Canada treats it Women as Bad as India does

WOMEN are losing the battle of the sexes in terms of earning power, despite being better educated than ever and more literate than men in Canada. The report by Statistics Canada paints a sometimes grim picture of the lives of Canadian women, an increasingly educated group that it says experiences higher rates of poverty and disability and lower rates of pay than its male counterpart. The report, released on the eve of International Women's Day, says the vast number of working women -- 67% -- remain employed in 2004 in such so-called pink-ghetto areas as health, education and sales and service. The figure was unchanged from a decade earlier. As for women in senior management, they are a shrinking breed. The percentage of female senior managers dropped to 22% in 2004 from 27% in 1996. The latest figure puts the rate of female senior managers back to where it was almost two decades ago.

Yet the war against feminism hasn't been as successful in Canada as in the United States, where abortion rights under pressure from the conservatives and neo conservatives are under renewed attack. But there are echoes in the recent child-care debate here of old antagonisms. The significant number of mothers of young children who are in the workforce has direct impact on the child-care.  It confirms that the stay-at-home moms Prime Minister Stephen Harper is targeting with his $1,200 family allowance are a distinct minority. By 2004 65% of all women with children fewer than three were working for pay, more than double the proportion in 1976. And 70% of women with kids aged three to five worked in 2004, up from 37% 30 years ago. Clearly, the enduring pink-collar ghetto has its advantages: for many mothers of young children -- part-time work, or jobs with forgiving hours, like teaching, are preferable to running a bank, say, or running for Parliament. There aren't a lot of moms, or dads, who can afford to stay home full-time to take care of the kids. And an extra $100 a month isn't going to make it attractive.

Canadian women are punished for staying home and caring for sick family members. National Council of Women calls this "coerced volunteerism" remains a giant hurdle to gender equality. It blames employers and governments for affecting these women in taxation penalties, decreased pensions and incomes.  Canada claiming itself to be a great welfare state should look to European countries such as Norway and Sweden.

Day Care suffers Setback in Ontario

ESSEX County council is asking Windsor to go slow with its plans for hundreds of new child care spaces in the region. The Conservative government has said it will tear up agreements made by the former Liberal government to spend billions for long-term day care funding, preferring to give a $1,200 annual credit to parents, which jeopardizes Ontario plans for the Best Start program, that would have seen creation of 660 spaces over the next three years. Windsor operates publicly funded day care in the city and county. Under the five-year deal reached last November with the federal Liberals, Ontario was to receive $1.9 billion for about 25,000 new spaces. The region was to receive $30 million by March 2008 to create the new spaces as well as neighbourhood parent-resource centers. So far, $8 million has been received for 240-day care spaces at 11 elementary schools in the city and county.

Racism and Pollution Issues for the Voters

Racism, roadways and the state of the province's natural environment are some of the issues on the minds of Saskatchewan residents. According to a national poll conducted for CanWest by Ipsos-Reid that asked broad questions about respondents' communities, found 21 per cent of people polled in a region comprising of Saskatchewan and Manitoba agreed with the statement: "Racial and ethnic intolerance is a serious problem in the community." It was the highest percentage in Canada, with Quebec, Ontario and Alberta tying for second with 13 per cent. Morley Watson, vice-chief of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations, was not surprised by the result.

British Columbia housing markets will "cool off and level out" this year as the fifth Bank of Canada interest-rate hike in the past six months has created conditions that dampen economic growth. The central bank boosted its trend-setting rate by a quarter-point to 3.75%, causing chartered banks to increase the prime-lending rate to 5.5%, and some also hiked variable-rate mortgages by a quarter point. Credit Union Central expects 2006 housing sales will be similar to last year, although rising interest rates will reduce house-price increases this year.  B.C. house prices are expected to rise by about 10% this year, down from 14% or 15% in 2005.

Retired Supreme Court Judge is to consult with Air India families. A press release from Prime Minister Harper’s office said Justice John Major "will consult with the families on what they believe would be the most expeditious process to address both their concerns and the outstanding questions" raised by the acquittal of two suspects last year.

Fifteen years passed between the explosions and the laying of charges against B.C. residents Ajaib Singh Bagri and Ripudaman Singh Malik in October 2000. Bagri and Malik were acquitted in March 2005, after a judge ruled that the Crown's case against them was too weak. Inderjit Singh Reyat is serving a five-year sentence after pleading guilty to a charge of manslaughter for his role in acquiring materials to build the bomb that killed 329 people on board the 1985 flight.

Harper’s Relations with Media Sour

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's relationship with the national news media is heading downhill - or at least downstairs. The parliamentary press corps heckled the new Conservative prime minister last fortnight after instituting a new policy designed to restrict access to the leader and his executive following weekly cabinet meetings. In one of Parliament Hill's more raucous rituals, dozens of reporters await the end of closed-door cabinet sessions in the third-floor corridor of Centre Block As ministers leave the cabinet room through one of two passages, a universal microphone is set up should they choose to field questions from the media gauntlet. Now Harper has decreed the whole process should take place one floor below, where he can strike a more formal pose behind a lectern in the Commons foyer - while providing a multitude of side escapes for cabinet ministers who want to avoid questions about their portfolios. With access to Harper's cabinet already noose-tight, reporters are naturally crying foul.

Shortage of Skilled People hits Mining in Canada

Michael McPhie, president of the British Columbia Mining Association has warned the industry that unless something can be done to solve the growing labour shortage, companies would find themselves unable to reap the full benefit of what is widely regarded as the biggest boom in the industry in three decades. The industry is worried about the skills shortage has come up with some solutions. Universities are getting more funding to beef up their mining faculties, trade schools are bulking up and many companies are putting more effort into hiring women, who currently account for about 13% of mining employees, compared with 47% in the rest of the Canadian workforce. Yet these are still not enough. Another possible solution is immigration, but the industry says more needs to be done to attract those with the right skills. Parkash Joshi, a senior technologist at engineering services giant Amec, says government and industry need to work together to help immigrant professionals make the transition to the right positions in Canada. Many immigrant professionals find themselves faced with bureaucratic hurdles as soon as they set foot in the country. Typically, the difficulties start with trying to persuade Canadian professional associations to recognize their qualifications. The danger is some of these highly skilled immigrants will become frustrated and move to another country, perhaps the United States, where they feel they have better opportunities.