Summary The following article was prepared by Blake Bromley for the Commission of Inquiry into the Investigation of the Bombing of Air India Flight 182 in support of his personal testimony in Ottawa on October 26, 2007. This article will be published in 3 consecutive issues of The Philanthropist: the first installment will be the…
Contents: Volume 23, Issue 4 (2011)
Welcome to the fourth 2010 issue of The Philanthropist. This issue discusses public policy and how various parts of the charitable and not-for-profit sector participate in public policy making—and how it should be done. It is an area in which the sector has generally failed to have substantial and sustained influence. Before I focus on…
Organizations that provide settlement services for immigrants and ongoing support for immigrant communities play a vital role in Canadian society. These organizations provide benefits—including assistance with housing, language training, employment preparation, and social services for new immigrants, as well as ongoing programs designed to support disadvantaged communities and eliminate discrimination—that are now recognized as accruing…
Summary This article summarizes some findings about how civil society in Canada has been involved in working to improve the rights of children within the framework of an international human rights convention. The article demonstrates how the focus on an international framework like the CRC and its implementation can be an instrument for policy progress…
Introduction by Kate Mansell This article has a curious history. Some time back, the board of Leadership Victoria was considering the notion that the organization should be focused not just on helping to prepare the new generation of leaders for our community but also on promoting the idea and necessity of “community leadership” within the…
Advocates and advocacy groups in the nonprofit sector in canada get involved in the public policy process in a number of ways. The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)2 funded a four-year research project involving nine groups to address the question of outcomes under the title “How do you know you are making a…
Background In the June edition of The Philanthropist, Elizabeth Mulholland wrote “New Ways to Keep Up Our End of the Policy Conversation” (Mulholland, 2010). Voluntary organizations are the organized expression of our civic desires and one of the main ways that Canadians communicate their values, hopes and ideas to each other and to the world. Policy…
Point: Bob Wyatt As I reflected on the theme of this issue of The Philanthropist – the sector’s involvement in public policy—I tried to think about why we are rarely as successful as we would like to be. After all, groups that aren’t as broadly based, that aren’t as engaged with citizens, and that are…
Jennifer leads the association of food banks in a mid-sized Canadian city. At their regular meetings, the directors report changes in the patterns of people using the food banks—more families with young children, more frequent visits, and higher levels of anxiety. A major employer has recently closed, and there are more people out of work:…
The New Federal Policy Agenda And The Voluntary Sector—on The Cutting Edge Edited by Rachel Laforest. McGill-Queen’s University Press, Montréal, qc & Kingston, on isbn 978-1-55339-132-6 Elizabeth Mulholland The New Federal Policy Agenda and the Voluntary Sector—On the Cutting Edge is a collection of seven academic essays emerging from a 2006 conference organized by the…