

Canada's chair of the G-8 brings hope for aid pledges

Out of all of the G-8 countries Canada has been the best in keeping their aid promises. So many poverty advocates are hoping that Canada will use their chairmanship of G-8 this year to put pressure on the other countries to live up to their own promises.

From this Canadian Press article that we found at Google News, we read more about the hopes that poverty fighting NGO's have for Canada.

Canada has largely lived up to its promises, and has put C$5 billion toward aid in 2010-2011, said Jessica Fletcher, spokeswoman for International Development Minister Bev Oda.

"We come out looking better than most," agreed Dennis Howlett, national co-ordinator of Make Poverty History, an umbrella group of large non-governmental organizations in Canada.

That's why Canada should use its moral authority, as well as its control of the agenda as host of the next G8 summit, to pressure other countries to pay up, Howlett said.

The NGOs won't stop there, however, in their lobbying of the G8.

Following up on Harper's decision to make maternal and child health a key theme, the NGOs want the G8 to commit meaningful money and agree to a "comprehensive" scheme that includes family planning and access to safe abortion in countries where it is legal, Howlett said.

The NGOs will also be pressuring the G8 to discuss climate change, but Howlett is not holding out much hope on that front. Ottawa has made it clear it would prefer to discuss climate change at the Major Economies Forum, and not at the G8 or G20.

The aid groups are also concerned that even if Canada and several other countries live up to their previous aid commitments, it's downhill from here.

That's because Canada and others have capped their aid budgets for future years, even as demands on that pool of money rise.

A BrandAID for third-world artisans

There are many crafters and artisans in the under-developed world, but very few people get to see their work. What is missing for these artisans is a way into the global marketplace, many are cut from the the technology or the transportation that can help to sell their art. That is why many social business are springing up to give these artisans an global market. We learned of a new one today based in Canada called BrandAID.

From the Globe and Mail, writer Diane Jermyn interviews one of the BrandAid founders Tony Pigott. The Globe and Mail also has a great video that sums up the entire piece.

“Don't be confused,” says Tony Pigott, who is also president and chief executive officer of JWT, a communications and advertising agency in Toronto. “We're still in the startup stage, but BrandAID is a for-profit business, just one with a social conscience. Making a profit is essential to our future sustainability.”

With hooks like ‘Poverty needs marketing,' BrandAID uses disruptive ideas to attract attention and recruit investors. “There's a huge market for beautiful artisan goods, such as fashion, art and decor, but there's also a huge barrier for the artisans,” says Mr. Pigott. “They have no name, no brand.”

BrandAID makes money by selling the works – which have been pre-purchased at the artisans' asking price – online, at events and to major retailers. Profit is shared between the artisan partners, investors and the BrandAID Foundation. The artisans receive 35 per cent of the profit from the sale of the art, with 10 per cent of that amount channelled back to the artisans' community through the foundation.

Being market driven is not only important to investors but also to the artisans themselves, who want to do business, not ask for a handout, says Mr. Pigott.

He established BrandAID in 2008 with co-founders Cameron Brohman, a development expert who lived in Haiti for 25 years, New York film maker David Belle and Academy Award-winning Canadian screenwriter, producer and director Paul Haggis. Josh Brolin and Diane Lane are among the Hollywood celebrities who have helped spread the word about BrandAID.

Two Haitian communities served as tests for the business model: Croix de Bouquets, with its metal artists, and Jacmel and its papier mâché crafters. Today the focus in Haiti is on rebuilding those communities, which were hit hard by the recent earthquake.

Vancouver's effort to balance poor neighborhood media coverage

With the Winter Olympic Games coming to Vancouver, Canada later this month, many journalists from around the world will be telling their home audiences about life in the city. Game organizers and city officials fear that the foreign press will do stories about the poor neighborhoods in Vancouver that will give a negative image of the city.

In an effort to balance the media coverage, the city has opened an information center about the city's poor Downtown Eastside area. The kiosk talks about the many social services available and the history of the area. However, many advocates of the poor call the center a propaganda machine and are planing a protest for the foreign journalists to see.

From the Vancouver Sun, writer Lori Culbert looked at both opinions of the information center.

“Someone can write a negative story by taking a picture of someone in a doorway, but we have some things to celebrate,” Housing and Social Development Minister Rich Coleman said Friday.

The centre, which has a budget of about $150,000, is full of details about social housing, outreach programs and support services. Coleman said he hopes reporters will take away the message that B.C. “is facing the issue [of homelessness] head-on,” and is focusing on integrating services to try to keep people off the streets.

About 35 non-profit organizations that do important work in the community – such as initiatives involving clothing, meals, addictions treatment and harm reduction – will have representatives at the centre.
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However, the Carnegie Community Action Project (CCAP) and a half dozen other community groups are planning a protest outside the office doors today, dismissing the centre as a “propaganda kiosk.”

“This is government spin-doctoring,” said CCAP’s Wendy Pedersen.
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As an example, Pedersen said, the groups want to expand on a wallboard in the centre stating that “homelessness is a complex problem that is the result of years of abuse, addictions, and/or mental illness.”

What the board doesn’t say, she added, is that government policies involving welfare rates and social-housing construction are also key culprits.
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It won’t be clear until the throngs of media arrive in Vancouver whether international reporters will even bother with the centre, which is not visible from the sidewalk, but located in a courtyard in the Woodward’s development.

The history of the Vancouver Foundation

An endowment in Vancouver has given over $725 million dollars to the area's poor since 1943. People contribute to the fund because they like the idea money helping others long after they are gone. For the endowment only uses the interest that is gained from the money donated.

The Vancouver Foundation endowment has a rich history and some of that was shared in an article from Canada'sGlobe and Mail. Writer Robert Matas tells us how the fund was originally set up.

Alice MacKay introduced an innovative approach to charity-giving in Vancouver almost seven decades ago that continues to attract more and more enthusiastic supporters with each passing generation.

Ms. MacKay left an estate of $1,000 when she died in 1943. Without any children, she had decided to leave her life savings to women living in poverty.

But she did not want the funds to be handed over directly to the indigent. She insisted that only interest earned from the funds should be used for charity.

Local industrialist W.J. Van Dusen was intrigued with the idea of financing community charity with an endowment fund.

He spoke to some of the wealthier families in Vancouver about contributing to a foundation dedicated to helping less-fortunate people in the city.

Mr. Van Dusen and nine others put in $10,000 each, providing the Vancouver Foundation with its first endowment fund of $101,000.

The concept of a legacy fund, giving across the generations, has resonated with British Columbians. The Vancouver Foundation has a collection of endowment funds worth $660-million as of December, 2008, which is the most recent, publicly available statistic. The foundation has distributed around $725-million since 1943 to groups and individuals in the community. The funds came entirely from interest on investments, while donations to the funds remained untouched.

Malawian political enemy returns home

The Toronto Star has a great story today about a Malawi expat who returned home. Ali Sikelo was forced to leave Malawi becuase he opposed the country's dictator. He earned an education in Moscow, and went on to a comfortable life in Toronto. But Sikelo was haunted by leaving behind a family that was scattered and tortured by the dictator.

From the Toronto Star, comes Sikelo's story.



While the video provides the background, we turn to the printed story to see how Sikelo is doing now. As you can tell from our snippet, it is not a perfect ending.

Sikelo was elected in 1999 as a member of parliament, representing Mangochi North East.

The evidence of his political work is not far from his front door: the paving of the winding stretch of road from his village to the Mozambique border was his initiative.

So were dozens of drilled wells. The Chindamba Primary School in Malindi went from two grades to eight.

But his proudest accomplishment has been a system of home-based care and local education for children who have lost their parents to AIDS. It means they no longer have to leave their neighbours, their friends, their relatives and their villages the way Sikelo did, albeit for different reasons.

The orphans of Chindamba, Sikelo's small village, take up most of his time. The 150 children live with extended family or foster families. The orphans and other schoolchildren get taught in a clearing in the village, which has a classroom under the trees. The thatch roof keeps blowing off in the strong winds off Lake Malawi.

During the Star's visit in mid-November, the 3- to 5-year-old children sought refuge from the 32C heat, gathering in the shade of the towering acacia trees. Each one stood to recite, in English, the ABCs, numbers, months of the year, or sing two verses of "Rain, rain, go away."

"I take care of the orphans because I live in this village," Sikelo says. "I was born here and I thought it was my responsibility to assist the children. It was not easy for me to sit here and watch the kids not be able to get something to eat or prepare themselves for the future. Like me, I was helped by the international community to get to where I have and I wanted the same for the children."

Sikelo's life is not perfect.

He lost elections both in 2004 – his opponent blamed him for food fraud, which Sikelo denies – and in 2009. He suffers from malaria. It and the drugs he takes to treat it have left him gaunt and tired. In 12 years, he has lost 15 pounds from his now slender frame.

The holiday spirit of volunteerism

For a Christmas-time story, The Toronto Star profiled Elaine Rennie and her 30 years of volunteer work. Rennie spends her Christmas volunteering at the Scott Mission kitchen serving food to the homeless for their annual holiday meal.

Toronto Star writer Debra Black talked to Rennie about her work.

"I get a lot out of it," she said. "For years I've volunteered in God's work." That work has included volunteering at her church and the Canadian Bible Society as well.

But she goes to the Scott Mission every Christmas, just to be part of something bigger.

"I get more back in personal satisfaction and spiritual being than I actually give," said the senior, who lives in Richmond Hill.

The first year Rennie volunteered with the Scott Mission at Christmas, she baked a dozen cookies for the homeless. She and her husband gave them out.

"I just decided it was something I wanted to do," she said.

Her husband died a year and a half ago, she said, but she still feels the pull at Christmastime to volunteer at the mission.

Approximately 350 homeless men and women were treated Friday to a dinner of tomato soup, salad, smoked turkey, stuffing, gravy, cranberry sauce, roasted potatoes, mixed vegetables and a fruit flan.

Aid workers sexually exploiting people in Haiti

Canada has always had a great relationship with Haiti. Not only does it's government send aid, but many Canadian non-governmental organizations work in Haiti. All of the work has been troubled with allegations of aid workers sexually exploiting the people there.

From the Windsor Star, writer Don Lajoie and photographer Rob Gurdebeke traveled to Haiti for a series of stories they produced while doing aid work in Haiti. First, the following video gives an overview of the countries relationship. Then Lajoie tackles the issue of "Mission Sex"

Mission sex -- it's Haiti's dirty little secret.

The western world's poorest country is, according to one aid worker, a "perfect storm" of socio-economic conditions for abuse by visiting humanitarians. It's tropical temperatures and breathtaking natural beauty are easily, and cheaply, accessible from North America. Heavily dependent on foreign aid and with virtually no regulation of its schools and orphanages, Haiti's justice system is ill-equipped to deal with a rising tide of sex tourism.

Peacekeeping troops, aid workers, non-governmental organization employees, priests and missionaries engage in sexual exploitation with arrogant impunity, according to Save the Children, the world's largest children's rights organization.

And, sadly, they say, when dollars are dangled as bait, many Haitians will turn a blind eye.

"All those who come here know this is a very poor country, that there are few opportunities for youth," said Margarett Lubin, Save the Children's local child protection manager. "When financial opportunities are offered, the children enter relationships.... Do their communities see it as exploitation or do they see it as opportunity?"

Haiti has neither adequate sex-offender laws nor the police to enforce them. That helps explain why sex-tourist exporters such as Canada and the U.S. are doing the job themselves, using provisions in their criminal codes.

Consider:

- Windsor priest Rev. John Duarte faces nine counts of sexually exploiting adolescent boys in Port-au-Prince and the northern village of Labadie, where he ran a mission, following a two-year investigation by the Ontario Provincial Police and RCMP.

- American missionary Douglas Perlitz faces nearly identical charges in nearby Cap Haitien for allegedly abusing nine boys at the school he founded for poor children. That case is before the courts in the U.S.

A win for the homeless in Vancouver

A court in British Columbia has sided with the homeless on putting up tents in parks. The court says the homeless can sleep in Vancouver parks if there is not enough shelter space for them. The court recommends to the city that the best way to tackle the problem is by making more shelters available for the homeless.

From the Vancouver Sun, this Reuters article explains the courts decision.

A British Columbia Court of Appeal panel upheld a lower court ruling that a ban on so-called tent cities in parks violated a homeless person's constitutional right to security if there is not enough shelter space is available.

Poverty activists sued Victoria after the city it shut down a tent city that housed about 70 people in 2005. The activists said sleeping in tents in parks was safer than having to use city sidewalks.

The city on the Pacific coast has a more temperate winter climate than the rest of Canada, and its homeless population was significantly larger than the available shelter space.

The city said the ban was to protect the parks.

A couple of stories from Ontario

A couple of stories from Ontario today are related to the province's efforts to reduce poverty. Ontario's government has a goal of reducing poverty by 25 percent by 2013, but an advocacy group says the efforts are falling short.

From the CBC, this Canadian Press story looks at the report issued on the progress of poverty reduction.

The 25 in 5 Poverty Reduction Network says some good steps have been taken but warns that without immediate public support, the province's poverty rate will "explode."

In a report released ahead of the province's own update, the group also says that repeating the mistakes of the 1990s recession — especially making cuts to public sector programs and services — will make it harder for people to move out of poverty.

It wants the province to review its rules around social assistance and make increases to the Ontario Child Benefit, affordable housing and the minimum wage.

So the government of Ontario is creating a new task force to get it's goal back on track. Some elements of Ontario's welfare program are in need of updates as sometimes the program makes it more difficult for the poor to escape their condition.

From The Toronto Star, writer Laurie Monsebraaten gives us some statistics on Canadian welfare.

Almost 800,000 Ontarians – including about 236,000 children and about 260,000 disabled people – live on provincial welfare and disability supports that leave most of them trapped in grinding poverty and despair.

Complex and confusing rules mean that for every dollar earned by a person on welfare or disability support, government cheques are cut by 50 cents. If they are living in subsidized housing, their rent goes up, too.

If two single people on social assistance rent an apartment together to save money, both will see the shelter component of their cheques reduced accordingly, making it almost impossible to get ahead.

Welfare rates were cut 22.6 per cent by the Mike Harris Tories in 1995 and frozen for eight years until the Liberals in 2004 began a series of small annual increases totalling 11 per cent.

In 2007, Statistics Canada considered a single person in a city the size of Toronto living on less than $17,954 after taxes to be living in straitened circumstances.

A single person on welfare receives a maximum of $7,020 a year. A single disabled person gets $12,504. In real terms, that's more than 20 per cent below what people on social assistance received during the recession of the early 1990s.

A small community that once received guaranteed income

An almost forgotten experiment proved just how much a decent income can help people's health and education. A small community in Manitoba, Canada participated in a study back in the mid-70's where every person in the town received a living wage for five years. During those years, the student in the community stayed in school longer, and the residents rarely ever had to rely on Canada's health system.

From The Vancouver Sun, writer Norma Greenaway helped to unearth the almost forgotten study.

"Once upon a time in Canada, there was a town where no one was poor."

No, this is not the opening line of some yet to be written fairy tale. It's the opening line in the summary of a new report that contains some heartening news buried in a long ago and mostly forgotten experiment that ensured all residents in a small Manitoba community were guaranteed a minimum annual income for five years in the mid-1970s.

With Canada awash in flu fears, corporate bankruptcies, rising joblessness and pension woes, the gradual unearthing of a tiny piece of 'utopian' history seems a timely reminder of the benefits of daring to dream.

So far, researcher Evelyn Forget has discovered that from 1974 through 1978, the residents of Dauphin were less likely to draw on the medical system than a control group elsewhere in the province. Dauphin's young people also stayed in high school longer. Within years of the experiment shutting down, those trend lines disappeared, Forget says.

Forget is banking on learning more about what was known as the MINCOME experiment once she gets access to about 1,800 sealed boxes, which, among other things, are jammed with personal surveys of Dauphin residents who lived the experiment.
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While it lasted, about one-third of Dauphin's 10,000 poor residents got monthly cheques to boost their incomes.

The actual dollar figures from the period seem shockingly small in today's world. The formula for the guaranteed minimum income translated into incomes in 1974, for example, that ranged from $1,255 for a single person to about $4,000 for families of four or five people.

The program's costs ballooned as the 1970s progressed and inflation took off, spurred in particular by skyrocketing oil prices at the time.

Though there remains much to learn from the little-studied experiment, Forget says she's increasingly persuaded a guaranteed minimum income is a "more reasonable, more just, more efficient and cheaper way" of eliminating poverty than the current system of targeted support

Next time I'm in Toronto...

Now I know what club I'm going to next time I'm in Toronto. The El Mocambo Tavern operates as a fund raiser for the area's homeless. The proceeds from the drinks, food and cover at the bar goes to food and shelter for the city's homeless.

From the Toronto Star, writers Craig and Marc Kielburger describe a typical night at the El Mocambo.

In the basement of the El Mocambo Tavern, Abbas Jahangiri leads a team of volunteers in prayer.

A floor up, his staff is busy. Bartenders stock the fridge with fresh beer and clear away cases of empties from the previous night. An indie band unloads gear under the neon palm tree marking the historic entrance of the music hall where the Rolling Stones and Elvis Costello once played.

Down the stairs past rows of canned goods, volunteers bow their heads among deli meats and chopped tomatoes that will soon become sandwiches for the homeless. Jahangiri asks God to bless the food, the poorest of the poor and those suffering in “Darfur, Darfur, Darfur.”

In just a few hours, a typical night will begin at this less-than-typical bar. By making sandwiches, pouring drinks and playing music, everyone who enters the El Mocambo’s doors works towards the same cause: charity.

“We have about 100 volunteers who come here at different times, after they finish work. It’s such a righteous act,” explains Jahangiri. “This place has such a unique culture. It’s a landmark for culture. I wanted to use the name and the music to push for charity.”

This is no “church basement” volunteer group. Instead, the Toronto music hall works for the volunteers. At the end of the night, when bands pack up and tabs are settled, all of the venue’s profits go straight to work as Jahangiri locks his club and takes the sandwiches to the city’s homeless.

The volunteers are part of Jahangiri’s service organization, Serving Charity. They, along with the venue’s bartenders and bands, are integral to funding the group’s activities. That includes sandwiches for the homeless in Canada, as well as projects in Vietnam, India and the Dominican Republic.

“Everything Serving Charity does is picked up by the El Mocambo,” says Jahangiri. “In that way, we use the aspects of music and fame and finance and turn it into something for charity.”

The shows are like small-scale versions of U2’s 360° tour. Both band and barman delicately mix social message with music to create positive social change. Socially-conscious lyrics can usually be heard from the street and the space is often donated to charities for fundraisers. Patrons also get a discount on the cover charge for donating canned goods.