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Over the last few years there has been growing attention to and discussion of the so-called militarization of policing. Unfortunately, much of this discussion poses the militarization of policing as a recent phenomenon. This paper examines policing in Canada within the context of an ongoing military practice. It shows that policing was founded on a military basis and continues to be carried out on a military basis as exemplified in the more recent developments that have raised alarm about militarization. It raises the need for a retheorization of policing within the context of capitalist social struggles and highlights some instructive recent theoretical developments toward that end. Properly understanding the police in Canada can help to contextualize and challenge current responses that are limited to reforms for police (de-militarization, de-escalation, improved training, non-lethal weaponry, etc.) or which even allow for the expansion of policing (community policing, drones, etc.). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Medical-legal partnerships bring legal services directly into clinical settings. Policy advocacy is often opportunistic and varies across partnerships. Our objective was to study policy advocacy that emerged from a medical-legal partnership in Toronto over a four-year period. This study consisted of a document review and thematic analysis, triangulated with data from interviews with legal team members and health providers. We defined policy advocacy as actions associated with attempts to change policy or legislation. The medical-legal partnership engaged in seven distinct cases of policy advocacy: disability support form requirements, changing workplace review, challenging barriers to citizenship, housing, publicly funded medication program (pharma care), safe injection sites, and the need for increased social assistance. Actions taken included presentations at conferences and submissions of briefs to government. We found that a medical-legal partnership resulted in policy advocacy with issues arising from both the health and the legal team with impacts likely greater than if each group had acted alone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canada responded to the COVID‐19 pandemic with a series of supports, including direct payments to workers displaced by public health measures. While not a true basic income, the experience highlighted a number of issues including challenges with implementation and intergovernmental relations that affected public opinion and must be dealt with by basic income advocates. The operation of the Canadian social‐liberal welfare state informed pandemic policy making and exhibited the path dependence of a deserving/undeserving binary that resulted in conditionality. The income supports associated with the pandemic represent a pragmatic response to an exogenous shock that highlights the inadequacies of existing policy and offers the possibility of change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The neoliberal era is increasingly crisis prone but the prospects for crisis-induced paradigm change remain remote. Two crises in particular, the global finance crisis (GFC) and the Covid-19 pandemic, challenged neoliberal fiscal orthodoxy and especially austerity. In 2008, as in 2020, the initial crisis response was one of fiscal stimulus to prevent economic meltdown. In 2010, this was followed by austerity policies attempting to restore neoliberal normality which had been in place since the mid-1990s. Will the same be true in the post-pandemic period? This article contrasts views of resiliency of neoliberal austerity with those who consider current crises might trigger significant policy and even paradigmatic change. We argue that demands for change have encountered an entrenched form of state austerity and concerted effort on the part of political and economic elites to return as soon as possible to neoliberal normality. Though recent crises have presented opportunities for a collapse of austerity policy systems, transformation has been limited by ideational promotion of austerity and institutionalised democratic isolation. Recent crises have been used to re-embed austerity responses as normal, once the immediate crisis is over. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social policies' responsiveness to rising inflation depends in large part on whether they contain automatic indexation mechanisms, which ensure that the real value of wages and benefits expands during inflationary periods. Here we compare how the indexation of Canadian and U.S. policies on pensions, minimum wages, and food security have affected their responsiveness to the recent cost-of-living crisis. Three main conclusions emerge from our analysis. First, automatic indexation is not necessarily a silver bullet to avoid policy drift. Second, automatic indexation and its design are not the only factors that matter to determine whether high inflation leads to policy drift. Finally, in times of higher inflation, social programs that lack automatic indexation can avoid policy drift, as long as a strong political consensus allows for ad hoc social policy expansion capable of offsetting the negative effects of inflations on social benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the relationship between federalism and the policy design of labour market policies in two liberal welfare state regimes – Canada and the United States – addressing the following research question: How do variations in policy design intersect with federalism in both countries and how can these variations provide powerful, self-reinforcing or self-undermining feedback effects over time? Combining the literatures on the varieties of federalism, the liberal welfare regime, and policy design and feedback, the paper shows that paying close attention to federalism is necessary to understand diverse national policy designs that produce self-reinforcing feedback effects over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ten-year plans to end homelessness have become common in communities across Canada, yet homelessness persists. This study brings together experts in the field of homelessness to gain insight into whether homelessness can be ended and what steps need to be taken to accomplish this. Twenty-six Canadian homelessness researchers participated in video-recorded structured interviews in the summer of 2021. They were asked whether, and how, homelessness could be ended in Canada. Interviews were transcribed and analyzed for recurring themes. There was widespread agreement across the participants that homelessness could be ended in Canada by focusing on four distinct yet related areas. First, all levels of government must be held accountable for policy decisions they make, and they must learn from other countries, such as Finland, where social welfare policies are more robustly integrated. Second, Canada must continue to implement policies and laws that prioritize housing as a human right rather than a commodity. Third, there is a need for individualized choice-based supports, following the principles of Housing First, which emphasize community integration. Finally, preventive measures must be prioritized with a focus on improved systems alignment and discharge planning between institutions. This paper does not offer a blueprint for change, recognizing the extent of public and social policies, tax restructuring, and ideological shifts that will need to occur. Rather, it provides a thoughtful reflection from researchers on where we as a nation should focus our attention if we want to end homelessness in Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

African-Canadians continue to bear the brunt of marginality and stereotyping in Canada even when various mitigating studies and programs have been initiated by the government at federal, state, and municipal levels. These stereotypes continue to affect them in informal settings and state institutions when seeking employment, housing or when in the streets, malls, schools, etc. While social justice advocates, social workers, and policy-makers focus on "Black-White" dynamics because other "racialized minorities" are also marginalized (though not equally) in Canada, it is important to note that "non-White" Canadians also contribute to the spread of historical stereotypes of African-Canadians within Canadian multiculturalism as noted in the emphasis of the city of Toronto's mitigating strategies for "anti-Black racism." Using social group position theory (SGPT) and asset-based model (ABCD), this paper argues that interrogating social group biases beyond "Black-White" binarism to encourage inter-group dialogs is important in making sure that different multicultural communities understand one another through favorable, activities-mediated, inter-group relations as opposed to having multicultural relations mediated by third parties, or not mediated at all. We also argue that African-Canadians should focus on internal strengths and only use external help to augment community initiatives to change the extant negative image. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Care work is typically undervalued and precarious. However, little is currently known about the financial outcomes of immigrant women care workers as they reach post-retirement age, or their access to effective social policy supports. Using Canada as a case example, this study analyzes the Longitudinal Immigration Database to compare the income trajectories of women aged 65–95 who entered the country via the Care Worker immigration entry class to immigrant women from two other immigration streams (one focused on higher skill economic contributions, the other on family reunification). Estimating a series of growth curve models (n = 28,775), results reveal that between 2007–2017, despite engaging in paid employment longer, Care Worker women were less able to make contributions to a private pension plan prior to retirement and more likely to depend on public pension benefits after reaching retirement age, relative to other immigrant women. Additionally, Care Worker women had lower predicted total income and experienced downward mobility during the post-retirement period. Together, the findings reinforce the importance of considering the financial circumstances of immigrant care workers as they age and highlight a need for renewed government investment in social supports to reduce inequalities tied to the gendered and racialized devaluation of low-wage caring occupations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has had broad impacts on individuals, families and communities which will continue to require multidimensional responses from service providers, program developers, and policy makers. Objectives: The purpose of this study was to use Life Course theory to understand and imagine public health and policy responses to the multiple and varied impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on different groups. Methods: "The Cost of COVID-19" was a research study carried out in Kingston, Frontenac, Lennox and Addington counties in South Eastern Ontario, Canada, between June and December 2020. Data included 210 micronarrative stories collected from community members, and 31 in-depth interviews with health and social service providers. Data were analyzed using directed content analysis to explore the fit between data and the constructs of Life Course theory. Results: Social pathways were significantly disrupted by changes to education and employment, as well as changes to roles which further altered anticipated pathways. Transitions were by and large missed, creating a sense of loss. While some respondents articulated positive turning points, most of the turning points reported were negative, including fundamental changes to relationships, family structure, education, and employment with lifelong implications. Participants' trajectories varied based on principles including when they occurred in their lifespan, the amount of agency they felt or did not feel over circumstances, where they lived (rural versus urban), what else was going on in their lives at the time the pandemic struck, how their lives were connected with others, as well as how the pandemic impacted the lives of those dear to them. An additional principle, that of Culture, was felt to be missing from the Life Course theory as currently outlined. Conclusions: A Life Course analysis may improve our understanding of the multidimensional long-term impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated public health countermeasures. This analysis could help us to anticipate services that will require development, training, and funding to support the recovery of those who have been particularly affected. Resources needed will include education, mental health and job creation supports, as well as programs that support the development of individual and community agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poor people proved especially vulnerable to economic disruption during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, which highlighted the importance of poverty reduction as a policy concern. In this article, we explore the politics of poverty reduction during the COVID-19 crisis in Canada and the United States, two liberal welfare-state regimes where poverty reduction is a key policy issue. We show that, since the beginning of the pandemic, policies likely to reduce poverty significantly have been adopted in both Canada and the United States. Yet, this poverty reduction logic has emerged in different ways in the two countries--with the United States embracing more significant departures from its policy status quo. This situation leads us to ask the following question: in each country, what are the political conditions under which public policies susceptible of reducing poverty are enacted? To answer this question, we study the politics of poverty reduction both before and during the pandemic, as we suggest that grasping the evolution of partisan and electoral patterns over time is necessary to explain what happened during the pandemic, whose impact is closely related to how it interacts with such patterns. Our analysis suggests the need to consider more carefully the impact of both crises and partisanship on social policy, including poverty reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This paper analyzes scholarly literature and the development of a nonstate food strategy in Canada, the Conference Board of Canada's Canadian Food Strategy, to explore the role of the administrative state in food policymaking. Design/methodology/approach: This research is based on an exploratory case study drawing data from 38 semistructured interviews, including elite interviews. It also draws on policy documents from the nonstate food strategy. Findings: This paper shows that various nonstate actors, including large food industry players, identify a role for the state in food policy in two ways: as a "conductor," playing a managing role in the food policy process, and as a "commander," taking control of policy development and involving nonstate actors when necessary. The complex and wicked aspects of food policy require the administrative state's involvement in food policymaking, while tamer aspects of food policy may be less state-centric. Originality/value: This paper fills gaps in studies exploring food policymaking processes as well as the administrative state's role in food policymaking in a governance era. It contributes to a better understanding of the state's role in complex and wicked policy domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Planning for aging populations has been a growing concern for policy makers across the globe. Integral to strategies for promoting healthy aging are initiatives for 'aging in place', linked to services and care that allow older people to remain in their homes and communities. Technological innovations—and especially the development of digital technologies—are increasingly presented as potentially important in helping to support these initiatives. In this study, we employed qualitative document analysis to examine and compare the discursive framing of technology in aging-in-place policy documents collected in three countries: The Netherlands, Spain, and Canada. We focus on the framing of technological interventions in relation to values such as quality of life, autonomy/independence, risk management, social inclusion, 'active aging', sustainability/efficiency of health care delivery, support for caregivers, and older peoples' rights. The findings suggest that although all three countries reflected common understandings of the challenges of aging populations, the desirability of supporting aging in place, and the appropriateness of digital technologies in supporting the latter, different value-framings were apparent. We argue that attention to making these values explicit is important to understanding the role of social policies in imagining aging futures and the presumed role of technological innovation in their enactment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the history of social policy in advanced industrial societies, the 1942 Beveridge Report stands as one of the most influential government‐sponsored reports ever published. In this article, we explore how the principles and the policy proposals formulated in the report diffused to other countries and how domestic actors adapted them to their local context through policy translation processes. The social policy ideas that Beveridge put forward in his 1942 report influenced post‐war policy debates in ways that varied greatly from country to country. To illustrate this claim, we analyse the reception and policy impact of this report over time in three different welfare states: Canada, Denmark, and France. This comparison shows how Beveridge's ideas influenced policy debates in different countries through translation processes that adapted these ideas to each country's institutional and political context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: The focus of this scoping review was to understand the overall state of research activity related to pro-arrest, pro-charge, and pro-prosecution policies in Canada. The review identified 295 articles, academic (47.5%) and gray literature (52.5%) published between 1983 and 2018 that reported on these policies as a response to domestic violence in Canada. Findings: The findings acknowledged growing concerns over the ineffectiveness of these policies as a response to domestic violence. In fact, over half of the articles (57.6%) either failed to support these policies or recommended significant revisions; only a small number of articles (1.0%) favored these policies in their current form. Themes related to the effectiveness of these policies included criminalization and public awareness, survivor satisfaction, standardized police response, removal of burden from survivor to charge, and better than nothing. Themes related to the ineffectiveness included disconnect between policy and practice, revictimizes survivors, one-size fits all approach, have not adequately reduced domestic violence in Canada, lack of understanding training and education for all, failure to address structural and systemic factors, lack of trust in the criminal justice system, and success has been difficult to measure. Applications: The deconstruction of these policies in this review points to the need for future research to address identified gaps in the literature and to explore alternatives that serve their intended emancipatory effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Research shows criminal code laws negatively affect the health and safety of sex workers and hinders their ability to access protective and other services. Less is known about sex workers' views on how to improve their occupational and broader social rights. This paper aims to help fill in this knowledge gap. Methods: In 2017, a cross-section of active sex workers (N = 60) from Victoria, Canada, were interviewed about their personal and work lives under Canada's 2014 criminal code law, Bill C-36, the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act (PCEPA). Thematic analysis was carried out using the participants' (n = 57) who answered these two open-ended questions: What changes are needed to improve health, safety and rights for sex workers? What would be your dream list of services sex workers need right now? Results: Participants recommended elimination of Canada's criminal code law governing consensual sex work, and policy change in two main areas: (1) occupational health and safety and (2) access to non-judgmental protective, health, and other community services. Conclusion: Sex workers are an important source of insight regarding the unintended consequences of the PCEPA and its stated commitment to improve their safety and ensure the protection of their occupational and social rights. Policy Implications: Consensual adult sexual commerce should be decriminalized and governed by health and social welfare policies, just as other service jobs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social policy scholarship assumes that left-wing governments favour a stronger public provision of services, while right-wing politics promote privatization, largely as a matter of ideology. Yet the findings on Canadian provinces' market-based housing instruments suggest that alternative views are possible. Left-leaning governments introduced private delivery mechanisms for economic as well as non-economic reasons. The archival research and thematic analysis of interview responses with key actors (n = 56) suggest that the introduction of housing allowances in the policy toolbox largely results from bureaucratic initiatives, regardless of the party in power. Rather than political forces or advocacy by power interests, this policy change is mostly driven by considerations of equity and efficiency on the part of officials 'muddling through'. The concept is revisited in the final discussion, where important strands of the privatization literature are challenged, as well as the political assumptions associated with the notion of users' freedom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article reports on a quantitative study of how Canadian social work educators engage in social policy practice. The first part of the article contextualises social policy in Canada, explains how social policy has been incorporated into Canadian social work education and concludes by posing the research question. The second part presents the study's findings of how and to what extent Canadian social work academics engage with social policy including its development, analysis and implementation. Thirty-one educators representing seventeen of Canada's forty schools of social work responded to a standard questionnaire used in a collection of cross-national studies. The Canadian responses were analysed to determine (1) the level and type of engagement in policy including the perceived impact on social policy and (2) the institutional and individual factors associated with their engagement. Some comparisons are made with other countries studies. The third part of the article provides overall concluding comments linking the first part with the findings of the second, speculates on the reasons for some of the findings and poses some ideas for future research. Finally, it laments the increased focus of Canadian social work on individual pathology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the shifting of responsibilities for food provision and health promotion from governments to communities or individuals/ households which also means that programs have to apply for funding every year and compete with other schools to support these programs. It discusses that schools are food hubs where regional food producers and community stakeholders work together to provide local foods to children.

Social assistance policy was developed to address the issue of poverty; however, the way in which social assistance policy is developed stems from certain assumptions about the needs of people living in poverty and how those needs should be handled. In pursuing a critical analysis of social assistance policy in Ontario Canada, the What's the Problem Represented to Be? Approach was completed. The policy of income exception was examined. Analysis showed that although income exemption provides incentives, important aspects are ignored in this policy. Sen's Capability Approach was further applied as an evaluative framework for social welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims: Income assistance is critical to the health and wellbeing of socio‐economically marginalized people who use illicit drugs (PWUD). However, past literature paradoxically identifies unintended increases in drug‐related harm coinciding with synchronized payments that may magnify signals for drug use. The scope of such harm has not been fully characterized among non‐institutionalized populations. This study examined socio‐demographic, health and drug use‐related correlates of payment‐coincident drug‐related harm. Design This observational study uses data from prospective community‐based longitudinal cohorts of PWUD between December 2013 and May 2018. Setting: Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Participants: A total of 1604 PWUD receiving monthly income assistance. Our sample included 586 (36.5%) women, 861 (53.7%) non‐white participants and 685 (42.7%) people living with HIV. Measurements The primary outcome was a self‐reported composite measure of drug‐related harm in the past 6 months coinciding with income assistance, including higher‐frequency substance use, non‐fatal overdose and service barriers or interruptions. Subanalyses disaggregated this outcome. Findings Payment‐coincident drug‐related harm was reported among 77.7% of participants during the study period. In multivariable models, key correlates positively and significantly associated with payment‐coincident harm included: street‐based income generation [adjusted odds ratio (aOR) = 1.48, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.26–1.74, P < 0.001], sex work (aOR = 1.66, 95% CI = 1.35–2.04, P < 0.001), illegal income generation (aOR = 1.57, 95% CI = 1.35–1.83 P < 0.001), homelessness (aOR = 1.34, 95% CI = 1.13–1.58, P < 0.001), exposure to violence (aOR = 1.31, 95% CI = 1.03–1.66, P = 0.032), daily crack cocaine use (aOR = 1.99, 95% CI = 1.59–2.50, P < 0.001), heavy alcohol use (aOR = 1.64, 95% CI = 1.37–1.97, P < 0.001) and injection drug use (aOR = 2.55, 95% CI = 2.01–3.23, P < 0.001). In subanalyses, specific harms were more likely among individuals reporting social, structural and health vulnerabilities. Conclusions: In Vancouver, Canada, people who use illicit drugs who receive income assistance report high prevalence of payment‐coincident drug‐related harm, particularly people experiencing socioeconomic and structural marginalization or engaging in high‐intensity drug use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canada and the United States are often grouped together as liberal welfare‐state regimes, with broadly similar levels of social spending. Yet, as the COVID‐19 pandemic reveals, the two countries engage in highly divergent approaches to social policymaking during a massive public health emergency. Drawing on evidence from the first 5 months of the pandemic, this article compares social policy measures taken by the United States and Canadian governments in response to COVID‐19. In general, we show that Canadian responses were both more rapid and comprehensive than those of the United States. This variation, we argue, can be explained by analysing the divergent political institutions, pre‐existing policy legacies, and variations in cross‐partisan consensus, which have all shaped national decision‐making in the middle of the crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To slow the transmission of COVID-19, countries around the world have implemented social distancing and stay-at-home policies—potentially leading people to rely more on household members for their sense of closeness and belonging. To understand the conditions under which people felt the most connected, we examined whether changes in overall feelings of social connection varied by household size and composition. In two pre-registered studies, undergraduates in Canada (NStudy 1 = 548) and adults primarily from the U.S. and U.K. (NStudy 2 = 336) reported their perceived social connection once before and once during the pandemic. In both studies, living with a partner robustly and uniquely buffered shifts in social connection during the first phases of the pandemic (βStudy 1 =.22, βStudy 2 =.16). In contrast, neither household size nor other aspects of household composition predicted changes in connection. We discuss implications for future social distancing policies that aim to balance physical health with psychological health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Review of Social Policy / Revue Canadienne de Politique Sociale is the property of York University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In 2014, Québec became the first province in Canada to allow medical assistance in dying (MAID) by adopting the Act Respecting End‐of‐Life Care. This was, and still is, an important policy change. It involves a singular and highly moral issue that generated debates spanning over a longer period than that specific to the law's development and adoption. Using French and English newspapers' renderings of these debates in Québec between 2005 and 2015, this study deconstructs MAID's journey in the province into four periods, each characterized by a specific narrative: flexible precaution, legal hypocrisy, accountability imperative, and ineluctable adaptation. These four narratives allow us to better understand MAID's framing process as they reveal the underlying rationales of three overarching frames covering the 2005–2015 period: the legal frame, the social progress frame, and the service provision frame. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research has long observed the absence of gender in child care policy, media, and elections. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has invoked critical questions about child care and its importance to states' economic recoveries around the world. In this research note, we analyze news coverage of child care in major Canadian daily newspapers to explore whether and how news narratives regarding child care are shifting in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, are we seeing a focus on women and gender in child care coverage amid the compounding pressures that women face in the current social and economic climate? The results of our analysis suggest that the pandemic has not shifted the conversation on child care and that current coverage principally reflects long-standing trends in child care framing. We find that gender remains systematically written out of coverage of child care, occluded by a larger focus on health-, economic-, and accessibility-related concerns about child care services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Globalization and changes in production and knowledge processes have greatly affected contemporary societies. Structural inequalities in distance education have triggered the discussion on the inclusion of minority groups. Believing in education as a public right, the objective of this study was to analyze inclusive educational policies and its intersectoriality with social policies by comparing two countries: Brazil and Canada. Methodologically, this is a Comparative Education study that examined policies aimed at people with disabilities, such as normative documents regarding special education and a set of social policies. Brazil has increased social policies and school inclusion, but the current political moment has been a setback to school exclusion, decreasing social policies. Canada, on the other hand, has ensured inclusive social and educational policies, despite facing political and economic challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Government officials like the idea of just a small number of households in their respective jurisdiction receiving social assistance. A large number is seen as costly to the public treasury, and declining caseloads are generally viewed as a mark of success for both the economy and the government of the day. But what factors account for the size of a Canadian province's social assistance caseload? This article aims to shed light on this question, with a focus on single adults without dependants (and without serious disabilities) during the 1989–2017 period. One important finding is that when the value of social assistance benefit levels for this group increases by 1% in a province, the social assistance caseload for this demographic rises by 0.457%. Put differently, there is indeed an important behavior response associated with higher benefit levels. In response, we propose that provincial officials budget for higher take up levels when they increase benefit levels for this household group. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Both Canada and the United States are considered liberal welfare states, yet exhibit notable differences in income poverty attributed to social policy. While a more generous welfare system lifts many above income poverty, models of household financial behaviour suggest that more income from the state should displace private savings via a substitution effect. Using nationally representative wealth surveys from Canada and the US from 1998/1999 to 2016 we extend knowledge on the relationship between the welfare state and private wealth accumulation. Specifically, we study household asset poverty defined as financial asset levels that fall below three‐month adjusted income poverty threshold. Asset poverty rates varied over time in the two countries and were higher in the less generous US welfare state. Further, income transfer share was positively related to asset poverty in Canada but not in the US. Counterfactual estimates offered evidence of the substitution effect in Canada, where higher levels of transfers may crowd out private asset accumulation. Results invite further consideration of the concept of asset poverty and its relationship to welfare state characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Review of Social Policy / Revue Canadienne de Politique Sociale is the property of York University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

This article examines the impact of the two world wars on welfare legislation in 16 western countries. We use Poisson regressions to test our hypothesis that war was a catalyst of welfare legislation, especially in countries that were heavily exposed to the dreadful effects of war. By welfare legislation, we mean the inaugural adoption and major reforms across four programmes (old age and disability benefits, sickness and maternity benefits, unemployment compensation and family allowances). Our findings suggest that both world wars are key factors for explaining the timing of comprehensive welfare reforms and outweigh the significance of other factors such as regime type or level of economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Social participation benefits health. We assessed the relationship between self-reported visual impairment (VI) and glaucoma versus seniors’ social participation. Methods: Data from individuals aged ≥65 years responding to the Canadian Community Health Survey Healthy Aging 2008/2009 (n = 16,369) was analyzed. Participation in eight social activities by seniors with and without self-reported VI or glaucoma was compared. Results: Seniors with VI had significantly reduced participation (p<0.05) in sports/physical activities (18.0% vs. 33.6%), family/friendship activities outside the household (39.7% vs. 53.0%), service club/fraternal organization activities (11.4% vs. 18.4%), volunteer/charity work (13.4% vs. 24.9%), educational/cultural activities (16.2% vs. 24.5%), and other social recreational activities (21.6% vs. 31.0%) compared to those without VI. Differences in participation in church/religious activities (40.6% vs. 44.5%) and community/professional association activities (15.3% vs. 18.0%) were non-significant between seniors with and without VI. Seniors with glaucoma versus those without had significantly reduced participation (p<0.05) in family/friendship activities (46.6% vs. 52.9%), sports/physical activities (26.0% vs. 33.6%) and volunteer/charity work (20.4% vs. 24.9%). No participation in any social activity was significantly higher among seniors with VI versus those without (10.1% vs. 2.9%, p<0.05), but was similar among seniors with and without glaucoma (3.9% vs. 3.1%, p>0.05). After adjusting for the effects of age, sex, education, household income, ethnicity, job status and chronic diseases (adjusted odds ratio, aOR = 3.4 (95% confidence interval (CI) 2.0–5.8), seniors with VI but no glaucoma were more likely not to engage in any social activities compared to seniors without VI and no glaucoma. Seniors with glaucoma but without VI had a similar level of non-participation (aOR = 0.9, 95%% CI 0.5–1.7). Conclusions: Significantly reduced social participation was found across six community activities among seniors with self-reported VI and in three activities among those with self-reported glaucoma. Policies and programs that help seniors with VI or glaucoma engage in social activities are needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Review of Social Policy / Revue Canadienne de Politique Sociale is the property of York University and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this article, I argue inclusive policy research using “big data” that is informed by matricentric feminist values can yield analysis and recommendations that will be empowering for mothers. Drawing on my experience as a feminist legal scholar and my developing interest in social policy as a means to achieve justice for mothers and other carers, I contend that legal challenges to advance equality for mothers have not been as successful as early assessments might have predicted. Instead, I explore how an inclusive team approach to the kind of social problems that make life difficult for many mothers in Canada could yield better policy that brings them closer to equality. I describe a policy research partnership that includes public servants and community groups as well as academics, informed by an intersectional approach. The partnership will make use of administrative data in Manitoba to explore social policy challenges, including affected community members and public servants from all relevant departments from the outset, ensuring that the questions that are explored reflect the real needs of the people the policies are intended to serve. With two examples of previous research, I illustrate how mother-focused recommendations can flow from the kind of big data available in Manitoba. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a vast social policy literature on how Canada and the United States share key characteristics associated with the liberal welfare regime such as significant reliance on both social assistance and tax-subsidized private benefits and services. Yet, a closer look at these two countries points to key differences in areas such as fiscal federalism, health care, old-age pensions, and family benefits. This special issue of the Journal of Comparative and International Social Policy looks at recent social policy developments in Canada and the United States in ways that further illustrate the broad similarities, but also the key cross-national differences in policy design and real-world consequences, between these two countries. This Introduction explains why Canada and the United States are "unidentical twins" in social policy before discussing the contributions comprising this special issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Poverty reduction strategies (PRS) have become a popular instrument for addressing poverty globally. According to their proponents, PRS focus and coordinate poverty reduction efforts in order to overcome traditional economic and socio-demographic obstacles and reduce poverty unconditionally. According to their detractors, however, governments use PRS as 'window dressing' to gloss over unsuccessful and/or partial poverty reduction efforts. In Canada, all ten provinces have committed to adopting PRS. In this study, I identify the timing of the introduction of PRS action plans and explore whether they have tended to coincide with changes in provincial poverty levels. I find that more often than not levels have actually dropped before rather than after the introduction of PRS. This suggests that governments may have indeed used PRS as window dressing - but to showcase and claim credit for poverty reduction successes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canadian immigration policies went through numerous changes under the Conservative party leadership of Stephen Harper from 2006 to 2015. This article provides an empirical account of immigration policy change during this era and suggests that of state-centred venue shopping can effectively account for the Harper's immigration record. In particular, it documents the ways in which immigration policies have expanded into international and regional venues, opened new venues to non-state actors, further decentralized into subnational venues and reinvested into traditional administrative and executive venues for policy making. The analysis suggests that the redeployment of the state into new and expanding venues aims to demonstrate state capacity and legitimacy as a nodal actor in immigration policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Worldwide concern about the social and human impact of modern business activity is reflected in recent surveys of corporate social performance in three important industrial countries-Germany, France, and Canada. These studies reveal important similarities in corporate social concern, as well as sharp distinctions among them and comparisons with U.S. experience. The results help indicate trends in business and society relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monthly administrative data on welfare recipients in Ontario, Canada, are used to examine the propensity to leave welfare permanently with time spent on welfare. Nonparametric hazard models with parametric and nonparametric frailty assumptions are used to control for the effects of individual, family, community, and labour market factors as well as for unobserved population heterogeneity. The pattern of declining hazards with time, which is consistent with the duration dependency hypothesis, is most prominent among single childless men but less clearly evident among single mothers and single childless women. Policy implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historical accounts of the business response to basic income proposals imply that employer attitudes have been mixed. In the 1970s and 1980s, when an array of basic income schemes was proposed, some groups were supportive and others were opposed. This paper shows that, in a number of high-profile proposals in Canada and the US, behind the apparent dissensus among business groups lays a consensus stance against universalistic and unconditional guaranteed income schemes. The disagreement among business groups comes down to either (1) a basic misunderstanding of proposal details, or (2) the fact that the policy itself can take on a wide range of concrete forms. To the extent that business has exhibited support for guaranteed income policies, the actual policies in question tended to be "two-tiered" rather than unitary, selective rather than universal, and miserly rather than generous. The income maintenance policies that garnered some support among business groups would all include explicit or implicit work requirements for "able-bodied" adults. By contrast, generous, unconditional guaranteed income policies that reduce workers' market dependence-namely, those that basic income advocates find desirable-found no audience in business circles. I close by exploring the mechanisms underlying the impact of basic income on bargaining relationships in the labour market and comment on the promises and pitfalls of a social policy that continues to be highly malleable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contemporary liberal education owes its existence to various educational ideas and pedagogical formulas that emerged from the 18th century intellectual movement known as the Enlightenment. Many Enlightenment conceptions, principles, and practices such as public schooling, equality of opportunity, freedom of expression, critical thinking, scientific methodology, empiricism, and rationality constitute the backbone of current liberal education. Despite this, in recent years, most of these Enlightenment legacies have come into sharp contrast with neoliberalization policies and practices that are plaguing the contemporary educational domains, in general, and the field of higher education, in particular. To what extent are the current institutions of higher learning able to cope with the onslaught of neoliberalization policies and practices? This article explores this question by juxtaposing relevant educational and pedagogical conceptions of the Enlightenment against some of the contemporary challenges and struggles in the field of education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The story of institutional law reform in Canada has been described by one veteran as 'somewhat troubling.' It is a story not without significant successes: In Québec civil law, the codifications were remarkable achievements which realised sweeping and highly-esteemed reforms. Among Canadian common law provinces, Ontario founded the Commonwealth's first law reform commission in 1964, and as early as 1967 Alberta innovated the now internationally-influential joint venture design of its commission. Further, Canada's original national commission was notable for its ambitious pursuit of social issues, and the second national commission challenged conventional legal paradigms at unparalleled depth. Across the country, many law commissions were established. Yet, what is 'troubling' is how many, including long-established and prominent commissions, were since closed or constrained, impeded from accomplishing what they might have. Meanwhile, in Québec civil law, the codifiers' repeated calls for a permanent commission have gone unheeded. What does the future hold for institutional law reform in Canada? In Québec civil law, there are some signs of movement towards reform continuity. An important question will be whether processes of continuous incremental reform can be developed and managed to alleviate reliance on overwhelming legal overhauls. Elsewhere in Canada, a few Canadian provinces that shuttered commissions have since re-established them in altered forms. The common themes of austerity, ideology, and alleged redundancy in the downfall of past Canadian commissions remain an ever present concern to the survivors, as they simultaneously confront newly emerging challenges. Time will tell whether, because of their experience in reforming themselves in response to their troubling story to date, Canada's law commissions may be best-positioned to meet institutional law reform's challenges of the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since their inception in the mid-1800s, Indigenous-oriented welfare policies in Canada have presupposed and entailed a racialized subject: the "lazy Indian." This paper highlights continuities in how Indigenous peoples have been constructed in Canadian welfare policy discourse from 1867 to the present. Through this historical overview, we trace the emergence and recurrence of ethical tropes of "productive" and "unproductive" citizens, which effectively cast Indigenous peoples as non-workers and therefore undeserving of welfare relief. Our analysis indicates that further reform of welfare policies for Canada's First Nations must first puncture the persistent myth of the "lazy Indian" in order to attend to the lasting legacy of colonial dispossession and governance, contemporary barriers to self-sufficiency, and ongoing struggles for politico-economic sovereignty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The percentage of the elderly poor has begun to rise in Canada, with single elderly women with limited familial supports and immigrants representing the most vulnerable. Rising poverty is associated with shorter average life spans, and greater risk of illness and disability, more family stress and greater physical, psychological and social illness. The accumulation of poor health, lack of housing, rising unemployment, and lack of family care providers creates a series of interconnected issues requiring a new policy dialogue be opened up about understanding and resisting the variegated forms of inequality in later life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One of the promises of the Canada Health Act is portability-the principle of equitable access to health services wherever you live. Services for young children in northern and rural communities are structured with a one-size-fits-all funding model that inadvertently disadvantages lower population density areas. We use a socio-cultural approach to explore the barriers to access to rural early childhood services. With data from two research projects that each covered diverse rural contexts, we focused on service providers' and parents' experiences in accessing early intervention and early development programs and services for children with typical development, and those with developmental delay and/or diagnosed disabilities. The results affirm the value of rural and small town life and provide information for developing a more effective rural service delivery model for families with children with typical and atypical development. We demonstrate the way providers and parents make rural services work through 'relational functionality.' Parents and service providers rely on key community agents to help organize and innovate collaborative solutions to address lack of access to information, intermodal travel demands, and administrative divides. In short, we confirm an urbanistic policy bias in the per capita funding model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay argues that theories relating to the spending power theory could be enhanced by an application of the principle of subsidiarity. Subsidiarity shares a number of attributes with federalism and allows for a conception of spending power as a flexible tool of governance of the welfare state. This essay links social and economic development with Canadian constitutional design by advocating for the use of the principle of subsidiarity when analyzing governmental action in the context of social policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canada’s old age security (OAS), a flat-benefit public pension, is internationally lauded as an accessible and effective safety net for seniors. This paper explores discrepancies in OAS uptake using Canadian Census data from 1996 to 2011. Our findings demonstrate disparities in OAS uptake based on immigration status, language proficiency, and visible minority status, disputing claims of “universal” OAS provision. Multivariate analyses confirm a strong “immigrant effect,” with being in Canada for 20 years or less leading to lower rates of OAS utilization. They also confirm that those not proficient in Canada’s official languages are less likely to receive OAS benefits. However, the influence of racialized minority status is found to be spurious; after controlling for immigration status and official language proficiency, many racialized minority senior groups have higher odds of receiving OAS than White Canadians. We conclude with a brief discussion of the tradeoffs involved in considering a potential removal of OAS eligibility barriers for immigrants in Canada. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]