"In thinking about this issue of Our Schools/Our Selves, I took an inspiration from Battleground Schools. It is an encyclopaedia of conflict in education, a project of two University of British Columbia education professors, Sandra Matheson and Wayne Ross. The idea was to have short articles that frame some of the many areas of conflict over education — conflicts that grow out of social, cultural, political and technological changes and differences.
The speed and breadth of technological change and how it plays out in education is creating many battles. This issue of Our Schools/Our Selves aims to contribute to the project of identifying some of these areas of conflict and how they play out in schools and for students and teachers. Of course, the articles here represent only a few of the conflicts in education created by rapid technological and related social change."
---from the editorial
We've all heard political leaders boast that the Canadian economy has fully recovered from the recession and that the recession was not as severe in Canada as in other countries. It turns out that both of those claims are false because they don't take population growth into consideration.
Canada's Incomplete, Mediocre Recovery, a new CCPA study by Jim Stanford finds that, after adjusting for population growth, neither GDP nor employment growth have yet to recoup the ground lost during the 2008-09 downturn. Real per capita GDP remains 1.4% lower as of the third quarter of 2011 than it was at the beginning of 2008. And the labour market is still much weaker than it was before the recession—measured by the employment rate, less than one-fifth of the damage has been repaired.
As for international comparisons, once population growth is factored in, Canada's GDP performance ranks 17th out of 34 OECD countries. Canada also ranks 17th (out of 33 reporting countries) in terms of employment growth.
Click here to read the full report.
Income inequality has been getting worse in Canada, rising at a faster pace than it has been in the U.S. The inequality is being driven by what’s happening at the very top of the income spectrum: the richest of the rich are breaking away from the rest of us.
CCPA's latest infographic illustrates some of these stark disparities. Click the image below to view the full infographic:
CBC Radio’s weekly series, Type A released a comprehensive infographic based on the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives' recent report, Canada’s CEO Elite 100: The 0.01%. 
Click the image on the right to view infographic in full.
For more information, read the original report here and be sure to visit The Clash for the Cash: CEO vs. Average Joe to find out how much the CEOs have earned so far.
In its 2010 and 2011 budgets, the federal government announced cuts totalling $7.82 billion. A new CCPA study explores the impact of these cutbacks and finds between 60,100 and 68,300 jobs will be lost as a result.
The study, The Cuts Behind the Curtain: How federal cutbacks will slash services and increase unemployment, identifies areas that are already seeing cuts and may see more of the same, including: programs for Aboriginal on-reserve housing, training and primary health care; support for low-income families, seniors, and the unemployed; environmental programs; workplace and food safety inspectors; and Canada's international profile.
The study also raises serious concerns about the government's lack of transparency about what will be axed, and why.
Click here to to download the study in English. Click here to download the study in French.
CCPA not only does first-rate research; it also connects with the real world by putting powerful information in the hands of advocacy groups and by presenting intelligent, progressive ideas in the media. It is a BC jewel and I urge everyone to support it.
— Kathleen Ruff, founder, RightOn Canada