The Parkland Institute

Gender inequality to blame for low wages of Calgary women

Income disparity harms families and can prevent women from leaving abusive situations

Last December, for the first time in three years, Statistics Canada reported an increase in the number of Calgarians failing to earn a living wage. The study found that since 2008, 7,300 more women and 600 more men are low-wage earners. Women now make up almost two-thirds of the 65,000 low-wage earners in Calgary and 65 per cent of these female low-wage earners are over 20 years of age. But women’s low wages should not be understood as a 'woman’s issue,' but rather as something that negatively affects us all. Read more...

Healthcare

Profit before people

Manufactured health-care "crisis" designed to justify privatization

Right-wing government officials are aware that the vast majority of Canadians view public health care as a sacred cow that is not to be messed with. However, this doesn’t prevent them from making every effort to gradually whittle away public health-care benefits. Since each province decides which procedures are “medically necessary,” there is considerable discrepancy in the extent of coverage between provinces.

Environment

At least it’s a start?

The legislative foundations for protecting Species at Risk in Alberta

If provinces are expected to take the lead role in protecting endangered species, what has Alberta done? The divorce of management decisions from scientific assessments of species’ health is a recurring theme in wildlife management in Alberta. Read more...

Energy

OPEC and the Alberta Advantage

Excerpt from No Free Lunch and Other Myths

Albertans are inclined to believe their unique prosperity was built on free-market principles, a comforting myth, more fable than fact. Government interference in the marketplace, has, from Diefenbaker to OPEC, been the best thing that ever happened to Alberta, providing the province with a fsumptuous proportions. Read more...

International

El Salvador election offers glimpse of a democratic future

Voters choose left-wing government, ending 20-year reign of right-wing party ARENA

On March 21, members of the Edmonton Salvadoran community and supporters heard Salvadoran Guillermo Denaux analyze the political and economic situation of his country. The victory of the FMLN and Funes’ stirring speech calling for reconciliation and the creation of a society that cares for the poor lifted hearts heavy with 30 years of repression, but what about the next days, weeks, months, years?

Book review

A Gift of Grace illuminates schizophrenia’s impact on families

In A Gift of Grace (Upside Publishing and Productions, 2008), author Bea Weatherly shows her courage in revealing a secret that most would hide in shame. The Calgary author, who raised her family in a small Alberta town, is the mother of a son with schizophrenia who spent years coming to terms with the disorder and liberating herself from its stigma. At the start of her journey, Weatherly was a public school teacher raising three children together with her husband in small town Alberta. As time unfolds, Weatherly's idyllic life is turned upside down, as her son, Edward, battles both schizophrenia and substance abuse. Read more...