Fredericton mayor says he's changed since refusing to declare Pride Week in '90s
NEW BRUNSWICK / A decade ago, Brad Woodside said 'sex had no place in the council chambers'
Nick Logan / National / Monday, June 29, 2009
MAYOR'S PROCLAMATION. Brad Woodside declares Pride Week in Fredericton, free of controversy and with cheers and applause from the crowd at the Jun 22 council meeting.
(Nick Logan photo)
"Whereas the proclamation of Gay Pride Week recognizes an aspect of diversity that any healthy community would want to embrace ... I do declare June 22 to June 28 to be Gay Pride Week, a celebration of the wonderful diversity of Fredericton that includes the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered community."
Living in Fredericton during the late 1990s, the queer community would not have imagined Mayor Brad Woodside reading those words, with a smile on his face.
Eleven years ago, he said declaring Pride Week didn't represent "what the community is all about and what would be accepted by the community."
The mayor say he has gone through a "personal maturation" process, adding that he has come to appreciate the diversity in his city's population.
"We change with time," Woodside said, in a telephone interview, "and change is for the better."
A former president of Fredericton Lesbians and Gays (FLAG) says the mayor's change of heart is legitimate. The work of activists, more than a decade ago, Adrian Park says, has made it possible for this week's celebrations to go off with support, rather than backlash.
Fredericton was a closeted town before the controversy over Pride erupted and those in the closet often "sniped" at the activists for making it harder to live a secretive life, he says.
Park spoke about the history of the gay rights movement last Monday, as a part of a Pride Week lecture series, following the proclamation at city council. The local gay community's fight for recognition figures prominently in the Canadian movement.
After years of rebuffs from City Hall, three members of FLAG in 1998 brought the mayor before a provincial human rights tribunal. Even though the city always had a large gay population — being a university and government town — the notion of Pride was cause for a heated, often nasty, debate.
At the time Woodside argued his faith and his right to freedom of speech exempted him from having to proclaim Pride Week, and that "sex had no place in the council chambers."
Support, and contempt, for his stance poured in from across the country. The Daily Gleaner, Fredericton's mainstream newspaper, published numerous letters on the issue, some even suggesting that Pride Week would pave the way for "Pedophile Week." One property owner put a billboard on his land with the words "Honk if you're straight."
Ken Spragg, 30, has seen the progression the city has made since those days. He was a university student during that period and is happy to now see a rainbow flag raised over downtown, without a fight. Fredericton's change was slow, he says, but people have come to realize that everyone knows someone who is gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered.
"I think by being visible," he says, "by not hiding, it's an open invitation for people to get to know us and come to respect us."
Capital City Pride — organized by PJ Spencer and Sarah McAdam — is an all-inclusive community event. The week's events culminated with a Random Acts of Kindness day, in lieu of a parade.
Park, who was happy organizers consulted with former FLAG members for the events, thinks this sort of finale serves as a good "small town approach" to encouraging unity in the city.
Capital City Pride.
Capital City Pride Facebook page.
Tags: brad woodside, flag, fredericton, new brunswick, pride
Monday, July 6, 2009
NB teachers working to combat homophobia in schools
New Brunswick teachers working to combat homophobia in schools
EDUCATION / But they're not getting much help from the provincial Department of Education
Nick Logan / National / Friday, June 26, 2009
No more pencils. No more books. No more dirty, homophobic looks.
As New Brunswick schools close their doors for summer, a group of teachers are beginning work to end homophobia in the hallways.
During a recent New Brunswick Teachers Association (NBTA) sponsored workshop called Creating Allies for Gay Youth, high school teacher Shawn Corey stood up amongst his colleagues and asked what was going to happen next.
"You go to these things and nothing practical ever comes out of it," he says.
The Fredericton-native, now teaching at Sir James Dunn Academy in St Andrews, wants to see gay-straight alliances (GSA) and anti-homophobia education in the province's middle and high schools. He suggested — to the crowd at the one-day conference — that a steering committee form and put words into action.
The committee had its first meeting at the end of May and while plans for incorporating anti-homophobia education into school programs are still in the early stages, by this time next year, the group wants to see a two-day conference for both students and teachers, forming an interactive network of GSAs around the province.
The NBTA, says Corey, is fully supportive and intends to hold a second workshop mid-autumn.
The Department of Education unfortunately has not put the same support behind the cause, says conference organizer Richard Blaquiere.
He acknowledges there are individuals within the department who are helpful and encouraging of such initiatives, however, when it comes to officially endorsing such a project, they claim this work falls outside of their mandate.
"The department has one thing on its mind," he says, "improving scores in literacy and math and if something doesn't fit into their clearly defined niche ... it's not considered for financing."
Government funding already goes out to for native studies programs, support for children with special needs, but not for the needs gay and lesbian kids, he says. "They should care for all children."
Lack of money from the province hasn't stopped him from making changes at his school, says the Woodstock High social studies teacher. He's been offering lessons on gay rights, with the backing of his district, since 2003, when he also started a GSA for his students.
Corey sees Blaquiere's success in this area as an inspiration for the work he and other teachers are now striving to do.
His own ambitious efforts over the last year at Sir James Dunn Academy are an example of how the education system can put an end to ignorance and hatred. He organized a professional development workshop, informing his co-workers about the need for a more gay-friendly atmosphere. He instructed classes in all grades about tolerance and acceptance and he recently coordinated the school's Week Against Homophobia.
Along with the support of Principal David O'Leary, and the 15-member teaching staff, Corey has made homophobia "uncool."
From May 19 to 22, students in all grades decorated the school in rainbow colours, sold Pride cookies and pins, watched documentaries and listened to speeches. The Week against Homophobia activities were endorsed by the school's student council, and the senior boys' rugby team even participated in the rainbow flag ceremony.
"The expectation from the young people in our school," he says, "is that you don't say homophobic things: through the youngest grades right through to the older grades, both boys and girls."
This is a marked difference from the start of school last fall, when calling someone a "fag" was a regular occurrence. The new queer-positive atmosphere, he says, has encouraged a few students to come out to their classmates, just in the last few weeks.
Things have changed greatly since Corey was a student at Fredericton High School, in the late 1980s.
"It's night and day," he says. "As a teacher or a student you would have never dreamt of saying you want to start a gay-straight alliance."
There is an increasing number of GSAs throughout the province, he says, including the one at his school.
Tags: education, gay-straight alliances, homophobia, new brunswick, schools, youth
EDUCATION / But they're not getting much help from the provincial Department of Education
Nick Logan / National / Friday, June 26, 2009
No more pencils. No more books. No more dirty, homophobic looks.
As New Brunswick schools close their doors for summer, a group of teachers are beginning work to end homophobia in the hallways.
During a recent New Brunswick Teachers Association (NBTA) sponsored workshop called Creating Allies for Gay Youth, high school teacher Shawn Corey stood up amongst his colleagues and asked what was going to happen next.
"You go to these things and nothing practical ever comes out of it," he says.
The Fredericton-native, now teaching at Sir James Dunn Academy in St Andrews, wants to see gay-straight alliances (GSA) and anti-homophobia education in the province's middle and high schools. He suggested — to the crowd at the one-day conference — that a steering committee form and put words into action.
The committee had its first meeting at the end of May and while plans for incorporating anti-homophobia education into school programs are still in the early stages, by this time next year, the group wants to see a two-day conference for both students and teachers, forming an interactive network of GSAs around the province.
The NBTA, says Corey, is fully supportive and intends to hold a second workshop mid-autumn.
The Department of Education unfortunately has not put the same support behind the cause, says conference organizer Richard Blaquiere.
He acknowledges there are individuals within the department who are helpful and encouraging of such initiatives, however, when it comes to officially endorsing such a project, they claim this work falls outside of their mandate.
"The department has one thing on its mind," he says, "improving scores in literacy and math and if something doesn't fit into their clearly defined niche ... it's not considered for financing."
Government funding already goes out to for native studies programs, support for children with special needs, but not for the needs gay and lesbian kids, he says. "They should care for all children."
Lack of money from the province hasn't stopped him from making changes at his school, says the Woodstock High social studies teacher. He's been offering lessons on gay rights, with the backing of his district, since 2003, when he also started a GSA for his students.
Corey sees Blaquiere's success in this area as an inspiration for the work he and other teachers are now striving to do.
His own ambitious efforts over the last year at Sir James Dunn Academy are an example of how the education system can put an end to ignorance and hatred. He organized a professional development workshop, informing his co-workers about the need for a more gay-friendly atmosphere. He instructed classes in all grades about tolerance and acceptance and he recently coordinated the school's Week Against Homophobia.
Along with the support of Principal David O'Leary, and the 15-member teaching staff, Corey has made homophobia "uncool."
From May 19 to 22, students in all grades decorated the school in rainbow colours, sold Pride cookies and pins, watched documentaries and listened to speeches. The Week against Homophobia activities were endorsed by the school's student council, and the senior boys' rugby team even participated in the rainbow flag ceremony.
"The expectation from the young people in our school," he says, "is that you don't say homophobic things: through the youngest grades right through to the older grades, both boys and girls."
This is a marked difference from the start of school last fall, when calling someone a "fag" was a regular occurrence. The new queer-positive atmosphere, he says, has encouraged a few students to come out to their classmates, just in the last few weeks.
Things have changed greatly since Corey was a student at Fredericton High School, in the late 1980s.
"It's night and day," he says. "As a teacher or a student you would have never dreamt of saying you want to start a gay-straight alliance."
There is an increasing number of GSAs throughout the province, he says, including the one at his school.
Tags: education, gay-straight alliances, homophobia, new brunswick, schools, youth
Fredericton hosts its first Pride
Fredericton hosts its first Pride
PRIDE / Week includes flag raising, sports events and bar nights
PRIDE FOR EVERYONE. The two-person organization team of PJ Spencer and Sarah McAdam have created Pride 2009 events so no one feels excluded.
(Nick Logan photo)
A rainbow flag will flap in the wind in front of Fredericton City Hall next week as the city, for the first time, joins communities across the country this summer in a celebration of Pride.
Capital City Pride, running from Sun, Jun 21 to Sat, Jun 27, will honour everybody's right to love who you want, says organizer Sarah McAdam.
"Everybody together," she says. "Everyone stand together and be proud of who you are instead of dividing up into little groups."
The gay community wants positive exposure, says organizer PJ Spencer, who initiated the plan to hold Pride week. She and McAdam have tailored events to increase acceptance and visibility. Rather than holding a parade on the final day, as many cities do, Fredericton's Pride will culminate with a "Random Acts of Kindness" day.
Teams dressed in rainbow colours will visit downtown residents and businesses on Saturday to offer their services for the afternoon.
"It's a positive way, for this first year, to grab a hold of the city," she says, "and use that positive experience to get us slowly accepted and continue to hold this every year."
Frederictonians have been divided, in the past, on the issue of Pride. A debate broke out in 1998 after then and current Mayor Brad Woodside was taken to the Human Rights Commission for refusing to proclaim Pride. He lost his case before a tribunal and was ordered to make the proclamation. He did so in November of that year, but only after he turned off his microphone.
In more recent years, the city's alternative and gay-friendly nightclub, Boom!, has held annual Pride parties, but all of those events centred around the bar.
Spencer attended Pride in other cities last year and returned frustrated by the lack of any community-oriented celebration in her city. She decided to take matters into her own hands and approached McAdam last fall to help coordinate.
The pair began raising funds through hosting regular art shows, selling hand-made Pride jewelery and partnering with AIDS New Brunswick to put on dances.
The owners of Boom! Nightclub — Steve DeWitt and Michael Young — have been endlessly supportive, says McAdam. She dubs them the "grandfathers of Pride" in Fredericton.
Even though events will take place in different locations around the city, the bar will still serve as the epicentre many for the week's festivities.
Activities for all ages and inclinations will include a Pride church service, tubing along the Nashwaak River, sports day in O'Dell Park and an end-of-Pride concert at the Delta Fredericton Hotel.
Following the rainbow flag raising and reading of the Pride Week proclamation, Monday, guest lecturers will speak at Boom! in the evening about issues such as: homosexual history; love, sex, and religion; and cultural education.
Both organizers know the inaugural Capital City Pride is one small step, but they're aiming for enough community involvement and positive feedback to continue the tradition, bigger and better, next year.
***
CAPITAL CITY PRIDE EVENTS
Jun 21: Church service at the Unitarian Fellowship (on York St) and Art Show at Boom! Nightclub.
Jun 22: Flag raising and proclamation reading at City Hall, guest speakers in the evening at Boom! Nightclub.
Jun 23: Tubing Tuesday down the Nashwaak River to River's Edge campground.
Jun 24: Sports Day in O'Dell Park and after drinks at Boom! Nightclub.
Jun 25: Kings and Queens Drag Show, Gender Bender Karaoke at Boom! Nightclub.
Jun 26: So You Think You Can Dance Finale at Boom! Nightclub, with performances by Shannon Venasse and Absolute Fiction. Leather Competition later in the night.
Jun 27: Random Act of Kindness Day around downtown Fredericton, Concert at the Delta with Shannon Venasse, Absolute Fiction, Sabor Latino and more, followed by the All-Colour Party and Pride 2009 Recap and performance by Kaylee Hopkins at Boom! Nightclub.
For more details visit the Capital City Pride Facebook page or email capitalcitypride@live.ca
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Xtra.ca article: New GNP+NA regional coordinator
Meet the new regional coordinator at the Global Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS
NEW BRUNSWICK / Fredericton-based Ted Gaudet wants to bring attention back to the regional level
ONE SMALL FLAME. Ted Gaudet, one of the event?s coordinators, says the vigil aims to remember the thousands of Canadian still living with AIDS, as global attention has turned towards Africa and Asia.
(Nick Logan)
Along with a crowd of 40 people gathered at the O'Dell Park Lodge May 24, he lit a candle to remember those he's lost and those who are still with him, coping and surviving.
It has been a while since there was a candlelight AIDS vigil in the capital city, and it's the first as a part of the Global Health Council's International AIDS Candlelight Memorial, which dates back to 1983.
"Over the last couple of years [in New Brunswick] we've had a number of deaths, and we've had a number of years prior to that where there were hardly any deaths," says Gaudet. "It sort of brings the reality home to me."
While living in Toronto, from 1979 until 1988, he recalls friends in the gay community dying at a rate of two-to-three a week.
"You got funeral burnout and you didn't have time to grieve," he says.
Gaudet was diagnosed as HIV-positive 21 years ago while living in Vancouver, and he thought his days were numbered. At the time, making new friends and finding love seemed pointless, he says.
He moved home to New Brunswick in the years following, where he got involved with AIDS NB and began to find the community and support he needed to keep going.
Now, he is one of the strongest voices for people living with HIV, not just in the province, but across the country. He's the newly-appointed Canadian coordinator for the Global Network of People Living with HIV/AIDS (GNP+) North America.
Last month's memorial was his first project in this role, and it's his way of giving back to the community that supports him as well.
The event, which coincided with events happening in 52 other cities in Canada and the United States, aimed to offer "a safe environment" to share and reflect on those who are still with us, as much as on those who are gone.
People who are affected by losses, says Gaudet, more often attend AIDS vigils than people who are living with the disease. The international memorial aims to mobilize people with HIV.
Advancements in AIDS treatments and improvements to quality of life, he says, haven't conquered all the challenges HIV-positive people face.
"Just because we're living longer, and our health has improved, doesn't mean there isn't death around us," he says.
Stigmas about the disease haven't gone away either, he adds, and people are still suffering discrimination where they work and live.
Recent statistics from 1985 to 2006 state 455 people in New Brunswick are HIV-positive — the overwhelming majority male. In that time frame, 100 men and women have died from AIDS.
Gaudet realizes the 40 million people living with HIV around the world dwarves the number here, but he says so much focus on the greater epidemic has taken attention away from the region. He, too, felt he was neglecting "his roots."
"Last year, I suddenly realized in all the work I was doing internationally," he says. "I had lost touch with my local community, here in New Brunswick, and what was going on in Canada."
He has previously been a member of organizations such as the AIDS Council of Canada, the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network and has sat on the North American and international boards of GNP+.
Supporting the people living with HIV population is his first priority. He chooses to let others focus on prevention efforts, although he thinks more work needs to be done promoting HIV prevention, specifically amongst gay men.
"I know myself and I know the gay community. We are promiscuous sorts and sometimes we don't take the precautions that need to be taken."
Today's generation of young gay men have become complacent and seem to feel "immune" to the risks of unprotected sex, he says. Gay health organizations, he says, need to pay more attention to self-esteem and issues of insecurity among this demographic.
http://www.xtra.ca/public/National/Meet_the_ne7w_Canadian_coordinator_at_the_Global_Network_of_People_Living_with_HIVAIDS-6875.aspx
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Turning Water into Whine
Turning water into whine
By commoner • Jan 16th, 2009 • Category: 2009, Focus, Jan 16 - 22, 2009, News, WeeklyNick Logan
Even with the higher minimum drink price, a beer is still cheaper than water at some Halifax bars.
Last month the Nova Scotia government set the base price for alcoholic drinks at $2.50 in hopes of curbing binge drinking and its harmful effects. A bottle of water can cost you at least 25 cents more than that, making the incentive to sober up less appealing.
In some bars and clubs, customers have no choice but to buy bottled water because there is no obligation for operators to provide tap water free of charge.
“There’s no law against that,” says Gary Muise of the Grafton-Connor group, which owns The Dome, Taboo and Cheers Bar & Grill in downtown Halifax.
“I’m a retailer, so if somebody’s going to be in my premises and there’s an opportunity for me to sell a product, I’m going to sell it.”
Bottled water is a major source of revenue for bar owners, especially when alcohol sales are going down.
“People don’t drink like they used to,” says Mike Schmid, owner of Reflections Cabaret. “More people come to dance than drink.”
He estimates he sells about 400 bottles a week, generating a profit that amounts to almost half the $10, 000 rent he pays for the venue each month.
“We can’t have someone come in and pay $7 (cover charge) then not drink anything.”
Reflections stopped providing free glasses of water and removed the cold water taps from it’s bathrooms because patrons were drinking it from there. Bottled water is a better option for customers, Schmid says, because the water coming from the building’s 80 year-old pipes doesn’t taste good.
The executive director of the Restaurant Association of Nova Scotia doesn’t see a connection between the price of water and excessive drinking.
“I would assume that someone that wants water isn’t going to turn around and start drinking beer because beer is cheaper,” says Gordon Stewart. He’d be more concerned if a bar wasn’t offering any type of water at all.
Businesses have to make decisions “to find a balance” between making money and accommodating people who don’t want to spend money on alcohol, he says.
The decision to stop providing free tap water was a business issue and a matter of safety, for Schmid. He says the bar used to offer pitchers of water, but there was a risk that someone could tamper with it.
“I’d be hard pressed to find an establishment that would deny someone a glass of water if they felt they were at the edge and wanted to slow themselves down,” Stewart says.
But that is the case at The Dome and its partners. Muise considers not giving out water the fulfillment of a responsibility.
“If somebody’s gotten to the point where they’ve had too much to drink and they want to switch to water, I’m legally not allowed to have them in the bar anyway.”
The president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving in Halifax recognizes that businesses can choose to have tap water available, but he wonders if money-making trumps customer safety.
“If the bar’s just out there to push the liquor,” says Paul Bonang, “they don’t care, I don’t think, what condition people are in when they leave and don’t worry about them when they walk out the door.”
The Grafton-Connor group’s nightclubs provide non-alcoholic drinks to designated drivers – so they don’t have to buy water – but only juice or soft drinks. Offering water to some people, and not others, would lead to arguments between customers and staff, Muise says. He wants to prevent that, even though it costs the business money.
The head of Addiction Services at the Department of Health Promotion and Protection says water availability at bars – from the bottle or the tap – is not under his jurisdiction.
But there is a “culture of drink” in Nova Scotia, Dan Steeves adds, and his agency would “support and encourage establishments or party hosts to have non-alcoholic drinks as available, as promoted or as attractive as the alcoholic beverages.”
Ideas book encourages readers
Ideas book encourages readers
By commoner • Feb 5th, 2009 • Category: 2009, Arts & Culture, Feb. 6-19, 2009, Weekly Nick Logan
nc616634@dal.ca
The producer of one of CBC Radio’s longest running shows, Ideas, is bringing the words of some great thinkers from the airwaves to the page.
Bernie Lucht took some of the program’s best interviews — mostly conducted by host Paul Kennedy — to compile IDEAS for a New Century. He hopes the book, published by Goose Lane Editions, will appeal to more than just loyal CBC listeners.
He has no one reader in mind, only people who are “curious and interested in ideas.”
He knows the long list of names running down the book’s cover will attract people to pick it up, names such as political scientist Donald Savoie, East Coast artist Mary Pratt, inventor Ray Kurzweil, former United Nations high commissioner for human rights Louise Arbour and former Ideas host Lister Sinclair.
In the introduction, Lucht writes Ideas stems from “the tradition of adult education” and a time — 44 years ago — when the network was moving towards “radio for the mind.”
Despite all the changes in society and technology since then, the program has adapted to maintain its goal of “popularizing ideas” that can change the way we look at our world.
Lucht says we can’t form opinions based solely on what we read, hear and see in the media. People need to have doubt in order to change their perceptions and the book provides many arguments that will do that.
In the chapter “From Charity to Entitlement,” Louise Arbour expresses her view that Canada is not entirely the “darling of the international community” we’ve long thought it to be, especially when it comes to social and economical rights.
“What I found most astonishing was that, at a time when we were very actively engaged in constructing the social safety net, which I believe Canadians really embrace,” she told Paul Kennedy in 2005, “we were expressing great reluctance to transforming these ideals, these values, into rights.”
Canada, she points out, has been taken to task by the United Nations on various issues. Just this month, the international body in Geneva announced it would examine the country’s shortcomings in dealing with problems such as poverty and aboriginal equality.
“It is terrible,” Lucht says, “that they haven’t resolved the aboriginal questions.”
Salish First Nation artist Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun spoke
passionately to Ideas in 2007 of the mistreatment of his people. Lucht titled the interview “A Beautiful Nasty World.”
Yuxweluptun tries to share the horrors aboriginal communities face through vibrant, contemporary paintings that incorporate traditional Native imagery. It’s not an easy task, nor painless.
“How do you paint Canadian policy, poking their noses around places they shouldn’t?” he asked. “How do you record a pedophile priest in a traditional form, as a sculpture, as a totem pole, in terms of history?”
Lucht respects the fury Yuxweluptun feels, but says the power of his art was lost in the interview.
“If I have any regrets about that one is that it didn’t do any justice to the nature of this guy’s work, which is simply breathtaking,” he says. “The anger was there.”
“What we call the western world,” he says, “is now discovering that it has to live in the same world with the people it colonized. I think we are now in a long process of understanding our part of a bigger world that the West – the colonial part – used to dominate, but no longer do.”
Colonial ambitions still exist says author John Gray. He spoke of the continuing battles between “good and evil” in search of a utopian world, in his 2008 interview with Ideas.
He describes the “interventions” by Western countries, such as in Iraq and Afghanistan, as a “faded, neo-colonial conception” of
responsibility, in the name of progress.
“Conventional ideas of progress don’t just say what we all think, which is that some societies are better than others,” he said. People in Iraq, he used as an example, are far worse off since the West brought its vision of a better life to their country than they were under Saddam Hussein’s rule.
IDEAS for a New Century encourages readers to question their interpretation of what makes a better world.
The 18 conversations Lucht assembled offer perspectives on topics such as the balance of science and spirituality (psychologist Jerome Kagan), how technology creates democracies (Ray Kurzweil), and the greater impact of a little pill called Viagra on our society (sexologist Lenore Tiefer).
The ideas and opinions the program’s guests present motivate people to care about what’s happening around the world. But, Lucht says, it takes more than just
“concern” for change to happen.
“When you talk about being concerned about something, what is it that you actually mean? I think it only means anything when you get to work on it.”
Eating healthy not easy (on social assistance)
Eating healthy not easy
By commoner • Jan 29th, 2009 • Category: Focus, January 30 - February 5
Nick Logan
nc616634@dal.ca
The government of Nova Scotia provides $6,096 a year to a single person living on income assistance, but one recipient says it’s not nearly enough to live a healthy life.
Holly Bell refuses to eliminate natural and organic foods from her diet just because she’s receiving limited money from the government, even if that means sacrificing other comforts.
“I own nothing, actually. All of the furniture has been found or donated or given, over the years, and that’s fine,” the 63-year-old says, “but I would not be fine without buying organic food.”
Until recently, her 19-year-old son lived with her, so she received $915 to cover rent, utilities and food for the month.
Bell will have much less to spend on groceries now that she’s on her own. After her son moved out last month, her payment went down almost $400.
She doesn’t have harsh words for the department of Community Services, but she does say caseworkers don’t like to stray from what their policies say.
“I’d like them to be able to look me in the eye and say, ‘Look, you can’t eat well in terms of maintaining your health so you don’t cost the health care system a lot of money.’”
Being healthy is essential when you’re poor, she says, because you can’t afford to get sick.
For a single person — with no medical issues — in Nova Scotia, Community Services provides a basic monthly allowance of $208 for personal spending, which includes food.
“We used to break them into food, miscellaneous, and personal, but we found we were being too prescriptive,” says the department’s director.
The role of Community Services is to help people meet their needs, says Janet Rothbun, but it’s up to recipients to decide how they spend their monthly cheque.
Spending money on things not considered basic needs – such as a car and credit card payments – contributes to people coming up short in their finances.
That’s not the case in Bell’s situation. She spends most of her personal allotment on eating properly.
“There is nothing more important,” she says.
She usually has to resort to using a credit card to buy groceries before she gets her next payment.
“Week one is the best eating week. This is typical of people living on income assistance. Week two is significantly worse. The last week is no frills. By then there might not be any bread, or fruit.”
Statistics Canada reported in November a 26.9 per cent price increase for produce and 12.4 per cent for cereal products.
The amount allotted for food and other costs by income assistance, says Rothbun, has gone up 15 per cent since 2002, when it was $180 per month.
And last year it only went up $4.
It may not seem like much of an increase, Rothbun says, but it works out to an additional $1.4 million going into social assistance.
That increase doesn’t go far for Bell. She pays $4 for organic spelt bread — compared to $2 for an average loaf at the supermarket — but she eats it sparingly, she says.
“One of the myths is that people (on social assistance) don’t manage their money well,” Rothbun says, “I think we can all learn a lot from them.”
“They’ll buy in bulk, watch the flyers in the newspapers, trade coupons … people that are on it for a longer period of time usually have very good management skills.”
Nutritionists can work with welfare recipients to teach them how to shop for healthy food on limited means, she adds.
Bell knows how to stretch her dollars to maintain a healthy lifestyle, but that comes from her own knowledge of food.
Some of the nutritionists Community Services works with are dated in their knowledge of healthy eating, she says.
When money is particularly tight, Bell prefers to stock up on items that last longer, such as lentils, carrots and rice.
But it’s all food she insists is tasty and keeps her feeling like she’s in her thirties.
“Once you start eating like that, you feel so good you wouldn’t think of not continuing to eat like that.”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
around the world where nick has been
