Frontier Centre: I would like you to tell us a little bit about what is ‘Honour-based violence’? Aruna Papp: Honour based violence is a crime committed in the name of protecting or defending family honour. It is usually committed by family members who believe that...
A few weeks ago, the Frontier Centre released a policy series called Free to Fish: How a Freshwater Fish Monopoly is Impovering Aboriginal Fishers. The piece tackled the problem of the Freshwater Fish Marketing Corporation (the FFMC), which is the sole selling and...
All kids are poor. Children typically don’t own much beyond a few toys. That’s true in poor families. And it’s true of rich families. Children must rely totally on parents and caregivers. On their own, they’re destitute. And yet we have a report boldly titled Child Poverty. That tugs at the heartstrings and makes great newspaper copy but it’s wrong. The report should properly be titled family or household poverty.
Although the proposal does not seem to go as far as the proposed First Nations Property Ownership Act (FNPOA) in Canada, the Helping Expedite and Advance Responsible Tribal Homeownership Act (HEARTH), which was passed without one dissenting voice in the U.S. House of...
Those of you who are tired of my rants about the demise of our once great health system will be pleased to know that this is my last editorial. I am retiring from the BCMJ Editorial Board; currently, I am the longest-serving member (more than 20 years). I have been a...
Back in the lofty, pre-Justin Trudeau government days of 2014, back when oil was booming, pipelines were planned to east and west coasts, and Alberta and Saskatchewan were swimming in money, around $81 billion was spent in capital expenditures (CAPEX) in the Canadian...
“Uber Geographer” Joel Kotkin weighs in on the housing affordability debate, arguing that limits imposed on housing supply by housing ethoses such as “smart growth” are taking us to a paradigm of neo-feudalism.
Calvin Helin worked his way up from an impoverished boyhood in a remote First Nations village in northern British Columbia to become a successful lawyer and international businessman. He has dedicated his life to helping others break the bonds of economic dependency and emerge with newfound confidence and self-worth.
I’m still not 100% on board with Segal’s policy proposal, but he is right in arguing that our current approach to fighting poverty does not seem to be working as well as most of us would like.
The debate over what, if anything, we should do about growing income inequality in Canada is hugely important and we need to hear from all sides. But it’ll work better if we respond to what those with whom we have disagreements actually say instead of knocking over straw men.
Policymakers need to keep asking themselves not only whether a priority is worth pursuing (poverty reduction is), but whether the strategies currently being employed are actually working.
Interesting editorial in the National Post today, criticizing a new government program that will, essentially, pay businesses to hire summer students. The Post rightly criticizes this subsidy as a silly way to boost employment for students. The editorial makes a...
Recently, the government of Quebec announced a ban on religious instruction in publicly subsidized daycare centres. Couple quick thoughts:
1. The practical consequence of this decision is that it will be difficult for parents who value religious instruction as part of their toddler’s childcare experience to find arrangements that suit that preference.
2. Heavy-handed government intervention and regulation inevitably squeezes the vibrancy and diversity out of the childcare sector, resulting in an inflexible one-size-fits-all approach. Canada is a diverse, multicultural society and parents disagree about what constitutes a positive childcare experience. Although many parents doubtlessly prefer a secular experience for their toddler, there are others who view religious instruction as among the most important purposes of early childhood education.
This Christmas, it’s worth putting the troubles of our time into context; two centuries of continuous improvement in human welfare and better environmental custodianship.
Manitoba’s Public Insurance’s arbitrary policy to destroy cheap used cars made before 1995 ostensibly to protect the environment will hurt the environment and make it more difficult for the unemployed poor to find jobs.