Poverty

Disability Without Poverty created bleakmarket.com, a landing page filled with listings meant to “evoke the dark web” to show how some Canadians have had to resort to selling essential items to make ends meet. (bleakmarket.com)

Canadians living with disabilities forced to sell essential items just to survive: Advocacy group

Website highlights lack of awareness, calls on government to pass Canada Disability Benefit Act

 

Salmon Arm’s Nan Gray sits with some of her preserves, ‘yellow’ cans, and bags of frozen foods, which have been staples of her frugal diet for years. (Martha Wickett - Salmon Arm Observer)

‘Stone soup’: B.C. woman reflects on stretching food dollars amid high inflation

Salmon Arm woman learned many ways to ensure access to enough food

 

A British Columbia advocacy organization says child poverty decreased in the province in 2020 due to government benefits launched in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the progress may be wiped out by rising living costs. A silhouette against the sky of a man holding a child in Kansas City, Mo., Friday, June 26, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Charlie Riedel

Pandemic benefits pushed down B.C.’s child poverty rate in 2020: advocacy group

Report shows 2020 child poverty rate was 13.3 per cent, a decrease from 18 per cent in 2019

 

Volunteer Kaya Dunk rings the bells for the Salvation Army’s kettle campaign during Port Alberni’s Harbour Quay Light-Up festivities on Friday, Dec. 2, 2022. (SUSAN QUINN/ Alberni Valley News)

Salvation Army reports ‘staggering’ number of first-time Vancouver Island holiday users

Staffing continues to be an issue for organization as it works to support the less-fortunate

Volunteer Kaya Dunk rings the bells for the Salvation Army’s kettle campaign during Port Alberni’s Harbour Quay Light-Up festivities on Friday, Dec. 2, 2022. (SUSAN QUINN/ Alberni Valley News)
Boxes wait to be filled with provisions at The Daily Bread Food Bank warehouse in Toronto on Wednesday March 18, 2020. Canadian food insecurity researchers say holiday appeals for people to donate to their local food banks can be tough swallow. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

Why anti-poverty researchers bristle at holiday appeals for food bank donations

Addressing hunger requires systemic changes, researchers say

Boxes wait to be filled with provisions at The Daily Bread Food Bank warehouse in Toronto on Wednesday March 18, 2020. Canadian food insecurity researchers say holiday appeals for people to donate to their local food banks can be tough swallow. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young
A digital-only coupon for Pampers brand baby wipes is displayed at a Kroger in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2022. A coalition of consumer groups is calling on grocers to stop offering digital-only deals, saying they discriminate against people without smartphones or regular internet access.(AP Photo/Dee-Ann Durbin)

Consumer groups want grocers to ditch digital-only deals

Equity concerns after study found that 25% of Americans 65 or older don’t use the internet

A digital-only coupon for Pampers brand baby wipes is displayed at a Kroger in Ann Arbor, Michigan, on Tuesday, Nov. 16, 2022. A coalition of consumer groups is calling on grocers to stop offering digital-only deals, saying they discriminate against people without smartphones or regular internet access.(AP Photo/Dee-Ann Durbin)
Living on B.C.’s below-poverty levels of disability assistance and already in debt means every treatment brings a Vancouver woman closer to running out of money and choosing the option to die. (Pixabay photo)

‘Jump or burn?’: B.C. woman is chronically ill, but dying of poverty

System will fund Medical Assistance in Dying but not treatments that help chronic fatigue syndrome

Living on B.C.’s below-poverty levels of disability assistance and already in debt means every treatment brings a Vancouver woman closer to running out of money and choosing the option to die. (Pixabay photo)
Governor of the Bank of Canada Tiff Macklem says the country’s economic slowdown will impact low income earners the most. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang

Slowdown will impact low-income earners most, says Bank of Canada governor

Tiff Macklem spoke at conference on diversity, equity Monday

Governor of the Bank of Canada Tiff Macklem says the country’s economic slowdown will impact low income earners the most. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
Boxes wait to be filled with provisions at The Daily Bread Food Bank warehouse in Toronto on Wednesday, March 18, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young

Food bank usage across Canada hit all-time high, nearly 1.5M visits in March: report

Numbers 35 per cent higher than visits in March 2019, before the pandemic hit

Boxes wait to be filled with provisions at The Daily Bread Food Bank warehouse in Toronto on Wednesday, March 18, 2020. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chris Young
Fartum Issack, right, and her husband, Adan, stand by the grave of their 1-year-old daughter at a displacement camp on the outskirts of Dollow, Somalia, on Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. The graveyard opened in April, and there's easily room for hundreds more graves. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

‘So many children dying’: Somalia drought brings famine near

Drought has astonished resilient herders and farmers by lasting four failed rainy seasons

Fartum Issack, right, and her husband, Adan, stand by the grave of their 1-year-old daughter at a displacement camp on the outskirts of Dollow, Somalia, on Monday, Sept. 19, 2022. The graveyard opened in April, and there's easily room for hundreds more graves. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)
Villagers gather during a visit by United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths, in the village of Lomoputh in northern Kenya, May 12, 2022. More than 50 million people in the wider East African region are expected to face acute food insecurity this year, a regional bloc said Friday July 22, 2022, warning that some 300,000 in Somalia and South Sudan are projected to be under full-blown famine conditions. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga, File)

UN food chief warns Horn of Africa famine imminent, if global crises left unchecked

The head of the World Food Program is urging countries to follow…

Villagers gather during a visit by United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths, in the village of Lomoputh in northern Kenya, May 12, 2022. More than 50 million people in the wider East African region are expected to face acute food insecurity this year, a regional bloc said Friday July 22, 2022, warning that some 300,000 in Somalia and South Sudan are projected to be under full-blown famine conditions. (AP Photo/Brian Inganga, File)
Kids gather on one of the main docks in Tofino, as they participate in a massive global climate strike, in Tofino, B.C. on Sept. 27, 2019. In a national report released in 2022, study authors found climate change to be one of the top 10 threats facing children and youth in Canada. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Melissa Renwick)

Climate change now considered one of top threats facing Canadian children: report

Racism, poor mental health, bullying also identified by authors

Kids gather on one of the main docks in Tofino, as they participate in a massive global climate strike, in Tofino, B.C. on Sept. 27, 2019. In a national report released in 2022, study authors found climate change to be one of the top 10 threats facing children and youth in Canada. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Melissa Renwick)
A child poses for a photo with a Backpack Buddies bag of food. (Submitted by Backpackbuddies.ca)

B.C. food-aid programs seeing spike in hungry students amid high inflation, grocery costs

The school year began on Sept. 6, after a summer of inflation rates reaching as high as 8 per cent .

A child poses for a photo with a Backpack Buddies bag of food. (Submitted by Backpackbuddies.ca)
North Island MLA Michele Babchuk. (Photo supplied)

Provincial funds will help support unhoused people in Campbell River and the North Island

The projects will include services such as outreach and mental health supports

North Island MLA Michele Babchuk. (Photo supplied)
A Vancouver Police Department patch is seen on an officer’s uniform in Vancouver, on January 9, 2021. Police say four men have been arrested after two guns were seized from a tent in a Downtown Eastside street encampment. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

Four arrested after Vancouver police say guns found in encampment tent

Investigators believe weapons were being used for protection and to intimidate others in the camp

A Vancouver Police Department patch is seen on an officer’s uniform in Vancouver, on January 9, 2021. Police say four men have been arrested after two guns were seized from a tent in a Downtown Eastside street encampment. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
Police tape is shown in this Tuesday, May 2, 2107 file photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graeme Roy

At least 40 people displaced by explosion and fire in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside

Assistant Fire Chief Pierre Morin says the cause of the explosion is not known

Police tape is shown in this Tuesday, May 2, 2107 file photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graeme Roy
FILE - This file photo taken March 16, 2014 shows a general view of the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, Scotland. A law has come into force in Scotland to ensure period products are available free of charge to anyone who needs them. The Scottish government said it became the first in the world to legally protect the right to access free period products when its Period Products Act came into force Monday. (AP Photo/Jill Lawless, File)

New Scottish law makes period products free for all

Scotland says it’s first in the world to legally protect the right to access free period products

FILE - This file photo taken March 16, 2014 shows a general view of the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, Scotland. A law has come into force in Scotland to ensure period products are available free of charge to anyone who needs them. The Scottish government said it became the first in the world to legally protect the right to access free period products when its Period Products Act came into force Monday. (AP Photo/Jill Lawless, File)
A farmer shows his grain in his barn in the village of Ptyche in eastern Donetsk region, Ukraine, Sunday, June 12, 2022. The world food crisis, made worse by the war in Ukraine, is leading to a rise in underage girls being forced into marriage, Canadian aid agencies are warning. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP/Efrem Lukatsky

World food crisis prompts rise in child marriages: Canadian aid agencies

Plan International Canada says 12 million girls under the age of 18 become child brides each year

A farmer shows his grain in his barn in the village of Ptyche in eastern Donetsk region, Ukraine, Sunday, June 12, 2022. The world food crisis, made worse by the war in Ukraine, is leading to a rise in underage girls being forced into marriage, Canadian aid agencies are warning. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP/Efrem Lukatsky
From left to right, U2 singer Bono, Philanthropist and Co-Chairman of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, and France’s President Emmanuel Macron congratulate each other on stage during the Global Fund to Fight AIDS event at the Lyon’s congress hall, central France, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Laurent Cipriani

Advocates say Canada should commit $1.2 billion to fight against AIDS, TB and malaria

Investment, with other countries’ help, could save 20 million lives over next few years: advocates

From left to right, U2 singer Bono, Philanthropist and Co-Chairman of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Bill Gates, and France’s President Emmanuel Macron congratulate each other on stage during the Global Fund to Fight AIDS event at the Lyon’s congress hall, central France, Thursday, Oct. 10, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/AP-Laurent Cipriani
Canadian dollars (loonies) are pictured in Vancouver, Sept. 22, 2011. A new study says a basic income program would help alleviate poverty in Canada but could also put the fiscal sustainability and labour supply of some provinces at risk.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

Basic income would ease poverty, put sustainability, labour supply at risk: study

Funding such a program would likely require increasing taxes or cutting government spending

Canadian dollars (loonies) are pictured in Vancouver, Sept. 22, 2011. A new study says a basic income program would help alleviate poverty in Canada but could also put the fiscal sustainability and labour supply of some provinces at risk.THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward