When the head of a family is cut off from social assistance for punitive reasons the entire family suffers. LEAF, a national organization that promotes equality rights for women and girls hopes to change that through the Nova Scotia judicial system.
Brenda Thompson was a welfare activist in Halifax in the eighties. Being a single mom who spoke her mind rather than know her place, she became the target of vicious attacks by the then minister of social services Edmund Morris. But Morris went too far, she took him to court, and won. We talk to Thompson about an especially vibrant period in Nova Scotia welfare activism, the strong support of the feminist movement, Alexa, journalism, slut shaming, and lots more.
Kendall Worth on wanting to help people who live in poverty. If only he could make all the pieces of the puzzle fit together.
The Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission has denied five welfare recipients the opportunity to argue that insufficient funding for special diets amounts to discrimination.
A new report by FoodARC confirms what people on social assistance or making minimum wage have always known. Being poor means going hungry or being undernourished.
A Community Services presentation suggests that the proposed revamp of social assistance may result in some clients receiving less than they do now. Not to worry, it’s only a scenario for consideration, says the department.
Kendall explains why he is so upset that a caseworker is allowed to question and override the special diet recommendation of his doctor. “It portrays people like me as sick, defective and deviant, as an object of professional intervention.”
People now are allowed a bit more money while still qualifying for income assistance. That’s progress, but it turns out that until 2001 people living with disabilities and their families were allowed to bring in a whole lot more.
Sometimes two EpiPens per year isn’t enough when your daughter has a life threatening allergy. That’s what this letter from a mom on welfare is about.
MLA Larry Harrison believes Nova Scotia should hire people on income assistance to pick up garbage and cut brush along the highways. Kendall Worth, who is on welfare himself, believes Larry Harrison doesn’t know welfare from a hole in the ground, and that he should resign.