Appeared in the Winnipeg Free Press December 4th, 2015.
I teach in the department of Urban and Inner City Studies at the University of Winnipeg. Our program is located on Selkirk Avenue in Winnipeg’s North End. A large number of our students have grown up poor. Some have not known anything but poverty. Others come from the suburbs to learn about urban and inner city issues from a different perspective. The diversity in our classrooms leads to some very interesting discussions.
Indigenous issues
There are unsung heroes in Winnipeg’s inner city, especially in the Aboriginal community, and few of them have a list of accomplishments as long and as significant as does Kathy Mallett. Winnipeg’s inner city today is an exciting place, bursting with positive change. Kathy Mallett has been a key person in laying the foundations for these changes.
Whether it’s mining, logging, dams or pipelines, the people living closest to resource industry developments typically face the highest health, economic and environmental risks. Such inequities will only deepen if liquefied natural gas plants materialize on BC’s coast.
The energy strategy debate thus far in the federal election has focussed on the future of the oil sands and pipeline politics. The Federal Tories have trumpeted the economic benefits of oil sands development but the benefits are paltry compared to a comprehensive energy and water retrofit program focussed on low income Canadians.
First published by CBC online, October 8th, 2015
Previously published in the Winnipeg Free Press October 9th, 2015
When award winning author Joseph Boyden announced he would donate half of his One Summit speaker fee to Circle of Life Thunderbird House to fix its leaky roof, he likely didn’t fully appreciate the meaning of this generous gesture.
Crime rates in Canada have been steadily declining for more than a decade, yet prison populations have been increasing in recent years. Commentators have attributed this disconnection between dropping crime rates and rising incarceration numbers to the Harper government’s tough on crime strategy. Since 2006 the Harper Conservatives have implemented legislative and policy changes designed to “tackle crime” and “make communities safer.”
Crime rates in Canada have been steadily dropping for over a decade, while prison populations have been increasing in recent years. Commentators have attributed this disconnection between falling crime rates and increasing incarceration numbers to the Harper government’s “tough on crime” strategy.
By some estimates, health care expenditures will account for about 80 percent of provincial program spending by 2030. This means fewer dollars for other priorities. With a problem this big, it’s important to get the diagnosis right.
Many on the right would have us believe that it’s our public health care system causing expenditures to increase, but that’s nothing more than a corporate fantasy. It’s been well documented that public delivery is far more efficient than the private alternative.
Are you willing to do physically demanding work for $12.50 -$13.50/hour, for a 1 month contract?
One hundred and four inner-city young men and women are. In fact, these men and women lined up before 8:00 am in front of the North End Community Renewal Corporation to apply. As per the instructions in the job advertisement put out by Manitoba Green Retrofit (MGR), they had their steel-toed boots on and their resumes in hand.