This thought provoking course took me on a journey of reflection, honesty, spirituality, truth, friendship, compassion, insight, failure, emotion, awareness, respect and collaborative teamwork.
Social Welfare in Canada is a philosophical concept, a set of principles to achieve solutions to social problems, a product of legislative documents that prescribe how income security and social services are to be administered, and a process that encompasses change and a framework for action.
This course opens a window into different facets of social issues experienced by the Canadian population. I truly enjoyed the Aboriginal content of the course and the group work associated with older adults in Canada. The opportunity to develop my own voice, to research and critically think in order to highlight the array of social issues impacting senior citizens specific to First Nations at the community level.
As I come from a social housing background, I was intrigued with the lecture by guest speaker, Linda Savory-Gordon with regard to the Social Welfare Theory. As I retain an Aboriginal worldview, it provided insight as to the different political ideologies underlining how other people view the world and how those ideologies impact on Canadian Politics in particularly, legislation specific to social welfare. Linda’s passion for a project that she is working on externally regarding the railway also sparked my attention as she mentioned that this was the only second time in history that the government required an Environmental Site Assessment, so I asked her simply out of curiosity, what was the first and she advised “ Ipperwash” .
The Ipperwash crisis is a sad piece within our history with the Ontario Government as it resulted in the shooting of Dudley George regarding a controversial land dispute. Former “Progressive Conservative” Premier, Mike Harris gained notoriety for his lack of leadership amongst other things. This piece led into a conversation with Linda in class about the former premier, Mr. Harris and how I recalled that he was instrumental in the “Common Sense Revolution” and how that key political slogan and neo liberal document influenced how Ontario works is delivered today in our society. This also contributed to the dismantling of the Welfare State from 1995 until 2002.
The importance of the history of social welfare, and the English Poor Laws was another insightful presentation that I enjoyed as it took you to the beginning to where it all began and how those laws are still relevant today. The deserving poor and the undeserving poor that was rooted within the “Statute of Labourers”. It is a fundamental premise of income security.
This was a rich learning experience as I gained tremendous respect for my fellow classmates as they were my audience through the blogging assignment. The exchange of our knowledge and research surpassed my expectations. It also provided a vehicle to advocate for those individuals who don’t have a voice and to bring forth awareness for those critical social issues, such as Caregiver support, Elder abuse and the prescription pill epidemic, the Social Determinants of Health and the relationship to poverty and diabetes, and the inequality of substandard living conditions on reserve.
Miigwetch,
Janet
REFERENCES
Hick, S. (2007). Social Welfare in Canada: Understanding Income Security (2nd ed.) Thompson Educational Publishing, INC.: Toronto, Canada
No comments:
Post a Comment