Showing posts tagged human rights

Women and hidden unemployment

usydwomenscollective:

The present state of public policy has disturbing implications for women and their life-long economic security.
(Reblogged from usydwomenscollective)

Canada: We’re Better than You

PITTSBURGH — Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, appearing to forget that his countrymen are generally known for their modesty, declared on Friday that his nation was the envy of the world.

Harper, usually a fairly wooden performer, seized on a routine question at a news conference and used it to deliver an impassioned defense of his 33-million strong nation and how well it has coped with the global economic crisis.

“Canada remains in a very special place in the world… . We are the one major developed country that no one thinks has any responsibility for this crisis,” he said to laughter.

“In fact, on the contrary, they look at our policies as a solution to the crisis. We’re the one country in the room everybody would like to be,” he said at the end of the summit of the Group of 20 advanced and developing nations in Pittsburgh.

Canada, which was running a budget surplus before the recession and avoided major banking problems, has been less affected by the crisis than many of its partners.

Harper said the other G20 nations “would like to be an advanced developed economy with all the benefits that conveys to its citizens and at the same time not have been the source, or have any of the domestic problems, that created this crisis”.

By this stage of his comments, the initial premise of the question had long since vanished and Harper — who leads the right-leaning Conservative Party — was focusing on several other factors that in his mind make Canada so irresistible.

“We’re so self-effacing as Canadians that we sometimes forget the assets we do have that other people see,” he said, speaking with a rare passion.

“We are one of the most stable regimes in history… . We are unique in that regard,” he added, noting Canada had enjoyed more than 150 years of untroubled Parliamentary democracy.

Just in case that was not enough to persuade doubters, Harper threw in some more facts about the geographically second-largest nation in the world.

“We also have no history of colonialism. So we have all of the things that many people admire about the great powers but none of the things that threaten or bother them,” he said.

And his final verdict?

“Canada is big enough to make a difference but not big enough to threaten anybody. And that is a huge asset if it’s properly used.”

The Calgary Herald

Oh yeah, no colonialism here. We’re just a former British and French colony that comitted genocide against the First Nations community. That was not colonialism at all.

Rape Now Taking the Form of Genocide

caraobrien:

New campaign from UNICEF. From Youtube:

UNICEF Ambassadors and celebrity friends Al Roker, Alyssa Milano, Clay Aiken, Joel Madden, Laurence Fishburne, Lucy Liu, Mia Farrow, Ne-Yo, Nicole Richie, Rachel Ray and Whoopie Goldberg believe in zero.

Use the SHARE button to put this video on your website, profile or blog to help spread the word.

Together we will reach the day when no children die from preventable causes: zero children killed by malaria and measles, poisoned by unclean water, lost for a lack of safe shelter or by falling prey to malnutrition.

As the organization that has saved more children’s lives than any other humanitarian organization, UNICEF is committed to doing whatever it takes, until we can ensure the survival of every human born on this planet.

Ibelieveinzero.org

(Reblogged from caraobrien)
fuckyeahlgbt: Not long after Alberta’s decision to eliminate all forms of gender reassignment surgery from its public health care, Manitoba has followed suit, calling it an “unnecessary treatment” and citing savings for the economy. The surgery would affect only an estimated 20 Manitobans per year. The Manitoba Health Department had previously suggested to the government that the province completely fund all forms of gender reassignment surgeries on the grounds that it dramatically improves the lives of people who suffer from a recognized disorder. A document prepared by the Health Department described the necessity clearly, but was dismissed by Gary Doer’s NDP government: Manitoba has no standards of care for Gender Identify Disorder in spite of the fact that internationally accepted standards exist. Coverage is denied on the basis that treatments are cosmetic, experimental or not medically necessary, contrary to all available evidence. Ontario had previously tried to delist gender reassignment surgery from its public health care, but was forced to re-introduce it by the Human Rights Commission ten years ago.

fuckyeahlgbt:

Not long after Alberta’s decision to eliminate all forms of gender reassignment surgery from its public health care, Manitoba has followed suit, calling it an “unnecessary treatment” and citing savings for the economy. The surgery would affect only an estimated 20 Manitobans per year.

The Manitoba Health Department had previously suggested to the government that the province completely fund all forms of gender reassignment surgeries on the grounds that it dramatically improves the lives of people who suffer from a recognized disorder. A document prepared by the Health Department described the necessity clearly, but was dismissed by Gary Doer’s NDP government:

Manitoba has no standards of care for Gender Identify Disorder in spite of the fact that internationally accepted standards exist. Coverage is denied on the basis that treatments are cosmetic, experimental or not medically necessary, contrary to all available evidence.

Ontario had previously tried to delist gender reassignment surgery from its public health care, but was forced to re-introduce it by the Human Rights Commission ten years ago.

(Reblogged from fuckyeahlgbt)