Category Archives: Social
Women’s shelters facing staff shortages amid COVID, high rates of gendered violence
OTTAWA — Women's shelter workers are feeling even more pressure as the latest COVID-19 wave hits Canada, fuelled by the highly transmissible Omicron variant. Lise Martin, executive director of Women's Shelters Canada, said shelters are overwhelmed in p...
Correctional Service settles human rights case for prisoners addicted to opioids
VANCOUVER — The federal prison service says it is making several changes to help prisoners addicted to opioids, including getting them faster access to treatment by eliminating a waiting list that is hundreds of people long. The Correctional Service o...
First Afghan human rights activists arrive six months after Ottawa’s promise of help
OTTAWA — Six months after the federal government promised to help thousands of Afghan women leaders, human rights activists and journalists flee to Canada, the first planeload has landed. Immigration Minister Sean Fraser announced the arrival of 252 Af...
P.E.I. potato farmers seek end to trade suspension, but U.S. officials want more data
FREDERICTON — Farmers on Prince Edward Island say there's no justification for a suspension of exports of Island potatoes to the United States and it needs to be lifted now, but Canadian officials say the U.S. is demanding more information. "It's
Mark Indigenous languages decade by making Inuktitut official in Canada: Inuit UN rep
OTTAWA — When Lorraine Whitman's father, Chief Joseph Peters, asked for a cup of tea in his native Mi'kmaq, the care-home staff could not understand him. Whitman, president of the Native Women's Association of Canada, recalls how her elderly father, a...
Most support workplace diversity but not if it’s a job qualification: national survey
REGINA — Most people in a new Canada-wide survey say equal representation in government is important, but they don't support employers taking demographic characteristics into account in hiring and promotion decisions. The survey by the Canadian Hub fo...
N.S. government to top court: housing choice for people with disabilities not a right
HALIFAX — The Nova Scotia government is arguing receiving timely access to appropriate housing is not a human right for people with disabilities and is asking Canada's top court to overturn a decision that found its current practices are discriminatory...
First Nation says Alberta is preventing it from taking control of child welfare
A First Nation in Alberta says it's been nearly three months since it was supposed to take legal control of its own child welfare but the provincial government won't recognize the arrangement made possible by federal legislation. " (Alberta) won't reco...
Efforts to establish First Nation school board in Yukon decades in the making
VANCOUVER — Parents at eight schools in Yukon are voting on a proposal that could put the control of education for their children in the hands of the territory's Indigenous bands, the result of an effort that one official says
Rapid spread of Omicron showing “tale of two pandemics: rich and poor”
As parts of Canada see staggering rises in COVID-19 activity amid Omicron's rapid spread, experts say the highly transmissible variant is training a spotlight on social inequities across the country. Dr. Amit Arya, a palliative care physician in Missis...
