Horrific abuse and racism of poverty for single moms =
Nearly five million people in Canada – that’s one out of every seven individuals – currently live in poverty. Poverty is a widespread issue across the country and the world, but vulnerable groups such as people living with disabilities, single parents, elderly individuals, youth, and racialized communities are more susceptible. The effects of poverty can be expressed in different aspects of a person’s life, including food security, health, and housing. The following statistics show the different manifestations of poverty in Canada.
If you have any questions or would like to request more information, please contact us or subscribe to our newsletter.Poverty & Demographics
The Impact of Poverty
International Rankings
Basic statistics about poverty in Canada
The following are statistics about the current reality of poverty in Canada.- 1 in 7 (or 4.9 million) people in Canada live in poverty.
- In Edmonton, 1 in 8 individuals are currently living in poverty.
- Poverty costs Canada billions of dollar annually.
- Precarious employment has increased by nearly 50% over the past two decades.
- Between 1980 and 2005, the average earnings among the least wealthy Canadians fell by 20%.
- Over the past 25 years, Canada’s population has increased by 30% and yet annual national investment in housing has decreased by 46%.
Poverty & Demographics
Marginalized Communities
Some members of society are particularly susceptible to the effects of poverty. The following statistics suggest groups who are particularly likely to experience poverty.- People living with disabilities (both mental and physical) are twice as likely to live below the poverty line.
- Nearly 15% of people with disabilities live in poverty, 59% of which are women.
- Estimates place the number of homeless individuals living with a disability or mental illness as high as 45% of the overall homeless population.
- Children with disabilities are twice as likely to live in households relying on social assistance
- 21% of single mothers in Canada raise their children while living in poverty (7% of single fathers raise their children in poverty).
- Women parenting on their own enter shelters at twice the rate of two-parent families.
- Indigenous Peoples (including First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples) are overrepresented among the homeless population in virtually all urban centres in Canada.
- 28%-34% of shelter users are Indigenous.
- 1 in 5 racialized families live in poverty in Canada, as opposed to 1 in 20 non-racialized families.
- Racialized women living in poverty were almost twice as likely to work in manufacturing jobs than other women living in poverty.
- Overall, racialized women earn 32% less at work.
- Nearly 15% of elderly single individuals live in poverty.
- Nearly 2 million seniors receive the Guaranteed Income Supplement, and live on about $17,000 per year. However, the most basic standard of living in Canada is calculated at $18,000 per year for a single person
Child Poverty
Children and youth under 18 are particularly vulnerable to conditions of poverty. The following statistics outline risk factors and the realities of youth poverty in Canada.- In Canada, 1.3 million children live in conditions of poverty (that’s 1 in 5).
- 1 in 2 Status First Nations children lives in poverty.
- 8% of children in British Columbia live in poverty with children under the age of 6 representing an even higher poverty rate of 20.1% (both are higher than the national average of 18.5%)
- 1 in 5 Edmontonian children (under the age of 18) live in poverty, which increases to 1 in 3 children in single-parent families.
- 40% of Indigenous children in Canada live in poverty, and 60% of Indigenous children on reserves live in poverty.
- More than one-third of food bank users across Canada were children in 2016.
- About 1 in 7 of those using shelters in Canada are children.
The Impact of Poverty
Food Insecurity
One aspect of poverty is not having enough food or having limited to access to nutritious and healthful food. The following statistics outline the reality of hunger in Canada.
- Residents in Nunavut spend twice as much on food as the rest of the country on average ($14,800 v. $7,300 annually).
- 4 million people in Canada experience food insecurity.
- 1 in 8 Canadian households struggle to put food on the table.
- In 2014, the majority of food insecure households – 62.2% – were reliant on wages or salary from employment.
- 8 out of 10 provinces saw an increase in food bank usage in 2016.
- 62% of children living in the North are food insecure.
- 2 out of every 5 Northern households are food insecure.
- Food bank usage across Canada is 3% higher than 2015 and 28% higher than it was in 2008.
- 7 of 10 Inuit preschoolers live in food insecure households.
- Food bank usage has increased in all provinces since 2008, apart from Newfoundland and Labrador.
- 2% of food bank users are Indigenous.
Health
The effects of poverty are wide-ranging and can be difficult to see from the outside. The following statistics show the risks and effects poverty has on an individual’s physical and mental health.- 1 in 10 Canadians cannot afford to fill their medical prescriptions. Canada is the only industrialized country with a universal healthcare system but without a national pharmacare policy.
- A McMaster University study found a 21-year difference in life expectancy between the poorest and wealthiest residents of Hamilton, Ontario.
- Researchers have found that men in the wealthiest 20% of neighbourhoods in Canada live on average more than four years longer than men in the poorest 20% of neighbourhoods.
- Estimates place the cost of socio-economic disparities in the health system to be 20% of all healthcare spending.
- It has been estimated that $1 invested in the early years of a child’s life can save up to $9 in future spending in the healthcare system.
- Food insecure households were 80% more likely to report having diabetes, 60% more likely to report high blood pressure, and 70% more likely to report food allergies.
Housing
Homelessness is the most obvious expression of poverty’s effect on housing, but it’s not the only one. The following facts delve into housing instability and homelessness in Canada.
- 3 million Canadian households are precariously housed (living in unaffordable, below standards, and/or overcrowded housing conditions).
- An estimated 235,000 people in Canada experienced homelessness in 2016, with roughly 35,000 people being homeless on any given night.
- Almost 1 in every 5 households experience serious housing affordability issues (spending over 50% of their low income on rent) which puts them at risk of homelessness.
- Three-quarters of Yukon’s population live in Whitehorse where the average price of housing increased 80% over six years.
- Estimates place the number of homeless individuals living with a disability or mental illness as high as 45% of the overall homeless population.
- In Toronto, there were 5,219 people who were homeless in 2013 (the latest available data). Roughly half of the homeless population were on wait lists for affordable housing during the same period.
- Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation predicts that its major national housing program funding will fall from $3.04 billion (2010) to $1.68 billion by 2017 — a $1.36 billion difference.
- According to new research, spending $10 on housing and support for high-need chronically homeless individuals resulted in almost $22 of savings related to health care, social supports, housing, and the justice system.
- Youth aged 16-24 make up about 20% of the homeless population
- The number of older adults and seniors experiencing homeless is rising, making up a combined 4% of shelters users in 2016
International Rankings
Canada is a wealthy country, but people living in Canada still experience poverty. How does Canada compare to other countries around the world?- UNICEF rated Canada 17thout of 29 wealthy countries due to the number of children living in poverty in Canada and 26th out of 35 wealthy countries for overall child inequality.
Face it Canada – we are all settlers Canada had two ice ages
– the first people to immigrate to Canada came from Siberia..... 10,000- 14,000
years ago the second group from
horrific poverty in European, French, English, Scottish, Irish nations.... Sir
John A MacDonald help to Join Canada from Coast to Coast with
confederation..... read your damm history Canadians... don’t get caught up in
propaganda agenda bullshite..... Wars left us in horrific poverty.... as a WWII
horrifically abused throwaway white trash foster kid..... life was truly
ugly... especially for girls.... yet look at Canada today... Women equal men by
law, abortions became legal in 1988, Gay rights 1969, free schools for all ,
free education for all.... 2 official languages and 200 cultures.... in 1940s
and 1950s... reading and school and writing were luxuries only for the rich and
privileged... 8 million white kids lived through foster care hell after white
mans wars.... and rebuilding.... yet we went
to school, excelled, and sought and fought for social justice...
We didn’t ask about race..... what we wanted to know is what
happened to all the crippled kids.... that were so rare.... why were so many
girls sterilized in the 50s and 60s..... why weren’t the poor helped more to
build and expand....
My father’s family came to Canada in 1632 as a fisher via
France via Ireland 1100s.... with pure courage, a bible and a dream.... my
momma’s family came from Europe/germany/dutch as a white slave.... in servitude
for 7 years which turned into 20...... with promises broken.....
My father a fisher, tried to throw me and my stroller into the sea because i was a useless girl child..... when i was born..... life was horrific for girls in poverty..... yet we rose up, educated ourselves, commited to our communities, made education the empowerment and the power of our lives.... and dared to make the world we lived in Canada a better place.... cause our grandparents and theirs had horrific horrific suffering..... so before you trash Canada's history have the guts at least to learn it and the hardships of all first Canadians...
Anne Murray 1983- A little Good News
on front pages of my blogs since 2009
Kawliga, In Mi'kmaq Joel Denny Eskasoni
Canada East
Canada East, previously known as Lower Canada, formed one-half of
the British colony of the Province of Canada.
Canada East, previously known as Lower
Canada, formed one-half of the British colony of the Province
of Canada. The region was governed jointly along with Canada
West (formerly Upper
Canada) from 1841 to 1867, when Canada East became the province of Québec
under Confederation.
Province of Canada
In 1841, as a response to the violent rebellions of 1837 in Upper and Lower Canada, the British government united the two colonies into the Province of Canada. The new colony was created by the Act of Union, following recommendations in the Durham Report. One half, Canada East, reached from Montréal and the Eastern Townships in the south, along both sides of the St. Lawrence River to the Gaspé peninsula in the northeast. To the northwest lay the wilderness of Rupert's Land, chartered to the Hudson's Bay Company.Canada East's population in 1840 is estimated to be 670,000. About 510,000 were French Canadians, whose families had lived in the region for more than 200 years. The rest were Aboriginal people whose ancestors had lived there since the beginning of memory, as well as Loyalist settlers from the American Revolution of the late 1700s — the core of an English-speaking community whose numbers expanded rapidly through waves of English and Scottish immigration. The result was a minority Anglophone merchant class that largely controlled the economy through the timber, canal and railway companies, banks, trading houses and other businesses of Montréal.
British imperial policy makers had hoped that uniting Upper and Lower Canada into a single political unit would submerge or even assimilate the French Canadian population into an overall English-speaking majority of the Province of Canada. And because both Canada East and West were given equal numbers of seats in the colonial legislature — even though the East's population was at first significantly larger — the East was therefore underrepresented on the political stage. Real political power, however, resided in a British governor, who ruled the two provinces through an appointed executive council.
Society and Economy
French-speaking society in Canada East was dominated by the Roman Catholic Church and clergy, who largely controlled matters of education. The majority of French habitants were farmers, woodcutters and labourers. The French civil legal code was maintained, along with the seigneurial land system of tenant farming, although that was abolished, in law if not in practice, by 1854.In the 1840s, a worldwide economic depression brought hard times to Canada East, which was also coping with the decline of the fur trade, its economic foundation for centuries. By the 1850s, however, the economy was growing again, spurred on by the arrival of the industrial revolution, the expansion of canals on the St. Lawrence, and the construction of railways between Québec, Montréal, Toronto and the United States. The 1854 Reciprocity Treaty (or free trade) with the U.S. also opened access to American markets for Canadian timber, grain, fish and textiles.
Montréal Riots
In 1848, a political reform movement led by Robert Baldwin in Canada West and his ally Louis-Hippolyte LaFontaine in Canada East replaced the conservative forces that had long controlled the elected Canadian assembly. Along with reformers in Nova Scotia, they convinced imperial leaders in Britain to grant responsible government to the more politically-advanced British North American colonies. As a result, LaFontaine and Baldwin led the Province of Canada's first executive council, or Cabinet, that was responsible not to the colonial governor for its power, but to the elected legislature.One of the new government's first measures was the 1849 Rebellion Losses Bill, meant to compensate those in Canada East who had lost property or suffered damages in the Rebellion of 1837. French Canadians viewed the Bill as social justice; English-speaking conservatives saw it the unconscionable rewarding of rebels. Despite the anger, the British governor, Lord Elgin, signed the Bill into law – it had been approved, after all, by the legislature then sitting in Montréal, under the new system of responsible government.
Protests over the matter culminated in the Montréal Riots in the winter of 1849. Elgin himself was attacked and the parliament building was burned down, prompting the government to relocate the seat of government to Toronto. Never again would Montréal be a political capital.
Political Deadlock
The riots helped fuel sentiments among English Canadians that Canada East was now over-represented in the legislature, prompting calls for true representation by population. In the 1840s, Canada West benefitted from having a disproportionately large number of seats, thanks to a smaller population. By the 1850s its population was the bigger of the two, and reformers such as George Brown, Reform Party Leader and editor of Toronto's Globe newspaper, vigorously supported the campaign for representation by population – in other words, more seats for the West.This and other divisive issues — such as government funding for Catholic schools throughout the colony — created suspicions among English-Protestants of unchecked French Catholic power. Many French Canadians, on the other hand, viewed such matters as a struggle for cultural survival. By 1859 the rift between English and French, and between conservatives and reformers in both regions, was contributing to unstable government and years of political deadlock, which made solving the colony's needs and problems nearly impossible. Structural change was required to break the political paralysis.
Creation of Québec
In 1864, an unlikely Great Coalition between reformers led by George Brown, and conservatives led in Canada West by John A. Macdonald and in Canada East by George-Etienne Cartier, sought to solve Canada's problems through the creation of a new federation of all British North America colonies. Negotiations began at the Charlottetown Conference with the Maritime colonies, and by 1867 Nova Scotia and New Brunswick had agreed to enter Confederation with the two Canadas, whose 1841 union would be dissolved.Canada West became the province of Ontario and Canada East became the province of Québec, with its own legislature and its provincial capital at Québec City.
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CANADA- Prehistory
Prehistoric
humans first arrived in significant numbers in what is now Canada about 12,000
years ago. They crossed an ancient land bridge between present-day Siberia and
Alaska and spread steadily across the North American continent.
Prehistoric humans first arrived in significant numbers in what is now
Canada about 12,000 years ago. They crossed an ancient land bridge between
present-day Siberia and Alaska and spread steadily across the North American
continent. Over several millennia, they established villages and eventually
farming and fishing economies. These were the forerunners of the Indigenous peoples who inhabited Canada at the time of first
contact with Europeans.
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1. 10,000 years on the Bering Land Bridge: Ancestors of Native ...
DNA recovered from a late Stone Age human skeleton from Mal'ta near Lake Baikal in
southern Siberia shows that Native Americans diverged genetically from their
Asian ancestors around 25,000 years ago, just as the last ice age was reaching
its peak.
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Facing Sir John A. Macdonald’s Legacy
To say that Macdonald was a man of his times is not to make
apologies for views he held that are seen as unacceptable today, but simply to
accept that he was, in fact, a man of his times.
By the same token, it is important to avoid jumping on any
one quotation by Macdonald on racial equality as incontrovertible evidence of
his overall views on the subject. Even though he was broad-minded and inclusive
in his management of English-French and Protestant-Catholic relations, there is
no denying that Macdonald was, on some level, a racist. He accepted prevailing
derogatory stereotypes about racial groups, particularly Aboriginal
and Chinese
persons, and his ingrained prejudices
undoubtedly affected his policy-making towards them.
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Sir John A. Macdonald
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