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Vancouver Area Big Sisters Program Holding Information Sessions

Organization Encourages Women Students to Volunteer

Nicole Burton, News Editor

In a public service announcement last month, Big Sisters of BC Lower Mainland announced that they will be holding two springtime information sessions this May and June to offer young women in the Lower Mainland more information on how to become a Big Sister.

The Big Sister program, which has been in the Lower Mainland since the 1950s and consists of more than 400 vol- unteets, is this year looking to register women aged 19 and up to be matched up with nearly 100 girls currently on the waitlist of the Big Sister program.

For more information about the Big Sister Program, check out their website at www.bigsisters.bc.ca or call 604.873.4525 ext. 300.

Bachelor of Therapeutic Recreation Now Offered

Douglas College Announces a New Degree Opportunity

Nicole Burton, News Editor

Starting in September of 2006, Douglas students will now have the opportunity receive a Bachelor of Therapeutic Recreation.

The Bachelor of Therapeutic Recreation will specialize in helping people to rehabilitate after severe accidents and injuries, become more independent, and once again con- nected to family and community life.

The program was previously offered up to receiving a diploma, but more and more students entering the field are now seeing that extra education is key to landing good jobs.

“You eatn more with a degree,” said Jordan Kerton, who received the TR diploma in 2005 but is now consider- ing coming back to Douglas for the degree. “Facilities like GF Strong Rehabilitation Centre and hospital settings are looking for people with degrees.”

While the Bachelor of Therapeutic Recreation (or

BTR) may be the first of its kind in British Columbia, it now qualifies Douglas students for taking the National Council for Therapeutic Recreation Certification (NCTRC) exam. If Kerton were to take this path and pass, she would become a Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist.

“The degree [at Douglas College] now brings us to a level where we can recruit graduates into roles that lead directly to supervisory and management positions,” says Kevin Pike, Parks and Community Services Director for West Vancouver, who said he was very pleased with the news of having this new degree program.

Pike continued, “The program [at Douglas College] not only has a solid track record, but also contains the experi- enced faculty active in the field, who give the necessary confidence to those of us hiring both young and more mature graduates.”

Canada: “Failing the Country's Poor”

UN report slams Canadian government for poverty, discrimination

Nicole Burton, News Editor

In an 11-page report released on May 19, the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights criticized Canada for the government's treatment of oppressed people within Canada.

Among the different marginalized groups mentioned in the report are youth, indigenous people, people with dis- abilities, single moms, and women in general.

The report's release came after an examination several weeks prior of Canada's compliance with the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights by a committee of 18 different independent experts. In this, a Canadian delegation gave a report to the committee and received questions and criticisms in response.

As part of the Canadian delegation to the compliance examination in early May, Alan Kessel, a legal adviser to the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, presented Canada's report and said that Canada is

“proud of its record of achievement in the promotion of economic, social, and cultural rights.” Kessel emphasized that the Canadian government's focus at present was on childcare, lower taxes, healthcare, and crime reduction. He also said that Canada leads the way in promoting human rights domestically and internationally.

“The committee is concerned that, despite Canada's economic prosperity and the reduction of the number of people living below the 'Low Income Cut Off' (poverty indicator), 11.2 percent of its population still lived in poverty in 2004,” says the report.

The report also includes a harsh criticism of Canada for additionally refusing to comply with recommendations from two previous reports dating as far back at 1989. The report says that “...poverty rates remain very high” among all sections of marginalized groups. a

“Many of the issues our committee raised in 1993 and

1998 are unfortunately still live issues today,” said poverty expert Ariranga Govindasamy Pillay. “Years later, the situa- tion appears to be unchanged, and in some respects worse.”

Besides poverty rates, other sections of the report specifically focus on Social Assistance Levels, Aboriginals, and Children.

With more than 75 percent of the Canadadian popula- tion falling into the categories of different marginalized groups, community organizations are enforcing that this UN report isn’t anything special—it just reflects what is a real problem in Canada.

According to a media release by several community organizations in Toronto, more than 25 Canadian non- governmental organizations submitted information to the review.