IS THERE RACIAL DISCRIMINATION IN CANADA?

January 27, 2012

A new study shows that visible minorities are not getting their fair share of Canada’s economic pie.  The report shows non-whites in Canada earned 81 cents for every dollar made by Caucasians.

Visible minorites were also found to have a higher unemployment rate, of 8.6 per cent in 2006 compated with 6.2 per cent for white Canadians.

The figures show that equal access to opportunity eludes many racialized Canadians.

From 2000 to 2006 the income of white Canadians grew 2.7 per cent while racial minorities experienced a 0.2 per cent slide in average pay.

Sheila Block, an economist, says the prosperity gap betweeen white and non-whites in Canada is largely the result of racial disrimination.

Block says, “It’s an issue that’s in someways is inconsistent with how we perceive our society.  But it’s there, and it’s something that we have to address and have a public discussion.”

Is this Canada’s dirty little secret?  That we have a racism problem just like Americans have one?

Should we have a public debate about racism in Canada?

Is there  racial discrimination in Canada?

What do you think?

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CRUISE -

This morning Catharine and I are leaving for an 11-day cruise in the Carribean. I  am not sure how regularly I will be able to blog but I  will do my best.

Best wishes to all  our bloggers.  Neil

Posted in Uncategorized  |  Tags: ,  |  13 Comments »

DOES ALCOHOLISM RUN IN THE FAMILY?

January 26, 2012

Just as with other diseases such as diabetes or heart disease, alcoholism can and does run in families.

Alcoholism is believed to be caused by both genetic and enviornmental influences.

However, just because there is a predispostion to alcoholism due to family history, it does not mean that it will automatically happen.  It does mean, however, you will need to use caution, monitor your alcohol consumption and seek help early if necessar

Have you ever had experience with alcoholism in your family or other families?

Would it be better for a member of an alcoholic family to abstan from drinking?

Does alcoholism run in the family?

What do you think?

Posted in current events  |  Tags:  |  7 Comments »

SHOULD CANADA HAVE A NATIONAL DRUG PLAN?

January 25, 2012

One in four Canadians who do not have drug insurance are unable to afford to take their prescription drugs as directed, a new survey reveals.

One in 10 Canadians struggles to pay for their drug treatment even when they have insurance.

This means that millions of patients fail to fill or refill prescriptions, or skip doses to cut costs.

This raises the question whether Canada should institute a universal drug insurance plan (Pharmacare)

As of now public prescription drug coverage tends to be limited to seniors and people on social assistance.

(Quebec is the only province where all residents have drug insurance;  low income residents are covered by the state, but others must purchase it from private insurers.)

Doctors say a national drug plan would lower costs, not increase them.

Canadians spent $26.1-billion on presciption drugs in 2010.

Should Canada havea national drug plan?

What do you think?

Posted in current events  |  Tags: ,  |  3 Comments »

WOULD YOU LEAVE A POSTHUMOUS MESSAGE?

January 23, 2012

Do you think there are any set of circumstances in which you would like to leave someone a message  after you (sometimes suddenly and unexpectedly.) The web site If I Die.org lets you do just that.  If I Die.org gives you a way to write notes that will only be delivered when you die.  The service is free, easy to use and completely secure.  (Check it out yourself.)  You can use this website to leave ie preparednstructions for what to do with your pets and diaries, to write letters to the people you care about, or for anything else you want. The site points out that it’s not as morbid or as scary as you think; it’s an easy way to be prepared in case something totally unexpected happens.

Would you see this service as helping the grieving process.

A doctoral student at the University of Toronto points out that we have long used the Net to announce births and plan weddings and now that is slowly turning to end-of-life issues.

Could you envisage yourself using a service of this kind?

Would you leave a posthumous message at If I Die.org?

Posted in Media  |  Tags:  |  12 Comments »

IS BILINGUALISM WORTH THE MONEY?

January 23, 2012

Canada, an officially bilingual country, is a world leader in the promotion of second language knowledge.  We should also note that Ottawa and the provinces spend more than $2-billion a year offering government services in both French and English.

Yet the actual ability of our population to speak both French and English remains stubbornly low.  While 35 per cent of francophones in Quebec speak English, only 7.4 per cent of anglophones outside speak French.

In the Unitd States 9 per cent of the population speaks two languages – to say nothing of the European Union where 56 per cent of citizens can hold a conversation in a language other than their mother tongue and nearly one-third have mastered a third language.

No fewer than one-third of people from British Columbia and Alberta think Spanish and Mandarin might be better choices as a second language than French.

Is there resentment in parts of the country at the push for French?  Mastering both of Canada’s official languages may be wrongly perceived as an historic anomaly, or an expensive government-imposed obligation.  The fact of the matter is there is no official requirement for anybody to learn French and English  except for public servants.

If  you don’t like French on your cereal box just turn it around.

Was there anything more ridiculous in the GOP than criticizing Romney for speaking French or Huntsman for speaking Mandarin?

Surely learning a second language should be viewed as a gift to society that confers significant global advantages and bridges cultural divides. Bilingual employees are more likely to be better paid, especially in Quebec, and in the public sector.

Canadians should feel blessed – not cursed – to be home to two of the world’s great languages.  Our bilingualism reflects our fundamental history.

Is bilingualism worth the money?

What do you think?

Posted in Politics  |  Tags: ,  |  30 Comments »

WHAT CAN ONE SAY?

January 22, 2012

Sarah Burke, 29, lived as if she had no fear, and she pushed out the bounds of human endeavour in an archetypically Canadian way.  But though she succeeded on so many levels, her sport of freestyle skiing killed her.  It is difficult to make sense of that .

How do we weigh such a life in the balance?  She was happily married, could have lived on to have a sterling career, children and grandchilden and entered her golden years with her family around her.  Instead her family is now desperately trying to raise thousands of dollars to pay for her failed treatment in a American hospital.

She paid for her daring with her life snuffed out so early.

Is there any balance here?  Was an early death preferable to a life well lived?

Is there anything one can say that makes any sense of this tragedy?

Or is this an impenetrable mystery – best left in the mind of God?

What can one say?

Posted in current events  |  Tags:  |  13 Comments »

COULD THE PQ DISAPPEAR?

January 21, 2012

Bernard Drainville, a heavyweight separatist told Le Devoir this week that the P.Q. could disappear.  He was visibly moved by the party’s current state of disintegration. But he likelihood that the PQ could be reduced to a small rump in the National Assembly is not beyond possibility in the party’s current dysfunctional state.

In addtion more polls suggest that an increasing number of Quebeckers – verging on a majority – are coming around to the idea this would be no big loss.

Behind Marois’s back is Gilles Duceppe holding the stiletto

This is the same Duceppe who has zero experience in government beyond running his own party with a tight fist, a tendency that would be bound to sew yet more dissension in the Parti Quebecois.

In the light of this and much more, it’s tempting to think that in just disappearing, the P.Q would be doing itself, alon with the rest of us, a blessed favour.

Could  the PQ disappear?

What do you think?

Posted in Politics  |  Tags: ,  |  17 Comments »

SHOULD MULCAIR DROP HIS FRENCH CITIZENSHIP?

January 20, 2012

Thomas Mulcair wants to become leader of the NDP.  He also wants to become prime minister of Canada.

But there is a little problem.  Mulcair holds dual citizenship – French and Canadian.  Should you become prime minister of one country when you owe allegiance to another.  To become the citizen of another country is automatically to lose one’s citizenship in Denmark or Japan or Norway.

Somebody may say, “What does it matter.?”

What matters is Canada.  Should we be willing to put aside other competing commitments – that we put our own country first and foremost.  When JFK called upon Americans to ask “what you can do for your country” he did not mean them to ask, “Which one?”

Surely that is something we should ask of those who want to lead us – that they give up competing and foreign regimes.

A candidate for party leader is expected to give up any previous party affiliations.  Should it be different for a candidate for prime minister?  He asks us to choose him.  Is it too much to ask that he choose us – pure and simple?

Should Mulciar drop his French citizenship?

What do you think?

Posted in Politics  |  Tags: ,  |  15 Comments »

SHOULD DOCTORS DECIDE WHO DRIVES?

January 19, 2012

Doctors are duty bound to tell licensing authorities about any medical  condition that would limit their driving abilities.  But how do   doctors decide who should keep their license and who should not?  Especially when the doctor has never seen you drive?

Here are a few things you can do to tip the exam in your favour.  Show the doctor you have no demerit points.  And no insurance claims against you.  You can do more.  Get  a report from a professional driving school.  Get them to give you a written evaluation of your driving abilities in the city and in the country.

Now the doctor has information on whih he can base his decision about your driving.

But absent this kind of material, on what should the doctor base his decision?  How can they make an educated decision without in-put from the patient?

Losing your license is a big change in life style.  Should that decision be in the hands of an uninformed doctor?

Should doctors decide who drives and who doesn’t?

What do you think?

Posted in current events  |  Tags: ,  |  11 Comments »

IS THE CAPTAIN A COWARD?

January 18, 2012

The absence of Captain Schettino from his damaged ship, the Costa Concordia, while some of the passengers were still on board, invites an inference of cowardice.    The captain seemed untroubled by being on one of the rescue boats rather than on his ship.

But what difference would it have made had Captain Schettino stayed with his ship?  Would the final outcome have been any different?  What exactly could  the captain have done by staying?

Retreat is not itself a proof of cowardice.  Great generals from Xenophon to Wellington have led skillful withdrawals.

Falstaff once said, “Discretion is the better part of valour.”  In other words, cowardice is prudence.

Is it likely Captain Schettino would have made any difference to the outcome had he stayed with his ship?

Is the captain a coward?

Posted in Morality  |  Tags: ,  |  9 Comments »

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