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<p><font face="Tahoma" size="2"><span style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; FONT-FAMILY: Tahoma"><a onclick="return top.js.OpenExtLink(window,event,this)" href="mailto:draphael@yorku.ca" target="_blank">draphael@yorku.ca</a>] <br></span></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center; mso-layout-grid-align: none" align="center"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold"><font face="Times New Roman">Canadian Success Story Presented in CSDH Report Rhetoric and Spin:</font></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center; mso-layout-grid-align: none" align="center"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold"><font face="Times New Roman">Conditions for Children Profoundly Deteriorated during the 1990s.</font></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center; mso-layout-grid-align: none" align="center"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">Dennis Raphael, </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">York</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold"> </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">University</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">, </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">Toronto</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold"></span></font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </span>In the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Social Determinants Of Health: Developing An Evidence Base For Political Action,</i> the Final Report to World Health Organization Commission on the Social Determinants of Health from the Measurement and Evidence Knowledge Network, a case study on </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold">Canada</span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold"> supplies the following as an example of successful implementation of evidence into policy:<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span></span></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold"><font face="Times New Roman">(see: <a href="http://www.who.int/social_determinants/resources/mekn_report_10oct07.pdf">http://www.who.int/social_determinants/resources/mekn_report_10oct07.pdf</a>)</font></span></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Some Key Policy Initiatives to Enhance the Well-Being of Children in </b><b>Canada</b><b>, 1991-2001</b></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><font face="Times New Roman">1991 <b>Ratification of the Convention on the Rights of the Child</b></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><font face="Times New Roman">1992 <b>Community-Based Initiatives : </b>Community Action Program for Children; Aboriginal</font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><font face="Times New Roman">Head Start; The Canada Prenatal Nutrition Program; Fetal Alcohol Syndrome/Fetal</font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><font face="Times New Roman">Alcohol Effects Initiative</font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><font face="Times New Roman">1993 <b>School Net: </b>connects all Canadian public schools and public libraries to the Internet</font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><font face="Times New Roman">1998 <b>National Child Benefit: </b>a tax benefit policy to prevent and reduce child poverty</font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><font face="Times New Roman">1999 <b>National Children's Agenda: </b>a cooperative effort by all governments to ensure that</font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><font face="Times New Roman">all children have the best opportunity to develop to their fullest potential.</font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><font face="Times New Roman">1999 <b>Social Union Framework Agreement: </b>a collaborative framework for social policy in</font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><font face="Times New Roman">Canada with an emphasis on children in poverty</font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><font face="Times New Roman">2000 <b>Health Accord and Early Childhood Development Initiative (ECD): </b>affirmed a</font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><font face="Times New Roman">commitment by all governments to invest in early childhood development.</font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><font face="Times New Roman">2001 <b>Employment Insurance: </b>maternity and paternity benefits doubled from six months to</font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><font face="Times New Roman">one year; adoptive leave tripled from 10 weeks to 35 weeks; commitment to <b>'family</b></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>friendly' workplaces </b>in federal jurisdictions.</font></p>
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<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; TEXT-INDENT: 0.5in; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><font face="Times New Roman"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">Let me put in bluntly, the material above represents pure rhetoric and spin. The reality is that the period 1991-2001 saw a full blown retreat from State provision of social security.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>And the most affected by this – for the worse – were children. No lesser authorities than the Federation of Canadian Municipalities have documented the profound increases in food insecurity and hunger, housing insecurity and homelessness, and growing poverty in many major urban area </i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">(Federation of Canadian Municipalities, 2003, 2004a, 2004b, 2008)</i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">. Further documentation concerning the increasing policy threats to children and their development is readily available </i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">(Campaign 2000, 1998, 2001, 2002, 2004)</i></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">.</i></b></font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </span>This has come about through the weakening of just about every social security program.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </span>In place of this have come a variety of ameliorative programs – ostensibly directed towards children – that serves to provide support to the most severely affected. The weakening of just about every social determinant of health through these policy actions has been recognized from a range of authorities from the United Ways of Canada to the business-oriented Conference Board of Canada (Conference Board of Canada, 2003, 2006; United Way of Greater Toronto, 2004; United Way of Greater Toronto & Canadian Council on Social Development, 2002; United Way of Ottawa, 2003; United Way of Winnipeg, 2003).</font></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </span>Further documentation of these developments and especially policy changes during the 1990s – the focus of the WHO "Canadian success story" -- including analysis of the gutting of the proposed National Childcare Plan are available from Dr Raphael at address above.</font></p>
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