Poverty

How to reduce poverty?

January 21, 2020

December 2019 the Ontario government announced a consultation on the next five-year Poverty Reduction Strategy. According to Ministry figures, one in seven Ontarians live in poverty. Several recent reports provide a closer look at the social and economic dimensions of poverty.…

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Deeming as a violation of rights: submission to the UN

September 6, 2019

The U.N. Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities met in Geneva this week (4th and 5th of September) to consider reports on Canada’s compliance with the international Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). The Ontario Network of…

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Challenges in disability policy

February 28, 2019

Persons with disabilities face many challenges in accessing public programs for financial aid or disability supports – or from being trapped in them once eligible. In a recent report Disability Policy: From Remedies to Rights (Dec. 2018), Sherri Torjman lays out the…

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Presentation to pre-budget hearings, Dryden

January 29, 2019

The Thunder Bay and District Injured Workers Support Group made a presentation to the Parliamentary Committee on Finance & Economic Affairs Pre-Budget Hearings in Dryden, Ontario on January 21, 2019. They covered two issues: the growing gap of income inequality in Ontario…

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Former rubber workers: ‘Those plants ruined us’

December 6, 2018

[Dec. 12 update: In response to The Record’s series, WSIB Chair orders review of hundreds of denied claims]. Once the booming Rubber Capital of Canada, Kitchener’s plants employed thousands. While many of those plants have long closed, former workers and their families…

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Champion for the ‘little guy’?

November 23, 2018

Statement by Janet Paterson and Moses Sheppard of the Thunder Bay and District Injured Worker Support Group: Premier Ford is, according to him, a champion for the little guy. Thus far, he has cancelled the Basic Income Pilot Project, which…

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Overdue: addressing injured worker poverty

October 17, 2018

The International Day for the Eradication of Poverty is a day to reflect also on the poverty close at home. One in six Canadians currently live in poverty, and in Ontario the percentage is slightly higher at 17%. While Toronto and Windsor…

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Why the workers’ comp campaign matters to us

September 21, 2018

The Women of Inspiration and other injured workers met with MPP Rima Berns-McGown today. It was a really supportive meeting as we spoke to her about our personal stories and connected it to the Workers’ Comp Is A Right (WCIAR) campaign demands.…

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Women and workplace health

March 7, 2018

Women workers make up 48% of Ontario’s employed workforce and represent 35% of allowed high impact lost time compensation claims (Schedule 1), 50% of Schedule 2 claims, according to WSIB 2016 statistics. However in their study “Falling Through the Legal Cracks”…

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The hidden truth

March 3, 2018

Injured Worker Unemployment: The Hidden Truth by the ONIWG Research Action Committee highlights telling statistics on wage loss and unemployment among seriously injured workers with permanent disabilities – and the resulting mental health impacts. According to figures provided by the WSIB, only…

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