Canadian Social Research Newsletter
December 30, 2007
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 1842 subscribers.
Scroll to the bottom of this
newsletter to see some notes and a disclaimer.
********************************
Belated Christmas wishes to those who celebrated last week.
There was no newsletter last week, nor much work on the website,
because of a cold that knocked the stuffing out of me for the
past ten days.
I was told [by a female acquaintance, as I recall...] that this is
called a "Man-cold" - same as the female kind, but it sounds ten times
worse (oh, how the poor man suffers..)
The info below is somewhat dated
because it was posted before The Manly Bug hit me.
Next week, we resume a normal schedule...
Happy New Year!
Gilles
********************************
IN
THIS ISSUE:
Canadian Content
1. The Three Cities within Toronto: “a city
of disparities” (Centre For Urban and
Community Studies, University of Toronto) - December 20
2. Empty Spaces on Pantry Shelves: Food Insecurity in a Nation of
Wealth and more (Vanier Institute of the
Family) - December 21
3. Ottawa's Kindness Meters : So Wrong on So Many Levels (Susan
Scruton) - December 17
4. Closure of the Canadian Health Network - March 2008
5. What's New from Statistics Canada:
--- Payroll employment, earnings and hours, October 2007 -
December 21
--- Canada's population estimates, third quarter 2007 -
December 19
--- Study: Work stress and job performance - December 19
--- Study: Returning to work after childbirth, 1983 to 2004 -
December 19
--- Consumer Price Index, November 2007 - December 18
--- Study: Long-term productivity growth in manufacturing in Canada
and the United States, 1961 to 2003 - December 18
--- Employment Insurance, October 2007 - December 18
--- Leading indicators, November 2007 - December 18
International Content
6. Poverty Dispatch: U.S. media coverage of social
issues and programs
7. CRINMAIL
943/944 - 20/27 December 2007 (Child Rights Information Network - CRIN)
|
1.
The Three Cities within Toronto: “a city of disparities”
- December 20 |
The Three Cities within Toronto: “a city of disparities” (PDF file - 96K, 3 pages)
Media Release
December 20, 2007
TORONTO – The City of Toronto is becoming increasingly divided by
income and socio-economic status, says a new report issued today by the
Centre for Urban and Community Studies (CUCS) at the University of
Toronto. No longer a “city of neighbourhoods,” the study calls
modern-day Toronto a “city of disparities.” In fact, Toronto is now so
polarized it could be described as three geographically distinct cities
made up of 20 percent affluent neighbourhoods, 36 percent poor
neighbourhoods, and 43 percent middle-income earner neighbourhoods and
that 43 percent is in decline.
Report:
The
Three Cities within Toronto:
Income polarization among Toronto’s neighbourhoods, 1970–2000
(PDF file - 880K, 12 pages)
by J. David Hulchanski
Related
Table, maps and figures
* Characteristics of the Three Cities, grouped on the basis of 30-year
average income trends, 1970 to 2000
* Change in Average Individual Income, City of Toronto, 1970 to 2000
* Average Individual Income, City of Toronto, 1970
* Average Individual Income, City of Toronto, 2000
* Toronto Neighbourhoods with a Persistent Change in Income, 1980 to
2000
* Change in Neighbourhood Income Distribution in the City of Toronto
1970 to 2000
* Change in Neighbourhood Income Distribution in Toronto’s Outer
Suburbs (the “905 region”) 1970 to 2000
Source:
Centre For Urban and
Community Studies, University of Toronto
- Go to the Ontario Municipal and Non-Governmental Sites (A-C) page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/onbkmrk2.htm
|
2.
Empty Spaces on Pantry Shelves: Food Insecurity in a Nation of Wealth - December 21 |
New on the Vanier Institute of the Family web site:
Empty Spaces on
Pantry Shelves: Food Insecurity in a Nation of Wealth
December 21, 2007
Transition
Magazine : Families & Food
Winter 2007-2008, vol. 37-4
[includes Canadian
Families Deserve Food Security [PDF file - 110K, 4 pages]]
by David Northcott
[David Northcott is executive coordinator of Winnipeg Harvest and a
Board member of The Vanier Institute of the Family.]
Public
Lecture:
A Place in time, Families, Family Matters & Why They Matter
October 18, 2007
by Robert Glossop, Ph.D.
Source:
Vanier Institute of
the Family (VIF)
"...our vision: to make families as important to the life of Canadian
society as they are to the lives of individual Canadians."
- Go to the Food Banks and Hunger Links page:
http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/foodbkmrk.htm
- Go to the Children, Families and Youth Links (NGO) page:
http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/chnngo.htm
|
3. Ottawa's Kindness
Meters : So Wrong on So Many Levels - December 17 |
Spare change, sir? Feed the meter, Ottawa mayor says
December 3, 2007
Mayor Larry O'Brien is encouraging generous Ottawa residents not to
reach for their wallets as they pass the scruffy panhandlers who beg
for spare change on the city's cold sidewalks. Instead, the public
should save their loonies and toonies for special coin banks or
"kindness meters" similar to parking meters that will be installed in
the Byward Market this week
Source:
CBC
<Warning : leftie rant! >
This is wrong for so many reasons that I didn't know
where to begin my rant, so I decided to spotlight yesterday's blog
entry by my friend, Susan Scruton. It's a very thoughtful, articulate
and compelling rebuttal of the concept of "kindness meters". Here's a
summary of the reasons why the Ottawa Mayor's plan is full of baloney:
* They’re insulting to poor people.
* They attempt to dehumanize compassion.
* They could lead to an
increase in crime by people with addictions.
* They introduce a layer of bureaucracy into
the equation.
* There is no guarantee that the panhandlers
most directly in need, like mentally ill people, will receive any help.
* They put social service agencies in direct
competition with their clients for our spare change.
* How elitist of the Kindness Meters to only
take loonies and toonies!
* The concept is based on hypocrisy and
stinginess.
"This is the same mayor who compared homeless
people to pigeons and said if we stopped feeding them, they’d go away.
We know where he stands on this issue. When he tries to fake compassion
he just looks like the rich, stingy hypocrite he is."
Read the
complete "Kindness Meters" blog entry (December 17)
by Zoom
... and feel free to share the
link to this blog with the Office of the Mayor of Ottawa: Larry.OBrien@ottawa.ca
Good for you, Zoom!
Shame on you, Larry.
Maybe instead of allocating the money collected to social agencies,
Kindness Meters could be used to help fund Larry's compassion
transplant .
</end leftie rant>
- Go to the Homelessness and Housing Links page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/homeless.htm
|
4. Closure of the Canadian Health Network - March 2008 |
Closure of the Canadian Health Network
The federal government has announced that it will be closing the
Canadian Health Network (CHN), a website that provides reliable health
information to Canadians, at the end of March 2008. A campaign
advocating for the continuation of the program has been recently
launched and a petition is available for signing at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/saveCHN.
For information about the impending closure of the CHN and the advocacy
campaign, go to http://www.ohpe.ca.
Visit the Canadian Health Network at:
http://www.canadian-health-network.ca
Source:
The EnableLinker
(free monthly electronic newsletter filled with disability news and
events)
[ EnableLink : The
Canadian Abilities Foundation ]
|
5. What's New from
Statistics Canada: |
What's New from The Daily [Statistics Canada]:
December 21, 2007
Payroll
employment, earnings and hours, October 2007 (preliminary)
In October, the average weekly earnings of payroll employees
(seasonally adjusted) climbed $4.04 (+0.5%) from September to $776.48.
The year-to-date growth, calculated as the average of the first 10
months of 2007 compared with that of the same 10 months in 2006, was
3.1%. In Canada's largest industrial sectors, year-to-date earnings
growth as of October was 0.4% in retail trade, 3.5% in manufacturing,
and 3.5% in health care and social assistance.
December 19, 2007
Canada's
population estimates, third quarter 2007
Canada's population has exceeded the 33-million mark, according to
preliminary demographic estimates, which also show that Saskatchewan
has more than 1 million people for the first time since 2001.
Study:
Returning to work after childbirth, 1983 to 2004
December 19
More Canadian women have gone back to work after giving birth to a
child during the past two decades, and fewer have quit their jobs,
according to a new study. However, both long- and short-term employment
rates of mothers were consistently lower than those of other working
women between 1984 and 2004. The study, published today in the online
edition of Perspectives on Labour and Income, examined the impact of
childbirth on employment and earnings, using data from the Longitudinal
Workers File, a random sample of all Canadian workers. The findings
show that changes in maternity leave have a virtually immediate effect
on women's labour market behaviour.
December 18, 2007
Consumer
Price Index, November 2007
Fuelled by higher gasoline prices and mortgage interest cost, consumer
prices increased 2.5% between November 2006 and November 2007. This
represents a slight acceleration from the 12-month change of 2.4%
posted in October. However, the Bank of Canada's core index increased
only 1.6%, posting its slowest 12-month increase since April 2006.
December 18, 2007
Study:
Long-term productivity growth in manufacturing in Canada and the United
States, 1961 to 2003
Labour productivity in the manufacturing sector of both Canada and the
United States increased at the same average pace between 1961 and 2003.
But the sources of this growth differed in the two countries, according
to a new study.
December 18, 2007
Employment
Insurance, October 2007 (preliminary)
An estimated 454,230 Canadians (seasonally adjusted) received regular
Employment Insurance benefits in October, 1,400 fewer than in
September. Nine provinces have recorded declines for three consecutive
months. Compared with October 2006, the number of Canadians receiving
regular benefits has declined 7.6%. Provincially, the largest
year-over-year declines occurred in Alberta (-15.1%), Saskatchewan
(-14.3%) and Manitoba (-14.3%).
December 18, 2007
Leading
indicators, November 2007
The composite leading index was unchanged for a second straight
month in November, after October was revised down from a preliminary
estimate of 0.1% growth. These were the first months without growth
since July 2001. Ongoing weakness in export demand for manufactured
goods was reinforced by a drop in the stock market in mid-November.
Consumers remained the major source of growth, reflecting strong labour
market conditions.
- Go to the Federal Government Department Links (Fisheries and Oceans to Veterans Affairs) page: http://www.canadiansocialresearch.net/fedbkmrk2.htm
| 6. 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.
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
Poverty
Dispatch Digest Archive - archive of weekly digests* of
dispatches from August 2005 to May 2006
(*For a few years prior to the creation of this new web page for the
Dispatch, I was compiling a weekly digest of the e-mails and
redistributing the digest to my mailing list with IRP's permission.
This is my own archive of weekly issues of the digest back to
August 2005, and most of them have 50+ links per issue. I'll be
deleting this archive from my site gradually, as the links to older
articles expire.)
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
|
7. CRINMAIL 943, 944 (20,
27 December 2007) |
From the Child Rights Information Network (CRIN)
27
December 2007 - CRINMAIL 944
* 2007 Child Rights Round-Up
* Looking Forward: The big issues for 2008
** Quiz: End of Year Special! **
Selected content:
A big year for child rights was crowned last month with the follow-up to the UN Special Session on Children in New York. Many participants agreed that the success of the event, which was spread over several days, hinged on the participation of children and NGOs. Although many were cheered and inspired by the enthusiasm and dedication of the children, some also lamented the disproportionate amount of time given to State delegates during the plenary session and one of the roundtable discussions. You can read all about the event in our special CRINMAIL, which documents the Children’s Forum, roundtable and interactive discussions, the meeting of children’s Ombudspersons, and two of the side events.
European Union leaders signed the first treaty to include children’s rights. The Lisbon Treaty will come into force only after ratification by all 27 Member States. Read more about it here. Staying in the same part of the world, the Council of Europe Convention against Trafficking in Human Beings (CETS n° 197) will enter into force on 1 February 2008, after Cyprus became the tenth country to ratify it. Terry Davis, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, said: “The Convention is deliberately hard on traffickers and makes a clear difference for the victims of this crime. These victims will be offered comprehensive assistance and protection of their human rights. More on the Convention.
It has been a big year for CRIN too, with a website makeover and the launch of our new legal database among the main gains. You can now find out about regional mechanisms and what they do for child rights, work your way around the UN system and find out which child rights laws apply in your country. We launched two Reviews (formerly called the Newsletter) on the subjects of Emergencies and the 18th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights will turn 60 on 10 December 2008!
---------------------------------------------------------------
20
December 2007 - CRINMAIL 943
* HUMAN RIGHTS COUNCIL: Deadline for second round of
UPR submissions [news]
* VENEZUELA: Second Latin American country to
ban corporal punishment [news]
* BULGARIA: Lessons learned from Save the Children
programmes [publication]
* PARTICIPATION: Minimum Standards for Consulting with
Children [publication]
* INDIA: Children as Catalysts for Change [event]
* EMPLOYMENT - Goutte d’Eau (2) - Save the Children UK
- SOS Kinderdorf International - DCIK [job postings]
**NEWS IN BRIEF**
**QUIZ**
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 ]
------------------------
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
In closing...