Teachers renew call for child poverty reduction plan in 2012
"BC has the highest child poverty rate in Canada for eight years in a
row. It is a truly alarming situation with poverty rates for Aboriginal
families and recent immigrants ranging from 36 to 49%. The time for
action is now!"
Click here for the
complete BCTF media release.
Educators are encouraged to take action in the following ways to support
the BCTF's call for a province-wide reduction plan to address child
poverty:
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1. |
Help to
echo your call for a poverty reduction plan through your local
media. Write a succinct 50-100 word letter to your local paper,
calling for government to address this issue in a comprehensive
manner. |
|
2. |
Order
antipoverty posters and bookmarks for your school from the BCTF.
Take action by booking a free PD workshop on antipoverty for
your school or district.
Click here to view posters.
Click here to for info on workshops. |
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3. |
Describe
the issues you are seeing with respect to poverty in your
schools. Encourage people to contact their MLAs and pressure
them to work in a non-partisan manner to lobby for a poverty
reduction plan for BC. |
|
4. |
Talk to
friends, families, and parents about the need for a poverty
reduction plan for BC. Point out that charitable donations,
although well-intended, mask the symptoms of child poverty. |
For further
resources for your classroom on antipoverty actions, please
click here.
 DAY
OF PINK
February 29, 2012
This is an excellent time for teachers to highlight the harms of
homophobia and transphobia in schools and actively teach
about
acceptance of LGBTQ students and same sex families.
Click here
for some useful resources for conversation in your classrooms.
Click here
for BCTF LGBTQ Posters, Bookmarks, Booklets and Brochures.
More resources can
be accessed at
www.dayofpink.org.
Note that the date of the Day of Pink in BC is different than the
rest of Canada.
Other upcoming dates to note:
Friday, April
20, 2012 - Day of Silence
- Day when hundreds of thousands of secondary students across North
America take a vow of silence to bring attention to anti-LGBT
name-calling, bullying and harassment in their schools.
Thursday, May
17, 2012 - International Day Against Homophobia
- Marked
in many countries as time to speak out against homophobia and
transphobia in schools and society.
May 14-18, 2012
- BCTF Week Against Homophobia
- A week when the BCTF asks teachers to open the discussion in their
classrooms to the challenges and strengths faced by LGBTQ people.
IWD Dinner
with Judy Rebick
Friday,
March 2, 2012 at 5:30 pm
Fraserview Hall - 8240 Fraser Street
(1/2 block south of Marine Drive)
The Vancouver & District Labour Council (VDLC)
is pleased to announce that Judy Rebick will
be the keynote speaker at our annual
International
Women’s Day Dinner.
Ms. Rebick is a highly respected feminist,
political commentator, author and social
activist. She is the founder of Rabble.ca
and is a former president of the National
Action Committee on the Status of Women (NAC).
|
DETAILS: |
|
Date:
Time:
Place:
Tickets: |
Friday, March 2, 2012
Doors 5:30, Buffet dinner 6:30
Fraserview Hall – 8240 Fraser
Street, Vancouver (1/2 block South
of Marine Way)
Regular $45 / Low waged or unwaged
$35 (tables seat 8) |
Sign Language
Interpretation will be provided. Primarily a
women’s event but open to all.
For tickets or more information please
contact the VDLC at 604-254-0703 or
office@vdlc.ca
Statement
from the B.C. Federation of Labour
on Occupy Wall Street
Click here to tweet
the BCFED's Statement
Global economic uncertainty is shining a bright light on the
rapidly growing gap between rich and poor in North America and
around the world. In the United States, the consequences have
been widespread and severe. Real unemployment is approaching 20
per cent. People are losing their homes to foreclosures. And,
for the first time in generations, few young Americans believe
their lives will be as prosperous and secure as their parents.
Here, well paying jobs, fair taxation and strong
public services built the Canada we know and love. For 20 years
across Canada, however, real wages have stagnated, the richest
Canadians and corporations have avoided billions in taxes, and
successive governments have weakened public services. This has
created a gap between rich and poor not seen in generations, and
the gap is widening.
The Conference Board of Canada has identified
that Canada had the second largest rate of income inequality
growth among peer nations from the mid-1990’s to the mid-2000’s.
Clearly, the same conditions that have lead to Wall Street
exist in Canada as well.
In British Columbia, a decade of tax cuts for the
richest British Columbians and corporations combined with
stagnant wages for average income earners have left British
Columbia families struggling to make ends meet and nervous about
their futures. As the cost of living has increased, household
debt has piled up and savings eroded. This has got to stop.
The Occupy Wall Street movement expresses an
underlying desire for fairness and equality in the economy and
our society. The B.C. Federation of Labour stands in solidarity
with that desire, as part of the 99 percent, and calls on the
governments of British Columbia and Canada to act swiftly and
decisively to narrow the gap. The BC Fed will support an ongoing
peaceful occupation in Vancouver on these important issues.
Click here to tweet the BCFED's
Statement
Click here to share the BCFED's
Statement on Facebook
Members of the B.C. Federation of Labour will gather Saturday
October 15th at the Vancouver Art Gallery at 12:00 p.m. in
solidarity with the Occupy Wall Street movement's call for good
jobs, fair taxes and strong public services.
For more information visit http://act.bcfed.ca/solidaritywithoccupywallstreet/
The Vancouver & District Labour
Council (VDLC)
is the local organization of the
Canadian Labour Congress (CLC) at
the city level. The CLC represents 1.5 million unionized workers across
Canada. The VDLC is the second largest labour council in Canada
with 118 affiliated local unions representing 65,000 working men and
women in the Greater Vancouver area.
Click here for
General Events
Calendar.
global classroom
MOVE
YOUR WORLD
UNICEF CANADA has a variety of online resources, videos, links and
opportunities to connect for both teachers and students. Check it
out: http://globalclassroom.unicef.ca/en/
The
British Columbia Federation of Labour (BC
Fed)
represents more than half a million
workers through affiliated unions in more
than 800 locals, working in every aspect of
the BC economy.
The
B.C. Federation of Labour brings together
the majority of unions in BC to provide a
single voice on workers' rights. As well,
the Federation provides support to
affiliated unions during labour disputes and
co-ordinates cross-union campaigns from
health and safety to political action and
women's rights.
The
Federation is a member of the Canadian
Labour Congress (CLC) and works with it to
further the interests of working people
across the country.
For
BC Fed Health & Safety courses in your area –
www.bcfedhsc.ca
Rhizome is a
friendly neighbourhood cafe AND...
• supports social justice
struggles by hosting events in collaboration with community
groups that are working toward a more just, sustainable world
for all.
• encourage dialogue and
mutual learning by making our Community Meeting Room available
for meetings and workshops.
• builds community by
providing people with space to socialize and share information
and resources.
• helps marginalized
voices be heard, and highlight visual and performing arts that
help us achieve a better understanding of our communities and
our world.
Check out the Rhizome Café’s website for events –
www.rhizomecafe.ca
Federal government affirms that polygamy has no place in Canada
The federal justice minister says
polygamy has "no place in Canada," after calls for clarity on the issue
from the British Columbia attorney general.
"The prohibition on polygamy is certainly consistent with Canadian
values," Justice Minister Rob Nicholson told reporters Friday at a news
conference.
He said the federal government is prepared to defend the law, which
prevents people from being married to more than one person at one time.
His comment comes the day after B.C.'s attorney general said Canadians
and the justice system need clarity on whether or not polygamy is a
crime.
On Thursday, the B.C. government said it decided to seek an opinion
rather than appeal a court ruling that quashed polygamy charges against
Winston Blackmore and James Oler. Both are leaders of breakaway sects of
the Mormon Church in Bountiful, B.C. The mainstream church banned
polygamy more than 100 years ago.
Blackmore was accused of having 19 wives and Oler three.
The charges were dropped because B.C.'s attorney general did not have
the jurisdiction to appoint a second special prosecutor to consider
charges against the men
On Thursday, Joe Arvay, the lawyer for Blackmore said his client wants
to participate in the hearing, to make sure the court hears his side of
the story. Lawyers for Blackmore and Oler argue the law is a violation
of their charter rights to religious freedom.
At the news conference, Nicholson said the law is constitutional and
complies with both the charter and the Canadian bill of rights.
"The prohibition on polygamy is consistent with Canadian values and I am
confident it'll pass constitutional muster," Nicholson said.
He would not elaborate on what argument the federal government will be
presenting in court to defend the law.
One constitutional law professor says that even if polygamous marriages
do end up allowed, they may still pose legal problems.
"It would mean that those religious sects that use polygamy as their
marriage form could go ahead and do it religiously but it would not make
the marriage legal," Beverley Baines, a law professor at Queen's
University told Canada AM.
The province will specifically ask the B.C. Supreme Court if the law
barring polygamy is consistent with the charter and will also ask what
role the law has in governing relationships between consenting adults
and relationships with youth.
There have been allegations in Bountiful that teenage girls have been
married to middle-aged men, and that some have been sent to the United
States to marry older men in sister sects there.
"It's very crucial that the women involved in polygamous
relationships...are given an opportunity to testify," said Baines.
The RCMP have launched numerous investigations into Bountiful since
1990, but prosecutors have repeatedly shied away from laying charges.
*University of Western Ontario law professor Grant Huscroft told Canada
AM the province should have acted earlier.
"The province got it into its head that the laws were unconstitutional.
These are federal laws," said Huscroft.
"Rather than go ahead and charge and let the accused persons raise the
argument about the law being unconstitutional, they got paralyzed into
not doing anything and that's allowed basically a generation of
polygamous conduct in British Columbia to go on," said Huscroft.
*The charges were eventually laid under former B.C. attorney general
Wally Oppal proceeded with polygamy charges against Blackmore and Oler
despite earlier legal opinions that the polygamy issue should be
referred to the court as a test case.
CTV legal analyst Steven Skurka told CTV News Channel that this could be
a long court battle.
"I think this is going to be a real test for the court," Skurka said.
"I'm not predicting which way this will end up its certainly going to be
a close call." |
