The Canadian public gets most of its information about young offenders from the media. This source seriously misrepresents both the quantity and quality of youth crime. Ye it is this misinformed public opinion which tends to drive public policy in the area of criminal justice.
An examination of the statistics and the literature shows that evidence does not support the generally-held view that youth crime is rampant. Yet the demonization of our children by politicians and the media continues.
Children and youth
On February 17, 2010, the Mayor’s Executive Policy Committee (EPC) passed a motion to provide a grant in the amount of $225,000 per year for 15 years in support of the Youth for Christ Centre of Excellence. On February 24th, Winnipeg City Council will vote on the motion.
As service providers working with inner-city youth, our organizations strongly agree that we need to increase recreational opportunities for inner-city youth in Winnipeg. However, we strongly oppose public funding for the Youth for Christ Centre.
“What most people just don’t get,” she stated, “is that it takes all day to be poor.” Those words, spoken by one of CLOUT’s member representatives, have taken on a life of their own. Its simple, but profound message is that we need to take the time to examine the details of being poor, not just the superficial images that prop up stereotypes. Details force us to wonder if we could handle their situation any better and to recognize the myriad of support we tap into every day to maintain our privileged standard of living, support that most of us take for granted.
Look around the world, and you will see example after example of nations conductimg a risky social experiment of "letting the market rule." However, not all societies have succumbed to these pressures- some resist having market principles determine their quality of life.
This document examines the way "letting the market rule" is destablizing Canadian society.
This paper examines the benefits of recreation for communities, with a specific focus on the benefits to, and barriers faced by marginalized and low-income communities. An extensive review of the available literature reveals that recreation produces enormous benefits for individuals, communities, and society as a whole. Low-income and marginalized communities often benefit the most from recreation, yet also face the most extensive barriers to participation.
In the lead-up to the UN Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in December 2009, Stephen Lewis laments in this issue of Our Schools/Our Selves that it may be too late to prevent a climate catastrophe.
HALIFAX, NS - Nova Scotia Child Poverty Report Cards have recorded changes in child poverty since 1999. Each annual card has tracked progress on the government of Canada’s 1989 promise to end child poverty. The report released today, by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, Nova Scotia, is the tenth card, and is being released on the 20th anniversary of Canada’s promise to eliminate poverty by the year 2000.
Canadians generally are not as wildly and uncritically patriotic as Americans. We are not chauvinists. We don’t continually wave the flag and boast about our country’s pre-eminence in everything from culture to quality of life to military might.
Most of us, however, tend to be quietly proud of Canada, glad to live here, and even tolerant of the inequitable society that has developed.
The closest we come to jingoism is on Canada Day, when we put our patriotism enthusiastically on display, wearing and waving the Maple Leaf with abandon.