This section is dedicated to promoting awareness about human rights issues. Click on the links under each heading in order to view various essays, journal articles, web links, opinion pieces, etc., that relate to each different human rights issue.
This section will be updated regularly with additional human rights issues and information.
Please contact us if you have an issue that you would like to see documented here in this section.
INDEX
Food Security for Low-Income Canadians
Funding Cuts For Mobile Access Program (MAP)
Income Assistance and the Ministry of Housing and Social Development
Water Quality on First Nations Reserves
BC Human Rights Commission
Essay: Direct Access To Privatization - Kristy Neurauter
fixed needle exchange site
The closure of a fixed needle exchange site within downtown Victoria is seen widely as a cut in health services provided to people who require harm reduction resources. It is also seen as discrimination against people who have addictions. Addiction does not discriminate. However, the local health authority has discriminated upon people who require harm reduction services. It is important to note that since the fixed needle exchange closed, more than 100,000 used needles are said to be on the streets without an accessible and safe disposal unit. It is also important to note that the fixed needle exchange site functioned as a community center and a place for support for many people, and since its closure, violence and discrimination – largely felt on the streets – has increased sharply. Something must be done to resurrect this health service and community site within downtown Victoria.
Related Links
Food security for low income canadians
Eating healthily is a human right, however currently many people within Canada face food insecurity issues. Meaning, many people do not have enough food, let alone nutritious food, to live a healthy lifestyle. Many people require food banks, emergency shelters, soup kitchens and so forth in order to eat. Approximately 2.7 million people within Canada experienced food insecurity in 2008.
Related Links
Death Lurks In Cupboard (The Tyee, 06/19/2009)
FUNDING cuts for Mobile access program (MAP)
The Mobile Access Program (MAP) is a service provided in partnership by the WISH drop in center and PACE society which provide services to women working in the sex trade industry. The MAP program provides services directly to women who are vulnerable and are consistently the target for physical and sexual violence through a mobile unit. MAP provides these women with services that are essential to their safety including access to medical treatment, harm reduction supplies and bad date reports. 95% of “Bad Date” reports are made because women have trust in the staff and because the van is one of the few safe places for them to be. This service aspect alone is integral to the safety of these women who are at constant risk of violence. This essential service needs consistent provincial funding to allow for it to continue in the important work it does.
Please contact your MLA, the Premier and the Solicitor General.
Find your MLA: http://www.leg.bc.ca/MLA/3-1-1.htm
The office of the Premier Gordon Campbell Phone: 250 387-1715 Fax: 250 387-0087 PO Box 9041 STN PROV GOVT Victoria BC V8W 9E1
Solicitor General: Hon. Kash Heed kash.heed.mla@leg.bc.ca Room 236 Parliament Buildings Victoria, BC V8V 1X4 Phone: 250 356-7717 Fax: 250 356-8270
Related Links
Prostitution Alternatives Counselling & Education Society (PACE)
Homeless tenting regulations
The issue of erecting tents in city property in Victoria can be traced to the homelessness situation within the city. There is simply not enough shelter and health services available for Victoria’s residents. Therefore, some people have taken it upon themselves to create shelter on the streets. Unfortunately, Victoria’s city council created and implemented a bylaw which banned the use of tents and other shelter systems on the streets. This bylaw is now being challenged in the BC Supreme Court of Canada.
Related Links
Poverty and Human Rights: Advancing the Right to Shelter
income assistance and the ministry of housing and social development
As the number of people accessing social assistance increases funding for these programs fails to meet the growing demand. Several media outlets have covered issues surrounding welfare as our economy has steadily declined. However, no one seemed to be interested in our deteriorating “social safety” net until they might somehow be affected. Current media attention has focused on the capacity of the system and not some of the most integral problems and issues with the system. Rather than looking at helping the group of people that regularly access welfare and live in poverty, most new agencies have focused on the new applicant, the person who has always worked and “contributed to society”. By neglecting the portions of our population that consistently live in poverty we are turning a blind eye to the integral issues.
The following are links to several resources about income assistance in BC. The BC Ombudsman recently concluded a two year investigation of the Ministry of Employment and Income Assistance and has since made 26, findings, 28 recommendations and a 132 page report.
Related Links
BC Welfare Cases Jump nearly 50% for those Able to Work (CBCNews, 05/22/09)
BC's Badly Broken Welfare System (The Tyee, 04/13/2009)
Omsbudperson: BC's Independent Voice For Fairness
Police complaints
Guide to Police Complaints (compiled by Ros Salvador)
WATER QUALITY ON first Nations Reserves
Clean water is something we in the “developed” world often take for granted. The clean and drinkable water we get from our taps is the result of infrastructure provided and up kept by local government to ensure its safety. All Canadians have the right to water free of harmful substances and bacteria. However we face systemic problems with the systems we have in place. Larger municipalities and urban centers are the top priority for water infrastructure, rural and remote communities are not. This leads to the ever growing problem of water quality on First Nations Reserves.
Often in remote area’s First Nations Reserves and their infrastructure are the first to be forgotten and neglected. Over 100 First Nations communities have been on boil water alerts for years with no end in sight.
Access to clean, health, drinkable water should be a basic human right especially in Canada where we have such an abundance. We encourage everyone to take action, write your MP, the Prime Minister, the Minister of Health and the Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs.
Your MP:
Finding Your Member of Parliament
Prime Ministers Office:
Stephen Harper
pm@pm.gc.ca
Office of the Prime Minister
80 Wellington Street
Ottawa
K1A 0A2
Fax: 613-941-6900
Minister of Health:
Leona Aglukkaq
Aglukkaq.L@parl.gc.ca
Constituency Office
Building 1057, Unit 3,
Iqaluit, NU
Tel: 867-979-4193
Toll Free: 866-267-7701
Fax: 867-979-4196
House of Commons:
460 Confederation Building
Ottawa,
Ontario
K1A 0A6
Tel: (613) 992-2848
Fax: (613) 996-9764
Minister of Indian and Northern Affairs:
Chuck Strahl
riding@chuckstrahl.com, orottawa@chuckstrahl.com
Chilliwack Constituency Office:
102 - 7388 Vedder Road
Chilliwack BC V2R 4E4
Phone: (604) 847-9711
1-800-667-2808
Ottawa Office:
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
Phone: (613) 992-2940
Fax: (613) 944-9376
Related Links
Environment Probe: The Native Water Crises
Article about First Nations Water Problems despite Federal Promises
Protocols for Safe Drinking Water in First Nations Communities