Citizens for Public Justice

08.08.2005 A living wage. That's a term – coined in the 19th century – that is being heard more and more across Canada and the US. The stark reality is that, for many people, a job is no passport out of poverty. There are workers whose home is a shelter, whose grocery store is the food bank. More and more people and groups are waking up to the fact that you just can't make a living at the minimum wage – or just above it. And that awareness has fuelled the growth of living wage movements across North America.

14.07.2005 Looking back during this Centennial Year, we see the pioneers as they settled on homesteads and worked together to build communities. They built churches, schools, recreational centres, sidewalks, parks and hospitals – and let's not forget water and sewer systems. They built roads, power lines and phone lines – so many things which we take for granted. In the early days, there was a focus on family, church and community. A strong social network developed.

22.03.2005 Noon, May 20, 2003, I received a call. "The federal and provincial Ministers of Agriculture are announcing that a northern Alberta cow was confirmed to have a case of BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy)." Farmers have always dealt with uncertain weather and fluctuating commodity prices. Nevertheless as our farm operations industrialized, we tried to plan our marketing, staffing, capital expansion and production to meet our commitments to banks, staff and
customers. The American border closure to live animals and processed beef meant that all our plans were worthless.