Some renters are in real need of help to face systemic barriers that make finding housing difficult
Ready to Rent B.C. was established when a group of housing and service-related agencies came together to find ways of helping families both find—and keep—their housing. The Victoria-based organization works closely with both service providers and housing providers to support people in finding solutions to their own housing needs. (more…)
Negative connotations surrounding projects can make things difficult, says Nanaimo Affordable Housing Society executive director Jim Spinelli
Jim Spinelli doesn’t like the term ‘low-barrier housing,’ despite his 17-year involvement with finding affordable housing for local residents.
In his work with the Nanaimo Affordable Housing Society it’s sometimes a struggle to get public acceptance for the housing projects he has been involved with. Part of the problem, he said, is the negative connotation of such terminology.
No rental housing will refuse people on the basis of their drug or alcohol use, so the term is somewhat misleading, said Spinelli. Read the rest of this story at Nanaimo Daily News…
The truly shocking aspect of revelations concerning the use of native children as research subjects is that we were shocked by the revelation, says author Tom Koch
Demonstrations were held across the country Thursday July 25, 2013 as a growing chorus of Canadians urged the federal government to release documents related to nutritional experiments done on aboriginal children decades ago. The protests, which varied in size, were sparked by a report published earlier in the month that said 1,300 children in northern Manitoba and at six residential schools across Canada were deprived of food and used as subjects to test the effects of minerals and vitamins in the 1940s and 1950s. [source: CTV]. (more…)
Former prime minister Paul Martin says that the only way in which the vow of ‘never again’ can have any substance is if people have a full awareness of what happened
Food, health and nutrition historian Ian Mosby, in what he called the most difficult research project he’d ever undertaken, has revealed that between 1942 and 1952, some of Canada’s leading nutrition experts, in cooperation with various federal departments, conducted an unprecedented series of nutritional studies of Aboriginal communities and residential schools. (more…)
Researchers say that the education of medical students should be based on the best clinical information available, rather than on commercial interests
A first-of-its kind study has analyzed the conflict-of-interest policies at the 17 medical schools across Canada. Macleans magazine reports that “overall, the researchers found policies were “permissive”—meaning most medical schools allowed interactions with sales reps, turned a blind eye to faculty’s relationships with speakers’ bureaus (so instructors who teach students may also have speaking contracts with drug companies), and failed to educate newbie doctors about conflicts of interest despite the minefield they’d be entering.” (more…)
Report by the British Columbia Representative for Children and Youth prompts immediate reaction from governments in British Columbia and Saskatchewan, along with pledges to improve child safety
The tragic case of a young Aboriginal girl who suffered horrific abuse and neglect for 18 months at the hands of unfit care givers points to significant improvements that are required to British Columbia’s child protection system as well as to the protocol that guides the interprovincial transfer of such vulnerable children across Canada. (more…)
