Canadian Social Research Newsletter

Welcome to the weekly Canadian Social Research Newsletter,
a listing of the new links added to the Canadian Social Research Links website in the past week.

The e-mail version of this week's issue of the newsletter is going out to 2,313 subscribers.

Scroll to the bottom of this newsletter to see some notes, a disclaimer
and other stuff that has nothing whatsoever to do with social policy...

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IN THIS ISSUE OF THE
CANADIAN SOCIAL RESEARCH NEWSLETTER:

Daily media scan for social researchers ===> 580+ links as at Aug. 8/10
Thanks to Jennefer Laidley of the Income Security Advocacy Centre for sharing this!

1. THE CENSUS LONG FORM QUESTIONNAIRE (Enough. No more. 'Tis not so sweet now as 'twas before...)
* Non-violent protest in support of Census detainees in Toronto (YouTube video) By John Campey and the Data Hounds - August 5
* the latest and most comprehensive update on the Census issue from datalibre.ca

It's Campeymania!

Non-violent protest
supporting Census detainees (YouTube video)
August 05, 2010
"John Campey and the Data Hounds" hold a demonstration outside Toronto's Don Jail to show support for all those Canadians who've been incarcerated for failure to fill out the long form census. Which would be nobody. [ For lyrics, click the down arrow that's located beside the number of views just beneath the video.]

Count Me In! (YouTube video) <===The original hit by JC and the DHs, a real toe-tapper that went viral after and garnered over 7,500 views after it was featured on the national TV news in mid-July.

---

#1 Recommended Census issue resource:

datalibre.ca
datalibre.ca is a blog that's maintained mostly by Tracey Lauriault.
It's inspired by civicaccess.ca, which believes all levels of Canadian governments should make civic information and data accessible at no cost in open formats to their citizens.

Latest blog posts from datalibre.ca:

* Aug. 6 Census Media Roundup - August 6 (21 links)
* Aug 4 & 5 Media Roundup - August 6 (41 links)
* Tuesday Media Roundup - August 4 (50 links)
* The Wire – Juking the Stats - August 4
("Juke: American street slang: To intentionally confuse, distort, outmaneuver or misdirect attention away from what is real to favor what is illusory, imagined, or a more desirable outcome.")
NOTE: the 'juking" link above refers to Treasury Board Minister Stockwell Day's use of imaginary numbers --- the “alarming rate of unreported crimes” --- to justify building prisons.
* On Unpaid (censusless) Work - August 3
* Monday’s Census Media Roundup - August 3
* Good King Censusless – Lyrics - August 2
* Canceled/Cut Government Surveys - August 2
- including the Youth In Transition Survey, the National Longitudinal Survey on Children and Youth, the National Apprenticeship Survey, and the Program for International Student Assessment...
* Cartoons - August 2
* Media Roundup July 29-Aug. 1
* Just a bit more late night census news - July 28 (16 links)
* Tuesday & Wednesday Census Media Roundup - July 28 (82 links)
* About the National Statistics Council of Canada - July 28
* Monday Census Media Roundup - July 27 (28 links)
* Government coercion in perspective: where does the long form of the census fit? - July 27
* Canadian Census Compromise and New Chief - July 26
* Weekend Census Media Roundup - July 26 (17 links)
* Friday Media Round-Up - July 24 (36 links)

Prefer podcasts?
The Mark Radio ep.25: Making Sense of the Census - Podcast (30 minutes)
August 3, 2010
Four of The Mark's contributors reflect on what the scrapping of the mandatory long-form census means to Canada and Canadians
* Paul Saurette, associate professor of Political Science at the University of Ottawa on what he thinks is behind the scrapping of the mandatory census
* Former Chief Statistician Ivan Fellegi, on where StatsCan goes from here
* Pundit and political strategist Warren Kinsella, on why the census is too intrusive
* Former head of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission Linda Keen, on how it feels to be a civil servant in the government's crosshairs.
Source:
The Mark
"The people and the ideas behind the headlines"

- Go to the Census 2011 questionnaire links links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/2011_census_questionnaire.htm

2. The National Council of Welfare launches its new website!

National Council of Welfare - New site launched July 2010
Since the Government Organization Act of 1969, the mandate of the National Council of Welfare is to serve as advisory group to the federal Minister responsible for the welfare of Canadians - in 2010, that's the Hon. Diane Finley, Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development Canada - regarding "any matter relating to social development that the Minister may refer to the Council for its consideration or that the Council considers appropriate."
[ Read more in About Us ]

Special features of the Council's new website, all accessible from the home page, include:
* an interactive map of welfare incomes for 2008 (bottom of the page)
* customized tables and charts (Datasets : Total Welfare Incomes - Adequacy of Welfare Incomes - Poverty Rates)
* media summaries on poverty and related topics

- includes links to the following information and resources:
* About Us * Council Members * Research and Publications * News Room * Public Statements * Provincial and Territorial Contacts * Frequently Asked Questions * Sites of Interest * Mailing List * Get RSS Feed * Site Map * Communities (Cost of Poverty - Solving Poverty - Welfare Incomes - Poverty Profile * Datasets (Total Welfare Incomes - Adequacy of Welfare Incomes - Poverty Rates)

"Techie note":
If you've saved any links to content from the Council's now-superseded original website, you'll have to update those links starting from their new home page, because the new site has been completely overhauled, right down to the new domain name ( cnb-ncw.gc.ca - replacing ncwcnbes.net ) and the new site format (JavaServer Pages, replacing HTML). At this point in time, there's no auto-redirect for individual links from the old site (except for the splash page), nor is there a site-wide "global" fix --- each link in your old list (and mine - argh...) must be updated. Within the next week or so, I plan to complete my update all of the links on my site that point to reports from the National Council of Welfare.

Endorsement by ME.
As a Canadian welfare chronicler since 1975, I've always had the highest regard for the National Council of Welfare as a valuable source of advice for the federal Minister responsible for the welfare of Canadians. In addition, the Council offers a wealth of information for social researchers. If you do research on welfare incomes, the Welfare Incomes series of reports is the FIRST source that I recommend, because it's the only source whose work is verified for factual accuracy by provincial-territorial government welfare authorities before it's published. And it's the only source that offers a consistent approach across all Canadian jurisdictions and annual reports back to 1986. The Council also does some impressive work with respect to the cost (to Canada) of poverty, how to solve poverty, and poverty profiles.
Check out the new National Council of Welfare website, and use the terrific new interactive research tools that are now available!
Gilles

- Go to the Social Research Organizations (I) in Canada page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/research.htm

3. First Comprehensive Review of the Market Basket Measure of Low Income: Final Report - June 2010
(Human Resources and Skills Development Canada and Statistics Canada)

First Comprehensive Review of the
Market Basket Measure of Low Income:
Final Report (PDF - 782K, 96 pages)
By Michael Hatfield, Wendy Pyper and Burton Gustajtis
June 2010
[Excerpt]
Following the release of the fourth report based on MBM data in December 2008 covering the years from 2000 to 2006 it was determined that sufficient experience with the original measure had been obtained to undertake the first comprehensive review of the measure during 2009 and early 2010. Human Resources and Skills Development Canada (HRSDC) joined with Statistics Canada to carry out the review.

The purpose of the review is to ensure that the MBM, to the extent feasible, meets the following three criteria:
1) that the MBM “basket” continues to embody a modest* basic standard of living in the Canadian context of 2010;
2) that the cost of purchasing this standard of living in specific geographical regions within the ten Provinces is estimated as precisely as possible; and
3) that the measure takes into account as fully as possible the resources available to households to purchase the content of the ‘basket.”
_______________

* OMG - Someone better give Chris Sarlo and Stephen Harper a Valium:
=> "Internet access services" are included as part of a modest basket of goods since 2005!
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More MBM report links from the
HRSDC Research/Publications page:
(Look under "Social and Economic Inclusion")
[ The reference to the MBM Review appears as a footnote at the bottom of the Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics: 2008 ]
BTW - if you move your mouse over the "First Comprehensive..." link above, you'll note on your status bar (bottom-left corner of your monitor) that the PDF file is on the Canadian Social Research Links website and not the HRSDC website or the Statistics Canada website. That's because the web folks at HRSDC and StatCan are either too busy to upload the file to *their* web server, or else they all went on annual leave together. The link will appear on the HRSDC Publications page "soon"...

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Complementary reading:

Low income definitions
Low Income Cut-offs (LICOs)
--- Rebasing and Indexing the LICOs
--- Low income rate and low income gap
--- Use of after-tax and before-tax LICOs
Low Income Measures (LIMs)
Market Basket Measure (MBM)
Source:
Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics: 2008
(The "Low incomes definitions" above are found on the Notes and Definitions link off the main page of the
Survey of Labour and Income Dynamics or SLID)

- Go to the Poverty Measures - Canadian Resources page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/poverty.htm

4. Hey, Council of the Federation : Provinces need to pull children out of poverty! - August 3
(Sid Frankel and Laurel Rothman in the Winnipeg Free Press)

Provinces need to pull children out of poverty
By Sid Frankel
August 3, 2010
Canada's impoverished children deserve to be at the table of the country's economic recovery. Why then, on the agenda of the premiers meeting in Winnipeg this week, is there no mention of how to pull those families that suffered most damage from the recession along in the plan for sustained growth? They need a recovery more than anyone else. In 2008, before the full brunt of the recession was felt, about one in every eight (13.3 per cent) Canadians lived in poverty (less than 50 per cent of median income after tax). That is about 4.4 million Canadians. Canada has always had poverty rates in the upper half of those experienced by rich countries, and rates have not changed much over time. The poverty rate in 1976 was 13 per cent. Why are our premiers collectively ignoring this situation?
Source:
Winnipeg Free Press
[Sid Frankel is chair of the Social Planning Council's local Campaign 2000; he wrote this article with Laurel Rothman, the campaign's national coordinator.]

Related link:

Calm Before the Storm:
The Great Recession’s Impact on Homelessness (PDF - 299K, 23 pages)
By Nick Falvo, Carleton University
Paper Presentation to the
44th Annual Conference of the
Canadian Economics Association
May 28-30, 2010
Quebec City

- Go to the Homelessness and Housing Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/homeless.htm

July 30, 2010
Payroll employment, earnings and hours, May 2010
In May, average weekly earnings of non-farm payroll employees rose by 3.7% from May 2009 to $848.45. This was the fastest year-over-year increase since February 2008.
- includes two tables:
* Average weekly earnings (including overtime) for all employees
* Number of employees

Employment, Earnings and Hours
This publication presents a timely picture of employment, earnings and hours.
The tabulations focus on monthly labour market information and some historical data series.
NOTE: According to the overview, "[d]ata on payroll employment, earnings and hours for June will be released on August 26."
Click "View" to see the latest issue of this report online; click "Chronological index" for earlier issues.

August 6, 2010
Labour Force Survey, July 2010
Following strong gains in recent months, employment was little changed in July, with large full-time declines mostly offset by part-time gains. The unemployment rate edged up 0.1 percentage points to 8.0%.
- incl. links to three tables:
* Labour force characteristics by age and sex
* Employment by class of worker and industry (based on NAICS)
* Labour force characteristics by province

Slow week* at StatCan...
- daily content for this past week; click "HTML" beside a date to access The Daily for that day...

The Daily Archives
- select a month and click on a date for that day's Daily

What's new online:
[This section archives documents that
have been featured on the CRRU homepage..]

First-year maternal employment and child development in the first 7 years
4 Aug 10
- Findings from a major American longitudinal study (NICHD): mothers' full time employment in the first year of life may pose mild developmental harm to some children; in the US, most work full-time by six months and many by three months; neither part-time nor full-time employment after the first year were found to have negative effects; and later outcomes are, on average, neutral as negative and positive effects tend to offset one another.

Parents and the high cost of child care: 2010 update
4 Aug 10
- Report from the US National Association of Child Care Resource and Referral Agencies looks at child care parent fees; finds that in 40 states child care fees are higher than college tuition.

[This section features interesting and noteworthy news
about ECEC and related issues in Canada and internationally.]

Subscribe to the CRRU email announcements list
Sign up to receive email notices of updates and new postings on the CRRU website which will inform you of policy developments in early childhood care and education, new research and resources for policy, newly released CRRU publications, and upcoming events of interest to the child care and broader community.

CRRU Publications - briefing notes, factsheets, occasional papers and other publications
ISSUE files - theme pages, each filled with contextual information and links to further info

Source:
Childcare Resource and Research Unit (CRRU)
The Childcare Resource and Research Unit (CRRU) is a policy and research oriented facility that focuses on early childhood education and child care (ECEC) and family policy in Canada and internationally.

Poverty Dispatch (U.S.)
- the content of this link changes several times a week
- scan of U.S. web-based news items dealing with topics such as poverty, welfare reform, child welfare, education, health, hunger, Medicare and Medicaid, etc.

August 6:
Medicaid Budget Cuts - Wisconsin
Child Fitness Tax Credit - Canada
July 2010 US Unemployment Rate
Gender Pay Gap
Lifeline Cellular Phone Program

August 5:
Exhaustion of Jobless Benefits
Unemployment and Home Foreclosures
Federal Aid to States
Mortality Rates - Los Angeles, CA

August 4:
State Unemployment Insurance Funds
Trade Adjustment Assistance Program
Stimulus Funds to States with High Unemployment
Wage Theft Laws - Illinois
Childhood Hunger and Long-Term Health

August 3:
Supplemental Security Income and Refugees
Chronic Homelessness and Housing First
Poverty and Brain Development

August 2:
Former Foster Youths and Housing at College
Income and Cancer Survival Rates
Child Care Subsidies - South Carolina

Founded in 1986, to "promote medical and behavioral research into the aging process", the Washington D.C.-based Alliance for Aging Research has a website that covers many different "Topics". Visitors can explore general topics, such as "Caregiving", "Longevity", "Medical Innovation", and "Policy", as well as "Focus Areas". The focus areas include "Access to Breakthroughs", "Drug Development", "Persistent Pain" and "Vision Loss". On the homepage visitors can take "Surveys & Quizzes", like "Understanding Persistent Pain" and "Valve Disease Quiz - How Much Do You Know?" Related to the valve disease quiz is the recent podcast of a valve surgery patient, who discusses the symptoms she felt that resulted in her recent visit to the doctor, how she was diagnosed, her growing knowledge of the surgical procedure, and how she felt after surgery. Visitors can find that podcast and others, at the "Media" link near the bottom of the homepage. Also in the "Media" link, visitors can find videos, such as "Will Science Cure Aging?", and a rich archive of videos and podcasts

Interest grows in the conditional-cash
transfer program designed to alleviate poverty
August 6, 2010

Solving the problems of the world's poor is an issue that has consumed the attention of many non-governmental organizations (NGO's) for decades, and there is much debate about the most effective methods involved in combating this situation. One idea that has been garnering increased attention is conditional-cash transfers (CCT). CCT's are distributed to poor families on the condition that they make sure that their children are attending school, receiving medical checkups, and so on. Policy-makers are intrigued by the findings in the favelas (slums) of Sao Paulo, where these programs have been in place for several years. While they seem to be fairly effective in urban settings, they seem to work best in rural areas thus far. The program is not without its critics, as some think that it may erode incentives to work, and that it has failed to reduce child labor in cities. Interestingly enough, the program is slowly being adopted in the developed world, and there are now similar initiatives in large American cities, including the "Opportunity NYC" program in New York.

The first link will take visitors to a recent article from The Economist that reports on the possibilities and pitfalls of the CCT program in Brazil. Moving on, the second link leads to a piece from ABS/CBN News that discusses the use of the CCT program in the Philippines. The third link leads to another recent piece from The Economist that discusses potential improvements to the CCT program. The fourth link leads to a webpage from the World Bank website which offers a host of details about how the CCT program functions. The fifth link leads to a thoughtful reflection on the use of CCT's by Gaspar Fajth of UNICEF and Claudia Vinay of the United Nations' Development Programme. The final link leads to the homepage of the Oxfam GB organization, which has been working on a variety of anti-poverty initiatives since 1942.

Examining Food Insecurity
Among Children in the United States
August 2010
Excerpt
from the full report:
Fourteen million children live in poor families (that is, families with income below the federal poverty level, which is $22,050 a year for a family of four in 2009). There is a wide body of research documenting the importance of family income for children’s health and well-being. Yet, research suggests that families with income twice the poverty threshold experience as many material hardships as poor families, such as food insecurity, inadequate housing, and insufficient health care. These findings are alarming and underscore the degree to which income-based measures of impoverishment mask experiences with material deprivation that are widespread and transcend the standard thresholds that define poverty.
- includes an 18-point food insecurity checklist
[e.g., In the last 12 months, did you lose weight because there wasn’t enough money for food? (Yes/No)]

Basic Facts About Food Insecurity
Among Children in the United States, 2008 (PDF - 1.1MB, 8 pages)
Authors: Vanessa R. Wight and Kalyani Thampi
Publication Date: August 2010
This report is part of the National Center for Children in Poverty’s Who Are America’s Poor Children series. Estimates, unless otherwise noted, were prepared by Vanessa R. Wight and are based on the U.S. Current Population Survey, Food Security Supplement, December 2008. The food security supplement measures food security status at the household level.

Source:
National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP)
The National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) is the nation’s leading public policy center dedicated to promoting the economic security, health, and well-being of America’s low-income families and children.

Multidimensional Poverty Index
OPHI and the UNDP Human Development Report launch the Multidimensional Poverty Index or MPI – an innovative new measure that gives a vivid “multidimensional” picture of people living in poverty. The MPI will be featured in the 20th Anniversary edition of the UNDP Human Development Report and complements income by reflecting a range of deprivations that afflict a person’s life at the same time.
Source:
Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative
[ University of Oxford ]

Human Development Report 2010
20th Anniversary Edition
Scheduled for release in October 2010, the 20th anniversary edition of the Human Development Report examines decades of Human Development data trends, refines the original Human Development Index with new databases and methodologies, and introduces new measures adjusting the Index to reflect gender disparities and other internal national inequalities. The 2010 Human Development Report also features the Multidimensional Poverty Index, or MPI, which was developed by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI) with UNDP support. This new index is designed to provide a fuller, more accurate picture of acute poverty on the household level than traditional “dollar-a-day” formulas.
The MPI replaces the Human Poverty Index.

[U.K.] Poverty is about more than money:
The new Multidimensional Poverty Index
is an important tool for understanding the many savage ways of the beast
August 4, 2010
(...) How do we measure poverty? And how can our understanding of poverty enable more effective policies, building on the lived experiences of the poor? The recently published Multidimensional Poverty Index (the MPI developed in Oxford) takes an important new step in better understanding and measuring poverty and well-being. It understands that poverty is about people, and not numbers. And that there are various forms of suffering that people face: the MPI measures deprivation in terms of health, education and living standards.
Source:
The Guardian

Anti-poverty policies 'failing the poorest'
Ten years on, global poverty reduction strategies failing poorest people – new report
August 5, 2010
Press Release
More than 10 years on, global poverty reduction strategies introduced by multilateral organisations including the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), have failed to remove many of the poorest communities, especially minority and indigenous communities, out of poverty, Minority Rights Group International says.
Source:
Minority Rights Group International - "Working to secure the rights of minorities and indigenous peoples"

Global Poverty guide
Updated March 2010
(...) Whatever the difference of opinion on the extent of global poverty, one thing is certain: our prevailing economic system of wealth creation is largely blind to the injustice imposed on a significant proportion of the world’s population. Its vicissitudes impact disproportionately on the poor – recession, volatile food and fuel prices, and climate change.

Poverty Reduction: Country Briefings
These OneWorld briefings assess progress in poverty reduction for over 60 developing countries. Now more than midway to the 2015 target date for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), the overall picture is not encouraging, reinforcing conclusions of the 2009 UN Millennium Development Goals Report (PDF - 8MB, 60 pages)
- also includes links to info on :
* Living with Poverty * Global Trends * Economic Recession * Measuring National Poverty * Measuring Global Poverty * Causes * Why Should We Care? * MDGs *
Climate Change * Solutions
Source
One World UK
OneWorld UK aims to provide the UK's best online coverage of human rights and sustainable development.

UN Millennium Development Goals website
"When 189 Heads of State and government from the North and South, as representatives of their citizens, signed onto the Millennium Declaration at the 2000 UN Millennium Summit, there was a palpable sense of urgency. Urgency to 'free our fellow men, women and children from the abject and dehumanizing conditions of extreme poverty, to which more than a billion of them are currently subjected.'"

Australian Policy Online (APO)
APO is a news service and library specialising in Australian public policy reports and articles from academic research centres, think tanks, government and non-government organisations. The site features opinion and commentary pieces, video, audio and web resources focussed on the policy issues facing Australia.
[ About APO ]
NOTE : includes links to the latest APO research; the five most popular downloads of the week (see below)
appear in a dark box in the top right-hand corner of each page.

1. The pursuit of happiness
2. A predictable crisis: older, single women as the new face of homelessness
3. You wouldn't read about it: climate scientists right
4. A rare triumph of policy
5. National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social survey, Australia

New Research : Social Policy | Poverty
- topics include:
* Community * Cultural diversity * Families & households * Gender & sexuality * Immigration & refugees * Population * Poverty * Religion & faith * Social Inclusion * Social problems * Welfare * Youth

1. The pursuit of happiness
2. A predictable crisis: older, single women as the new face of homelessness
3. A rare triumph of policy
4. National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander social survey, Australia
5. The integration of homelessness, mental health and drug and alcohol services in Australia

4 August 2010, issue 1186
In this issue:
- What happened next...? Following up children's rights editorials
Latest news and reports:
- Workshop on law reform to end corporal punishment (Middle East and North Africa)
- Yemen: monitoring violations of children's rights
- Israel deports children of foreign workers
- Europe: fresh wave of discrimination against Roma people
- Access to clean water and sanitation declared a human right
- Europe and the Mediterranean: short story competition
- Also includes:
* World news * Reports * Events * Laws * Issues
* Advocacy * Challenging breaches * Take action * Campaigns * Toolkits

Links to Issues of CRINMAIL
- links to hundreds of weekly issues, many of which are special editions focusing on special themes, such as the 45th Session of the Committee on the Rights of the Child, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the launch of the EURONET Website.
NOTE: see http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/chnrights.htm for the table of contents for, and links to, several months' worth of issues of CRINMAIL.

I am solely accountable for the choice of links presented therein and for the occasional editorial comment - it's my time, my home computer, my experience, my biases, my Rogers Internet account and my web hosting service.

I administer the mailing list and distribute the weekly newsletter using software on the web server of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE).
Thanks, CUPE!

If you wish to subscribe to the e-mail version of newsletter, go to the Canadian Social Research Newsletter Online Subscription page:
http://lists.cupe.ca/mailman/listinfo/csrl-news
...or send me an email message.
You can unsubscribe by going to the same page or by sending me an e-mail message [ gilseg@rogers.com ]

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I promise not share any information on this list, nor to send you any junk mail.

Links presented in the Canadian Social Research Newsletter point to different views about social policy and social programs.
There are some that I don't agree with, so don't get on my case, eh...

To access earlier online HTML issues of the Canadian Social Research Newsletter, go to the Newsletter page:
http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/news.htm

Please feel free to distribute this newsletter as widely as you wish, but please remember to mention Canadian Social Research Links when you do.

Cheers!
Gilles

E-MAIL:
gilseg@rogers.com

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