Canadian Social Research Newsletter
February 17, 2008

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 1859 subscribers.

Scroll to the bottom of this newsletter to see some notes and a disclaimer.

IN THIS ISSUE:

Canadian content

1. Against the “Unborn Victims of Crime Act” (Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada) - February 9
2. Guaranteed annual income gets a boost in the Toronto Star:
--- Program would lift more than 1.5 million people out of poverty - February 17
--- Senator Hugh Segal joins the poverty debate - February 14
3. What's New from Statistics Canada:
---Study: The 2006 Canadian immigrant labour market: Analysis by region or country of birth - February 13
4. Prince Edward Island Seniors' Guide and Information Line Released (PEI Seniors' Secretariat) - January 23
5. Housing, income support and mental health: Points of disconnection (Health Research Policy and Systems) - December 2007
6. Guide to Employment Law in Ontario (IsThatLegal.ca) - January 2008
7. Federal Budget 2008 : February 26
8. The Current State of Canadian Family Finances 2007 (Vanier Institute of the Family) - February 11
9. National Child Care Conference in Richmond BC (Canadian Child Care Federation) - May 29 to 31, 2008
10. What's new from the Childcare Resource and Research Unit (Toronto) - February 15

International content

11. Poverty Dispatch: U.S. media coverage of social issues and programs
12. Australian Policy Online Weekly Briefing - Selected recent content
13. CRINMAIL 956, 957 - February 2008 (Child Rights Information Network - CRIN)

Have a great week!

Gilles Séguin
Canadian Social Research Links
http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net

E-mail:
gilseg@rogers.com

1. Against the “Unborn Victims of Crime Act” - February 9
(Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada)

Against the “Unborn Victims of Crime Act”
[ version française ]
By the Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada
February 9, 2008
A private member's bill called The "Unborn Victims of Crime Act" (C-484) has been introduced by Conservative MP Ken Epp (Edmonton Sherwood Park). It had its first hour of debate in Parliament on December 13, and is projected to come up for its second hour of debate on February 29, with a vote on March 5. The bill would amend the Criminal Code to allow separate homicide charges to be laid in the death of a fetus when a pregnant woman is attacked. If passed, this bill would be an unconstitutional infringement on women’s rights, and would likely result in harms against pregnant women. It is a key step towards re-criminalizing abortion, but it could also criminalize pregnant women for behaviours perceived to harm their fetuses.
* Complete Hansard text of the debate
* Complete text of the Bill
* Ken Epp's website (includes links to over a dozen related resources)

Read and sign the petition to
oppose the Unborn Victims of Crime Act
- I did (#1182 in the list).

Write to your MP (sample letter, includes a link to the complete list of MPs and their contact info)

Source:
Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada
[ Coalition pour la droit à l'avortement au Canada ]
The Abortion Rights Coalition of Canada (ARCC) is the only nation-wide political pro-choice group devoted to ensuring abortion rights and access for women.

Counterpoint:

Unborn Victims of Crime Act is Just Plain Common Sense
The purpose of this bill is to recognize that there are two victims in some crimes – the mother and the child.
(...) Currently in Canada, when an attacker kills a pregnant woman’s unborn child, no charge can be laid in that child’s death, even when the attacker purposely intended to kill the child. The attacker is only charged with injury to the mother. This is because our criminal law does not recognize children as victims of crime until they are born alive. This is a huge gap in federal law and a cause for grave injustice...
Source:
Christianity.ca - Canada's Christian Community Online

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Petition to Oppose Bill C-484 : Forum
If you have strong views on the issue of abortion - either pro-choice or pro-life - you'll likely feel strongly one way or the other about C-484.
If you wish to share your views on Bill C-484 with me one way or the other, please don't email me directly because I definitely don't have the time or the inclination to engage in one-on-one email debates.
www.gopetition.com (the online petition service) offers forums to complement the petitions that groups and individuals post online.
Click the Petition link above to access the "Oppose C-484" forum; you can click on any message that's posted there to read it, e.g., "I Oppose Bill C-484" (by Gilles Seguin), and reply to or comment on any message --- all anonymously, if you wish.
I've always believed a woman's right to choose is a fundamental human right.
You can agree or disagree, but please do it in the forum, not in my Inbox.
Merci.
Gilles

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Related Web/News/Blog links:

Google Search Results Links - always current results!
Using the following search terms (without the quote marks):
"Canada, Bill C-484 "
- Web search results page
- News search results page
- Blog Search Results page
Source:
Google.ca

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Related reading from Wikipedia:

Pro-Choice - Abortion rights
Pro-life - rights of the unborn fetus

- Go to the the Canadian Non-Governmental Sites about Women's Social Issues page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/womencanngo.htm

2. Guaranteed annual income gets a boost in the Toronto Star:
--- Program would lift more than 1.5 million people out of poverty - February 17
--- Senator Hugh Segal joins the poverty debate - February 14
(The Toronto Star)

An income for all Canadians
A guaranteed income program would lift more than 1.5 million people out of poverty
February 17, 2008
Comment by Reginald Stackhouse
Some ideas are rejected in the public forum not because they have been tried and found wanting but because they have been found challenging and not tried. One of them is a proposal that can really make poverty history in this country – no, not by increasing any or all of our existing social programs. Just the opposite.They will be replaced by a basic income policy, a.k.a. guaranteed annual income or negative income tax. It will provide all Canadians with an annual income, regardless of what other income they enjoy, earned or unearned.
Source:
The Toronto Star

A Tory joins poverty debate
February 14, 2008
For decades, the notion of a guaranteed annual income has been raised in Canadian social policy debates. A basic floor income for all Canadian adults was first advanced in Canada 35 years ago by Senator David Croll, a progressive Liberal. It was touted again in the 1985 report of a royal commission headed by Donald Macdonald, another Liberal. More recently, the Green party has embraced the concept. It is refreshing, then, to see a Conservative, Senator Hugh Segal, urging the study of a guaranteed income as a replacement for the myriad social and anti-poverty programs in Canada.
Source:
The Toronto Star

- Go to the Guaranteed Annual Income Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/gai.htm

3. What's New from Statistics Canada:
---Study: The 2006 Canadian immigrant labour market: Analysis by region or country of birth - February 13

What's New from The Daily [Statistics Canada]:

February 13, 2008
Study: The 2006 Canadian immigrant labour market: Analysis by region or country of birth
Immigrants born in Southeast Asia, particularly those from the Philippines, had the strongest labour market performance of all immigrants to Canada in 2006, regardless of when they landed in the country, according to a new study. The study assessed the labour force situation for immigrants at three stages: very recent immigrants, who had landed between 2001 and 2006; recent immigrants, who had landed between 1996 and 2001; and established immigrants, who had been in Canada more than 10 years.

Executive summary (HTML)
Complete report (PDF file - 232K, 42 pages)
[ other issues in this series ]

More content from The Daily - direct link to The Daily home page; view releases for each day of the week.

- Go to the Federal Government Department Links (Fisheries and Oceans to Veterans Affairs) page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/fedbkmrk2.htm

4. Prince Edward Island Seniors' Guide and Information Line Released - January 23
(PEI Seniors' Secretariat)

January 23, 2008
Prince Edwards Island Seniors' Guide and Information Line Released
CHARLOTTETOWN, PEI -- The Prince Edward Island Seniors’ Secretariat today announced a new Prince Edward Island Seniors’ Guide and a toll-free information line for seniors, families and caregivers. The new guide is a 68-page directory of information about health services, personal security, active living, clubs and activities, housing, legal matters and more.
Source:

Prince Edward Island Seniors’ Guide 2008 - 1st Edition (PDF file - 1.7MB, 99 pages)
[version française du guide ]

Source:
Seniors' Secretariat

Related Links:

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.

Links to child care sites in Canada and elsewhere
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)

- Go to the Non-Governmental Early Learning and Child Care Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/ecd2.htm

11. Poverty Dispatch: U.S. media coverage of social issues and programs
(Institute for Research on Poverty - University of Wisconsin-Madison)

Poverty Dispatch (U.S). ===> the content of this link changes twice a week
- links to news items from the American press about poverty, welfare reform, child welfare, education, health, hunger, Medicare and Medicaid, etc.

February 14, 2008
* Workforce Development and Job Training - Indiana
* People Living in Poverty - Minnesota
* Childhood Hunger - Indiana
* Section 8 Housing Subsidies
* Medicaid Payments to Doctors - Georgia
* State and Federal Medicaid Spending - Florida
* State Health Care Plans - Rhode Island, Colorado
* States and Paid Sick Leave
* Earned Income Tax Credit
* Economic Stimulus Tax Rebates and Low-income Earners
* Tax Refund Anticipation Loans

February 11, 2008
* Child Welfare and Immigrant Families - Ohio
* Report: Child Poverty, Hunger, and Obesity - Ohio
* Child Care Subsidies - Norwich, CT
* Medicaid Funding - Mississippi
* Health Care Plan - Howard County, MD
* Homelessness and Housing - Ithaca, NY
* High School Dropouts and Five-year Programs - Michigan
* Report: High-poverty Schools and Teacher Quality - Texas
* Renters and Home Foreclosures
* Property Tax Loans - Texas
* States and Spending on Higher Education
* Payday Lending Regulation - Ohio

Search Poverty Dispatches
IRP compiles and distributes Poverty Dispatches, links to Web-based news items dealing with poverty, welfare reform, and related topics twice a week. Each Dispatch lists links to current news in popular print media. Persons wishing to receive Poverty Dispatches by e-mail should send a request to rsnell@ssc.wisc.edu.

Past Poverty Dispatches - back to June 2006

Source:
Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP)
[ University of Wisconsin-Madison ]

- Go to the Links to American Government Social Research page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/us.htm
- Go to the Links to American Non-Governmental Social Research (A-J) page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/us2.htm
- Go to the Links to American Non-Governmental Social Research (M-Z) page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/us3.htm

12. Australian Policy Online Weekly Briefing

APO Weekly Briefing ===> the content of this link changes each week
The content of this page changes each week, and it includes links to a few book/report reviews, about two dozen new reports, a few job ads and 60 events (mostly conferences) of interest to social researchers...
Source:
Australian Policy Online (APO)
With nearly 120 member centres and institutes, Australian Policy Online offers easy access to much of the best Australian social, economic, cultural and political research available online.
NOTE: the APO home page includes links to the five most popular reports on the APO website, and this list is updated each week.

APO Archive
The APO archive is grouped into 23 subject areas, with entries appearing in reverse chronological order.
* Ageing *Asia and the pacific * Citizenship and the law * Disability * Economics and trade * Education * Employment and workplace relations * The environment * Foreign policy and defence * Gender and sexuality * Health * Housing * Families and households * Immigration and refugees * Income, poverty and wealth * Indigenous * Media, communications and cultural policy * Politics and government * Population, multiculturalism and ethnicity * Religion and faith * Rural and regional * Science and technology * Social policy * Urban and regional planning * Youth

- Go to the Social Research Links in Other Countries (Non-Government) page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/internatngo.htm

13. CRINMAIL 956, 957 - February 2008
(Child Rights Information Network - CRIN)

From the Child Rights Information Network (CRIN)

14 February 2008 - CRINMAIL 957
* SCOTLAND: Not Seen. Not Heard. Not Guilty. The Rights and Status of the Children of Prisoners in Scotland [publication]
* CZECH REPUBLIC: Effort to grant child victims right to privacy [news]
* PAKISTAN: Child suicide bombers “victims of the most brutal exploitation” [news]
* UN: Security Council Should Act Against Child Recruiters [news]
* USA: Their Fair Share: How Texas-sized gaps in teacher quality shortchange poor and minority students [publication]
* EMPLOYMENT - War Child - ECPAT - DCI International/Save the Children Sweden
**NEWS IN BRIEF**
**QUIZ**

12 February 2008 - CRINMAIL 956
* CORPORAL PUNISHMENT: Make Me A Criminal, Preventing Youth Crime [publication]
* CRIN's ten minute survey: Simply reply to this CRINMAIL
* AUSTRALIA: Vow on aboriginal child mortality [news]
* HUNGARY: Active Citizenship: Democratic Practices in Education [event/call for papers]
**NEWS IN BRIEF**

Earlier issues of CRINMAIL
- links to 200 earlier 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 and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Source:
CRINMAIL(incl. subscription info)
[ Child Rights Information Network (CRIN) ]

- Go to the Children's Rights Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/chnrights.htm

Disclaimer/Privacy Statement

Both Canadian Social Research Links (the site) and this Canadian Social Research Newsletter belong solely to me, Gilles Séguin.

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

You can unsubscribe by going to the same page or by sending me an e-mail message [ gilseg@rogers.com ]

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The e-mail version of this newsletter is available only in plain text (no graphics, no hyperlinks, no fancy bolding or italics, etc.) to avoid security problems with government departments, universities and other networks with firewalls. The text-only version is also friendlier for people using older or lower-end technology.

Privacy Policy:
The Canadian Social Research Newsletter mailing list is not used for any purpose except to distribute each weekly issue.
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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Error! Error!

**************************************

Was it truly human error, or was it a disgruntled employee trying to make himself feel better before walking out the door?
Perhaps it was just someone having a little fun at the expense of others.
Regardless, these are pretty funny...

------------------

1. Notice: If you’re one of hundreds of parachuting enthusiasts who bought our Easy Sky Diving book, please make the following correction on page 8, line 7, the words “state zip code” should have read “pull rip cord.”

2. It was incorrectly reported last Friday that today is “T-shirt Appreciation Day”. In fact, it’s actually “Teacher Appreciation Day”.

3. There was a mistake in an item sent in two weeks ago which stated that Ed Burnham entertained a party at “crap shooting”. It should have been “trap shooting”.

4. There are two important corrections to the information in the update on our Deep Relaxation professional development program. First, the program will include “meditation”, not “medication”. Second, it is “experiential”, not “experimental”.

5. In the City Beat section of Friday’s paper, firefighter Dwight Brady was misidentified. His department nickname is “Dewey”. It is another firefighter who’s nicknamed “Weirdo”. We apologize for our mistake.

6. Our newspaper carried the notice last week that Mr. Oscar Hoffnagle is a “defective” on the police force. This was a typographical error. Mr. Hoffnagle is, of course, a “detective” on the police farce.

7. In a recent edition, we referred to the chairman of Chrysler Corporation as Lee “Iacoocoo”. His real name is Lee “Iacacca”. The Gazette regrets the terror.

8. Apology: I originally wrote, “Woodrow Wilson’s wife grazed sheep on front lawn of the White House.” I’m sorry that typesetting inadvertently left out the word “sheep.”

9. In one edition of today’s Food Section, an inaccurate number of jalapeno peppers was given for Jeanette Crowley’s Southwestern chicken salad recipe. The recipe should call for “2? (two), not “21?, jalapeno peppers.

10. The marriage of Miss Freda vanAmburg and Willie Branton, which was announced in this paper a few weeks ago, was a mistake which we wish to correct.

Source:
http://www.bloggingwv.com/error-error/

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And in closing...

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100 Things to do with Google Maps Mashups*
http://gmapsmania.googlepages.com/100thingstodowithgooglemapsmashups

* a mashup is a web application that combines data from more than one source into a single integrated tool; an example is the use of cartographic data from Google Maps to add location information to real-estate data from Craigslist, thereby creating a new and distinct web service that was not originally provided by either source.
(Check out the Ontario Beer Store Locator!)